rowdog_14

My Feedback: (5)

You will be fine. Just try to keep it out of the rain with spray can primer, and the spray can primer will not hurt the fiberglass.

The_Shark

Today i got the water pump and generator in under 1.5hours, luckly everything poped right out. a friend re-did the carpet for the meantime and actually looks really good (pics soon)

only thing to do mechanicly is fix the minor oil and trans leak, exhaust pipe and fix the speed cable. then on the body side paint the nose, install new front bumper, targa top, re-do carpet and seats and put in front spoilers (found out it did have them, but now missing)

and down the road- vortec heads, intake, holly carb and cam, electric fan, mono-spring, rack system.

and she will be good to go

The_Shark

tune up this morning, not fun, riser solinoid, ac-box, alt and other things in the way, gaps on the split-fire plugs where .020-.030 spec is .045, running a ton better.

Lunchboxer

Where did you find your new car? Bought it off a friend? Someone you know? eBay? Craig's List? Or?!

rowdog_14

My Feedback: (5)

Hey I had a trans leak with mine too. It is probably the same thing that was wrong with mine. Look at the end of the dip stick tub on the trans pan. There is a rubber adapter/ boot ( the same shape as the tube). Mine was missing the rubber boot and when I replaced the boot, NO MORE LEAKY TRANS. I got the boot from Oreillys auto parts it was a few bucks.

The_Shark

saw it on craigslist, went there with a buddy of mine and found out he was related to the seller. he did not want to sell the car and wanted to restore it himself but he needed the money.

The_Shark

had that problem with my volvo 850 i will get to that soon. leaks (unless coolant) bother me the least.

The_Shark

Speedo cable installed, trans to Cruise block was broken (has plastic tip) all linkages lubed and cleaned, 10.99 to fix and 15 minutes to put it in.

interior leak fixed, old cement cracked at wiper arm block $5.00 and 5minutes.

im gettin her done!

J.D.T

no need to keep it stock, every 1978 got the aniversarry badges, over 50,000 of them in fact, not even the indy pace car version was rare over 6500 were done, the two tone option numbers were in the 15,000 range so not alot of collectability even for the "special" ones, don't worry about restoring and keeping it numbers matching enjoy it instead, just my .02

The_Shark

even then they still fetch more money than 77's 79's and 80's but you are right, i will keep the blue color in the inside, but she is getting heads come winter.

im actually thinking about keeping the Rochester on there, it can flow 750CFM, which is as much as a Holly 750, plus i like the little two barrels and the two monster barrels design.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

Quadrajets are the best carburetors you can put on a street driven 4 barrel toy, assuming you know somebody that can work with it.

Shark, if you need a Qjet guy, ThunderbirdJunkie can hook you up. He has Qjetted 5,000 lb Cadillacs running low 11s to mid 10s.

The_Shark

im teaching myself around it, its actually pretty complicated, with the vac operated veins and such (had a bad hose to that one, got that fixed) during the winter im tearing it down, cleaning jets, replacing the filter and gaskets and such, we will see how that goes[X(]

i got it tuned up today, it was running too lean, which caused it to misfire on deceleration, runs like a top now.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

ThunderbirdJunkie hates carbs and wants nothing to do with them.

He pays other people to mess with them unless it's just a rebuild. And at that point, somebody else gets paid to tune them

The_Shark

aww, i thought you like Dino-Tech

FI definetly has its ups, but its so stupid to put so many sensors just for the sake of emmisions[] you could run off a cam/crank sensor, IAC,IAT,CTS and Map.

The_Shark

well i was doing a alignment today (least favorite job) doing camber on the rear one side went right in, -.8 exactly what i wanted, went to the other side, hulked it loose and got it to exactly -.8 but i culdnt get it to tighten, i tried and tried, used my foot as a arm, used a strong impact-nothing, so i got angry and he-man-hulked it felt it tighten a little and then POW!!! so now its rigged up[:@] good news is the part will be here in the morning so i can slide that baby right in.

original alignment F-R 3cas -.6cam -.5toe
F-L 2.5cas -.4cam +.5toe
R-R +1.4 cam -.18toe
R-L +.30 cam .08 toe
Now R-L -.82 R-R -1.60

tomorrow its getting sway bar links too and new diff fluid.

The_Shark

got the sway bar links in a few minutes ago, easy to remove except for the fact that its 100 turns of a wrench[:@].
went to put on the new urethane sway bar kit and it showed why they say "meets or exceeds manufacture specs" yeah no #### 1/4 too tall bushings, so out came the butter knife and cut one in half, problem fixed.

i cant believe it made such a difference- old ones where cracked but still there, but now it barely leans.

tomorrow hopefully i can slap in that eccentric and fix the alignment, it depends how buisy work is.
and maybe get around to fixing that loose wire to the dash for the turn signals and replace the courtesy light fuse and bulb.

jd31

sounds like its coming alon well,
its goning to be great to see some pics of it fully restored

The_Shark

[sm=stupid.gif] well i dont think its ever going to get there- unless i keep it and ship it with me in a few years... but it will be much better looking, faster and reliable once im done.

rear alignment done, thrust angle is only .01 not bad for a 32year old car, tie rods are stubborn, tried everything under the sun (cept torch) and one side wont budge, oh well, gives me a reason to replace them

rowdog_14

My Feedback: (5)

The way you are posting you will be done with the car by December I gave my self five years on mine but I ran out of money and my planes took front seat, and I have put the stingray and the Porsche 928 on the back burner. I am going to give myself another 5 years. Keep going and keep posting pics

justavillain

My dad has a few Vettes and one is an 80(the model after yours) and he burned the speedo up racing a old school whale tail.  It spun around 3 times and hasn't moved since.

The thing is a lot of the parts will be hard to find in perfect condition.  The paint is very weak too.  It oxidizes really easy.  But the motor is easy to get parts for.  Good ol Quadrajet, it's a pig of a carb but easy to work on.

The_Shark

going to work today in the early morning i noticed the passenger floor was soaked again after the rain so that wiper arm wansnt the only leak, also, when i closed my door my passenger door window fell and wouldnt go back up!

well pissed off i went to work and when i got home i pulled the door panel off and gave the window a go, thinking it was either a bent track or ruined wheel or (hopefully) a broken rivet, i found out one of the two rivets poped out, a trip to the home depot and 88Cents later and its good as new

i also adjusted and lubed the headlight doors, almost work perfect now (one eye is just a half second before the other)

tomorrow im fixing the interior leak for good and going to attempt to diagnose the power door locks.

funny you should say that Row, i was looking at a 928 before i bought this fiberglass tank.

The_Shark

i drove her on a rural road to clean out some carbon, not giving all it has im honestly suprised at how powerfull this car is even in higher rpms. im starting to think that the heads are not original simply because of the power supply, plus it has evidence it has been replaced- all emmisions bypassed, slightly tweaked fuel lines, use of rtv as a valve cover gasket. im going to get a closer look.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

Check the head casting numbers. Are they centerbolt heads by chance?

The_Shark

i cant find any numbers, they are not center bolt (not vortec[&o]) there is also a different alt bracket installed (cap on pow steer is almost un-accessible)

there is a little blue paint on the heads, although, they could've been painted years ago.

its probably factory, but it seems overly peppy for 200HP, my lighter volvo had 250hp and it wasnt even near this.

also checked today, no blow by, and the pcv breather sucks hard, so i think this will be a good canidate for new heads. just need to sell my miata[:@]

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

It may have double hump heads.