BUILD THREAD 1981 Grand Prix

[rIbBaD]

So 4 years ago this month my father picked up a 1981 Grand Prix, for 250$ with a blown transmission, only had reverse. It sat in my garage until last month when my girlfriend smoked off my truck and I needed something to drive in the meantime. Heres a picture of what it looked like when I bought it:

Bought a white GP parts car, pulled the transmission out of it, cleaned it up. painted it blue, and dropped it in (Pic to come):

And once again it lived. Had car issues, so rather than screw around I bought a 650 CFM Edelbrock carb, the factory intake manifold was cracked, so I bought an Edelbrock intake as well. The cruise was disconnected, the AC wasn't hooked up. vacuum lines every, oil leaks. Wasn't very reliable but it did run and drive. Did the intake manifold gaskets and valve cover gaskets, cleaned up the engine bay a bit, hooked everything up.

Put a new battery in, replaced the oil pump which was filled with gasket maker (did I mention there wasn't a single gasket on the car, just gasket maker, the previous owner was either cheap on had faith in gasket maker. The previous owner also bought the car brand new in 1982, so I am the second owner. Put a high volume oil pump in, chose to unbolt the transmission/flywheel and motor mounts. Lifted the motor up about 6 inches to get the pan out, and replace the pump/gaskets.

As well as all of the crap that was inside the oil pump:

Put the white rust free trunk lid off one of the parts GP's, other one was rotted right out.

Started piecing together the interior that was ripped right apart minus the front seats and dash:

Messed around with spray bomb a little, even though I plan on painting the whole car soon, just kept me busy.

Put a brand new headliner in out of a car at the auto wrecker (pics to come). Put LED bulbs in all the interior, because I had an excess amount of LED 194's kickin around:

Continued in next post.

 

[rIbBaD]

Random picture of when I was cleaning up the engine bay/fixing cruise control:

Picture of right after I did the carb/intake manifold, when the engine bay was still a complete mess:

Brand new lift supports I put in, in an attempt to make the trunk stay open by itself, but did not work (any ideas why, guys?):

Brand new windshield with antenna I put in, much better than the smashed one that was in there, how does an original owner let a car get so far gone, and claim not to have ever winter driven it? Will post some more pictures tomorrow of the white parts car, and the project itself, Posi rear going in tomorrow, got a sumped fuel tank to put in, and new rear control arms. But heres a picture of the windshield and the rust free cab I plan on painting and using for the car:

Random interior piciture, the carbon fiber stickers are going, but I haven't decided whether or not to leave it wood grain or attempt to paint it black, thoughts?

The rear wheels that are hopefully going on tomorrow with the posi rear end, with some cragar rims,

Stay tuned guys, lots more to come, got the resources and money to get her looking new again, just the time that I'm lacking. So it'll be a slow process but one worth keeping up with. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[bbarbulo]

nice project! love GP's so it's nice to see more people working on them.

by chance, does your parts car have an intact reverse light/license plate garnish (chrome surround), as well as the front left chrome/turn signal rubstrip on the fender??

 

[1evilregal]

sounds like great progress in a short amount of time! keep it up,and take pics! like bb said, nice to start seeing more GP's in the mix, I finally found the one I've been looking for... actually was looking for one when I came across the buick 15 years ago!