merc3065

Well here it is, back on the boards for sale once again.
However it is in a little better shape than before I got it. I don't have the money to continue the restoration but have most of the mechanical and bodywork done... This is what I wrote for my ebay auction, it will be up there for 10 days as well...

Vehicle Description

First off I would like to get into the good things about this rare factory option before I get into the bad side of the project. It is a hard top to answer that question first...

There is no rust on the vehicle except in the 2 places that I will mention later on in the description.

For starters, the car is a PROJECT, do not expect to drive this car home.
The reason I am selling this car as it sits is that I do not have the money to keep sinking into this car to get it road worthy beyond what I have done to it.

The new parts are as follows...
All new front end, this includes a reproduction front bumper cover, new reinforcement bar+5mph impact bumper, drivers side headlight motor is rebuilt but the car will come with 2 new headlight motors. I also have the H4 headlight conversion kit which includes the light housings and wiring harness for these as well.

I have replaced the following cosmetic parts:
The car was originally tan interior but it was faded, cracked and in horrible shape. I changed the colour from tan to black. The carpets are clean in excellent shape as are the foot pads. The dash pad is in excellent shape as is the steering wheel. The steering is a standard trans am wheel and does not have radio controls. The leather is in good shape with a minor mark on the top half of the steering wheel.

I have done the following engine work:
The engine is out of a 1988 Trans Am and had 76000 miles on it prior to the swap.
Bottom end rebuilt with high volume oil pump 20000 miles ago.
The crank was reground and reinstalled. The timing chain was replaced with the OEM style timing chain at this time as well.
I rebuilt the top end myself 7000 miles ago on this engine and replaced everything from the cam shaft up.
The upper half includes the following equipment
Edelbrock 60859 Aluminum Performer heads
Edelbrock HiFlo TPI intake base manifold
Edelbrock HiFlo TPI intake runners
Crane Cams OE replacement roller lifters
Crane Cams Powermax 2032 Camshaft
Comp Cams 1.6 Ratio Aluminum Roller Rockers
Mr Gasket chromed valve covers
Comp Cams 7.195" Hardened Push Rods
Accel 24 lb/hr Injectors
TPIs Throttle body airfoil
Holley AFPR

Additional engine work is as follows
New AC Delco A/C Compressor
Removed AIR system and replaced with new idler pulley in place of the air pump
SLP's 1 3/4" Headers with the AIR holes welded shut (they are not coated)
SLP cold air induction kit
New water pump with 8000 miles on it
New aluminum radiator with 8000 miles on it
Newer washer and coolant bottles but they didnt stay clean too long unfortunately
All the hoses and vacuum lines were replaced in the car at the bottom end rebuild. The fuel tank is in excellent shape and I replaced it myself from my parts car. There is no rust on this and the straps are in good shape as well. I replaced the in tank fuel pump with a BBK walboro 255lph in tank electric fuel pump so the engine has plenty of fuel to work with.
I used ARP head bolts and Stage 8 locking header bolts

Exhaust is a custom built 3" mandrel bend system from Flopro and has a new 3" hiflo catalytic converter, Flopro's V-Force muffler with dual magnaflow stainless steel tips. The y-pipe is ceramic coated as is the portion leading up to the catalytic converter. The rest of the system is aluminized steel that has been painted with high temp paint and it is baked on pretty good after a few runs of the engine.

Ignition is stock with the exception of a bronze distributor gear, MSD Cap and rotor, custom fit taylor wires, NGK Iridium spark plugs, R&M specialties black anodized aluminum centerbolt wire loom and the stock plastic TPI distributor plenum extension.

Interior is in OK shape with recovered tan leather seats, with the proper notch back rear seats. Carpets are black and a good conditioned leather shifter and e-brake handle. The center console is not in the car yet but will include 2 to make one good one from it. There is no headliner in the car. Seatbelts are in excellent shape and are very clean as are the interior panels. The drivers side kick panel needs black carpetting as it fell off a long time ago before I had my parts car. The dash panel is a digital dash and all the gauges work. The only down side to this, is that the display was cracked across the battery voltage and only some of the LCDs light up on the tempurature gauge. The oil pressure, tach and speedo work. The backlight for the odometer needs replacing and I have not gotten to that yet. The plastic trim inside the car is in good shape as is the dashpad and sail panel covers.

The doors are from a red T/A (my parts car) and will require repainting as I have them primed black for now. I will include the original black doors with the car but they have some rust and require complete weather stripping replaced.

The tires have 30000 miles on them and have 70% tread left with the exception of the right rear which is brand new and has 100% tread left. I will include both sets of diamond spoke rims as well.

The suspension is OEM replacement springs for the front and a set with 70000miles on the rear. The shocks are brand new KYB GR2s, shocks in rear struts up front. The lower ball joints have been replaced with OEM replacements as well as a front end alignment is done. The front and rear swaybar links are poly urethane from Energy Suspension. I have the rest of the kit available to go with the car as well.

Brake calipers are painted with high temp red caliper paint and will clean up nicely when you clean them off of the brake dust. The front rotors are cross drilled aftermarkets that have been recently turned to clean off rust from sitting for so long and the rears are the OEM discs that are in good shape.

Drive train is as follows:
Rebuilt 700R4 automatic transmission with a Stage 2 Transgo shift kit and vette servos with larger .500" boost valve
OEM aluminum driveshaft
9bolt 3.27 posi disc rear differential
Posi does work very well in this rear end
2600 Converterman OEM sized torque converter
B&M Transmission cooler (small sized one)

The car comes with the A/C equipment not installed and currently has just the non A/C box in there for ease of mainteance. The condensor core is present and installed as are the hard lines. The A/C box will come with it.

The exterior requires the following:
Front fenders need replacing to make the front end look better, the back 1/4s look OK but if you want to finish the restoration process, they will require cutting and replacing. The notchback could also use refinishing as well to repair some slight paint cracks up by the hinges. The hood has a few slight dents in it as does the rear 1/4 passenger side, the rest of the car could use a good go over with media blast and repaint to complete the job. The passenger side door needs the leading edge straightened out a little bit as it was bent out slightly from a fender hitting the leading edge.

I have installed competition engineering bolt on subframe connectors and they should be welded in once you are satisfied.

Now onto the bad parts...
The notchback was in an accident before I owned it in 1998 from some owner in Florida...
The front fenders have a lot of bondo on them and could use straight out replacement.
The front bumper cover needs priming and paint
The rear 1/4s have been drilled and pulled and filled where it was repaired but it is a clean job
The trunk well could use replacing as it is dented and beat up pretty bad
The floors at the back seats have some minor stress cracks and need welding to safety
The front drivers side sub frame needs to be patched as it is torn up pretty bad from a tow hook it looks like
The front rad support is bowed slightly on the bottom causing the passenger side of the fan shroud to push up about 4mm. This isnt apparant once the MAF is bolted down properly.
Needs rear hatch struts
The hood needs to be cleaned up at the leading edge and a few dents removed from the surface of the hood.
The hood vents should be replaced as they were just painted over with black paint by a previous owner and the side rear vents are missing the aluminum screen.
Needs a headliner
Rear weatherstripping trim piece needs to be cleaned up as there is rust underneath. I have stopped it best I could with Krown rust spray.
The firewall in the lower corner where the wiring harness goes through requires attention, again I stopped this with some rust primer to stop the rust from progressing. The section that is rusty is about 2" along the weld seams where it meets the lower frame.
Interior wiring is cleaned up as best as I could do and has the VATS system bypassed and the VATS hardware removed. The ECM is also a NONVATS 350 1988 L98 stock computer which works great.
It needs the Charcoal Purge canister installed and hooked up on the lower passenger side front 1/4 panel brace since the SLP cold air kit covers that entire area where the stock one goes. The third brake light and rear defroster does not work. Third brake light is because the hook up/spring loaded contact is not present and needs to have a custom one made as the original parts are discon'd by GM. The rear defroster needs the leads hooked up again and the button installed on the dash trim. The rear and front windows have crappy tint put on them so it might be best to remove that so you can see out the rear window again.
The rear view mirror requires a new clip on the windshield so that the mirror can be hung as this one was damaged before I got the car.
The seats are tan, the interior is all black, so maybe look for a recover kit or black GTA seats.
I do not know if the air bladders work on the seats but they are present and need the proper hook ups in the floor to test them.

The engine is what is troubling me right now. Currently it requires a custom ECU programmed for it in order to run to its full potential.
It is backfiring lightly underload and popping under acceleration so may need a new distributor. There is a rod knock starting to become very noticeable on deceleration so the engine will need to be torn apart and refreshed complete or replaced.

This is a GOOD starting platform if you have a shortblock ready to go as the rest of the car and engine is in new or close to new shape.

The following extra parts will come with the car:
A/C blower motor/fan box and AC accumulator
Set of 4 GTA Gold lace rims
Original Black Doors with power mirrors (not in good shape)
Extra interior hush panels
Second center console
Second OEM shifter
Autometer Dual Gauge pod
Autometer Cobalt Stoichometric Gauge
Autometer Cobalt Fuel Pressure Gauge 100psi
Original 1988 Factory GM Service Manual
Haynes Repair Manual for 82-92
4 Extra Headlight motors and 2 extra housings
H4 Headlight conversion kit and bulbs
Extra ECU reman'd
Moates USB->ALDL connector cable for laptops
Stock AC Delco radio (** no speakers in the car...)
Energy Suspension master kit for camaros/firebirds 82-92

Overall I have done most of the leg work and difficult work for the vehicle by replacing parts with known used and new ones and getting everything ready for safety for myself to drive. Unfortunately I do not have the money at this time and wont for 6-8 months before I could consider replacing the engine to get it going again.

I can take additional pictures of the vehicle as requested but will include what I currently have.

I have gone over this car to the best of my knowledge and have not left anything out that I myself would not point out.


Please email me at merc3065@rogers.com or PM me for pictures and additional information.

I am asking $4500 here but will consider other offers for it but my ebay reserve is $3000 and buy it now on ebay is $6500 due to the amount of good parts that are in the car. So hopefully someone shows some interest in this and not just a pic grab fest...I will only take serious inquiries as there are many pics of the car and its progress over the last few months on the Body Forum under "Diamond in the rough". So if you have a serious inkling to drop a shortblock or your own custom engine into this, the car is ready and has many good parts that could be resold if you don't decide to use them.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and help with other little things as I worked on the car!