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The odometer is fixed. Took the car for a test drive and it works perfectly! I also fixed the brights today while the bottom panels were off. Turned out to be an easy one, the rod was simply out of the switch. Put the rod back in, brights work again. Don't know why it was out, but it's back in and working.
Now onto the 7th circle of hell... The hatch pull down. That SOB failed again!! I chained together so many cusswords today it's not even funny. Brand new unit from Top-Down Solutions and it's been nothing but trouble since day one. I'm sick of it and done with this design. This later design is without a doubt the biggest piece of junk I've ever seen. The motor is too weak and the housing is made stupid. The housing was broke and the motor shaft was bent when I took it out. I'm not slamming the hatch here people, I sit the damn down GENTLY and press with 2 fingers until it clicks.
Here's the carnage:
As a test, I took the assembly out of my 89 which is the earlier design with the white motor that is not "part of the housing" and I installed it into the Formula. That setup pulled the Formula hatch down like a boss! When I release the hatch, it moves up like a boss and when I sit the hatch back down, pulls it down smooth and perfect. I did it like 10 times. Screw that newer design.
I tossed that whole poorly designed assembly, mount and all in the trash. Waste of money and I'm done with it. I will be getting an entire assembly that is exactly like the one in my 89 and call it a good job. For now, the hatch is secured inside with a tight ratchet strap so I can still drive it when I want. That's how it stays until I find the exact thing that's in my 89!
Wow- interesting. And here I thought the pulldown assembly was just the same thing all the way along...
Love all the work bringing it back to perfection!
Updates! I fixed the door panels and removed the window tint. The passenger side door panel was a real pain since someone decided it was a good idea to trim the fabric at the top once the top plate started rising up. I had to get creative and release some from the L trim and stretch it up just enough to get under the top plate. Turned out good, but I barely had enough fabric left to work with. I glued it all back down on both panels. The holes in the top of the door panel were in excellent condition and not ripped out, so I reinforced the top of the panel and reinstalled the top plates with an added measure of 3" wide black gorilla tape down the length of the joint and pressed tightly around the speed nuts, followed by another run overlapping that.
For the window tint, I bought a Shark garment steamer and steamed it off the hatch which got 90% of the glue with it. You just have to take your time. Using pieces of a white tile floor scrubber pad and dawn/water mix, I scrubbed the rest of the glue off quite easily without damaging the defroster. The doors were easy, just lifted one corner, pealed the whole thing off and then used a razor blade with dawn/water mix to remove the glue.
Looks a ton better without the old purple creased tint and with fixed door panels!
Going to tackle the door edge guard eventually. Think I might try to steam it off. I've removed this before on cars by just pulling on it and it's taken the paint with it, so I'm a little reluctant to remove it, but I can't stand edge guard. I don't know how long it's been on there.
lol, didn’t even notice door guards till you mentioned them. nice machine!
Sorry to hear about the hatch pull down. But you got a picture posted, so that's a good thing!
Thanks, yea the pull down is tearing my hair out! I'll get it working eventually though, just have to find the same unit as my other car. Pic hosted from servimg.com. Still not working for me on this site.
I did manage to get the hatch pull down fixed finally about 2 weeks ago. Found a used unit exactly the same as the one in my 89 on Ebay for 150.00. It was in excellent condition. I just had to swap one connector, then installed it and it works perfectly! Finally, I can call that done! Sorry, didn't take any pictures.
lol, didn’t even notice door guards till you mentioned them. nice machine!
Thanks! Yea, they're black, so they don't show as much and I still haven't taken them off yet. If they were chrome, they would have been off the first day and no one here would have ever seen them.lol
Exterior:
1. The rear hatch pull down does not work and is stuck all the way down requiring slamming of the hatch. That is #1 on the list. I already did this on my 89, so off to Top-Down Solutions!
2. Mud flaps...they are kind of growing on me, but I don't know!
3. Rear spoiler has the usual problems and I'm almost positive it has been repainted. Debating on a fiberglass one.
4. The front bumper has definitely been repainted from what looks like a slight hit and someone put the Formula decal too low on it. I will either replace the bumper or have it fixed right. It's a bit warped with a tear under the passenger corner, so will most likely need to be replaced.
5. Tail light center panel has some flaking look and some kind of black tape at the top of it. I have another one of those in really good condition, so that will be replaced.
6. The rear spoiler brake light is cracked, easy replacement.
7. Window tint is junk, so that's coming off.
8. Engine bay is dirty, so I will be hand cleaning all of it.
9. Windshield wipers are ugly as sin, so will be replacing those with factory looking ones.
Interior:
1. Door panel tops rising up, will remove door panels and reattach top plates or buy new ones since some of the felt is rising up with the window on the passenger side, otherwise they look okay really.
2. Steering wheel cover has got to go. Other than usual horn button lifting, the ring looks good! Might keep something on there when it's not at shows.
3. Headliner, sun visors and speaker panels need recovered.
4. I'll be looking for some original front and rear floor mats as the "wal-mart" looking ones are not going to cut it!
5. Rest of interior just needs to be detailed.
The RPO sticker is falling off, so I will be removing to preserve it and I will post pics of it when I do so. I still need to figure out what gear ratio this car has.
The car is fully optioned and everything other than the hatch pull down works.
Can't wait to get started on it!
I'LL HELP YA OUT, $3500 AND TAKE IT OFF YOUR HANDS!
Careful on the door edge guards. In some cases long term they can rub against a tight door gap and wear the paint. I've taken them off several of my thirdgens over the years. The oldschool metal ones go into the historical 'Save' bin, the rest go in the trash.
Crazy that the aftermarket 1pc motor/housing assembly is such junk. Makes sense though, the clear plastic housing is always the weak part, not like making the weak link part of the motor assembly is going to improve anything.
Careful on the door edge guards. In some cases long term they can rub against a tight door gap and wear the paint. I've taken them off several of my thirdgens over the years. The oldschool metal ones go into the historical 'Save' bin, the rest go in the trash.
Crazy that the aftermarket 1pc motor/housing assembly is such junk. Makes sense though, the clear plastic housing is always the weak part, not like making the weak link part of the motor assembly is going to improve anything.
I'm reluctant to remove the guards for fear of finding extremely chipped edges as well. I may buy another set of black ones in case I pull these off and find carved edges. Here's hoping the edges are nice and I can leave them off!
My gosh I have to say I still love that red color both mine are bright red I feel you pain on rear hatch garbage i replaced most and rebuilt most of mine on my 87 - still dont work - when my son owned it - he gave up and adjusted it way down and no power about it my 90 Ugh- the P/O welded it solid - still haven't decided what to do on it or them I like your "tightening up" all the little issues it had properly now your car is Tight! and I like tight cars good job
My gosh I have to say I still love that red color both mine are bright red I feel you pain on rear hatch garbage i replaced most and rebuilt most of mine on my 87 - still dont work - when my son owned it - he gave up and adjusted it way down and no power about it my 90 Ugh- the P/O welded it solid - still haven't decided what to do on it or them I like your "tightening up" all the little issues it had properly now your car is Tight! and I like tight cars good job
Thanks man. Yea, the hatch pull-down had me strung out for awhile on this car. I just had to find the same type of unit my 89 has and now all is well. It works like a charm now.
The car is currently in storage to make room for a friend's freshly painted car that I'm putting back together. The Formula was NOT going to sit outside, so in storage it went. It will still be driven once a week at least even though it's 20 miles from me now. Before putting it in storage, I decided it was a good time to pull the headliner, sun visors and speaker covers and send all of that to the upholstery shop!
[QUOTE=kentuckyKITT;6303180]The car is currently in storage to make room for a friend's freshly painted car that I'm putting back together. The Formula was NOT going to sit outside, so in storage it went. It will still be driven once a week at least even though it's 20 miles from me now. Before putting it in storage, I decided it was a good time to pull the headliner, sun visors and speaker covers and send all of that to the upholstery shop!
[/QUOTE
Upholstery shop? all but visors are easy to do that's all I'd take to U/shop why not try yourself? I hate to try to think how many I've done but its more than 10 and one was a suburban - Ugh! twice as big! the big battle is removing -actually getting the board out of the car. A wire brush takes off the old foam. get some 3M spray adhesive, coat the board and material wait about 10 minutes and with extra pair of hands mate them up, trim and back in done
Not everyone's cup of tea, but I pay myself almost nothing (I'm a cheap SOB) but when its back in and usually runs about 40$ for all materials
I've done headliners in the past. It doesn't cost me much to have upholstery stuff done because I'm good friends with a lady who's been doing it for over 40 years and I've sent her a ton of customers over the years. When my KITT is at shows/cruise-ins, everyone wants to know who did the seats. She's semi retired now, but still does things for a few folks here and there. I could do the headliner/speaker panels myself, just don't want to.lol
Getting ready to order new rear springs for this car since the back sags quite a bit since I've owned it. I put Moog CC635s in my base 89 a couple of years ago and have been happy with those, so I don't see any reason why they won't work on the Formula.
Awesome toy. Makes me miss my dark Royal Blue '83 LG4 Trans AM, which I sold for my existing Camaro rodeo. Currently working on my '92 Z28's rear suspension and considering the same Moog CC635's. What strut and shock set up have you had in mind in the future for this Pontiac Formula?
First spring project: Fixing the odometer which stopped working. Thanks to Odometer Gears who now makes a replacement for our cars, this should be a snap!
As you can see the little yellow gear is broken and I can take my fingernail and chip additional pieces off of it. It's super brittle. I also removed the fuel gauge to clean the contacts and test it since it doesn't work. It's probably a problem in the tank, but figured why not look into it while I have the cluster out.
I will start the gear replacement tomorrow after work.
How hard was it to get the gauge cluster cover out? Does this help you access the a/c vents? I'm wondering if it allows easier access of some dust removal in those areas?
Awesome toy. Makes me miss my dark Royal Blue '83 LG4 Trans AM, which I sold for my existing Camaro rodeo. Currently working on my '92 Z28's rear suspension and considering the same Moog CC635's. What strut and shock set up have you had in mind in the future for this Pontiac Formula?
Good question. Don't really know yet. The car has just over 70,000 miles now and the shocks and struts appear factory. So, probably time for new ones soon. I've used KYBs on my other Firebirds with good luck. I did manage to get the rear springs replaced a few weeks back and what a difference that made in the way it rides and handles. No more sag! I also got the front end aligned afterward as well since it was out some.
How hard was it to get the gauge cluster cover out? Does this help you access the a/c vents? I'm wondering if it allows easier access of some dust removal in those areas?
The gauge cluster cover comes out fairly easy. You just take the screws out of the lower right switch panel on the bottom (the panel with hatch release) and let that hang. Remove the padded steering column cover that weighs like 5 lbs! and set aside. Then you can reach all of the 7mm screws around the bottom and top. It helps to take the dash pad off, but you'll still have to "finagle" the cluster bezel and cluster to get them out past the column. If I recall, I have to tilt downward and sort of bring it out at an angle. From here, you can remove the center a/c vents and clean all of that up pretty easily.
The gauge cluster cover comes out fairly easy. You just take the screws out of the lower right switch panel on the bottom (the panel with hatch release) and let that hang. Remove the padded steering column cover that weighs like 5 lbs! and set aside. Then you can reach all of the 7mm screws around the bottom and top. It helps to take the dash pad off, but you'll still have to "finagle" the cluster bezel and cluster to get them out past the column. If I recall, I have to tilt downward and sort of bring it out at an angle. From here, you can remove the center a/c vents and clean all of that up pretty easily.
thanks - i was thinking of the side vents, want to clean those out and hoping not to have to 'pop" them out, the way I see some doing it around here. sounds like a good way to break things if something doesn't go exactly right. - car is looking good!
03-10-2019, 08:18 PM
