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Re: A Newer Project!
A little Spring time update. The seat bolster panel I plastic welded held up for about 6 months until a real cold day a month ago when I sat in the seat and heard the panel crack at the repair joint.
But the good news is that after a year of hunting I was finally able to find a drive's side plastic seat bolster panel. It turns out that the panel for the optional seats with the lumbar support is a very rare piece. I found one on ebay last week that was from a 99 Trans Am. And it was only $19. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] The only down side was that it was grey, not black. I was able to dye it black using the SEM Landau Black vinyl dye. Great stuff and matched perfectly! Got it installed and now that is one less part to hunt for. I spent today with the boy, outside working on the T/A. We put the car on jackstands and flushed the brake system. The old brake fluid was green - very weird. I mean green like the old Kendell Motor Oil green! We used an entire gallon of fresh DOT3 brake fluid to flush the system until it came out clear. Afterwards I went back and reviewed the inch-thick, volume of original dealer work orders on the car from the original owner. It looks like she had the Pontiac dealer do that BG Brake Flush at least three times in 61,000 miles, the last one at 55,000 miles. I don't know what was in that flush stuff but I have never seen green brake fluid before. By the amount of fluid discoloration, it looks like they never actually flushed the existing fluid out - just added some snake oil to it. The dealer sold her a bill of goods every two months for 13 years. It's unbelievable how much she was over-charged for over-maintenance - over $10,000 in maintenance invoices during that time - in addition to the three extended warranties she had purchased for the car - good til 2016! Every 1,500 miles or 60 days she had the $39 oil and filter change, the $189 fuel injection system flush done, the $69 power steering flush done, the $169 6,000 mile service done (which is just an overpriced inspection with no replacement of parts), the $39 tire balance and rotation, (after she paid for free lifetime balancing and rotation in 2001), and the $99 brake flush plus $39 for the BG snake oil liquid. Whenever she had a legitimate warranty complaint - like the driver's door speaker not working, they would note that they could not "duplicate the problem"...and then would go and do the maintenance-palooza on the car and she would get hit with a $300 bill on what should have been a zero deductible warranty visit. I found seven invoices over 13 years requesting the speaker to be replaced under warranty, before the speaker was actually replaced. It just gets me so angry that the dealer did this to her (even though the car was the beneficiary of the over attention). OK, I am done venting for the moment. I did order a new set of ACDelco spark plugs and original equipment 748CC Delco plug wires for the car. So that will be our next project. (You'd have thought that the dealer would have done a tune up on the car with all those visits but I guess since changing spark plugs on an LS1 equipped F-body actually takes a bunch of time, labor, and busted knuckles, that they took the low road and just did fluids). Stay tuned! |
Re: A Newer Project!
I wonder if the investigative reporter at the local paper would be interested in hearing about that dishonesty by the dealer? That is really sad to hear someone being taken advantage of like that. Sheesh.
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Re: A Newer Project!
Thankfully that dealership is out of business now. Gee, I wonder why? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]
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Re: A Newer Project!
Ah, gotcha. Well, I never wish anyone lose their livelihood, but those were some egregious offenses so I guess what goes around, comes around.
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Re: A Newer Project!
Another update. I brought the T/A to my buddies garage last night and put it up on the lift to find a noise that I thought was an serpentine belt idler bearing, going. We think it is just the belt squeeling when it hits a rusty spot on the water pump pulley and slips at 2500 rpm. A result of the car sitting in the pine barons of New Jersey for too long without getting driven.
While it was up on the lift I decided to change the fuel filter since I had an NOS GM filter laying around. We swapped out the filter and applied a little air to the old filter's outlet to see what if anything was inside. A whole bunch of blackish dirt and residue came out with the fuel. Upon closer examination it looked like it was the original, assembly line fuel filter which, you guess it...the dealer had "replaced" on four separate occasions in the 13 years she had the car. Too bad the dealer is out of business, otherwise "60 Minutes" would have had a field day with them. We also used some wide mouth vise grips to unbend the lower front fender mounting tabs where the bottom of the plastic front fenders are bolted to the rocker panel flange. The dealer had used that spot to place the jack lift pads, instead of the frame rails, four inches further in. It had bent both mounting tabs 90 degrees over and flush with the bottom of the rockers. Luckily the mounting areas on the plastic fenders bent and didn't crack. Here is the after photo once we got it back in to position. We used a heat gun to warm up the plastic fender's flange so it wouldn't shatter when it was bent back to its original position. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...2-img_0970.jpg I must say that I am liking these 4th Gen cars more and more. (Other than the plastic interiors). They ride and handle wonderfully. They have some great lines with the WS6 Ram Air hood. And the LS1 is no slouch on the road. (Could use some more horsepower...but then don't we all say that about every car?) https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...3-img_0967.jpg |
Re: A Newer Project!
The boy and I decided to tackle the cracked driver's side door panel that has been annoying me since we got the car. Last year we removed the panel, glued the cracks, removed and reinstalled the window felt, and reinstalled the panel but it was still an eyesore, especially since I had to look at the damn thing every time I was driving the car. (The passenger side panel was perfect - but I did remove it and reinforce the crack-prone areas with flexible body repair material and removed and reinstalled the window felts in a "looser" position).
So we decided to replace the panel. We all know how hard an uncracked 2001-2002 ebony panel goes for, so I went for the alternative. The early cars - up to early 1997 used a different plastic material for the panel which doesn't crack when exposed to heat/cold cycles like the later panels do. The only problem is that they are grey and not ebony. So we found a really nice 1996 grey panel with a cloth insert and started the experiment. Since the panels used multiple parts that were plastic welded in place at the factory we used a heat gun to soften the melt points. The cardboard backed cloth panel then pulled right off the tabs. I actually trusted my son to wield the heat gun...lets just say he needs work on his aim...and I need to wear asbestos gloves. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070001.jpg Here is one of the tabs before heating. After each one was softened with the heat gun, I just pulled the panel off one tab at a time. After the entire cardboard panel was removed I reheated each tab and squeezed it with a wide flat toothed pliers to remake the tab into something that would easily engage into the ebony cardboard panel's slots. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070004.jpg And here is the plastic panel after the cardboard-backed upholstery panel was removed. I will tell you that the arm rest mounting points are much harder to heat as they seem to be of a harder white plastic material and not polypropylene. (this photo is actually a couple steps ahead and shows the ebony arm rest and map pocket set in place. Note the color difference). http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070006.jpg I went ahead and removed the arm rest and the map pocket as I wanted to install as much of the original stuff from my 2001 ebony panels as possible. Most people could stop at this point and then dye the panel as is to get ready to install the ebony leather interior upholstery panels. |
Re: A Newer Project!
Here is the grey donor panel after everything has been removed.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070007.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070009.jpg And after I scrubbed, cleaned and redyed the panel with SEM Laundau Black interior dye. This stuff is wonderful and I have used it for all sorts of black interiors over the years. Its a great match for the ebony panel color. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070011.jpg |
Re: A Newer Project!
Here is the ebony upholstery panel from my cracked door panel:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070014.jpg With the ebony arm rest and map pocket in place, now came time to plastic weld the map pocket in to place. The arm rest has to wait until the cardboard upholstery panel is in place as its mounting tabs are melted over the panel. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070015.jpg I used a plastic welder with a flat tip (basically just an overpriced soldering iron), to melt the tabs back into the panel and bond them together. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070017.jpg |
Re: A Newer Project!
Once the map pocket was welded into place I reset the ebony upholstery panel onto the mounting tabs and heated each tab in order to retain the panel in its original position. Once again, the large, white plastic plastic tabs for the arm rest are the hardest to heat and manipulate due to whatever plastic they are made of.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070019.jpg And then the insulation is reapplied. It was rather easy to use the heat gun in order to reactivate the existing sloppy application of glue all over the back of the panel (all the circular squiggly lines are glue). The insulation then stuck right into place. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070020.jpg I also reinstalled the original window felt using the wire from large paperclips. I cut them to a horseshoe shape and then bent them to form the new replacement staples. This allows the weatherstrip to flex a little and not bind the panel on hot/cold days. And here is the finished job: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070023.jpg |
Re: A Newer Project!
nd here is how it looks in the car, when compared to the original ebony passenger side panel:
All in all the grey 1996 panel cost me $75 plus shipping and the can of SEM Laundau Black interior dye was $12. Sure beats $300 for a used ebony panel that is already brittle and ready to crack. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070030.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070031.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070034.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...1/P1070037.jpg |
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