I have been meaning to make this thread for i guess 8 years now. I bought it as a "simple" project car to finish before I was old enough to drive. Turns out no project car is ever simple and easy. Seems like only half the parts I get fit without modifying them. When I bought the car it had the L98 in it with a 700r4. The cars interior was shot, seats torn it was a project car that was repainted and looked great. If i recall the PO was having a kid so he had to sell his car off. At the time my uncle was living in LA and we had him look at the car out there. Everything checked out and before I know it I had a 89 convertible show up at our house in NJ straight from Cali. The 700r4 had the B&M shifter and it is the most confusing thing in the world if you have never seen one before. The car, even with a 2:73 rear felt fast, it was one of those feelings that you get when you first get in a car that is faster than you expect and you know its yours. Such an awesome feeling.

The car had an overheating problem, the fans weren't kicking on thus not cooling off the car. I still remember coming home with my dad and my brother telling me he let my camaro idle to "charge the battery" after he moved it (it was one a battery charger). Well he left it running to long and scorched the pistons and burned the valves and had to have warped the crank shaft. For about a year I tried to drive it, but it would barely be able to crank over. So I got it fired up and drove it to a shop.....

(worst mistake ever......)

Guy seemed legit and smart and turns out that I knew more about the camaro then he did..... well I am more capable than he his in every aspect.

Long story short, I get my car back, 2 years later (I know, I know, repressed memory at this point) still messed up but with a built engine this time around and a T-56.

So I have been meaning to make this thread for a while and finally did. I wish I could write every problem I have encountered but this post would turn into a novel!

List of some of the mods:

Engine:
bored out to 383
All forged internals
10.5:1 compression
Summit racing heads
Edelbrock torquer II intake
Shorty headers
.488 lift cam
Holley Terminator EFI

Exhaust:
Custom made 3" with cat from a local shop with a flowmaster 40 muffler.

T-56 transmission
MGW short throw shifter
Rebuilt by Tick Performance 50 miles on it
with competition clutch and SPEC throw out bearing

Suspension
All new spohn steering components, bushings, ball joints
KYB shocks all the way around
Eibach Lowering Springs
New front rotor/hubs/calipers/bearings, Calipers painted red
Ls1 rear discs with all new calipers/discs/emergency brake components
Alston subframe connectors welded
UMI subframe connectors welded
Founders Performance Lower Control Arms and Relocation Brackets
Adjustable Panhard Bar

rear end
Just installed 3.73 gears, all new bearings and seals through out, and installed the ls1 rear brakes with new parking brake rebuild kit.

Interior
Dakota Digital VHX gauges with Red lights
Recovered Trans am Leather Air Bladder Seats, 4th gen.
New Black carpet
New Black Leather door panel with new locks indicators plastics
Boston Acoustics 4x6 under dash, Pioneer 6.5' rounds rear panels
Rear convertible panels were recovered by local shop with black leather and carpet to match door panels.
Boston Acoustics 12" sub woofer with amp in trunk. (Removed)
Leather wrapped lower center console (I did that)
Replaced window motors and drivers side window
There is just to much to list

Exterior
New hood louvers-Plasti dipped
Plasti dipped center section of grill
Diamond Clear turn signals and side markers
New Sylvannia headlights
New to me IROC tail lights

Fuel System
-8an PTFE fuel hose, aeroquip connectors and such
2002 trans am plastic fuel tank
Racetronix fuel pump
Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator

 

Here are some pictures

 

Let's see a pic of the engine!

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles man but she sure is a beauty!

 

Yea all cars have there own troubles. The paint looks amazing in photos but isn't to spectacular in person. Still have to learn how to buff the paint job.

Here's more pictures tho!
I'm trying to get more up but iPhoto doesn't like to work lol

The picture that worked is when I had the interior apart (just a little lol) wiring up my gauges which was super easy. Just very time consuming.

 

Finally was able to get a picture of the engine uploaded. This was taken before everything else was hooked up. Updated pictures to come shortly

 

WOW, you did to yours what I did to mine. I had my interior all torn apart with some new wiring and replacing the heater core and I also added the GTA lumbar seats and 6 inch rear speakers. I also added bose kick panel speakers loaded with infinity kappa speakers. I also added a 9 bolt posi with PBR rear disc and all the suspenssion bars and all red bushings. Can't beat a triple black vert.

 

Wow get minds think a like! I'll check your threads to see some pictures.

Little update just waiting to get my fuel line. The ls1 tank is ready to be installed, I'm just waiting for a warm day to paint the area where the fuel tank goes.

 

Racetronix pump installed with rusell quick disconnects. They are not really "quick" to disconnect as they thread but they seem well built.

Oh since this is on a carbureted engine I took out the stock ls1 fuel regulator.

 

I have my fuel system parts all ordered. Still waiting on 40 feet of aeroquip ptfe fuel line with their super gem fittings. I received my order from summit I love them. I swear I keep them in business haha

My fuel system is:

1 Aeromotive fuel regulator 13301
1 Aeromotive Quick Disconnect fitting -8an 15118
1 Fragola -8an to 16mm x 1.5 460816
3 fragola 3/8 plug 493204-BL
1 Magna fuel -8an to -8an O Ring (ORB) NO-3013
2 Russell Quick Disconnect RUS-644133
1 Summit Racing -8 an to 3/8 npt SUM-220846B
1 Fragola 90 degree fitting FRA-498104-BL
1 Earl' s -8 an to 3/8 npt swivel EAR-AT922108ERL
1 jegs Tee fitting with gauge port

Eaton Aeroquip PTFE hose -8an 40 feet
4 straight fittings
3 90 degree elbow
1 45 degree elbow

My plan is to have continuous fuel flow through the carb and then to the fuel regulator and then back to the tank.

 

That fuel pressure regulator should come with 2 springs.. I had to remove the efi spring and install the softer spring for carb fuel pressure... run about 6 psi. With the stiff efi spring, the fuel system made a loud knocking noise..

car looks awesome, added power and a T56 is a riot.. 3.73 will help a LOT.. I made a few passes in my buddies 92 RS 383 T56 combo to the tune of 12.20 @ 120mph.. really fun to drive. put some sort of anti theft device on it... they are too eazy to steal, especially if you are bypassing the the oem vats key/pcm..

 

I noticed the other spring. In the description it note that the carb spring was installed and the efi was supplied. I guess I'll look at them first because draining a fuel system is annoying. Thanks for the head up.

I actually have no idea what this car could run and hearing that your friend ran 12's puts a grin on my face. I don't think I'll ever track this car but it's to early to tell. I might just get hooked.

I do have an anti-theft "device", well a hidden fuel cut off. I remember turning it off at the gas station for some reason and I drove like 100 yard and the car starting to shut down. At first I was like "oh great now what's wrong" but I noticed it. That was a relief. I'll definitely putting another type in. Just have to wire it up.

 

Finally got my fuel line and fittings! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get it all installed. The Eaton aeroquip super gem fitting feel really well made. Probably helps they are steel and not aluminum. The -8an fuel line looks way smaller than the regular rubber stainless steel line probably because the side wall is alot smaller. I like it when a plan come together. Well I still have to install it so I'm sure I'll run into some problems, that's the fun of the hobby.

 

Update:

Came home and it looked like Santa came by and dropped off some goodies. I purchased founders lower control arms with relocation brackets to help with appearance and wheel hop. I dropped the rear off at a local shop to get 3:73 gears installed.

I purchased a parking brake rebuild kit from rockauto and installed it on the rear before dropping it off. I painted the rear black with rust bullet black shell and their silver rust bullet primer. Its tough stuff once it hardens. Just have to paint calipers red and install them with the new rotors once I get the rear back. I painted the stock sway bar red and the aftermarket pan hard bar I had.

I also purchased the Innovate LC-2 wide-band O2 sensor to help me get a very accurate tune on the carb. I'm still waiting on getting my BIM module for my Dakota Digital gauges to allow me to input the O2 sensor straight to my gauges. I'm not a fan of gauge pillars or extra gauges in the car, makes it look clustered to me, less is more.

Pictures to follow, maybe this time I'll be able to upload more than one picture at a time.

 

Great build, love the interior ..keep the pics coming

 

 

 

Finally got around to adding real pictures to my thread. Build threads are boring without pictures. Also the car is up for sale so check the for sale thread soon as it'll be there sadly.
Good news tho is that I just had the transmission rebuilt by tick performance and it shifts like butter.

 

What is your asking price?

 

Deleted

 

Interior looks great did you have it reupholstered? If so is it leather?

 

Yes! It is has been reupholstered with leather. The plastics were originally gray and have been painted black using SEM Landau Black which matches the stock black nicely.

 

Well I took her out for a good cruise and decided not to sell her yet. I've put so much time and money into her that I'll just keep her and just cruise for a little while. I'm going to start and do a wire tuck in the engine bay and hopefully get to clean and paint it. Also I this winter I want to refinish the iroc's and give them a nice sand, buff and polish.

 

Little update I decided to go efi! Just purchased the holley terminator efi system. I'm pretty excited to have drivibility back. I hate carbs..... with a passion....

 

Few unboxing pictures

 

So its been ages since I have updated my finish thread. I have done a good amount since the last update. The holley terminator EFI is up and running, and I installed a small cap distributor along with the MSD 6AL box. The computer controls the timing and fuel. It is worlds better than the carburetor on the car before. The only negative thing I have to say about the EFI system is the back light on the screen of the hand held died which made the screen virtually unreadable except at night. The only way to fix the issue was to purchase and replace the old unit with the 3.5" touch screen hand held. The EFI system has hardly no time on it and it sat inside a garage it's whole life so I know its a product issue, as Holley stopped sending the small hand held, and now only sends the 3.5" units. The issue is fixed, It was just more money I had to throw at the car.

Last year I removed the engine and transmission to redo my engine bay. The engine bay started looking like a hack job with wiring, the front suspension had surface rust, and the engine bay paint was scratched everywhere. So I removed the front suspension, painted the control arms, k member, power steering pump and some other pieces black with rust bullet paint to make it look better than new. The sway bar and wonder bar were painted with red rust bullet paint to match the rear suspension pieces. I wanted some accent colors on the suspension pieces while keeping it looking stock.

While the suspension was out I installed Eibach lowering springs, I forget if it was the pro-line or the sport-line, and I left out the front rubber spacers. The car is super low to the ground now, so my plan is to make a new air dam out of a tractor trailer mud flap as the current one brushes speed bumps and when I pull out of the drive way each time. To clean the engine bay, I put a tarp under the front half of the car after everything was removed, washed and de-greased the whole engine bay before I sprayed down primer and gloss black paint. All the pulley accessory brackets, windshield motor pump, msd bracket and other small things were painted flat black to clean up the bay and the air pump was removed since it was no longer being used. During reassembly, I installed founders adjustable caster and camber strut mounts as the stock ones were looking rough and new poly motor mounts. Also replaced the stock steering shaft with the modified jeep one that I purchased from a forum member here.

While the motor was out I had the headers ceramic coated black to help with under hood temperatures. The wiring was redone with fabric style wiring looms, I absolutely hate the plastic wire looms and I extended some wires trying to do a wire tuck. The wiring looks miles better than it did before but its not perfect where I wanted it to be. I think I might take the time and drill a hole in the fire wall and run the wire loom through it to remove the wire loom that is near the A/C box. I just didn't want to remove the dash or anything around there as I was moving houses towards the end and had to rush to get it completed.

I picked up all new A/C components. The A/C didn't work in my car before so I figured while it's out I would convert it to R134a. I still haven't finished installing the A/C. The evaporator is in place, and a new compressor is installed. I have a new parallel flow condenser installed as it outperforms the tube and fin style condenser when used with R134a. I also purchased a ford red orifice tube as it is supposed to be better when converting R12 systems to R134a. I searched here and other forums as I live in Florida now so I am trying to have the most efficient R134a converted system to at least be able to have cold air here in the summer.

Also, I installed a MGW short throw shifter, which made a world of difference in the drive ability of the car. I had the stock T-56 shifter before, which i'm sure anything is better than the stock one. There's a ton of other little things I did, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of stuff. The installs did not all go smoothly, I had to take the trans out again as I accidentally installed the clutch fork between the input shaft and the throw out bearing which required me to buy a new throw-out bearing due to my mistake. Live and learn. I'll post up some photos

The stock IROC wheels finish was looking rough, so I decided to plastidip them for now until I figure something out. I'm thinking about getting a different style wheel or better condition IROC's if I can find them. I have almost brand new tires on them so I don't want to get rid of them right now.

 

 

Since the last time I posted I added some blue lower body stripes to the color to break up the black and grey color scheme.