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Im not sure if this is the right category to post in, but I finally moved into a home with a large heated garage. So after many years its time to tear down the Firechicken and do it the way I intended.
Interior: My interior has already been restored, it was a tan color and I sanded and painted everything black, Then I sprayed plasticote on the interior panels for a rough surface feel. but just a light coat for detail.
I have purchased new black carpet and sound acustic/heat proofing. Just need to weld up problem spots and seal. Haven't decided on seats or cluster.
Exterior: Custom hood, I wouldn't mind wiring some LED lights in replace of the old bulbs. I also would like to do something fancy with my tail lights. I would also like to fabricate something out of the ordinary but subtle on the exterior body. The undercarriage I would like a mixture of power coating and paint. haven't Decided on color.
Suspension: Upgrade to tubular components. This car will not be a drag racer, just a mean street machine. Though I plan on building my own subframe connectors and some addition reinforcing for the added horsepower. Polyurethane bushings where ever I can.
Anyway, that's all I had in mind for now...
Day 1: Lifted the car up, rockers are about 3.5 feet off the floor. Removed tires, Rear Sway bar, and Panhard bar
I actually didnt put alot of thought into it yet. I was going to surf jegs 9r summit. I know year one is a good brand but are allot of guys putting those in their third gens?
After removing the carpet, I had to weld in 18 gauge steel to replace the rusted floor pan on both passenger and driver side
So after I welded both floor pans I had my car sitting outside. One day it rained and I noticed water on the floor on my freshly welded steel. I soon found that there was a gap in my firewall that the rain had been seeping through. This caused my carpet to be constantly wet and rusted out my floor.
Once I finished all my welding, I could see gaps in the unibody where light would shine through. This is right from the factory from GM tack welding the body together. I decided to take some commercial grade silicone and seal all slivers of light I could find around the body. I then painted and undercoated my interior. After that I installed my heat shielding sound deadener. Installed new carpet
a shot of the trunk area, getting cleaned up
In the rear of the vehicle I used a cheaper roll out insulator. Up front i used the higher quality insulators from Eastwood.com
I removed the bumper and cleaned up the rust, I also wire brushed the undercarriage, primed and rocker guarded. Here's the rear being put back together.
I've sand blasted and wire brushed as much suspension parts as possible, installed new KYB rear struts. I'm in the process of getting new control arms and panhard bar. I have new stab links with polyurethane bushings to install yet.
I installed new front wheel bearings, drilled and slotted rotors. I still have to install new struts and clean up the front a bit
Here's a shot of the carpet just put in with my panels in place. don't mind the bunchyness of the carpet, its settled now.
All my interior was that SAND TAN color. My plastic interior was so sun bleached that I could scratch it and it would come off under my finger nails. I sanded down all the pieces and painted them black. Then I added some texture with a under lay spray that I misted onto the panels from about 4' away.
new carpet and refurbished panels
The picture doesn't do it much justice because the panels were collecting dust for 3 years after I fixed them up. But here is the carpet and panels put in place.
My doors had cracked outer sweeps and window triangles that were hard plastic from the sun. Needless to say my car had major wind noise and water damage/rust. I replaced the bushings on the doors and welded new steel under the doors where it rotted out from the water seeping in from the outside. I installed new window sweeps, window triangle weather strip. Also, I needed to upgrade my panels from tan to black.
I got a new set of door skins from Third Gen Ranch (Thanks bud!) I also had to replace my upper door plastic, that came from ebay, my under weather strip sweep (82 didn't have it... or at least mine didn't) came from ebay. So it needed three parts from random sources online... funny right?
anyway here is the finished product:
passager door, but this is what it looks like old
Fresh outer window sweeps<br/>Fresh Triangle weather strip<br/>Fresh upper door plaster<br/>Fresh door skin<br/>Fresh weather strip (bottom sweep)
11-16-2014, 01:34 PM
