Hi All!

I am new to the boards and a "new" owner of a 1983 Daytona edition. My grandfather bought her new in 1983 and she is coming to me with 49,000 original miles. This car was his last baby and has been off the road in the garage for the past 15+ years. My family recently moved the car from Illinois to our repair shop just north of Boston.

Now the fun begins! We don't ever intend to sell this car, but we would like to keep it as stock as possible. While my husband and I own a repair shop, we rarely work on cars of this era. Right now we are just getting ready to scratch the surface but are really wondering what must stay stock and what can be aftermarket.

I would appreciate any advice you have to offer.

Here are a few pictures from the journey so far.

 

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. You will get lots of good advice here- glad you're gonna keep it original....

 

Welcome aboard!

Beautiful car!

 

Beautiful 83, it looks like it only needs a little TLC. Did this car come with the Daytona Decals?

 

Yes, we have the decals along with all of the original paperwork from the dealer. My grandfather did not want the decals on the car...

 

What needs to be restored?

 

It has been sitting for 15 years. I have no idea what to expect when we get into this. At minimum anything rubber is going to be junk. As far as the body goes, there are a few small rust spots that look like they are mostly surface, but who knows. The decal on the hood is damaged and will need to be replaced. The interior is nearly perfect, just needs a good cleaning. Down the rabbit hole we go!

 

That's not to bad for a 33 year old car. It took me about 5 yrs to get mine done, Parts are the problem but their out there, you just have to be patient.

 

The question becomes, what parts can be replaced with aftermarket parts without dramatically impacting the value of it being stock...

 

If a crossfire injection is modified and runs don't mess with it. You have to modify it to make run better.

 

I would start with a good detail then go from there. If it hasn't been run in 15yrs then that will need to be addressed.

 

all rubber needs to be replaced as the other member said. as far as parts that wouldn't hurt originality, muffler, fuel filter, fuel pump, possibly shocks/struts, ac delco spark plugs, cap and rotor, and thermostat are a couple that come to mind. I could be wrong but these seem like safe bets.

my main goal would be to first flush all of the fluids, replace fuel filter, cap, plugs, rotor, wires, air filter, belts, and replace fuses. then give her a crank and see what she does. awesome car by the way keep us updated with progress

 

As has been mentioned, I'd start with a good detail. You may be surprised how good it looks.

If the factory exhaust is in good shape, I personally would just clean it up and try to retain it. Your car has a very unique dual muffler set up.

 

Nice car! Looks well preserved and should hopefully be easy to get it running. Remove the fuel, pull the distributor to prime the oil pump, etc.

I'm also from the Boston area, there are lots of cruise nights and car shows coming up in a couple months that a few of us locally with thirdgens plan to attend, if you and your husband would like to join keep me posted!

 

Thanks! Tony & I are looking forward bringing the car out! Please let me know where and when, here's hoping we have her up and running in time.

 

Nice! There is a show on April 30th in Barre MA and another on May 8th in Westborough that a few of us plan to go to. Cruise nights start up at Kimball Farms and the Auburn Elks in May on Friday nights, both are very well attended and alot of fun. There is also a big one at Foxboro stadium (Bass Pro Shops) that quite often attract over 2000 cars every other Tuesday. Keep us posted on when you get it fired up!

 

we need to make a thirdgen sightings thread for the Boston area

 

Put in a new AC Delco Battery today and attempted to start her just to see what would happen. Happy to report that with a little attention, she turned over and sounded much like I remembered! We didn't leave her running long, but have a much better feel for what we are looking at! Also found a little treasure in the glove box! Is it next weekend yet???? Here are a few pics from today!



Headlights popped up and worked correctly.








Amazed at how clean the throttle body is.











Great find in the glove! Looking forward to the rest of the documentation coming out from Chicago!

 

I would say one reason for the clean TB's is having never ingested ethanol fuel.

 

Better make sure that left rocker extension got corrected or that TJ guy is in trouble lol

 

looks like you need to flush and top off your fluids

 

Awesome TA

 

Absolutely...that is next weekend's project. We need to push it into a bay and get it up on the lift...then the draining begins!

 

go with ac delco platinum's 41-905

and go with a MSD ignition coil, cap, and rotor from indy auto parts tell him Chris sent you

 

MSD ignition coil
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-8225

MSD cap and rotor

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-84023

AC Delco platinum # 41-905

 

Thanks, I will pass this along to the hubby

 

After a weekend off, we got back to it today. Looks like a new fuel pump and exhaust is on deck for next weekend. We found some unexpected surprises when we gave her a thorough look over. Many things we thought would need work are in much better shape. Here's hoping for more pleasant surprises!

 

There is a visit of her turning over on our page. Unfortunately, even though the fuel pump is coming on, it isn't moving the fuel.


https://www.facebook.com/pondstmotors/

 

I have been through this with a 1982 car with low miles:

1. replace fuel pump with 85 TPI pump
2. rebuild the fuel injectors
3. replace the lid gasket to the TBIs
4. replace all fluids of course
5. replace all rubber suspension parts, this makes a huge difference in how it will drive
6. replace all vacuum lines
7. exhaust is stainless steel, it may have rust on it, but it shouldn't need replacing
8. the cat is the corvette high flow honey comb cat, should be fine
9. have bushings installed in the TBI units, they are worn without question
10. balance the TBI's -- build a water manometer to get this done, use the GM service manual for instructions, if you don't get this right it will never run properly, you will know when its right with a good idle, good performance, and good starting, the engine will always crank a few times when cold, but when hot, or heat soaked it should fire right up and not crank

Keep it as original as possible!

 

Save that factory exhaust. If you want the car completely stock looking - you will never find another one, if you throw it out.

 

ditto

 

bump

 

The OP hasn’t been online since April 2016.

 

Love the wheels

 

Fantastic T/A! Love those cars.... good advice on the exhaust. My GTA's rusted thru at 30K, but now I wish I'd have kept it anyway. One question: does that car have Eagle Gatorbacks on it?

 

This member is notorious for doing this....

 

Not sure why we are reviving an old thread...