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Well, I guess the best place to start is the beginning. So how did the car come to be named Dusk? Easy. My wife and I decided to do semi-matching Trans Ams. She wants a vert, I wanted a T-top. So we decided to name mine Dusk, and hers Dawn. Cute, huh?
So I knew from research what I wanted was an LS1 car, preferably Navy blue, with tan interior and an automatic. Yeah, I know, sticks rule. But break your knee sometime and then tell me if you still enjoy popping a clutch. For me, NO.
In order to get the car, I had a commitment to make: I wanted to lose weight. I was at 271, and wasnt happy. I set a target weight of 240 to buy the car, and then several "lesser" target weights for upgrades, etc. After six months of salads and walking, I hit my target weight in January. Yay me! And then the searching began.
One thing I found out almost immediatly was that for some reason, these cars seem to be sorted geographically by color. I could find plenty of Navy Blue ones down south, but finding one up here was proving to be difficult.
I had almost given up when I stumbled across an ad in the Indianapolis Craigslist for a 2000 with front end damage. The owner was asking 5k at the time, and had no pictures, which I thought was a bit steep for a wrecked car. So I kept looking. A couple of weeks later, it popped up again, this time at 4k. I sent her an email asking for some pics, and got them the next day. The damage didnt look TOO bad, so I priced some parts, and then sent her a lowball offer of 3k just to get the ball rolling.
Surprise! She accepted it without haggling. Damn, wish I had offered twenty five hundred.
We set up a time to meet on Saturday, and I loaded up the family and headed to Indy.
The car wasn't QUITE as advertised. To put it simply... the lady was a bit of a slob. She bought the car in 2005, and I would say that was the last time it was cleaned out, or any maintenance was done. The interior of the car was coated with a nice layer of ash and film from smoking, I pulled two bags worth of trash from under the seats, between the seats, in the seats, etc. Along with a total of $29.75 in change. Yes, I said $29.75.
The car runs pretty good. I gave it a bit of a trial by fire that day, it was 280 miles from her driveway to mine, and it drove it perfectly. It does have a BEASTLY hesitation if you push the pedal past 50%. A quick scan of the codes says one of the catalytic converters is plugged. And the plugs are worn almost down to the ceramic. So the first order of business will be a quick tune up, a THOROUGH scrubbing, and some exhaust modding. Once I get it running more smoothly, then I will tackle the nose. So, on to the pics!
20130225_171841.jpg
Closest I can come to an aerial view. I have the "eyelid" from the headlight, Nick thinks he can salvage it, and it was keeping the headlight from going down. The damage is really lighter than it looks, close ups of that later.
20130225_171916.jpg
Here is her "good" side. Eagle eyed observers (STILL looking at you, Kevin) will notice the peeling clearcoat down the side. Yep, looking at a total repaint. It will remain Navy Blue, of course. The only rust spot worthy of mention is on the inside lip of the rear wheel weld, and its surface rust about 1/2 inch long. Other than that, CLEAN.
20130225_171933.jpg
Swinging around towards the rear, we find an unbemished, uncracked spoiler and a functional power antennae! Never saw one that worked before. No damage or discoloration to the taillights either.
20130225_172002.jpg
From here, you can begin to see the travesty of the interior. I mean, how do you spill pop in the rear hatch for crying out loud? It does have the monsoon sound system, which works great, and the 12 disc CD changer, which doesn't. Not sure if its broken or just doesn't like burned CD's. Which are all I have at this point. Lol. I think the carpet and the plastics back here can be salvaged. Up front is another story.
20130225_172036.jpg
And so it begins. Front seats are shredded, rear seats are intact, just very dirty. Carpet is a lost cause. Center console lid is shattered. Door panels are pulling apart and need to be redone. Think I can save them. Windows both work, cruise, wipers, etc all work. T-tops ARE leaking a bit. Time for new seals. But the good news is neither one of the dash panels is cracked, split, burned, discolored, or otherwise damaged. Headliner however is wrecked. So its a mixed bag at best. All of the plastics are in good shape, but there is a film of nicotine and ash over everything. Surprisingly, not a really strong smell of smoke though.
20130225_172049.jpg
Close up of the drivers area. You can see where the leather has pulled free on the doors in spots.
20130225_172139.jpg
Ooops, not sure why that is upside down. Yep, a very dirty LS1 there. Oil looks like sludge, but at least there isnt any coolant in it. And it doesn't seem to be leaking anywhere. Plugs and plug wires look to be original. Engine doesn't pop, miss, sputter, etc. Even the aforementioned hesitation is more of a kickdown, and it stays smooth. It does tap a bit at startup, but since the oil probably has 30k on it, I'm not surprised. Should be OK after a nice flush, refill, and rechange.
20130225_172151.jpg
Another upside down pic. What the heck? No real rust in here either, though a couple of the spot welds are just starting to show a bit of surface rust starting. Time for a clean out and repaint in here too before it gets a firm start. No rust on the shock towers, and only a little surface rust on the weld seam for the battery.
20130225_172201.jpg
Close up of the front end damage. As you can see, there is a very shallow dent in the structure, and a bent tab at the front. Other than that, no damage to the support structure. It was a very light hit that just tore up the plastic a bit.
20130225_172207.jpg
My body man tells me there probably isn't any saving the nose, it is too badly deformed and has a couple of holes in it. Boo.
So there she is. Putting her up tonight until the snow breaks, probably mid april, early may before I get started. Stockpiling parts until then. I'll be putting up a "looking for" thread eventually, after I gather what I have, what I can beg borrow or steal, and call in a couple of favors.
So what do you think?
So I knew from research what I wanted was an LS1 car, preferably Navy blue, with tan interior and an automatic. Yeah, I know, sticks rule. But break your knee sometime and then tell me if you still enjoy popping a clutch. For me, NO.
In order to get the car, I had a commitment to make: I wanted to lose weight. I was at 271, and wasnt happy. I set a target weight of 240 to buy the car, and then several "lesser" target weights for upgrades, etc. After six months of salads and walking, I hit my target weight in January. Yay me! And then the searching began.
One thing I found out almost immediatly was that for some reason, these cars seem to be sorted geographically by color. I could find plenty of Navy Blue ones down south, but finding one up here was proving to be difficult.
I had almost given up when I stumbled across an ad in the Indianapolis Craigslist for a 2000 with front end damage. The owner was asking 5k at the time, and had no pictures, which I thought was a bit steep for a wrecked car. So I kept looking. A couple of weeks later, it popped up again, this time at 4k. I sent her an email asking for some pics, and got them the next day. The damage didnt look TOO bad, so I priced some parts, and then sent her a lowball offer of 3k just to get the ball rolling.
Surprise! She accepted it without haggling. Damn, wish I had offered twenty five hundred.
We set up a time to meet on Saturday, and I loaded up the family and headed to Indy.
The car wasn't QUITE as advertised. To put it simply... the lady was a bit of a slob. She bought the car in 2005, and I would say that was the last time it was cleaned out, or any maintenance was done. The interior of the car was coated with a nice layer of ash and film from smoking, I pulled two bags worth of trash from under the seats, between the seats, in the seats, etc. Along with a total of $29.75 in change. Yes, I said $29.75.
The car runs pretty good. I gave it a bit of a trial by fire that day, it was 280 miles from her driveway to mine, and it drove it perfectly. It does have a BEASTLY hesitation if you push the pedal past 50%. A quick scan of the codes says one of the catalytic converters is plugged. And the plugs are worn almost down to the ceramic. So the first order of business will be a quick tune up, a THOROUGH scrubbing, and some exhaust modding. Once I get it running more smoothly, then I will tackle the nose. So, on to the pics!
20130225_171841.jpg
Closest I can come to an aerial view. I have the "eyelid" from the headlight, Nick thinks he can salvage it, and it was keeping the headlight from going down. The damage is really lighter than it looks, close ups of that later.
20130225_171916.jpg
Here is her "good" side. Eagle eyed observers (STILL looking at you, Kevin) will notice the peeling clearcoat down the side. Yep, looking at a total repaint. It will remain Navy Blue, of course. The only rust spot worthy of mention is on the inside lip of the rear wheel weld, and its surface rust about 1/2 inch long. Other than that, CLEAN.
20130225_171933.jpg
Swinging around towards the rear, we find an unbemished, uncracked spoiler and a functional power antennae! Never saw one that worked before. No damage or discoloration to the taillights either.
20130225_172002.jpg
From here, you can begin to see the travesty of the interior. I mean, how do you spill pop in the rear hatch for crying out loud? It does have the monsoon sound system, which works great, and the 12 disc CD changer, which doesn't. Not sure if its broken or just doesn't like burned CD's. Which are all I have at this point. Lol. I think the carpet and the plastics back here can be salvaged. Up front is another story.
20130225_172036.jpg
And so it begins. Front seats are shredded, rear seats are intact, just very dirty. Carpet is a lost cause. Center console lid is shattered. Door panels are pulling apart and need to be redone. Think I can save them. Windows both work, cruise, wipers, etc all work. T-tops ARE leaking a bit. Time for new seals. But the good news is neither one of the dash panels is cracked, split, burned, discolored, or otherwise damaged. Headliner however is wrecked. So its a mixed bag at best. All of the plastics are in good shape, but there is a film of nicotine and ash over everything. Surprisingly, not a really strong smell of smoke though.
20130225_172049.jpg
Close up of the drivers area. You can see where the leather has pulled free on the doors in spots.
20130225_172139.jpg
Ooops, not sure why that is upside down. Yep, a very dirty LS1 there. Oil looks like sludge, but at least there isnt any coolant in it. And it doesn't seem to be leaking anywhere. Plugs and plug wires look to be original. Engine doesn't pop, miss, sputter, etc. Even the aforementioned hesitation is more of a kickdown, and it stays smooth. It does tap a bit at startup, but since the oil probably has 30k on it, I'm not surprised. Should be OK after a nice flush, refill, and rechange.
20130225_172151.jpg
Another upside down pic. What the heck? No real rust in here either, though a couple of the spot welds are just starting to show a bit of surface rust starting. Time for a clean out and repaint in here too before it gets a firm start. No rust on the shock towers, and only a little surface rust on the weld seam for the battery.
20130225_172201.jpg
Close up of the front end damage. As you can see, there is a very shallow dent in the structure, and a bent tab at the front. Other than that, no damage to the support structure. It was a very light hit that just tore up the plastic a bit.
20130225_172207.jpg
My body man tells me there probably isn't any saving the nose, it is too badly deformed and has a couple of holes in it. Boo.
So there she is. Putting her up tonight until the snow breaks, probably mid april, early may before I get started. Stockpiling parts until then. I'll be putting up a "looking for" thread eventually, after I gather what I have, what I can beg borrow or steal, and call in a couple of favors.
So what do you think?
jk
Looking forward to watching the progress. I also like how your goals are weight based - great motivation to lose weight! Bravo sir!
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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