When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Remarkably similar stories, you and me. I had a black ‘89 Formula 350 - a project that I just couldn’t get off the ground. It was a West Texas car, so rust wasn’t an issue, but literally every other thing was completely ratted out. It needed a new nose because a previous owner apparently tried to fab in a Knight Rider scanner type deal using like a box cutter and...glue I guess. And the interior - forget about it.
I too, didn’t want to get rid of it, but eventually bailed when I got a hard top *Medium Maui Blue...ish*. Honestly, I don’t know if that’s right, calling it Maui Blue. I know it’s listed that way but I’ve seen “Maui Blue” on some Camaros, and I’m telling ya, it’s NOT the same color. It’s like a greenish tint, whereas mine has a vibrant purplish & silverish tint that varies depending on light conditions. It’s confusing so I’ll digress...
Anyway, bailed on the black car, got a blue one similar to yours. When I got it, the fuel was completely varnish, and the engine had to be overhauled (things were not as advertised). So I had to pull the drivetrain on the blue one.
Oh, and it was 2002 when I got the black one. I ended up giving it away.
Remarkably similar stories, you and me. I had a black ‘89 Formula 350 - a project that I just couldn’t get off the ground. It was a West Texas car, so rust wasn’t an issue, but literally every other thing was completely ratted out. It needed a new nose because a previous owner apparently tried to fab in a Knight Rider scanner type deal using like a box cutter and...glue I guess. And the interior - forget about it.
I too, didn’t want to get rid of it, but eventually bailed when I got a hard top *Medium Maui Blue...ish*. Honestly, I don’t know if that’s right, calling it Maui Blue. I know it’s listed that way but I’ve seen “Maui Blue” on some Camaros, and I’m telling ya, it’s NOT the same color. It’s like a greenish tint, whereas mine has a vibrant purplish & silverish tint that varies depending on light conditions. It’s confusing so I’ll digress...
Anyway, bailed on the black car, got a blue one similar to yours. When I got it, the fuel was completely varnish, and the engine had to be overhauled (things were not as advertised). So I had to pull the drivetrain on the blue one.
Oh, and it was 2002 when I got the black one. I ended up giving it away.
Yeah, I've been pretty frustrated with this one. Fortunately everything that's been junk so far would have been upgraded eventually anyway. I'll just put it on the back burner when I've had enough until I'm ready to look at it again. It's been a fight the entire way, nothing has just bolted up and worked and this chassis has had a hard life. This weekend I wanted to finally get it running and driving to make it to a local show next Saturday. Got the clutch working and mounted and balanced the tires. Went to put the wheels on the car and they are grinding on the tie rod ends WITH 1/4 spacers. Sure enough they fit every other car but this one. Put the stock wheels back on and the calipers are also seized. Installed the Hawks clutch master that is supposed to be a tight fit and I had to dimple my inner fender to fit it. I don't think this car wants to live. But its SO D*MN CLOSE.
So I figure I'm not out of the running just yet. Went to town and bought two new front calipers and could only find one brake hose. Installed the caliper on the car and the bleeder is installed to 80+ft lbs and immediately rounds off and flips me the finger as it fails to loosen. Put on the brake hose (made in China) and... It's made wrong. You can't clip it into the retainer. I'll have to take a picture later. So now I have better hoses ordered from Jegs. I took the caliper back off and vice gripped the bleeder out and used one from the old caliper. God willing and I don't twist the hard lines off, there's still a small amount of hope for next weekend. I'll have to take off early Friday to make it to the DMV for plates and finish the brakes. I still intend to install big brakes on the car, but for $20 a caliper I just want to get it drive able for right now. Oh and there's a pool of antifreeze on the intake manifold after running it up to temp.
I ground about as much as I care too on the tie rods and the drivers wheel still rubs. The passenger side cleared with just a little grinding. I might have to buy some 3/8th spacers. Of course there won't be enough threads grabbing for my liking but I have some ARP long studs sitting in the garage already.
On a positive note, the car looks absolutely bad *** on the new wheels, and runs like a champ!
Your car is looking great too BTW!
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 08-12-2018 at 08:56 PM.
Productive week. It lives! I feels good to be back behind the wheel of a Formula again.
Got the wheels on the car. I measured the backspace on them and they're advertised at 5 3/8ths. They are actually measuring at 5 1/2" bs. I ended up having to stack two 1/4 in spacers to make them fit. Of course the studs were too short for 1/2" worth of spacers, so I had to replace them with longer ARP studs. Only temporary until I upgrade the brakes, then I can eliminate one of the spacers.
The wheels really made the car. What a difference!
Made it out to a car show today with TTOP350 and DD9TRANSAMGTA. Congrats to Cameron for taking home a 2nd place trophy with his GTA. Of course Tony brought three of the six cars pictured
Formula did pretty good. No major issues and the transmission was shifting great. I highly recommend just spending the money on decent hydraulics if you do a T56 swap. The Hawks master cylinder is the ticket, well worth it. My clutch engagement and pedal height is now the best of any swap car I've personally experienced, and it even seems to have stiffened up the firewall and gotten rid of all the flex considerably. The engine only turns 600 RPM in 6th at 65mph! Had a little bit of an antifreeze leak from the thermostat housing and I need to figure out the SGI5E box. Apparently I don't have something right because I have no speedometer. So I guess next is to get that figured out, get my brakes upgraded, and I'm considering repainting my wing with some dupli-color paint until I can get some professional paint work done.
My wife drove her 98 Trans am and a friend drove the vert, he is still working on his 90 formula 350.. We had a fun day.
All the formulas in the pic are 350 cars too!
I’m no expert, but two (2) slip on spacers sounds dicey.
I thought the same, but I did some thorough research on the interwebs and was assured it would be OK. I put them on that was as just a temporary means to get it the short drive down to the car show. I personally don't feel comfortable running them that way myself even though I was told it would be fine.
I plan on taking the car to a few HPDEs so a brake upgrade is the next thing on the list. The factory brakes are hardly sufficient to drive these cars on the street, let alone on a track. But anyway, that should space things out enough to remove one of the spacers at least.
I'm torn though on which kit I want to buy. If I go with C5 then I would imagine I could get a lifetime warranty on calipers and rotors if I went though a parts house. The Wilwood stuff sure is nice though. Ability to drop in pads and a lot less unsprung weight. God knows I gave up enough of that with the choice in wheels.
I'm up in the air on running some of these IMCA spherical tie rod setups. (https://www.speedwaymotors.com/IMCA-...mbly,2058.html) The outer ends will be way smaller and allow for some additional clearance as well as bump steer adjustment. As little as the car will be driven, I won't have to worry much about them wearing any faster.
Well, both headlight motor bushing decided to give up at the same time. Spent some time pulling the assemblies tonight and ordered a kit from TDS. Going to try to freshen everything up and detail a bit while I'm in there. The front end swap on this car is such a shade tree hack job. The car still has the 1990 headlights, and they didn't use the trim rings from the '91/2 either. The passenger side light was only held in with 3 bolts. And while in there I also found a wire ripped out from the passenger side plug. I pulled the connector out and did my best to split the connector open and solder the wire back into place.
I want to freshen up the bolts and repaint some of these brackets. These parts are looking pretty tired.
I decided on brakes too. I sourced some of Stan's brackets from FRRAX, hopefully they should get here soon. They're designed to mount an FSLI Wilwood caliper with a C5 rotor while utilizing all 3 dust shield bolt locations for added strength. Pretty cool design. Picture is not my car but will give you an idea of what the bracket looks like.
Have to chime in and compliment your progress, your car looks excellent! I baby my gta and yet it still does nothing but give me problems but I keep tugging through, it's nice to see I'm not alone haha. Also a Maui manual formula is one of the coolest third gen combos imo, there was one down the road from me earlier this year that I would have loved to scoop but naturally the seller just never responded to any emails
Have to chime in and compliment your progress, your car looks excellent! I baby my gta and yet it still does nothing but give me problems but I keep tugging through, it's nice to see I'm not alone haha. Also a Maui manual formula is one of the coolest third gen combos imo, there was one down the road from me earlier this year that I would have loved to scoop but naturally the seller just never responded to any emails
Thanks! It's always one thing after another but sooner or later you look back and realize how much progress you've made.
Got it out again last weekend for a short cruise to a buddies house. The car still has a long way to go to be as mechanically sound as my black Formula was. I've been chasing all kinds of issues from the car and motor having sat as long as they have. So the laundtry list so far:
Found a new antifreeze leak from a heater hose. At least it's minor, just irritating that I just had it drained to fix a different leak.
Headlights are rebuilt now though and work perfectly.
Still need to get the speedo working. Not sure where I went wrong with the SGI, sucks that I mounted it under the console. hahaha!.
Passenger Collector leaks like crazy, so I need to figure that out. The SLP Y pipe has never lined up well and has always given me issues.
Starter needs shimmed.
Trans occasionally pops out of third at inopportune moments.
And the steering has a little slop in it somewhere.
Antenna is broke off, so I get two radio stations intermittently.
Hatch struts are blown.
But I'm getting down to the minor naggy stuff at least.
I received the brake brackets and ordered the hoses and AN fittings, so there will be a Wilwood install here hopefully soon. Oh, and also ordered a new coolant tank.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 10-01-2018 at 08:45 PM.
Very nice looking revival....
Cosmetically, I would NOT change a thing
well almost.... I prefer the 91-92 rear spoiler more however it is NOT a deal breaker... GREAT WORK my friend
Thanks! It's always one thing after another but sooner or later you look back and realize how much progress you've made.
Got it out again last weekend for a short cruise to a buddies house. The car still has a long way to go to be as mechanically sound as my black Formula was. I've been chasing all kinds of issues from the car and motor having sat as long as they have. So the laundtry list so far:
Found a new antifreeze leak from a heater hose. At least it's minor, just irritating that I just had it drained to fix a different leak.
Headlights are rebuilt now though and work perfectly.
Still need to get the speedo working. Not sure where I went wrong with the SGI, sucks that I mounted it under the console. hahaha!.
Passenger Collector leaks like crazy, so I need to figure that out. The SLP Y pipe has never lined up well and has always given me issues.
Starter needs shimmed.
Trans occasionally pops out of third at inopportune moments.
And the steering has a little slop in it somewhere.
Antenna is broke off, so I get two radio stations intermittently.
Hatch struts are blown.
But I'm getting down to the minor naggy stuff at least.
I received the brake brackets and ordered the hoses and AN fittings, so there will be a Wilwood install here hopefully soon. Oh, and also ordered a new coolant tank.
At least it's driving and shows excellently, those rims are perfect on Formulas. As droptop said, I prefer the 91-92 spoiler as well but they crack easily and I have yet to find a good aftermarket replacement so I think you're in good shape
Took the day off work and spent some time in the garage. New washer tank looks much better, fixed the collector leak, and was able to get the starter shimmed up. I also got some goodies this week.
Thanks for the kind words guys. I just looked back and can't believe it's been almost two years already.
Just got a few new goodies. Just need rotors and I'll have everything for the brakes. I'm really digging the grey finish on the calipers. Can't wait to get them installed.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 02-09-2019 at 07:52 PM.
I now have all the parts for the big brake kit. Ended up grabbing some GMPP C5 rotors, They're actually a Raybestos part. I can't wait to see them on the car.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 02-15-2019 at 09:47 AM.
Big thanks to TTOP350 for my recent addition. I could spend all day looking around his garage and still only feel like I've scratched the surface. I did reassure him visitation rights in case the separation anxiety became too much to bare.
I haven't installed one of these in probably over 15 years, but I haven't forgot how much fun they are.
I'm thinking about going with an XFI268 grind and 195 AFRs.
Read through your thread a few times now. Very nice build. I love that you kept the TPI set up for so long and are now just upgrading to a different TPI. Hope the brakes are going well. Cant wait to see any updates.
Thought I would jump on here and give an update. The car has once again hit the back burner for a little while. I was planning on doing some big things with it this year, but life again had other plans. My dad just passed away on April 30th at the age of 72. It's been a pretty devastating month to say the least. My wife also just lost her dad just a few short months ago. So... pretty much 2019 so far can suck it. It's also effecting project money for the car as I've had to take some extended unpaid time off of work to handle things with his estate. Pretty much all my free time right now is going towards cleaning out his house and preparing it for sale.
On a lighter note, Apparently I was a little hasty in selecting the brakes for the front of the car. I really should have done some more homework and taken some measurements. In short, I should have known better. The C5 rotor offset in no way will work with these wheels. Soooo....I decided to switch it up and run some C4HD rotors which have considerably more offset to them and should set the caliper back an additional .57". Although not ideal, I'll still be able to run the same 1.25" wide calipers on the narrower 1.1" C4HD rotors. After taking some measurements, it's still going to be pretty close and I'll still have to run at least a 1/4" wheel spacer to make it work. The new caliper brackets are on order so hopefully I can get the car back off of jack stands and back on all four wheels
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 06-07-2019 at 10:17 AM.
It's back on the ground again after the lengthiest brake job in history! Still getting some tie rod rub after the new brakes and a 1/4" spacer. I'm thinking the fender bender this car has had in the past has something tweaked.
I finally get the SGI5E box calibrated. I finally have a working speedometer! Ended up moving the output to output #3, H-L, and Cal = 1.2 for anyone needing to set theirs up. It now works great and has no check engine light for no VSS. Now to address bleeding the spongy brakes for the umpteenth time. I really need a power bleeder. It's impressive how tight of a fit those Wilwoods are in the rims, but they fit.
I also got the correct valance panels mounted up under the nose. Thanks again TTOP350. It did have the '90 ones and they overlapped under the nose and were screwed down with self taps. Looked like poo.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 04-03-2020 at 08:39 PM.
Well, I have a ton of goodies ordered but nothing is shipping on account of the ole Corona. I ended up ordering a Ground Control weight jack set, GC Konis, 950 front and 250 rear springs, UMI upper strut mounts, and am upgrading my LCA's to full sphericals.
I'm still trying to decide on on which SFCs I want to go with. I'm leaning between UMI or Detroits. I can't decide if I want to cut into my pans or not.
I really need to pull my transmission again. It's grinding going into third and pops out of third as soon as you let off the throttle. Shift fork pads broken? bad syncro?
I've also ordered a full array of parts to rebuild the front suspension and tighten everything back to factory fresh, including some global west bushings, and some new strut rods for the hatch.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 04-12-2020 at 11:29 AM.
Small victory, my hatch now stays up on its own. I'm still waiting on shipments from Rock Auto, Hawks, and Ground Control. Murphy's law strikes again. I have bled the ever lovin farq out of the brakes, I'll get a nice firm pedal, go for a drive and the pedal will be almost on the floor and spongy again. No leaks anywhere so I'm going to snag a new master cylinder.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 12-04-2020 at 09:32 AM.
Ugh, I drove the car that had that trans in it and I sure don't remember it doing that. Sorry about that, I can help ya get it lined out if you want to.
like your upgrades if you want some 91-92 headlights I have a spare set laying around and if you have to ditch those wheels let me know, the set I ordered over a year ago are still not shipped yet nice intake you chose thatll be fun!
Ugh, I drove the car that had that trans in it and I sure don't remember it doing that. Sorry about that, I can help ya get it lined out if you want to.
It's all good Tony. Hell this transmission has sat for about 10 years now. If you want to spare some time on that lift of yours though maybe we could drop it and throw in some bronze fork pads and some billet keys. I would even be willing to throw in a bottle of crown on the deal . I still have a 9 bolt gasket for you too. Sure would beat the hell out of laying on my concrete floor, and I would appreciate the hell out of some extra hands.
I was throwing around the idea of buying the neighbors empty lot and throwing up a shop building, but the Divernon country club will only let me build a 24'x24' out here. Makes me almost want to go house shopping again.
Originally Posted by zman1969
like your upgrades if you want some 91-92 headlights I have a spare set laying around and if you have to ditch those wheels let me know, the set I ordered over a year ago are still not shipped yet nice intake you chose thatll be fun!
Thanks! I appreciate the offer on the headlights but I already have it covered. I can't believe they are discontinuing these wheels, they seem to be pretty popular still. Only issue I have found was that my offsets where a little deeper than advertised. Those 18" versions are pretty appealing, but I can't justify another few grand to change it up with as much as this car still needs. BTW, I would love to have that Dana axle out of your car!
I just dropped some more cash at Jegs last night. Bought some UMI subframe connectors, DSE tie rod adjusters, and Global West control arm bushings. On top of a new master cylinder from Rock Auto.
Last edited by Anti-Venom; 04-18-2020 at 09:33 AM.
Been a slow year for the car, I've had a bunch of other stuff going on. Just installed a 24' pool in the back yard with a massive deck, put power in my shed, replaced exterior doors on the house, and just ordered a brand new and better insulated garage door. I also just sold a Bass Tracker boat and picked up a hell of a deal on a '93 Bullet bass boat with a 225hp Evinrude that needed a few small things like a gear shifting issue. I've already got the boat wet sanded and buffed back out and replaced the worn throttle box and cables. So it's running perfect and shining like a proper glitter rocket now. Plan with the boat is to enjoy it for next Spring for a couple rips on the lake and then I'll probably flip it for a profit and reinvest it back into the bird like I did the last boat. I've been making some good money flipping these boats, but I think this will be the last one for awhile. I would really like to focus on getting this car done.
So plans are to get the chassis aligned and 100%
AFR 195s and XFI268 cam then I can install the intake.
Decide on a tuning solution.
Replace sagging headliner, cage, and get the SFCs welded in.
Remove trans and stage 2 it. billet keys, bronze fork pads ect.
I might redo the exhaust from the y pipe to the mid pipe. Fitment has never been great.
Decide on a hawks wing or a Mecham wing. And some body work if budget allows.
So hopefully next year will bring some good things.
It's been a while, thought I would update a bit. The car hasn't hardly moved at all in a year unfortunately. I haven't completely neglected it though. It has been started often and ran around the block several times. But... It's time for it to come out of hiding again.
Last week I gave the car a quick and dirty string alignment. I ran it by the shop after numerous attempts to get a firm brake pedal in the car. Ended up power bleeding the brakes and they've improved, however I'm still not happy with the pedal feel. I'm probably going to do what I should have done all along, and that's completely replace the back back brakes, lines and all.
I just got done this afternoon with installing an SST STX shifter. It was driving me nuts that having an OEM shifter was causing the lever to push hard on the console going into reverse. It had way too much side to side throw. I'm happy to say that the shifter now stays well within the confines of where it belongs. I'm getting ready to take it out for a quick spin and see how it feels. Sitting in the driveway running through the gears, the throw feels very tight, and the shifter feels pretty stiff. But I've read nothing but positive reviews about Silver Sports shifters.
As far as the suspension, the car has been completely transformed. This thing is on rails now. The front end is so tight and responsive. The Koni's ride awesome. I couldn't be happier. It does ride a little stiffer, but the body roll is gone and it's just connected. The harshness is definitely liveable on the street. It does tramline a bit, but that's the wide tires more than anything. Going to get it over for a proper alignment now and it should be ready for a few events this year.
Oh, and I decided to try my hand at improving the looks of the flaking paint of the spoiler. Lets just say I'm not a body guy, but it looks better...ish
08-12-2018, 06:21 PM
nice intake you chose thatll be fun! 
