ConvertiblesDiscussed here are problems and solutions to convertible specific questions, including difficult to find part numbers and other convertible tech help.
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I say don't worry so much about the title, If you ever do try and sell it, and I'd buy it, salvage title or not, show the documentation, show the pics, give them the proof that it was repaired right and let them decide if it's worth the $. Just don't get low balled, someone will all ways buy it at the asking price or close enough to it. Cars are only worth what someone is willing to pay to have that one special car.
I'll be going to the local pick-n-pull tomorrow, If I see a vert with a good fender I'll snap a pic or two for you. They usually have alot of 3rd gens and since it's Vegas there is no rust.
90-irocdx3
has the right idea, when it is all done and you are driving it around. All the hard work is quickly forgotten, and you have a rare and cool ride for years to come.
LIL BASTARD if you can find me a clean fender I can convert it to the vert type. But I just can,t seem to find a clean one. I got a second opinion on my two right side fenders, and he said they are not worth fixing. They would never be right, and no to put them on a rare car anyway. So I will keep searching.
Update; the car has been at the frame shop for some time now as they are doing it as a fill in project to save me some $ and the best possible result. I removed the items they requested from the stripped front clip I have for the job. I finally had to buy a good clean right side fender from Hawks. Both front fenders will now require media blasting to remove the accumulated old paint. Here are some images from the frame shop (and front clip).
Hey peeps, this is a perfect post for my car. I've been working on mine for a bit, restoration project, stripping paint and all, but before i was completely done stripping the paint, I took my panels off and to an evil surprise noticed my car to have been in some sort of an accident. The rad support needs changing, got one for 200$. Considering you people have been looking into this, perhaps you could give me this answer, are my side supports bent? I'm posting three pics, one of the driver's side, and two of the passenger where i see some sort of an odd fold in the steel.
I'll be going to the local pick-n-pull tomorrow, If I see a vert with a good fender I'll snap a pic or two for you. They usually have alot of 3rd gens and since it's Vegas there is no rust.
just so you know you can make any fenders work on verts. i put one off of a 91 on my 89. just had to trim like 2 inches off the bottom and put my bracket from my original on it.
~Edelbrock open element air cleaner~Edelbrock TES headers and y pipe~3" Magnaflow converter~3" cutout~Flowmaster cat-back~AIR delete~3.73 posi rear end~UMI Panhard Bar~Monroe Sensa Trac rear shocks~Energy suspension poly torque arm bushing~Energy Suspension trans mount~
Hey Andy,that car looks so happy sitting on top of that frame machine.almost like its counting down the days to warm those tires again.Also wanted to say I'm glad you found that fender sorry I couldn't help ya out on that,just like the hood it was beyond help.anyway,lets see that beauty back on the road.lots of luck man,Timmy
My car was carfaxed as a damaged frame. Other then right behind the headlight bucket being bent a little bit, I can find no damage(other then rust spots). It still drives completely strait, all panels fit fine.
Nice to see some of these cars getting fixed and not trashed.
You are doing a great thing here in saving a rare car. Your repairs will be nearly undetectable if you have a good shop, and your car will be good as new. Hats off to you for not throwing in the towel. I remember back in the 80's when plenty of original muscle cars were scrapped or parted because they had body damage or rust that was deemed "too bad" to fix. Now, people are restoring hulks that wouldn't have even been good parts cars back then. This will come to pass with the 3rd gens, too, as people will toss them into the trash heap for an easier car to fix, until most of the solid cars are lost. Keep us updated, and, once again, bravo. Oldtimer.
Got it back from the frame shop on Friday. But the car will not start for some reason, it will crank but not start. The fuel pump is not turning on. It ran just fine when I took it over there. I do not have an ,88 wire diagram. There is no battery power to the relay at all. I can get the car to run by powering the pump supply wire directly from the battery. This problem kind'a stinks.
Plus I just bought an ex-Virginia State Police 2002 B4C and been busy getting it cleaned up.
Hey Andy glad to here the good news.As far as your fuel pump problem,on my old 87 I-ROCZ there was A junction block on the passenger side next to the radiator.Don't know you're car though.Maybe something worth looking at?Perhaps something was disconnected in the repair process.Also I know this car has low miles,but maybe check&make sure the fuel pump relay has good connections at the relay?I also had problems with that on my old 87. Good luck man,keep us posted on the outcome.
Been putting in way too much time at work. But finally got to work on the car yesterday. I found a bunch of stuff unplugged under the hood, and the car ran once. Now it stil will not start. I have spark, but do not hear the pump run.
The left side of the car that was repaired is too far to the rear by about 3/16". The drivers door needs to be moved forward about that much and the upper door hinge needs to be moved about 1/4" to get everything lined up. I can't do anything until I get it running again.
I am really not sure, and I feel stupid for asking...
I know some cars had a Fuel cutoff switch if in an accident, my mom had this happen she was hit and the car would not run. The cop went and pushed a button...
Heck I have been all through my cars and never found anything like a swich... The only thing I could think of is the Fuel Pump relay a Fuse or something that may have poped because of the accident.
It ran perfectly good when I backed it into the shop. But now it will not start for some reason. I suppose I will need to diagnose the fuel pump because it has no fuel pressure at all. On an ,88 which wire pwers the pump from the fuel pump relay? I do not have a 1988 service manual.
Is the ecm fuse still intact?In case you're unsure what I'm talking,it is(or in you're temporary case was) mounted to the passenger fender well.If when you turn the ignition key to the run position does the check engine light come on?Sorry if I'm wasting your time and you already know this,just a thought.
I was told the minor areas on the door/door jam can be touched up. I was quoted $2,200 for this work including paint.
$2200 will barely pay for good quality paint supplies and labor, just on a partial repaint. Good luck w/ that, hopefully it is as good a deal as you think it will be. You get what you pay for w/ paint work, unless you are getting a buddy-buddy deal and they are under-charging you for the actual hours.
I wanted to "fix" a few minor things on my yellow car...
HVLP Paint guns: $300
Primers : $100
Other equipment like sanding boards: $200
Paint: I am up to $1000 and I am having to repaint the whole car...
The pride of doing it myself and having a car look like new: Priceless
Oh well I wante to fix some little things anyways so now is my chance...
I would hope he's doing a total repaint on the red car. Modern urethane is not going to match the texture and gloss of the old OEM paint even if the color match is right. The repainted panels would jump out at you vs the oem ones, unless you have someone who is doing resto quality work and is going to use the same paints as OE.
I do not think you can find the OE paints any more as some of them have been deemed illegal. That was the problem I ran into with my yellow car. Apparently there was lead (yes you read it right) LEAD in the paint originally. There was a particular Orange which all I needed was About 12 drops per gallon it is now NA. With that said they changed the mix, it was suposed to be the same and in a spot where the paint was faded no one would ever tell, but on a hard body line IE between door and fender it stuck out like a sore thumb.
I have found that Modern Urithane is much deeper looking it has more shine than the original paints. Not to mention that the original paint was painted in Perfect conditions with near Perfect painters, it was also applied really thin in comparison to any aftermarket paint.
I was actually able to buff my convertible, there was one panel which had been repaired due to something hitting the LH wheel well opening, it was much more glossy than the rest of the car, once I polished the Original paint on the rest of the car it was better but still not as glossy.
Been putting in way too much time at work. But finally got to work on the car yesterday. I found a bunch of stuff unplugged under the hood, and the car ran once. Now it stil will not start. I have spark, but do not hear the pump run.
The left side of the car that was repaired is too far to the rear by about 3/16". The drivers door needs to be moved forward about that much and the upper door hinge needs to be moved about 1/4" to get everything lined up. I can't do anything until I get it running again.
Thanks, Andy
I'm happy to see you're working on it again, but also have to reiterate, "you get what you pay for" in reference to the repairs. I hope no other surprises pop up on you... and dont forget that car is going to need and overall paint job in order to look right. Keep us updated!
idk if u got it runing yet but the fuel pump wires are behind the carpet behind the rear seat.. if u cant get it going check the vats system and if thats the problem get a bypass or if its just the pump u can replace the wire or just wire it to a toggle and noone will be able to steal the car either it will be like a cut off switch.. no fuel no run lol
OMG, makes me wanna bawl seeing these cars with their faces gone. dx3 you done good. I think when I finish fixing mine up (not bad to start, just a lots of mostly minor stuff) I think I'll get one that needs rescued, give me a project that will last for some time.
UPDATE:
This project has languished for long enough, and I decided to "get'er done"
Purchase price $2,060.00
Frame shop $1,053.88
Shipping (of car) $361.00 (via Estes Express and they did a fine job too)
New GM parts $819.15
Parts from Hawks $194.90 (used right power window fender, etc.)
All-Dent $150.00(dent removal from both front fenders)
Stripped fr/clip $200.00
Clean used hood $100.00
Misc towing $150.00
Estimate $2,000-2,500 (final assy and repaint entire car w/all trim/mirrors removed.
Total $7,088.03-7,588.03
I forgot to mention the reason the car would not start. The fuel pump and interior of the fuel tank were covered with rust from sitting around, and it still had the "bad gas" odor. It was so bad I had to replace the fuel tank itself with one from Hawks. The car still has a problem with "Check Engine Light" comes on and the engine shuts off at idle. Mass Air Flow Sensor codes. I have replaced the sensor, but as soon as the car goes into closed loop it stars having this problem. Not sure what the cause is.
The major hassles with the title appear to be behind me. I will get a rebuilt or repaired title when the car is "fully repaired" according the the Motor Vehicle Investigator I spoke to. My fingers are crossed.
Does anyone know where I can get one of these? I don't know what you call it, but it is obviously broken. Or possibly have an original I can copy? Thanks, Andy
You've got a nice car there, it's good to see it straight, as opposed to parted out. There won't be more of these cars, just fewer of them. Wish mine was an iroc . . .
try this .. put the pointer over the picture.. and then right click on the picture ......... then go to properties .........Copy / hightlight the location..... it should begin with "HTTP:" !!
once you have that copied .. come back here and reply like this....
type this ------> [img] then the address paste it within here with nospaces after the "]", and end it with [/img]
and walla !! picture is posted .........Now I want to see a picture.
HINTS if you use photobucket for your photos you have online .. there is already an option that you just click on it and it copies the whole "[img]" thing and you just come here and click paste .. !! simple ! The way I showed you is if you find a pic, like googling and such and you want to share that pic you do it the LONG way. sorry if I confussed you , but its simple.
The bodyshop price was finalized on Friday at 2,431.00 including entire repaint and new windshield. Repaint will be done with all trim, mouldings etc removed, and some additional minor bodywork I have not even noticed.
The 59,000 original miles still keeps me motivated!
I stopped by the body shop yesterday to drop off some parts and look at the car. It is quite a shock to see the car with all of the mirrors, door handles/locks, spoilers, etc. removed and primer here-and-there. BUT she sure does look happy! I was looking through some paperwork yesterday and realized I have owned this car for two years this month. Yes, 59,873 miles AND the ashtray and cig lighter have never been used either. Thanks, Andy
__________________ 82 Z28- 383 roller w/Vortec heads Edelbrock Performer Vortec intake, Edelbrock Q jet, serpentine belt drive.TH700R4 w/B&M holeshot 2000 converter,& megashifter.1LE front brakes, 9bolt 3.27 w/1LE rear brakes.Aluminum driveshaft,boxed rear susp. poly everything, IROC swaybar+wonderbar and steering box. Spohn subframe connectors. 70mph@2200rpm ASE Master Tech plus L2
also Latest project car,'86 IROC stock 305TPI hit on left side,but not too bad ( now repaired and equipped with the 1LE brake system). Also 1990 IROCZ 5.0 TPI 5 speed (drive train has 150 miles since new), and another 1990 IROCZ 5.7 G-92 etc., and yet another 1990 IROC-Z, red w/flames, and 1988 IROC-Z convertible, red w/59,000 miles.
