Wow, I've never noticed the fin length difference on an '89. Any idea what the reason for it was?

 

I'm not sure on that but it seems to be a transition piece going into 90-92 as they also have the short fins but those have the vacuum port for the map sensor. If you look at the Morrison Cook Bring a Trailer auction pics that car also got the updated plenum.

 

Got yesterdays haul unloaded and put in the basement with my other spare ones.


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Luckily my parts car had the passenger side exhaust manifold shield that I still needed so I had fun today getting it off. Cleaned and sprayed in high heat stainless. Also found my coil bracket and painted it and installed new grommets in the valve covers.


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Passenger heat shield removed. Also pulled the crank pulley while I was in there.


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Cleaned and painted.


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New grommets in both valve covers.


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Coil bracket painted.


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Well, if nothing else, I now know where there's a excellent stash of TPI intakes! That's quite something!

 

This is very impressive and there's a staggering amount of work going on with this restoration. Well documented would also be an understatement.
Is there a timeline on when the finished product might see the light of day?

 

Wow, buying TPI setups by the truckload!

 

Thanks, I'm really doing more of a rebuild than a restoration as I would do things a lot differently in restoring. I'm going to street drive this car a good bit as well as track days so just trying to keep it looking decent knowing its going to age one I start using it. I gave up on trying to put a date on having it done as I'm way past that and have ran into more obstacles then ever planned for. I'm hoping to have the engine at least set in it and it painted before Winter gets here but with so many new mechanical parts and a far from stock combination getting it running is expected to be a big obstacle too. I havent done an all over paint job in prob 10 years much less a base clear so keeping my fingers crossed there too.

I made a deal for another 88 that they are going to pick up Tuesday that is just a v6 car but it looks to have all the gray interior plastics that I need. I'm guessing v6 as there were no underhood pics,lol.

 

I was glad to find so many in 1 spot and fairly priced. I'm not done buying though If they are local and a hundred bucks or less I'll keep buying them up. Those were a 3 hour round trip but I worked stopping at a casino into the trip, lol.

 

It has been a learning experience at the same time as I'm primarily a 1st and 2nd Gen guy over the years so little difference in different years of 3rd Gens like the intake differences and more.

For example I've discovered they changed the valve covers from 88 to 89 even though externally they look the same. The 88 has a twist in oil cap with a white outer circle where the 89-92 has the screw in cap and they did away with that outer circle on the cap top.

 

The devil is in the details.

 

My second parts was delivered today. I took a chance on it as the guy only had 3 or 4 crappy pics and not much of a description but I could see it had the right door panels, passenger seat and gray interior plastics that I needed.


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Its been off the road since 2011.


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Added bonus I wasnt expecting. OG Kenwood. I'll pull it and put it back in something else later.


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I really needed this style door panel and they are manual window too.



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Needed the passenger seat but not the driver as it still has its race seat with it.



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Cleaned up ok. Paint is sun baked bad.


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I needed this console without any power buttons. I'll transfer my 5 speed plate over to it.


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First time I've seen a non tilt column in the later 3rd Gens.

 

I'm going to put a disclaimer on this quote as it appears to be conflicting info on the oil cap writing itself. My nos GM cap came in today and it has the outer white circle as mentioned but in looking at several low mileage 88's the caps on them do not have that outer circle.


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Working on the rear bumper cover and lower rear ground effect fit and gaps/body lines today. Had to pull both and flatten both bottoms of the lower quarters so the ground effects didnt rock back and forth and would sit parallel to the quarters. Still have to put the lower screws in but I got them a lot better than they were and comparable to my other 3rd Gens I have here.


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Before, driver side.


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After, driver side.


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Before, passenger side.

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After, passenger side.

 

Spent some time fitting the front fender marker lights. Passenger side went fairly smooth but the driver side needed lots of work as whenever the car was last fixed in 88/89 they bent one of the retainer tabs over double and instead of using the retaining clips back in they just bent the other tabs around the lights.

Modified the coil bracket today to work with the Edelbrock lower and then did a hand wash on the car. Going to do a light hand blocking on the epoxy this week, touch up any bare spots and then another wash. With any luck will be starting on the high build by weeks end.


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Had to grind the mounting area out to fit the runner on the Edelbrock lower.


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Setting on the intake to check it.


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Quick wash to get all the debris off plus pulled the front bumper cover back off.


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Slowly getting there.

 

Started hand blocking the epoxy today with 180. Got the roof and quarters blocked.


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Considering this car was rolled on its roof and the roof wiped out I'm pretty happy with it.


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Same for how bad this quarter was.


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Blocked the quarter and part way onto the door.


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Drivers rear quarter blocked.



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Driver roof view.



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Resealed the bare spots in epoxy, sanded them and then taped the car up yesterday. Today I sprayed the entire car except the bumper covers and rear spoiler in 2 coats of high build white primer.


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The high built takes a larger nozzle and needle set up due to the thickness.


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Its a 4 to 1 mix ratio.



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Roof with 2 coats.


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Passenger rear.


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Driver rear.


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Driver front.


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great progress! gives me hope that I can eventually get my Camaro painted after all these steps.

 

Bought a cheap sensor socket kit and pulled the O2 sensor from the exhaust manifold and loosened the sensors on the oil pressure switch tree.


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Cheapy sensor socket kit but more than payed for itself today.


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Removing the stubborn O2 sensor.


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Got it out.


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Taking the oil pressure tree apart to replace the sensors on it.

 

Also stripped the door jambs today in preparation to put them in epoxy and then paint them. They had been painted black when the car was repainted black. Also found some yellow between the white and black layers, hmm.


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Sprayed the door jambs today with 2 coats of epoxy. Once that sets up I'm going to wash the insides of the doors out real good so I dont get and dust from them when I paint and vacuum the dust out of the car.



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I pulled the blower motor out of the 88 parts car today as I was going to swap the squirrel cage over to my original one and discovered nothing is the same between the ac and non ac ones. I know the one in my 89 parts car also has a completely different plug type too.


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Non ac on the left.


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Even the motor housing is smaller on the non ac.


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Top view, non ac on the left.


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Non ac.


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Ac

 

Washed the insides of both doors out today as well as under the hood and then started working under the hood in preparation to set the engine and trans in it when I get the engine back. Reinstalled the steering shaft and the ps cooling lines plus bolted all the brake lines back to the cross member. Also made what looks to be an interesting discovery in regards to the harness. There are 2 extra holes in the firewall where it looks like instead of bolting the harness to the back of the engine they had it bolted to the firewall to make for quicker engine and trans removals.


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Moving blankets so I dont mess up any of the work already done.


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Moved the harness out of the way while bolting the brake lines back to the cross member.


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Ps cooler line roughly back in place.


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Harness back in place and the ecm harness ran into the passenger compartment.


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I dont remember them having this much extra inside the car? Does make for easy ecm and prom swaps though.


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Extra 2 holes line up with the factory harness clamps that normally bolt under the top 2 bell housing bolts.


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Harness bolted there for the time being.


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Steering shaft back in.


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I stopped off on routing the harness until I look at my other cars to see exactly where this one runs.

 

I also started trying to figure out what size the black vinyl stripe was that separates the white from the silver plus where its located on the front bumper. This stripe moves some during the 2 years as the cars were wrecked and repainted but in the early 88 pic I have it sits higher on my front bumper cover than later pics. My vinyl guy will be replicating all the decals and adding this stripe after the car is painted but I need to figure out where to break the white and silver paint. I guessed it was 1/2 inch so picked up a roll of stripe tape. The sides of the car where this goes is right on the body line center but not on the bumper covers. I'm close I think.


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This is the earliest pic of my car that I have found so far and was very early 88. It looks like in this pic the bumper cover body line is just below the stripe rather than centered.


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Its not exact but think its close and also the right width.



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The headlight pockets get blacked back out after its painted.


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Started hand blocking the first 2 coats of high build on the roof and then filled the pin holes with putty.


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Sprayed guide coat on the roof before blocking the high build.



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Roof blocked out. Will putty the pinholes in the bondo and then 2 more coats and block again.


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The little small black dots are the pin holes left after blocking. Remember the entire 3/4 of the roof had to be wiped in bondo due to an earlier roll over.


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Driver side of the roof blocked.


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Small putty spots. Will sand them back down and then reprime the entire roof.

 

Blocked the putty spots today and did a couple more and then sprayed 2 coats of epoxy to seal it. Will block it again in 180, then 2 more coats and block with 320.


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Blocking the putty spots.



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I should have used one of my good spray guns for this but didnt realize there was such a big difference in them.


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It should block out pretty good however at this point and while it seems like it from prior posts there really is not a lot of material on it.


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Given how bad this roof was after I dug all the bondo out and reworked it I'm happy with the end result.

 

I have all new sensors for it so started test fitting them today to see what fits and what doesnt. Discovered the oil sensor was wrong as they sent me a 3 pin one and the wiring is for a 2. Thinking about relocating it from the back of the engine down to the side of the block.


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Replacement sensors.


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My cheat sheet on what they sent me. Turns out the PS228 is for an 89 as it has a 3 pin hook up/


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My harness has the 2 pin plug for the oil switch.


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Temp switch for the driver side head and some of the random plug ends I had plus the intermediate harness. I'll have to find a good one or replace the connector on this one.
Also found out I was missing the intermediate harness that plugs in and goes to the temp sensor in the driver head. I did have one on a hacked up Vette harness but it has a broken retainer tab.

 

The new clutch came in today as well. Its supposed to be rated for mid 400's HP and torque so we'll see. I've seen good and bad reviews but that is pretty much standard on most clutches until you get into the high dollar ones.


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Blocked the high build on both quarters today and then put putty in a couple of spots on them.

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All the white dust in the floor is from blocking the high build on 1 quarter.


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Passenger quarter high build blocked.


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Driver quarter high build blocked.


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Couple spots of putty.


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This looks like a big spot but its just slightly low.

 

Also sanded the first 2 coats of epoxy on the door jambs.



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Sanded the first 2 coats of epoxy they will get 2 more light coats.


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Last for today was spraying guide coat on both doors, fenders, hood and the new epoxy on the roof.


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Blocked the high build on the doors and fenders today with 180. Have a couple spots needing putty and a couple more needing a little more high build.


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Blocked the high build on the hood and hatch today.


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Blocked the epoxy on the roof today. Its probably a lot of extra work but keep in mind I'm just an amateur and dont do this for a living. Most paint and body guys prob spray a couple coats scuff and a couple more and dont block until the final coats thus saving a lot of time and material.


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Getting closer. When do you think you will spray color?

 

The tentative plan is to try and have all the blocking coats and loose parts done by the end of July. I have August set aside to drop the engine and trans in it and hook up as much stuff as possible and then start spraying colors first of September. I dropped the intake and valve covers off a few days ago and the long block was assembled.

 

I had resprayed some high build on the front fenders and the center body line a couple days ago so put guide coat on that today and got the passenger side blocked back in today. Also puttied a few more small pin holes in the roof bondo that the high build didnt.


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Not sure why I'm spending so much effort on the center body line as it gets a 1/2 inch wide pinstripe covering it but sprayed a little more high build on them and both front fenders and then guide coat.


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Same on driver side.


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Blocked back out.


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Blocking the body line and the earlier putty.

 

Still working on figuring out the engine harness and digging out sensors and such. I also discovered the air box lid that I bought off ebay a couple years back as one off a TPI was a v6 instead. I have a second one on the parts car I just bough so in looking at them and my spare maf sensors I noticed another difference in the lid in addition to the sensor bung. The v6 mass air sensor and the inlet are in the top where it sits have a groove cut out and a raise rail. I'll have to cut a notch in the v8 sensor but no big deal.\



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V6 sensor on the left, TPI on the right.


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Raised rail in the v6 air lid.


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Notch in the v6 sensor.

 

It's probably looking like groundhog day with some of the work and pictures I'm posting but just trying to get it as right as my ability will let me before the paint goes on it. Blocked the putty on the front fenders today and then sprayed them in epoxy again as well as the roof and other spots. My spray gun started acting up on the fenders so I had to swap guns and continue on. I have gray epoxy on the way so once todays epoxy is blocked the entire car will get gray epoxy next.


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Also had the new hood cable come in as the old one has the plastic casing broken in numerous places. Most of the repop ones dont have the images on the pull handle so kept searching until I found one that did.


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My gray SPI epoxy came in so I was in the shop bright and early this morning. Blocked the white epoxy from 2 days ago and then sprayed 2 good coats of gray epoxy on the body.


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Back in the shop this afternoon after the epoxy set up and pulled the old broken hood release cable out, modified the new one like Morrison Cook had done and got it bolted back in.


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New vs old.


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Drilling the hole for the zip tie.




Zip tie pull replicated.


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Back in the car. You can see why they did this so they could quickly pull the hood release without having to fumble around the cage.

 

With heat indexes the next few days around 100 I got out in the shop Friday morning about 6 am and blocked the roof out with 320. It came out good so its done. Started blocking the gray on the driver quarter and sanded through to white in several places so resprayed both sides with 2 more coats of gray epoxy.


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Guide coat on the gray epoxy.


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Blocked out with 320.



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Blocked with 320 and sanded through several spots so scuffed it in 180 and sprayed both quarters, doors and fenders with 2 more light coats of gray epoxy.


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Following along. What's that hole/blemish on the right side of the hood, even with the back of the hood scoops for? Not. seeing anything on the historical pictures. Just curious.

 

It is for an electrical safety cut off switch. The Morrison Cook cars did not have them and not all sanctioning bodies require them but it was added by the team that raced the car after MC did in 1990. I have conflicting pictures/stories about who that was that I havent had any cooperation in which one but it appears the car ran Firestone Firehawk either here or in Canada.

I'm reinstalling it once painted and figured worst case I can always pick up and paint a spare hood without one.

 

Another early morning, 6 am Saturday and got the driver quarter, door and fender mostly blocked in 320.


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Driver side mostly blocked out in 320. Still have to sand the ground effects and a couple other spots need attention but all minor.


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Started mocking up the water separators and drop that I will be using to spray color from.

 

I started blocking that corner of the hood this morning and not sure if its from the switch install or the repetitive turning it on and off but its damaged the hood surrounding it so at this point I may just fill it in and hope I dont have to add it back later.

 

Another 6 am start in the shop and got the passenger side blocked out with 320 and started on the hood before calling it a day. A few hours a day adds up over time though. I'll add the pics later as they are on the other laptop.

Update as pics added.


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Great picture!

 

Regarding the above, what was their means of the headlight block offs?