shr00m

iTrader: (2)

So long time member, haven't posted in several years. I'm sure a lot of the older members will remember, but for those new here's a recap.

I bought the car in 2004 after owning several Firebirds and TA's since 1994. I had a 92 Firebird in high school where I learned how to do and how not to do several things. Upgraded to a 94 25th Anniversary convertible TA after college.

A few things I learned with the upgrade:

1: I really loved the style and driving experience of the 3rd gen.
2: I really liked the power and interior of the 4th gen.
3: I love convertibles.
4: I absolutely love modifying and working on a car. Being one of 250, the 25th was not something I wanted to modify that was not reversible.

So in 2004 I sold the 25th and started looking for a convertible TA for my goals. I was initially dead set on a Jamaican Yellow. Finding one of those is hard enough, finding one gone enough to modify is another thing. I actually flew up to Indiana to purchase one and there was several things wrong with the car (beyond what I could tell). Salesman tried to say that with what I was planning to do to the car he didn't think I would care that the engine had been out and painted, the rear bumper repainted, interior thrown together, etc...

So I got a ride back to the airport and actually found this car waiting on the return flight. While technically more rare then my 25th (I think less then 20 Jade Green TA verts), to me it was just a paint color. This one also was a theft recovery (no vin plate or stickers) and 58,000+ miles. Nice car, but definitely past the point of worth keeping stock. Within a week I was in Michigan and driving the car home.

When it first arrived:





Selling the 25th gave me a lot of cash to start pumping into the car, so Ground Control weight jacks went in the next day.



Fast forward 6 months, T56 is in, interior change is started, and I miss I turn and wreck the car.



So getting a salvage title removed from a vehicle with no VIN presented a problem. It actually took about 5 years for me to find out everything that needed to happen. In the mean time I swapped to a full LS1 drivetrain, 12 bolt rear, C5 brakes, and most of the 4th gen interior swapped over.

So here's where we were in about 2010.




















A few years later in 2012 I still wasn't finished with everything, because I was busy installing the Maggie I had always wanted!





In 2013 it was fully tuned after replacing the clutch and put down 507HP 491TQ


Everything up to this point is pretty well documented at my build site:

http://www.ms-fbodies.com/



In 2015 we moved to Florida. The car was in storage for 6 months, then sat outside in the Florida sun for 6 months, and then we decided to move back to Mississippi. Then the car sat in an open shop for another 8 months before we finally got our new house ready to move in.

The only problem was half our crap was in the garage. I was about a week away from getting the garage cleaned out enough to park the car before the tornado hit.....

Kevin D.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

In January of 2017 there was talk of bad weather and the TA was still in the yard. At this point I still had Florida insurance on it. I kind of figured this would be bad in case it got scratched in the storm.

So the day before the tornado I went by our insurance agent and swapped insurance. I asked if there was some type of stated value I could get. The last time I tried it required three appraisals and a lot of red tape. This time he asked what year it was. When I said 92, he said "Oh, it's a classic now".

Wound up getting pretty good stated value coverage on it since I didn't want to go through another totaled out situation. There was a computer error on their part and it wouldn't go through. They put standard insurance on it and said come back next week and they'll get it sorted. I left thinking good enough if it gets scratched.

The next day at about 4:30 we woke to sirens, got in the closet, and went through the most hellish 5 minutes of our life. Walked out to holes in our bedroom, water pouring in, and this out our front door.



It was still dark when I first went out, but the car seemed fine. House had major damage, but was livable (no power, that got ripped right off).

Daylight came and I checked the car. Doesn't look good, but maybe not bad.




Took a few days to clear the trees out. But nope, it's bad.





Considering the shape of the neighborhood, we got real lucky. This is the neighbors house, it's missing the entire 2nd floor:




All told over 8 houses in my tiny hood had to be demolished and there was one death. I'll take a trashed car.

Damage wise, obviously the windshield frame, the cast metal top pieces just shattered, and the windshield frame pushed the window down which bowed the passenger door out. All that plus the minor dents and scratches on most body panels.

My worst fear was that it just had standard insurance on it. It took about 3 weeks for the adjuster to come out (he was busy totaling cars across a 12 mile stretch of the city). When he arrived the first thing he said was I have an awesome agent. He retro actively applied the stated value insurance after the claim was made.

Insurance was very good to me, but obviously there was a lot of blend this, blend that since the paint was about 12 years old at this point. I really scored since they paid last available price for all GM parts (even though a lot were not available anymore). Wound up getting about $2500 for the top mechanism and seals. I had a spare top in the attic and seals are now available aftermarket.

The next process was finding a shop to fix it. After the wreck I would say I had a good paint job, but definitely not the best. We had to keep a lot of the original panels in order to get the salvage title changed to clean and my original body guy was not the best at getting things super straight. There was a lot of little things I had issue with and always told myself I'll just paint it myself later like I did everything else on the car.

So I was not going to trust a body shop to do this. There's only 3-4 restoration shops around me and I talked to all of them. First guy promised the world for exactly what insurance gave me. They were most certainly not paying for the quality I wanted and new I couldn't trust that guy. Second shop seemed good, was concerned about the windshield damage, and gave me an estimate above what insurance quoted. He seemed great until we were discussing the work flow and I went to verify that it would be stripped back down to metal again. He lost me when he asked if I thought they needed to. I've never heard of a show car finish where the painter trusted anything that was done before.

I was getting frustrated and honestly started looking at getting another vert and swapping things over. Then I thought about the money and time that would take, only to wind up with a car I was probably still not happy with the paint. When I would ask people who's the best, one guy kept coming up, but his name was always followed by "but he's not cheap". He was one city over and on the phone pretty much shut me down because he doesn't do insurance jobs. I explained insurance paid me, but I'm not considering this an insurance job, let me bring the car over and let you look.

Once I got it over there, he saw this wasn't a typical 92 TA and I wanted good work. And he wouldn't give me a quote. They're $50 an hour, cost+10% on materials, and they're done when it's finished. They explained the process they go through and showed me the photo file of several of their cars. I thought I took a lot of pictures... They must of had 1000-2000 pictures of every car they've built. I knew they were my shop from that moment.

That was last May when I decided on the shop. They were unfortunately booked until about November of last year. So I took the time to strip all of the interior, put some scrap rims and tires on, and crank up the weight jacks.

Here she is ready to get dropped off.




They were actually able to get it on the frame machine pretty quick and get the windshield pretty close. Then it sat until about February. They don't spray if it's raining, snowing, might rain, might snow, or below a certain temperature. We had a very wet, very cold winter and they got backlogged on all the other cars in front of me (it actually snowed three times in south Mississippi this winter).

Luckily there was no deposit, I pay weekly as they work on it. If they don't touch it, I don't pay.

Here it is after getting back from the frame shop and the initial problem mark up.






So at this point we just got high build primer on Monday. It will now sit for a month before blocking to make sure all filler and repairs don't have any issues. That gives me time to go through the as of now 600+ pictures I have from them and update this thread every few days.

Definitely expensive, but so far definitely worth it.

Kevin D.

Agent13

iTrader: (6)

Wow, that is quite a story! I definitely remember this car from the past. Good luck with the ressurection, I’ll be following.

LT1/TA

Great story,I am glad you posted it for us.The car is awesome and I am looking forward to seeing the rebuilding.
I just checked out your build ms-fbodies,it was inspiring.I cant believe the crap you had to go through to get your title.

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

That tornado scene looks very familiar. Good to seeing you get it back on the road. I'm in Columbia literally right down the road from you. Good luck with it.

jworks

iTrader: (1)

never seen that color, gonna be following this one

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

Where'd you get that tan tonneau cover?

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

I didn't remember anything until I saw the interior, then I did. That interior, apart from a fully custom upholstery shop interior, is one of the best interiors on a Thirdgen I've seen. Good luck man! I've been in similar scenarios and understand how you feel.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the comments! I tend to go on a bit, glad people enjoy reading.

LT1/TA: Saw your original post, glad you read up on the vin/title issue. Not sure if it's on my site, but currently there's a reproduction VIN in the fender well. It's a clean title, but the carfax report sure is screwed up!

dmccain: I remember we talked about getting together, then I moved... So maybe sometime next year (will still need to rebuild the interior after I get the car back) we need to meet up at the Marion County Grand Canyon and make a few runs at the Tail of the Possum.

Jworks: It was one of the 25th Anniversary Firebird colors only offered in 92, also available on the Camaro's.

blacksunshine'91: I recovered the stock piece with some added hard foam underneath.

Tibo: Thanks! And proud to say other then the leather on the seats and sewing the speaker pod covers, everything was done by myself. Now it turns out a lot of things I made did not have the longevity of storage and Florida sun, but that will be fixed soon.

Kevin D.

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

Sounds good. Don't know if I will be able to keep up with you though shr00m. Made that trip a few weeks ago going to a cruise in at Monticello one evening along with a few friends of mine with a new ZL1 and a 93 Foxbody. The old Pontiac rode like a dream through the curves. It is a fun stretch of road lets do that one day man.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

All right.

First oops when back from the frame shop. Someone backed into it with a trailer ball while there. Luckily I have a few spare noses.




A lot of little dents on the tonneau cover were pulled and smoothed. It seems they work top down, back to front. They had all ready fixed everything before I could let them know there's a parade boot that covers the raised section. I'm not sure if it would have mattered, if it's not straight they fix it.




So it turns out my original paint guy was not the best at metal work. Loads of filler on the passenger quarter. Wait until you see the front fenders!






So first major issue. In the first wreck, a smaller oak tree put a pretty large dent in the passenger quarter in front of the tire (behind the door). It looked good, but turns out the first guy just got it close and drilled a bunch of holes so the filler would hold.




So a lot of welding of holes, pulling it back into shape, and shrinking it back down.







First run of filler on this side. Most of this gets sanded off.

Steve86TA

iTrader: (57)

Talk about a blast from the past..Glad to see you back around. Looks like its coming along nice

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

The other side luckily was not as bad.





They actually started finding some rust under the primer. This might explain some of the weird paint issues that have been creeping up lately.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

One thing I love about this shop is in addition to pictures of all the problems they run into, I've got a ton of pics of panel gaps, alignment issues, and anything that will be corrected.

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

Glad to see you’re bringing her back! Definitely remember your original build on the car. Such a beautiful ride!!!

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

From that thread I copied his idea of using bare Ensolite on the underside of the trunk lid. Works and looks great.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

First coat on driver's side. They're also ensuring all of the body lines are perfectly rebuilt and straight.





Passenger's door was also not repaired very well from the original wreck.



A lot of minor pulling and shaping. Luckily a small tug on the inner brace got the skin back straight from where the window bowed it out.



First coat, and again filling over tape to ensure perfect body lines.



Started working on the front and getting the spare bumper fitted. They actually modified the bumper/fender brackets in order to pull the edges in better.






I had the Pontiac on the headlight door filled in during the first repair, and you could just start to see it come back through the paint due to filler shrinkage. New shop filled it with weld.





A lot of filler and rust on the drivers fender.

ash_cool

Wow.. the famous R U Jaded.. I remember talking to you some years back when I was living in Hattiesburg. I had and still have the red 92 T/A. About 2 years ago I moved back to my hometown of Laurel. Always wondered what happened to you? I remember that tornado back in 15. We took a bad hit as well on my side but luckily everything survived unharmed. Glad to see you're back in the area and the T/A is being repaired. Look forward to seeing it finished.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

Glad to see you're still around and still in a 3rd gen. My restoration shop is moving again (they keep getting busier). They've finally bought their own building right by the bypass on 11 in Petal. Slight delay, but hopefully easier to work on all the cars.

Kevin D.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

What I thought was small cracks in the fender GFX pieces wound up being complete destruction when they took them off. I purchased the Hawk's replacements. Definitely not a direct fit and pretty damn flimsy. More on how they got them to work later.



Upper driver's fender looking good.




Lower fender was worse then the top!




I mean, did my first guy even try to straighten it?




Passenger's fender not quite as bad.




Initial filler, sharpening the wheel well lines as well.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

So the hood. We were able to get the hood fit pretty well in the first build. A lot of things were adjusted to fit the hood. This time they're modifying the hood to fit the proper alignment of everything else. It's amazing how poorly the hood actually fits.

They shaved some of the passenger's edge down to make it straight with the fender.




Cut out some material from the front edge.




Cut through the gel coat on the edges.




Build up fiberglass over the fender the ensure the hood is exactly contoured to the fender.




Then shape it back down to a straight line.




Build up and smooth it out.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

The Hawks pieces aren't even made correctly, one side is taller than the other. Have no idea how they got through QC while they were designing them

LC2 TECH

iTrader: (1)

I applaud your persistence with the car. Looks like it will come out even better in the end.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

And on that note, let's skip ahead to them..

Front contour is not the same as the bumper.




Driver's side is too long and mounting tab puts it too low.







Had to shorten it and lower the tab.






Passenger side too short.




Adding metal reinforcement to extend it.




Contouring the driver's side front.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

Some tweaking is to be expected on an aftermarket plastic body part, but what you are having to do exceed that by a country mile.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Wow, that sucks. Mine seemed to fit a little better than that on my car. Mine is a driver though, I was more concerned about the car mostly being one color, even though you can tell every panel that has been re-painted over the years, the Jamaica yellow NEVER matches on a re-paint. Eventually, maybe, one day I will get paint on the entire car, and then I will deal with the GFX and get them to fit better.

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

Too large of mounting holes in front. Added metal brace with smaller hole.






They also discovered while working on it that the material was so thin it would distort with temperature changes. So they added some metal to the inside to add support.




Minor contouring on passenger side.




Final shaping passenger side.




And the driver's side.




So probably a 2-3 days of labor to make them fit. I'm sure they would have tweaked factory ones to flow better with everything, but doubt they would have had to modify them so much.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Holy cow, that is bad! Hawks wouldn't post my 2 star review on the either

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the option is out there and even with labor probably cheaper then finding some NOS ones. Definitely wouldn't want to risk using used ones that are probably just as brittle as what came off.

But come on. Some one approved this. It's like they never ran a test piece, just ordered 1000 units and got what they got.

Kevin D.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

It takes a lot of work to make china fit the USA but worth it in the end. Don't forget that the front noses shrink and change shape over time too !

This will look outstanding when done!

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

You are going the extra miles and it's going to be worth it. Can't wait to see it in person!

shr00m

iTrader: (2)

Just to make sure everyone is on the same page. I'm not doing the work. It would literally take me decades to do what my shop is doing. It really pains me to spend this much money, but I will not be disappointed again.

I'm having to space my posts out a bit as no progress has been made on the car since I started the thread. The shop finally purchased their own property and has been in the process of moving everything and building things for about a month. I'm actually fine with that as it gives me chance to recover financially. Plus once they are back up to speed, the increased room should eliminate the shell game they were having to play moving cars in and out as they worked.

Also keep in mind this is a restoration shop, not a body shop. My car is the newest one they are working on by a large margin.

Here's the company my car was keeping at the old shop.












And some of the new shop.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

If all of those cars were in a finished state he would have a cool million worth of inventory.

Dmans85

What a saga, and it's far from over! I just wish you smooth sailing from here on and I'm glad the things that matter most are alive and well. Good to see a glimpse again of one of my most favorite cars from any gathering or show. You dropping in on CTC next week in daily driver?

iansane

iTrader: (1)

I haven't been around much but it's really cool seeing cars from back in the early days of TGO still being worked on and enjoyed.