JJ88GTA

I recently purchased another Trans Am not really knowing much about it but once I decoded the SPI tag I noticed it has a 1LE package, I did search some topics and it seems to be a fairly rare code, but I just wanted to confirm that this is what I have?

eseibel67

Nice one. 91 TA with 305 TPI 5 speed, 3.42 posi, cross lace wheels, no A/C. It's a 1LE all right, and yes it is rare.

How's the condition? Got any pics?

eseibel67

Z49 makes it Canadian. Where are you in Ontario?

90 GTA Black

Nice! Any pics?

JJ88GTA

I purchased the car as a rolling chassis to use the body tub to restore my GTA. There is no engine, transmission, certain interior components are missing. Some of the under hood wiring is missing. There is no heater or fan on the firewall.

Kind of between a rock and a hard place with this one now.

eseibel67

Well, in that case I would suggest that you keep the rear compartment door that has the SPID sticker on it in a safe place for possible future use. The VIN on the metal plate on the dash will match the VIN on the SPID sticker.

It might be a long time in the future, but hey, 2nd gens were worthless scrap just 15 years ago. A 91 1LE Trans Am is one exotic bird, and you have the documentation to prove it. Someday, it will be worth restoring. That's not what you wanna hear in your case, but that's the way I see it.

JJ88GTA

To be honest after finding out what this car originally was I'd personally rather restore it. Seems alot more interesting than my GTA. My problem is how little I know about these cars, I'd have to see another one to make a list of whats all missing. Then I would have to find all the parts.

90 GTA Black

Well the good news is that by '91 your GTA will have most of the 1le parts except for the front brakes. In 91, most GTA's came with the large rear disk brakes, aluminium drive shaft, aluminium spare, oil cooler and dual cats. The baffled gas tank was also standard.

The shocks were different but they wouldn't have lasted and are a replacement part. There is a how to on this site about modifying stock spindles to convert to the 12" discs.

JJ88GTA

The GTA I am restoring is an 88 digital dash auto a/c, so pretty much nothing is the same except the wheels and maybe springs. The original plan was to strip this chassis(91) down to the shell and transfer all my parts off my 88 rusty shell. That is out the window now. I don't think I can justify stripping this particular Trans Am down anymore than it has been. It just seems to unique from a collector's stand point.

I'll see about getting this one back into shape.

90 GTA Black

Nice to see a 1le get saved. A guy around here parted out a 90 TA 1le (1 of 4) last year and it was complete - used the parts for his plain jane Camaro.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Sounds like a nice car or could be a nice car. I hope you do save it. Good luck and keep us posted!

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Perhaps I'm the naysayer, but without the original drivetrain, what's the point of saving it It's only ever going to be correct and original to a certain extent ever again. At best it could only ever be worth maybe what, 50% of what the same car would be with the original drive train? These cars aren't know for catastrophic failures that require the original engine block to be replaced like cars from the 50s and 60s so with so many to choose from which do still have their original drivetrain, why save this one?

That said, I would put it on the back burner somewhere as a future project and not destroy it even personally, I'm just playing devils advocate. But with NOS parts prices on the rise and reproduction parts virtually non-existent, it's certainly not worth restoring for another 10-15years or more I'd think. The return on investment would be so upside down it would be ludicrous and simply a labor of love at this point. Which is fine if that's your thing, it is mine so who am I to judge haha!

JJ88GTA

I know where you're coming from and I respect that. At the very least I am going to keep it a manual shift car. That way pieces can still be simply unbolted and replaced.

To anyone in the London/GTA ON area, I've made a list of the basic parts this car would need to bring back into service as a 91 T/A and not as an 88 GTA.

Luckily the chassis and suspension are intact including the bigger front brakes with aluminum calipers.

- 1991 Engine and body wiring harness for an A/C delete manual transmission T/A with power accessories and radio. I'm not sure if AC wiring harness will work also?
-Center console for a 91 stick shift
-analogue instrument cluster around 100 000km mark (car has 98XXX km)
-A/C delete parts such as heater box, controls, pully etc.
-Complete T5 conversion kit. I have the cross brace and some brackets misc hardware.
-Aluminum drive shaft

That's just from me looking it over really quick.

mr.camaro

Post pics of the shell!!

And even if the 305/t-5 are missing and other parts just swap ls/t-56 or somthing nice with good aftermarket parts all around and the cars proply worth even more. its the 1le in the vin that will be important. dont get me wrong for sure a all orginal 1le would be worth more. but yours would of probly needed every thing rebuilt or replaced so as a resto/mod it will defintly be worth somthing even if it is not original.

90 GTA Black

Agreed. The 1le option will always make it worth more than a regular TA.

JJ88GTA

Lots of good ideas and suggestions here. As far as engine goes its going to be getting the new 355 L98 out of my GTA- FOR NOW. Because I'm not made of money and have too much invested in that engine as it sits.

Big decision I need to make soon is if I should install my digital dash and wiring in this car. As most of you know its either all or nothing, As of right now I have not been able to locate a complete wiring harness for a 91 stick shift with ac delete locally. I'm at no loss because the wiring is hacked and only the dash carrier and pad is in the 1LE car. The only harness that I found un-damaged and complete was the headlight harness.

eseibel67

I was at Cory's junkyeard in London about a year ago. They had a plain Camaro in there without A/C. I was going to take the heater box for the future, but I really don't intend to delete A/C. They wanted $80 for it.

JJ88GTA

I did check with them after you mentioned this, every now and then we order used parts from them at my work. At the time they did not know the status of that particular part, they also never called me back.

Does anyone know if I can run the digital dash with the correct AC delete system in the car including controls. IE; is the HVAC stand alone and does not tie into the digital dash input or outputs in any way?

eseibel67

Why not just use the pushbutton A/C controls from the digital dash setup, but delete the A/C gear underhood?

Not sure if the non-A/C controls would work with a digital dash. My guess would be yes because both use vacuum control motors for mode and recirculation. But the blend control on the pushbutton style uses an electric motor, I assume the non-A/C cars use the convetional cable style. I'm sure it could be retrofitted fairly easily.

Mark_ZZ3

a 1991 1LE TA that isn't a Player's car. Not many of those around.

Good project car.

JJ88GTA

I feel that because I already have to install a complete HVAC system into the vehicle, that I should just go with the AC delete to restore the factory 1LE system. I was going to delete the ac using the method you suggested on my GTA originally anyhow as its still the old R-12 system components.

I'm slowing gathering parts, pretty sure I have a line on a complete AC delete system. I needed a fuel tank as the filler necks were compromised on both my 88 and 91 TA's. So I picked up a nice plastic tank out of a 99 LS1 as a complete drop out. Much nicer to work with IMO.

90 GTA Black

1 of 53 made. Is that US only numbers though? There can't be many Canadian cars.

Mark_ZZ3

I had 43 in Canada out of a total of 62 in North America. And of the 43 in Canada, 23 were R7U Players cars.

1991 was an odd year spanning two production years. It's been a while since I dug through my numbers. But suffice to say ... maybe 20 1LE TA's in Canada in 1990/91.

Mark.

90 GTA Black

Though a low number, it's more than I would have thought. I'll have to start looking at 5 speed TA's. For some reason, I see a lot of 5 speed GTA's for sale which is okay since they have everything the 1le does except the bigger front brakes.

JJ88GTA

Looking for an aluminum drive shaft and grey seats for my 1LE Trans am if anyone has anything in the London Ontario area that would be great. I have black seats to trade if someone would like black?


I would also be interested in a complete T5 set up- but this is something that is not needed until spring time if its in a parts car sitting outside. I also have a perfectly working 700 R4 & converter to work in as a trade if desired.

JJ88GTA

This is what I decided to do. Makes more sense and I already have everything I need to do the job.

okfoz

That would be such a tough call... Honestly, you need soo much for the car to put it back to original, it would probably cost you more to try to find the right parts than just mod it, install a LS engine... The Tail lights alone will set you back about $500 for ok ones...

I will tell you that standard base Firebird tail lights should get you through a pinch I believe I used the same wire harness, all I had to change was the turn signal lights and it otherwise just plugged in...

JJ88GTA

Actually I guess I am lucky- I have the tail lights for the car! I just stripped the car down before I took those photos to check for any hidden rust or damage. As far as the actual car its self, its mostly there. HVAC is gone and the center console & radio pod. Wiring is hacked. Everything else from the interior is there. The only exterior parts missing are the fog lamps and original wheels.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

LOL that car looks like it'd be fairly easy to restore. True the original parts are long gone, but who cares unless you're trying to take it to barret jackson or list it as some pristine collector vehicle on Ebay. If a person wanted to fake it, it'd only take a couple seconds to mill or polish the VIN numbers off a 305 block and T5 and who would ever know the difference?

Funny part is that I've got most of the parts it'd take to complete restore that car, just laying around, but decent rollers never pop up around here.

JJ88GTA

Just so its out there- I would be willing to sell this 1LE to a very serious collector who would be interested in it.

okfoz

Is that the once red car now painted black in the pictures?