first a little introduction,
my names Tony, im 18, I've been around cars with my dad since i could remember. love all the great old muscle cars... mostly pontiacs and gm stuff though.
anyway... back on 9/11/12 i purchased a gta, and I've been lurking around the boards since.
Its an 1988 Gta 305 TPI, T5, Flame red with beechwood leather.

i found the car on good olde' craigslist, the ad said " $1000 obo needs work" and there was no pictures. it was only bout 45 minutes away from me,
so i went to look at it, and it was not pretty... the car was sitting in a fenced in storage lot, it was sitting for about 2 years according to the inspection sticker.
car did not run, and was missing a bunch of parts, left front fender, digital dash...factory radio and steering wheel etc..
i ended up buying it for $800. got it towed home, and started wrenching on it with my dad.

heres a picture of it when i bought it, to give you an idea... (my dad was siting in it checking it out.)

 

here's the car once i got it home.
only major body part missing was the fender, the hood's in the back ground.
the interior was the scariest part...wires everywhere..
i asssume the guy who had it before me started to part it out... or something.
there was so many things wrong/ missing with the car..
the only reason i bought it was because its a T5 and its pretty much rust free.



the digital dash was gone, heater/ac controls, the radio, and the steering wheel with the radio controls, dash pad, the lower dash trim pieces..
it does have the console though.. i just took it out in this picture.

 

The guy said the car ran, but he was full of crap
once it was home i went to town on it, trying to get it to run.
where do i start with the problems why it wouldnt run?

man... well first off there was no serpentine belt, oil cooler hoses were leaking,no coil for the distributor , distributor it self was shot.. so there was no spark. fixed those issues... got a belt, deleted the oil cooler, replaced the radiator hoses and thermostat while i was at it... and fresh fluids, once i got a coil and distributor we had spark!
but there wasnt any fuel .. turns out there was no pump in the tank... and they had an external pump hooked up. that was disconnect.
well after putting a new pump in the tank we got fuel! and she now runs! burns oil.. but runs fine.

 

the car was up in the air in this one, took everything out of the rear when i dropped the tank to put a fuel pump in it.
i buffed parts of the paint for fun, seems like it was original paint, eventually the whole car will get painted

 

with the rear out, we put in new seals and bearings then sandblasted and painted it,




all back together, replaced everything. new springs, shocks, calipers, pads, e brake cables, bushings etc..

 

started polishing the wheels, sanded them down, then polished them out with compound

before



after




i managed to get the interior parts through ebay, member on here, local junkyards etc.. and its mostly back together. hardest part was the wiring nightmare, thank god for wiring diagrams.







found a fender at the local yard, same color too!






the headlights, and fog lights were gone, i have since gotten them

 

started the body work on her,





the roof,quarter panel and rear bumper have been primed



here is the car as of today, i put all the lights back in, once the weather breaks in here in PA i plan on driving it.
i gotta get 4 tires, do the front brakes, struts.
then she'll be on the road,
eventually hopefully next winter i plan on rebuilding the motor and trans, finishing the body work and getting it painted.



i love how it looks at night

 

Looks good kid......and as a father, I have to tell you ..I enjoy my time in the garage with my boys. .

 

Wow... that's pretty insane.

 

Wow interior looks great. Very nice job

 

Nice find, Not enough GTA's on the road.

 

Wow, nice project, you are doing it right.

Keep the pics coming, great to see it transforming.

 

Way to save one man. Good to see young guys careing about old car and doing something productive. Keep up the good work.

 

wow that was one hell of a project to take on, coming along nicely as well