njsteve

The new bump stops arrived today from Hendrick Motors in NC. They had a pair on the shelf down there. You can see that they are made of some weird, yellow, hardened foam. The originals just crumbled away after 13 years.

At least the bolts loosened nicely with some PB Blaster. The WS6 cars came with 17 rims so they used the aluminum spacers to lower the bump stops, in order to prevent the tires from bottoming out in the wheel wells.

Here you can see how the original foam section is gone, leaving only the metal backing bolted to the spacer.



The new snubber next to the spacer.



And after the boy installed it. Another successful afternoon project.

pontiac_boy

iTrader: (1)

Very cool to see a car like this that had been well cared for by the previous owner with all that documentation for proof. I'm sure they would be happy to know your continuing that type of care.

JD_AMG

FYI that is the base car style bumpstop, you don't want to use the spacer with that as its only going to further limit suspension travel. The WS6/SS car bumpstops were a stiffer and shorter stop and that is why they used the spacer.
Check out the difference:

njsteve

Thanks for the info. Do you have a part number for the correct WS6 bumpstops? The pieces that crumbled off the car's original backing plates did resemble the color in your photo.

red04montels

iTrader: (1)

cool looking build, subscribed!

GmPartsDirect.com

10164173 rear suspension jounce bumper requires to order one per side needed, for option codes QCB, QEA, QFZ, or QLC (16" wheel options)

http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/results...umber=10164173

10282449 rear suspension jounce bumper requires to order one per side needed for use with option code QFK (17" tire) unfortunately this one has been discontinued and it is no longer available from General Motors.

Please contact with any questions at secure.gmpartsdirect.com/secure/customer_service/

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

Yea like every other part the SOB's have quit selling for these cars. Only thing not discontinued is the excuses.

Paul Bell

iTrader: (9)

These cars went out of production 13 years ago. Would you be angry if they didn't have parts for a car made in 1971? They don't make parts indefinitely.

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

7 years ago I could walk up front and order most every part for a vehicle that had not been made in 20-25 years. These day's they are already discontinuing parts for 07'08's already just aggarvating. As someone else on here said in a different thread old gm died in 08. Guess I just gotta get used to it and computers have made it a piece of cake for bean counters to wipe out slow moving parts inventory at the stroke of key.

Paul Bell

iTrader: (9)

7 or 8 years ago (2007) I was finding it hard to find parts for my '94 Formula. And through the many years and many GM vehicles I've gone through, approaching ten years after production end, parts would become scarce.

Not trying to fight with you or say you're wrong but my experiences have been different than yours.

An auto manufacturer is not required by law to make parts for vehicles once they reach ten years of age.

SS_TOR

looking good

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

Hows the new project coming along new pics or updates.

njsteve

GMPartsdirect, thanks for the info on the jounce bumper part numbers.

We were away camping for the week and just got back. Going to tackle the new carpet tomorrow and clean the upholstery big time to get rid of that embedded cigarette smoke smell. Stay tuned.

01WS6/tamu

iTrader: (37)

Did you get a new gm carpet for it?

njsteve

Got it from Auto Custom Carpet via Rockauto.com. (it was actually half the price of getting it directly from ACC themselves!) It is the same one piece, molded carpet in ebony, as the original. They make the best replacement carpets, that I have seen. We had to do the same thing on my daughter's '09 Impala SS when we bought that. It was a 4,000 mile car but the prior owner was a chain smoker and all the carpet was completely skunked from the years of smoke. No way to clean it.

njsteve

We got back from camping a couple days ago. Nothing like spending a week in the middle of no-where in the July heat, with no A/C and then have the A/C go out on the truck the moment you start the 300 mile trip back home. Ugh! It was like a Clark Griswold family vacation nightmare from the 1960's. I ended up ordering a new condenser from rockauto while on the road and it was delivered just in time for our arrival at the homestead. I then spent an evening at my buddy's garage installing it. After 19 years, the original condenser sprung a leak at the factory seam. The new AC/Delco unit bolted right up...after some modification to the original brackets.

So the next day me and the boy tackled the smoke impregnated factory carpet. I had him remove everything and he did very well. I'm glad we pulled the old carpet since it appears that the prior owner must have tried to clean the driver's foot well area and soaked the carpet so badly that the jute and the foam padding was too wet to reuse.

Here's the boy hard at work removing the rear seat attachments. He spent most of the day with me (9:00 AM to around 4:00 PM when he dumped me to go to a movie with his sister). The kid has no stamina.




And here is the old carpet once we pulled it out. Many cups of coffee found their way onto the floor by the cup holder area of the console. And the driver's foot well section was just as nasty. We ended up pulling off and reusing all factory jute backing sections from the every spot but the driver's seat area, since that was soaked and moldy smelling.



And the nice clean floor area...after vacuuming. We found $1.95 in change!

njsteve

That new carpet from Auto Custom Carpet weighed a ton with the optional rubberized backing. To add to the grief is the fact that the Firebird used a one-piece carpet that goes from the dash to the rear hatch area. It took a very long time to get it centered and then installed. I quit at 9:00 PM after getting the carpet in and the surrounding moldings.




I pulled out the factory foam backed headliner and gently scrubbed it with a damp cloth soaked with dishwashing detergent and water. I let it dry overnight and Fabreze'd the heck out of it the next day. That seemed to work to get the smoke out.

njsteve

Here's the finished product. After scrubbing all the seats and applying leather preservative, my son and I spent the afternoon reinstalling it all. The car actually smells nice now. No more smoke residue.





I was able to salvage the cracked polypropylene seat bolster by using the plastic welder and extra polypropylene welding rods. The repair is underneath and on the back side so it is invisible unless you remove the seats.

I also used some flexible bumper repair material, supported by wire mesh, along with a couple zip-ties, to the pull the two large cracks together on the driver's door panel and then permanently repair the cracks. There is still a visible repair spot but not nearly as visible as the original 1/16" fractures.

We pulled the passenger side panel to reconnoiter the condition and found one tiny crack about to start in the same locations - the 90 degree angles that are cut into the panel where the inner weatherstrip attaches. We removed the factory staples, reinstalled new staples in a non-stressed locations and then used the flexible bumper repair material to form a layer of internal bracing to the area.

All is well now, until we can find a nice unbroken (and inexpensive) driver's side panel.

Roidz24

Wow great work! Car interior looks incredible with the new carpet. What a difference.

njsteve

We went out to the local cruise night tonight and the Firebird and Camaro just so happened to be tonight's featured car. There were several dozen first, second, third, and fourth gen Firebirds there. Another black WS6 pulled in and parked next to me right after this photo was taken. (It was an 2002 with an automatic...and a baby seat in the back.)



Thanks to 97ramsst, I now have an original black front license plate filler panel in place. The car looks so much nicer with the giant ugly plate area filled in.