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Been on here for about 2 years now and decided to start a build thread mainly to document everything I have done and plan on doing. Before I get into my car I'd like to thank everyone here that has taken the time to answer questions and concerns I've had since I joined. It is nice having folks as passionate about these cars as we all are to help you out. So on to my 87 GTA, I grew up with a gear head Dad who had me handing him wrenches and beer at a very early age. I knew what a GTA was at 8 years old when they hit the market and I wanted one then. As life progressed faster than I could blink I never had the opportunity to aquire my dream car. Three years ago I lost my mom to suicide and I would up with her 93 full-size blazer which I drove for a bit and decided I would tear it apart and repaint it. Im not a body man not a painter but I think it turned out decent for my first try. I loved the ole blazer but when I was alone in it, bad memories flooded my mind. Me and my parents never had a close relationship and to be honest I wasn't raised up I was dragged up if that makes sense. So it was time to part with my blazer. I was on Craigslist one day and a guy I know had the GTA for sale. I called him and asked if he was interested in trading even though I knew nothing about the car. It was rough and unfortunately I didn't take many pics as I progressed. I will post pics from the blazer up to where im currently at. The car itself is the not so fun 305tpi/700r currently and I drive it daily. I was planning a 5.3 swap but wound up putting my 5.3 in my son's truck. I do have a 96 vortec 350 laying around im toying with building using one of my tpi setups on. Forgot to mention I also have a complete 88 trans am parts car that I bought mainly for the aluminum driveshaft and disk brake rear end. So far I have dropped tank and cleaned and replaced pump/sending unit,replaced injectors with South Bay units, completely redone the a/c, new distributor plugs and wires, new ecm, and stripped painted and polished the wheels. Soon to come is a new spoiler, rebuild the decklid from struts pushing it way out of line and repainting the hood. Sorry if this is a long post as I should have started this long ago. Some pics so far.
This is the same car about 2 months later. Completely redone the fuel system and lots of buffing and detailing not to mention rebuilding both headlights and brake and suspension.
So im on a very tight budget until my Son gets done with school so I have to be creative. This car is not a good candidate for a complete restoration. So being im a big 2nd gen fan as well and my GTA badges we're in terrible shape I figured why not.
I never liked the offset of the rear wheels, it just looked wrong with deeper wheels up front so I got another complete set so I could run 4 fronts. I stripped the clear and paint with aircraft stripper, chucked my wheels in our brake lathe and pulled me a chair up with a pile of sand paper and went to town. Then I polished the barrels with mother's and painted and cleared the laces. This so far has been the most labor intensive project to date.
Started with 400 grit and progressed to 1200 then polish
In case any one is wondering my car has two dimpled fronts on one side and two non dimpled on the other. Kind of embarrassing really but at the moment it's all I could find. Unless someone is a member of TGO they would never notice it.
Last edited by Jbuchanan; 05-28-2018 at 10:41 PM.
Reason: I didn't have to pay for the wheels, my best friend had a set in his garage
Got another issued resolved I've been having and deep down inside I knew what the problem was but pride stopped me from asking for help not too mention I owe Sofa an apology. I work on cars for a living, I do all our engine/trans jobs and anything computer related so I knew I created my issue.....my car has ran pig rich for about a year now. I didn't like looking at a gauge that we all know is only marginal at best sitting at 220* all the time so I put a different fan switch and a 160* thermostat. Car ran cool as a cucumber but I never had a chip burnt to compensate for the change, so the computer was dumping way too much fuel im assuming to try and get the car up to operating temperature. So I swapped everything back to factory and now she is running like a champ. If I remember Sofa offered me advice about it and I might have gotten a lil butt hurt about it. Lesson learned, anyone else who reads this that run into an issue or idea that you may not be sure of don't take for granted the knowledge and wisdom on this site.......heck some of these folks bought these things brand new off the show room floor.
So my fuel pump that I replaced a little over a year ago bit the dust. I also noticed my fuel filter has very nasty looking fuel in it so I bit the bullet and ordered a new tank. Im sure there is quite a few threads on dropping the tank so I won't bother do a write up on that. The last time I did it I believe it took me 2 1/2 hours on the lift which I believe that is what Mitchell and all data call for. I am doing it this Saturday and will post a few pics.
Precision is what I used last year and im not gonna blame it yet because of the debris in the filter but im not taking any chances and after lots of reading on here I ordered a walbro.
Don't have many pics but my new fuel tank literally fell right into place, it was a doorman unit and I was very surprised with the quality. Took me about 3 hours start to finish including rewelding the exhaust. I am very thankful the owner of our shop allows us to use the shop and equipment whenever we want. He even let's us do side jobs in the evenings and weekends. All in all I was nervous about the doorman tank but like I said it fell right into place. It cost me $175.00. I will post some pics of inside of old tank tomorrow for anybody that has rescued a third gen from the grave. 11 years in a field with 3/4 tank of gas kills a tank.
I've also been dealing with a very agrivating stalling issue. No matter how I have been driving it, air on or off, hammering the snot out of it or lesiurely driving it, it would very smoothly shut off. I have checked everything, ohmed all the injectors, checked all the sensors, and finally I started backtracking any maintenance or repairs I previously done. It had a reman ecm and I highly suspected it. I swapped it for the one out of my 88 parts car and the thing run better than ever! Got it fixed right? Wrong.....a few months ago the distributor crapped out so I replaced it with a new one from advance Auto parts and a new Accel coil so I checked the coil and all seemed good with it. When the car would stall it would start right back up if and only if you would turn it completely off. I pulled into my shop today and it died, I left the switch on jumped out and pulled a plug wire off and had my son turn it over with a loose plug in that wire.......no fire. Told him to turn switch off and try again and it fired right up. Changed distributor for another new one and all is normal. I do not have alot of faith in the advance Auto unit so I am open to any suggestions. I drive my GTA to summit racing and Atlanta motor speedway alot and don't need this thing broke down on the interstate 3 hours from home lol. Anyways all is back to normal right now.
I've also been dealing with a very agrivating stalling issue. No matter how I have been driving it, air on or off, hammering the snot out of it or lesiurely driving it, it would very smoothly shut off. I have checked everything, ohmed all the injectors, checked all the sensors, and finally I started backtracking any maintenance or repairs I previously done. It had a reman ecm and I highly suspected it. I swapped it for the one out of my 88 parts car and the thing run better than ever! Got it fixed right? Wrong.....a few months ago the distributor crapped out so I replaced it with a new one from advance Auto parts and a new Accel coil so I checked the coil and all seemed good with it. When the car would stall it would start right back up if and only if you would turn it completely off. I pulled into my shop today and it died, I left the switch on jumped out and pulled a plug wire off and had my son turn it over with a loose plug in that wire.......no fire. Told him to turn switch off and try again and it fired right up. Changed distributor for another new one and all is normal. I do not have alot of faith in the advance Auto unit so I am open to any suggestions. I drive my GTA to summit racing and Atlanta motor speedway alot and don't need this thing broke down on the interstate 3 hours from home lol. Anyways all is back to normal right now.
Wow. I am having the same exact problem with it shutting off and in the same manner. I have a thread going in TPI about fuel pressure as I suspected the pump but it checks out. Same thing where if you turn the Key back it fires right back up. I believe mine to be fueling as it really stinks(lean)when it dies. It runs normal in start mode(smells like all my other vehicles when warming up) and this only happens when warm. My problem has gotten where once warm it will only go a 1/4 mile or so. I OHM my injectors and all right at 17.2. I have a fairly new O2 and TPS both A/c Delco. I also have a AC Delco reman computer. When you replaced the computer did your problem go away and then resurface? Also did you have a lean smell when it craps out?
05-27-2018, 11:17 PM
I gotta agree with you on the wheels, the wider fronts just looked weird. 
