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February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Auto Detailing and AppearanceShare tips and tricks on how to make your Third Gen shine! Get opinions on products or how something tasteful looks on your Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Firebird.
February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
This is a Nomination Thread for cars that will compete for this month's Car of the Month honor. The most popularly nominated cars will be compiled into a Voting Thread within a couple weeks.
You can either nominate yourself or somebody else's car, or second a nomination (but not both). Cars must have a total of two nominations by other members in order to make it to the Voting Thread.
Nomination Guidelines
Nominations must be of high quality, finished state, and in working order. No unrealistic, overly processed images. Please accompany the nomination with,
a single large, high quality photo
name of TGO member (with proper caps and spaces)
year, make, and model of car
Do not nominate more than one car.
If you are nominated, please DO go out and take an abundance of good quality photos of your car (multiple angles, interior, engine) and make them publicly accessible (for example via a photo album in your public profile, or some sort of hyperlink to your photo album).
*** This month's category ***
SAVED FROM THE GRAVE -- Cars that were saved and brought back from a derelict or wrecked condition.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
So this is how things are going to work this month. I am allowing SELF-NOMINATIONS. I want people to show us what they've got tucked away in their garages.
Please be realistic and make sure your car is complete and meets COTM guidelines for fit, finish, and quality. In other words, don't abuse this rare opportunity I am providing and put me in the awkward position of moderating the choices.
If you self-nominate then it takes 2 more nominations by other members to get you to the voting round.
If you are nominated by somebody else then it only takes one other nomination by another member.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
The feature car with this thread is an 1988 Camaro that belongs to @alan91z28 . Alan has many nice cars that he has built and has never been nominated for a Car of The Month.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by QwkTrip
The feature car with this thread is an 1988 Camaro that belongs to @alan91z28 . Alan has many nice cars that he has built and has never been nominated for a Car of The Month.
I nominate alan91z28
QwkTrip, thank you very much indeed, I have learned so much from your project! Thirdgen has been a great help to me over many years and I really appreciate all its members and insights!
Since you were kind enough to feature my 1988 Camaro, here is a little background-
This 1988 Camaro Sport Couple was my first car I bought brand new when I finished my sophomore year of college at the age of 20 in the spring of 1988. I had been saving up all my summer jobs, etc money for years at this point with the purposeful intent to by a third gen. I originally wanted to buy a 5.0 liter with a 5 speed but my father wisely insisted I first call about insurance and in the end there was no way I could afford the insurance at that point on a new V8. However, this was a wonderful experience and even with only a 2.8 V6 I had an amazing time over the next two years with this Camaro even driving it to Baltimore during my engineering co-op assignment for a semester at Lockheed-Martin.
Long story short when I graduated from college in spring of 1990 with good paying engineering job in hand, I was determined to get my V8 5 speed Z28... I ordered from the factory a brand new 1991 Dark Red Metallic Convertible Z28 5.0 5 Speed which arrived in August of 1990. As part of the deal I traded in my 1988 Sport Coupe and that was the last I saw of it for the next 22 years.
Over the next 22 years as with most people, life is full of changes and as I got married and had children I drove my 1991 Z28 very little for several years. However I always wondered what happened to my first third gen and day dreamed sometimes about getting it back. The interesting thing is I had the VIN number memorized in my mind and it became a running joke with my wife and friends that some day I would just walk up to a Camaro and insist that it was mine. As my children began to grow up we started enjoying my Z28 and by 2008 I was determined to get a second third gen to drive daily in the summer (my Z28 vert only had about 5000 miles on it). At this point I was actively looking for my original 1988 for the last several years doing Carfax searches etc but nothing ever came up with any recent clues... we would drive around the small towns in the area listed on the Carfax during the summer hoping to spot it, what a crazy guy my wife and children thought! However I did start acquiring third gens and doing swaps, etc... once that bug ware re-ignited look out!
Long story short is I kept searching and finally on labor day weekend 2012, Carfax showed that my 1988 had a salvage title just issued against it at a new nearby town. Knowing that there was a salvage yard near that town I drove over the day after labor day. The guy at the desk who was real nice didn't seem too encouraging when I asked if they had recently gotten in any red third gen camaros. He said they hadn't got a third gen in the yard for the past 5 years or so and in fact didn't have any red ones, the only thing close was one that was maroon that had been there since 2006. My expression immediately went to well my Camaro was actually maroon and could I just go double check even though this one had been sitting in the yard for a long time. When we went out to the yard as soon as I saw it from 100 yards away I knew it had to be mine, and sure enough when I looked at the VIN on the door (the vin under the windshield was already rusted away) it was clearly mine! I had found the treasure at the end of the rainbow!
It was in rough condition, but I was ever the optimist telling my friend I don't think it really is that bad! The rebuild with my son would take a couple years, but it was quite a fun project!
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
This is the first of several category-based COTM threads we'll have this year. Each one will highlight different aspects of the 3rd gen community and what we do with our cars.
This month highlights the people that save cars from the scrap yard. April voting will highlight people that preserve the originality of low-miles and rare cars. And some other categories will come after that.
I hope the self-nominations allow people to come out of the shadows with cars that we've never seen, and attract a larger audience. There won't be self-nominations during the regular "open season" months though.
But please don't slow down nominations of others! I can tell you there is another great nominee in the thread, Cars SAVED from the GRAVE -- share your story! (also where I found alan92z28). Get your Sherlock on, guys and gals, because we're going on a hunt this year!
Originally Posted by Big&BadGTA
Can't wait to see what comes to life in this thread.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Self nominating myself! lol
I will say that I built his car with my bare hands and had no outside help with any of the fabrication,electrical, paint or mechanical. And I did all this from my TENT (yup no garage) in these cold snowy NJ winters. That means on my back with a car on stands lol... no lifts or insulated walls... hell even a level surface lol!
Now on to the good stuff.
Car was an original 1987 formula 350 TPI that I purchased for $500 and it didn't run and had a shattered pass window and that was like 20 years ago. Got the car running and did the basic bolt ons and had fun for a few years but wanted more power of course. Saved up and acquired parts for a few years and built my own 383 HSR with aluminum heads etc and I also built my 700r4 to handle the power. I started tuning myself and didn't have the car on the road for more than 3 months before it was stolen and gutted. I lost over 10 grand as they hacked the car and stole everything from the engine bay (cooling system everything!), headlights computer, and just hacked up the harness. It was a rough 2 weeks just staring at it and since I got no money from insurance it was going to be even harder to get back into it. But I decided that I wasn't going to let someone else ruin this for me and that this car meant more to me than the money and time, blood, sweat & tears I had already put into it. So began the search for a new powertrain and setup. I decided to make the motor so big and difficult to put in that the next person who tries to steal it won't be able to lol. And they would dace to cut the car in half to get it out. So I decided to be the first person EVER to put a 521 Big Block Ford into a 3rd gen. It fit and was like a puzzle to get it in and out lol. That thing turned a lot of heads and no one hated it, first was shock and then confusion... most thought it was a pontiac or olds block. I had a fun couple of years with that setup but decided it was time to get something more street worthy and comfortable to drive and at the time (last year) I had my first born son on the way. I ended up getting a 5.3LS from a wrecked 99 Silverado and slapped a torqstorm supercharger on it and at 12psi it was making 550hp and great streetability. But boost is addicting so since I was maxing out that blower I decided to go turbo! The car now easily makes 650hp at 14psi and has the same if not better streetability than the centri supercharger. So heres the final setup and mods thus far!
Engine
1999 Silverado 5.3 LS 150K miles
Ported rebuild Stock 862 heads ( I ported them) with howard high lift springs
Cam motion custom blower cam 218/230 .562 118+4.5
Retrofitted stock rockers with straub busing kit (done myself)
New cloyes timing set
GMPP HV oil pump
Moly 5/16 1 piece pushrods
Morel 3515 high lift lifters
Fbody oil pan
72lb matched bosch Injectors
Billet fuel rails
Stock truck intake with truck accessories and 160amp power master black powder coated alternator.
Power adder
Modified CX racing LS single turbo kit, Billet gen 1 VS 78/75 turbo pushing 12-15psi on the street daily, AEM truboost EBC
Custom made Front mount intercooler, 50mm BOV, 60mm WG
progressive water meth injection system
Exhaust
fully ceramic coated full exhaust 3" Downpipe going into a 3" Ebay Electric Cutout out to a 3" Mandrel stainless catback, Borla Pro XS single 3" offset muffler with 3" driverside tailpipe
Cooling System
AFCO racing two row 31"x19" aluminum radiator
Derale dual Shroud - SPAL dual 13" fans
Flexalite progressive speed fan controller
Flowkooler high flow LS waterpump
160 Tstat
Ford Super duty 27"x18" tube/fin trans cooler
Tuning
Fitech Ultimate LS EFI 70050
Transmission
2004R build for 800hp with billet internals, kit from CK performance built by me
10" Billet lock up 2400stall converter
3" Dennys nitrous ready DOM driveshaft
Rear end
Custom made and fit ford 8.8 with 3.55 gears. converted to 5 bolt pattern by hand and has moser support girdle, carbon fiber SVO clutch packs (no fun to do) with posi and ARP cap studs.
Custom made tq arm mount to the case for bolt on install (no welding) my design and fabrication as well as all suspension brackets etc.
Suspension
Nothing is stock!
Moly race craft kmember
UMI tubular front control arms
custom made myself 3pt STB
TDS wonder bar
WS6 swap bars, poly everything
Solid motor mounts
custom 2004R crossmember I made
hand made perimeter and through floor SFC
Founders Poly LCAs and PHB
Front and rear home made weight jacks, hypercoil 850lb front springs, hypercoil 200lb rear springs
Hotpart caster/camber plates
KYB AGX adjustable front struts
Viking double adjustable rear shocks
Brakes
hydroboost custom setup
Front 13" BAER black label brakes with drilled and slotted rotors on hawk pads
Rear stock ford 8.8 11.5" disks with drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads
stock prop valve delete and adjustable SSBC prop valve for rear only
All SS brake lines with Hurst line lock
Wheels and tires
18"x9.5" Corvette C6 Z06 black with machined lip reproductions
275/45/18 sumimoto HTRZ II front tires, Mickey Thompson ET streets 275/45/18 rear tires
Front 1.25" billet spacers
Rear .5" slip on billet spacers
Interior
2010 Camaro 5th gen power front seats - made my own mounting brackets
4th gen stock style seat belts
OEM Camaro ABS headliner reclothed black
New newark auto black carpet
Custom Gauge cluster - Speed hut gauges (4.5" GPS speedo, 4.5" Tach with built in shift lights, 3 3/8" quad and dual gauge, 2 1/16" trans temp, glowshift digital dual intercooler temp gauge in new ABS overlay
AEM Truboost electronic Boost controller
B&M mega shifter
Full reclothed sail panels and interior peices
Power 1 touch express window harness upgrade (TGO members product)
Sony 7" Double Din radio with Apple Car play, RF 4.5" dash speakers, Kicker 6x9 rear speakers, Pionner 6x9 remote self powered sub and 6" Rockford self powered bass sub tube
Full LED interior lighting
Exterior
Custom painted in my tent lol
Summit 2k urethane black base sealer, dark charcoal medium metallic top coat and 2 coats of clear
smoked marker lights
TA tail light swap with LED upgrades/rewire for 3 brake lights each side and turn signal on the outward most tail light, they have been tinted and cleared
Z28 high rise rear spoiler
85-90 TA body kit
Quad Bixenon projector retrofit with 55w HIDs, with lazy eye mod
Stock power bulge hood made functional - hawks hood insulation
Blazer lense fog light upgrade, white/Amber Switchback 30w Fog light bulbs tied into turn signals
This car makes about 650hp on street mode, idles with a 650rpm idle and I take it to work, gym, grocery store etc during the summer. Sounds like a stock 3rd gen with an exhaust and looks mostly stock as well. With the cutout closed running through the full exhaust its a good sleeper, open the cutout and its faster but attracts alot of attention. Cutout open or closed its a complete animal and I love working on it.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Great job, custom black bird. If you want to come and paint another one, I'll put up a tent. Winters here on Hilton Head Island aren't super warm, but I think you'll be a lot more comfortable than in NJ.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
I’ll second alan91z28’s car! I had similar crazy luck finding an 88 K2500 Scottsdale my parents owned and I came home from the hospital in when I was born. Carfax works wonders!
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Like to nominate my '88 IROC a 5.7 option package 3 The window sticker on it was $19,128.00 car that I bought new in August 88 at Shaheen Chevrolet Lansing, MI. Car has about 53k miles on it I bought it about a month after I got married and I'm happy to say it's been with me longer than my x that I divorced in 2014.
My youngest son got me hooked into the SCCA and the Track Night in America program in 2015 and I jumped in with both feet!
2016 I upgraded the brakes and freshened up the motor added the 113 Vette heads and a decent cam with some supporting mods.
In 2017 I got a little big for my britches and found the inside embankment with the left front corner at turn 6 at GingerMan Raceway near South Haven, MI.
Since I didn't have any track day insurance on it the repairs had to come out of my own pocket. I thought this would be a good time to do a 6 speed swap along with the repairs.
Since the car is no longer perfect I have no problems with making it just as a want it.
I have some new AZ Speed & Marine runners coming for the Edelbrock intake I bought last fall for it.
I do all my own work including the straightening out the frame horns and reinforcing the mount for the steering box. The body shop I took it to wanted $2,500 to fix the frame and suggested I just find a roller. I however and a bit attached to the car so I fixed it.
Now it has about 360Hp from the 5.7 with Dyno don's headers, Comp cams 260XFI HR13 Cam and 1.6 roller rockers and an EBL P4 ECU.
It has a fresh Lt1 T56 that I built to Stage 2 specs and a centerforce clutch
I put in a 10 bolt to replace the 2.77 9 bolt rear I have 4:10's in the 10 bolt right now. That should make it so I can make it around GingerMan just shifting between 3rd & 4th except for the long straight before turn 11 that I will need to get into 5th.
It has LS1 brakes on all 4 corners from one of the roller we used to fix my son's 4th Gen Trans-Am.
Inside I have an aftermarket radio with bluetooth to link to my phone and the 6 speed swap is done so it looks like it came out of Van Nuys that way.
Thanks
Dave Ready to go get the estimate for repair 53k miles! Ouch! But I drove it 110 miles home from the track and the tracked straight. Believe it or not! My home made frame rack Photo back at the pits after the wreck Another photo at the pits after the wreck The next day at home looking over the damage Other than I can't find the body side molding for the fender it's done. Has an aftermarket left fender and the gap for the fender to the door is big it came out not too bad More photos of it before getting put away for the winter More photos of it before getting put away for the winter More photos of it before getting put away for the winter
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
[QUOTE=Bob88GTA;6348161]OK, I'll play. 1988 GTA 5.7 My wife has been wanting a GTA 5.7 of her own. She has several of mine that she can drive, but wanted this one to be hers. We found it in a pretty rough shape; a 1988 5.7 GTA, Black Cloth Interior, 95k miles, Arizona car, and NO RUST! We looked it over and she said to me we ought to get it and...In HER words...."Put a couple of grand in it and I'll drive it!" Boy that snowballed!! The car never left the place that we bought it from. My paint and body guys eventually caved and said they would take on the task of disassembling it and doing it up right. And then IT started. We bought the new Fiberglass Aero Wing from Hawks and it was worked over prepping for paint. All in all, it formed and fit really well While I was collecting, buying, and finding all the pieces, Bill Goebel and his entire team at Checker Auto Repair in Huntsville Alabama worked the car over....and over....and over. They removed everything from the car and went to work sanding, filling in some small dents and dings, and prepping it all. It was finally ready for primer and paint. We decided to go with the 2 stage Basecoat/Clearcoat BASF Glasurit Flame Red Metallic. I helped when and where I could, mostly assembling the car once painted. A new Weatherstripping kit was installed, new door glass for both doors including motors were installed. A new set of Flame Red Metallic GTA of Emblems from Classic Industries were installed. I searched for a NOS Front GTA nose emblem for months and finally found one in Nevada. As some know, the new nose repro emblem does not have the proper curvature. I paid dearly for this. It was then hauled to our home for another couple of months for completion.
The interior was removed and sent to my upholster Lynn Henley in Huntsville for a complete make over. I ordered 4 yards of the original black cloth material from SMS Fabrics in Washington state. The seats were repaired where needed with new foam and the turned out fantastic I installed the new 17" GTA Crosslace Rims from Hawks along with Firestone Indy 500 275/40/17 Tires New Hawks Fenderliners were installed along with spray undercoating in the other wheel wells. KilMat Sound deadening was installed throughout the interior except the roof to quiet it down...highly recommended. New carpet from ACC, headliner, visors, door panels, console lid, and other switches and things the needed replaced due to wear. Alpine 149BT CD Bluetooth Receiver, Amps,10"Subs, and speakers for tunes! Engine detail and minor repairs were made. UMI suspension, shocks/struts and Wonder Bar were installed. Washer Tank and Radiator Overflow Tanks are new from Classic Industries. And way too many other things to mention!!!
Clips and Fasteners.com LOVE me and I replaced all the ones needed throughout the assembly process. A very special Thank You goes out to firebirddude142, AKA Brett Thomas in Michigan for supplying me with everything I ever asked for. I actually helped fund his wedding last year!!!! You ever need parts, Brett is your go to guy.
16 Months later and lots of $$$$$$...........
With out further ado...Meet Reba!
QUOTE]
Looking good !! Well done
Last edited by BizJetTech; 01-10-2020 at 08:25 AM.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by vinny R
I will second Bob88GTA and Reba.
I still think you need to lower her just a little, Great job on the resto
Thanks Vinny. I haven't drove it a lot yet...maybe 10 miles. It's come down a bit since all the interor is back in. I'm hoping it settles a bit more once we get to driving it. We'll see.
I think some of you guys are posting too much pics and info in your self-nominations. I could be mistaken, but it seems you’re not saving anything for the Voting Thread.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
I might ahave gree with Linson. Because of the self nomination option, it might be good to be "brief" with an explanation of how the car came from the grave to what it is, since most of the self nominations are because people don't know about the car. But, you might want to save the details for the voting thread.
I'm hoping that there are many cars out there that we've never seen and the owners self nominate. Good luck all.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
It appears this self-nomination thing threw people off their game, but that's okay we're experimenting with something new and we'll figure it out.
I can see how the process pretty much begs the self-nominees to sell themselves before the voting round. But I'm not sure others knew what to do either as there weren't very many seconds to push nominees through to voting. Not worrying about that this time because of the possible confusion, all four nominees will be going through this month.
Sharing stories in the nomination round also brings to mind the other issue that happens in the voting rounds when people vote before the contestants can share their stories. And I just got an idea....
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Shucks, my idea doesn't work. I thought maybe I could give 2 days for contestants to post stories before adding a poll to the voting thread, but I don't seem to have that kind of power.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by ksr
Great job, custom black bird. If you want to come and paint another one, I'll put up a tent. Winters here on Hilton Head Island aren't super warm, but I think you'll be a lot more comfortable than in NJ.
Haha sounds good. Tents are better than you think!
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Hi, CharcoalBird. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm failing to see how the car was so derelict or damaged that it was "saved from the grave" as we say. That old picture from 2004 is at a car show literally the same summer you purchased the car is it not?
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by QwkTrip
Hi, CharcoalBird. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm failing to see how the car was so derelict or damaged that it was "saved from the grave" as we say. That old picture from 2004 is at a car show literally the same summer you purchased the car is it not?
I didn't think I still had this photo. Then I remembered it was on my Cardomain page that I haven't been on in years. That and I actually purchased this before it went into the yard. If this still doesn't meet the criteria, you are welcome to delete it. I updated my original post as well.
Excellent work on the COTM. New ideas are great so far.
-Jim
Last edited by CharcoalBird; 01-14-2020 at 03:53 PM.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
I was in the running last month with my 91 Trans Am vert, but this is more my category rather than being up against mint originals lol
I am not nominating myself, I am just saying that doing different categories like this is awesome for people with cars like these. It would be super hard to win against a low mile original with a car that was saved from the grave. I think these different categories are gonna be awesome
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by CharcoalBird
I didn't think I still had this photo. Then I remembered it was on my Cardomain page that I haven't been on in years. That and I actually purchased this before it went into the yard. If this still doesn't meet the criteria, you are welcome to delete it.
Yes sir, it fits the category fine. No doubt it would have been a parts car if you hadn't intercepted it!
I happen to know your car is pretty darn nice and you've got what it takes to compete..... But I need you to sell it harder with better recent pictures of the finished car or it can't go on to voting. Can't have a feature picture with body parts hanging down under the front bumper and rags poking out of the engine bay. I know you understand and I very appreciate your good attitude.
Voting thread opens tomorrow so I'm closing down nominations tonight. My suggestion is get a good picture portfolio and post up in the COTM bait thread where people can see what you've got and I'm pretty sure you'll be back again soon.
Re: February 2020 COTM **Self-Nomination Thread** - cars saved from the grave
Originally Posted by 88IROCvertZ
I nominated amfornal in the past but will definitely again today!
Good nomination. Unfortunately I won't be able to advance amfornal to the voting round because he has not responded to messages or logged into the site since Sept 2018. I actually sent him a note about 10 days ago letting him know about this self-nomination thread so he's had ample time to respond.
I knew this would be a tough category to find nominees, so I did my homework prior and found several good candidates and pinged them hoping they would drop by.
01-02-2020, 11:12 PM
