mnug13

Finally picked up my fourth third gen a couple weeks ago. I found her on Craigslist for $900. A far cry from what I was actually looking for, which was a 91 or 92 Z28, but I got attached. She's an 87 base model hard top with a red exterior and a fairly nice black interior. Now from what you've read I'm sure you're thinking it doesn't sound too bad but the previous owner hit a deer in it a few weeks before selling it. The hood was buckled down over the driver side headlights which were busted along with the fiberglass piece they attach to and the driver side window was busted out. Almost forgot to mention the lovely engine and trans combo. It's a 2.8v6 with an auto. After looking at the RPO codes we found out it was a factory 5 speed car. After buying the car I definitely felt some buyers remorse about buying the worst third gen I've had yet I can happily say I've fallen in love with the ugly duckling. Since I got it I've replaced the drivers door but the old one is getting put back on with new glass once I get a warm day, replaced the hood with a cowl with that oh so lovely chameleon paint job, a couple new tires, and new headlight bracket. I've got huge plans for this one since I've had three others to plan with but like most everyone a limited budget so she'll be put together piece by piece and paycheck by paycheck. Plans for the car are eventually a built LQ9 and a t56 trans, 91-92 high rise wing, new front and rear bumper with side ground effects from a 91-92 Z, C5 Z06 wheels most likely, and completely upgraded suspension. This won't exactly be the speediest build thread but it will be picture heavy. Hope everyone enjoys my journey to my perfect Third Gen.

The day I picked her up
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps4ffeb0e1.jpg

The good angle
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps403a8c1b.jpg

Temporary door
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps39da44f9.jpg

In the midst of replacing the fiberglass piece
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps0ae0697f.jpg

After I replaced the fiberglass headlight bracket.(Still cockeyed from the impact)
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps193f7f84.jpg

New hood after a quick spray
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...psba1e87a0.jpg

SpeedDemon91

Ok I'm in! Can't wait to see it finished!

jermdm

Cool that you are saving a thirdgen. Be cool to see it finished. Are you sure that its an 87. You have the third brake light on the outside of the hatch glass. That was an 86 only thing or unless the hatch glass has been changed out.

BLACK92B4C

Good save buddy!

86_irocz-28

you beat me to it

2007xl50

Looks like a cool project. The SC's are growing on me, but I am a GFX guy. Both my cars are GFX cars. Can't wait to see it done.

68Strat

iTrader: (3)

Great start! I wish mine was a hard top... Sport Coupes can be mean, and looking at your new hood reminded me of mine.

mnug13

Quite a few responses and I missed them. It is an 87 but with the no spoiler option in 87 the third brake light is still on the outside. I thought the same thing at first until I did some research. Got the new heard on and the grid taillights which I got for a steal $10 for the pair a few days ago but thats about it since it's been so cold(downfall of working outside). I would've preferred t-tops but I was tired of driving my grandma car so I settled. Should turn out good though. Definitely a GFX fan as opposed to the SC look but it isn't too bad for now. A few to pictures to add plus I was playing around with the fish-eye lens I got for my phone.

New hood on still need to work out the fitment issues on the driver side
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...psfa5c5ca4.jpg

Fish-eye of the new hood. Makes it look almost mean
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps51eafe97.jpg

Fish-eye of the grid taillights
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps0d743bdd.jpg

mnug13

Got a few things done yesterday since I got another warm day. New steering wheel got put on although I messed up the horn button a bit. Need to fix that later. Also while I was in the steering column I replaced my lock cylinder so now I actually have to use my keys. Changed the oil and trans filter and fluid. And finally took my taillights off to give them some paint.

New steering wheel
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...psfc04dec2.jpg

Taillights removed. She's a little dirty
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps550d890e.jpg

A little paint on the taillights
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps150d3fea.jpg

Ran into this when I was trying figured out why my radio wouldn't work
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps6049443d.jpg

Cool shot of the new steering wheel with the cowl in the background
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps2c39c7f1.jpg

2007xl50

Looks like your makeing some progress. That fisheye effect is kinda cool.

mnug13

Slowly but surely. Yeah the fisheye is pretty awesome to mess around with.

mnug13

Another quick update. I got the bright idea to buy a cheap set of wheels yesterday without doing a whole lot of research. They are 17x9.5 with 275/40r17s on those and the rears are a whopping 18x11 with 315/30r18s on them. After mocking them up or at least trying to I realized they're a bit too wide. So I going to try to get them to fit. I know someone on here has done the 18x11s on the rear so hopefully I can follow that and figure how to do it but my main concern is the fronts. Anyone have any ideas or know where to point me in the right direction?

Here's how the wheels look next to the cart at least. I think they'll look good with some paint


And I put the taillights back on. Not the best job but they look okay for now. I'll probably take another stab at them later.

mnug13

After a few hours and some time skimming through TGO I got my new window in my old door finally. Now the ugly duckling isn't such an eye sore. I also painted my stock wheels which made quite the improvement. And I started putting in my new radio and speakers but due to it being so cold I only got as far as putting the radio in. Not all good to report though I'm having a small issue which through some research I believe could be a number of things: fuel pump, fuel filter, ignition control module not really sure. Every now and then it seems to bog down when I push the throttle I'm not really sure what the problem is. Sometimes it idles just fine but other times it acts like or actually will die. Any ideas on that would be helpful.

BADNBLK

iTrader: (11)

Nice project! Glad to see you figured out how to insert you pics

I love me some Sport Coupes!!!

onthedownlow

iTrader: (4)

Nice save man, always happy to see someone pouring love into a third gen. Looking forward to updates as you work on her. Subscribed.

mnug13

Thanks everyone! It definitely makes working on her easier when I tell myself I saved it from an untimely death. I figured inserting pictures would be a lot of help especially for people like me that scroll until they see pictures. Lol

t-top havoc

iTrader: (3)

Yup this cold weather is.... Oh well, every day I tell myself " 1day closer to spring "
Hang in there & press on!!

mnug13

Hopefully it warms up in time for me to get the new engine in. Oh yeah! Another update for everyone. Bought an engine from a 92 Suburban a few days ago. Going in after I get some more parts and a trans. Plan on just doing cam, intake and exhaust and a th350. She needs a little more motivation that 2.8 liters.

mnug13

Just realized I haven't updated this in quite awhile. I wish I could say there has been more progress but no. I traded my cowl hood for a set of Z28 wheels and got the replacement hood painted. And now I'm just buying parts for the engine swap.

mnug13

And some pictures to go with my last update







Also thinking about getting a set of C6 ZR1s in 17x8.5 from OE Wheels is anyone else running these? I'd love to see pictures.

jdracer13

Keep up the work it is looking good. The vette wheels should take about a 2" spacer all the way around.

mnug13

I'm actually selling the ones in the picture this weekend. I don't think I'll have to run a spacer on the C6 ZR1s but I may.


Posted from Thirdgen.org App for Android

jdracer13

You will still need 2.25" in the front and 2" in the rear. They offer +54 or +7x something you want the +54 which has the least back spacing. Anyways good luck.

68Strat

iTrader: (3)

^ Yeah with my C5s I ran 2" all around, and the fronts looked a bit to far in (needed the extra .25), and barely, and I mean just barely cleared the tie rod ends. Unless you find deep dish wheels with the correct offset (Rare ZR1 style wheels made for F-bodies are the only that come to mind) you will have to run spacers.

mnug13

Oh okay. Offsets and backspacing are foreign territory for me. Thanks for the info.


Posted from Thirdgen.org App for Android

jdracer13

No problem I didn't want to see you have issues with that. Good luck

90camaro355rs

its been awhile since you updated us, do you have any?

mnug13

I completely forgot I started this build thread... Woops! I have plenty of updates for you guys. Let's see if I can remember everything. I ended up putting a 305/700r4 combo in it out of my friend's Trans Am in efforts to save time since my 350 needed some machine work. Some new weather stripping went in and the drip rails came off. New wheels and tires went on. I ended up putting in a couple aftermarket gauges considering mine were just dummy lights. I've got a new gauge panel and with the other gauges getting ready to go in within the next week or so. I didn't really get to do anything to it over the winter since it's my DD. More recently though I finally got my shifter cable fixed more or less. Almost completely finished out my front and rear suspension with lots of goodies including Koni shocks and struts, cut iroc springs, spohn bumpsteer kit, new sway bars from spohn, Founders strut mounts, finally got around to doing brakes on it, and also some new steering pieces. Now lets see if I can remember how to upload the massive amounts of pictures I have for you guys.

mnug13

No more 2.8


In goes the 305 with a street demon


First drive with the new engine


New gauges to keep tabs on things


Night shot of the gauges


What the engine looks like now

mnug13

New wheels and tires along with a ride height shot with the iroc front springs(half coil removed)


Sneak peak at part of the rear suspension Founders LCARBs and double rod ended LCAs


Stripped the interior and thankfully only found one tiny spot of rust


Goodbye drip rails


All my suspension goodies(Ended up going with a constant rate spring for the rear instead of the progressives


Partial shot of the rear suspension

mnug13

The rest of the rear suspension


New vs Old rear suspension


Front end torn apart


New front end goodies


Another engine shot with my Founders strut mounts


Finally back on the ground. I'm loving the new stance


New gauges panel and gauges getting ready to go in


And a few pictures I took while I was out testing the new suspension

mnug13

And that concludes this rather lengthy update.

mr.camaro

very nice project! i like how this is turning out

90camaro355rs

looking good!

mnug13

Looks like it's time for another quick update. Not a whole lot going on with the car right now but I did get a little work done. A used quick ratio steering box went in along with and astro steering shaft. Huge improvement over the sloppy steering I had before. I also did a little cleaning and rerouted my plug wires which helped clean the bay up considerably. The gauges are finally completely installed and all work fairly well. And last but definitely not least within the next few days I will be getting the exhaust redone and my UMI Subframe connectors will be going in. As for exhaust I'll be going to upsize to 3" after the 2.5" Y then into a new high flow cat and 3" back into a Hooker Aerochamber then dual 2.5" out. Hopefully I'm happy with the new sound. I've really taken a liking to the way it sounds now but it needed to be moved for the sfc's so I figured why not upgrade while I'm there.

mnug13

Astro steering shaft


You can more or less see the new quick ratio box


New flowmaster cat and Hooker Aerochamber


Engine bay cleaned up a bit


Another view of the rear suspension with the new diff cover

mnug13

Looks like it's time for another quick update. Not a whole lot going on with the car right now but I did get a little work done. A used quick ratio steering box went in along with and astro steering shaft. Huge improvement over the sloppy steering I had before. I also did a little cleaning and rerouted my plug wires which helped clean the bay up considerably. The gauges are finally completely installed and all work fairly well. And last but definitely not least within the next few days I will be getting the exhaust redone and my UMI Subframe connectors will be going in. As for exhaust I'll be going to upsize to 3" after the 2.5" Y then into a new high flow cat and 3" back into a Hooker Aerochamber then dual 2.5" out. Hopefully I'm happy with the new sound. I've really taken a liking to the way it sounds now but it needed to be moved for the sfc's so I figured why not upgrade while I'm there.

mnug13

A little idle clip before the new exhaust goes on