Rebuild:
Even though the car was in good condition when purchased, the car is still almost twenty years old. This page will outline the rebuild I am doing to make this car a good daily driver again.
Rebuild list:
- Paint the car
- Power coat rear deck lid vents
- Replace shocks and struts, then get the alignment done
- Rebuild shifter
- Replaced ball joints and outer tie rod ends
- Replace suspension bushings
- Replace front speakers
- Motor/Transmission mounts
- Rebuild console
- Clean up switches
- Fix rear light lenses
- Replace steering wheel
- Fix drivers side seat
- Replace rear speakers
- Upgrade stereo from tape deck to CD player
- Replace quarter windows
- Fix drivers side door pin
- Replace outer dew wipes
Painting:
The clear coat was coming off and the original black paint was faded. The rear bumper had spider cracking from a minor hit. Here are the pictures from the body shop.
Power coater deck lid vents:
The original deck lid vents had the paint coming off in places. When Greg showed up to the GGF meeting with power coated vents, I purchased them. I was originally going to rattle can paint the vents myself knowing very well the the paint will come off again. I really liked the ideal of a more permeant solution and power coating was it.
KYB shocks and struts:
The fronts were very easy to install. The rear struts took a bit more work. Getting them out was three bolts on top and two on bottom. I do not use a spring compressor because they kill people. For forty dollars latter and the guys at wheel works swapped over the springs from the old strut to the KYBs. No pictures here, for shocks are not much to photograph.
Rebuild shifter:
I started the rebuild by replacing parts that were not bad. I installed the short shifter and replaced the leather boot. The selector cable is very bad and it is hard to move the shifter left and right. Installing the short shifter, made this much worse.
I still have to replace the selector cable and rebuild the shifter bushings.
Rebuild front suspension:
New Bushings, ball joints, outer tie rods, steel braided brake hoses and 1" lowering springs. Lowering the front end turned out great. I amazed how lowering the front end 1" changes the presence of the car.
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Replace front speakers:
I did not want to use 4x10" speakers because they just do not sound right. Speakers should be round for the best sound. In order to use 5 1/4" component speakers, I had to build an adapter.
Replace Transmission Mounts:
No more clunk between shifts.
Replace rear speakers:
I replaced the OEM rear plate speakers with newer, non paper, not 20+ year old OEM Chevrolet garbage speakers.
Add factory subwoofer:
The factory subwoofer supports a 5 1/4" speaker. With the small cabin, this small subwoofer does the job.
Rear Coil-Overs:
With the front lowered the rear wheels look funny with the non proportional gap. The best solution is to convert the rear struts to height adjustable coil overs. I did this with the AD355 kit and it worked out great.