chrisvanguitar5

Been on this forum for a little bit now, but never posted pics of my girl....

Before I do though just some background info.....

I am 17 and just got my GTA about 6 months ago after saving and saving and saving for her for a long time, many deals fell through and lots of work to finally find the right one and buy her!

I could carry on about my story but point is I absolutely love these third gen birds and t/a's more than anything!

Okay as far as car I bought, 1989 Trans Am GTA with the L98 and TH700R4
The engine had 308,000 km on it but the car had a newly rebuilt th700r4 and a shift kit and b&m ratchet shifter as well as flowmaster pipes a pioneer deck, extra keys all original paper work, a car cover, a sub box,a crappy grant gt wheel and some really messed electrical.....

I have been dealing with all the issues slowly over time and the car is finally starting to run better.... (it's in the shop right now while the electrical is being dealt with)



Okay so here is me with her a couple days after I got her:



How I got her outside:



Engine:



Seats need to be reupholstered
Paint could use a shine and refresh
I want a little bit of a lowered look
electrical.....F*** My Life!
Catalytic converter delete
tuneup
subs need to be put in
bigger battery
better alternator
removal of all emissions stuff....
wheel alignment
headliner
seatbelt retract problem
no horn
headlights need to go up and down....

Thats all I can think of right now....

I have bought subs for her and a new deck so far, looking at a new wheel, headers and a cat delete as well as a y pipe and body work right now

chrisvanguitar5

I put my new deck in a few weeks ago to its an alpine head, really really nice deck!

Can't wait till shes on the road and purring all the time!

FormerL69

iTrader: (2)

Your car looks clean. Electrical gremlins are annoying, but just keep plugging away at it and assuming it wasn't hacked by someone else, you'll get there.

chrisvanguitar5

It is a little hacked but we are plugging through it! Ill keep everyone posted...

2007xl50

Not a bad looking start.

Motown

Sweet looking car dude!

Jet_91

Nice car man! I remember seeing that for sale online a while back. Would have loved to grab it up if I had the money. haha Glad to have you and it on TG.org!

86birdt/a

your starting with a better car then i am congrats man.

GTA50

Congrats on the purchase. For a GTA, nice to not see fender vents (LOL).

However, after the previous repaint, the sail panel emblems are not placed right and the nose emblem is missing. Visit gtasourcepage.com for some additional advice on making it authentic. By the way, just to confirm, on the SPID in the centre console, you should see Y84 listed.

What are your plans for the car?

Podium

iTrader: (2)

Looks good! Congrats on your saving paying.off! I can't save for nothing

chrisvanguitar5

Yup i ran all my RPO codes its a GTA and only 1 of 816 made in 89 with the black interior.

chrisvanguitar5

Thanks for all the great responses! It's great to see guys my age on here from Canada even B.C!!! As far as plans right now, get it running like it should of been stock and get it cleaned up in terms of paint and body on the engine I have. Slowly rebuild the engine and add a performance header set a nice cam, new injectors a bigger alternator and battery. build a custom box for my subs and wire my car and run the subs.... and yeah mainly get all the electrical and mechanic problems fixed put on a new y pipe and then just get the body touched up and cleaned then run my subs and enjoy her for a while before doing some more....

Thanks

Chris

chrisvanguitar5

Speaking of Y pipes and exhaust I went and priced a setup out today as my y pipe is cracked and my mechanic thinks it might be causing the idle problem or hindering it..... So therefore I need a new y pipe but no one makes them around here so its a custom pipe or order one online both are f'ing expensive went to the auto wrecker they had a full pipe setup minus the y pipe from flowmaster so priced that out flow tech heads and a y pipe and the total was over 650! I am in grade 12 so im at school all week and I work all weekend so I am really frustrated but luckily I have a grand left from the summer of working so I am gunna hold off and figure out what the hell to do for this exhaust.

Ill keep you all posted!

Thanks

Chris

cal30_sniper

iTrader: (16)

There are people selling used headers on here all the time, sometimes with the y-pipe included. Since the cats are all in the same place on these cars (at least with single cat cars) you should be able to use any header and y-pipe combination and route it to your existing flowmaster pipes. Just bide your time a little while and wait til a good setup comes up for sale from someone willing to ship to Canada. Buying used will save you loads of money on exhaust.

Whatever you do, I would stay away from the cheap flowtech style headers (that includes the summit branded ones). They are generally inferior in quality, with thinner gauge steel, and very poor coatings. I had a set of Summit headers on my SBC suburban, and they rusted into junk within two years (we're talking holes in them rusted, not just surface rust). I had a set of flowtech headers on my '78 403 Trans am, and they did the same thing, just not quite as bad. Even with budget brands like Hooker and Hedman, you still get a way better product.

As a final note, I seriously doubt that a cracked y-pipe is causing your idle problems. These cars run just fine with open headers, so backpressure loss is not going to cause idling problems. I would start by giving it a meticulous check for vacuum leaks. There is a very good chance that's where a wandering or rough idle problem originates.

chrisvanguitar5

So update bought a whole flowmaster set today from the tips to the y pipe going to pick up some headers tommorow!!!!!! Hopefully my car will be out of the shop soon!!!!

maks10

agreed....had multiple exhaust leaks in the past no idle changes

nice bird btw

itsMikey

looks good dude low is the way to go..

89iroc89

TBH I am more amused with that VanHalen t-shirt lol!

IROCgiraffe

iTrader: (3)

Nice ride!!!

chrisvanguitar5

It's been a long time but here's an update, got the exhaust completely sealed and my sub box built, but I blew my 9 bolt 3.27 spyder gears up, we are going to hopefully rebuild within the next 2 weeks and then I will be doing a manual swap, a headliner replacement, throwing some amps in for the subs and then a lot of suspension and electrical not to mention maybe a top end build