92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Now that I have all of the parts I need and weather is going to start cooling down below 100 finally, my interior restoration begins.

The forum only let's me attach 3 pics a post so scroll down to see the other "before" pics...

Here is the "to-do" list:

1) Remove all interior plastics and clean (use spray adhesive in places where the insulation is coming off).
2) Remove front and rear seats, send them off locally for the seat foam to be restored and the new Hampton Vinyl seat covers installed to replace the original worn leather.
3) Remove center console and radio pod, re-glue portions that are separating and install reproduction center console lid.
4) Remove front and rear interior carpet, headliner, and cracked dash pad.
5) Remove interior door panels and have them shampooed, these are nice enough to be re-installed.
6) Install all of the parts below...

Here is the list of parts that will be going in:

NOS Power Door Lock buttons
NOS Plastic cargo panel screws and nuts
NOS Cargo Lamp Lens Fixture & Bulb
NOS Shifter Handle (non-leather)
NOS Hood and Hatch Rubber Stops
Re-man Factory CD Player (Like new now)

Reproduction Door Lock Levers
Reproduction Center Console Lid
Reproduction T-Top Shades
Reproduction Headliner/Sail Panel/sun visors
Reproduction Hampton Vinyl Seat Covers
Reproduction Front and Rear Carpet

Used but Mint Headlight switch w/full lettering
Used but Mint Power Window swtiches w/full lettering
Used but Mint Set of cup holders with mounting hardware
Used but Mint Set of Cup Holder Bolt Cover Caps
Used but Mint Dashboard Pad
Used but Mint Door Handle Trim Panels w/NOS Firebird Logos and screw caps
Used but Mint Air bag with no warping or curling around the top corners

TDS Sun Visor bushings
Original Mint T-Top bag w/zipper repaired
Original but restored (re-dyed black) rear cargo shade

At this point the interior should be 99% and plenty of after pics will follow. Only parts I'll still be needing are an NOS auto shifter plate and the front seat belt receivers. I'll be working only a couple hrs a nite a few days a week in my garage. I'm shooting for completion end of October but it could go into the end of November. Some of these parts are even being replaced for the 2nd and 3rd time since I have owned her.

At the same time I'm going to be doing an exterior restoration but that won't start until the weather cools enough for painting a month from now. I'll start a thread for that as well when the time comes.

Keep in mind I have had this car for 14+ years and it was so perfect when I got it that I received 2nd place at Trans-A-Rama back in 2000. That was when it had 70,000 original miles. Since then age has taken it's toll along with me being homeless and living it in a couple times, having to be parked in the snow one winter and parked outside in the sun for 1.5years at different periods during the past 14 years. Plus she has lived thru countless partying as a young man and 2 boys I had along the way who are now 11 and 14. There was also a rock slide on a mountain road that totaled her and a couple other accidents over the years. The old girl has been thru allot and I'm looking forward to giving her a new lease on life! She is still solid and straight with not a spec of even so much as surface rust and I've kept her mechanically perfect along the way.

Alex

Citation X

Just got done doing my carpet and seats. Will need just a few small things here and there myself. Can't wait to see the pics. I had my seat covers made but refoamed and installed them myself. It really wasn't too hard but definately takes some time.

dstss

Looking forward to the pics also. My 92 TA is sitting torn apart waiting for funds to come in. I have to live vicariously through projects that are moving forward like yours for now.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

I have a couple extra auto shifter plates in the garage, but knowing you they would have to be mint for you to want them.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Here are some more before pics...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

...and some more....

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

....and then, and then, and then...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Haha, so true lol. As you can see in the pics, the one I have now is an NOS piece only several years old that replaced the original and you can see how the grey paint has worn off from around the gear indicator. Also the tiny plastic frame portion to the right of the shifter boot has warped upwards, which is odd as my original never did.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Here is a pic I took of my engine this morning, cleaner than even the day I bought her with 69,000 miles. Just so you get an idea for how well I try to maintain my car. I also have the side window security decals NOS from GM I'm going to install. I'm having the air bag decal reproduced by a local place along with a ton of other decals too for other places on the car, like the upper radiator mount. I've kept all of them.

I used to lotion my leather ALL the time. The damage in the pics happened over 1 winter in the snow under 2 covers and 1.5years in the sun with no covers at all. My tail lights also de-laminated during that time in the sun as they were freakin perfect before The headliner just started to sag after awhile and driving with the tops off made it waaaaay worse real quickly and I love driving with the tops off. I'd post some pics of when I bought it so you can see how immaculate it was then but I'll save those for when I post the final restore images so you can see them side by side. If you go to the link in my sig I have pics from when I bought her posted there as well.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

That upward warping of the shifter plate is strange. I've never seen anything like that before. Other than that, your shifter plate actually looks pretty good. A lot better than a bunch of them I've seen on eBay going for stupid prices.

I'm looking for a non-power shift plate so that I can relocate my window switches to my overhead console. It doesn't have to be super-mint, but it needs to be clean and without any cracks. It is proving to be a lot harder to find than I thought it would be.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

I assume you sold the extra shift plate you had listed for sale a couple years ago?

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Yup :/ Along with $8K worth of other NOS stuff for half what I paid because I needed the money for my '56 Vette. All this **** has like more than quadrupled in price the past 5 years, not cool.

Hawks says their reproduction auto shifter plate will be ready in Spring 2015. I might wait for that instead of paying $350 for an NOS one.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

I saw those on eBay as well. Sorry, but that price for a shifter plate is outrageous.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Hell yeah it is, I paid $100 for my last NOS in the box one. I'll pay $150 tops or I'll wait for the reproduction from Hawks. Now $1,700 or more for a set of NOS tail lights, now that's a big kick in the nuts I'm going have to deal with someday, but not today!

I'd like to find an NOS leather steering wheel but I've never even seen one. I'm on my 2nd one as my original wore a little hole on the back of the top where my finger would rest lol. My current one is just lost most of it's texture like my shifter handle did. Also my wiper lever originally had like 7 or 8 white lines and individual speed settings, all of the one's GM sells now only have like 3 or 4, bastards haha!

I'm sure I'll have a very long list of parts to sell when I'm done that are used but still pretty good if I don't keep them as spares.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

Just keep 'em for now. Its not like they are getting any cheaper. $1700 for NOS taillights? Nope. I'll tint mine before I pay that much.

alex722607

iTrader: (3)

With the seats.... I don't know if I mentioned this to you or not, but you can rework them a little. Now if you go to a junk yard and find yourself a transam from 1998-2002. The power seats from it unbolt them and take the power seat rail with the plastic and the switches nad the harness from one seat to the other. Then take the track and electrical stuff from under the passenger seat.

Now all you have to do is bolt it to your newly recovered 3rd gen ultima seats. and string the harness from one seat to the other just like the original ran. Fairly simple, failry easy and a direct bolt up. I love it. My lumbars are basically brand new and my drivers seat is 6 way adjustable. My interior is beechwood and it was suggested to me to get fiero beechwood paint which is spot on for my car. As you have gray, you can try to find a gray interior, you can get away with a black interior, or you can paint it with SEM paint. And if you find a gray car, grab the seat belts if you want better ones. I can give you a quick how to on that if you want.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

You have thanks! For me though, I'm the only one that ever drives my car and no one every sits in the back so I'm not going to bother as the seat never moves.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Looks like you have your work cut out for you but it'll be worth it when done!
Nice to see someone else with a Kenny Brown STB !!

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Haha, yup! Had it for over 12years now, love it! I'll be repainting that as well, the new hood insulation I installed when I got it wore the paint off in a couple places since then.

I also forgot to mention that after this round of restoration, I'm going to drive down to Lon to fix my drivers door hinge that broke and I'll need to find an EXPERT on the insides of these doors. I want to replace all of the door glass window stabilizers, both power window motors for a 3rd time riveted in CORRECTLY, possibly replace the regulators, and have it all adjusted perfectly, not half *** like all of the previous installers have! I actually want my windows NOT to bang around inside the doors going over bumps and fit the weather stripping RIGHT when rolled up and closed! At the same time I'll tackle the rattling exterior door handles as well lol.

knight72

Subscribed

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

I have the interior only 1/4 stripped and I already need a bunch of various little black trim screws that vibrated away into oblivion over the years, a passenger side rocker panel trim, mine is cracked at the rear, and a drivers side seat belt, mine broke years ago and I forgot to buy one lol. Also turns out the dash I bought isn't perfect like I thought but I'm going to use it anyway.

...and WTF is it with a T-50 BARELY fitting down into the seat belt bolts and making it a total bitch to break them loose without stripping the head of the bolt, WTH GM

The naked bottom of the inside looks so pretty with its shiny paint and no rust, plus I never noticed how all the body glue is the same color nearly as the paint but it's not painted, it's like the body glue was dyed before being brushed on. Pics to follow once the interior is all stripped out after this next weekend.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

I don't have a hood blanket and some paint still wore off the hood and the STB. It touches a bit.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Its also worn the silver paint off the plastic distributor cover. I bought an NOS metal Y-body cover to put on this winter and an extra NOS plastic F-body cover just for safe keeping.

I'm now at about 60% or more of stripping the interior. All I have left is the seat belts, I'm going to buy a T-47 for them tomorrow, I was trying to use a T-50. The center console, radio pod, front carpet, and headliner.

Found a couple more little trim screws I was missing, its crazy how GM used like 5 or 6 different sizes on everything instead of only 2 or 3.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

Alex,

Any chance you have an extra screw cover that goes on the side of the front seat? Its the one little cap on the side of the Ultima seats about midway up.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Certainly no extras but come to think of it I need to check if even have them still on mine when I get home.

EDIT: Yup, all 4 there thankfully!

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

I'm missing one, but they are such an obscure item I don't even look for them online at all. Hopefully I can find one eventually.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

I have been looking for those little caps also.

I have 4 gray ones that I'm hanging on to and may just have to dye them black..

carlos64030

iTrader: (1)

I picked up an absofreakinlutely flawless set of '91 / '92 Trans Am GTA tail lights for only $400 off of eBay last month. No swirl marks, scratches or de-lamination at all! These tails are my greatest eBay score EVER! It was a 'Buy-It-Now' auction (thankfully) and I didn't hesitate on purchasing them.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

AWESOME SCORE! Looks like they just need a polishing and PONTIAC decal! The set on my car is just as good but with the bit of de-lamination above the lettering, sucks. Hopefully I'll still get about $250 for them though to go towards the new ones. Can't believe I sold my last NOS set of them for $500 only a couple years ago and how much prices have been going up...

carlos64030

iTrader: (1)

I don't want the 'PONTIAC' decal on 'em...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Progress....all I have left is the radio pod and the headliner. I'll take photos of it stripped out in the sunlight tomorrow afternoon and post them. I think I'm going to put my drivers seat back in so I can go to the car wash around the corner and use they super crazy strong vacuum lol.

I got distracted this weekend doing a test piece of my old spoiler with the computer matched paint I had made up, PPG and cost like $147 for 2 quarts. We have a piece of the top of the old spoiler that's about 10" square. We masked off half and did the other half with the primer, color, and clear. ****ing not even close to matching Too much blue and too much mica in the color. I'm giving it a couple days to cure and I'll wet sand the clear with 1500 grit but I doubt it will make much of a difference. I'll go back this week and have them mix me some to the paint code instead.

My used front bumper finally shipped this past Saturday after waiting a month so once it arrives we are finally going to paint all of the exterior parts I have. I'll start another thread in the exterior section for that.

My replacement headliner from Hawk's arrives Tuesday. The first one was damaged by another item in the same box and after an email and pictures they were great about getting a replacement on the way to me.

Here is my list of what I need to get the interior back to 100% I found out I needed after removing everything:

2x - Original used phillips head screws for rear hatch shade receptacle
2x - Original used phillips head screws for door sill plate
2x - Original torx head screws for the 6x9 sail panel speakers
3x - Original hex head bolts that hold the dash pad to the front of the dash
2x - Original hex head bolts that hold the plastic gauge bezel to the top of the dash
1x - Front seat belt receiver bolt cover in Med. dark grey
Drivers front seat belt assembly
Passenger side door sill plate
Reproduction brake pedal pad

I'm going to hand wash my old seat belts I'm re-using. I can't seem to remove the front passenger one tho! When I try the entire metal bracket ear the seat belt is bolted to bends!!!! I don't know how I'm going to brace it to get the bolt out Also I have the hardware in a box somewhere from 14 years ago when I unbolted my rear seat bottoms and back, those will be fun to find lol. I'm very disappointed too that I never heard back from Jim85IROC about buying floor mats. I emailed him on Aug 29th and sent him a PM here a week later, no response. Guess I'll be up **** creek for proper contoured front floor mats to protect my new carpet....

My center console seems in better shape than I thought, even has less warping than the NOS one I had in the GM box, freakin suppliers I scored an NOS shifter plate but I won't have it for 3 weeks, funds are running thin so I can't even pay for it until Oct. 10th. Not looking forward to cutting the holes for the buttons either! I found a set of VG tail lights that are close to NOS but used for a bit with the lettering needing replacing I'm negotiating for but I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford them.

The guy who is doing my seats isn't picking them up for about a week and says they will be done by the end of Oct. That will give me time to spotlessly clean my interior and get everything else installed so I'll be ready to bolt the seats in soon as they are done. End of Oct is also when I'm hoping to have all my body parts back from being painted so after the seats are back in and this thread will be done, I'll start on the exterior. Hopefully have the car totally wrapped up by end of Nov.

Lots of pics coming tomorrow night!!!

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Update with pics...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

some more...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

...and more...

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

...and the last couple, sorry for cell phone pics but it's just easier.

I made a deal for the tail lights I found so mine will be coming off, being cleaned and polished, and getting listed for sale tonight or tomorrow. The headliner will come out in the next couple days as well.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Floormats thread
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...loor-mats.html

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

I guess I'll give Eckler's a call since all they have listed are the embroidered one online.

83Z28/L69

I was at a pull a part place yesterday, they had 3-4 birds there. I'm going back Wed or Thurs, would you like me to check for some of the screws and bolts for you? I think they had a 91-92 L03 firebird with Med gray, I'll check the seat belts and such also, if you would like.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

That would be WAY awesome of you, thanks for the offer!!!! Yes PLEASE! I'm going to buy the seat belt new but if you can find all of the exact original screws/bolts I need I'll make it worth your time for sure!

Thanks! Alex

83Z28/L69

Alex,

Didn't get to hit P-A-P today. We had a F-body go down and had to get it back on the road. Its my buddy's DD. We're replanning a Sat trip.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

No hurry, it's all good, thanks!

Alex

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

Update: I have the a-pillars and headliner removed now. I set the drivers seat in (un-bolted so I can remove it at the car wash) and tomorrow evening I'm going to drive it around the corner to the car wash to use their absolutely insane vacuums that has crazy suction on the entire interior. Then I'm going to wipe down the entire interior top to bottom.

My new NOS shifter plate is now on its way and the seats will go off to the upholsterer on Monday afternoon (I was needed the drivers for the trip to the car wash).

I ended up just getting all of the little odds and ends that I needed like the bolts from Hawk's, I was easy just to give them a very specific list and get it all from one place. Of course a-pillar clips got added to that order lol.

Next weekend or the weekend after, or maybe the weekend after that lol, I'll install the new headliner starting to install all of the new parts from the top down. In the meantime, I have ALLOT and I mean a **** ton, of scrubbing and cleaning to do on all of the interior parts I removed that I'm going to reuse. Hand washing the seat belts that I'm going to reuse I think will be the toughest, I still can't get the front passenger one out without bending the bolt bracket so I'm still at a loss there :/

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

...Sweet!

83Z28/L69

Well, I finally made back to PAP today. 2 birds had been crushed and the other 2 were stripped clean. Sorry. I might make it to PAP in Knoxville tomorrow.

84 1LE

iTrader: (9)

Ya mean these?

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

Yup, Dem da ones. How much do you want for the black ones?

84 1LE

iTrader: (9)

Well, the blk caps (w/out screws) are actually dyed (or painted, idk).The blk w/ screws are more like ebony/graphite.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

Yeah, those bottom four are obviously painted and don't look right. Are those four in the top right corner (with the screws) the black ones you are talking about? They look black to me. What do you want for them?

84 1LE

iTrader: (9)

Yep, top right.PM sent.

punkmaster98

iTrader: (5)

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