dar5052

Made some good progress today.. the car is now basically stripped with the exception of the doors and the hatch. I'll pull those off after I finish the bodywork and get the car ready for paint. On the underside, I intend to tackle any visible surface rust. I'll use a wire wheel to get to the bottom of it, repair what needs to be repaired, and POR15 the rest. Then undercoat the bottom to make it uniform... any suggestions from any other builders? The disassembly is complete... only took 2 weeks, basically weekends only, lets hope the rest of the process moves along just as quickly😂

@Patcon Yes I have a MIG and a TIG. I can use stick off the TIG but it makes such a mess that I hate using it. Do they sell these panels aftermarket or would it be something I need to fabricate? I agree that these are structural because the steel in the area is quite thick when compared to some other areas... which is good because it makes it easier to weld😂.

@Patcon I was able to convert the pics to PNG's and upload them... 🤷‍♂️

After taking a week off I got back to the car today and made some good progress. Removed the steering and entire front suspension. Like a bonehead, I started lowering the front suspension and the front of the car started lifting off of the jack stands because I still have the rear subframe on the car... Luckily it only required about 50 lbs of force to keep it down so I stood there for about 10 minutes holding it until I could get ahold of someone to come help me out. And I got lucky that my phone was close enough to reach it... lessons learned. I then started poking around on the floors and trunk area to see if the rust I could see was surface rust or something more serious. Most of it is superficial surface rust that came off by scraping a screwdriver on it except for the spot under the passenger seat. Oddly enough, I got under some of the sound deadening material in the trunk area and the entire sheet popped off.. At that point I figured there was no turning back so I just removed it all... it all came off very easy, probably within 5 minutes and the majority came off in big chunks. Guess I'll need some Kilmat... Anyone have experience if the floorboard sound deadening is just as easy to get up or does that have more of tendency to adhere better? I also took a wire brush to the rust on the front apron. There is some serious pitting there... any recommendations? Wire brush and primer or repair it somehow? This isn't intended to be a show car but a nice weekend cruiser. What have others done? I would be interested to know although at the end of the day I know it will be my decision.

Yes, my crossmember was recently painted but I intend to redo it anyway. The suspension is completely redone with new bushings and tokico springs. The rear brakes are also converted to discs. As far as plans for the car, I think I go back and forth on a daily basis🤪 My plans at this point are to have a nice weekend cruiser. I want to clean up the body as best I can to remove rust, I am handy with a welder so no need to use adhesives, etc. Originally I was thinking of doing a media blast but I think it could be overkill seeing as how solid the car looks the way it is now. I thought about getting a rotisserie to do the underside but not sure if its worth it seeing as the condition of my car/floors are not bad at all, at least from what I've seen thus far. I would welcome other peoples opinion on their experiences particularly with doing a complete rotisserie build. As far as engine goes, I plan on doing a mild rebuild on my L28. By that I mean check compression in the cylinders and if I have no major bypassing, just replace all the engine seals. I will rebuild the entire motor if the compression test indicates a problem. Once I have a driveable car, I intend to build a motor to swap in, preferably a turbo L28.

Some progress pics on the car... I stripped the engine bay with the exception of the fuel lines. I'll be taking those out at some point as well. Also stripped the interior and preparing to address any rust I have. Any words of wisdom from those that have done this before? The floors are solid so I'll keep the factory sound proofing and just prime and paint over the original. I'll need to address a previous repair under the battery tray as well.

@Zed Headunderstood and apologies if I have offended someone.

My apologies for bringing up the subject. I'll keep it to myself in the future and just ask specific questions as they arise. Thanks

@siteunseen can you give specifics of what was removed and why to get your engine looking so clean? the reason of "you're an engineer and can figure it out" isn't of much help... can we have a more informative discussion?

@Zed Head Thank you for being a valuable resource on this forum. my general response was to no one in particular just an observation that when one speaks of egr/emissions delete, the community goes crazy about why not to do it versus giving feedback on how to do it. That was all I was trying to point out... I can easily provide examples on this in the forum but I'm sure I don't have to because you already know, given you use the search function. maybe I am using it wrong, in which case please enlighten me.

@Captain Obvious if you read my original post, it would be clear as to what the subject was about. Lets not get caught up on technicalities.... seems like everyone else knew what I was talking about.

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My post is in reference to people being butthurt when the the discussion of removing emissions controls comes up in discussion. I guess things said across forums can be misinterpreted given the nature of electronic communication. If I have misinterpreted, then my apologies. However, As of now, I have only gotten two responses that are of benefit on this forum. The rest are of criticism, for unknown reason?

@Barefootdan that looks great, hopefully mine can look like this when Im finished. I pulled all the interior and wiring this weekend. Its basically ready for the patch work and paint! keep up the good work!

Well that got a lot of attention... I guess my point was that it seems when You ask a question on the forums related to removing anything from the emissions system, there is a lot of pushback from the community on what not to do instead of how to do it. Sorry that I've offended so many people. @dutchzcarguy you are correct in your observation to an extent... I've posted multiple threads on my post and contributed to one or two others... but I recently joined... maybe you can cut me some slack on my lack of posting on topics... Perhaps it was my mistake for not asking the question on EGR directly... I used the search function and the results I got back are what I was reporting in the thread... I guess you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't for using the search function... lord knows if I would have asked the question I would have been bombarded with "use the search function, its been discussed a million times" @Barefootdan thank you for your genuine post. @siteunseennice looking setup... thanks for rubbing it in my face that as an engineer I should be wiser... Well done my friend. I thought forums were for discussion, not for demoralizing people. I guess this forum is like many others and I am not welcome here for sharing my observations, thoughts, or projects. Noted and thank you...

This may be a contentious topic but in searching for ways to clean up my engine bay, everyone seems to harp on reading the FSM instead of actually giving beneficial feedback on the subject? I understand the importance of EGR, etc, and its functionality but it seems to be clouded by a automatic response of "its there for a reason". The only reason its there is for emission purposes.. I am an engineer that works in the oil and gas industry and completely understand the process because we do the same thing... for emission purposes. People build cars for various applications, some are purists, others are restomods, and some are somewhere in between (myself included). its easy to jump and say "read the FSM" but why not give real world experience and respect other peoples builds regardless of what you think is correct?

I use Sata jet 3000 HVLP for my standard gun and I have a minijet 4 for small projects. Before using Sata, I would always dread painting because I never knew what I was going to run into. After switching, I find painting enjoyable😀. My brother in law, who is a professional painter said that he tried out the high end HF gun and it is surprisingly good. Cant beat it for $220. The other key is to have contstant air supply pressure. If you don't already have one, invest in an air regulator.

It was a slow day in the office today so I figured I would make good use of it and pull the motor and trans. The benefits of working from home🤣 I have off tomorrow so I'll continue the disassembly through the weekend. For some reason I can't upload photos anymore? Error -200? Any suggestions?

No turning back now! Finally moved my car off the rack and started disassembly.... This will be a laborious task since I'm bagging and tagging every part. Found rot on both the front corners of the rocker panels behind the fenders. The driver side was repaired at some point long ago and did not hold up well. Are the front sections of the rocker panels sold separately or with the complete rocker? I checked zcardepot and they just have complete rockers.... and yes, I did shear off the two bolts holding the fender on... The driver side wasn't as bad..

@Patcon what's the method of removing with DI? Ive never heard of it.. also, is it recommended do do so with a clean body? sorry @Barefootdanfor hijacking the thread....

@Zed HeadI agree, if it ran good once, it will run good again... but I guess that would have been my next question... what was the PO hiding by doing things the way he did? At this point it doesn't matter because I own the car... just curious to know what I might expect as I correct the "wrongs". I doubt the car was "adjusted" to run the way it is right now seeing as it was a work in progress that the PO gave up on. From what I was told, he just took the best motor he had and put it in the best body he had... made some suspension and brake improvements and the rest is up to me.

@Barefootdanwhat did you use to scuff down the floors? And how was it getting the tar pad off? I have it on my floors and am debating if I want to take it off or keep it? Seeing as mine doesn't have as much floor damage as yours, would you recommend leaving it on or removing it? I have pneumatic sanding equipment and sand blaster at my disposal so I'm torn as to which way I should go... Personally, I was thinking of removing it and using POR15 throughout. Also, what do you plan to do with the undercarriage? Thanks in advance for your input.

@Zed Head got it! I guess that makes sense then if the valve cover hose is properly connected and the PCV valve is properly connected, it creates a balanced system through the motor.

Wow, if someone is willing to pay 11,700 for that with a BIN of 19K, I got a great deal on my car😀 Makes me feel better about myself... Thank you Copart!

As of this morning, the car wouldn't start at all. It would just crank over. I decided to start with the easiest of tests... Didn't take long to find the culprit... I pulled the spark plugs out of 5 and 6 and tested both. The cylinder 6 spark plug was shot while 5 worked fine in both wires. I didn't bother checking the rest of them and just went and got a new set of plugs. As I removed the rest of the plugs, I could see that each plug was still wet with gasoline so I figured I was getting fuel in each cylinder. After changing all the plugs, it fired right up and now runs better than it did when I got it! @Zed Head I found the connection under the intake manifold. Is this what you are referring to? Where would a hose go to/from here? I guess that the valve cover connection should run to the tee connection to recirculate any gases from inside the head. I've seen some people just put a filter on it and let it vent to atmosphere. Not sure if that affects performance or not but certainly doesn't help the environment.... that said, my car hasn't run in so long that the smoke coming out of the tailpipe is nasty which I am sure is great for the environment. But hey, its a classic and I don't need to do emissions....😁 On a side note, I looked through the stack of receipts I have and confirmed that it is a ATK reman engine installed April 1990.