Anytime I ask my girlfriends opinion or tell her what I've gotten done "today" I get a look back that goes way beyond "I don't care" so I thought I would post it up here to people who may care. Plus, if you don't care I can't see you, so I still wont get that look. I've never done a restore before, I'm a broke *** and for now it's my DD so it will be a long time before I finish but this thread will give me something to do when I take breaks or get myself nice and confused.

I wasn't interested in the car to start with but the guy said if I didn't want it someone told him he could get about $350 at a scrap yard. The car seemed to be in too good of a condition to be crushed so I handed over the $350 to save the poor defenseless car's life.

So far All I've done is remove most of the old window tint, change the starter, heater core, fix the hatch pull down assembly, and rip the interior out to see what I would be working with.
...and replaced the fancy wadded up walmart bag with a REAL gas cap and add 3.5 quarts of oil to get it to the full line. That guy doesn't deserve to own a car, but that's a different discussion..





The worst rust I've found so far..



Fancy shoe string door opener..

 

That would be the lid to the center console just tossed out of the way..





This did have about 3-4 inches of standing water..

 

On behalf of the third gen community, thanks for saving it and not parting it out.

 

looks like a solid project. Its almost better to start this way so you can make it what you like

 

Haha, no problem. I've never been a big fan of the headlights on a Firebird, but the car was in too good condition structurally to see it go to the crusher.

 

wow, thats a lot of work. What do the floors look like?

 

i too worry about the floors. Also what engine is in it? The gfx make me think its the 3.1 v6 but who knows

 

that interior is hammered, previous owner musta been trash.

 

It's got the 305 tbi in it.

I was worried about the floors too. I was nicely surprised when I ripped the carpet up...








This is as far up as the seat will tilt and it's broken right above the left front bolt. It's like driving down the road in a rocking chair.

 

I bought the car at night and went into his apartment so he could see to sign the title. It wasn't the nicest place I've ever been in, but it wasn't trashed either. He must change into a different person when he gets in the car.

 

Lolz on the seat. It looks wayy better than i thought it would under there solid car

 

I was hoping to clean and reuse the carpet, but the passenger area carpet was so bad it the smell gagged me so bad I had to take a few breaks just while pulling it up. That's with something wrong with my nose, I can barely smell a skunk when it sprays close by. I would like to save a few dollars, but I probably wont even try cleaning it.

 

when i pulled my carpet i had to cut it all out, i was unable to pull it otherwise, which was fine cus it was trashed anyways.

i see your headliners missing fabric, if ithe board is still sturdy just recover it. I did mine and it looks like new, many helpful threads on how to do it here if ya check the search option.

 

The board is still good, but the sail panels are pretty bad and the visors are trash. I may still recover the headliner but this kit is looking pretty good to me..

http://www.1aauto.com/1A/Interior/Po...11/297792/1991

 

Looks like a solid starting point. Thanks for keeping it from the crusher. If you don't want to put the time and money into it, I'm sure that someone here would be interested in taking it off your hands.

 

I wasn't real interested in it to start with, but I've always liked the third gens (camaro a little more than bird) and now I've got my head full of ideas to do this and/or that. It may take me way too long to piece it together, but I'm keeping it. lol

 

Sounds good. Good luck and keep us informed.

 

I never cared for T-tops either but a week after I bought it we had a warm day and me and my cousin took it out with the glass off and I see the appeal now. The car is growing on me quick.

 

That would be the easy way to go, cheaper to recover, less of a pita to just buy one. i have a few hours into mine and $55 into it.

BTW How many miles are on the clock?

 

It just rolled over 210 Friday afternoon.

 

Remids me of my firebird when i bought it. The body on mine is in perfect shape but the interior was TRASHED from years of storage which made it a perfect rodent nest. Its amazing how much better the car can look after removing the interior when its that bad. Youre also very lucky those floors werent rotted out, especially with it having standing water in places. Id check out salvage yards around you and see if you can find stuff to replcae the busted up body parts. Its amazing how cheap you can get stuff if you lok.

 

I left it out in the rain for a while. Looks like the driver side t-top is leaking at the back and the hatch is leaking at the rear drivers side corner. Hopefully I can find a cheap temporary fix, I don't want to put new weather stripping on until I paint it.

 

Thats how it starts Brother! Before you know it it's a full blown addiction! Welcome!

 

and the project starts! its a long process for sure, but with some love and car you will turn that car around before you know it i am just about to start on mine myself. i cant wait!

 

What is yours?

..and post a thread when you do! I've always liked watching what people do from start to finish.

 

Good news is that most of the damaged parts are able to be found, and the quarter repair should be cheap.

As for the floor, if you're not going to be replacing the leaky weatherstripping right quick, get some sort of POR-15 or equivalent on it. That little leak will eventually lead to a BIG mess (ask how I know).

As for the carpet, if you have or can get a pressure washer, throw the carpet over a fence or even a 2x4 supported by a couple of trash cans and let it rip at medium pressure. Then spray the crap out of it with Lysol AFTER you pull the cheap crap jute padding off of the back (which is probably what stinks so bad as it's probably moldy). You can get new padding for under the carpet at Home Depot or somewhere like that.

BTW, stay away from the ABS headliners and recover yours or fiberglass one out of the old backing. Several members have had problems with the ABS headliners sagging within months of installation due to the heat (which is why I'm staying away from them and going to try to make my own with fiberglass).

 

As far as the leak, I had the hatch loose and forgot to tighten all the nuts on the hinges, just one on each side. Both leaks were running from the drivers side hinge to where I thought it was leaking. (I'm a genius like that)

I've seen a few of the ABS headliner posts since I posted that link, I guess you're right. Hopefully I can recover the headliner and buy new visors that match.

I may be putting this project on hold, I just started working for Yamaha building boats yesterday and I found out I get a 40% off wholesale discount on anything with the Yamaha name, so it's time to save for a bike. lol

 

Whats wrong with the Ninja 650 in the truck in the background of the first picture? That was the one I wanted til I found my thirdgen...

Anyway, you dont have to put a bunch of money into the interior of that car to make it a fun track day car. Just get some seats that bolt down right, a helmet, and go autocross it.

 

It's got a few mechanical problems I don't feel much like fixing and I was out of work for a while and got behind. I'm going to let it go back, pay off the balance and be done with credit. It was a fun little bike to learn on but I want more power anyway. In a year or so I'll probably get a new r6 for about $6000 and sell it a year later for $7000-$8000 and buy another new for about $6000. I'm in love with the discount already. I have to keep it in my name for 1 year and then I'm free to do what I want. After 1 year, you've lost less value than the 40% discount.

 

It's not much of an update but I ordered a cap, rotor, wires, plugs, oil filter and fuel filter. It finally gets a tuneup this weekend.

 

I have an abs headliner that doesn't sag yet (garaged) plus its a hardtop. It seems more sturdy than the fiberglass one i had that would peel off a layer of glass with the glue and would sag. But im hardtop so it may be different.

 

How long have you had it?

 

I guess the tuneup has to wait another week. I wasn't here to sign for the UPS delivery and I was told I had to pick it up 2pm-6pm monday through friday. I'm at work until around 6 monday through friday and still 30-40 minutes away when I get off. Calling UPS did no good for me, Summit's customer service got it figured out after about a half hour on the phone asking UPS different ideas. I love Summit!

 

What is up with the steering wheel?

 

The padding is ripping off the frame at the top of the wheel.

 

Good luck on the build. Looks like a good solid car to start with.

 

It's doing me good as a DD for now, well worth the $350. Shouldn't be too much work at all when I really dig in.