Tuesday, November 20, 2012

I ordered an old, rare MPC 1985 Firebird model off Amazon ...  The price was a little bit steep at $40 but I missed buying one on Ebay for $50 a few weeks ago and hey, $40 is a better price.  This model kit is unopened and long out of production.  It should complete my collection of black and gold 1985 to 1986 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am model kits.  I'll be adding this kit to my others on display in my office.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Cindy and I take the TA out to breakfast at Huddle House then I run it over to Autozone.  They test the battery this time and determine it is a bad battery.  The battery is only two years old so I get a free replacement.  I buy new bolts as well and swap the battery out.  No more charging problem, it's nice to pull up at a stop light or stop sign, turn your blinker on and actually have it work correctly (i.e. "blink" about 30 or more times a minute).  The AC is low so it's not blowing cold but since it's that crappy R-134A I can replace it when I get the chance.  The compressor seems fine, it spins and cycles just no cold air.  

The air deflector still isn't installed and the TA runs hot, like 240 plus degrees.  I take the TA home, park it, pop the hood and let the engine cool.  A little XBox (Halo 4) and a quick nap lets the engine cool.  I wake up, head back out to the garage, ramp the front wheels, chock the rear and clean up the air deflector.  I disassemble it, wash it, dry it, paint the bolts, reassemble it and then crawl up under the TA to install it.  I have twelve bolts to reinstall it.  They are all the same size bolts, brand new (I guess the shop lost the original bolts and just gave me new bolts when they returned the spoiler).  I mount the spoiler and install the six center bolts no problem.  

Then ... problem.  

The other six bolts, three on each side, are much smaller in size.  

I find one bolt partially screwed into the retaining clip and thank God for small blessings.  I compare the bolt that I have to the one I found stuck in the ground effects ... no comparison, the outer three bolts are more like trim screws.  Great.  I tell Cindy the situation, hop on the '04 CBR and ride a mile up to Autozone to get some screws that match.  Ten minutes later I'm back under the TA and the air deflector is installed.  I clean up and take Cindy out for pizza at R&K Pit Stop in Foxworth.  It's a good little drive and the TA not only has no charging problem but it runs amazingly cool ... like 160 degrees ... all the way.

The TA still has a burned out driving light - passenger front and if there's one thing I can't stand it's a car with a burned out driving light.  I priced a few replacements and ... sheesh, they're proud of them.  Passing through Walmart that night I see a pair of high intensity driving lights, the correct shape and size, for $20.  Let's see ... I can get two, better, driving lights with full wiring for $20 or I can replace one driving light with the same kind for $49.  I take a chance and buy the driving lights at Walmart.  I'll get them on when I can.  Maybe I can just splice them into the factory wiring harness ... I'll have to check their load and compare it to how the factory driving lights are set up.  One thing I will change is the fact that when you flip your headlights to high beam the driving lights go out ... whose dumb idea was that?  Let's see ... you have headlights and driving lights but when you really need a lot of light thrown in front of you we're going to automatically cut off two of your lights and just brighten up the main lights.  I guess they didn't want you blinding anyone with the driving lights ... sometimes GM did some things that just made you scratch your head and wonder if automotive engineers had ever ridden the short bus before GM hired them.

Oh, well.  Air deflector reinstalled.  Cooling problem solved.  Alternator and new battery installed.  Charging problem solved.  AIR pump replaced.  Not a bad weekend so far.  Now I just have to go from front to back and replace every single #$%^&*@#! ounce of fluid, every #$%^&*@#! filter and check everything mechanical (linkages, etc.).  I also need to get the parking brake fixed (you can yank it up but it's not holding anymore and another thing I can't stand is a vehicle that doesn't have a working emergency / parking brake).  The AC is going to need to be charged before spring and summer but I've got time.  I've got a dual electric fan setup in storage (taken from a 1988 TA with a 5.7 liter TPI motor) that I want to drop in with a toggle switch for those hot summer nights spent cruising, I want to yank the stock radiator and replace it with a newer modern replacement and I want to tune her up.  I think she's missing a little.  I know I haven't changed plugs in her and I've had her six years now.  It's time for a good bit of TLC.  

Come spring I think I'll drop in a JET Stage II computer chip that lets me run a cooler thermostat .  I've got to get another T-top storage bag or I've got to get the one I have a new zipper sewn into it.  There's still the tear on the driver's side Recaro seat that I'm going to get creative with.  The body is right and now it's time to get the motor back to top shape.  She doesn't smoke, she doesn't burn oil but she needs some love ... and maybe a transmission mount because if I get on her more than a little hard and she kicks down into passing gear the transmission sometimes "clunks" under the car.  I had the same thing happen on my old '90 Formula Firebird and it was a bad transmission mount so ...  

After that, I think I'm going back with all new Edelbrock Performer coil springs, KYB shocks and struts and maybe a complete front to back Hotchkiss suspension setup (sway bars, bushings, etc.).  I've still got a pair of subframe connectors (SFC) in storage but no one around here wants to put them on.  If they were bolt on I might do it myself but they're weld-on and I don't have a rig.  It's a lot to do but it's not a lot of big stuff because the big stuff right now is optional.  It's just a whole #$&%(#*& load of small stuff that I've got to wade through and do as I can.

I've missed getting the TA back into the local show circuit ... missed three shows that I  know of plus the annual Cruising the Coast.  I'll be taking the TA to Deal's Gap later in the spring and running it on the Tail of the Dragon.  My car club is hibernating right now (yeah, hibernating, in Mississippi!) and probably won't rear their heads or rides until March sometime but by then there will be shows after shows.  The old girl is back and better than ever and I can't wait to get back in the local show circuit.

Friday, November 9, 2012

The day of fun and hell.  I wake up at 7am to see the girls off to school.  I hit my smart phone and snooze for an extra hour.  The alarm goes off and I snap out of bed, throw on some work clothes and hit the garage to change out the alternator in the TA.  The shop calls.  They found the air deflector.  My father is coming over to help me work on the house some today so he's going to stop by the shop on his way and bring me the air deflector.  The girls have a 60% day which means that I have to pick them up by 12:30 and 12:50.   The struts on the hood failed a while ago so I prop the hood open with a stick (if you have a third gen F-body, you have a "hood stick" ... you may not use it, but you have one just in case and for when you do have to change hood lift struts ...).   I prop the hood and change out the hood lift struts ... 5 minutes, no sweat. 

Sometime about 8:30 I've got my Ipod rocking and I've taken the alternator off of the TA.  Right below the alternator is the smog / AIR pump that hasn't worked in 5 years (mainly because I cut the belt that drives it because it was locked up or screaming or whatever else goes wrong with that piece of equipment).  The entry on the smog pump failing is dated 09/06/2007 ... it's been dead a long time under the hood.   I go over to the parts shelf and find the replacement AIR pump and the belt that goes with it.

Looking at my watch and judging my time and logically thinking like a wrench swinging set of testicles bearing guy ("hey!  It's just another layer down in the motor ... a few more bolts to loosen, a hose or two to hook up, no problem!") I decide that with about three and a half hours before I need to be finished I am going to replace both the alternator and the AIR pump ... if I don't then I've got to remove the alternator again, later, to get back to the AIR pump.  It's now or later and even though I'm strapped for time I choose now with humorous results.  Everything comes off pretty easy, the stuff that doesn't gets hit with PB Blaster and it comes off.  I break off an adaptor for my ratchet but manage not to strip any bolts, round off any heads or bust any knuckles.  I've got blankets and towels covering the nose of the TA and my back is killing me bent over in what can only be assumed the "party position" if I swung the opposite way that I do.  I'm sure it made a pretty funny sight, me spread eagled and buried up to my elbows in the guts of the TA's hood while people jogged past or drove past.  And then I've got the AIR pump on and ...

How the hell do I ... ?  What are these extra parts for and OMG why didn't I take a picture of this as I went.  Doh (said in best Homer Simpson voice).  I take a break, drink some tea, pull up a folding chair and sit and think.  My mind has suddenly gone blank ... I've got brackets and adaptors and bolts and I can't remember how they go back on.  After a two minute self-pity / man panic period where I listened to Shotgun Messiah's "Heartbreak Boulevard" all the way through I take a deep breath, go into my study and grab two books off of the shelf ... the 1986 Pontiac F-body Shop Manual and the 1986 parts catalog ... both with lots of pictures, exploded diagrams, and basic instructions on how to take #$#I& apart on these cars and put that #$#I& back together again.  

If you don't have these two books when you start to work on one of these cars you're probably screwed ... like that first night at county lock-up kind of screwed.  I take the two manuals back outside, flip through them, find the appropriate diagrams and then in a flurry of wrench swinging I reinstall the alternator and supporting hardware.  I literally shut the hood, crank the car, it starts and idles normally, then Fast Orange my hands and arms, run inside, throw on a fresh shirt, spritz some cologne on, hop in the TA, power out of the garage and tap the garage opener closed as I leave.  I pick up the girls in time and notice that the TA is running hot ... again.  I've still got the air deflector at home but didn't have time to put it on.  Also, later in the day the electrical problem returns, even with the new alternator so I figure it's the battery.  The old alternator probably killed the battery.  

My girls go spend the weekend with my parents so Cindy and I have a night to ourselves.  We go out for dinner with my parents and our girls then head back home and I'm convinced that the way the lights of the TA are acting it has to be the battery.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

 I call the shop and have them look for the missing air deflector.  They say they will call when they find it. The TA also has a charging problem.  I charge the battery but the load is too much.  At night, my headlights dim and pulse when I start to slow down.  Giving it some gas makes the headlights brighter.  The turn signals are a lost cause, turn them on and they either blink three times a minute or ... slower.  The battery isn't that old so I run the TA to Autozone.  They can't really check the battery so I opt for buying a new alternator and a pair of pneumatic hood lift struts.  I'll put all of that on tomorrow.  I pull a night shift from 7pm to 3am.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Took the tops off and went to pick up the girls at school.  I noticed that the TA is running hot ... a lot hotter than it normally should.  I hear the electric cooling fan kick on so I know that's working.  One look under the TA spots the problem right away ... when the shop removed the ground effects to paint them, they removed the front air deflector as well.  Since Pontiac, in its quest for aerodynamic superiority, closed off the front of these cars completely they are total bottom breathers.  There is no way that the radiator can get any air moving across it unless the air deflector is installed.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

I picked up the TA and ran it home.  The speedometer is still about ten miles an hour off on the high end so I set the cruise control at 80mph and pointed the nose west.  A few cars and trucks passed me but they slowed down when they topped a hill near the Marion county line and got tagged by a state trooper sitting in a blind spot on the other side.  I never touched the brake ... I figure I was doing about 70mph in a 65mph zone but I couldn't be sure.  Anyway, he didn't even blink and not a care was given on my part as I continued on home.  Went and voted and hoped for the best.  That didn't happen.  The next four years are going to be interesting, if the country survives.

Monday, November 5, 2012

I called the shop and the TA was ready but the decals had just been applied and a cold snap had moved through the area along with rain.  I didn't want to get the new decals and paint out in cold water the first day after I got it so I told the shop I would pick the TA up the next day.

Friday, November 2, 2012

I called the shop to see if the TA was ready ... it was ... except that the rear aerowing still wasn't on the car.  The shop said I could have the TA for the weekend and drive it around but it would be Monday before they could get the aerowing back on.  I told them that I would wait.