tekkitan

iTrader: (1)

Where in Ohio are you at? I have an 87 IROC-Z that I just bought last year and I am working to make it a bit better. Your thread has given me some ideas for stuff to do this spring. I also have the 5.0 TPI. It isn't a BAD motor, but thinking you are buying a 5.7L and getting a 5.0L is very disappointing.

I bought a 350 block and if it checks out well at the machine shop, I will be building a 383 stroker to drop in it.

creepingdeath

Ok I thought you meant your quarters! Dont just throw filler in there you need to cut out the rust, trust me the tiniest bit of rust will show up again through bondo and paint in a couple months and youll have a big rust bubble. For holes (only under about 1/2") i use fiberglass sheet behind and just regular body filler on top depending on how thick the body metal is. trust me its super super easy to fixe your quarters like a 5 yr old could do it. All you do is cut out the rusted parts and then cut out the same parts on the new skinthen you take the new skin parts to the parts you cut out on the car and stick them in behind then scribe them with an awl cut it to the line clamp it on the body and tack weld it on slowly. Then all you gotta do is get a body file and file your welds down then get a body hammer and doller and shape it a bit (if you have to) slap some filler on and your good to go. I'd say for a novice it would take probably 4-6 hours. But if you want to just shove filler in there and get rust again in a couple months go ahead. this can be done for under $300 maybe even less.. I would only suggest the bondo thing if you were just fixing it up quick to sell
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I had the same thing happen to me it sucks, i wanted to kill the guy.

Rusty91o

You definitely want to make sure that everythng you do is done right the first time. It would be terrible to do all this work and put all that labor into it all just to have it come back at you.

creepingdeath

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BTW, Welcome aboard rusty!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I am in Madison Ohio which is about 40 minutes east of downtown Cleveland. I was pretty mad about the engine being a 5.0, but I was kind of expecting it. I knew how rare the 5.7 is in these cars and I didn't feel that it had the right amount of power. Sure enough

Yeah, I am doing my best to get everything done right, but money is going to be my problem (followed by time). I am runing low on cash so it limits my options on what I can do. Normally I would just hold off on doing whatever it is that I need more money for, but with the car I need it done by April because my winter beater is on its way out.

I set out today to get the POR-15 work done. Five and a half hours later and... its only mostly done. All I have to say is that if you ever do any kind of POR-15 work in a closed garage, don't do it without a respirator. You will probably be out cold in less than ten minutes.

Metal Ready is some pretty crazy stuff. I sprayed some on the bare wheel wells, kept it wet for a half hour, then wiped it off with a damp rag. As I was wiping off the second wheel well, I looked over at the one I had already wiped off and noticed it had turned green and had fuzzy looking stuff on it. I got a bit worried and wiped it off again, but it just came back. Then I realized that this was supposed to happen and felt kind of stupid .

Here are some pictures:

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I sprayed on some rubberized sound deadener. Looks great and seems like it should do its job well.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Now that the POR-15 is done, I moved on to fixing the power antenna that I got off a donor car. The motor is still good, but the mast is bent and the cable broken.

I purchased the repair kit and popped open the cover yesterday. I found a snapped cable. Then I realized that the mast was bent and I would need a new one (making the repair kit a waste).

I am going to head up to autozone and get me a new mast later today. Here are some pictures of the inside of power a antenna.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Well, it looks like I am kinda talking to myself, but I'll just keep posting in case someone finds anything I do useful .

Looks like my search for a new antenna mast will continue. I might end up getting one from a junk yard car.

I started cleaning up the forward floor pan in preparation for patching of the small rust holes, POR-15, and Raamat to replace the original sound insulator that rotted out pretty bad. I also put some vacuum lines on the door rods to help cut down on noise when the doors are closed.

KYLE87

iTrader: (5)

Ive been keeping up with your thread, I just dont reply unless there is something I know or really interest me, dont think your posting goes unnoticed

Neil

Man, way to go, you are attacking that car! I like seeing that, now don't work too fast, take your time....hey look at me!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Glad to see someone is watching

I've been following your build and got some ideas from that, awesome work by the way. I have a lot of time at the moment because I am kind of in between jobs (under 10 hours/week at current job due to over hiring ). That means lots of time to work on the car, but not so much money to put in it. Starting to run out of that all important factor...

xxxbubba4life

man, yer doin good... im just gettin started on my 86 t/a and i also was told i had a 350 when it is only a 305. keep the good work

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I finally have a few updates to post. I finally gathered the strength to drill the quarter panel holes for the body kit pieces. It was definitely one of the scariest things I have ever done to my car . Despite my concerns, it actually turned out quite nicely, at least on the passenger side.

The driver side piece is bent due to a dent on the car that I got it from just above it on the quarter panel. The piece apparently bent slightly (in a bow shape) from being bolted to the car with a dent for so long. Not sure what I am going to do on that one.

I also finished sanding the gas tank and put some clear POR-15 (all I had left) on it. I still have to do the bottom of the tank, which could get interesting.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

My shipment from Summit also arrived today. I wasn't expecting it since I ordered it at 6:30pm yesterday and it arrived sometime before 12 today (thumbs up for Summit ).

I got a Hooker exhaust system that I am very impressed with. Seems to be very good quality and the muffler is solid and well constructed.

Also got a set of KYB gas-a-just shocks from them. Definitely a lot harder than the old ones I had on the car.

And finally, I got a fuse block that I am going to use for all my extra wiring. It was $50 and has 3 always hot and 4 ignition hot fuses. It wires directly to the battery so it will help keep some power consumption away from my fusebox. Should do great for my windows, locks, defrost, alarm, and anything else.

I highly recommend Summit, great prices, fast shipping, and even a free hat !

naf

iTrader: (7)

While you have to door panels off I'd recommend, at the least, installing some rubber pieces to replace the factory stuff that hardens and falls off. That will cure 90% of the door rattles. You can see where it was by looking up inside where the outer door skin is rolled and extended down 'bout 4-5 inches from the sill. The vacuum hoses on the little rods did nothing for me 'til I epoxied in some replacement rubber bushings here.

Pulling the door latches and soaking them overnight in some parts cleaner will work wonders for restoring action and probably make the power locks work like new.

If you get crazy you can pull the window motor/regulators out, replace the brushes and clean the inside of the motors and clean/lube all the window tracks.

Keep up the good work.

1MeanZ

iTrader: (9)

There is nothing wrong with a 305. A stock 350 is not much more powerful, especially if the 305 had the good cam like the 5speed cars did.

When I had my 305 I was going mid 13s@101mph with only heads and cam plus headers and exhaust. stock chip and ported stock intake. 305s can be made to run very easily. You dont need a 350 to make power. DO a search for my screen name for more info.

creepingdeath

You can make a 305 very fast, I wouldn't have always thought mine was a 305 if i didn't look up the castings.. i always thought all 305's were slow until i got my car.. i have the 416 heads a few other things and it feels like a mild 350. check out mw66novas 305 it's killer. If it's a DD i would keep the 305 and just throw some heads and a mild cam on it. 3rd gen 305's were build very very restrictive. Exhuast, peanut cam, restrictive induction systems and very bad heads. If you are daily driving it i would suggest keeping the 305 and find a 350 you can build on the side then one weekend swap all the goodies to the 350 mostly everything will fit. If you think about it fords 5.0 is the same size as our engines if not a bit smaller but they are much better performers and those cars are very fast when mildy built..

Avernus

Hello original poster,

Thank you for a fantastic thread so far. I admire your drive and hope to be as successful in my attempts with my beast.


Please let us know how installing that alarm went. I really want the key less entry. KEEP IT UP!!!!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look around for those bushings and hopefully be able to put some new ones in.

I was thinking about just beefing up my 305, but I am not sure about going that route. I am really looking to get 400 hp out of my engine someday soon and don't know if I can do that with a 305.

I have the alarm installation mostly figured out, but its on hold until I get some kind of power back in the car. Probably after the paint is done.

nikkev

Great job so far! Following your thread pretty close to get some ideas for my '91. As soon as summer rolls around, I plan on attacking just like you are!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Well its been a while since I had a chance to post some updates, but here goes.

I am getting into the body work now and preparing for paint. Still only have the 1/4 panel ground effect pieces mounted. Hoping to get the rocker extensions mounted sometime this weekend.

I spent quite some time sanding, POR-15ing, and sanding the rocker panels and door mounting area. Almost got it smoothed out . Planning on priming it in the next few days.

I also put POR-15 on the lower sides of the car (behind ground effect pieces) and will be priming those areas also. I added a few pictures of the areas I put POR-15 on.

Hopefully I will have more updates shortly.

lonesomecrow

keep up the good work man!! slowly but truly you'll get there!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Well, its been a busy few weeks with job searching and trying to get the car ready for paint. I finally put the primer on the rocker panels and door mounting areas. Everything went pretty good with that, but it helps to remember your safety glasses when spraying primer (burns the eyes ).

I'll be getting some high heat paint tomorrow to start painting the exhaust pipes and heat shields. I am also going to throw a coat of primer and black paint over the POR-15 on the gas tank.

I am pretty excited with sanding commencing on the car. I started off with some 180 and will be moving to a higher grit as soon as a figure out what grits I should be using. Once I hang some plastic I'll be continuing with the sanding. Forgot about the plastic until I noticed the red powder covering everything in my garage .

Once the gas tank, exhaust, and heat shields are painted the rear end will be going on. Then the rocker panel supports for the ground effects will go on followed by the fender mounts, as soon as I find the brackets somewhere. After all that, its painting time . And running out of money will probably fall in between one of those steps but hopefully not.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I finally finished up painting the exhaust pipes, doors, rocker extensions, gas tank, and torque arm. I went with Dupli-Color Engine Enamel because its rated for 500 degrees and has ceramic in it. I just used generic primer and paint for the fuel tank as a topcoat for the POR-15 on it. It all came out pretty nice. The next thing will be putting the rear end, fuel lines, gas tank, and muffler in.

I will also be mounting the rocker panel extensions shortly. I am planning on using rivets in the place of spot welds to secure the brackets to the rocker panel. If anyone has some suggestions on that, please let me know .

I am just about to paint time, but need to figure out how to mount the rocker ground effect to the fender. I found out that the chin spoiler mounts to the fender with brackets (no luck finding those yet) and assume the rocker piece mounts in a similar way. Some information about mounting that would be much appreciated.

Enjoy the pictures, should be more coming shortly.

Tobias05

wow man, that gas tank looks sweet!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

The gas tank, rear end, and exhaust are finally back in after five months. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the rocker panel brackets for the ground effects on and get the car on its own four wheels again.

I had some great finds at the junk yard the other day. I got a mint condition dash pad with no cracks at all and a 145 MPH speedometer for $85.

The next thing to do is getting some POR-15 and rubberized undercoating on the front wheel wells. Body work should start sometime around the middle of next week. Hopefully I can start throwing primer and paint at the car in the next two weeks. I finally decided to go with medium quasar blue metallic for the color.

lonesomecrow

nice work man keep it up!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I finally made some progress with the front wheel wells. When I got the right strut off, I found a broken spring that I believe is from when the car had a v6. The struts are pretty much junk, but they will have to stay until I have the money to replace them.

After buying some Moog replacement springs from Summit and renting a spring compressor, I finally got them installed. I put in some new motor mounts while I had the springs out, so at least something good came from this. The handling should also be much better since the new springs are quite a bit thicker than the old ones (and not broken ).

I did a little more sanding and have the nose cone, quarters, rocker ground effects, and rear bumper almost ready for paint. I found a split in the shin spoiler. Should be easy to fix with some epoxy, but I will also need the little hook for the shield that attaches to it before I can repair it.

IROC212

iTrader: (1)

Looking good man!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

The front wheel wells are finally POR-15ed and sprayed with 3M Rubberized Undercoating. They look great and the undercoating should help keep them from getting nicked by rocks and such.

I did some hole patching in the wheel well, firewall, and rocker panel with Bondo-Glass. I have to say that stuff is a really great product. It is easy to work with and dries very hard.

I also got the chin spoiler mounted, calipers painted, and the driver side firewall POR-15ed. The blue calipers look a little tacky at the moment since the rest of the car is red. Hopefully it will match better once the car is painted .

creepingdeath

Great work so far, I'm swapping all my iroc body parts on my new sports coupe project. The car is absolutley rust free and the interior looks brand new . Was it hard to mount the GFX bracket to the rocker panels? and also how did you mount your chin spoiler to your coupe fenders? I remember trying that with an old berlinetta I had and it just didnt work. I can't wait to see that thing painted those body panels are looking nice and striaght keep us updated!

Tobias05

gotta love por 15! keep up the good work.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

The rocker panel gfx bracket was actually pretty easy to mount. I just had my dad hold the bracket in place while I marked it and put some self tapping screws in to hold it on. I tried rivets at first, but for some reason they didn't pull the bracket tight to the body. It may have been junk rivets though. The screws worked nicely and will be much easier to remove if there is ever a need to.

I did mount the chin spoiler to my fenders. I just measured the holes from another car and drilled them in mine. Its not the prettiest job, but its covered up. I had to drill two holes next to each other and then drill out the middle of them so it would have the travel room that the stock fenders have. The holes are about 1/2 inch long.

I got the spoiler pieces mounted to the quarters so the only body alignment left to do is the passenger door. For some reason it is too far in at the top rear and too far out at the bottom rear. Not sure how I am going to fix it, but hopefully I'll figure it out.

I finally got the hood sanded the dent mostly fixed up. Now on to sanding the bottom of the hood, which should be a real fun job . Most of the sanding is done, its just a matter of smoothing it all out. The engine bay is half way sanded. Its been really fun trying to sand all the corners and wiered places.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I finally got to the junkyard and got the piece I needed to fix my chin spoiler from a broken one there. The spoiler ripped right at one of the mounts for the plastic skid plate and the mount was lost. Once I got another one, I cut the edges of the crack into a V and put some epoxy on it.

It needs a little more to build it up to be level with the rest of the spoiler, but I am happy with how it is coming along so far. The repair seems strong and is somewhat flexible so it should last a long time.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

The driver side fender was repaired by the previous owner, but the paint stripper took the bondo off so I redid it, hopefully a little better too. There was a semi deep dent on the top of the fender, so I used a hammer and dolly to pound it out so it was a bit more level. Then I put bondo over it to smooth it out. I used a lot less bondo than the previous repair, so I am glad I found it and redid it.

The passenger fender is in pretty bad shape. I am probably going to go with a Certi-fit replacement instead of repairing it. It is dented on the bottom where the ground effects mount and the brace goes right over top of the dents, making it very hard to bang them out.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I figured out a good place to mount my alarm system. After looking for a place on the driver side for days, I decided to go with a place on the passenger side. I got a piece of 3'x1'' aluminum and made two brackets to mount the alarm to the ECM bracket.

It took me a piece of aluminum, two pliers, and two nuts and bolts to do. The spot is actually really good and fits very nicely.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I installed the LED light strip in the center vent. I ended up taking the top part of the vent out of the car to get the light mounted. It came out pretty nice, but I can't test it yet because the car has no power .

New2Chevy

iTrader: (11)

Mine is an 87 Camaro, too.

I just got mine painted.

It looks so much better now.

83Chevy__Camaro

nice thread hope to see more

duderjay

great thread

keep up the good work

After seeing what you've done so far I can't wait to dive into my 88 iroc

KYLE87

iTrader: (5)

An LED light strip, that sounds like its gonna look cool at night, make sure to post a pic when u test it, im curious to see.

Tobias05

nice nice...

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I'll post pics as soon as I get power back in the car. Can't wait, but soo much work still .

I started purchasing the primer and some other things for paint. The first picture is the stuff I will be using in case anyone wants to know. The primer and thinner is nothing fantastic, just some lower end stuff because my wallet is a bit thin.

The driver door, which is a replacement from a donor car, looks like someone hit it with a bat 15 times. After messing with it for quite a while, I finally went with the bondo route. There are no deep dents, just a ton of small ones. I just slapped bondo over everywhere I thought there was a low spot. I’ll sand it tomorrow and we will see if it helped anything.

The chin spoiler repair is almost complete. I thought I had it done today but then sanded just a little too far and went through the repair material. Naturally I used the last of the plastic weld compound so I have to wait until I get more to finish the repair.

david86camaro

I think that some doors just are that way, I know that both of my doors have little bumps and dents that you only see in good light looking at it from the side, straight on you can't see them. I'm almost positive that no one pounded on them, since it is both doors and not and other body panels. I will have to do that work on my doors some day, doesn't look like fun!!!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I finished up the repair on the chin spoiler. It came out pretty nice and strong. I just have to touch it up a little.

I have the fenders fitting pretty nicely now after hours of twisting, bending, pounding, and getting angry at them. They are not dead on, but very close. I think the passenger side needs its hinges rebuilt so it is messing up the fender alignment a little bit.

Now I just have to pull the fenders off, sand them, sand the hood and bumpers and then I can start shooting primer. I can't wait to get the primer on the car, its only overdue 3 months at this point...

IROC212

iTrader: (1)

Awesome job so far man. I'm in the same boat with you on my 86. You are several steps in front of me, so you're keeping me going!

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Ok, so a lot has happened since my last post. The car has the first coat of primer on it and it is already smoothed out and ready for the second/third coat. I'll post some pictures starting close to where I left off in my last post.

I spent $25 on my paint booth which was just plastic hung from the rafters of my garage. I made the mistake of not doing any ventilation work, which has to be corrected before I do anymore painting. All the paint dust left in the air settled on the car and made the surface very rough. It also made it impossible to do multiple coats without sanding in between them.

I put self-etching primer down on the bare metal spots (rattle can) then hit it with high build primer.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Here are some pics of the primer. Not too great due to all the over spray still in the air.

More pics to come soon...

camaro42

Looking good. can't wait to see what you do next!

black89ws6

To gray, from what?

My 89 is gray, and I want to go to black. PM me if you'd like to trade parts. I may even be out in the Ohio area again before the end of summer.