Hey guys, I bought a 91 Firebird just over a month ago, It's slowly becoming a 91 TA, all I need now is the front right Ground FX and I'm good.. Anyway, here's some pics.. Oh yea, it's an 86 Hatch, it's on there to confuse you.

When I first brought it home:

 

The original pic doesn't really show what I have really done, So here's a list..

Flowmaster 80 series with custom 2 1/2" tail pipes.
7.5" Locker 3.42 gears
B&M shift kit, with 4" deep B&M pan
POR 15'd the whole floor, then undercoated
Re-seam sealed the wheel wells, POR 15'd them, then undercoated them

1985 TA hood, $40 delivered to my house
mounted the front nose, and cleaned out 17 years of grime, broken glass, rooshy speaker wiring and an attempt at an alarm system.

 

I should point out that the front bumper that is on there is actually a non-GFX or more commonly a Formula bumper (as all Formua's did not get the GFX )...

Probably the hardest thing to locate will be a good set of Taillights

Looks pretty solid,

Have fun...

John

 

I knew something was off.. Well it's go for now, I've got a while before spring so I should be able to find a TA one.

 

and the front gfx unless kevman is prepared to pay more for these 2 items than what he probably(hopefully)payed for that car.
Lookin good Kev,but 91-92 parts are hard to come by these days!
2 years ago I didn't know squat about the 91-92 t/a's.I bought the tpi setup for $50 and could have bought the tails for the same price from the same car.
A week later the car was already crushed!Man do I kick myself in the butt now!!!!

 

It's depressing to see what those GFX pieces go for.. But, my parents are going to Florida in a month, and there is a great pick and pull in Hollywood, that gets something like 50 new cars a day, so I'm gonna get my dad to see if he can buy me those pieces. If not, I guess I'll have to win the lotto.. Next step though, is to drop the front end and add new springs, I believe one is broken.


I'll get some pics of underneath, that's the area on this car that counts..

 

it looks like a fun project! Just an FYI, the base model firebirds were available with ground effects in 91. So it isn't necessarily a T/A clone in that regard. Does the car have a 3.1 or 5.0 TBI?

 

5.0 TBI.. Also has the real Lexan T-tops

 

Actually they are Acrylic, AKA Plexiglas is a trade name of Acrylic...

The name says Leximar, but on the bottom side you should find a decal that states that they are acrylic.

Thought I would share...

John

 

Sweet! None the less, they weigh like 5 pounds a piece

Anyway, I've decided what to do with the Ground FX issue.. I'm running the back bumper, and all the GFX behind the front wheels, infront is going to be without. I can't afford them on an apprentices wage..

I also should add that this thing does wicked donuts.. It's great having 38 acres of farmland to test what you've done to the car..

 

Another update.. Wetsanded the whole drivers side with 320, and in some spots 120, and in others, a 18V DeWalt drill with a wire brush to get the goomy stuff from the door bumper off, aswell as the screaming bird sticker...

I primed it with my favourite DupliColour Sandable primer.. Heaven in a can, goes on great, and sands nicely. After the body work is done I'm going to put a few coats of Urethane Primer.. Here's some pics.

 

I don't know where the original owner parked this car.. but I have to say.. The dents on the drivers door, even with the bumper, have me amazed..

 

I don't know if your still looking for a front bumper for GFX but I actually have a spare black one in my garage I'd sell for cheap.

 

Here's another update, I used Pro-Form Urethane primer on half the car to cover up the body work, Just small amounts of filler on the door, and hood, and a few dings on the 1/4. We've been using the body filler that dries with UV rays, works really good when smoothing stuff out. Here's some pics..

 

So what color do you want to paint it? Can't wait for the final touches for this one.

 

It's a metallic red, the same one the car was originally. I haven't seen a Firebird/Camaro around here painted like this, so it will be different.

 

Looks like it is coming along well

 

Some days more than others, today was kind of like 1 step forward, 2 steps back, I ended up breaking the headlight on the drivers side, the whole housing and all trying to adjust it, but luckily I had one in the basement..

I also found out why I couldn't adjust it, there was 2 screws underneath that kept catching the housing of the lamp when I moved it, So, I ground them down, and it's much closer than it was. I also fixed the nose, drilled the holes out larger, and lifted it up. My carpol tunnel started to act up, so I had to stop...

 

Just to post a quick update.. I got some quotes on the original Fire Red Metallic.. $590 a gallon... I think I may go with Pepper Grey Metallic, paint code 44490.. Thats $208.05 with the reducer and taxes, per gallon..

It's the colour of Eleanor, from the newer Gone in 60 Seconds.. Tell me what you think. Oh, and sorry for posting a Mustang pic on a GM site..

 

I want to think that PPG has some colors that are close to the original red that are discounted because they make them in bulk. There was a display where I almost bought soem paint for my next project, and they had all sorts of reds...

It could have been Dupont.

The reason I bring it up is the prices on them were almost half, if not less of a mix would have been...

ALSO if you have more than one supplier of paint in the area check with them I would recommend sticking to the top brands PPG, Sherwin-Williams, Dupont, House of Kolor etc

John

 

that is the color of my stripes and rims....I love that color

 

I got a few quotes before deciding to change the colour.. DuPont Chromalux, or Chromaflex.. One of the two was $149.00 a quart, it's very similar to the RM paint dealerships use.. PPG was around $120 a quart, and Nason was around the same as PPG.. I could paint the whole car for under 600 by going with the grey metallic..

SSean92, It's a nice colour, especially on the 67 Fastback

 

How much paint are you buying? Depending on how detailed of a job you are doing you should be able to paint the car with about 1/2 to 3/4 gal. If you are painting the door jambs and under the hood then closer to 3/4 gal. Also if you use an HVLP instead of a Production type gun you will get better yield out of your materials.



John

 

The gun we're using is a HVLP, my dad and I split on it a few years back, it's an Anest Iwata.. I'll probably just get a gallon, just incase..

 

Iwata is supposed to be a really good gun...

I had to choose between the Iwata and a Sata 3000RP. I went with the Sata.

 

Looks great so far. When do you plan on painting it?

 

I haven't sprayed with it yet, but my dad told me it's fantastic..

I plan on painting it in March, but there's a lot of work I have to do to it until.. Anyway, here's some pics! I got the whole car in prime so, the next thing I have to do, is pull apart the Engine area, and paint that the grey I want to go with. Cheers guys!


Got some overspray on the windshield.. Ooops!

 

Update! Sprayed the engine area, here it is after I took the tape off. Thanks, KP.

 

How Is the Anest Iwata and which one did you get? I was gonna get one first but then some one referred me to Sata guns.

Also okfoz, how is the sata 3000rp? I'm debating on which to get and haven't made a decision yet.

 

it's looking good so far with the paint... but what happened to your passenger side inner fender? it looks like it has a ton of small dents that came through from the wheel side.

 

I love my SATA, I am by no means an expert painter, but the difference between my Sharpe Finex 400? and my SataJet 3000RP is huge! The difference is alsmost as much as the Cheap Vapor gun I started with and the Sharpe. Granted you can get really good results with the Sharpe, it is just not as easy...

THe SATA is Easier to spray clears by far... I use the Sharpe for colors coats, but if you are doing a BCCC the SATA is almost a must...

John

 

We have the Anest Iwata with the 1 litre canister, it was a more recent model, it's all surgical stainless aswell. It sprays nice, I didn't adjust it from what it was out of the box and it was pretty good, sprayed it even, and only had one run where the windshield washer fluid bottle goes. The only problem I had is when I was tipping the gun to spray the little nooks and crannies in the hood, it kept running dry when it had a pint of paint in the resevoir. But overall, really nice to use.

The small dents I didn't even see until I looked at the picture, its all new sheetmetal in that spot so that could be why, I also found I missed a few spots when I was taping off the strut mounts to paint them black, I will also be doing the door jambs, and hatch today or tommorow. Thanks a ton, KP.

 

Did the jambs and hatch with an Iwata 'Kustom' airbrush, with a 1" fan, took over 3 hours, but saved me alot of tape. Here's some pics!

 

Saturday is the big day! Exhaust is being put on, and it's getting it's Ontario Safety! A local guy is doing the exhaust, he did our show car, and since I've got over $350 into just parts, I'm going to let someone who knows what they're doing at it.

He's bending from scratch a new I-pipe out of 2 1/2" walker pipe (Aluminized steel) and doing the crossflow Flowmaster that I already have. I'm giving him a 2 1/2" Magna Flow cat to replace the stock double cats, I'll post pics when I bring it home.

 

I hate making new topics.. Anyway, here is more.. Since my last post I have

1. Paid someone to do the exhaust in 2 1/2" Walker Aluminized pipe he's the best guy here in Windsor as far as exhausts go, so it's a bargain for $300, it's a Flowmaster 80, and a magnaflow cat.

2. Found a 1991 foglight, and got those all working I also removed the reflectors on the inside, hence the reason it's so bright.

and ofcourse I macromade my own airfilter out of a spare edelbrock base, a stock paper airfilter and a K&N lid we had sitting in our garage. sweet, eh?

 

That is sweet. So when is paint coming around?

 

Another month, all of the inner tie rods are toast, so I still have to do those, aswell as the front brakes and wheel bearings, but it's flying by!

 

Nice car! It's cool to watch it progress through your pictures - I liked seeing your "before's", and then all of the work you're doing from post to post - Makes one appreciate all that goes into taking a 'fixer upper' and making it into exactly what you want to drive.

 

Seeing it come along from a rust bucket to less of a rust bucket is the best.. A few pet peeves have driven me nuts.. On most third gens around here the cross flow exhaust (The two tips coming out) never line up.. Even on my last car.. So I paid big money to have it perfect.. The POSI rear end.. AC Delco ignition parts (Plugs, cap, rotor) with Taylor wires..

Just small stuff that makes a huge difference in the end.. Safety is this week, if it stays warm, hopefully the weather guys are lying like usual.. But it's supposed to be in the low 50's high 40' which is pretty nice.. And rain today to wash all of the salt off.. Neat, eh?

 

Yah, It's finally gonna be a bit warmer here the next couple of days, too - Had to get out and clean about fifteen inches of snow off of the garage roof with the roof rake last week - took the opportunity to pull the cover off and run the 'vert while I was moving snow. Started right up, gotta like that. . .

 

Here it is! Painted!! more pics tommorow!

 

Coming along nicely, Kev - Looking really good!

 

You should see it with the IROC-Z Wheels! More pics coming tommorow.. It's a different colour in the sun...

 

Here it is!

 

Looks really good...

John

 

Looks good. Great work.

 

Thanks guys! I've been having some transmission problems... My shifter cable broke, and this cause the S-link to the valve body to come out.. So I fixed the valve body.. Now I gotta find a shift cable..

 

Wow - That is a great color for a 'Bird - Really nice work. The iroc wheels look good, as well. I notice I don't see any snow in those pictures, at least you can get your car out of your shop without a 'blower and a snow shovel - mine's not gonna see the light of day for at least three more weeks, still too much snow . . .

 

Kevman, did you do that work yourself? I am sorry if I misread your posts, it seems like you did. If so where did you do it, in your garage, paint booth, rent a booth? I am trying to figure out what the best way to deal with my paint is...I need a paint job. Due to the fact that it needs body work and maybe so sheet metal I am probably going to end up sending it to a body shop. But if I do it in my garage (if my mom lets me) then how would you recommend that I set it up? Because I don't have a compressor its unlikely I will do it now. Excellent work by the way. It looks great.

 

We've got an electrical business on the same property as my parents house. It's where we used to build machines for stamping companies and what not.. Since the economy dumped I had complete usage out of whatever was in there.. Compressor.. Welder.. Whatever I could get ahold of.. And yes, I did 90% of the work myself.. Exhaust I just couldn't do..


Mark in Maine : We're at the most southern tip of Canada.. It was 65* F Yesterday