Man, I love that IROC, it's looking great, a real a beauty!

 

So, I just couldn't stand looking at all of that dirt in the wheel wells and undercarriage anymore. I took some Meguires All Purpose Cleaner, full strength, and sprayed down the affected areas. It's not recommended to use at full strength, since it pretty strong and probably toxic at that concentration. I did start gagging a little from it, as I was scrubbing in there with my brushes. I pullled it outside in the near freezing rain and hosed it down really good. I probably got about 70% of the dirt off.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a city kid, but I'm not used to seeing cars with undercarriages this dirty. Maybe on a work truck or contruction equipment something. One thing though, I do believe the car's exhaust note doesn't sound as pathetic as it used to. Maybe all of that dirt acted like a poor man's Dynomat.

I also scrubbed the harmonic balancer enough to find the timing mark. Looks like the timing was retarded a couple of degrees, so I advanced it about 4* up from stock. I'd like to take it out for a test drive, but it's too crappy out.

 

Chaz, did you fix your tranny shifting problem? If so how?

 

I think so. I haven't driven it a whole bunch. It's winter in Chicago you know. The TV cable seemed to not move freely. I just pulled it back and forth afew times to free up it's action, readjusted and it seems fine now.

 

Good to hear. Mine went out and I am doing the 700jr kit this weekend. I tried the tv cable snapp but it didnt work.

 

Took it for a test drive. If you punch it off the line, it will smoke the right rear tire all the way through first and spin going into second. This car really needs a posi.

 

Go buy some No-Touch tire shine. It should dissolve the rest of the dirt. I use that on my wheel wells and it cleans them out pretty good and it leaves a nice sheen on them.

 

You should just find a rear end with the discs on them. Maybe a 4th gen rear from a 6speed car will be the easiest to get a hold of check out car-parts.com I think its a bolt in.

 

I wouldn't do it just for the rear discs, unless they were PBRs. The drums work at least as well as the Delco-Moraine rear discs. And the fact that they're aluminum drums is kind of neat.

 

A posi and some 3.73 gears and it would be a really fun car. If your concerned about being all original no one can see the 3.73 gears and the car will have almost the same highway manners. I never even notice my 3.73 gears except when I step on the gas pedal!!

 

a friend of mine has an 85 Z28 with an LB9 that does the exact same thing LOL. Back when my 86 was stock it would do that too. What the heck was GM thinking when they let these cars out of the factory without a limited slip diff? I can't fathom why it wasn't standard on all LB9 cars...

 

Mine with posi does tge same with both tires. Me thinks there is more special with 85's then most people think

 

good luck trying to find replacement drums. a friend of mine had alum drums and COULD NOT find replacements. the aluminum drums have different measurements than irn so just swapping to a set of irons wont work, atleast this is what im told.

 

Dang Charlie Im sorry to hear the Yellow IROC doesnt have posi. I shouldnt take mine for granted then... Glad to hear that adjusting the timing and TV helped somewhat.

 

Any car with the low range TQ happy TPI should be able to fry tires, especially with G92! Try it with an L98 G92. I can fry Nitto Drag Radials down the street or kick it out around a turn whenever with an almost stock car, what a waste!

 

Oh, I knew it wasn't a posi before I bought it.

 

It was 50 degrees in Chicago today and I was off. So I started scrubbing the wheel wells and undercarriage again. Man, what the hell kind of mutant dirt do they have in Minnesota, anyway?!?!?
After an hour of scrubbing/rinsing/scrubbing/rinsing, it still looks dirty under there. At least the driveway doesn't look like a chocolate milkshake anymore when I rinse.

Fixed the temp gauge today too. What an easy fix. Just pushed down on the needle so it wouldn't get entrapped in the bezel. Thanks for the tip Motown!

 

Charlie you may just want to pick up some new wheel liners. It may just be easier and you will probably be a lot happier. The plastic is probably stained. Below are the gm part numbers. They are discontinued but there may be some old stock out there.

10139548 - LINER FRT W/H PNL -RH (NOT AVAILABLE)

14064291 - LINER FRT W/H PNL -LH (NOT AVAILABLE)

 

Whaaaat? That would be admitting defeat.

Actually, enough dirt is off now, that I can see the liners have some sort of undercoating on them. If I can't get it off efficiently, new liners would probably be a smart move.

 

Anyone ever use this stuff?

http://www.eastwood.com/under-gone-u...17-oz-net.html




I'm gonna order some and see if I can save my liners.




In the meantime, I ordered 20 194 bulbs for my dimly lit '83.......

 

When I restored my car I used Dupont 3812s and to still to this day use it.

http://www.customclassictrucks.com/t.../photo_04.html

 

That stuff works well on undercoating?

 

Worked on my other yellow vehicle today. My 1976 Schwinn Continental. I bought it new and haven't ridden it in maybe 30 years. Cleaned up the rust pitted chrome, got new tires, wheel liners and inner tube. Those skinny racing tires were fine when I was 15, but they are probably near their...erm...weight limit now.

 

mag wheel cleaner works super ,get the kind for uncoated wheels and use sparingly

 

hawks has aluminum drums $55 ea

 

You have time to get closer to your "racing" weight days before spring. You should ride it to the car show by your house. You can hang with those stingray guys.

 

How is that Third Gen related Charlie? More car pictures!

 

You mean for the undercoating?

 

Maybe I will!

More pics coming, Chris!

 

Although I consider the Continental to be the IROC-Z of Schwinn's, I did promise more pics.

These pictures probably represent about 100 paint touchups. The color was PERFECT, but in certain lighting conditions it almost looked like goosbumps. So, I wetsanded and buffed the nose and spoiler. Not really sure if any of that can be appreciated in pictures, though.

 

Paint looks flawless in the pics Charlie. What you should keep your eye out for is some NOS parking light lenses. I just picked up a set a few weeks ago from ebay. They came in ancient looking boxes with old yellow looking GM stickers on them. Didnt pay much more than aftermarket knock-offs or GM shrinkwrapped "Made in China" ones are either. Yours looked like they had water in them at some point or another.

 

That's dirt! I couldn't see it until I buffed out the lenses - they were opaque. I'm trying to figure out how to clean them. Apparently you need to "break off" the lense from the parking light to get in there???????

 

Yeah I think they are "melted" together. If you try to take them apart they'd be rendered useless. Again, Im only guessing...

 

If you can't clean them out, make sure that you get a set of real GM lights from ebay. Be positive that it's the ones from when they were still made in the US and done correctly. Now they send the work overseas and the insides are no longer trimmed in black as they came from the factory. Morons.

 

I figure if the dirt got in, there's got to be a way to get it out. I've heard that you can break the bond on the lenses and then reglue them??? Anyone here have any input on that?

 

I believe there is a drain hole that the dirt gets in through. Maybe if you use distilled water and inject it in the hole, slosh it around and dry it, there won't be any dirt or water residue when dry. Let me know if that works.

 

IF I can find that drain hole, that dirt is a goner.

 

There is a drain hole. When you remove the light from the bumper its plain as day.

 

I had those same rims on my 88. They were off a 87 so i painted the gold black, was alot of work, but I think it looks better. If they were the original rims, I would have left them original. Good work on the pin stripes, it makes the Camaro look normal again.

 

Found a correct OE muffler/tailpipe assembly, off of an '88 IROC, in Georgia. I'll post some in progress pics of it's clean up after the game.

 

Wow you finally found one intact! How did you find one in Georgia?

 

How? Persistence!

 

This is after a couple of hours or so of scrubbing with Scotchbrite pads, steel wool, and WD40. It seems that someone had previously painted the tailpipe some sort of high temp black. It's kind of a bear to get off. Also, this muffler is full of crap - literally. It's full of dirt, twigs, leaves, rusty muffler innards and dead bugs. LOTS OF IT. I shook out as much as I could and then figured I'd hose it out. I hope I don't regret that, since some of the water is still trapped inside. I can hear it sloshing when I shake it. It's probably formed a slurry inside with whatever is still in there.

 

DAMN! That looks beautiful! Never would have imagined it would turn out that good.

 

Thanks. It's pretty slow going. I might try some coarser steel wool.

 

Goodness, what a difference!

 

This is REALLY slow going on the muffler/tailpipes assembly. I'm having a hard time getting it to look how I want. We'll see, but I'm thinking of smoothing it out the best I can and simply painting it with Eastwoods aluminum exhaust paint. Anyone want to talk me out of that?

Also, there is a really stinky smell coming out of it since I tried hosing it out. I poured a little bleach in there to kill the kooties.

 

Im sure once you get the exhaust hooked up and let the engine run for a while it will cook whatever is stinking and it will go away.

And I would just clean it up the best you can and not worry about every square inch, the factory exhaust is completely hidden under the bumper.

 

Yeah, I wonder if anything in there will catch fire?

 

Anyone have any tips on installing this thing? Seems to me, the easiest way is to remove the intermediate pipe from the muffler, do the same to the existing muffler which is on the car, then just swap them.



Or, I can just pay a muffler shop like $50 to do it.