This car has been sitting all this time while I've been working on my 87 camaro. It needs a little loving too. I had been lusting for this car for a couple of years, I was going to buy it and the deal fell through, after a couple of years I had another opportunity and I went for it.

This is how I got the car, fresh off the trailer



Covered in CA sand and dust but solid as a rock, no rust anywhere




After cleaning the engine bay a little



And cleaning the exterior a little





Too much grime and crap here, need to tackle this. Hacked up tranny crossmember is a no go either. If I can't find an early one I'll build one from scratch. Already cut off the exhaust hanger but in time I'll convert to a stainless (home built) exhaust and possible a different engine (LS maybe)







All the shocks were shot, replaced them w/ KYBs. Eventually will get Konis. Also cut a set of old IROC springs front and rear and installed those.

 

I cut another half a coil off the rears since...much better but needs lowering straps, shorter shocks or shock re-locator brackets. I'll probably do the last since it's a drum rear axle ad I don't mind welding on it since eventually it will have to go.


I'll get a WS6 or Z28 steering box for it too, this one just has no feel, way too much assist.

All electronics are converted to a 90 model stuff. Nice!! Rusty steering wheel has to go. PMD driver seat has a tear that needs repairing. Carpet is trashed, as is the arm rest and rear storage area panels. Will get new/good used for all that. Some jsut needs a little spit shine



The dr side serpentine bracket was loose, alt wobbling...this is the result LOL



New steering wheel & new dashpad



Also have a new arm rest, some missing interior bits and pieces, installed new hood struts. there were new ones on there but they didn't hold up the hood, maybe they're the wrong ones (alu hood?)

 

Started digging into it. Removed dr side serpentine stuff. All parts will be cleaned and powdercoated. Can't stand rust...must remove LOL

First cleaned it up w/ some degreaser and hi pressure washer.



One of the AC compressor bolts is one so damn tight I can't get it loose so tomorrow I'm taking off the pass side stuff as a whole and go from there.

 

another project twin turbo? after what i've seen with your camaro, I'm very eager to see what you're gonna do to this one.

 

Nice! I Love the early 3rd Gen T/A's, I think they look better without Ground Effects, Guess that's why I like Formula's So Much.

My first Car was a Black/Black 83 Trans Am, As much time/work/money as I have into my FOrmula, I would love to have the T/A back again. Too Bad someone Smashed it, That's why I got rid of it.

 

I think the rear sway bar and springs are WS-6 parts

 

Springs were the same as the irocs I put in now (that I cut so they are stiffer even now)

Took another look at the dr. side bracketry and found another snapped off bolt after I removed the p.st. pump from the bracket. Took a look at the motor, the upper bolt in the lower fr. motor mount boss is broken, the thread is still in there.

I agree about the gfx, I like the 2nd gen formulas better than the TAs also because of the clean lines without the mudflaps and all.

Also did a little on the 88, I bought some MAC SFCs, they don't fit the exhaust on my 87 and they hang pretty low. Have to do custom for my 87 so I figured I'd put them under the 88

Also put N10 dual cats under it. Next will be a muffler that makes some decent noise, this one is too quiet.





BTW, these are my limiting straps (rancho) and hubcentric adapters for the bimmer wheels on the 88

 

Subscribing.

82-84 T/A's are my favorite 3rd gen's, bar none.

 

Me too !!!!!!! I always wanted to fix it up nice but a 90 vette took it's place, so off it went 1/2 way around the world to a good home.

Marck if memory serves me right it has a 84 disc proportioning valve on it because it had a 3.73 disc rear in it before gas prices sky rocketed here. the brake lines are not the stock sae ones. they were converted all to 84-up metric

has a TPI fuel pump in it as well if you go to port efi

I think I found the original passenger door tumbler if you want it so you don't need two door keys to open it.

 

Hell yes, LOL I need the lock, I was already checking out a complete set since i'd need one for the comp. lid & glove box too.

 

well I think it came from the car but not sure, did u get the car with two door lock keys?

the console never had a key lock

 

Not sure, I think I have 1 key

The console didn't have a lock but the rear cargo lid and rear glovebox do

 

Hmm...rust brown coolant, time to pull the rad



broken serpentine bracket bolt



Hey Jeff, did you loose some bolts, hoses and what looks like the remainder of a valve cover T bolt?? LOL



Damn, nice wiring under the convoluted tubing hehehe



Car is solid as a rock, only a little surface rust under the battery



Turned out on the AC half the fittings were loose. Since I'm not wanting to retrofit & fix leaks I pulled it off. Pulled heater box too, will get a non AC one. Have to get a delete pulley for the serp. setup, hate how it looks with an empty bracket there

 

You just love to tear stuff apart don't you hahaha ???? I got to spend all day yesterday tearing the rest of the dash out of my vette to replace the butchered front bose harness. I still haven't figured out the abs light though but the accelometer even mounted right didn't cure the problem. I'm wondering since I replaced the rear bose harness and the abs wiring is in it if I missed a ground wire somewhere.

 

yeah, i can't leave stuff alone if it's rusty or full of grease and stuff I hate working on C4 dash stuff, too many wires and plastic tings

I've been thinking... an LS1 would be nice. There's a brand new one for sale in Germany.

 

You got guts doing all the stuff you do, I'm at the point where sending this vette to pickapart seams the best LOL. Not even looking forward to the next 3 big bills to get this vette on the road. Next will be a 1,000 for the exhaust system and 800 for registration fee's

 

1K for an exhaust? Damn, who is building it or aftermarket? You can get stainless for that kind of money

 

270 for the front Y-pipe ... 160 for the main cat ... 185 for the rear y-pipe ... rhen whatever mufflers or muffler eliminators cost. But was planning on the LT1 style muffler eliminators.

 

I might have 2 NOS console lids I bought many years ago if your interested. I have to find them since haven't seen them in quite sometime. probably buried in the garage.

 

i already bought a nos console lid what else do you have?

 

A new case of beer to get me through todays battle with the vette. I would have to look in the garage and storage.

 

If you find the console lids, lemme know what they cost, I will probably buy them as spares and the one on the 83 isn't too good either

 

Will you buy the new carpet directly from the US or does someone sells those in the Netherlands ?
I've seen some new ones on marktplaats but for 2nd Gens, mikes-amp.nl sells some as well, I haven't found any for third gens. It would be great since it would avoid the horrible shipping cost and custom fees...

 

I never buy stuff here, either they sell junk or it's way overpriced. I don't give any vendors here the light of day. I can get it cheaper and better myself without hassle. That tells something about the ridiculous markup they have on stuff when they get dealer prices and bulk shipping benefits.

I'll probably get a fresh one from ACC. There was a 3rd gen carpet on marktplaats not long ago, idiot was asking way more than it would cost for me to have it shipped directly...and it'd be OEM quality & fit.

 

Got most of the stuff pulled off, engine will come out later
All the stuff I removed will be powdercoated. Some parts like the front filler plate will be semi gloss black, most of the other brackets and engine related hardware will be matte black. I'm going for the all black look but detailed look on this one.

Also had to weld the serpentine bracket that holds the AC, one of the mounting holes was broken (the one that stands alone in the center) It's all good now.

More deconstruction.

 

so you going LSx

 

why does it appear to have the l03 in it?

 

Not decided on the ls, will need a tranny then too and they are hard to find here

May also build a new engine, got a set of trickflow heads on the shelf

L03? Ask jeffs82TA, he put the engine in

 

Nice T/A!

 

It is a 1990 corvette shortblock with "083" heads on it. Only thing LO-3 about it is the intake manifold and throttlebody and that was due to wanted a california visual pass which it did easily since a smog tech never removes the air cleaner as well as keeping a stock carb'ed look to the car. I'm sure marck can post the engine suffix code, I bought the long block and transmission as a package deal. The 700r4 went into my 82 corvette and the original aluminum heads are in my garage.

 

Why were those alu heads not in the trunk I ask you? LOL

 

too heavy to lift hahaha ... Didn't want to be responsible for you hurting you back lifting them out of the car. They will go quite well on my 82 vette though.

 

Pulled the carpet out, it's old, faded & brittle. Removed the reflectix too since I'll be redoing all the seams. Carpet was good quality with thick under-carpet insulation stuff. I'll probably end up using dynamat or similar.

Pics are super tiny, forgot the camera and had the phone set to the wrong size isntead of 5 megs it's now super small

Old junk


Some reflectix left, someone glued it all together, the carpet to the insulation, to the reflectix and the reflectix to the floor. I also found a couple of sockets from someone's toolbox, some sigs and a bunch of change

Jeff, you missing half your toolbox???





oh no...there is something I didn't want to find a fuel pump access cover... damn!



This almost certainly implies rubber hoses & hose clamps. I'm going to remove that, fabricate a flange and cover and use torx screws to secure it w/ a gasket in between. Fuel lines will have to be redone most likely also. Might as well sump the tank and use an external pump.

 

Still figuring out what to do engine wise. I bought some Trick Flow Kenny Duttweiler series 23 deg. CNC heads and a zz-x cam and this Street & Performance Miltiport, looks to be abased on a weiand hi-ram lower intake.





I'm going to build something larger than a 350, Maybe a 396 but w/ the 195 heads I think I should go a little smaller.

 

That set up is wild looking! Why do you find all the cool stuff over there? LOL. Bet I know what your doing for a computer with those kenny duttweiler heads and cam . Sounds like a familiar set up.

 

Are you gonna be adding boost into the equation twin turbo?

 

I find all the cool stuff on your side of the pond, this puppy was on ebay and was for sale by hawks third gen, it ended yesterday and to my surpise it wen for 860 bucks complete with wiring and ecm

I am not sure about boost I was thinking of building a stroker for it

 

Well I'll be waiting to see it bolted on top of an engine. I'll be watching this thread. The style of the 82-84 TA's is really starting to catch my eye...

 

Got some parts back from the powdercoater. Flat black all of it (the 2 alu colored rods are for the camaro), still more to coat but I'm going for an all out black/flat black/gold look



Better pics of the fuel pump access cover and the floors, pretty solid

 

great work!!!! cant wait to see this thing done...damn fuel pump access cover!!!

 

What lurks beneath



More stuff is going to the powdercoater, some of the old parts that came off the camaro. I'm having those coated so the 82 remains a roller and then I can put all new bushings and stuff in the arms and swap them 1:1 later on.

 

At least they did a decently clean job with the rubber lines all in the same spot. Not sure where I saw it but someone had a pic up of the pump after they removed the access cover and it was a compression fitting nightmare!! Looked like a fire waiting to happen lol.

 

Awesome. I have had my eye on that intake for a while now. But Nobody including the guys at Street and performance, know how it flows and performs compared to HSR or others. I also know they make 2 of those, Both very similar. please keep us posted on the performance of that intake, as im contemplating it for a 383, AFR 195, Procharger build.

 

[QUOTE=Twin_Turbo;4670660]



Hey, those SFCs look familiar!!

So did they help?

 

Yes, night & day difference.

 

The other is called the ram port, it's a vortec manifold. This one is simply a weiand hi-ram with their top on it. It's very much like a HSR, a box w/ throttle body on top of a tunnel ram base.

 

slowly some parts are trickling in but nothing so I can really tear into it. (I hate customs)

more powdercoated parts (large thing is a c10 battery tray)



Rest is all flat black:

 

Nice work.

 

Terrific, doing everything the right way like usual Turbo.

 

Subscribed - Nice work so far