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.
Thanks. Yes, it seems to fit similar to the factory, I will say the little clips at the end don't feel as sturdy as the factory clips. So when waxing or polishing I feel you need to exercise some restraint/care. I'll have to make a run back to the paint place I got the medium beechwood paint from to refinish some other pieces as well.
Neil350 - Your car is looking good !!! - I have your evil TWIN - but an 87 with digital dash - looking for a candidate to swap my digital dash for their standard dash, including all wiring, cluster, components, etc
Wow that GTA is nice, that's wayyyy cleaner than mine. That car looks very well kept, cloth interiors of lighter shades hide nothing and that looks excellent.
Wow that GTA is nice, that's wayyyy cleaner than mine. That car looks very well kept, cloth interiors of lighter shades hide nothing and that looks excellent.
Thanks !! - I will be following your build - keep up the great work !!
Wear & Tear Parts replaced: Power Steering Line, found a thread on here about the part number on Rockauto being incorrect. Used the part number listed here and it worked. Thanks thirdgen.org. Replaced the hatch & hood struts & as well as the hood latch assembly.
Hatch Motor rebuild, starting Pic – 29 year old hatch pull down in original form.
Bit the bullet & ordered the parts from Lon at Top Down Solutions. On the original, guides were broken or missing & the housing was cracked. You could shake the entire assembly by hand, no wonder it rattled. Replaced with a new motor, gear nut, TDS reinforced housing, TDS guides and a rebuilt TDS Reverse switch, cleaned and reassembled. It works, it’s solid now so the only logical plan is to never use the hatch again.
Stupid rabbit hole I blame the guy at GM for.
My factory radio bit the bullet, went aftermarket, didn’t like the fitment, match, etc. I met an electrical engineer who worked for GM in the 80s who developed the steering wheel controls for Pontiac. He says whenever he sees a GTA he looks if it’s an SWC car. This lead me down a rabbit hole of wanting a working factory radio for the car. I ended up finding one on Facebook from a Third Gen Salvage Yard in GA. It came from a high mile car, but it worked. I took it and my old radio to a local stereo repair place and had them swap the face & buttons from my non-working radio which was low mile and in nicer shape. End result, I have a factory working radio. They did forget to swap the tape player small buttons, my old radio buttons still had the white box out lines. Oh well.
Wear & Tear Parts replaced: Power Steering Line, found a thread on here about the part number on Rockauto being incorrect. Used the part number listed here and it worked. Thanks thirdgen.org. Replaced the hatch & hood struts & as well as the hood latch assembly.
Hatch Motor rebuild, starting Pic – 29 year old hatch pull down in original form.
Bit the bullet & ordered the parts from Lon at Top Down Solutions. On the original, guides were broken or missing & the housing was cracked. You could shake the entire assembly by hand, no wonder it rattled. Replaced with a new motor, gear nut, TDS reinforced housing, TDS guides and a rebuilt TDS Reverse switch, cleaned and reassembled. It works, it’s solid now so the only logical plan is to never use the hatch again.
Stupid rabbit hole I blame the guy at GM for.
My factory radio bit the bullet, went aftermarket, didn’t like the fitment, match, etc. I met an electrical engineer who worked for GM in the 80s who developed the steering wheel controls for Pontiac. He says whenever he sees a GTA he looks if it’s an SWC car. This lead me down a rabbit hole of wanting a working factory radio for the car. I ended up finding one on Facebook from a Third Gen Salvage Yard in GA. It came from a high mile car, but it worked. I took it and my old radio to a local stereo repair place and had them swap the face & buttons from my non-working radio which was low mile and in nicer shape. End result, I have a factory working radio. They did forget to swap the tape player small buttons, my old radio buttons still had the white box out lines. Oh well.
Believe the buttons just "pop off" with little effort. the little square ones do, I know. Swap them in a matter of minutes.
I've still got a working original radio/cassette in my '88 GTA.
Would a newer radio with a CD player and/or USB port be an easy fit?
I said that my radio works. The tape player always plays well. When I first start driving, only one FM stations seems to come in well. After I've been driving for a while, the rest of them come in well. Not sure what's up with that. I need to pop it out and check the antenna connection perhaps.
Neil, your car looks amazing. (You too, BizJetTech.)
Is it not dual exhaust?
Your delivery pics remind me of seeing my own car (an '88 GTA in flame red, 32K) delivered from Michigan to South Carolina. Mine was unloaded at around 10:00 p.m. at a Wal-Mart parking lot instead of Lowes back in February.
Neil350 - Your car is looking good !!! - I have your evil TWIN - but an 87 with digital dash - looking for a candidate to swap my digital dash for their standard dash, including all wiring, cluster, components, etc
Your car looks like an exact duplicate of mine, except that mine has the steering wheel radio controls. I think your standard steering wheel actually looks better.
It's interesting how different flame red can look under different lighting. Mine almost looks like two different cars in these two pics.
Why are you ditching the digital dash? Again, to be honest, I always liked the standard gauges on 3rd gens; they look better than the digital package. I thought they were well designed, with that great orange backlighting. Pics of my digital dash look pretty cool, but in person it's actually fairly underwhelming. I like the digital speedo and tach, but the other gauges are pretty blaah. I wouldn't replace it though, just because it is kind of unique.
Be gentle... Really gentle... I did this back when these cars were a couple years old. Plastics age, as I am sure you know.
Very true. The arm on my console lid just snapped off where it was attached to the lid. Why would you mount something like that on plastic? (To save money of course.) Fortunately, the arm is sitting flat in the console and the lid still closes and turns off the console light. There's no tension and resistance when I open it anymore, but I really don't think the arm is all that necessary and otherwise the lid looks new.
On the radio buttons, I am off shore now, so I am thinking I can use my interior pick set and pry them off that way, seems like less chance of breaking them.
The car is an N10 dual cat car, the exhaust is a Spin Tech cat back, it's their version of the SLP two on the left from the LT1 Camaro SS & Firehawk cars, which I liked the tips a little more on those. Think the third gen version had tips that dipped to accommodate the different bumper covers.
KSR you mention Michigan, was the car for sale at Harding Motorsports?
On the radio buttons, I am off shore now, so I am thinking I can use my interior pick set and pry them off that way, seems like less chance of breaking them.
The car is an N10 dual cat car, the exhaust is a Spin Tech cat back, it's their version of the SLP two on the left from the LT1 Camaro SS & Firehawk cars, which I liked the tips a little more on those. Think the third gen version had tips that dipped to accommodate the different bumper covers.
KSR you mention Michigan, was the car for sale at Harding Motorsports?
This has been a myriad of little tasks that aren’t exciting but comes with the territory. Nook and Tranny rear bump stops. No modifications needed, fit with no issue. They’re basically an aluminum adapter to let you use a supplied universal bump stop, most likely from a Jeep. Cleaned and rebuilt the fuel tank valve while I was there.
SLP Air Box
Had this thing and a of lacking motivation to mess with it, it was just the box, no hard ware. Took many trips to ACE and I think it was ttop350 on Facebook who walked me threw a bunch of tips. Also searching threads on here for things like relocation of the EVAP/Charcol Canister, wire harness that have to be moved, relocating the grounds & the fan relays. Not hard by any means, but a lot of busy work.
This car had an alarm and I guess a toggle switch nicely drilled in the cluster bezel, found a nice one on ebay and replaced it. It always bothered me to see the hole and a light that had no function.
Current Projects I need to finish
Finish Rebuilding door lock assemblies. New actuators, remove the latch, clean and grease same.
Replace the ignition cylinder due to the current one that has some sticking issues.
Install the window stop bumpers I bought from Drew to replace the missing ones on the car.
Picked up an NOS GM Manual antenna mast, car had a used one in there now that wasn’t exactly the nicest.
Replace the under nose air dam with new ones I picked up.
Get the original T-Handle refinished, install various new switches in the interior to replace the faded ones. Also bought a new OER leather ebrake handle, will install that.
The laundry list of stuff will keep me busy, unfortunately with work, haven't had much time for the car. I am hoping in a week or two to get some time to finish the doors and a bunch of that little stuff.
Thanks, unfortunately with work it will be a few weeks till I mess with this car again.
Originally Posted by STREETDEMON
Neil, just skimmed through the thread, nice work so far.
What are your thoughts on the Spintech 2OTL?
I wish it was stainless, but for the cost it isn't a bad system. The intermediate pipe has to be specified for a third gen, the rear section how ever is for a 4th gen, so the hangers had to be modified. It's not very loud and I did it more for the nostalgia then anything.
I need help this is hanging under my car near oil filter And i dont know where this goes either plz help
Should start a fresh thread if it's not relevant to an existing topic. I'm just going to shoot this one over my shoulder with my eyes closed and hope for the best... The green wire on the drivers side was the engine temp gauge, the black on on the passengers looks like maybe the knock sensor.
Very true. The arm on my console lid just snapped off where it was attached to the lid. Why would you mount something like that on plastic? (To save money of course.) Fortunately, the arm is sitting flat in the console and the lid still closes and turns off the console light. There's no tension and resistance when I open it anymore, but I really don't think the arm is all that necessary and otherwise the lid looks new.
On my Formula, the arm is still attached to the console lid, but the lid is really tight and snappy. I can see how these didn't last long. The one on my 89 was disconnected (broke out) when I bought it. I just lift it up and sit it down and it stays shut. I find myself carefully opening and closing the one on the Formula, but it really has too much resistance, like it doesn't want to be opened. It's funny, but sometimes, I'll get in the other car and attempt to open the lid carefully and then quickly realize I don't have to.
The power door locks had failed at some point and never fixed, there was movement when I hit the button so it was typical lack of maintenance and greasing. But it was actually a two part issue, the latches needed to be cleaned/greased and both bell cranks were missing the springs. By that there wasn’t any real tension for the lock rod to move against with concerted force. Removed the latches, de-greased/brushed them down, for the internals I soaked them in Mineral spirits for a few hours, then brushed & brake cleaner flushed it all out. Re greased them reinstalled, Wurth and Red auto parts grease. Found some good used bell cranks off ebay, cleaned and greased those as well prior to install. I also found some new GM door lock actuators and replaced the factory ones which were original to the car.
Picked up some door lock felts from OER and installed the window stops I purchased from @Drew. The original felts didn’t look to bad but when I removed them they were basically flattened down. Both factory window stops were missing.
Installed the power express harness I got from Jabin. Had the seat belts restored by a company in MA, not an exact match. Also replaced all the buttons for the seat belt receivers. New hood liner from Hawks put in.
Currently....
Since the door panels were out took them to a local shop to have them redone. They rewrapped the material and built new insets. The arm rests are being redyed at the moment. This was the shop getting them in place. They also panel bonded the rails and fixed the top that was broken where the trim rail attaches.
Took the TPI apart to clean residual oil and the soot that had built up in the EGR passages, replaced the EGR valve at the same time as well as old vacuum lines. Found several that were dry rotted and starting to crack open. There was a lot of soot accumulated in the passages as well as oil build up. Spent some time and cleaned everything, including all the passages in the Throttle Body. Replaced the stock bolts with an ARP hardware kit.
A mystery with the car was this, if you drove it, the fuel economy was o.k, nothing great, if it sat and you drive it infrequently the fuel economy was horrendous. But I never could smell fuel in my garage to suspect a leak. I knew the car was also on the original pump, that was something preemptive that needed to be done. I ended up purchasing the Aerotmotive tank from Forum member on here. Then called Classic Tube and ordered all new stainless fuel lines. Any rubber lines were replaced with steel braided lines. When the old tank came out, it was observed to be wet at the filler neck to body joint. This was all about the time my dad had his falls, so a friend who owned a shop did the fuel tank and lines. He also replaced the oil cooler lines with a new piece from Hawks due to the old one leaking. The car as long as I had it, had some issues with the tumbler not feeling right, but it worked. So of course, that gave up the ghost while it was there. I knew it was coming at some point, so I already had a new ignition cylinder and keys cut and held on to them until I could get to it. I even made mention of it being on the To do list....
Interior, gave up on the factory radio, went with an after-market deck and steering wheel controller interface. Also replaced the antenna with a new old stock GM manual mast, did the air dams with new GM old stock parts as well. The upholster finished with the door panels. Replaced the T-Handle with a nicer one from a 4th gen car and replaced the park brake handle with a new one from OER. Spent some time and polished the rear glass hatch out, had some marks and scratches, as well as a couple old decals.
I have to say, as I remember these cars when they were new, ('88-'92 I worked as a car stereo and alarm installer, before moving on into other facets of the auto industry.) That from the pictures your door panels look better than they did when new. I worked on these cars A LOT. Yours looks fantastic!
Dr.K.
Thanks man, I have a lot respect for the guys that did the panels, it took many attempts trying to get it to bond. The fact they don’t remake the deluxe GTA door panels meant we had to work with the factory panels I had. The easier thing to do would have been just use a new set of standard replacements. They also had to redye the arm rests as well and all the button covers. But after having the seats redone the original panels just stuck out like sore thumbs due to the fact that the GM material doesn’t age well. Once the pins are rebuilt, the new panels will go on. Finish the interior.
@QwkTrip That was actually from when I first got the car, so maybe a few months after moving in the house. Most my stuff was still stored at my dads house.
Door pins rebuilt. Put in the gauge rings I picked up from a member on here, @rgauder Also picked up a nice GM U1A CD player by luck, my original SWC tape deck was having issues so I sent OEM radios a message seeing if they had a good one. He didn't but he did have a mint U1A, hard to pass up. Sent the U1A to Craig Kettner for the aux and amplifier upgrade. I sent my original Radio to MNR in Saginaw for repair. The FM board was shot of course, so that was fixed. My goal now is just hold on to it, they're getting increasingly difficult to find in nice shape. I can look at it and think, wow, I wasted a ton of money to keep a not so great sounding tape deck alive.
Had some issues with the LT1 Corvette starter, when the car was driven during the summer, I noticed it intermittently would not want to start, turn the key, nothing a few times, then start, or would spin and not engage the flex plate. Couple tries and it would work, this went from randomly, to more and more often. Went to the parts store and got a regular LT1 F-body/B-Body starter that was in stock and swapped it out. No visual damage to the LT1 Corvette starter, no issues so far.
The trip odometer failed one morning while getting some Kolaches, I looked up the company on here who makes the replacement Odometer gears, his instructions were written by Atlanta Speedometer, called them, Nice folks, had them go through the entire cluster. Really fast shipping to and from.
Hawks came out with a radiator cover, I have a Dewits radiator and LS fans, the factory shroud was no where close to fitting. Had some metal tabs holding it in place, spoke to Hawks and they said this would work. Looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
Picked up some OER Hood Hinges, had them powder coated from the raw steel finish to some thing similar to the car. Over all they're breaking in, I tried to mark the hood the best I could but they're still kind a pain to adjust, especially doing it by yourself.
Replaced the old fog lamps with some NOS GM pieces.
Another boring LS Build, this came back from the machine shop. The LS2 block I had wasn't cost effectively usable, used a 6.0L Iron instead. Not my first choice, but oh well. Its a 24X GM crank, GM Gen 4 Rods with ARP Bolts and Mahle forged pistons. The cam is a Cam Motion grind, 220/230/117+4, .595/.595, heads are GM L92s that were milled and had a valve job by Farerman race engines. Using an LS3 car intake manifold. Ordered a set of Kooks 1-7/8" mid lengths for it. Not looking to make the most power possible, just a nice driving set up with modern power. The goal is to keep driving the car with the TPI and not attempt the swap till I have some thing close to complete assembled pull out with trans.
Hawks came out with a radiator cover, I have a Dewits radiator and LS fans, the factory shroud was no where close to fitting. Had some metal tabs holding it in place, spoke to Hawks and they said this would work. Looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
Do you have any pics of how you mounted the LS fans to the Dewitts radiator? I have a set of really nice LS fans that came from a super low mileage car in my attic for several years, eventually I will put them to use.
Unfortunately life got in the way, caring for my father, had mentioned earlier, the falls and other issues ended up being dementia. That has been consuming over the last year especially, we had to move him to a memory care facility which with Covid was not an option prior. Any case, part of life returning to normal is working on this car again.
Steering
The front end was rebuilt, the car had the Astro shaft and bearing upgrade, but it felt really bad at high way speed. Around town it was fine, but get on the highway and it felt pretty loose. A lot off center slop. My attention turned to the steering box, even if the box had 48K miles, it’s still 30+ years old. Reading the reviews on here, I decided to use Marty Preuss at Powersteering.com, another gentlemen on here who also recommended Marty had also recommended the DSE steering shaft as his Astrovan piece had slop. The DSE shaft feels way better than the astrovan, a lot more solid, very little play on the U joints. Installed both and it solved the issue, car feels amazing. Little to know slop and the steering is super tight. My pitman arm was fine, so I just cleaned and reused it, didn't break it from the center link. Marked everything like a sundial, so I can go back and check.
Sway Bars/TA Cover
Upgraded the factory WS6 bars to the Detroit Speed Engineering rear sway bar, since I had put the car back together from the steering box, I didn’t feel like taking it all back out for the DSE front sway bar. Went with the UMI 35mm front sway bar with the billet mounts and they included some relocation plates. Installed a TA cover and the optional TA stud kit while I was at it.
Brakes
Brake fluid was badly contaminated, thought maybe the original master had a failing seal, who knows. It’s original, so got an AC Delco replacement. Discovered the rear left caliper had a pretty nasty leak, so had to replace that. I had replaced all the brakes after getting the car, so this was a reman caliper that had failed. Some what disappointing to say the least.
LED Bulbs
A thing I was afraid while driving this car, people aren’t used to incandescent bulbs any more, being they’re low output. Upgraded to LED, Screaming chicken is who I went through. I contacted Diode Dynamics and calipered the factory festoon bulbs for the stop lamp and we found some thing that worked. The cars a lot more visible at night.
Two to three weeks, Marty can give you a pretty solid time line. Another option if you have a place semi local is to have your original box rebuilt. Saw your comments on the Spin Tech, it isnt bad but you could build some thing pretty similar.
Two to three weeks, Marty can give you a pretty solid time line. Another option if you have a place semi local is to have your original box rebuilt. Saw your comments on the Spin Tech, it isnt bad but you could build some thing pretty similar.
That's not too bad, Nixa is about 4 hours from me too.
I ended up finding a Banks 2OTL setup BNIB. Doesn't sound as good on the LS as it did on the 305/350 cars, but oh well.
07-27-2018, 10:28 PM
