My new 1988 T/A

[DynoDave]

No major progress until this weekend it seems. Was out on Woodward last night as cruising ramps up for the Dream Cruise.

Been straightening out the garage to create a big enough spot to lay out the carpet and give it a good clean. Found a small roll (3' square?) of new reflective heat insulation that I bought at a swap years ago for $5 that I wanted to add to the planned sound insulation going under the carpet. Wife complained of cooking her legs during a Dream Cruise drive a few years back. Can't have that.

Found a local fellow parting these cars who has the seat belt buckle floor reinforcement with welded nut. Going to try and pick that up this weekend.

Front wheels/tires: cleaned the back sides of the wheels and got them back on the car, and she's back on the ground. After looking at it on stands for two years, it feels like it sits really low! My back is happy I worked under the hood with it slightly in the air.

Got my collectors insurance back in place.

[DynoDave]

Still working on the car when I can. Hurt my back pretty good last Friday night, so that has slowed me down considerably.

Got the ECM mounted back in place. I'm not sure it was properly secured when I took it apart. Either way, it is now. It's been almost 2 years...even with lots of photos and bagged/tagged fasteners, there's a learning curve to finding homes for all this stuff.




UQ7 amp back in it's spot.



The foam had broken loose on the passenger side hush panel, so spray glued that back into place.



From the driver side, removed this old module from the GM alarm system. Just a little less clutter and wiring from an already busy area under the dash. Only the keypad and it's wiring remain inside the car.



Dash pad on, with radar detector wire pulled through.

Getting the pod, radio and HVAC controls back in. Took a 1/2 hour just to find the radio, as I had not planned to re-install it ( a different radio was part of the planned upgrades for this round of repairs and mods, but it will have to wait until winter). After a long fight, finally got everything aligned, fastened, and working. Hate working on that pod.

There's something wrong in this photo, but I couldn't spot it at the time.



Another planned repair was for the center console. It's had issues since I bought the car. Yes, the all too common pealing of the outer layer of foam and vinyl from the sides. But it has always leaned slightly to one side, and been a little loose on it's mounts. Found this damage when I removed it ( https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post6554138 ), and addressing that damage was always part of the plan. Cold have skipped it, but just couldn't leave it alone.

I ended up using a lot of JB Weld. Glazed some over the damaged area shown in the link above, and another spot. After drying, I buttered the whole underside of that glove box area with more JB Weld, then embedded a layer of fiberglass cloth into it.



After that had time to cure, I coated the whole outer surface of the glass matt in more JB Weld. It's not pretty, but also not visible when installed, and it's WAY stronger than it was before.

[DynoDave]

After that cured, I turned the console over, and went after the pealing foam and vinyl. Blew it out with compressed air, wet a brush and used it to dampen the area to be glued, and applied a thin ribbon of Gorilla glue, and spread that with the brush before clamping it all together to cure.




Looking at the vacuumed carpet (but not cleaned...that too will have to wait for winter) on the floor next to the console, I suddenly had the epiphany that you can't install the carpet with the pod bolted down, so I had to pull all of that back out.

[DynoDave]

It was a mad rush to get this all back together for the T/A Nationals. But I did get the interior back in and everything working. First test drive for ALL of this work dating back almost 2 years...took that test drive the night before we left. I don't recommend it. Not proud that it came to that. But all went well. We drive to the Nats from Detroit (4-5 hours each way)....the longest distance I've ever traveled in the car. No real issues. It will all get blown apart again this winter, after the rush of fall car shows.

Console is much improved as far as the vinyl on the outside is concerned. Not perfect, but much better. The small divots in the top surface went away after a few hours.



Carpet back in place. This was an unexpected PITA. Thought it would drop right back in. No. That's not how it works. Didn't have time to go over it with the scrubber. Just a thorough vacuuming for now.



Console, wiring, belts, seats, trim all back in.



11:00pm test drive. Thankfully, everything went well.



Stopped by the Pontiac Transportation Museum on the way out of town, just for luck.




My wife snapped this for me as we drove. Pretty warm day (85*), and stuck several times in stopped, bumper to bumper traffic on the highway. This is the new normal....much cooler than before under similar circumstances. So the cooling system overhaul was mostly a success.

[MP81]

Hell yeah! It lives again!

[DynoDave]

Yes sir. Very happy to have made the date for the Nationals. While I did not get down there on Thursday night as I prefer to do, I did make it. No complaints. Longest drive I've ever taken in the car. Always stayed close to home as I had all those original date coded hoses, cores, and pump. But once that ship sailed, I felt a lot more confident hitting the road. Needs an ignition refresh and a trans service to feel really good about it, but no issues.

Now on to the motorhome brakes. Medium duty stuff I've never worked on before. Things get rusty from just sitting around. I'm hoping I can just remove the calipers, clean and lubricate the slides, and be back in business.

Then I get to work on my daughter's truck (brakes) as soon as I wrap that up. The fun never ends.