New Member gets serious about replacing lost ascMcLaren

[lost1988]

After all these years I've decided to get serious about replacing my 1988 ascMcLaren I owned back in the day. I bought my car new in Tennessee and traded it in 1992 to Ted Russell Nissan in Knoxville for a new 300ZX. I've posted an inbedded link to the only picture I still have of the car if it works.

I loved and pampered that car. While on vacation in 1989 I even detoured by the Livonia factory and waited in the design office while ASC replaced my power pull-down top motor under warranty.

There were about 30 black coupes on the ground the day of my visit waiting for conversion and I've always remembered that they appeared to have already had convertible doors installed when they left Ford and they just ran a band of sealing tape around the door glass to close the gap left were the missing door frame would normally meet the roof.

Now if I remember some petty detail like that why can't I remember my dash plaque number.

If the picture shows I'll go ahead and apologize to the purists for painting the gold centers on my wheels body color, but hey, it was the eighties, it's what you did

[scoutdrivinrebel]

Welcome and good luck with your search. There are a lot of nice verts out there to be had.

[Sandy]

Welcome. Yes, you are right on with the window tape! The cars there were all black 'cause none of them - at that day -had blue interior.
Cars with blue interior, came in to ASC in white. ASC requested they all be black, so tjhat ASC did not have to re-paint the engine bay, as a black engine bay is okay, but the blue interior with black exterior was bounced out by FORD's computer as a non-acceptible color combo, and would not be built. Blue-interior cars required add'l. work, as their engine bays need to be painted black.

Your Car.... is it bright red or a darker red ?
We are glad you joined us.
Sandy

[lost1988]

My car was Guards Red a Porsche color with tan top and leather. That Siken paint job that asc put on those cars made the factory Ford painted Mustangs look like they were painted at Maaco. I used to sit under a tree and hand wax it with Mothers for hours.

[Sandy]

I know the pain very well

Did you notice the windshield wipers on the stock waiting to be converted?
If the wipers were down, as in the off position that denoted that the car eas an automatic tranny car. If the wipers were up, on the windshield, as when on and the car is turned off, without the wipers turned off, first, that mean the car was a stick. This to help the people locate the right car to bring in. If the porter wanted a blue interior, then he looked for a white car with correct wiper display to denote the tranny. Any other interior, required more searching, looking not only for the correct tranny, but the correct interior color!
Grey, Red, Tan, Black (90 only for the black).

[lost1988]

I know the pain very well

Did you notice the windshield wipers on the stock waiting to be converted?
If the wipers were down, as in the off position that denoted that the car eas an automatic tranny car. If the wipers were up, on the windshield, as when on and the car is turned off, without the wipers turned off, first, that mean the car was a stick. This to help the people locate the right car to bring in. If the porter wanted a blue interior, then he looked for a white car with correct wiper display to denote the tranny. Any other interior, required more searching, looking not only for the correct tranny, but the correct interior color!
Grey, Red, Tan, Black (90 only for the black).

I didn't notice the wipers but the whole day was pretty overwhelming. At least the parts of the operation they let me see. My two main questions were answered by looking at those coupes. 1 what body style did they start with. 2 were they black so they wouldn't have to worry about painting the engine compartment.

[Sandy]

They all also had the DELETE Rear Window Defroster "option". No need for that !!

[86buickgn]

They all also had the DELETE Rear Window Defroster "option". No need for that !!

Sandy, all of the information that you post such as what is above is simply amazing. I read some of the other "did you know...." on the turbobuick.com website that is posted by GN"X". He is a guy who used to work in the engineering dept. on the GNX.

All of the little insider details is fascinating, especially to me. I am a Mech. Eng. student and I want to specialize in R&D for specialty cars such as SVT, SVO, TRD, NISMO, and so on.

One would think its an obvious "no brainer" to order a car with no defroster option if you are just gonna "cut" the back glass out anyway but I have worked with many "assembly line" plants and the obvious isn't always so obvious.

Maybe you could start a thread that included all of these little details and post on it from time to time about the how the little details came to be on these cars.

[tfs2121]

Maybe you could start a thread that included all of these little details and post on it from time to time about the how the little details came to be on these cars.

you can find more info from sandy then you can read in a day here...
http://www.ascmclaren.org/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=6

[negusm]

Yeah check that area out lol.

YEars ago when we were on the Yahoo board, I went back and read every single last article and started sorting them into single coherant posts. I ran them by Sandy for final verification and changes and posted them there so we had many of these details.

Unfortunately Sandy remembers a new tidbit here and there or unearths some stuff from his contacts and some of those very minor details don't get back into those posts.

However, NO posts on this site ever expire and I keep a lot of backups. So we should have the information a long time even though a little squeezed through the cracks.

-Mike

[Sandy]

8t6buickgn: I take note that you claim your 1988 ASC is, in fact, a 1988.
Look! Your exterior remote mirrors are NOT mounted to the "A" pillar, but rather door surface mounted. This would prove that your car was a pretty late build 1988, possibly with electric-powered mirrors, rather than "manual" remote control toggle lever style. This is pretty, actually very rare on a 1988. What is your dash plaque number

[shelbyscarab]

8t6buickgn: I take note that you claim your 1988 ASC is, in fact, a 1988.
Look! Your exterior remote mirrors are NOT mounted to the "A" pillar, but rather door surface mounted. This would prove that your car was a pretty late build 1988, possibly with electric-powered mirrors, rather than "manual" remote control toggle lever style. This is pretty, actually very rare on a 1988. What is your dash plaque number

I didn't know that was rare. Mine is built that way. Door mounted remote mirrors.

#688 (which is actually an earlier '88 since the '88s started at #480)

[Sandy]

door mounted REMOTE or ELECTRIC ??

I have NEVER seen nor heard of door mouted REMOTE!

Anybody else on here have door mounted remote, Non Electric ???

[shelbyscarab]

door mounted REMOTE or ELECTRIC ??

I have NEVER seen nor heard of door mouted REMOTE!

Anybody else on here have door mounted remote, Non Electric ???

ok, its electric.... my bad......

[Sandy]

Bad Shelby, Bad

Actually I am pretty sure that last1 1988
car above has electric powered exterior mirrors,
and not manually remote controlled with a little rubber
tipped knob on the interior door panel. Remote can be
adjusted with the motor off. Electric has to have motor
on to adjust the mirrors.