These new General tires really bring up the handling of our cars to the next level. They've exceeded my expectations. The reason for that is, this is a new, modern, summer performance tire, which just happens to come in a 245/50/16 size.

 

 

My new PDR guy Rob, spent over half a day taking out dings and dents on three cars today. Awesome job!

 

I had several PDR guys tell me that a small dent on the door would be impossible to remove due to the brace. Rob looked at it, got to work, stated that he'd need to get behind the brace and less than 5 minutes later had it fixed!

 

I told you that you only needed to find a good PDR guy!!

 

You did indeed, Scott!

There is one small ding on the other side I forgot to tell him about. Darn!

 

Glad you finally found someone that can take care of these issue for you. Unfortunately, he wasn't known about during the white car days.

 

Me too. It took me months to get him scheduled. And yes, I think he would have made short work of the white '83.

 

Charlie - catching up on your thread. What brand fuel sending unit did you use? I need to do this in my TTA and not a fan of Spectra.

 

Spectra. There aren't a bunch on the market.

 

That's what I was afraid of. I may try to get mine working when I take it out. I am pretty sure they get gummed up and need a cleaning.

 

I've heard that works too. Let us know how it goes, when you do it.

 

On the way home tonight.

Hit 44444.4 miles.

 

What the heck? What about 44mph? Of course that would have blocked the view

 

What do you think I am, a daredevil? It was tough enough to take the pic at 18 mph!

Minutes before, I was at a stop light and a heavily modded flat black Audi RS7 pulls up to me. The driver stuck his head out the window and yelled, "I LOVE THAT! I LOVE THAT! '85, '86 or '87? I said '85. He said, "FIRST YEAR OF THE IROC! I LOVE THAT!!!!!" And he pulled away in his super loud RS7.

 

Put a better steering wheel on the '85 today. The original one looks good but the leather was starting to twist and I hate that. I bought this wheel from member HankL69 a few years ago after he had replaced it with an aftermarket one. This wheel started life on a yellow '85 IROC and now it's on another yellow '85 IROC.

 

Now that I'm driving it again, I've noticed after sending unit swap, the fuel gauge reads about 1/8 of a tank low. Not sure why.

 

The sending unit float arm calibration is slightly off. To adjust mine, I filled the tank and carefully pulled the fuel needle off the gauge and reset it that way. The last thing I wanted to do was drop the tank again to adjust the float arm on the contacts.

 

Excellent, thanks Scott!

 

Some stuff from Rock Auto today.

My yellow car has been pulling to the right, especially during braking. Brakes also have felt mushy, even though fluid has been flushed and bled. I figured the right caliper was sticky and blamed the slides. A quick inspection of the brake line showed a swollen line getting ready to fail. So I ordered two new calipers and the two front and one rear brake line. The rear one hasn't arrived yet. I'll report back when everything is installed.

 

Nice! Hopefully the parts are decent. AC Delco has become a bit of a china parts re-boxing company, but some of the stuff is still better than the other std replacement parts. Sadly we don't have many options anymore. I still like the name though, reminds me of the good ol days when GM cars were made up from parts from smaller US based companies.

Looks like a vintage 10 speed bicycle too...... Gumwall tires & matching Yellow paint

 

I got the Zinc coated calipers, a bit more blingy than I expected.

That's a 1975 Schwinn Continental 10 speed, bought with the very first several hundred dollars I ever earned.

 

So, heater core failed on it. I think I'm going to have the original one repaired/recored because the aftermarket ones just suck ballz. Here's my thread. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...ater-core.html

But I wanted to share with the community how I was able to clean up a half gallon or so of coolant out of my carpet. I tried shampooing several times with strong soaps, cleaners and degreasers, carpet "looked" good, but when I ran my hand across it, there was still a wet greasy antifreeze residue.

Here's what you do. Take a large, 16 oz glass, fill it with cold water, but leave enough space to add a shot or so of Isopropyl Alcohol. Then pour it on the carpet. Let it sit a few seconds, then vacuum it up. You may have to repeat 2 or 3 times. Then let it dry. I disconnected the battery, opened the door and let a big fan blow over it for a day.

After that, all residue gone. I believe the IP helps breakdown the propylene glycol and then everything binds with the 16 oz of water. But, I'm no chemist, so don't take that to the bank.

 

That makes sense since pure vodka can save animals from antifreeze poisoning...

Alcohol must combat the antifreeze in some way..

I had to clean up a failed heater core mess in my old 87... Not too much fun! I used this stuff called “Blast” made by a local company that I don’t think is even in business anymore... That stuff would get you high if you were shampooing a minivan in the summer...

Good luck getting it all fixed and back to showroom!

 

Have you started pulling the heater core out yet Charlie?

 

I have not Jeremy, been super busy. I REALLY hope I can remove the factory hoses without damaging them. Also, the core is still dribbling coolant. I've been jamming paper towels up there a couple times per day to catch it.

 

I had major issues getting my hoses off at the firewall. I don't know why it was done, but the previous owner must've had the hoses off at some point and when they put them back on, the clamp screws were facing the ground. I couldn't get those off for the life of me, so I cut the hoses off and shredded the remaining hose so that the clamps just came off.

The only thing easy was that one screw that everyone complains about at the top of the cover under the dash. I found it was fairly easy to get out and back on again.

 

I had that same experience. A PDR place quoted me $130 for a nickel sized ding on a daily. Saying they’d have to remove the door panel and it was in a bad spot. Said OK I’ll think about it. Called this guy that comes to your house someone told me to try and he had that ding removed in 5 minutes by going down the window channel for $40. Amazing.....

 

Its amazing how much deferred garage stuff you get done when you’re avoiding changing a heater core. ��

 

Lol while its waiting for the heater core repair, swap in a posi traction unit. Your lucky you already have 3.42 gears. Doing the gear swap and getting my posi unit rebuilt was one of the best things I did to my car.

 

A posi is on my wish list.

 

Wish list? That car needs a limited slip diff more than it needs a functioning heater core! Bring it over this spring and I'll get the dual cat Y-pipe on it and get a proper diff in it.

 

Found some of the old pics that photosucksit stole from me. This was the OEM muffler/tailpipe assembly I found in Georgia to replace the generic one on the car when I got it. The white '83 in the background has been in Germany for 3 or 4 years. I sometimes wonder how it's doing.

 

More old pics. This Minnesota clay like dirt was the most stubborn ever!

 

You pulled the spoiler off to clean out the dirt underneath it? You're a wildman.

 

Ha! I can be. Those pics are from 9-ish years ago and were deleted by photobucket from the beginning of the thread. Found them on an old memory card.

 

That's what makes his cars show stoppers !!!!

Nice work, looks great as always

 

Thanks Tony!

 

So, changed the heater core today. Figured I'd test for leaks before putting the cover back on. I tried to slide the HVAC control to HEAT and it was stuck. The flapper door was stuck on a big piece of broken plastic. As it turns out, the heater box had a big hole in it and someone had sealed it up with Gorilla tape or something, which was starting to come unstuck.

I need to devise a way to seal that hole in the box. Maybe some of that HVAC tape? Anyone have any ideas?

 

Is the broken piece gone, or just cracked?
I can't picture the area you referring to, but would be interesting in seeing what it is.

 

At first I thought I could just epoxy the piece back in, but there are missing pieces. I'll try to get some pics of it later.

 

Here we go.










Hard to get a good pic, but the bottom half of the heater box.

 

Don't deny your thinking about replacing the box if you can find a mint one someday,
But it the meantime can you get in there enough to JB weld them in piece by
piece? Maybe, practice fit them and hold them in place with masking tape while it sets up? Or maybe use 3M strip caulk?
I have used wax paper against JB weld joints before & it works well, but upside-down in a tight area might be something altogether different. another great "adhesive" is permatex right stuff. it cures so close to the feel & toughness of rubber. hard to believe its not a 2k product. Have to use the stuff in the pressurized can though. the toothpaste tube type is not the same.

How do you suppose that broke in the first place, seems like it should be a self protected area.

 

Access is an issue. I still get heat though, even though much of it is escaping. I'm not completely sure when this happened. I was checking out that Flextape you see advertised. It's good to 200*. But access is still an issue. I'll have to check it out from underneath.

 

When I have engines out I normal cover the lower HVAC suitcase with the aluminum tape used on duct work in homes. It helps keep the exhaust heat from blasting the fiberglass/plastic box as much.

 

Thanks Tony. How hard is it to replace one? Seems you'd almost have to pull the motor?

 

It can be done with engine in the car but it is more time consuming. Don't forget the 2 lower bolts from inside of the car. I may have an extra lower someplace.

 

If you do have an extra lower, let me know. Thanks!

 

Here's the repaired original core. They charged me $85.

 

Thats what I did! Repair that original one!