mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

got another build going for those not on facebook. this is for my cousin. the short version of the story is he decided to buy a thirdgen bird and i went to looking for one. a buddy of mine in deep south FL had this gta and suggested an asking price of 1000 for it. specs of it was:

flattop 355, vortec heads, performer rpm air gap type intake (have no idea what brand it actually is). 700r4 that has some goodies in it but was "beginning to slip". fourth gen rear 3.73, etc. just needed some TLC.

well we threw around the idea of going all the way to south FL vs finding something locally. well, my buddy made the price right, and i hopped in the truck to head down after it. i left on a monday night, approximately 10pm from Waldorf, MD enroute to Lehigh Acres, FL. with the exception of fuel stops, i drove it straight. it was approximately 18 hours. sometime shortly after 4pm tuesday i had a gta on my trailer





i used that trip as an opportunity to stop by my folks house and my storage unit in GA so i turned and burned another 10 hours up the road to my folks place in Warner Robins....the last hour of that trip is a little foggy, i don't remember much of it. i slept at my folks house, got up the next morning and stopped by the storage unit.

oh, hi chevelle


sucks i had to leave it in the storage unit again.

stopped at my favorite place to eat before leaving town again. as you can see i picked up more tools from storage while i was town


had a little bit of a surprise during a walk around at 2am somewhere in NC or VA, can't remember. luckily i had a spare and swapped this out before i got a real surprise



got it all back to the house and finally got a chance to look it over really and start figuring out what the car will need. after getting it running, it appears our trans that will need a soft rebuild, will actually need a pretty good overhaul. we knew it was slipping, and my guess is sitting for so long wasn't nice to it. no time to dwell, lets get going with some other solution. after a little looking, we lucked into a fmvb th400 for pennies on the dollar. we ordered a jegs (reboxed transmission specialties) 10" 3500 stall and got to work.

more hiccups as we figure out how it's all going to go together. the existing torque arm setup (pretty nice home made stuff!) wasn't going to work with the th400. the mount and the tailshaft housing literally took up the same space. after more thinking and looking at the budget, we pulled the trigger on a non adjustable jegster torque arm. my cousin was also able to secure a set of draglites, and a glasstek cowl hood.



here's some engine bay shots. first is when i picked it up, and progressively through the transformation. there is still a ton left to do, and oh so much clean up.







i love under car shots, even if the car is still dirty. shows off the coated hedman longtubes, th400 with deep finned aluminum pan, ds loop, torque arm, you get the idea, lol!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

interior was tattered pretty badly, but we're working with that too







and that's about where we're at with it now. got some fuel system stuff to address next weekend, and general cleaning and we're hoping to try to get it out to the track at least once before the end of the season.

zacharyhorn

iTrader: (1)

Nice score! I've been following this on FB. My next purchase might actually be tires and a Jegster TA. How in depth was the install?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

interior has to come out, that's about as hard as it gets. drilling the holes just takes a while.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Nice find! That thing had manifolds still huh? Crazy. It getting any nitrous or sticking to NA for bracket purposes?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i don't know. been kinda toying with the idea of putting my kit on it cause i think i'm going to stay NA on my car. if i was going to spray the car, i think i'd have done it already and it just hasn't happened. i'd like to sell the kit honestly.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Yea, on the street the nitrous was fun with a manual. At the track it was ok but the coupe with an auto on the gas is much more fun not struggling on the launch since it isn't shocking the tires that hard like a manual. As much as your still trying to get the happy spot NA on your car dialed in, nitrous would make you start all over.

I'd save the kit and use it on something later....like that Chevelle. Lol

That gta looks great with that hood. I would probably opt for one if I didn't have the Daytona turbo hood on the 86.

Btw, not sure if you saw, my rustang went 6.4 on a first time out and not much tuning. The rear was kicking out and tuned out the uppers were never adjusted to center the rear. So much for assuming anything is done right on a project you buy that someone else started right?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

nah, the chevelle is for my wife. has an ls6 cammed 5.3 in it at the moment. it's a running/driving swap, just no where to put it up here. she wants a single turbo on it. lol

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Nice, your woman and mine would get along great. The day she came home from work in her TA and stated,"I think I'm ready for more", I nearly shed a tear. Lol

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

picked up a hobart handler 140 today...stuff is about to get serious.

my wife is a scardy-cat man....she wants the turbo cause it sounds cool, she'll probably never go more than 15% throttle in that car. i will probably drive it more than her, lol!

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Hobart what?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

Hobart Handler 140:


got a bit more done today. pulled the tank, pulled the intank fuel pump and extended the pickup, patched a hole in the tank, and redid the all the rubber line on the car with aeroquip socketless hose, good stuff. i also got the carb rebuilt, and realized we have no timing tab, lol.

our new "exhaust"


and how it sounds now all back together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIHGB...ature=youtu.be

engine bay cleanup is coming along. before long we're gonna rattle can it

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Getting there quick enough for him to enjoy. Those baby bullets are what is on my stang, but through full exhaust and then dumped at the rear. Sounds great.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the goal is to have both cars back to the track 11/10 for MIR's last big event of the seasonl. 4.30's are going in my car this coming saturday as well as putting these baby bullets on my car too. i picked up nearly 2mph by taking the big single 4" off the car.

STREETDEMON

the bird is coming along nicely. at least its a good color! i don't know what i would do without my 220v mig...that and my cordless impact driver!

it's good to have a wife who enjoys cars, mine races a hobby stock at our local dirt track. i never have to justify speed parts.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

My cousin was doing some work today on the gta



trying to get both prepped for the Mu11et Militia meet on 11/10 at MIR

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

That's what I've been doing wrong. I was wondering why my seats were so uncomfortable.

unknown_host

iTrader: (1)

Looks good Matt!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

it's getting there! got some wiring to clean up, hook fans up, put hood pins on, set timing, put seat belts in, put roller tip rockers on, install new fuel tank as our patch didn't hold, firewall block off plates and some other odds and ends, then hope to have it out on 11/10 for some shakedown passes. here's to hoping it goes into the 12's.

Jonesyfxr

iTrader: (2)

Sweet rides!

Keep up the good work!

STREETDEMON

i knew t-tops had another intended purpose!

matt, you've got to stop posting pictures of your car, otherwise i'm going to end up with a narrow/wide setup for wheels on a z28.....

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

ok, here's another

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Nearly like one of those places that frys about us car guys having anything in the driveway on stands, ect.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

haha, everyone on the street seems to be REALLY cool about what we're doing. my uncle is a master smoozer and everyone of his neighbors likes him a lot. we had folks coming over to check out what we were doing this past saturday. such a nice change of pace from what i'm used to, lol!

i'm fairly certain that i want to put an x-pipe in both cars....will even the tone out a bunch.

STREETDEMON

i think you'll be happy with the x-pipe. from my experience, it always tends to help.

our place is about 3 miles out in the country, so we don't ever have to worry about offending the neighbors with loud pipes, cars torn apart, etc. one of the guys down the road has a mud buggy with a bbc in it, he turns around in my driveway when he's tuning his carb. hilarious to see that hideous thing with 37"+ rubber rolling down our gravel road.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

yeah, i've used x-pipes in the past. i just want it to clean up the rev note some, but haven't decided it's worth the effort or not on a system that is only on the car for the track. i still have my big y-pipe that i could put a shorty 4" muffler on and get the same effect really.

i intend to do forward swept out the fender exhaust on my car in the future. stepped 1 7/8"-2"x3.5" merge collector, shorty muffler and right out the fender in front of the front tire, so i'm not sure how much effort i'm going to spend on trying to optimize this setup.

STREETDEMON

true on the y-pipe....for a lot less money!

i'm still up in the air on my exhaust. i really want to tackle true duals over the axle, but not sure if its worth all the trouble.....

zz17iroc

iTrader: (4)

Looking good Matt. Sure wish I could come to MIR with you guys! The TA should run some 12's though. Have fun bro.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

craig, that sure would be awesome! looks like we're going to have quite the gang from VA headed up, and i will have local buddies coming too, so there may be a decent turn out.

once we get a place man, you and your family need to come by whenever you come up here to visit.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

The X pipe on my mustang has truly become my favorite sounding exhaust.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

well, had a pretty major setback today. got the car all basically together and took it on the road. no second gear in the newly acquired th400. i'm going to call the builder on monday and see what, if anything, they can do for us.

on another note, we got quite a bit done. got the timing set, everything is wired back up, no fuel leaks anymore, lol, etc. also got the hood pins on, which turned out great btw:


in other news, i modified my y-pipe for my car. really smoothed out the sounds


and i spit shined the wheels back up

STREETDEMON

matt, are you completely getting rid of the over axle portion of your exhaust?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

yes, it's being traded to a buddy of mine for a magnaflow catback that i may or may not hold on to. (really need a street exhaust that isn't terribly loud for drag week)

STREETDEMON

right on man, looking forward to the sound clip.

my hooker aerochamber is pretty pleasant when just cruising.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

well, we took a couple months off from the car while we celebrated the holidays, as well as addressed some updates with my car. This gave us a bit of time to take a step back and figure out what we're going to do. We opted to go ahead and pull the engine/trans out as a unit. the engine externally is very dirty, the engine bay is dirty, and the the car as a whole just needs more attention to detail. so last week we bared the cold and pulled the motor.


Chucky is learning a lot and is really putting in the wrench time now.



we also went ahead and stripped the interior back out of it in preparation for a roll bar.

this week, there is snow on the ground and even colder. so what do we do? we turn the heat up pull the front nose off, got the welder out and got to work prepping the firewall:







not perfect by any stretch, but i never claimed to be a body guy. i know what i did here i don't care for and what i do care for and how i might do it differently in the future now.



that's all for now. the plan now is to clean the engine bay really well and get the rest painted with the bedliner we uses on the firewall there. (didn't want to leave the bare metal without some protection)

STREETDEMON

looks like you made some good progress. welding sheet metal is definitely an art....kind of like welding above your head, upside down!

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

How do you like those seats (who's seats are they)? Never actually been in "cheap" race seats... how would they do for a bunch of hours driving (btw, I'm pretty big, 6'4", 245# but a 56" chest and 33" waist...)?

Wow, never thought about pulling the fenders/nose off as an assembly, how big a hassle is it/how long did it take? Any gochas/anything hard to reach on a TA?

Drag week huh? What class do you plan on running? A friend of mine has just about talked me into trying to get in too, though I'm not sure it will be this year, right now shooting for a definite next year... I've been going back and forth with them about the Street Race and Super Street rules, I have an answer on what's allowed but it doesn't make any sense...

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

.

Gsoleski

Nice work you're doing here! Quick question, did you cut out anything from the firewall or did you just lay the sheet metal over it? I took out the heat and ac and i'm debating on what to do with the holes. Also could you take some pics during the roll bar install? I'm planning on doing that in the near future

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

everything will be well documented. roll bar install to start this weekend i think.

the sheet metal is just laid over the firewall. didn't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill so to speak, lol!

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Do you have a thread about this somewhere, or are you OK with me posting here (polluting this thread)?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i have a thread title "winter suspension upgrades" or something like that where i'm talking about my car.

86iroc2try

Wow. Very nice. It's awful cold out for all that, so I admire your dedication!!!

We're finishing up our new 91 GTA, weighed it at 2833lbs yesterday with no driver. Yes it has a big block and a glide. Lol

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

This winter has been tough to push through, but with all the work to be done, we can't waste a weekend because it's "too cold" lol!

This weekend warmed up to upper 40's on saturday and mid 50's on sunday...was like summer compared to the last two weekends! I got to the car around 8:15 am saturday morning and we got right to work:









i got a little bent out of shape this weekend:



i fought with the welder all weekend as i got it dialed in. the welds aren't pretty, but they're strong and they'll hold. The bar is "done" for now. we have the door bars, and once the car dips into the 11's (probably not this season) we'll add them to the car. this will hopefully give me some time to find a bender so i can bend them around the door handles. this car will probably never go faster than bottom 10's so i don't have to worry about it cert'ing anyway, but in the even that we do go faster, we'll probably pull it out for a proper 'moly cage anyway. This does give us a place to mount the back of the plastic race seat and the 5 pt harness too though.

While i was working on the roll bar, Chucky was busy at work getting the engine bay cleaned up and painted. He opted to use a rattle can version of a bedliner that he got from a parts store. it turned out pretty dang great i must say. i'm very impressed with it and Chucky is really pleased..



Next weekend (as long as it isn't snowing/raining) we are planning to build the seat brackets. the ones we have for the car are too tall and place the seat weird so we'll address that. depending on time frame, i may start looking at tearing the intake off the motor so it can be cleaned, as well as updating the motor with the roller tip rockers we have and getting it generally ready for paint and reinstallation.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

We realized this week that the tracks we are going to race at mostly locally are all IHRA tracks. A full 5pt roll bar (main hoop, two rearward bars, 1 door bar) is necessary at 11.99. We decided that even though we may not go 11's this season that putting the door bar in while the car is apart would be a good idea. Chucky got to work this morning on the new seat mounts also since the original one we used put the seats too far back and too high.







made some brackets up to mount the back of the seat to also.


and of course...it was snowing a bit today so here's yet another pic of me getting work done in the snow

redneckjoe

it's coming along real nice. looks great!

funny you mentioned lehigh acres. we used to do a lot of street racing out there about 20 years ago. i've seen some very fast cars get trailered out there.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

There are a lot of straight flat roads out that way so it doesn't surprise me.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

you guys are making some serious progress in the driveway! that looks to be a really fun project. i think the low buck stuff gives the biggest returns on the fun meter.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

thanks!

anyone care to guess what it'll run? i have my guesses, i'll keep them to myself till i see what you guys think.

10:1 355
worked vortec heads (no idea on flow numbers)
650 double pumper, performer rpm knock off intake (professional products maybe?)
216/228, .453/.480, 112lsa
hedman longtubes, one of my y-pipes 3x3.5", nothing else. (has those baby bullets in each primary)
th400, 3500 stall
3.73/26" tires
3200lbs raceweight goal.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

im probably way off on this, but im thinkin maybe 11.80's?