Speaking of interior stuff...
Just looked into headliners, because I was curious on what's out there these days for solutions. My old backing board had rodent damage and smelled horrid, so I had to toss it. Just looked up a new ABS board and it's about $400 shipped now. YIKES. And that's if you can even get one! Most of the vendors are saying it may take OVER A YEAR to get one shipped out. Last I checked a couple years ago, they were about $150 shipped. Should've bought one. Ugh.
That's just one part of the interior. I need that and just about everything else in there to be replaced, from the carpet to the door panels. I almost want to make that someone else's problem.
Tony, classic industries has $192.99 red perforated headliners on sale with Free Shipping through end
of today Discount code is BER21....but where are you getting a new teal mesh tank top....
Just be sure to double check the shipping and make sure the part qualifies for the freight deal from Classic if you get it there, it's a big box! I gave up on them a while back because their S&H was crazy high. I see $209.00 for 74-81 red from Ames and you could probably drive up there and pick it up.
In reply to NOT A TA :
I always forget about Ames! Not sure if they do local pickup anymore though. They are way up there in NH so it would take a few hours, but I'd rather go on a scenic drive than spend $200 for shipping. I honestly forgot they existed. I've spent a lot of money with them in the past.
Classic Industries was around $150 for shipping, I think. They were on the low side!
EDIT: Looks like Ames drop ships these from the manufacturer, so picking it up there is not an option. Their rates are better than everyone else, at least on the site. I will have to call them when I'm ready.
In reply to Agent98 :
I think that's just the material. I need the board and everything, unfortunately. Free shipping doesn't apply due to the monster box.
As far as the tank top, I think I need to borrow a time travelling DeLorean for that.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I just ordered a pair of these. They should rejuvenate the interior all by themselves.
A Disco car with Ozzy seat covers = AWESOME!
In reply to Tony Sestito :
\m/
I got my headliner from Classic Industries. Looking at the receipt, I got the headliner, carpet and a package tray together and paid $39.90 in shipping. The carpet and headliner came together in a box about the size of a medium refrigerator so it seemed pretty fair.
This was back in January, but i just put one in a cart and used the "free shipping" code NBR21 and shipping was only $26.95.
I did find a couple sources for just the headliner board for a reasonable price, and I think I am going to order one soon. It would need to be upholstered, but I can install it bare for now. It's textured black ABS plastic. My interior bits are red and black, and while the plan is to dye everything red, I can deal with both red and black for a bit.
Now to start finding those leaks...
Tony Sestito said:
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I just ordered a pair of these. They should rejuvenate the interior all by themselves.
A lot of people who weren't around back then have no idea how big Ozzy's solo stuff was in the '80s. Not just the big ones like Diary and Blizzard of Ozz -- all of them were huge. Perfect for this car since the F-bodies usually had to have a few years on them before the metalheads could afford them.
In reply to GCrites80s :
This will be prowling the streets in pure "Rat Bird" form while blasting 80's Metal out of the 6x9's, so it's like these seat covers were made for it!
Wow... another 8 month gap since I updated this thread.
I've been real busy in that time frame juggling family stuff, the day job, and the other 40+ year old elephant in the driveway. But I haven't forgotten about the Trans Am! In fact, this week marks TWENTY YEARS since I drove it home. In fact, my 20 year "anniversary" is this Friday. Over the weekend, I pulled the cover off to see how it fared sitting over the winter. And nothing got worse! I got a new cover last fall, which kept the water and moisture out, so no additional surprises. I got it running with a little effort, and although it ran a little weird at the beginning with some lean popping, it eventually evened out. It now starts instantly with a single pump of the pedal and settles into idle. Plenty of oil pressure and no weirdness now. It still runs, drives, and stops.
Today, I went out on my lunch break and gave it a quick wash, as it was starting to develop some gunky buildup on the paint in some spots from when the old cover tore itself up and let moisture in. I also used this opportunity to look for any additional interior water leaks. The big ones I can see are the top of the rear window and the door seals, both of which I knew about. I'm still chasing the cowl leak, but I didn't have a ton more time to look at that today.
So, what's the plan? Well, the Power Wagon still needs the engine swapped, so that has to come first, but the plan is to get it back on the road at some point this summer. I'll peck at fixing the leaks along the way, along with patching up the body a bit. I'm going to just enjoy it as it is for now until I can get an interior back in there. In a world where patina and rusty junk is acceptable, this fits right in.
As much as I've thought about selling the thing, if I look at it objectively vs other potential projects, it's got a lot going for it. The frame is solid, the drivetrain does drivetrain things, it's a supported platform that has an incredible amount of aftermarket support. And looking at how much people want for other projects these days, I might as well stick it out with the devil I know. Now to figure out how to register the thing after 10 years of being off the road...
To follow up on my last post, I think the next project here is addressing the rear window leak. I'm in the process of pulling the trim, but I immediately found where the leak was.
It's hard to see here, but there's a gap between the window and the old, dried-up adhesive that runs pretty much the entire length of the window. When spraying it with water, it easily sneaks through the gap. The good news is that the window channel seems to be in great shape all around, at least from what I'm seeing now. I'll pull the glass, get the old gunk out, and see if it's worth doing myself vs calling a local glass installer to do it.
Glad to see this is still moving forward!
In reply to DjGreggieP :
I haven't given up yet! It may be a pile, but it's MY pile!
Working on this is a nice change of pace from working on the Power Wagon. It's real close to being able to putt around town, but chasing those leaks down will keep the inside dry enough to invest in interior bits. It's VERY loud in there right now with everything rattling around and a 400hp V8 running long tubes and old school Flowmaster 40's. It will get annoying to drive real quick.
So, things are getting a bit more real with the T/A now. It's currently in the process of being registered for the 1st time in over a decade! Although it needs a lot of things for me to deem it truly roadworthy, this will allow me to putt it down the road and back for test drives legally as I get it ready for longer cruises. There's a whole lot to do, but it's getting done. It'll be nice to have it back! Of course 91 octane (which it needs) is almost $6/gallon right now, but I won't be driving it a whole lot at first anyway.
I've started compiling a list of major needs, and so far, this is what I've got:
-Seal the water leaks
-Brake service
-Replace the carb fuel lines (they are rubber, and old and cracked)
-Set timing, tune carb, and change fluids (might rebuild the carb in this step)
-Finish bolting in the seats completely
-Patch doors and rear quarter for inspection
-Replace tires
There's a lot more than that, but that's the bare minimum for inspection and safety.
Picked at the rear window a bit more yesterday to see what I'm dealing with.
I removed the last piece of trim, expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised. Every 2nd Gen F Body rots here. I had a 10th Anniversary Trans Am that was so bad that it took out the inner trunk bracing and the package tray area. But this car is solid! Nice.
The bad news is there is rust, It's not rot, yet, but I will have to address this somehow.
There are a few spots on the passenger side as well, but it's not as bad. I think I caught it early enough.
So the plan is to get the window out, remove the dried, shrunken gasket goop, address the rust with something, and re-install. Exactly 5 trim clips were broken, so I'll need to order more. This looks easy enough to do, and the glass is almost loose already at this point.
Speaking of rust, there are other areas to address.
The doors:
And the driver's rear quarter:
Quarter patches are available, and the rest of the quarter is solid enough, so this should be easy. I'm hoping to be able to patch the doors without doing the entire skin. I have another set of doors I was planning on swapping on, but those will be re-skinned when it's time to make the car look nice. Other than these spots, I have a small spot on the top of the PS fender and a spot on the cowl to patch as well. Overall, the car is still a lot more solid than examples I see for $10k around here, so I'm willing to put in the work.
Clean up the rust as good as you can, then coat with POR-15 or Rust Bullet. Once the new sealant and gasket are in for the window, it is covered. That is what I did on my 83 GTI for the windshield channel.
Those are all the same places the 10th Anniversary I had rusted.
In reply to 10001110101 :
I'll likely use Rust Bullet in the window channel. That stuff is great. I did the floors and most of the undercarriage with it and it still looks new. The spots on the body itself below the window channel may require something else, but I'm not sure what to use there.
In reply to GCrites80s :
I need to dig up the pics of where my 10th Anniversary T/A rotted. It was impressively terrible.
100% Get a glass guy to remove that rear window. Once the channel is fixed you can reinstall but that dried old sealant can lead to a crack. I had a glass guy remove a minivan rear hatch glass it was only $75
In reply to Agent98 :
The window itself is already loose. That's how dry it is! It should be able to pull out easily with a little persuasion.
Speaking of window channels and filler areas...
Been digging through old hard drives and finding old pics. Check this out:
That's the underside of the filler area in the trunk of a 10th Anniversary Trans Am I used to have. I took that pic in 2003. Most of these cars looked like that 20 years ago. Mine does not, luckily. My tail panel, on the other hand... let's ignore that for now.
