A New, Modern Project (for me and the boy)

[njsteve]

And now the bad parts:

Like 90% of the 1998 to 2002 F-bodies, there is a factory defect that was covered under a Technical Service Bulletin (03-08-98-001 Feb 2003) but not a recall. If you didn't push the issue with your dealer back in the day, they didn't voluntarily fix it. - And it was an expensive job - around $1,500 to $2,000. Had she known that it was something she would have gotten repaired under warranty, she would have definitely done it. You'da thought that since the dealer was charging her for every new fluid flush and refill process under the sun, they could have at least offered to do the roof repair at the same time since she was at the dealership every six to eight weeks for 13 years.

The assembly line used an inferior adhesive to bond the sail panel/roof panel to the steel roof frame of the car, starting in late 1998. It was too chemically aggressive/reactive for the plastic roof panel material. After several years the adhesive wicks its way through the molded plastic roof panel and bubbles the paint. No matter what paint repair is attempted, the bubbles will return. The only fix was to remove the roof panel and install a new one (while the panels were still available from GM - they haven't been available for years now). The red outlined areas are hard to see in the photo but there is a distinct line of blisters going all along the glue route.



Unrelated to the roof defect is paint flakng off the front tips of the rear wing.

[njsteve]

If anyone happens to have an original black Firebird logo insert that goes in place of the front licence plate, give me a PM. The seller's husband said he had it hanging in the garage for years but couldn't find it when he recently looked for it again.

[starlightblack]

Great car Steve - what a lucky kid. Wow what a crooked dealer - Elon Musk (Tesla) has the right idea: get rid of them and sell direct. Rant over. cool find.

[97ramsst]

Originally Posted by njsteve

If anyone happens to have an original black Firebird logo insert that goes in place of the front licence plate, give me a PM. The seller's husband said he had it hanging in the garage for years but couldn't find it when he recently looked for it again.

I have one...its in great shape.

$75

[njsteve]

Today I drove the car down to my buddy's garage to try to get those pesky GM wheel locks off the rims. The seller couldn't find the key and deduced that Pep Boys didn't bother to put it back in the car when they sold her the most recent set of tires two years ago. So, luckily the Cornwall Tool truck showed up as we were trying the worn-out, lock remover socket that he had. They had a brand new one with sharp internal teeth that took the locks off rather easily. What a relief!

Later in the day the boy and I took the wheels off and cleaned the back sides of the rims to get the brake dust out. One thing I noticed was that the rear axle snubbers that are mounted to the frame had no snubber material left - it had just crumbled away when I touched the last bits of it. Were they made of some weird purplish looking urethane that didn't survive 13 years?

[njsteve]

It was a nice day so I had the boy do an oil change on the car. I instructed him on the safe way to jack up the car and where to place the jackstands. Hysterical to watch an 80-pound kid try to turn a wrench on the drain plug. All he succeeded in doing was to rotate himself around the underside of the car. I then told him to brace himself against something and then try again. That worked a little better after I loosened it.

I was able to locate the engine VIN and take a photo of the spot, That only took about 25 attempts to get the light in one spot, the mirror in another spot and the camera in a position to capture it all.

The machine-etched VIN is on the back of the engine mounting area that mates with the transmission bellhousing. It is directly blocked from view by the driver's side catalytic converter. You can reach it with a mirror and then see it in reverse. I was thrilled to see it matched the car's VIN.

Here is the general location. The silver rod is the handle of the mirror.



And the actual VIN, stamped in a dot matrix format, as viewed on the mirror face.

[njsteve]

I did some research on those axle snubbers and it turns out that they were made of some inferior foam material that decomposed ten minutes after original warranty coverage. Most guys install aftermarket urethane snubbers, or originals from the 93-97 cars which used a more durable rubber material.

Anyone got some old GM snubbers from a 93-97 car they want to get rid of?

[njsteve]

This evening me and the boy drove the car over to my buddy's garage and rebalanced the tires. The prior owner had religiously brought the car to Pepboys every couple months to get the car aligned and the wheels balanced. Besides losing the lug nut lock key, the Pepboys tire "experts" method of balancing the tires consisted of throwing the wheel on the machine and then adding another weight. They never bothered to remove the existing weights. The result was 4 rims with half a dozen weights on each rim.

So we pulled all the weights off and rebalanced each rim. Turns out each wheel only needed an ounce or less of weight.

The boy had a lot of fun using the impact wrench to remove the lugnuts. Had to train him to take his finger off the trigger....after half of the lug nuts skittered across the garage at hyperspeed.

We then headed home and made it into the garage ten seconds before a thunderstorm hit. Timing is everything!

[97ramsst]

Originally Posted by njsteve

It was a nice day so I had the boy do an oil change on the car. I instructed him on the safe way to jack up the car and where to place the jackstands. Hysterical to watch an 80-pound kid try to turn a wrench on the drain plug. All he succeeded in doing was to rotate himself around the underside of the car. I then told him to brace himself against something and then try again. That worked a little better after I loosened it.

I was able to locate the engine VIN and take a photo of the spot, That only took about 25 attempts to get the light in one spot, the mirror in another spot and the camera in a position to capture it all.

The machine-etched VIN is on the back of the engine mounting area that mates with the transmission bellhousing. It is directly blocked from view by the driver's side catalytic converter. You can reach it with a mirror and then see it in reverse. I was thrilled to see it matched the car's VIN.

More important than that is if its a LS6 block or a LS1 block...roughly 5% of 01s and 10% of 02s got the stronger and better flowing LS6 block.

The easiest way to tell is to look for a bullseye mark on the block just under the passengers side head...if its there its a LS1 block. No bullseyes its a LS6.

This is a LS1 block....

[97ramsst]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Today I drove the car down to my buddy's garage to try to get those pesky GM wheel locks off the rims. The seller couldn't find the key and deduced that Pep Boys didn't bother to put it back in the car when they sold her the most recent set of tires two years ago. So, luckily the Cornwall Tool truck showed up as we were trying the worn-out, lock remover socket that he had. They had a brand new one with sharp internal teeth that took the locks off rather easily. What a relief!

I never knew they made a special socket for that...I always just take a socket a hair smaller than the locking lug and knock it on with a hammer and take it off with an impact. It takes a good 5 seconds.

[njsteve]

LS1, I presume?

As for that socket, it resembles a regular impact socket but it has hardened, sharp, left hand, coarse threads that cut into the outside of the locking lug nut and then you slowly use a breaker bar to remove the lug. Never use an impact as that just turns the socket into a lathe and shaves away the outside of the lug nut.

[njsteve]

I gotta say, I am liking these forth gen cars more and more. The car just screams! It rides and handles so nicely.

The new Auto Custom Carpet set arrived today. I'll let it sit a week or so to regain its shape before we gut the interior and replace the cigarette-smelling, original carpet set.

Do these cars have a broadcast sheet under the carpet or in the seats like the second gen cars?

[97ramsst]

Originally Posted by njsteve

LS1, I presume?

As for that socket, it resembles a regular impact socket but it has hardened, sharp, left hand, coarse threads that cut into the outside of the locking lug nut and then you slowly use a breaker bar to remove the lug. Never use an impact as that just turns the socket into a lathe and shaves away the outside of the lug nut.

Yeah that's a LS1 block.

I have taken off dozens of sets of them with a hammered on socket and impact and never had an issue with it.....if the lug nuts stuck on there hard enough to round off the sides with a socket that's too small for it to start with (which I think is actually impossible the way I am talking about doing it) then you WILL twist the stud off before you round off the sides of the lug nut.

[njsteve]

The new bump stops arrived today from Hendrick Motors in NC. They had a pair on the shelf down there. You can see that they are made of some weird, yellow, hardened foam. The originals just crumbled away after 13 years.

At least the bolts loosened nicely with some PB Blaster. The aluminum spacers were part of the modifications done by ASC during the factory WS6 package upgrade. The WS6 cars came with 17 rims so they had to use the aluminum spacers to lower the bump stops, in order to prevent the tires from bottoming out in the wheel wells.

Here you can see how the original foam section is gone, leaving only the metal backing bolted to the spacer.



The new snubber next to the spacer.



And after the boy installed it. Another successful afternoon project.

[njsteve]

They sit side by side. I posted a garage photo on the prior page. That blue ragtop is a rare piece. Looks like a 99? Wasn't that the only year for that blue color?

[dlarkins]

I'm crying tears of joy, as you got a 6 SPD !

Dave

[njsteve]

It's incentive to make the kids want to learn how to drive a manual transmission.

An added plus is that the 6-speeds get around 30 mpg highway!

[79TA455]

I'll admit that I am jealous.

Beautiful car and I am currently looking for one but I did not get enough cash from the sale of my '81 and we have a baby arriving anytime in the next couple of weeks.

[njsteve]

We got back from camping a couple days ago. Nothing like spending a week in the middle of no-where in the July heat, with no A/C and then have the A/C go out on the truck the moment you start the 300 mile trip back home. Ugh! It was like a Clark Griswold family vacation nightmare from the 1960's. I ended up ordering a new condenser from rockauto while on the road and it was delivered just in time for our arrival at the homestead. I then spent an evening at my buddy's garage installing it. After 19 years, the original condenser sprung a leak at the factory seam. The new AC/Delco unit bolted right up...after some modification to the original brackets.

So the next day me and the boy tackled the smoke impregnated factory carpet. I had him remove everything and he did very well. I'm glad we pulled the old carpet since it appears that the prior owner must have tried to clean the driver's foot well area and soaked the carpet so badly that the jute and the foam padding was too wet to reuse.

Here's the boy hard at work removing the rear seat attachments. He spent most of the day with me (9:00 AM to around 4:00 PM when he dumped me to go to a movie with his sister). The kid has no stamina.




And here is the old carpet once we pulled it out. Many cups of coffee found their way onto the floor by the cup holder area of the console. And the driver's foot well section was just as nasty. We ended up pulling off and reusing all the factory jute backing sections from every spot but the driver's seat area, since that was soaked and moldy smelling.



And the nice clean floor area...after vacuuming. We found $1.95 in change!

[njsteve]

That new carpet from Auto Custom Carpet weighed a ton with the optional rubberized backing. To add to the grief is the fact that the Firebird used a one-piece carpet that goes from the dash to the rear hatch area. It took a very long time to get it centered and then installed. I quit at 9:00 PM after getting the carpet in and the surrounding moldings.




I pulled out the factory foam backed headliner and gently scrubbed it with a damp cloth soaked with dishwashing detergent and water. I let it dry overnight and Fabreze'd the heck out of it the next day. That seemed to work to get the smoke out.