Anyone other then me sometimes wish they could start all over again on your car.. bypass the mistakes made... buy other things for it.. theres little things about my car that ive done that i wish i hadnt and little things that bother me.. i wish i could imagine my car a certain way and it would happen that way.


anybody know what im talkin about


i still wanna buy me a camaro.

maybe im just over tired.. i dunno..

 

i dont think i would appreciate my car and would lose interest if i could make it perfect just by wishing.... its all the hardwork and time spent that makes your car what it is... also you learn from mistakes, so dont get discouraged...

 

In retrospect I shouldnt have bought a v6. I should have just ogne straight to a v8. But I had lots of fun with that car, and now I have a v8, so it is all good.

I probably shouldnt have spent as much money on it as I did, both the purchase price and the mods I did to it, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere.

And now I have a Trans Am with a straight, rust-free frame, no major accidents (although the fenders dont align to the front clip quite right, but I dont care), a carbed v8 engine, nice stereo, and I love it.

 

No ones project ever gets done. The enjoyment is planning and wrenching. It far outwieghs the final outcome sometimes (not always). I am starting over on my car which only has 34,000 miles.

 

ah a project is never done

 

No matter how much time & $$ ya spend there will always be a better one!!! enjoy what you have or rebuild it & be PROUD!!
I've probably got the best lookin 3gen in a city of 250,000 but I'm still far from happy with it but man I'm also very proud of it when I get behind the wheel.

 

the only thing I regret about my car (or having to do with it rather) is the shop I brought it to for paint......sighhhhhhhh been 4 months now

 

We all go through the same feelings at one point or another. I remember when I actually gave up on my 89 RS, about 3 years ago. Crappy paint, rust problems, crappy L03, crappy suspension. I was literally at the point where I didnt really care if I crashed it. Thats how I got into drifting hahahaha. Anyway here it is a few years later: Retired from drifting, all the rust fixed, black interior conversion, 91-92 GFX, LB9 motor swap, and ready for a new Black Cherry paintjob. Like Shifty said, its all about doing the buildup. The more you get into it, the more you want to see it completed, so the harder you work. But it does have its ups and downs. The biggest problem is always funds.

 

yup. I wish I hadn't even touched my LO3. If I hadn't, then I could have had more money for my swap I am currently finishing up.

I try to pass these mistakes to other people on the board but most don't listen.

 

i try to ask for others advice on the mods before purchasing and doing them. it help to grab the experiance of the board. i would bet about every mod thought up has been done by someone here at one time or another.

bottom line is you have to do what you like, everyone has a voice and some you would rather not hear.

and it is so true..the car is never done..there is always some new thing to try or upgrade that is part of the fun. take pics alots of them and it is rewarding to look back at all the changes when your feeling like blah and sick of doing it.

jeff

 

he only regret i have is jumping on the first third gen i looked at...actually the 2nd...but the 1st was 230k mile rs...


i wish i woulda shoped around for a Z or a GTA..

 

yep :-)
i bought my 89 formula a few weeks ago, havnt even gotten it on the road yet....
in a way i regret buying it, in a way i regret paying what i paid for it, in a way i regret not looking at other cars first.....
but when i really think about it, i know i'll be happy when i start driving it.....once i get the problems sorted out (electrical stuff), i'll love it :-)
Yeah, I would have liked an LT1/6 speed, but for the money i would have spent on one, i'd have a car that you see a few of every day...
with my car that i actually did buy, once i'm done with it, it CERTAINLY wont be "just another firebird"...

 

yah..
first thirdgen - 2.8 SC, crappy body - Bought from gf who decided she didn't wanna work on it anymore.. swapped out the busted T5.. then i sold it to my dad (wanted something fun to drive in the summer while he fixed his '69 camaro project)
Went down and got a loan for my '87 IROC. $1600 for a slightly rough body (getting one rust spot fixed tomorrow at the body shop, im not finding any other major rust tho) and a pretty much blown 400 (head gasket went bye-bye in two days).. I still dont think i got tooooo screwed for $1600. I already was having a motor built for me for my graduation present so i didn't mind the 400 being gone, i just wanted an IROC instead of speading the money to make one look like it. Plus i feel better that its an IROC.
In retrospec, i shouldnt have bought the SC off of the gf.. im stupid..lol


Rabbitt

 

i know how ya feel, i've had days when i thought about selling my camaro (normaly when it wouldn't start in the morning ) but never did. i kinda wish i had bought a GTA some times, but that leaves something for another project later on.
it would be easy to just skip mistakes made, or have things just happen. lots of people pay their way into a cool car with out having a clue what really went into building it. i like the satisfaction of doing things myself, and always remember, if it were easy/cheap/fast anyone could do it.


and having pics of the way it was is a good idea, its fun to look back and see just how far you've come :rockon:

 

yeah, i havent had a day off in 3 weeks, 87 iroc, bodywork, workin at a body shop makes it easier, but them im pushing it so far to make it 100% perfect to hold up the rep of my skill adn the shop, so i have about 200 hours into the car now, just the body, dont mind the 3rd motor and the updated drivetrain...adn its still not done, interior suspension, wheels tires...its never done...but you cannot give up, i worked day and night last weekend blocking it out for final prime before paint, i fell asleep at one paint, as soon as i woke up, i wnet back into it...dedication man....

 

200hours I spent over1000 hours on my car before the Firebird & it was still only a bare shell!!!! Maybe I'm slow lol

 

You just gotta keep on truckin. I'm not very satisfied with my paintjob, but theres not much I can do about. She clean up good in the pictures though. Ive got a shortblock right now(thanks to JMatlock88), but I'm otherwise broke. It sucks to have such a bad@$$ setup just sitting in the garage: '69 350 4 bolt main, .030 over, TRW forged .100 dome pistons, Eagle forged and polished I beam rods, Eagle forged crank, all ARP fasteners... and I won't have the money to really do anthing with it for a long time

 

Have u guys ever felt like u wanted to kick the *** of whoever last messed around with working on ur car? I just spend the last couple of hours ripping the interior out.. found smashed red plastic trim that i kept wondering where it was, screws (which scares me) and other odd ****..


Rabbitt

 

Yep, I always find broken plastic trim and screws if I venture into a place I haven't already cleaned out. And the screws scare me too

 

I want to kill whoever did the engine swap/wireing on my car! hahaha

 

yah... i can just see the convo about my wire harness when the previous owners put in in the car "OOOO, new wire harnes.. think we should put it in a loom?"
"Nah, they are just wires.. think we she clean up the clutter? As in, cut the unused wires?"
"Nah, i dont care what the engine bay looks like"

those f*ckers

 

oh yeah, nothing like trying to put out a little electrical and grease fire because the "gm tech" you hired didn't tighten the wires on the starter after the motor swap..

 

yeah the lows are crap but theres all them days of driving it that make up for it. With fall I can now spin the tires on any corner I want last fall when I bought it I was a happy fool just to have it.

After a spending near the purchase price again on parts and inspection and all that I now have the sickening realization of what other work I need to do to make it sweet and even then it'll still be an '89 tbi 305 ..but it's all good. Onced you've got it going and on the road and done so under your own hands then it'll be "YOUR" car. You can't buy "YOUR" car you've got to scrape a few knuckles and get your blood mixed in with the oil and visa a versa.

stick with it man.

 

WIREs!!!! Don't talk to me about WIRES!!!!!! I converted my car to r/hand drive! man try fitting everything on the left side to the right! I never wanna see another wire again!!

 

ah stick it out, you;d regret if you didn't

 

omg.... i woulda shot myself before i completeled that

 

Yeah almost but I'm glad somone invented a thing called a six pack!!! or 2, after all how could ya stop lovin a thirdgen they are so cool

 

I'm to poor to by alot of stuff for my car because I'm only 17. I have been savin up for a moser 9 bolt forever or so it seems. It's hard to even afford the car's insurance and gas. I also dropped $4500 on the car to get it. I just cant get ahead that's what pisses me off. I had to rebuild and build up my trany for $1100 dad payed half, tires $450, power door and window locks are going out. My master cylinder is shot. and i already replace half the brake system. oh yeah a got in a fender bender that cost $600 and it's only that cheap because my dad friend owns a body shop. this i guess can be suspected from a car with 100,000 miles. well it will all be worth it in the end with the cratemotor sittin in her. So the thing that pisses me off about my car is the fact that i cant do anything to my car.

O well enough of my bitchin. I guess that's one reason im goin to school to learn how to diagnose and repair my car problems.

 

"When I was young, I kept a "Diary of Regret" and tried to record my mistakes day by day, but there was never a day when I didn't have twenty or thirty entries. As there was no end to it, I gave up. Even today when I think about the days affairs after going to bed there is nevery a day when I do not make some blunder in speaking or in some activity. Living without mistakes is truly impossible. This is something that people who live by cleverness have no inclination to think about. "

-Yamamoto Tsunetomo


I try to live this way in all aspects of my life.

When it comes to my IROC however, I don't regret anything, I just curse GM for not going about things in a different manner .

Damn it!, why didn't GM just put a 454 in here for me and save me the trouble...
(things like that)

 

Or a GM tech who put in the wrong o-ring in the fuel rail! Well should I say instaed of the correct one he put in 2 wrong ones! It cost enough to swap the injectors let alone the fire his injector swap caused! Course you can never really prove it was them!

No my only real regret was listening to the dealer back in 98 when the bottom end went. They talked me into rebuilding my 2.8. I asked for a larger v-6 to replace the 2.8. They said there was not available! BS...3.4 anyone!?! So I got an unbalanced shotty rebuilt bottom end that went again a year later. They fixed it on their dime! Still ended up with an unbalanced no power turd 2.8! So we fixed it ourselves with a 3.4!

Thats with the 82 is getting built from the ground up. 383 LT1 with all the fixings. No going back to add more later. May take longer, but I hate to have to tear and rebuild over and over the same thing on the same car!

But Raif is still far from being done. These cars constantly evolve!

 

Well I have to slightly dissagree with you on that one. On the suspension, stereo, and exhaust...I can more agree. But for most of the things done to RAIF, Joe and I have been on our own doing the things people had not thought of, or did not have the modivation, or were too scared to try, or thought was not worth it.

On body & interior mods, I think I have pulled off a few that have not been done here before. (4th gen mirrors, 84 gfx on the front and rear base model bumpers, replacement bumer insert panels, smoked plexi dash and AC panel, vinyl inserts in the cargo panels, slicking the guage cluster, carbon fiber panels...etc)

And of the few that have been done, no one has posted any info on them when I was asking. Like the one other guy that did the headlight mod. I have never been able to talk to him or get info. How many have a Suncoast hood? How many had posted much about shaving till recently, esp gas filler door? There are more, but this is all my brain will pull out now...

For v-6 performance...the ones who do the mods hardly post...well until recently. I thought I was alone in trying to do something to the 6 until the past 6mo or so. It seemed there were only a few of us. We mostly got the not worth it don't do it when we asked about mods! Well as much as I wanted to do a motor swap...not gonna happen on raif anytime soon. Just gonna keep fighting with the 6. Its got the capabilities to do some impressive things. There are alot of people getting good results finally. Heck with some tuning and a few kinks out mine will be one of them. There is just not that winning system like there is for the v-8 guys. Cause till this point no one has bothered, or at least has not posted about it here! To be honest all the negative comments about me having a 6 have pushed me even harder to keep it and prove everyone wrong. If I can't get the results out of the 3.4 then I will switch to a TTA motor. But not ready to take the car that far down yet. Just think of the looks on peoples face, esp at carshows, when I can plop down an awesome dyno run and track time on that 3.4...that will show them. I can't wait!
Anyone can do it with a V-8! I'll let the 82 be the v-8 bird.

 

Overall everything has been such a learning experience that I would not trade it...this car has taught me, a girl, with no background in cars, so much. I did not grow up with daddy showing me things. I learned it all as I went. Most started back in 98. Though being mechanically inclined does help. Having Joe as a teacher has been invaluable!

 

My only regret? Trying as long as I did to make the CC carb work right on the 350. I love my Holley

 

Hell Yeah!