Getting ready for Berettafest and other car shows, so Ive been busy working on my Cavy. Ive taken out all of the brackets and what not under the hood and wirebrushed them primered and painted them, as well as fixed up some other odds and ends. My exhaust is no longer ghetto sounding, but it still is a fartpipe just alot quieter then it was. Also my poly Fe7 mounts where squealing because I didnt put enough lube on them when I installed them, I also retightened the mount bolts as well. Also I finally got sick of having my sub box moving around and the wires getting disconnected on the amp, so I took some plywood that I had laying aound and traced out the carpet trunk pattern on to it and cut it out. Then I fabricated up some L brackets and mounted my sub box to the plywood and put it in my trunk.
Last but not least I have began my Z24 kit install and I have been prepping and painting the parts as I have gotten them finished. I had to fiberglass a small portion of my Z hood because it was gouged pretty bad and I bondo'd up the rest of the small knicks in the paint. I finished up the hood on Fri and installed it this weekend. I began on the front bumper today (wetsanded it) but I think I will wait till after bfest to install it. After Bfest Im going to be removing the doors, sandblasting the lower halfs and fixing the rust spots. After I fix and patch it with sheet metal, Im going to paint it with some undercoating that will prevent it from further rusting. Besides the parts that are rusting will be underneath my Phase II Z24 gfx anyways.
Oh and a word of advice..... Dont go driving around like an idiot on a gravel road with 200+ lbs of tools and crap in your trunk, your rear end will slide out in an unexpected manner and you might almost hit a telephone pole. Even with the Bilsteins and Eibachs the car slide in the opposite way then I thought it was going to.
Now for the pics...
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
Nice work.. Lucky for you that you have a 4cyl.. in the V6 cant remove that air blower duct without removing the alternator and even then its still hard.
Also those look like the cross braces off a W body, am i correct?
bonecrrusher wrote:Besides the parts that are rusting will be underneath my Phase II Z24 gfx anyways.
SHAME! SHAME! Don't just slap something over the rust and ignore it!
Fix it!
W body yes, I did have them installed but they hit the hood prop, I will be installing a set of gas struts to lift up the hood and so that I can get rid of the metal hood prop as well.
As for the V6.... 3400 5 speed will be happening eventually as well.
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
Wraith . wrote:bonecrrusher wrote:Besides the parts that are rusting will be underneath my Phase II Z24 gfx anyways.
SHAME! SHAME! Don't just slap something over the rust and ignore it! Fix it!
Read my post again... I said that I will be taking the doors off and sandblasting them and grinding them down.
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
looking excellent man... i'm sure i will have a few questions for you, as i am probably getting the car and my phase2 gfx primed and painted as well
what grit do you use to sand the gfx? and also... do your door pieces fir EXACTLY from one edge of the door to the other? i tried my driver's side door piece on the other day.... and it seems its almost 3/4" TOO SHORT:@ but maybe that is so it won't rub against the front part of the skirts? i'm hoping this is the case... if the door pieces are too small for my doors i think i am going to cry.
looking excellent though, keep us updated!!!!!!
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/682845/ <=== my '91 Sunbird LE 2.0 4cyl
COMING SOON.. '94 Cavalier 2.2L Z-Wannabee (in progress)
Started wet sanding with 220 grit, Im going to clean it and fix the parts that are gouged on my front bumper with plastic filler, then Ill prime it and wetsand it with 600 grit. Im not going to painting my car for awhile so I went a little higher grit on the primer so it doesnt look like crap and all rough.
As for the door pieces, I havent really gotten to them yet, so Im not quite sure if there short. They shouldnt be, but they are a bit shorter so they dont hit the front fender when the door opens up.
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
They should be 1/2 inch or so short so when you open the doors they don't rub.
cool... i'll have to measure it again, i just lined them up for the hell of it and i started flippin out... i thought they should go from one edge right to the other edge, but then i figured yeah its probably so they dont rub. i'll have to measure it again.. hopefully its not off much more than 1/2" :S
so 220 should be fine before primer then eh
sounds good, i'm just in the process of (trying to) pick colors now..
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/682845/ <=== my '91 Sunbird LE 2.0 4cyl
COMING SOON.. '94 Cavalier 2.2L Z-Wannabee (in progress)
220 should be fine, I used it to get rid of all the tar and misc crap that was all over my front bumper. It also got rid of all the scuff marks as well. Just need to get more primer and more filler. Wohoo to body work.....
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
oh ya lots of fun.. i love the bodywork too!
lol
the rear bumper has paint starting to peal off of it... maybe should i start with a bit more coarse paper? it's only 1 corner, but i'd say the previous owner probably mixed enamel with base/clear... or something.
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/682845/ <=== my '91 Sunbird LE 2.0 4cyl
COMING SOON.. '94 Cavalier 2.2L Z-Wannabee (in progress)
Well with the 220 if you sand hard and long enough you'll eventually take all the paint off and get to the factory primer...
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
Well since it was crappy and cold today I decided to get as much as done outside as I could. I went through my closet of parts and pulled out my Redline Tuning gas hood shocks that I bought in a group buy like 2 years ago. I was going to put them in my GTZ but that car has since ended up in the scrapyard. So I put them on my Z24 hood and I wasnt sure how the fiberglass would react to the pop rivets but in the end it went in pretty smoothly. I had to notch one of the brackets that came with the kit so that it would fit around a bolt, but it wasnt too hard thanks to my handy angle grinder. Which I seem to find a new use for nearly everyday.
Since I installed this on a Jbody and had originally ordered it for a Beretta I pretty much had to come up with my own measurements for drilling, and then put the brackets in and riveted them in. After installing the shocks, I checked my clearances and it is very nice. I soon ripped out the stock prop rod and tossed it in the garbage.
After installing them I went for a test drive to make sure my hood wasnt going to come fly up in the air or anything, and went to Farm and Fleet for some supplies and more primer. I have prepped my front Z24 bumper for paint and wetsanded it, but Farm and Fleet happened to be out of primer. Oh well Ill get it on eventually. I was going to install my electronic trunk release but the unit that I had was garbage and all bent out of shape and screwed up. So I just tossed it in the garbage as well. I also finally reinstalled my Wbody braces because the stock prop rod was screwing them up.
Anyways now for the pics....
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
heh i took welding in HS, i think the most important thing i learned there was that angle grinders have a million and ones uses, nice work on everything! very clean car
"I live my life a quarter mile at a time..." "for those ten seconds or less I'm free"
Those hood props are nice, and those W body crossbraces probably wont help you much but couldn't hurt. The radiator supports in these cars are so weak to start with anything is better than stock
As for the W body braces, they were free and I cant complain about them. I had to notch and cut them a bit but oh well. They would sit normally but I had to have the one at a different angle because of the damn 2.2 radiator with its cap up in the air.
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
Well after spending the last 5 days straight studying for the GMAT, I took a break this morning and decided to try and get some more stuff done before I leave for Bfest. So I pulled out a set of 3" Alpine speakers that I have had sitting on my shelf for over a year and installed them. Pulled out the stock ones and man those things suck. They look like they are made of paper. Anyways, I busted out the sodering wire so that the wires would stay attached to the speakers and I wired them in. These alpines definately sound a hell of a lot better then factory speakers.
Also I have been having an electrical gremlin in my subwoofer wiring and when Ive been driving the amp would turn on and off and not get any power to the woofers. So I looked at the connections in the trunk and the ground wire came off, so I reattached that and tightened down the power amp wire as well. I looked under the hood and had the car on and starting tugging on the fuse wire connecting to the battery. Low and behold I found my problem, the fuse connection was loose and getting disconnected from the amp wire and not feeding any power to the amp. I sat around tuning the stereo for a good 20 minutes, but I think Ill have some of the Audio Guru's mess around with my setup just a bit at Bfest so I can get the best sounding setup I can get.
Here are the pics..
<img src="http://boner.berettaspeed.com/cavysig.jpg">
