not today, but last week....got the car out of storage and running well. Video in signature

 

finally got my hellcat 525lph fuel pump. installed it onto stock sending unit. its funny how small the wiring is coming off the pump compared to the size i wanna run. before you guys flip out about the trap door. it was already there when i bought the car. they did a decent job cutting it so i should be able to make a clean cover for it. i need to find a nice weatherproof plug for the wiring.

also finally got a rough estimate for my turbo stuff from my buddy and it should be going to him as soon as he finishes up another firiends fd rx7.

 

No, the pinch weld isn't touching the wheel


The new strut is still screwed shut. The old one is held down by nothing, except that it's 28 years old and half dead. I pulled it all the way up, and it retracted halfway.


I got grade 8 screws & nuts @ Home Depot


Didn't find hi-grade washers, so I used the old ones




New struts didn't make nearly as much of a difference to the seat of my pants as the rear shocks did a couple of months ago, but my air dam scrapes the street a lot less often! 😃

 

Compression testing tonight and installing new slave cylinder. Hopefully install posi diff tomorrow.

 

Setup some 3.90 gears in a 10bolt

 

Pulled out my old seats and installed a full set of 4th gen seats. Much more comfortable now.

 

i never really do this on my builds but decided to sit and make a checklist of everything i need/ want to do so far

 

Finished up my front end rebuild:

• Powder coated control arms, sway bar, and wonder bar.
• Spohn Control Arm hardware
• Moog bearing plates
• Moog 5662 springs
• Koni Yellow Struts
• Spohn strut to knuckle hardware
• Energy Suspension poly control arm bushings
• Proforged ball joints
• Proforged center link, tie rods, and billet adjusters
• McQuay Norris idler arm
• Energy Suspension poly sway bar end links
• Spohn greasable poly sway bar bushings
• Power Stop drilled/slotted rotors and carbon fiber pads
• Timken wheel bearings and grease seals
• AC Delco brake hoses
• Riken Raptor ZR a/s 245/50/16 tires

Took it around the block to break in the pads and make sure there weren't any major issues. Next will be the front end alignment, hopefully early this week.

 

Not today, but this past weekend I took my wiper arms and cowl vent off to paint my cowl.
The original black paint was really looking rough and needing some attention.
Plus after seeing a post last week about the inner cowl area on someone elses car getting all rusted up it concerned me a bit to take a look.
Luckily mine was just fine after vacuuming up a small amount of debris, but I still scuffed up and painted what I could reach.

 

Today marks the day I let my Iroc go to the painter. The sun is beating up the paint pretty bad. He says he needs the car for 4 to 5 weeks. I told him to keep it as long as he needs it to make it look new again. I have seen his work & know he can do it.

 

Nice.

Can we get some before and after pics?

 

It's hard enough to look at the sun damage, much less photographing it, but sure. I will take before pics.

 

 

Interior is mint. Seats & dash are perfect. Tires need shine. but since it's going away for a month, I'm not gonna bother. When I get it back, it will sit under 3 car covers. No more sun damage.

 

Still looks good from the side.

 

I've asked him to address this as it drives me crazy. Both sides are off.

 

 

GOALS.

damn thats clean.

 

That interior is absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to see pics after your paint job is done.

 

Man that interior is damn near perfect. I would love to have that style of power seats in my car.
Looks to be well optioned too.

 

Can't wait to get it back.

 

went to dyno Dons, picked up a steering column and a/c condenser since mine disappeared. wasnt sure the condenser was gonna fit with my radiator but it did. swapped out the column. cool part is the column came with a 1986 Capt EO keychain. lol

oh also stole some header flanges from my buddies shop. still waiting for him to finish that damn rx7 so my car can go in.

 

Swapper, the key chain alone makes scrolling through all twenty four pages completely worth it.



- Rob

 

The key ring is a keeper!

 

I guess I can contribute a little. Just resurrected the car after an eight month long hiatus. Added a fresh set of Accel shorty plugs w/MSD wires, about to freshen up the distributor later on today when the weather gets warmer. Planning on fabricating a new set of turbo headers whenever time allows. For now though, engine fired right up, but I hear a sticky lifter very prevalent. Might flush the oil today as well if time allows...

- Rob

 

It finally quit snowing, so I was able to give the dirty old girl her first post - front end rebuild washing.

I figured it was a good opportunity to snap a few glamour shots.

 

did a few things. put two new tires on the car. I had my heart set on a set of MT/et streets but with my car being a driver it wasn't a good fit. that type of tire isn't any good in cold weather and it gets cold here. I ended up with cooper cobra gt tires. they transformed the car. rides completely different. I tried to jack it up today and ran into an issue. my car had 70 series tires and now has 60 series. my jack doesn't fit under there anymore. I had to drive part way up a ramp to slide the jack under. ive been having some issues with my car that I thought were ecu related. it started a few months ago and removing my aftermarket chip and putting it back in seemed to fix it. I tried that and it didn't work a second time. today I removed the after market chip and put the factory chip back in.

 

Thanks Swapper. I like to keep my stuff clean. That's why it's in the paint booth now. The 2 Trans Ams I bought new in 2002, still smell like new inside.

 

yesterday i installed my heater hoses (gonna try without any heater control valve) then i sorta installed my double din. i wired it up to see if it works. i bought a universal 20 circuit wiring harness so i can rewire the whole car. get rid of all the cut up 3rd gen wiring and fuse block and run a whole new harness. since i dont need any of the original engine wiring and most of the interior wiring. just need headlights, tail lights etc...

picked up some stock wheels for my mustang so i can try to sell my wheels and the mustang to have more money for the 3rd gen. lol

 

I tried to install new wiper blades. I bought some 18" Michelin Endurance XT Advanced Silicone Beam wipers and they don't work. In the instructions they show a pin extender which changes the diameter of the pin, but they also show another piece (that doesn't exist) that is used in later steps to retain the blade to the arm. No reference anywhere I could find on the internet. I guess I'll have to call them tomorrow and either get clarification or use their satisfaction guarantee.

Update: Called them and they tell me those aren't compatible with the car. The best they have are the Stealth blades. They acknowledged there fitment guide at Walmart isn't clear enough regarding this.

 

installed a torque arm mount, greased my u- joints in my driveshaft and replaced my rear springs so i have a full matching set. ordered some adjustable lower control arms and panhard bar and also a turbo feed line.

 

drove 45 minutes to pick up a sweet set of wheels for it only to find out they were a ford bolt pattern. im glad I tried them on before I bought.

 

ive honestly been debating on converting to 5x114.3 (5x4.5) bolt pattern. soo many more new/ used wheel options. i cant find crap in my area for 5x120 (5x4.75). wouldnt be hard to do especially if i ever do a 8.8 or 9" rear end. then would just need to drill and install new studs in the front hubs.

 

Dropped the fuel tank last night, gonna get some sand paper from the neighbor and paint the axle, sway bar, and pan hard bars while waiting for the tank get here this weekend.

The sender cleaned up okay but noticed the impedence of the level sender is wayyy off so decided i'll buy a new one for a EFI one - runa hose down to bottom of the tank off the 3/8s breather and save the electric pump as my secondary for when I install the Nitrous setup
(included is pic from inside of the tank)

But WOW! the prices for these sending units new! like wtf huh? Wouldnt happen that one of y'all has one used i could buy from yah? lol

 

Welcome aboard ninjabarney7!

Is this photo the interior of the fuel tank?

 

Yupp, got under the car to investigate a leakand found I could poke holes in the bottom of the tank with my finger!

 

More burnout launches, new weatherstripping and IAC/minimum throttle set!

 

just got my ebay special DNA motoring adjustable lower control arms and panhard bar. not bad for $125. probably put them on in a little. only problem i see is at some one of the previous owners jacked the car up by the stock panhard bar and bent it. so ill have to figure out the correct adjustment unless someone knows the length?

 

 

Installed a plate mounted reverse light. Had my rear hatch tinted so it helps me when backing up at night

 

dang i like that. where you get it?

 

https://www.vleds.com/shop-applicati...erse-72-w.html
20% off right now so the price wasnt bad.

 

Got my mufflex 4 inch exhaust just about done. I added a 4 inch dynomax race bullet to help quiet it down before the hooker quietflow. I’m still playing around with mufflers and might swap the quietflow for something else. Im really happy with the ground clearance considering the back of the car is bottomed out on weight jacks.

 

took the truckstang on a 4 hour back and forth drive and got these today. could not find any 18s locally for cheap. the front tires are a little stretchy so the rears are probably gonna go on the front and then just gonna get some NT05r for the rears. 18x9 and 18x10

 

let us know when you get these on,im putting a set on my t/a as well and they look very similar.

they will need a polish,real rubber and spacers obviously but $180 was a steal.

 

Those'll look good on the f-body. What size spacer will they need?

 

i have 2 1-1/4" spacers and i just picked up 4 that are 1".i got the pair for $20 and the 4 were $80 so i just grabbed them all.
usually a pair are $200 so i jumped at them.ive got so much to do and its finally getting nicer out so Ive got to get myself motivated.
i have a dozen things to do(probably more,lol) and have to figure out what order to do them in to not do redundant work over and over again.

1)i have a 9 bolt rear i need to swap in but its ugly as sin(rusty)because my trusty 10 bolt decided to chip a gear of the ring gear and now it howls
2)Ive got a set of hedman(or hooker) shorty headers and a y-pipe ive got to swap over onto my existing cat back.(do i do it now or wait for the motor swap)
3)Ive got a set of sub frame connectors i have to install and get welded on.(do i do them first or last)
4)Ive got an umi transmission mount and torque arm mount as well as the torque arm to mount.(this is tied into the rear end swap)
5)Ive got 3 engines and the one in the car plus a ton of parts for all of them-an L98 350 TPI,an LB9 305 TPI and a 1997 vortec 350
(i have to go through whichever one i choose and swap the cam,change the heads to vortecs after swapping the ls6 springs,retainers and new seals)
6)then i have to decide if ill keep the t5 behind the engine i put together or put in my 700r4 i have kicking around
7)Ive got 4 sets of rims(all have crappy/ no tires)....the style 65 bmw rims on the car,16" 20 slot turbo style rims,
16" crosslace rims and the 18" bbs lm reps above(what ones to choose,lol)
8)Ive got to put in new window sweeps and change the passenger door handle(i see this being really fun)
9)Ive got a set of 5th gen camaro seats and a new(er) gta console i may or may not want to put in
10)Ive got a couple extra amps,wiring and am contemplating adding a matching amp that i have to the one in the car for component speakers
11)Ive got a proper fiberglass trans am wing,do i put it on or leave my beloved heritage rs bookshelf wing on?
12)Ive got to wire up my power gta seats,my new trunk release(power) and do some interior touch ups
13)Ive got to get my front fenders not to bulge because some dipsh i t jacked it up wrong(i heard its easy,i don't believe it)
14)i have gta emblems im contemplating putting on the car,im not trying to convince anyone its a gta i just love the emblems
15)ive got a set of trans am hood vents(as seen on most third gen t/a's) and im trying to figure out if i want to put them in my cowl hood
16)i need a set of hood pins or aerocatch hood latches and need to readjust my hood to get rid of that gap.

im sure there's much more but i wrote this as a list/reminder to myself.if anyone has any advice,suggestions,words of encouragement or wants to come over and help im game!!

my work associate offered the 4th gen to me but it needs a lot of love and i have no room or money right now to deal with it.darn it all,i really love the car though!!

 

Just couldnt take looking at that blank boring sheet metal in the bulge. Sourced some metal from my scrap pile and got it done!

 

thanks,now i have to add another thing to my list,making my cowl hood sealed to the carb and putting a nice screen like yours in the back.at oleast i go9t started cleaning that 9 bolt off,just a bit more scraping and scrubbing,a degrease bath and some paint.then i can get back to doing some burnouts.

i started my t/a today after it being asleep since last October(god i hate Canada)added some fresh gas,reconnected the battery and VROOM.It may be a slow as turtle lg4(FOR NOW)but it runs so good,hates too much advance for sure though.if it doesn't fire i just retard the timing a touch and its good to go

 

Damn, all i did was swap out the LED for this flat LED in the shift indicator.It illuminates the whole window evenly. The old LED barely lit the P and R was not much better.

This just about finish's my little shifter project.