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also removed the 10+ year old vinyl wrap from the spoiler and spray bombed it black. it will be wrapped again but correctly this time.
spoiler vinyl removed and painted black for now
Keep up the good work. I really enjoy working on mine, every little project that gets completed feels like a big accomplishment...... Especially when my wife and kids are right there with me. I know you get the same satisfaction. You are making Chuck proud.
I like this build thread. Has real personality and meaning.
As mentioned earlier, that ball is a vacuum accumulator. It holds vacuum on the HVAC controls when the vacuum in the engine manifold falls too low (high throttle position). The HVAC blend doors are vacuum operated and it is necessary to hold constant vacuum on the system or the doors will flop around when throttle position is high enough to lose vacuum.
The vacuum accumulator cannot work without a check valve that isolates it from the engine manifold. You already found the tee in the air lines behind the intake manifold, but that is more than just a tee, that is the check valve.
My recommendation is to keep the vacuum accumulator because (A) it is seriously easy to keep it; and (B) HVAC will work as it ought to. This will become increasingly important if you ever install a more aggressive cam.
So my advice is to not sweat what he would want or not, but to build your own character and let the car be an outward reflection of your inward growth and strength. I'm pretty sure he would be happy with that! - your wife and mother, too! Then take care of it and maintain it.
I was thinking along the same lines when I saw the first post in this thread. The car should have some piece of Chuck in it but it is your car now and everybody is going to be very happy with the way you are caring for it. Make it yours and enjoy it because enjoying the car was the real purpose that Chuck had in mind when he bought it and gave it to you.
My car has a piece of my father in it but the car is uniquely mine. My father didn't help me work on it or anything like that. His contribution was love. Basically the only reason my car is in good condition is due to my father's kindness. If I don't wreck the car before I'm done with it then I am giving it to a nephew who will cherish the memory of uncle Jon. I absolutely expect him to carry on and make it his car in any way he wants.
thank you all for the encouraging comments, if it wasn't for you guys and the guys I work with I don't think I would be as far as I am. It really helps having people behind you wanting to see progress. so as far as the vacuum canister goes, I can put it back in but I need to know where it is supposed to be plumed. I know one side goes to the manifold which has a hard plastic line going into the "T" and one side goes to the vacuum canister but where does the third side go? 1986 IROC Z suggested looking at the vacuum diagram on the hood, which would be great but I don't have anything on the hood.
moving the battery to the pass side is better for handling (weight distribution), and I used the opening for my air cleaner to go down into that space on that driver's side. But, you can always replace and use a battery mat to prevent further corrosion.
So, I'm still waffling on the idea on where to put the battery tray, and I know that last night I said I was going to do it myself but today one of my buddies at work told me to give him the dimension I need so he can put together a stainless tray. I like the idea of moving it to the passenger side, mostly because I don't like where my intake sits currently and I already have a big hole on the driver side. I have an idea for a cold air box, I'm going to pick up some parts tonight to try it before I say anything because it may be a dumb idea lol.
I know one side goes to the manifold which has a hard plastic line going into the "T" and one side goes to the vacuum canister but where does the third side go?
It goes to the plastic tube that passes thru the firewall under the heater core (wrapped in a bundle of wires). That is the vacuum line for all the heat/vent controls.
Correct. That's the Diverter Valve. It switches the air from the A.I.R. pump between the exhaust manifolds and tubes that run down to the catalytic converter(s).
I finally got the actual air pump out, one of the bolts holding it in broke in half inside of the pump... that sucked. I'm looking for how to go about removing all of the wires that go to the pump and the canister. I don't want to just cut them off, I would like to trace them back and remove thrm properly if possible.
so, I've got the ability to remove the stainless tubes on the passenger side, then I can get to the spark plugs . tomorrow I need to see about clearing up the driver side. so after these quarter inch lines go into the 1.5 inch or so line where does it go? I've seen videos of people removing them but they never really go into detail on that part. sorry for jumping all over the place, but I don't want to mess with the driver side until I get the pump and wiper motor back together, really there is some (very little) logic here...
sorry, got busy over the weekend doing everything except what I want to be doing. yes, the air injection tubes, I know they go back towards the fire wall, just not sure where they go from there. I really need to look for a flow chart/ diagram for the whole thing.
washer pump and wiper motor repaired cleaned and painted.
I got the parts in for the washer pump and got it put back together, I used a krylon primer for the plastic portion and painted the whole thing with silver engine enamel after it was cleaned, I think it turned out pretty decent. with all the stainless that is going under the hood soon it should look pretty good.
I will be getting the custom stainless battery tray some time today so I made a template out of cardboard, thinking I should be able to cut out the steel for it tonight since my wife has band practice. I also found that a local napa will mix paint and put it in a spray car for $30 sure beats the $65-$70 to order a can online.
so I finally got around to replacing the metal I cut out from the battery tray. I traced out my cardboard template (but with good straight lines) on to the spare door I cut up to fix my driver door and cut out the filler piece.
this is the filler i came up with, pretty close to what i cout out but not perfect. it will be covered with the stainless battery tray after it is all welded in place.
tried my hand at welding, it wont be seen anyways after the new battery tray goes in. looks like crap now but ill grind it down and prime and paint before the new tray goes in... I swear I do have it, just keep forgetting to take a pic of it.
I talked to on of my welder buddies and showed him the pic, he said that I might have had the wire speed up to high and I had the setting on high, I should have had it on low (he has the same welder at home). so tonight I will attempt to clean up the mess I made with his suggestions and try to get it all primed. I will be picking up touch up paint on Friday from napa and look for some 1 1/4 inch rubber grommets for mounting the battery tray.
A lot of spatter...make sure you grind down to bare metal a good ways back around where you are welding. If that door steel was galvanized for rust protection you have to grind through that coating to get a good weld. And to save your life. Welding through galvanized can create poisonous gasses that you don't want to be breathing.
the steel is from an 87 trans am. I wouldn't think they used galvanized metal for the doors, or did they? and yeah, the guy who welded my door said the same thing and told me t turn the setting and speed down to clean it up. so I'm going to give it another try after the kids go to bed tonight
well took advice to heart, turned the welder down and the speed down and it was a lot easier to get a good bead
2nd day welding
ground all my splatter down and got some primer on it
new battery area sheet metal
and test fitted the battery tray
new battery tray
yeah, the pan I welded in will have weep hole in it and I still need to remount the vacuum canister under the welded in portion. the stainless will be mounted on rubber grommets to make up for the recessed area and to avoid the dissimilar metals from possibly touching and also to avoid the battery pan from rubbing on the newly painted surface. I'm making it a lot more complicated than it needs to be but when it's done it will be beautiful and functional and will make my cheap battery look stupid and out of place...
so, between 11 hour days at work, 2 kids, a wife, and a house that I'm trying to fix up to sell I haven't had a whole lot of time for the bird. but after building new handrails today I decided to look into where the brake fluid puddle came from. about an hour after the wheel came off i finally got the 2 bolts holding the caliper in place loose. but of course its,fighting me, it seems the bottom bolt is to long. maybe it's because I'm tired but I can figure out how to get it out. I'll try again tomorrow.
trashed rear caliper
so I got the leaking caliper off just to find that the brake fluid saturated the inside pad and the rotor. there is so much brake fluid on everything I can't tell where the actual leak is. unfortunately I can't spare any cash to put towards the car because we are taking a trip to California at the end of the month and it ain't cheap lol. so my plan is to buy all new calipers, rotors, pads and flex lines after we get back.
so after a not so long, mostly one sided discussion the decision was made that I will replace both rotors, calipers both sets of pads, guide pins, all misc brake related hardware and stainless brake lines when we return from california... I think this is her making up for me not getting to tour alcatraz
Can't you go with a repair kit for those calipers? I know they make them for the front ones.
That would at least save you some bucks on the calipers.
My guess would be the rubber boot around the center part has had it.
you are correct, it would save me some money, but I think the peace of mind having all new components is worth the extra money. I was really wanting to go after market but cant seem to find direct replacements for this style. when I started this project I made the decision anything I take off will be replaced with something better.
you are also correct about the center part being toast, most of that boot is missing. judging by how much brake fluid had coated the inside of the wheel I can only assume it blew it out when I replaced my front brakes.
so after a not so long, mostly one sided discussion the decision was made that I will replace both rotors, calipers both sets of pads, guide pins, all misc brake related hardware and stainless brake lines when we return from california... I think this is her making up for me not getting to tour alcatraz
YOUR NOT TAKING THE TOUR TO ALCATRAZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????? AHHHHHH!
Its really cool too.
well I got good news yesterday, I'm gonna go give an estimate for a side job this weekend, if I can get it in before we leave we will have money for Alcatraz and a good start for my paint fund. fingers crossed
So, its been a while (2 months to the day). got back from cali, did some side work, somehow got wrapped up in refinancing the house (still trying to figure out how that happened) and that let to be rewiring about 20% of my house and now this weekend I get to help install all new electrical service... so needless to say I have not gotten much time on the garage. I have gotten most of the brake parts, only thing I have yet to pick up is the calipers, that probably wont happen this weekend, but hopefully next. it took about an hour to get the rotor off, it was stuck pretty good, I started with WD-40 around the hub and a rubber mallet, switched to a regular hammer and then finally went all out and used a sledge, but it came off...
new rotor, and brake line installed last night, im going to stick with the delco caliper since I don't really plan on racing it or anything, it'll be a weekend cruiser whenever I finally hits the road again.
It wasn't painted on purpose. Since you painted things in the bolted joint stackup of wheel, be sure to recheck the torque of wheel nuts a couple hours after assembly. Paint compresses a little while after parts are bolted together and can relax the bolted joint enough to loosen nuts. I have seen painted pulleys fly off engines 5 to 20 minutes after first start up because people didn't follow paint masking instructions on prints.
this all leads to a question, the black tar-like material inside of the wheel well, what is the best thing to use to try to replace it?
Where the 2 halves of the wheel well come together in the middle, I use black non-hardening Permatex. Then I spray canned undercoating after a day or two..
qwktrip, thank you for the information, since I don't foresee it hitting the road again before it starts to get cold I will make sure it gets torques down a couple of times before it starts rolling again.
noemissions, does the undercoating start to fade after a couple of weeks? I used some undercoating on an old truck that I had and it seems like I remember it fading to a brown, almost orangish kind of color. I believe that was autozone brand, so maybe a better brand wont fade?
The "sticky tar" substance.... Looks like it was spread on like peanut butter, right? Probably body seam sealer. Silicone gasket maker is a **** poor substitute for that.
The sprayed on stuff in the wheel well is rubberized undercoating.
so I finally got my rear caliper in yesterday, Painted them red to match the fronts and got the whole passenger side put back together. also used some under body coating inside of the wheel well to replaced the chunks that have come off. I pulled off the master cylinder and cleaned it out, it had the typical brown sludge in the bottom of it. when I went to start it up (just to hear it run) the battery was dead... so tonight I guess I'm going to be taking the battery to get in the zone (autozone) and see if it can be charged and pick up some brake fluid. ill post pics if I can get them to post without being upside down.
rear passenger side brake.
this is the regular delco moraine style caliper, I just painted the iron part red to match the front powerstop caliper, the rotor is powerstop and the pads are hawks ceramic pads.
so, I started on the driver side last night, and stripped one of the bolts holding the caliper in place. its gonna make for a long weekend. on the upside, I did get a lead on 2 additional side jobs, one is a whole house rehab, so if I get it I will have enough money for the paint job, I will hopefully find out Monday if I get it or not.
So after fighting with autozone and pepboys on the size of the thread on either side of the brake line going from the distribution block to the actual caliper I finally got the driver side rear all put together, my lovely assistant (7 year old daughter) is not tall enough to help bleed the brakes though. so brakes will hopefully be bled tonight with the help of my wife.
I found some interesting things on this brake, apparently the original line is supposed to be 10x1.0 thread, mine was... well not that, I couldn't tell you what size it is at the block but its not metric. and the thread on the caliper is not 10x1.0 either, its 7/16x 14. So, long story short, instead of the driver side rear caliper getting hard line into the caliper it now mirrors the passenger side with the hard line going into a flex line.
the line on the left is a new 3' section that got cut down, the one on the right is the one I took out, apparently whoever installed it didn't want to cut it so they put a bunch of random bends in it to take up some of the length.
finally made my way to napa just to find out that the one by my house only mixes paint Monday through Friday, So I went to the next closest one who mixes paint 7 days a week (about 25 miles from my house) and got some single stage paint to cover up my battery tray area, now I'm waiting on my new vacuum canister to come in so I can install that and my stainless battery tray.
Also my concern about my old crusty battery looking out of place surrounded by all the new/ newly painted parts has been averted, it died on Friday, so I had to
get a new one. I ended up getting a Bosch due to it having a 3 year full replacement warranty and 8 year depreciated warranty.
05-23-2017, 09:21 PM
