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Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
Tried to repair the third brake light mounting tabs that broke with JB Weld. We'll see tomorrow how it worked. And....Installed l.e.d. bulbs for the third brake light that actually work and fit. Finally, going to every audio shop to see what they have in comparison for a bose kick panel replacement speaker.
Thank you for the offer. The brake light I have plus a nos I also have are good. It was the spoiler itself that cracked at the light mounting points. ☹
Thank you for the offer. The brake light I have plus a nos I also have are good. It was the spoiler itself that cracked at the light mounting points. ☹
dyed my faded sunvisors and installed them. had to repair the visor mounts since the visors would just drop. little jb weld and some paint then good to go. painted my grids then decided to tint my tail lights to match my tinted front turn signals. only did 1 coat, need to add a coat of clear. they have to come off again anyways cause i also ordered some led bulbs. i have another set of tails that i would like to have polished but i dont have the time or skill to polish them so gotta find someone local.
I have a real nice set of oem tail lights in my basement that I might decide to do the red-taillight mod to AND tint them AND clear coat. The ones currently on my car, I did the red tail light mod about 12 years ago, and I like that look, but I want them smoked more. might try the tint/clear on the ones currently on the car, and if it works good, might ALSO do it to the newer/better set and instead sell those. using the first (older) set as a test run. I could even sell them afterwards.
I have heard of the VHT nightshade. I think i saw a car with it done once. I might try that on my current tails, and then try something more "high end" in a tint/clear for my better ones as a winter project. I want them to look slick and shiny but red and smoked.
skinny, plenty of threads on TGo about it. even some youtube videos too. simply separate the tail light housing and spray the inside of the orange panel with a specific translucent red. I know there are a bunch of writeups. Im glad I did mine many many years ago, it got rid of the orange which looked out of place on a car thats only red/black/silver
After 2½ years, finally fixed my headlight dimmer.
I got under the dash and tried for a while to loosen the switch, then just dropped my column a few inches so I could reach in & reposition it.
Burning in new cat to try and pass emissions test and promptly take it back off This 6.0 doesn't do too well on the sniff test at idle... Funny thing, I got a 600HC last year with no cat and a 880HC this year with a new Flowmaster cat (200 was the max) figure that one out.
polished my tail lights i tinted. tried my hand at fixing one of my dash pads cause i wanna also try to flock it later. sux cause i bought this thing in perfect condition but thanx to the awesomeness that is UPS they decided the box was better bent in half. still gotta do a couple layers, fill in some small cracks and fix the one corner
to give you an example of what im planning on doing.
Swapper, I did the tinted tail lights since I had a spare pair. Just like you discussed a few posts above.
Did the red tail light mod first, and then tinted, and then gloss clear, knocked down the high spots caused by the VHT and clear spray paint by hand-compounding it, polishing, and buffing the whole lens exterior. I'm happy with it. its a different, more sleek look compared to the "rainbow" of colors that these tail lights used to have. If I get tired of it, I can always swap back to my red ones.
I like the flock thing, but if your just gonna apply it over the original material it may still crack again.
doesnt bother me i just always wanted to try it. i plan on getting a new dash some day. just scared of having it shipped again. ive bought 2 flawless ones and both got damaged in shipping.
Swapper, I did the tinted tail lights since I had a spare pair. Just like you discussed a few posts above.
Did the red tail light mod first, and then tinted, and then gloss clear, knocked down the high spots caused by the VHT and clear spray paint by hand-compounding it, polishing, and buffing the whole lens exterior. I'm happy with it. its a different, more sleek look compared to the "rainbow" of colors that these tail lights used to have. If I get tired of it, I can always swap back to my red ones.
came out real good. reminds me of my old iroc.
im in the process of finding some decent LEDs i like for mine. bought a couple but they dont really fit in the sockets well.
finally got all the LEDs for my tail lights (they look darker in the pic then in person), finished polishing them and finally re-installed them. also found a tan non logo trans am map pocket in my stash of parts. decided to paint it black and might mount it up in my Camaro. always wanted to do this but didnt know it was as easy as just drilling a couple holes in the dash. rather have it to put my registration and insurance instead of the center console where i have other crap.
also i hate how my bumper has the dip in it. gotta figure out how to fix that. didnt see anything weird when i had the tail light off.
aight its installed. decided to just put the stock badge onto it. might change it if my custom ones ever get made. i really like it. now my registration and stuff wont be buried under all the crap in the glove box.
i may trade my beloved trans am for this (sorry if its a second gen,Ive always wanted one and have had 6 third gens already) opinions anyone?
its a 79 formula,350 swap ,turbo 350 ........decent but not perfect,even trade
Well, it looks like it is all there and the panels line up pretty well.
On the plus side, you can easily fit a big block under the hood.
That maroon interior though, not to my liking.
thanks,i prefer the black interior too but i can live with this.i had a white iroc with the red interior and it really grew on me too,come to think of it.
also my chevelle had 6 different colors inside(back seat included) and i had all the panels dyed for $100.leatherette is pretty easy to dye and sticks if its done right.
it still looked great after 10 years so i may go that way or live with it.im just getting old,don't need a standard and don't need to go fast .i always wanted a 2nd gen
and most of the others ive seen are rough and incomplete.
my old chevelle,it was way worse than this formula when i got it body and interior wise.
Last edited by 1986BANDIT; Dec 1, 2020 at 04:55 AM.
I'm going to add a few projects here that I've done over the last couple of years on my '86 IROC Z-28, but have not added to these forums yet. I guess I'll start with the engine swap I did two years ago, I pulled the 430 hp 383 out and installed a 454 cubic inch small block Chevy engine to spice things up a little. I also added a drive shaft loop at this time just incase. I also removed the front sway bar and added some 90/10 drag shocks up front. The first video is after we'd set the total timing on it, still had a little carb tuning left to do. The last video is where we surprised the hell out of an LS swapped 240SX during test and tune day at the track.
that's one vicious and massively gigantic cubed sbc .this whole thing goes along with what ive been saying for a long time,you dont need an LS to go fast.there are 1,000,000s of sbc's powering millions of trucks,cars,hotrods etc worldwide and theres a reason its the worlds most popular small block
Another project I did to make the IROC a solid street/strip car was upgrade the rear end to a Strange Engineering S-60 with an S Trac posi and 3:73 gears, Strange chromoly 35 spline axles. While I was at it I had Strange build me a new chromoly driveshaft with 1350 U joints. Since this car was going to do a lot of cruise night events I wanted to use the stock IROC Wheels to keep it looking kind of stock, which was going to be a problem if I went with Strange's disc brakes on the S-60. So I got with Strange and asked their engineers what I'd have to do to run my stock IROC Wheels. They said the easiest route would be to buy backing plates and brake shoes for a 1981 Caprice and open the center axle holes to a few thousands larger than the 3.150" axle bearing. So that's the route I went with and it worked out great. This pic is the two new backing plates, one hogged out to fit the bearing and one not done yet to show the difference.
Here's a shot of the brakes assembled, along with the new springs and lower control arms that I used.
Here's the S-60 with the brakes installed and the new drive shaft they built for me.
Here's a pic of it going in the car.
And installed.
The new 3.73 gearing meant I had to swap out the speedo gears to correct the speedometer. So out came the tailshaft housing to install the correct gears.
It was nice to finally have the one wheel tire fire gone.
Modified, painted and installed a strut bar today. Need to repaint it though, thought it was dry enough but it wasn't. Running out of stuff to do. Hope my dang buddy takes my car soon to build this dang turbo kit.
Very nice, but you probably should have the old people underpants box out of the pic.
Lmao yeah your right, I saw that after I posted that pic, I was like oh **** I should of took that out...then I said oh well now it's staying on for a little laugh .....lol
if you can figure out how to get the engine turned/prism look of the older trans ams/firebirds you could have a sure fire winner maybe even have a black border (loose the bird graphic too)
i guess you could have multiple options,not everyone likes the same thing....you send one ill be a guinea pig and try it as long as i don't have to pull the dash/gauges.
noticed 4 out of the 5 little bulbs were burnt out on my 3rd brake light. had some cobb led strips laying around that i use for hood lights, interior lights, etc... decided to convert the third brake light to a led. think it came out pretty good. i know its not the full length but it doesnt bother me.
Swapper, Is that LED white or red. Ive been trying to find red ones, but all i find is super white. Ive got an TBL i did the exact same thing to, but didnt use it cause the LED board is a little short too.
ended up just using regular bulbs. all the leds i kept buying werent bright enough. i thought about taking them apart and using a couple of these strips but dunno if i would need some kind of circuitry setup for them or not.
Most plug in LEDs are too small to fill the lens. At the very least you'll need a electronic flasher for the signal/emergency lights to work, but as long as the strip works on 12v you should be fine.
hmm maybe ill look into it. i do have another set of tail lights but wanted to give them a real good polish and OEM look and dont wanna crack them open. maybe if i get sick of my tinted ones ill try that on them.
washed it up real quick and took it up the street for a pic. dreaming of when i can actually get out and drive it. goal is to beat some sort of supercar. dont care if its new or old. if i dont part it out or get rid of it cause my stupid friend wont build my ****.
Got the hood painted, and the hinges. Primed the front bumper and finders and started on the final sanding of those. Bit by bit it gets better every week.
Last edited by sbetransam; Dec 21, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
Reason: image
Decided to tackle the 30 yr. old carpet. I am off this week so I have some time. Had to fix a reoccurring problem of my tanau cover release switch. The wiring is under the carpet by the console so it all had to come out. Was able to put the wiring back to ASC conversion. I repaired a PO hack trying to direct power the solenoids and by pass the relay. Funny thing the relay circuit was fine, a butt splice in the ASC wiring corroded and broke off. I repaired the connection and repaired the cut wires from the hack and it works like it should. Got some surface rust to repair on the weld in support plates by the door jam but overall the floors look fantastic!
Now the fun part, cutting the new carpet using the old carpet as a pattern.
This 6.0 doesn't do too well on the sniff test at idle... Funny thing, I got a 600HC last year with no cat and a 880HC this year with a new Flowmaster cat (200 was the max) figure that one out. 
