Slowly coming along......

Been working a bit on the cosmetics and stereo lately.  Found a matching Memphis 50x4 amplifier for my interior speakers.  Matches nicely with my Memphis digital subwoofer amplifier.  still don't have a plan as far as what speakers going where or how I'm going to mount the amps, but while the interior is out, I can get all the wires run nice and neat inside.  Center console is almost complete.  radio is flush mounted.  had to give up one of my heat vents in the console for the radio.  The RCA outputs ran right into it.  so I cut it out in order to get the radio flush.

Found a deal on a set of underdrive aluminum pulleys. should add some nice bling under the hood and a little extra rear wheel horsepower.

RockAuto really came through for me on the carpet.   The always say dont start cutting it until your sure its good, but of course, I got ahead of myself when the first shipment arrived and started fitting it before I noticed how bad the crease was.  Several emails later, Liz at RockAuto had an RMA and pick up tag for the defective carpet and a new one arrived this week.  Looks MUCH better.  Rockauto has earned my business.  Will definitely be my first stop for most parts.  and it doesn't hurt that they usually have the best prices as well.


   

Little more work done.....

So I ordered my new carpet for the interior.  Unfortunately,  It had a defect and I had to send it back so waiting for the new one to arrive so I can get the interior back together.  I did go ahead and changed out all the dash lights to LED's (RED) and started applying the Carbon fiber vinyl to various plastics on the dash.  looks good so far.  Also added some white vinyl overlays to the dash gauges.

gotta get some better pictures of how it looks lit up at night.  keep getting bad reflections that make it look like the gauges are unreadable.

Also managed to fix the electric tonneau release for the top.  couldn't track down why  it wasn't working, so I just ran a new wire from the relay since it was good there.  works like new now.  Gonna get to the top release next.  I managed to find a new lever and bracket, just have to fabricate a new mounting plate.

Also found the matching 50x4 amplifier for my sub amp.  the pair of chrome Memphis amplifiers should look and sound great.

I was also able to fix the ECM issues. Turns out the ECM itself was indeed bad.  I picked up a used refurb ECM and popped it in.  All my reading came back to normal and the car now runs great.  no more hesitation and revs a lot stronger.

Tear down has begun.....

So I picked up a nice little shop vac and a garage heater this week.  should make the cleaning process and work over the winter a bit more comfortable.

Started doing some more cleaning this weekend and before I knew it, the seats were out, all the plastic trim panels were removed and the carper was was sitting in the driveway.

  24 year old factory carpet is pretty nasty.  so many mystery stains, damp insulation.... The sheet metal underneath is solid as I expected though.  Couple brackets had rusted off. No big deal.  Gotta clean it up some and pick up some sound deadening before I put in the new carpet.  Should probably get that ordered pretty soon I guess.    Not sure if I want to finish the interior before Paint though.

Still fighting some strange readings from the ECM.  The car starts and runs great with the updated program, but for some reason, the temperature reading and the throttle position feedback is way off.  This is causing the car to think its a lot hotter than it really is and wont go into "Power Enrichment" mode.  Basically making a lot less power than it should under heavy acceleration.  the replacement ECM I ordered should show up this week.  Hopefully that's the problem.  not sure what else to try if that doesnt fix it.

I also ordered some stuff to dress up the interior.  new LED dash cluster lights, White face gauge overlays, painted the backing plate for the gauges, and have some Carbon fiber vinyl coming as well.  Should look real sharp when I'm done. trying to update to a more modern look.

  

been busy the last week or so.

Installed the new plugs, cap rotor and spark plug wires.  last weekend.  The old stuff was pretty worn out.  getting to the back 2 spark plugs on the passenger side was quite the chore.

This weekend was an oil change with Royal Purple and a new Magnaflow exhaust system.  I got a pretty good deal on a system.  Hopefully I'll get to the fuel filter and thermostat today.  Picked up a new trans pan gasket and filter as well, but I dont think I'll get to that today.

The exhaust went on pretty smooth.  Only hiccup is the clamp on the muffler.  Doesn't quite cinch down tight enough for some reason.  I can still rotate the muffler with very little pressure.  Might have to stop at a muffler shop and have em just weld it for me.  Sounds awesome though.

The more I work on the car the more I want an air compressor.  Its just so hard to figure out what I need vs. what I'd like to do.  I'd love to start doing my own body work, but the sander and Paint gun require so much much more than other air tools.....

Weather has help up pretty good.  could of taken the car out yesterday if I didnt have it apart....  Might get some rain today but another couple days of 60's...  Not bad for October.  Only a matter of time before the weather turns though.

Quick update.  Found a hood on craigslist.  Wrong color, but its straight and rust free.  installed with the the help of my brother and some of his buddies.  Looks much better, but we did notice the nose is pushed in a lot more than I thought.  The plastic around the headlights on the passenger side is also busted.  so that's gotta go on the list as well.

Picked up a new Distributor cap and rotor, plug wires, some Bosch Platinum plugs, and a pair of Fram "Airhog" filters as well....  So I should be able to get it all tuned up this weekend.

I think I need to start making some lists.  Prioritize the things that need to get done vs. the things I want to do.

I guess this is as good a place as any.

Making the car look nice is the number one priority right now since it runs really good.

Cosmetic/Functional:
Hood(Dented) (picked one up used and my brother and friend helped me put it on.  Its gold right now.. Oh well)
Carpet(Many stains and very dirty)
Arm Rests(Bulging and separated.  Found a set already)
Radio Trim Ring(Cracked)
Power Window Motors(Passenger side is almost dead, Driver side is very slow)
Driver seat (worn through in one spot.  Seems impossible to find one seat cover though, so low priority)
Convertible Top
Convertible top latching system.
Rear weatherseal for Convertible top
Trunk Weatherseal
Several body dings and scrapes need to be addressed before the big expense....
Paint.

Engine Performance/Cleanup:
Distributor cap cover is missing
Need to remove A/C Unit (Broken. add AC Delete Pulley)
need to remove other non essentials
Remove 9th Cold Start Injector
Full Exhaust System.
General Tune Up. (Cap, Rotor, Plugs and Wires) (Picked this stuff up today as well.) 
Reprogram ECU(Custom EPROM)

Well..  thats about all I can think of for now.......  I'm sure more will come up soon though.

Dropped the top today for the first time....   These are going to be the "fun" parts to find from what I understand.  The lever that pops the back of the top off the tonneau cover... Gone...  the whole assembly is gone...  great...  the button on the center console that pops the tonneau up to drop the top into the trunk.. It doesn't work either...

Oh well..  It is pretty easy to manually do it...  but I gotta start looking for those things.

I did find a set of arm rests over at Third gen.  Good price on em.  so I wont have bulging arm rests much longer.

Time permitting, I'm going to start the big cleanup tomorrow.  Garage is getting clear.. Or at least clear enough to get the car in for the winter.....

So... I'm turning 40 next month..... Related? Maybe..


I've been looking at getting a car to play with for a little while now,  I stumbled across this Iroc-Z on Craigslist the other day. Ironic, as I was just talking about Irocs with a friend and how they were the bad ass rides back in high school... I was 17 years old when this car rolled off the Chevy production line and headed over to ASC to get the top chopped off and converted to a "Factory" convertible Iroc-Z.   Turns out GM didnt produce any actual convertibles, anyone who ordered a convertible from the dealer would get a coupe produced off the line, and then Chevy shipped the car to a third party to get Converted.  I verified my VIN code is indeed a "3".....  So this is one of 3761 convertibles "Chevrolet" produced in 1988. Its a pretty rare car as Chevy produced almost 100,000 various Camaros in 1988.

The overall condition of the car I would rate very good.  The odometer reads just over 62,000 miles.  I was skeptical at first, but Autocheck came back as clean as can be, And the car drove great on the way way home.  Has some rattles on the inside, but the suspension, and steering all seemed tight and didnt hear any alarming clunks or bangs.  


I figured I'd start this blog to keep up on the progress of the restoration.  I've always been sort of a computer geek, and this helps combine the car with the computer stuff.  :)


Weather permitting, I'm going to get some better pictures this weekend.  Snapped a few in the driveway so far, but its been wet an rainy since I bought it.  I hope I didn't doom Chicagoland to an eternity of rain and snow due to the fact that I bought a convertible!