When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
purchased a seat belt repair kit on ebay to replace the faded seat belt buttons. reassembly was a real PITA for me even after watching how-to videos. i'm just happy i didn't crack any of the belt receivers. looks brand new now. i even glued a little bit of left over carpet to the back of the receiver sleeves so it wouldn't rub on the middle console.
still working on trying to find the correct 1984 radio for this car. i started a couple threads looking for insight. i had M&R auto electronics restore a UU7 radio i already had. works great now, but turns out this is most likely a radio from a Buick and not a Trans Am. looks period correct so i guess it's good enough for now.
i recently acquired a UU6 radio from a 1983 Trans Am, but i think the illumination needs to be red for 1984. still trying to sort that out. the radio will need to be repaired, but at least i have it. getting closer.
latest update was i just got some used, low mile, factory two-tone camel tan pallex seats for the car. i actually bought a Trans Am back that i used to own to get these seats. my wife thinks i'm crazy (she's probably right but don't tell her that).
these look way better even though they're slightly faded. worst area is the side of the driver side seat. the outer dark brown area is faded pretty bad.
actually - funny story about the cassette tape on the dash in the first pic below. when we were removing the interior before painting the car, we could see something below the e-brake handle through the fringe stuff. i couldn't get it out, but when we removed the middle console it was Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance cassette dated 1982. wonder how long that was lost down in the console! after i installed the restored UU7 radio, i tested the cassette player with this tape and it was in the middle of "You've Got Another Thing Comin" LOL
probably won't get much more done now. winter is here and my garage isn't heated. i purchased a Dustop California Car Cover to protect the car while it's stored. it was a little pricey, but really happy with the custom fit.
Back to working on the car again since the weather is starting to cooperate. Bad news is I discovered two hairline scratches and a paint chip on the back of car when I took the cover off. Damn kids! The two scratches were on the black paint near the tail light and were easily touched up. The chip was in the ground effect and was more noticeable. I touched that spot up too. I know the car was eventually going to get dings / rock chips, but didn't think it would happen before I really even got to drive the thing!
I just applied for a permit to build a 12'x12' shed so all my kids' stuff will be having a new home soon.
Still trying to get all the interior put back in. I bought front saddle tan seat belts locally that were in better condition than the ones I had. The plastics on the belts I had were really chalky / stained. With these new belts, you can see that the repainted interior plastics (door sill) don't exactly match the original color. It's close but not a perfect match. They're good enough for now though. With the seat belts installed, I can hopefully get the headliner put back in this week.
Installed a new console lid from Hawk's. My old lid was slightly warped at the back and wouldn't hold the light switch down. This caused the light in the console to stay on all the time. I don't have that problem anymore! The lid fits really well but I did have to shave some material off of the rubber bumpers so the lid would latch closed. I was able to remove the SPID sticker from my original lid without damaging it. The sticker is just sticky enough to attach to the new lid, but it's not a great hold. Debating if I want to try and re-glue it. I'm nervous about the glue messing up the sticker though.
Next problem to overcome were the door panels. The top rails needed new inner felts and the door panel holes where the top rail attached were all messed up - which is a typical issue on these cars. I did some searching on TGO and found a few threads for fixing the issue. First you need to remove the top rail from the door panel. In the past, I used to try pliers or small vice grips to turn the inverted nuts. That's a huge PITA. Turns out there is a socket bit made by Snap-On to remove these. It's called a palnut driver and you need the 3/8" size. A friend of mine is a mechanic so I asked him if he possibly had this bit for me to borrow. Turned out he did. He said it came with some kind of door took kit and he never knew what it was for. He let me have it since he's never used it. Even though I had the right tool, I still ended up breaking one of the plastic studs on the driver door. Argh!
With the top rail off, I figured I could make a thin metal plate and glue it to the back of the door panel. My friend had some scrap metal laying around so he cut me out two 36" long x 1 1/4" high strips. I laid the metal over the door panel and then marked the hole locations. Made the holes with a Dremel cutoff wheel and then sprayed one side with truck bed liner for protection. I used gorilla glue to attach the strip to the panel. Use a thin piece of wood on the front of the panel to hold everything straight and then added a bunch of clamps to hold it together until the glue dries. After that just reattach the top rail to the door panel with the inverted nuts. Now is a good time to replace any missing or broken door panel clips. Good as new! Still have to do the other one, clean up the panels really good and put them back in the car.
Battmann,
I just read your whole post, and what an amazing job. I now see how you would have some spare gauge pointers laying around! I am just now starting to restore interior, so your posts were very helpful. Very nice work, thanks.
Got the instrument cluster brightened up. I tried just installing new LEDs but the lighting looked more pink than orange. I ended up painting the inside of the cluster with fluorescent orange spray paint and it turned out great. There's some pics below, but you can check out this thread for more information.
Been trying to work on the car a little bit every couple days to finish things up. Dash pad installed now. I bought reproduction speaker grilles from Hawk’s since the original ones had broken studs & were flopping around. These new grilles are quality reproductions.
I’ve also been replacing all the 7mm dash screws with new ones. I found screws that are a great match to
the originals at Clipsandfasteners.com. A bag of 100 screws was less than $9.
Also got the driver side door panel back on tonight. The original vapor barrier was missing on the doors (probably never put back when the previous owner repainted it). Luckily I had a good condition original set in my stash of extra parts. I bought some 3M strip caulk and attached the vapor barrier to the door. Worked pretty good.
Door panel back on. Still need to clean it up. Mr Clean magic erasers work great for that. Almost finished - I have to sort though my door pulls to find the best pair for this car.
Incredible work! Really nice to see a car being brought back to original condition. Your car was the one I dreamed of owning back in high school (could never have afforded it, though)
Great looking restoration you have going on there! Did you guys use a paint booth? What is your paint gun and compressor setup? Thanks for the Mr. Clean magic eraser tip. If you haven't tried Totally Awesome, give it a try, good cheap stuff!
My friend did all the body and paint work. He’s worked at collision / restoration shops for years but he did my car “on-the-side” in his home 3 car garage. No paint booth. He did put up some temp walls with plastic when spraying. Rolled the car outside on hot summer days to bake the paint.
I wasn’t sure on the paint gun & compressor specs so I asked him and he said:
Sata 5000 is gun with the 3m cup and 2 stage compressor with habor fright dryer
The interior is almost all back together. Only got a couple pieces left and then I’ll take some pictures for everyone. Kinda got sidetracked building a 12’x12’ shed so my I can move all my kid & garden stuff out of the garage.
I will say that having a black car is a lot harder to take care of / keep clean than I ever thought! I put the car in the driveway recently to do work in the garage & then got pollen all over it. Thought I could just spray the car down to remove it & then the hot sun dried up the water which left water spots everywhere. Had to wash the car in the shade & couldn’t get all the spots off. There’s a few light water spots now. You really can’t see them (especially in the sun) unless you know where to look but still POed at myself. Oh well. I built it as a driver so I was bound to get scratches / chips on it eventually.
Thanks for the tips LiquidBlue. I'm still trying to learn how to take care of a nice car. LOL All the other 'summer cars' I've owned were just decent looking drivers so I didn't really care about keeping up on them.
Finally finished installing all of the interior. I couldn't get the factory subwoofer system working and the dash switch was broken anyway so I just installed a spare trim piece that only has one hole for the defroster button. The only things I'd still like to do eventually is replace the turn signal / cruise control lever since some of the lettering has worn off and restore the sun visors. What product does everyone recommend for cleaning and maintaining the dash pad? Mine is in great shape, but a little dull looking. I've read that you should stay away from Armorall.
Also removed the positive battery cable today because it has the wrong end on it at the battery side. I have a really nice condition factory one that will be installed. Incorrect one is on top in the picture below and the correct one is on the bottom.
Most people wouldn't notice but I'm trying my best to make this car as original as possible.
I have used 303 aerospace protectant in the white bottle for a few years now after reading some pretty positive reviews and my own experience with it has been great. It has kept my dash pad looking good and protected since I’ve been using it. Also this doesn’t have that greasy shine but a more natural finish. I did a fair amount of research and this seemed like the way to go on the dash pad. I agree stay away from armor all.
Reddragon,
Thanks for the tip, just ordered some. I don't like Armor-all either.
Battmann,
Your car looks outstanding. Also thanks for the previous tip for using the clips and fasteners company. I have ordered several items from them, nice to use the OE looking stuff.
I've heard people have good results with 303. Meguiars pro products are hard to beat cost wise. M3916 and M4016 are excellent combos and can be used everywhere.
Put the last couple finishing touches on the car this past weekend before taking it to its first show.
This car was missing the ground effect skirts along the bottom but I had a set. Cleaned them up and installed them. You can still read the part numbers. Anyone know what purpose these things serve??
Here we are at my first car show in years. Two of my friends brought their F-bodies. This was the Street Machines car show in Rochester, NY. About 500 cars there. Out of maybe 70 awards, only 5-6 cars newer than 1980 received awards. Two of them were a 2021 Mustang and a 2021 Corvette. If you have a "newer" car, don't plan on getting much respect here. I noticed some exhaust smoke from my car on acceleration. Looks like I may have to do some engine work this summer UGH.
Haven't had a lot of free time lately, but I did attend the Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals in Norwalk, OH at the end of July. The show was all weekend and held at the Summit Racing Motorsports Park. Really cool show. My car show registration included a coffee & doughnut breakfast both days, a picnic style (hot dog / hamburger) dinner Saturday night, fee admission to watch the drag races both days and carts rode around giving out free water and cookies. I really felt I got my $45 worth. Unfortunately there were only about 8 thirdgens there out of 644 cars. My car ended up taking second place in the 82-92 Trans Am class.
second place? I gotta ask what car beat yours? great attention to detail on this
its details like this that impress me most - that some people care to do it right - I used to call this tightening up the car, its the devil in the details!
Great car!
I’m pretty sure it was this late 80s GTA. Super nice car. Looked to be more original and better taken care of than mine.
Thanks for the compliments guys!
Finally got to take a couple nicer pictures of the car. I'm an architect and asked if I could take some pics in front of a garage I designed for my friend. He's got a really cool 50's chevy sedan deliver truck.
Attended my first car show of the year today. Drove 110 miles round trip and the weather was perfect. It was an Orphan Car Show in Orchard Park, NY put on by the WNY Oldsmobile Club. It was a judged show by the club members. I ended up getting an award in the 1980-1984 class.
Took the car to the GM Nationals in Carlisle PA last weekend. I didn’t want to miss the show because they were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the thirdgen F-body. The show was awesome! They had a building with feature thirdgens - super cool stuff. There’s a thread on here showing the vehicles. Lots of thirdgens on the show field too. Not sure why but there were 4 classes for thirdgen Camaros: IROC, stock, modified & convertible. Thirdgen Firebirds & Trans Ams were all in one large class. Ended up being about 26 of us. I didn’t plan on winning anything cause there were too many nice birds in the class. Was really surprised to get 2nd place!
I bought one of the banners that was hanging in the feature thirdgen building for $75. Not sure where I’m gonna put it since my garage is full but too cool to pass up.
thanks for the compliment. the engine bay is actually almost completely stock. i've only replaced a few items: fluid containers, battery, plugs / wires and water pump. there's some paint marker dots on the caster / camber plates which i assume were done at the factory. i didn't want to pull the engine and paint the bay when we did the rest of the car. looking back i probably should have, but i was trying to not have the repaint take forever. the engine bay doesn't look as good as the rest of the car.
i've also been having an issue lately with my mixture control solenoid. the car will only stay running if the solenoid is unplugged. when it is plugged in, i can hear it clicking but the car won't run without keeping your foot on the gas. i had a spare '84 LG4 carb rebuilt and it had the same issue when i installed it. seems odd that both carbs would have a bad MCS. car runs well with it unplugged but it is rich. i'm thinking maybe there's a leak in one or more of the original vacuum hoses?? there's also a small oil leak from the rear of the PS valve cover. guess this gives me a reason to get in there and fix everything all at once. not looking forward to tracing all these hoses.
Attended a car show this past weekend put on by the Wyoming Valley Antique Car Club in Warsaw NY. Was a really nice 45 minute drive through the country down there. Perfect weather too. I ended up getting first place in the 1981-1997 Stock class. Also scored a cool old Trans Am plaque at the swap meet for $15.
What exactly does it mean when a car is referred to as a survivor?
The term, as far as I know, grew from the Bloomington Gold Corvette show. Now, I'm not saying that no one used the term before they did, but their strict definition and judging of a class defined as Survivors really brought attention to the notion, especially in a time when EVERYONE was restoring old cars, often when it was not needed, and destroying good original finishes and components.
Bloomington Gold defines the class and judging as:
"The SURVIVOR® Award is designed to recognize those Corvettes that are "worn in, but not worn out." A SURVIVOR Corvette is significantly unrestored, unrepaired, or unmodified and meets these requirements:
Is over 20 years old
Passes a road test
Retains OEM engine
Remains unrestored, un-refinished, or unaltered;
50% or more in all four sections to attain SURVIVOR Bronze
66% or more in all four sections to attain SURVIVOR Silver
80% or more in all four sections to attain SURVIVOR Gold
Retains finishes good enough to use as a color guide for restoration of a car just like it
Judges inspect four components: Exterior, Interior, Under Hood, Chassis."
Checked out a show in Hartland, NY on 8/28/22. Was put on by the Hartland Volunteer Fire Company. I’ve been trying to go to shows that are an hour or more away so I can enjoy the drive getting there. They had a burnout pit which was pretty cool. I got second place in the 1970-1990 Stock class. Got beat by a really nice 1970 convertible Mercury Cougar.
Haven’t been able to get my car out of the garage this year yet. It’s currently being used as a table for my other car that I’m trying to put back together. Hoping to get all this stuff moved and get the car out later this month.
11-13-2020, 07:34 AM
