Well I picked up a "nice" notchback off a board member here who didn't know too much about it. He tried to fix it up and get it looking proper but told me it was time to move on for him.

So I decided to pick up the torch where he left off.

A little history that i've uncovered about this notchback...

First sold to someone in Florida in 88, sold to someone else in 93, crashed in 98 and sold to someone in Texas. The texas fellow fixed it up half assed and then sold it to someone in Iowa (mmc on this board) which I then bought off him and brought it up to Ontario Canada!

I bought the car, found out after it had been crashed and patched when I got it. Man was it in rough shape when I first laid eyes on it.

Still in pretty rough shape for now but that's going to take shape soon.

So anyhow onto the fun stuff of what i've found while picking apart the guts of this diamond in the rough...
Heres what it looked like from the outside when I got it to my shop...



Not bad, not great I said until I started pulling things off...

Heres the back end...


Looks good eh???
Well, after yanking off that craptastic 91 formy nose, I found the bumper bar was caved in on one side.

Fenders are covered in bondo...
Rear quarters have been drilled, pulled, bondo'd and repainted
Doors are rusty underneath and sag horribly, weather stripping is shot on every inch of the car. The hatch area is rusty. The trunk well is beat to hell, bent distorted...bleh... The interior wiring was wrecked by the previous owners.

Anyhow... I fixed the wiring, fixed some dents, replaced the nose, the weather stripping, replaced the doors off my donor car (red lol), rewired the whole car, removed the digital climate controls for my old cable driven style

Repainted hte engine bay flat black primer for now...



Put on a new nose and red doors....


Pulled the engine from my red car and dropped it into the black one...


cleaned up the rusty areas...


swapped out the gross GTA steering column, it was very loose in the tilt and the steering wheel was stripped of all its leather...


sanded and sprayed the red doors and mirrors primer black for now...


I sold the diff that was in it and the guy that bought the diff put a 4th gen in it to keep it rolling so it sits a little high. Found out the diff that came out of it, the posi in it is busted so more things pop up...

Anyhow, swapped in my 9 bolt from the red car, the fuel tank, changed the fuel pump from the stock to a walboro 255lph...



After all that work was done, fired it up with open headers just to make sure I did all the wiring and hoses correctly. Fired up on the first try!

Getting more parts in still, so I hope to add more to this to show the ongoing restoration of the car, and the conversion from tan interior to black (blech tan)

I just got my subframes, KYB GR2 shocks and struts and some new motor mounts so I wont have to lift the engine to put the SLP headers in anymore.

I'll ahve some nice pics of that stuff tomorrow when it arrives at my work!

Stay tuned, im sure i'll have more pictures to throw up as I repair and replace pretty much everything on the car to bring it back to it's former glory!

 

Awsume find,looks like you are on your way.

 

Looks like you got quite a project on your hands. However you are off to an excellent start. I will have to keep tabs on your work. Good Luck!

 

That is a pretty cool looking i've seen a few notch's in my travels they still intrigue me

 

that's an awesome notchback especially if you got it for a good price. Doesn't look like it needs a whole lot. I'd love to find an original notchback hatch to go on my car, but all i can find id the baldwin motion ones that look very close to stock but not close enough.

 

notchbacks are awesome, sounds like you found a good deal. and good job on restoring it man! too many people wouldnt look twice at that car in the condition it was in when you bought it.

 

Well for what I thought I was getting myself into I thought it was a good deal but the guy I bought it from definately made out way better than I did. Its too bad really since I thought the only cosmetic damage to it was a few scratches, a dented fender and some dents in the hood.

Turns out that the car had been damaged heavily in the rear 1/4s, the frame is tweaked about 1/4" all over and had a few major spots of rust and a cracked roof. The under side is torn open in a few spots for what looks to be to get access to some of the welded nuts in some of the front and rear subframes but I havent got a clue why anyone would tear open the bottom of a car either.

All of this fun stuff was hidden by layers and layers of bondo. Even bondo over untreated rust! So the rust happily ate its way deeper into the weather stripping trim. It's really annoying to find those things wrong with it and whats even more annoying is that the guy had the car for so long and didn't even notice it (or conveniently failed to tell me). Ah well, thats what I get for not being able to touch the car with my hands before I picked it up. I've dealt with it up till now and I figure i'll get it running this weekend!

It'll be fixed eventually I'll post some pics of my parts that are going on this weekend to at least get the car started and idling properly. Distributor gear on my old distributor has teeth worn down pretty bad so needed to replace that. And then the grass ate the hold down clamp. Cant seem to find the nasty little thing anywhere!

Just hoping that nothing bad happens when I start the car up open headers in the grass!

Oh yeah, and no brakes yet either, just the e-brake

 

Sucks when you buy a car and all these unforseen problems pop up...Been there, doing that right now...Just not too the effect you are...

Great work...Keep it up.

 

Looks great! Good work.

 

i was like... "they did not have notches in 90-91 ?!!?" looks way better with the 85-89 style nose on it. way to bring one back from the dead.

 

quite a project! i commend you for picking up and fixing your bird, when everyone else just gave up. I know I hate it finding "suprises" when you thought something was good to go. Oh well.

Keep it coming!
brandon

 

That is a gorgeous looking notchback. Glad to see such a nice car finally got to someone who will treat it right. Good Luck

 

Heres my parts that I had delivered from Summit. Damn gov't always needs their share so ended up with 177 in brokerage fees, not fun

Subframes


Suspension and other little parts...


Tomorrow I get to go fix the distributor, and fire up the motor and set the timing!

 

good job mike, im glad to hear that these parts make you happy in the pants

 

yeah, same deal here man. it sucks, but all the time and work, when its done, its worth it.

 

This weekend's progress was a learning experience.

Learned how to change out the shocks and struts properly, hooked up the brake lines and the master cylinder, installed energy suspension sway bar endlinks on the rear sway bar using the front swaybar kit, installed the bronze distributor gear, installed competition engineering's subframe connectors and refilled the transmission so now it moves AND makes lots of noise.

Next weekend will be the exhaust install, running open headers right now and sounds nice

This is how the engine looks as of this past friday


One side of the subframes, the instructions leave a lot to be desired but the fitment is perfect!


Both sides completed, will weld them in when I get the exhaust in to make for a good solild platform



KYB GR2s in the front and rear


Thats all I thought to take pictures of so far, i'll do more of the exhaust install next week!

 

almost there man, engine bay looks great!

 

Good job! I just sold one of my projects as well. Hopefully he has a little better luck that you did!

 

that looks awesome man! your making alot of progress in a short amount of time!

 

Just a bit of an update on the project...

Finally got it home, have all new custom 3" exhaust on it
Got the engine all tuned up nicely as well so its running relatively smooth for an engine with an aftermarket cam

Heres some pics of it after I put it all back together up till present...





After fully installing headlights, trim pieces and other parts of the front end, found that the front pass side bumper bar mount is bent outta shape so I had to file about 1mm of plastic in one spot on the headlight trim to allow the headlights to go up and down. The drivers side bumper is not flush with the headlights or signal lights so they sit about 1/8-1/4" higher on the drivers side. This is due to the drivers side fender having a piece of cracked metal on it and being covered in an inch of bondo and not being sloped properly...

So next on the list is new fenders...

Interior is almost done, wiring is completed, and theres just a few more adjustments left to do mechanical wise and it'll be back on the road in a week or 2.

 

Damn nice project and great work on it .
I did some work on my project this week. I wish I looked at this thread before I started. Would have made me want to work a little harder.
Good job though.

 

Sweet job man, when I first saw that car I was like why would you fix that I would of said F*** it ,but you did an awesome job, and helped save one of the few notch backs. Great job

 

well as stated above, still a lot left to go.

I need to get it on the frame machine to finish straightening the body. Once thats done i'll order the fenders, get those on, then get it in for paint and fix up the minor dents here and there get some paint put on it and get the lines smoothed properly.

probably get that done in the spring or over the winter, depends on how much its going to cost.

 

Yeah awesome job on the resto, cool to see it go from old to new. The one thing I'm wondering, you didnt have the frame straightened before installing the SFC's? Dosn't that mean the SFC's will need to be removed, and then re-installed after? Just curious.

 

Can me my camaro and pieces of chevelle, my girlfriend and her 4x4 chevy come live in your shop?

Btw nice work on the notchback I wish I could get things done at your rate. Thus we come back to my origional question.

 

yeah the subframes will more likely have to be reinstalled once the frame is straightened. They are bolt on and not welded in yet so its just drop it, drill new holes and bolt it back in then once im confident its straightened as best its gonna get then i'll get them welded in for more permanency.

As for coming to live at the shop lol, membership is 850/year for full shop access and outdoor storage of 1 vehicle...Its not "my" shop but a shop club I belong to that has full access to all sorts of goodies

Next on the purchase list is some fenders, used or repros, but heard there was fitment issues with the repros depending on who made them...

 

its coming along

 

yeah, looking good.

 

ahh simply beautiful!! always good to see a notchback saved from death

 

Aftermarket parts never fit quite right. Your best bet is to find some decent ones at a junk yard.

Projects coming along pretty well so far. Keep it up.

 

 

Very impressive, makes me miss mine!

 

Good work Mike, looks like it's coming along nicely! Keep it up! I want to hear this thing!

 

do you have any more pictures of what the car looked like with the 91 nose on from the front? just wondering what a 91 notchback would look like

great work so far though

 

Just a few...

 

lol the hood is still up, but thats ok

 

very inspiring, I can't wait to see it finished. have you considered swapping in a manual trans?

 

No plans for a manual swap actually. I think the cost and work involved is a bit beyond what I want to do after this is all completed.

So just got the safety list back from the shop today and found a few more gremlins...

Left lower ball joint needs replacing, front coil springs were heated in one spot to lower the car an inch or 3, cracks and tears in the floor will have to be welded up.

And then theres the hatch third brake light hook up that needs fixing.

 

You said the rear quarters were bad, are you going to replace them too?

 

Looks real nice, keep up updated ^_^

 

Rear 1/4s are beat up pretty bad and have been smoothed over with a tub of bondo to fill the dents in where it was hammered out to repair dents.

I may replace the entire rear sheet metal panels with replacements from classic industries but I want to find something that has good sail panels as well with the weatherstripping trim to fix that which is already rusted out.

I'll get some pictures of the car after I get it home and get the engine bay cleaned up a bit more. Have to remove the carpetting to get the floors welded shut in some places, but hoping that they do a "nice" job and not just throw patch metal over it and weld it cuz to me that will look tacky...

Will keep ya posted as it continues!

 

Could you do me a favor? Could you take some pictures of the interior near the bolt where the strut attaches on the inside of the car? I have a factory notch but my car isnt originally a notch. I have the brackets

 

Hey, I just saw this go up for sale on eBay. What happened?

 

Engine problems that are beyond economical repair for me at this present time.

 

whats the link i cant find it

 

so keep it and buy a motor..how expensive can a small block be man.... and in the end u will have a new engine

what exactly is wrong?

 

Well for starters, it can't hold an idle properly.
Constantly pops out the exhaust
Timing jumps around a lot at idle when the EST is hooked up
Engine knocks immediately after you let off the gas
The knock sensor reports knocking throughout the entire power band
The BLMs are constantly lean and no matter how much fuel pressure I jam into it, nothing changes that.

Thing is I dont have the money available to get a crate engine for 4500cdn not for another 6-8 months. I can't pheasibly see the car sitting for that long as I have no proper place to store it for that length of time until I can get back to it.

We'll see what the local autopro says and i'll go from there but its a complete pain in the ***...

 

just get a cheap 350 at a junkyard and throw your intake on it.