Hey guys, well you might've seen me poking around here with my 91 Trans Am 'vert. I already started a resto thread a few months ago but it died since I had to put the car back together to drive for a little. But my DD is running fine and I have a garage so this evening I started tearing into the rear end of my car. I plan on working my way from the back to the front.

A picture taken last september:


Serious work starting:

Got the rear up on jackstands and here's just a picture of the pass side drum (kind of oxymoronic considering that a sports car has drums lol)



Overall shot of the ugly rear end which is getting replaced (hopefully before spring) by a disk 3.42, or somewhere around there. stock 2.73 is a joke.



Got the tail lights and bumper off:



Got the rear gfx off... surprised at how clean the metal was underneath the driver's side ones save for some peeling paint and surface rust closer to the wheel well

 

Just as I expected, passenger side wasn't as nice but its still not tragic. nothing that some sanding can't fix.







This is where I'm keeping the jackstands, do you think it's a good spot? I don't see why not.



And I got some used front foglights off of ebay for $25 shipped. I got em because one of the original ones is cracked and the metal parts are rusted pretty bad to the point one of the lights won't shine because of the poor metal contact.

 

A picture of the crud that was building up in the rear ground effects:



And just a random picture of the pile of parts slowly growing.

I got a nice used hood and 2 brand new front fenders all for $200 since the old hood has some dents in it that look to be hard to fix and the old fenders are rotted where they hide under the gfx.


Not shown is the carpet in the trunk that got pulled up, I noticed that it was pretty damp and wanted it to dry. The metal inside looks clean except for a few tiny rust spots that I'm praying started from the inside rather than being evidence of something much worse forming on the outside. I didn't get a good look of the bottom outside of the trunk because the heat shield and muffler were in the way.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but the whole car was wet. We had a really gross humid day today and despite being in a garage for the past week and not moving, the car was STILL covered in dew! lol

And this is where I got so far, all of this is the result of about 2-2.5 hours of work.

 

I just have a question, is it possible to sandblast only parts of a car without having to strip it down to the bare unibody?

 

Well its possible i guess... just mask the whole car off really good.
Dang these pictures make me all excited to get my car out of storage!

 

Any updates?

 

None right now. I might go up to work on the car later today or tomorrow, but that depends on how warm the garage is. The place where I'm storing it right now is poorly insulated (waiting on new garage doors) and it's been very cold today (mid 20's and tonight is supposed to hit a low in the single digits!) and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. Maybe I'll just rough it and work on it lol. Trust me, I have a strong itch to work on it. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Just a small update...

I hardly got anything done today, but my dad and I finished replacing the garage doors at the old house my car is parked in. All that's left is just putting up the trim around the doors to seal em up, once that is done, the garage will be a lot warmer and then I'll get a bit more done. You can see the sunlight coming in around the doors LOL. But that should be taken care of soon (maybe in a few days).

This picture was taken this morning with the old door on the right still in but we replaced it since then. The door on the left is new.



Back to the car....
Because of the garage door installation (and the cold), all I really did today was remove the long section of the driver's side gfx. The fenders are terrible (as you can see in the following pic), but I got a pair of brand new ones (non-GM though... wish me luck). I actually got the older style ones with the vent in em because I always thought they looked cool and would look unique on my 91.



And I tried removing the rear bumper bar from the unibody, but thanks to rust, a screw stripped out. I guess I'll have to cut it out with a sawzall or something. I soaked the rest in penetrating oil, hopefully that'll get the rest out.

 

I guess I'll just keep talking to myself...
Didn't get much done but I turned the car around and backed it into the garage. Got more room and it's easier to work on now.

LOL getting the car with bald tires moving on this snow was an adventure... good thing my dad helped push it in.

DON'T WORRY... no salt on the driveway lol.
Had the top down for better visibility when backing into the garage.


Lots of room now:


And a random picture of the pass side front brakes. EW that strut looks awful. Can't wait to replace that.



I'll make more serious progress soon I promise.

And I'm probably gonna buy some Rust Bullet or POR-15 soon. What are your thoughts? And both brands claim that the rust doesn't need to be completely removed when the stuff is applied. If that's true, then that would be a God-send for all the tighter spots. What do you think?

 

Ive heard that rust bullet, and Por-15 are the same price, and people always have good results with Por-15. Ide say just go with what works, and grab the 15.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking since that's what everybody seems to use on this website. But painting over rust... does that work? I was reading over the .pdf file on how to apply the stuff and it says that applying to a rusted surface is best which I find hard to believe. What do you guys think?

http://www.por15.com/Data%20Sheets/P...cationInfo.pdf

 

I can't say anything good or bad about the two choices you mentioned because I haven't used either one. I just undercoated my vert a couple of months ago. Talk about a nasty dirty job. I used a wire wheel and knocked all the loose stuff off. This is what I used. I bought it at a local body shop supply store.
http://www.magnetpaints.com/underbody.asp
Pretty tuff stuff. I had to use a grinder to remove it from some areas I didn't mask off good enough to weld on my sfc's.



Whichever product you choose cover up any exposed skin cause this stuff don't come off!

 

Yeah I heard good news about Chassis Saver as well. BTW nice project you got going, I remember seeing your thread. Did you do anything to it lately?

 

Looks like you have a good project ahead of you also.I have been trying to get motivated on mine but the cold weather talks me into just staying in the house. I need to get started putting new brake lines on but a fellow TGO member has been jerking me around on a proportioning valve that I paid for in Nov. I think I screwed up when I said I wasn't in a big hurry, but come on three months. Sorry about that guess I needed to vent.
Anyway good luck on your T/A. I am learning as I go but if you have any questions just ask, I may get lucky and have an answer.

 

Thanks! And I hope that you'll resolve your conflict with the proportioning valve.

 

Looks like a good build you have going there.

 

Thanks... its definitely enough to keep me busy lol. I don't expect to get a whole lot done on the car until this weekend perhaps. I can't wait to get to it.

 

Big update...
I got a lot done today. However it was all just dismantling of the car lol.

Took basically every body panel off of the front nose and then some...

I think I might leave the front bumper bar on since it looks clean and isn't bothering me right now.





Nasty old fenders:

 

I'm probably gonna remove the radiator since the rad cradle is really rusty and needs to get fixed:



I noticed that there seem to be two radiators, I'm thinking one is an oil cooler?

There's a ton of old leaves stuck in between them... possible fire hazard I guess. Gotta clean that out.



And I put the front wheels back on and took the car off the stands since I started working on the interior. I tried to take the driver's side door panel off (almost everything came off except its stuck at the top where it meets the window). I also removed the driver's seat to see why its wobbling and to just check the floors for rust.



Taking the top down made the work easier.

I put the wheels back on and took the car off the jack stands since I was working on the interior.



I got a few more things to mention but I'm running late for work so stay tuned...

And pardon the crappy quality of these recent pictures, I left my camera at home so I was stuck with my cell phone.

 

OK I'm back... a few more things...

Found some money after taking the hot seat out... looks like the car wants to chip in for the project.



I need a new passenger side inner fender:



Kinda embarrassing how this happened. Back in the fall, I removed the front fenders of my car but decided to put them back on since the weather was unusually warm and I wanted to enjoy some topless driving. However I didn't bother putting every fastener back in since I knew the car was gonna get dismantled soon so I just put in a couple screws to hold the inner fender. However the 80 mph winds on the highway (going to a friend's house) tore the thing off of its screws and it started rubbing against the tire. I noticed this after I got off the highway and the car was pulling to the right pretty hard. I tucked it back in and crawled to my friends house and temporarily fixed it with some self tapping roofing screws.

Moving on...

I removed that plastic rad holder because of some random rust spots... how the hell did those get there anyway. Of all places lol.



And I pulled up the carpeting after removing the driver's seat just to check on the floors. They look solid except for some surface rust spots.



I better tackle those before they get worse

 

And EWWWW! Worst spot of the car:



I already got a few estimates for fixing that horrible battery tray. Lowest I got (so far) was about $200, but that also included spot welding a few small holes on the driver's side rocker panel. Sound reasonable? Anybody know (or is) anybody that does cheap but decent welding around the central Connecticut area?

 

I've been having a few setbacks however, that being the door panel removal and rear seat removal. Here's the thread I made on that:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...oor-panel.html

Also the new fenders I got will not fit since the convertible fenders seem to have a different mount on the bottom:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...rent-crap.html

And this thing:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...at-called.html

Please ! It's much appreciated, thanks!

 

I see your getting some work done. Your other radiator in the pic above is your AC condensor. If you take it out be careful,if the AC system has a good freon charge in it then the stuff is under pressure and very cold when you take the lines loose.Floor boards look good from the pics,that was the worst part on mine. If your welder guy makes it look close to factory I say $200 isn't bad with the other patches included.
There was a decent write up on the vert fender brackets but not sure if the guy showed a completed picture of how he did it. I am in the same boat as you there. My original brackets are long gone so I have nothing to go by. My lower fenders were just screwed into the lower part of the firewall.

 

Hey MuscleCar... I've looked at your threads. Great project! I'm working on a 92 RS vert right now. I just finished tearing out all of the cooling components. You're right about the two radiators and leaves in between them. I couldn't believe how many were in there. Had to cut down on the cooling. A heads up... the first radiator has two sections; 1 for the coolant and one for transmission fluid. The transmission lines were difficult to break loose and I ended up twisting one of the lines off. Don't need to replace the entire line just make a connection using a rubber trans line with clamps. be careful when taking those out. I believe the second radiator is for air conditioning. When I took out the radiator it looks like the lines from the front radiator go to the condensing unit. Good luck... look forward to seeing your progress!

 

Thanks for the comment man! You should start a thread on your car; I'm eager to see pictures. And thanks for the tips, I'll definitely keep those in mind. I didn't know our cars had a transmission cooler.

And regarding the A/C system, I think I'm gonna tear it out for now and replace the compressor (Is that what it's called? Big black round thing attached to the serpentine belt) with an AC delete pulley. And I'll tear out the condenser as well. My car has pretty much no freon in it as far as I can tell because when I bought it, the PO told me that he was in the midst of converting the system to the r-134 freon from the old r-12. He said that it just needed a new condenser. And the A/C blows air the same temperature as outside lol. But this car is gonna be my sunny day car, probably gonna drive it topless most of the time so what do I need AC for? I won't completely get rid of it, I'll keep the regular ac/heater box and the hvac controls inside, but I'll toss the condenser and compressor for now to free up a couple hp from the engine. I'll keep the parts to keep the purists happy lol.

But is there a way to safely double check to make sure that the system is totally empty before I tear into it?

 

Depends who you talk to. A tree hugger will tell you to take it to an HVAC person and have everything sucked out.If it doesn't work then there is probably very little gas left in the system, so global warming shouldn't be an issue. Just loosen the lines slowly and the pressure if any should slowly escape. You may want to put some leather type gloves on, but I doubt you will need them.

 

I have a question for you. How did you get to the rocker panel ground effects brackets in front of the rear tires?
The only way I could see to get to them on mine was straight down from the top opening but I couldn't get my arm in there. Doubt I could reach that far anyway.Thats the only opening mine has.
Of course I did the typical guy thing after hours of trying. I ripped them of breaking them into many small pieces, but the actual mounting brackets are still there so I need to get them off.

 

I actually did the same thing as you LOL. There's a sort of slot on the rocker panel ground effects piece that the bracket goes through and if you work it correctly you shouldn't break anything. I guess I got a little luckier since nothing broke, only thing is that the bracket got bent slightly and now when I put it back on there is a small gap. I'm gonna have to figure out how to fix that. Anybody else got the same problem? I'd like to know the "official" way of doing this.

 

Well the freon is used to cool the air in the HVAC system in the car so if anything it should help stop "global warming!"

 

My ground effects must be different. My ground effects have small screws that go through the back side of the bracket into the effects themselves. My car is older though,maybe they changed designs somewhere in there.

 

I am enjoying seeing your progress. I love the color with the white top. I think it really sets it off.

Kevin

 

Thanks! It's a tan top but I know what you mean. I think the gold/pine green color scheme on my car looks awesome, which is why I'm keeping the color original when I paint. But I do wanna get a big gold screaming chicken on the hood.

And anybody know what this thing hanging below my brake cylinder is?

 

Thats a proportioning valve. Thats what I have been waiting three months for a fellow TGO member to ship out.

 

Oh ok, so wait... does that mean I'll still need to buy a new one if I want disc brakes? Since they say you'll need a proportioning valve for a drum-to-disc conversion. But if I already have one....

Or this one different?


And breeze, did you get it yet?

 

Some will say you don't need to change the proportioning valve when putting discs on the rear,but at the same time there is an internal difference in the two. If you go to the brake board there are several arguments and ideas on how to modify a prop. valve. I am not screwing with it.
If you currently have discs on the front and drums in the rear "in my opinion" you need to switch to a disc-disc prop valve. Drum brakes and disc brakes require different amounts of fluid pressure to work properly.

And no I still haven't received mine yet! Get this, the guy has even given me some attitude for asking about it every month.
Bad part is there no real visible way to tell the two apart. I can't find any definate info to tell them apart. Since my car has been so pieced together by other people I have no way to tell what I actually have.

 

Oops I need to get my eyes checked. Regardless I love the color.

Kevin

 

Nice build man. I cant wait for it to get warmer so i can move the car out of storage and start working on it.

What are your plans for the car?

BTW, im in central CT also.

 

Thanks! Oh I forgot to mention what exactly I wanna do, well here's a list:

*Replace the stock rear end with a disc 3.42 or around there (have a deal for a 3.45 out of an 88 formula pending right now... waiting to see if he'll take my offer)

*Just tackle as much rust as I can and then coat it with POR-15 or something similar (anything cheaper? POR-15 looks good but is hella expensive). Rust repairs include: getting a new battery tray welded in along with a few small holes on the driver's side rocker spot welded. The rad cradle is very rusty and needs attention, and I'd like to take apart the front suspension and send the parts for blasting or I might try the electrolysis method on my own to save cash. And basically any other random spots. If I were to mention them all I might as well write a novel.

*Replace all fuel and brake lines. Stainless steel would be nice. Any recommendations?

*Pull the AC for now.

*Full exhaust (headers down to muffler). Any recommendations?

*Cold air or ram air intake. Any recommendations?

*Maybe a new PS pump down the road, since it looks like it might have a slow leak.

*Paint (obviously) factory green color with a big gold flaming chicken on the hood. Thinking about having a gold pinstripe running along the bottom as well.

*New top, but that's closer to the bottom of the list.

*And MAYBE next winter a 350 swap; money allowing. I'd like to keep the stock fuel injection with the exception of perhaps aftermarket plenums, runners, etc. A T-56 transmission swap is also on my "long term" goal list, maybe.

The car needs a new hood (old one has dents in it, as if a tree branch fell on it, repairable but looks like painstaking work unless you're experienced) and front fenders but I got those already off of a TGO member. I got the older style Trans Am fenders with the vents because I think they look cool... and I've only seen em on a few other 91-92 cars. And I'm sure they'd add at least 15 hp a piece.

There's probably some more stuff that I can't remember right now...

The idea is to keep the car's factory appearance, but improved performance.


And you're from central CT too huh? Maybe during the warmer months we can set up a cruise or meet at car shows with some other TGO members. I'm really looking forward to that.

 

On the AC system there are purge valves. Look like bicycle tire valve stems. Twist this off and extract through there if needed same as removing air from a tire. When I got my Camaro I started tearing things out and somehow the AC started leaking, not trying to get sick breathing it in I stopped working on the car. Next day came out, no more little hiss and ac was purged. Good to remove and did.

Oh yeah, why not invest in a nice propane heater. I have a 2 1/2 car 1 door garage and I bought this.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MRH-MH35FA/

Warms my garage from 32* to a t-shirt wearing temp in about 30min. If you have good insulation, this thing will be awesome for you. Also note my garage has a second floor for storage. All open from ground to ceiling. I think it will run non-stop on a full propane tank for 14hrs, if needed (I think). I, when using it, run it for about 1-2hrs, then turn it off, by the time it gets cold again I'm done working. Good for the 4-5hr workouts.

Insulation is key, I used to have a 1 car garage with this heater and it never heated up, maybe got a bit warmer. This new garage (2 1/2 car) I'm in is 1000x better than the 1 car. So...

Great build and cant wait to start mine. I have been taking pictures and video for a while of all the small things I'm doing so I should have a nice build coming along mid year or so. No promises though since I need a new trans and if it blows before I can video or start the build thread I may wait to keep the build thread off until its running daily.

-Take care

 

Good to know man, thats very similar to the list i have for mine.

A cruise sounds good, check out:

http://www.necamaro-firebird.org/forums/

Theres always something going on during the warmer months.

 

Thanks for the advice. That heater looks nice but the propane is safe to use indoors? That place will be better insulated soon, the damn garage doors are brand new but they just need trim nailed to them. I'm thinking of getting this heater... and considering that its from Costco I can return it whenever I want if I don't like it.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...t30994&topnav=

 

Ehh, it could help.

Yeah propane isn't safe to breath in, but I've never had a feeling of high or a propane smell in the air and I also don't run it that long, or be sure to keep the place exhausted.

 

Alright time for another update... I remembered to bring my real camera!
Did a ton of work but it feels like I didn't do much.
Pulled the rest of the seats out (except for the rear seats' back) and the center console. Then I pulled the carpet to check on the floor.



Do you know what a PAIN it is to remove this f***er?! There must be a trick to it, but it was really tricky removing the black plate with the window switches on it and the shifter letters.

You see that white thing around the shifter? There were 4 screws holding that thing to the center console, they were upside down and I had to pry the black thing up and stick my wrench in through that tight space. Really GM? I didn't want to take the shifter off. And the screw holding the handle onto the handbrake was snapped so I couldn't take that off... that required some odd twisting and wrestling with the center console to get it out.



Man this thing is dirty.... I doubt that it has ever been removed before.



Got the carpet out:



.....

 

.....
Floors look solid except for a few spots of surface rust.

Now I noticed that some of the insulation got stuck to these random spots. Was it glued here or did the rusty metal cling to it?





This was the worst spot, passenger side right behind the seat. Still not nearly as bad as the other projects that I've seen on TGO, especially for a car that looks to have been driven in Massachusetts and New Hampshire winters!

My biggest fear is that the rust formed from the bottom up since there is some of the stuff on the bottom of the car. I guess I'll just have to see what happens when I go to sand this.


Old insulation, should I keep it or get new stuff?

 

And lastly, here's the carpet out of the car:



That's about it for now. As far as taking stuff apart goes, this is as far as I'd like to go for now just so I don't fall in too deep (and so I don't forget stuff lol). I want to fix the rust on the floor boards, clean up the interior parts, and then put that back together, same for the front end that I took apart. I'd like to have this car on the road by Memorial Day, or my last week of high school at the latest.

BUT I got some good news, I have the next week off from school for winter break so I hope to get A LOT done.

And I have some questions about interior cleaning that I decided to make a separate thread about here...
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ml#post4431934

And I have a couple convertible-related questions here...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...ml#post4431939

Thanks!

 

Good luck getting those patches removed. They are glued down with some major gorilla snot! You may not need to remove them, but there could be some rust starting under there.
I had to take a heat gun to them. Easiest way I found was to basically get the insulation hot enough to start burning then take a putty knife and scrape up the goo. I tried sanding and a wire wheel first and they both just clogged up.

 

Thanks for the advice! Now by "patches" do you mean the pieces of insulation glued to those parts of the floors or do you mean the metal squares on the drain plugs?

 

I'm enjoying this build, keep it coming!

 

Yea I was referring to the insulation patches. I should have also warned you. If you try the burn and melt method like I did it also melts the sealer around the drain plug. Wasn't an issue for me because I was going to remove them and reseal anyways.

 

You do realize that you didnt have to dismantle the shifter plate to take the console out, right? Just pull the clip out of the front of the shift handle with a flat head screwdriver, and pull the handle off. You made it harder than it had to be, lol.