1981 Camaro Z28

[MP81]

Yeah, it still needs a good amount of work/tweaking, but at least it's a decent starting point, unlike the previous one, which was so colossally bad I'd have just wasted my time.

[MP81]

Looks like I can finally update this, even just slightly - got the front end up in the air today, so I could pull the O2 sensor out and make a true extension harness and not have to cut up the new O2 that I bought for the car when I put the headers in.

I also pulled the front wheels off to check on why the brakes were basically screeching any time I used them the last time I drove the car - the RF inner pad's squealer (or more like "screecher") was touching the rotor. I've still got about 1/4" of pad left, so I bent the tab back a bit so I can run them down a touch more.

[DynoDave]

Getting ready for a little springtime cruising are we?

[MP81]

About time I get to work on the car, huh?

[DynoDave]

I have NO room to make comments like that my friend!

[MP81]

Haha - I've been lagging pretty badly on getting all the work done on both cars before it's time to break them out for the season, so it really is about time. I really was waiting on making sure my brother's car was all done (at least replacing the harness) before I went and put my jacks/stands/cribs out of commission. Figured I had "plenty of time" during winter, so of course it's now March.

Since I pushed the wear-indicator back, the brakes should be good for the year, but the bigger thing is doing this with the O2 and then replacing the upper coolant temp sensor (and corresponding harness clip, since they conveniently sell zero sensors that use the factory connector. Said connector is barely attached with more than 2 strands of wires anyway, so it's by no means any kind of big loss). Hopefully the two latter items allow this carb to finally work properly...it's back to where it always was, funky-ass idle and all, but if that's the case, the car should have no issues going to WOT, at least.

Guess we'll see!

Then I have some work to do on the Cobalt as well, just to further add to my list of shit to do.

[MP81]

I may or may not have tackled this during work today - this will be light years better than a simply-extended O2 sensor, and will allow me to use a sensor that isn't a questionable number of decades old...with the side benefit of not turning the sensor wiring into a giant spiral. I can get this "permanently" mounted into the vehicle and just disconnect right at the sensor end.

So I probably should order a new coolant sensor for the top, maybe.

[MP81]

Installed the new O2 sensor today...and the car literally sat at 700 RPM for 20 minutes. It never jumped up and went all over the place like it used to. It idled flawlessly. Rev it up, and they came back down - they didn't hang up.

My assumption is that the old O2 (picture below) was reading lean, so that "jump" in RPM I always noticed was the car going into closed loop, where it would just throw fuel into the carb to "correct" it, causing the revs to spike up, and hang.



Once it's a touch warmer, I'll get coverage back on the car and take it out and see if it truly solved the issues!

[MP81]

And for those with Facebook...

https://www.facebook.com/514618596/v...7216454793597/

[DynoDave]

Excellent!

Old O2 on the right? What the paste on the threads of the new one?

[MP81]

Correct - and that's just the anti-seize it comes with already applied.

[MP81]

I've had the door panels out of the car for a week or two now, but I'm just finally getting around the the door panel inner felts.

From the factory, they are stapled to the door panel's plastic top roll. The right door's felt is still pretty good - not entirely as flexible as it should be, but it does move. A far cry from the driver side's, which is mostly gone - what is left is rock solid and just breaks off if you try to move it.

The issue I am going to be encountering is the plastic top rolls - they are not in great shape. They have cracks and some chunks missing on the outboard-most flanges, which means they are (unsurprisingly) brittle, which may make it a bit of a task to get the old staples out and the new ones in.

Normally, I would just purchase new top rolls, as the rest of the door panels are useable (they're not even close to pristine, but they work - they also have the holes already in them for the giant ribbon tweeters in the car). However, does anyone make a replacement? Not at all! You can either get the entire door panel, or you can have nothing. This means I need to work with what I have, as I have no intention on buying another set of door panels, and then cutting giant holes in them.

My plan is to reinforce the top rolls as best I can to keep them from breaking apart while I remove the old felts/staples and install the new ones. It also will help to keep them intact afterwards, while on the vehicle.

The back side of the RH door panel: Note the two large section-wide cracks around the door lock rod as well as one further forward.




I cleaned off the top roll, to make sure my chosen method of reinforcement, Gorilla Tape, will adhere the best it possibly can, but it doesn't really look any different. That's where I stopped, to let any remaining cleaner evaporate.

Later in the evening, I got a knock on my door - it was the UPS delivery guy checking to see if a package was mine - the middle (of five) digit was wrong on the address, and the barcode said shipment wasn't even the same as the mostly-correct address it listed. How that happened, he nor I had any clue - thankfully he clearly was an employee that actually cares, and knocked on the door at 8:30PM to check if this was actually mine.

Because my torsion springs that normally hold the trunk open are broken (well, one is), and are absolutely terrifying to try and replace (shattering the rear window with them is a very real possibility) and usually stop working shortly thereafter, I went the more modern route: a strut:

[DynoDave]

I hate working with brittle plastics.

I like the strut idea!

[MP81]

Yeah...brittle plastics are the worst. Unfortunately, that's basically the name of the game with cars as old as this - especially those that have seen so much sunshine like this one has.

The fact nobody makes reproductions of just the top portions is insane. I mean, they do, but you cannot buy them separately. I believe, based on Classic Industries' description of them, the new top rolls are actually made of metal. Prior years (I think through '75), you can buy them. Later? Nope.

This isn't going to be fun - there's a reason I have put it off for a couple of years...inner felts aren't quite the most necessary of things, and I replaced the outers when I did all the other door/t-top weatherstripping, which is what really mattered. But I have the time, so...why not?

And yeah, I had been looking at them for a while now - since I also have new trunk weatherstripping, but have yet to install it, I figured, again, this is a good time. Which means I need to put this in, as the body-side mount bolt-head goes under the weatherstrip.

Once I pull up that area's old weatherstripping, temporarily, I can mount the strut up and make sure the trunk opens and closes as it should. The current weatherstrip is very...flat...and could use replacing, but the trunk sits in the right spot, so I can at least use it to mock everything up right now, and then pull the trunk lid off entirely as I have some...other work...to attend to on it...

[MP81]

Got the RH felt off...not particularly enjoyable, but my pocket knife came in the most handy. Reinforced a good bit before, as well as locally too. Then more after I got the felt off. I will be able to reuse a few of the holes, which will probably be handy.