Here are my G-Bodies, an 85 Bonnie LE, and an 84 GP LE. I played with the Bonneville, (Accel coil, wiring, plugs, K&N open air filter, Emissions gone, cat back dual which are hard to see, shift kit, etc., etc..) which made it fun to drive. I was told to find another car to make a hot rod out of. So I got myself the 84 GP for $1000 from an old boss, and she came with the Cragar Drag Star rims (alone with the tires cost almost a grand new).

So here is my HOT ROD, the 84 GP (roll over the image to see her at night). She had a 305, with a 200-R4 in her. I got the body work done, and it sits awaiting a dark midnight blue paint job. I'm looking for a Cowl hood first, can't find a manufacture of one. Actually, she is in the garage on jack stands now. In Florida, with out plates, I can't have it in my driveway.

Here is the stock 305 with a new top in and front end. Eldelbrock Performer Intake, 1406 carb. Hypertech Coil, Accel (Distr., wires, plugs), Hi Flow water pump, JET 160 thermostat, K&N open air filter, Cloves double roller chain, shift kit and I forget who made the wire looms. Notice no AC box. It didn't work when I got it, so I just ripped it out, along with anything that was CCC or emissions related (thanks to Ray Buck).I was happy with it's response. Adjusting the TV cable was hard, as the TV bracket was closer to the fire wall on the Edlebrock 1406, so it wouldn't adjust. I had to put a wire stopper on the line, then I heard the desired clicks. She ran real good (around the neighborhood), the 2.73 is an improvement over the low rear end in the Bonnie, and Spinning tires was easy. (I'd love a 3.73 POSI rear end, have one for sell?). I was just about to to get plates......

.... but the 200K 305 engine was old. I couldn't figure out why I was leaking fluid from the Torque Convertor cover. It was finally determined it was the rear seal shot. So, I'm having a new engine built.

I have New Hooker headers awaiting a coating, with purple hornies (Glass Packs that hook directly to the headers and then turn down). I will have true dual with a X pipe once I can drive her to an exhaust shop. So since the GP is stuck in the garage on jack stands with no engine, I decide to completely redo the interior.

Here is the dash that is currently out. I still have to find a speedo' cable for the autometer speedo. Thank God for JB Weld as I broke off 3 pieces that were riveted in. I also had to create a bracket for the parking break release handle.

This a picture of the top of the dash. Where the center speaker used to sit, I mounted the Summit RPM box. With it here, I can easily change what RPM I want my shift light to come on via the DIN switched. There is a speaker grill that goes over this, so it looks nice.

Here is a picture of the gauges mounted in the old dash. I used a piece of sheet metal. You can see my home made wiring harness. Each wire is labeled, and the dash matches. Also to the top left corner, you can barely see a small wiring harness that goes to the Summit RPM box.

Here is how the gauges look. I call it the Nascar look, all flat. I wish I would have went with a bigger Speedo and Tach. 4 inches I thought would do it.

Here is a zoom in. I didn't forget the blinkers, brake and high beam lights. I also have a shift light and Alternator light installed..

Here is a picture of the dash wiring. All wires are labeled to match my gauge wiring harness.

Here is a dark picture of the shifter from the passenger side. Awaiting me to redo the brackets on the Monte buckets I just received,

Here is the interior back together, my pride and joy. Thanks to Chris for the Monte Seats, and center console. I also had to get the change holder because I cut the carpet on accident under it. After searching forever, I finally found a custom made speedo cable shop in Orlando, Florida called Ice Cold Auto Air. The panels under the steering wheel are still off, as my wife is getting halogen fog lights for the GP for Christmas.

 

Nice view of the shifter.

And in the back seat right now, my Christmas present for the GP. The headers are ceramic coated. I found a place near Jacksonville called J&D Performance Coatings, 904-879-1803. After price checking almost every place in Florida I could drive to, they won out. . . .

Since my stepfather ran a Machine Shop, he built me a 350 four bolt (.030 over). It has flat top pistons with a zero decked block. The complete top end of the 305 hoped over. The CAM might be too radical at a 286 advertised duration. I'm hoping for atleast 355 horses for the 1:1 desired ratio at the rear wheel. Hope the 200-R4 holds up. One small problem I found was the long Pure One oil filter will hit the headers, so I'll have to stick with a small one.

The business end of this motor. The 400 heads have 2.02/1.6 valves at 74cc. The 9:1 should run on 93 pump gas. K-Motion Springs with Comp Cam 1.6 Roller Rocker Arms. I'm already one step closer to a 406.

Here is a picture showing how I had to relocate the oil pressure sending unit. Once again, thanks to Ray Buck, I found the parts. I found the fittings at Home Depot, in the bathroom section. The fittings are 1/8 brass pipe fittings. Plenty of T-Tape. (Note, this leaked pretty bad under 75 psi, I had to go with locktight instead of T-Tape)

Here you can see dress up kit installed on the PCV and vacuum advance lines. I also installed a Summit Fuel Line. Ray Buck's site covers this, but you will need different parts if you are going to a Edlebrock 1406 carb.

This is just a final dress rehearsal. This picture shows a lot of things. Edlebrock fuel pump, The Hypertech Distr. (was on the 305), new MSD 8 mm Blue wire (the Yellow Accel's clashed, and I need to replace the wires on the Bonnie after the small carb fire). A neat thing is the R&M billet wire looms. That is why I took the time to put all of this together, to get the wires right where I wanted them, while it was easy to do... the number 6 wire will be fun on the car, and I have the short Accel plugs.

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I'm the type of guy that just have to atleast try to do things myself. I also ordered some parts from Robert Adams for the Transmission, now what goes where? Actually, I just put in the Hardened Sun, gaskets, seals and clutches. Some things where a nightmare. Thankfully there are some Tranni experts in the G-Body ORG to help get some of the parts out. I went slow, kept everything super clean, working off new tarps. This was just to patch work me until I could afford a real EXPERT rebuild.

And here it is back together, next to my new Stall convertor. Ordered it from the local AAMCO. 2200 Lockup was what they stated, had 5's all over it. It wouldn't stall with my lumpy cam.

Engine Bay is done! Sticking with the Blue theme of the car, I replaced the wire covers with blue ones. Lot less wires with out the CCC telling me how to drive.

Up, Up and away! The inventor of the leveler has achieved God status. Engine went right in with only minor setbacks. (One trannie line was sacrificed)

And here's almost everything installed. I went with the Modine 89 IROC Z aluminum radiator. Went in smooth for me since I have a trannie cooler coming off the bottom line. Waiting to come to life!

The Hooker Super Comp headers went right in during my test fit, but I had problems today. Turns out I didn't have the car high as I did before, and the starter needs pushed forward. Nice thing about the Hooker Headers was the spacer they gave me for the Power Steering pump. The Stage 8 header bolts were easy to install, but don't look like they'll be fun to remove......

3-24-01 - The Engine sounded great. The Purple Hornies are a tad loud, but they were only to get me to the exhaust place. Here is a great shot of the crossmember from crossmembers.com. This is 2 1/2 straight back into a X pipe into 2 Chamber Flows.

Here are the 40 series Flowmasters. That ugly2.73 peg leg pumpkin days were numbered.

From out in the sticks in a place called Middleburg, you can see my 3 inch tips, and how the flows tuck up under the car.

The day before my car went to the exhaust gods, she got a new skin. I went with Dark Metallic Bluw since I had a blue interor. Closest to black I could get and stay Blue.

Another shot of my gauges, and shifter.

{And time went by. . . }

And things were fine for about a year, then we saw smoke coming out of a valve cover breather. A compression check pointed to the number 5 piston.

So out came the engine to parade rest. Number 5 piston had a broke land, holding the rings in, preventing a good seal, and we had blow by!

Since I had the tranny out, I decide to firm up the shifts. I also put in a hardened 13 vane pump in thanks to Robert Adam, and I also drilled the pump out as my tranny leaked all over the place when the TC drained down. I also changed a bunch of valves to bigger surfaces. Basically everything thisGN site says to do. In hind site, the 13 vane kit upgrade is what blew my tranny. The pump not being true to the hardened stator BLEW up my trannie. . .

And since the engine was being rebuilt, we tried to figure out what caused the problem, and detonation was the problem. Turns out I was only at 9:1 compression as the block was not zeroed as we had thought. If you can still read the serial number, it wasn't milled. It was .040 down on TDC. I no longer have a vacuum advance on my distrib, it has now been set up with mechanical weights to match my cam. We also switched over to a Torquer II intake and put a Holley Double Pumper 750 with vacuum secondaries with no choke on. The carb was built by a race team carb builder in Cocoa, FL. We did change the head gasket down to move compression up to 9.9:1 which is possible on 93 octane. The heads and intake were also reported to match each other. Throttle Response is unreal now, and at over 400 HP, the car was TOO fast for a daily driver as I don't know how to go slow..

There is a bracket that bolts direct to the holley that improves the TV cable angle that Robert Adams can get. I have had awesome Tranny response. During this over-haul, I got a 3.73 Posi Monte SS 87 rear end from Chris. The drive train is now complete until I can afford a 9 inch.

Here's a shot of the car back together!

Going both directions, yep, it is a POSI! It spins tires at just half throttle. It is scary. I have to creep forward. I have no idea how I am going to hook up at the track.

{And time went by again. . .}

Decided I was going to take the GP to the track to play. At WOT, the tranny would not go into 2nd. It skipped it, and sloushed into 3rd. A friend of a friend put me in contact with Bruce Toelle of "The 2004R Performance Center" to buy a GN governor. A funny thing happened, Bruce wouldn't sell me one. He had me send him my governor, he worked on it, and I had it back in hand the same week. He wouldn't even let me pay him until I tested it. He also taught me how to check the TV cable with the pan off to ensure WOT is flush. The customer service was amazing.

Bruce nailed it. All the work I had in the shift kit, WOW. The bark from 1st to 2nd. . . It lasted about two weeks. Decided to show off with a Mustang owner, doing a run on a on ramp to I-295, 1st gear to 2nd, BARK, 2nd to 3rd, Bark, and then. . . Shift light BRIGHT as can be. Looked in the rear view mirror, and we had smoke. Quick check of all the engine guages, engine was fine. Sweet smell of transmission fluid all over my exhaust. Tranny was gone. I was able to limp home.

Next day, pulled my tranny and sent it to Bruce. And then my tranny was the chosen one to be rebuilt by him and Vince Janis (while on vacation in CA visiting Bruce) while they compared notes. The two best in the buisness building my tranny, a Xtreme 2004R Killer Street/Strip. I also got a higher stall. My pump upgrade was what killed my tranny.

The transmission was amazing, but one problem. Notice above that I wrote the Shift light BRIGHT as can be. Something was broke. So I parked the car for a year to await funding for a new beast of an engine. This time with 64cc Dart heads. Just have to keep it quicker than my Cav.

Last Update, engine is being assembled in Cocoa, FL by Step Dad.