Anyone know the function of those baffles? Keep the sound in check???

Is it any louder @ WOT with the baffles removed?

 

Charlie’s right on with is description.I'll attach some pics of what he was talking about. I did this modification on my car as well.

On a stock 100% factory stock TPI car there is a small noticeable difference. The ram air boxes, that I got from Hawks Thirdgen, help channel the air from behind the fog lights up to the base of the air filter box - they are screwed together.

From 3,500rpm on up there is a noticeable gain. It also helps to get some more air in the 4,500rpm-5,500rpm range to. It really opened my car up but, I'm using a 52mm throttle body, ported plenum, ported SLP runners, and a ported base.

After you start making mods to your intake system the ram air effect of removing all of the baffles is really noticeable at all rpm ranges for a typical long tube runner TPI car from off idle to around 5,500rpm.

 

Wow yaj thank you so much for your help and the pictures!

 

Those baffles muffle intake noise. The intake does have a different sound to it. It was especially noticeable when I had my '89 running next to me '85. I gutted the airboxes on the '89 way back in the day. You can actually hear the air being sucked in like a turbine.

 

Awesome.... another item to the "mod" list.

 

Great looking car and cars, also great detail work

 

I've never gutted the airbox bottoms, but I did add K&Ns (left over from my old 2.8 from 10+ years ago!!!!) and removed the baffles in my IROC. Nice little difference

 

When was the year that GM increased the ring gear diameter on the 10bolt rears that came in thirdgens?

I thought that the 1982-1984 10bolt ring gears were 7.5 inches and the 1985-1992 10bolts got ring gears that were 7.625 inches.

Was it 1985? That would make sense because the LB9 puts out more power and torque than the LU5 and L69 motors did.

Although we all know that the LB9 - especially for 1985 - was a hopped up L69 motor with a TPI system installed. I've always heard that the 1985 LB9's performed really well for what they were in 100% stock form just like the L69 motors did.

 

The ring gear size increase happened back in 81-82 I believe.

 

No - my original ring gear was 7.5 inches in my 82. I had it rebuilt with new 28 spline axles and a new 7.625 inch carrier, ring and pinion.

 

Ah I see. You upgraded your rear to the 1990-1992 10bolt specs.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...-10-bolts.html

 

Thanks, that clears things up.

Someone where I live just bought a 1983 Z28 LU5 car. It's no where near nice as yours but, it was cool to see a bone stock LU5 car. Still had the factory dual muffler set up as well. It's brown & tan with a brown interior.

I told a friend of mine about that car as well. We were trying to figure out when the upgraded 10bolts came out because he is looking at getting one for his car. He found some 1982-1984 Z28's as well as some 1985-up cars in a junk yard and wanted to know when they upgraded the 10bolt.

 

A friend just texted me this pic of me leaving the Lombard cruise night a couple weeks ago:

 

Looks good!

 

Thanks!

 

Any more updates on your yellow '85?

I finally was able to install 3.45 gears in my car and it's one of the best performance mods I've made. It really woke up the car and it's completely different now.

All the TPI cars should have got 3.2x or 3.4x gears with posi. It's just strange doing some research that so many LB9 and L69 cars didn't get posi rears. For the higher performance 305 cars a posi rear should have been standard like it was on the 350 cars.

 

Not a darned thing.

I did start them all last week when it got up to 19 degrees - and that's above zero!

 

I would love to have a garage like that! Even if you can't drive them you have to have a big smile on your face like a kid on Christmas every time you look in the garage.

I'm out in California where we've got a big drought. Ha ha ship some of that snow and ice out our way!

 

The yellow looks sharp..... nice contrast with the black trim.

 

Looks great Chaz!

 

Thanks!

 

Been doing some odds and ends, like refinishing the seat belt guides which were discolored. The easiest thing would be to simply replace them with new parts. Unfortunately only the passenger side was available new in saddle.

As most of my "little projects" go, this turned into a bigger deal, mainly due to color matching issues.


I started with this, since the cap was a near match for the color of the seatbelt guide.


But as you can see it came out way too light.



Also once painted, I could see that the plastic was actually pitted from what I would imagine to be UV exposure.

At that point, since I wasn't happy with the color anyway, I figured I'd sand them down in order to to remove the surface defects, but you have to be careful not to remove the textured areas, which is tricky. I found that 400 and 800 grit worked best. I also kept a scribe handy to make sure I didn't lose any detail during sanding.




To be perfectly honest, simply sanding these pieces down, got me about 90% of the results I was looking for. But, no stopping now.

So I ordered a can of SEM 15173 Camel.



While waiting for the postman, I soaked the guides in a bucket of Simple Green - water solution for a few days to degrease them. Not only did the SG degrease, it started stripping the previously applied Duplicolor paint, which was fine by me.



The finish came out beautifully, but as you can see it's a bit too dark. It doesn't look as apparent in the flesh as it does in the pic, but I'd like a closer match.



So...I just ordered a can of SEM Lt. Buckskin # 15093.

I'll let you guys know if this is a match or not. If it is, then we can document it as being a match for the Saddle interior for our cars. That way, the next guy won't have to blow 50 bucks on spray paint experimentation.

 

Nice work Charlie. Interior refresh is on my list in the coming months so this is good info to have. Your cars are awesome, btw.

 

Thanks Randy. Changing the red seat belt buttons became a bigger project for me as well. I broke the spring clip on the passenger side and had to order a new seat buckle. That just came in yesterday.

 

Oh, anyone have a little rubber "GM" floor mat logo? My passenger side floor mat is missing it's logo.

This one:

 

I replaced my seat belt red buttons the other day and also broke the little black retainer on one.... I've used epoxy on a bunch of stuff before so I thought what the heck .... Mixed up some Smith brothers epoxy 5 min quick set and dabbed it on with a tooth pic to the broken surfaces...... an hour later I put it all back together and it's been fine.

My wifes 07 jeep windshield washer nozzel broke the other day where the water tube connects to the nipple..... I put a piece of small brass tube inside the nozzel side for a union and let it set, then epoxied the nipple back over it. Works fine.

Google Smith brothers epoxy ..... theres a youtube video on it's use. It's Stong stuff.

 

Color matching out of a catalog is impossible because sun fade is the major factor that is different for every circumstance. I've personally had fairly decent luck with the "radar gun" that a paint supply shop uses to determine interior color. It's not perfect, but it's really good.

As far as your little GM logo, that's the elusive item. Quality of repop car mats is excellent but cannot be had with the proper logo.

 

Thanks Bob, I'll keep that in mind for next time. I just finished putting the new buckle back in.

 

Yeah, weird that the passenger logo is missing. I'm also missing one rear floor mat. The previous owner told that he let his nephew use the car for his senior prom. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of strange stuff happened to this car that night.

 

That fellow I found for you didn't workout??

 

Thanks for the effort manta, but I'm not willing to pay that much for them. If I don't find one, I'll probably buy a pair of new FWD GM mats on ebay for $15, and take the logos off and paint one saddle.

 

I have some GM mats in my floor mat collection from all the cars I owned. You can have them for free I just have to dig them up.

 

Cool! Thanks Steve.

 

Ah, the ever elusive stock floormats. We can only wish for true repros one day. Until then, ebay or buy the closest we can get without the emblem.

 

I put some Lloyd's in and kept the originals. The problem I was having with the originals was the rubber backing coming off from age.

 

Remember guys, I had ACC use my originals as a template to create molded floor mats that fit perfectly. Their colors seem pretty close the only thing they didn't replicate was the GM logo, because they and nobody else, can. That is per GM. ACC went so far as to even replicate the angle cut on the edge of the floormats to match my originals.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...or-mats-2.html

Don't forget that Jim85IROC might still be selling these and that we should support a fellow thirdgenner's business.

 

I bought those myself, same ones you have. They're great, but of course we'd all like the emblem on there!

 

ACC mats fit great. I have them for both of my Birds.

 

I checked out those ACC mats after Scott posted the link and they are a nice match for the grey interior ( dove grey ) and the carpet pile looks like the original... Attach some little GM logos to them and they would look very close to originals....

 

By any chance do these come in other colors??

 

You can get them in whatever color ACC offers.
If you have ACC carpet in your Bird (getting old, and if my memory serves me right I remember that you do) they will be a perfect match.

 

Are they Identical to the originals just without the GM logo?

 

No. The shape is identical to the originals and the stitched edge is identical, but the carpet itself is more dense than the originals. The color is also very close. The backing also is rubber with teeth that grip the carpet to prevent sliding where the factory was basically flat on the bottom. From the top, they look very close.

 

Yep - they fit just like the originals. They even fit the passenger side hump perfectly. Same shape as the originals, just made with ACC carpet.

 

Thanks Vince & Scott,I think I'll order a set from Classic if they have them.Thanks for the pic.

 

Seems Classic doesn't have them,I PMd Jim85IROC,and see if he's still selling these.

 

9409-86 1986 PONTIAC FIREBIRD TRANS AM FLOOR MAT 4PC (FM04), 7039 DK RED/CARMINE
Are these the ones??
ACC Carpets

 

Should be. Check Rock Auto also. I just looked - they are 73 bucks over there. Make sure you use a discount code if you order. I think it saves an additional 5%

 

What's the discount code?I don't have one.