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Hey guys, I've been working on this car for several months on and off. It was my wife's fathers car who passed in 2008 and it has set in a field since that time. Here are a few shots from when I pulled it from its grave.
I gave it a bath to get some of the filth off and also grabbed a cheap set of local factory wheels to at least get it easier to move. (It looked great while it was still wet lol)
So next I took a jump box out to see if I was really lucky enough for her to fire up. Of course, no. Someone has ruined the lock cylinder so I had to replace that. From there all I got was a click. Which was the starter contacting a 100% locked up engine. So the next step was dropping the engine assembly out to see what can be done.
I've got to say by far the worst thing about the car was where it was left. It was completely and totally overran by mice, spiders, and ants. I bug bombed the crap out of it and it basically turned into a spider cemetery. The things are everywhere and I mean literally everywhere.
I picked up the c5z06 wheels out of a trade for some powdercoating I did for a guy.
I stopped reading at spiders. I would have burned the car to the ground. Just kidding, but not really. It's a pretty cool project, sad to see the car get to the shape it was in but it's awesome you're making such a concerted effort to save it. Most people say they're going to do it, and leave the car untouched or rotting away. Pretty cool you're tearing in to it. Looking forward to seeing how this project turns out. It's crazy how solid the car is given where it was sitting.
I stopped reading at spiders. I would have burned the car to the ground. Just kidding, but not really. It's a pretty cool project, sad to see the car get to the shape it was in but it's awesome you're making such a concerted effort to save it. Most people say they're going to do it, and leave the car untouched or rotting away. Pretty cool you're tearing in to it. Looking forward to seeing how this project turns out. It's crazy how solid the car is given where it was sitting.
Believe me I've banged my head at least 20 times from jumping after seeing one. I've accepted the bombing killed them all because I haven't seen a moving one in month. When the long posts go through I'll continue to show you guys what I have done so far! I'm loving it.
I'm staying lt. That part is finished at this point I'm trying to catch you guys up but where I'm new it's having to get approved before the pictures are showing it looks like. Waiting on one to show up as we speak.
The engine did end up being locked from what I believe was a blown head gasket and then setting for so long and rusting things up. I found a guy the next county over that had an engine for sale and I picked it up.
I decided to go ahead and completely strip under the hood of most things. I masked off what was left and shot it with some low grade red with a matte clear. My first shot at painting. Decent at best haha.
I went ahead and reinstalled everything once it was cured.
Next up was the engine. I didn't want to go crazy but I did do a little too end work. I went with a cc503 cam, 1.6 rockers, springs, and pace setter long tubes
I do some powdercoating on the side and went ahead and shot the factory intake and valve covers.
After I relocated, I had a ton of stuff I had loaded in the car for the move and it set for quite awhile. The first thing I decided to do was the fuel door mod and put a walbro 255 as well. 2008 fuel smells wonderful in 2016 by the way!
I didn't install any accessories or the harness and transmission so I decided to remove the engine and k member again to get it all installed. This seemed to be much easier than trying to do it all in the car.
I got everything I could installed on the motor and back onto the k member. Still no transmission here. The one that came out had badly burnt fluid. I am taking one out of a parts car I picked up. At this point I'm getting pretty excited to see a car start that hasn't for about 8 years.
It won't let me upload the video of the first start up but it sounds very healthy. It was also a major pita to get the k member lined up alone haha. I also undercoated the rear end and cleaned underneath to do away with all of the spiders lol. At this point I feel like the bottom and under hold is getting pretty close to being done with the exception of the transmission.
I will mention I did leave the icm harness unplugged as well as the injectors were stopped up. This had me chasing my tail for a few hours trying to start it. Once these issues were resolved it fired right up.
I got everything out with the exception of the dash. I found a decent amount of rust in the passenger floor board. This was because someone stole the wheel and tires off the car when it was in the field for all those years. It basically sat on the body. I can't understand how this is the only damage from it. I would love to get ahold of those people. They also stole the CD player and made it a huge pain to load the car.
I also found out at this point that all the speakers are blown which is a small issue overall but still another one to deal with. Everything electronically somehow seems to be sound. I can't believe that. Headlight motors and all.
In the meantime, the carpet was beyond gone. I am trying to keep as many parts as possible to downplay the cost. I pressure washed it for 30-45 minutes. It helped bit wasn't doing the trick. I ended up soaking it in this pool along with an entire tub of oxyclean. The results were pretty great considering what I had to start with.i think a deep shampoo with have it looking great again since it's really close now. Also I sent the headliner to my upholstery guy. Still waiting on this to get back.
I took a grinder to all the rust and even punched all the way through on some of it. I got 99% of it out. I did end up costing it with rust stop. I didn't have a welder handy so I just took some plate steel and seam sealer to block off the hole.
This is the end result once I prepped the body. I used a product called spectrum second skin. It is a spray in sound deadener. It took several days to cure but once it did it looks great. I'm 100% happy with it. I had originally planned to paint it red also but it was gonna be a pain so this required far less prep and also acts as a small sound barrier. So I thought it was a much better alternative. It really cleaned the inside up and got rid of the smell and the dirt/grime.
Sorry to bombard you guys with so much at once but I wanted to catch you all up with the current. I will continue to work on it some on each weekend so I'll update as I do it each week. I also didn't mention I did get the Trans out of the parts car and have taken it to my transmission guy. I plan to do a 3400 stall and a valve body before the installation of it.
03-19-2016, 09:10 PM
Complete 1994 Trans Am Restoration 
