First G Body mod/upgrade YOU ever made

Greetings Guys; I ordered the car without a radio & of course I have the delete panel in a box packed away. So you're asking me to remember 38+ years ago & I think I do. First I dropped it off at Zeibart on the way home (Pro applied). Then the JPS MOMO steering wheel, radio (2nd & present one 1988) nearly useless now days. Then the fall of 79 I installed the Recaro seats (recovered 2009). Then in the spring of 80 I purchased the wheels & chromed the GM engine brackets. Ya all heard the ole' adage "If it don't go Chrome it". Headers the next year, Hookers of course & at the time they may of been the only header available. Mid length w/Y pipe back to the Test Tube. As the cats of the day always needed testing 24/7. And we found out they ate about 10-15 HP (?) So the solution was to test forever! Next (82-83) the cam, intake & true dual exhaust, the results were Dismal. Ya just can't make any HP out of a 8.5 squeezer. By 85 I was discussed with the 350 LM-1 & built the first 406. The rest of the story is over on the 9C1 post, get a cup of coffee. Ole' Bob.

I pulled the stock V6 TH200 out of a gorgeous low mileage 79 Cutlass I got from my High School teacher who was 60, it was his mothers car. Literally a little old ladies car. Absolutely perfect and rust free. It was 1990. I was 18. I was dumb. I then built and installed a 400 Pontiac and TH400 in its place. Considering how dumb I was it came out pretty good. The motor had tall valve covers and wouldn't clear the AC box, so rather than removing it like an intelligent person and installing a flat non AC set up, I beat it into pieces with a hammer then fiber glassed it over. Of course, I didn't change the v6 springs so it was low in front. took me 3 tries to find an upper motor mount that would let me close the hood. Welded the lower mounts to the frame. modified the crossmember to fit the trans mount. The hedders wouldn't clear properly, so I hammered a dent into 1 tube to make it go. I destroyed 3 starters before I figured out how to use a Ford Solenoid. The motor had low compression heads and a RAM Air IV cam in it so it was pretty blah until 3000 RPM and then it would come to life like no ones business, had enough vacuum for 1 shot at the brakes. Kept the 2.73 open rear end because well, I was stupid.

In all it was a rousing success, I daily drove it for a couple years before my next fit of stupidity, but that's another story.

Other than stereo work on the first 2, I tried a used 125HP Nitrous kit I got dirt cheap on the 442's factory 307 [still got it somewhere if anyone wants it?]. It woke the ole girl up but having nitrous on a street car is a PITA not to mention it wouldn't have lived long had I continued. I never track'd it but I'm guessing it bought me 1.5 seconds or so in the quarter ~ probably low-mid 14s. Still painfully slow compared to traction controlled modern muscle and AWD boosted EVOs but much better than the stock 15.9 87.

With the big block it, um, runs better now . . . well, that's a lie, the car is completely scattered at the moment but . . .
oh you know what I mean!

Bought the Monte in late August. Took most of the body apart and assembled it by June the following year. I'd guess doing the body mounts was my first mod.

Putting an Accel coil on my old 231 V6, then a Qjet, 4bbl intake swap.

The 442 is my first G-Body. I brought it home and tore it down to the frame. So I guess my first mod was blasting and coating the frame, followed by Poly bushings.

Hutch

Clone TIE Pilot said:

Putting an Accel coil on my old 231 V6, then a Qjet, 4bbl intake swap.

Click to expand...

Was that emissions legal?

Putting an Accel coil on my old 231 V6, then a Qjet, 4bbl intake swap.

DRIVEN said:

Was that emissions legal?

Click to expand...

It was a Buick 4.1L V6 e4me and intake. Back when I was younger and thought there was hope for the 231. It was barely legal as I fought with a cop at a roadside spot emission check over it. Back then, NJ would setup spot inspections by forcing all cars off the road into a parking lot with a portable inspection setup and cops ready to write you up.

Nazis

ordered all weather stripping and seals from mikes montes to realize my car is a cars and concepts t-tops and most of the stuff doesnt work, followed by blazer front brakes and camaro rear brakes.its now getting a complete new fuel system and im slowly ordering parts to rebuild the suspension, so far ive got bilstein b6 shocks eibach springs and im saving up for umi tubular front arms and hrparts box rear arms, and hotchkis sway bars. once that's done its drivetrain time.
just another day at work: