Thread: Axel: NOMNOM, 4T65E FOR LUNCH

I'm kinda new to this, so let's see how much I fail:

How hard was it to replace those rockers?

Unfortunately, I didn't do a lot of the work on the car, as I was enrolled in online college classes at the time (DARN YOU COLLEGE!! -Shakes fist-), and didn't participate in the installation of the new rocker panels. That'd be a question for my dad, Haha! What I do remember, though, is that the new panel needed to be cut to fit where it needed to go. As the GP was an SE, and didn't originally have the ground effects, we made the holes and installed the hardware needed for the moldings to sit on the car.

I always wanted my old se rims to be painted like that def looks sweet

Thanks! I think it did definitely made them look better!

Figured I wanted to keep the info flowing. XD I don't want to keep the car stock or just stop at the red and black color scheme, I'd like to do quite a few mods to it. And when I say a few, my imagination just blows up at the potential for what I can do! I'm kinda a poor boy right now, though :lol: so I'm not able to spend too much on him. Heck, he's a rust bucket that's going to be replaced by another same-generation Grand Prix sometime soon, so I'm seeking to spend as less money as possible until a suitable replacement falls into our hands. In the meantime, though, I think a drawing (or...three) is in order for what I'd like to do with it.

We're currently trying to set something up with taking a look at a potential candidate for resurrection, so I hope we can make something of it.

-Feels like a dork for not knowing how to use the emoticons and saying more than anyone would probably care for- :P

Now, things should get interesting in this thread soon, because we just got pretty much what we were looking for to "replace" Axel's current "Generation":

I give you, a wrecked but still good-looking 2001 Grand Prix GT we purchased for $500:






The last owner hit a tree pretty squarely in the front (My Dad asked if he shot guns or bows because he hit it so straight--turns out he does. XD). The radiator's busted and the core support's shaped like a horseshoe now, but Axel can lend his core support and radiator to mend the damage if we can't pull the core support back into shape. My Dad's got some ideas for what we can do. We're planning on taking all of the parts off the front clip and having a friend of ours that specializes in body work to inspect the damage and see if it can be saved, and if it can, then Axel can be regenerated into a better car.

It's got a Jasper Re-manned 3800 Engine that only has 5000 miles on it. We haven't fired it up yet to see if it still functions well, but I can guarantee that if it does run, the first thing we'll do is take the intake apart and replace the intake manifold gasket if it hasn't been replaced already.
It also has a leather interior that's in nice shape. The windshield's cracked and the airbags deployed, but we can replace those. The owner didn't report the crash to his insurance, so the title's still clear.

Now, I have quite an ambitious list of mods I'd like to do to the car:

If money were no object and I had all the time in the world:
-Keep the Red-Black color scheme of the old "generation"
-Black Mirrors
-Heat extractor hood/Spoiler from either a 2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car replica/2002 40th Anniversary GP
-Black Roof Rails (JUNKYARD DIVING! )
-Window/Sunroof Visors
-Gloss Black XXR 521 rims (Not sure of the size I need, I might go with 17x7" )
-Lower it a little with SSC Struts (about 2" maybe? I'd have to look at TexasTanker's build thread again to see how low he had his. XD)
-Top Swap/GTP Motor swap (Make "necessary" modifications (Intake manifold gaskets, LIM gaskets, aluminum coolant elbows, Spark plugs, etc. :P)
-Paint up the Engine Bay; I'm thinking red on the Supercharger, Black fuel rails, black support brackets, black valve covers to start
-Black CCFL Halo Projector headlamps with HID Projectors (If that's possible, I thought I saw something about that here somewhere)
-Tinted Tails, unless I can find a style I like. Not sure about this yet.

Now, here's some rather extreme goals:
-All wheel drive conversion
-5-Speed Manual Transmission(Need to learn to drive one first! :rofl
-Turbo AND supercharge the motor along with intercooling and necessary upgrades (Space would be an issue, gotta see what can be done with that and make sure motor doesn't blow up in the process. XD)

Now, first things first, we gotta get this thing running. XD

Alright, some things have actually been found out and done in the 3 weeks I haven't been on here; first off, we have found that the engine does run in the wrecked GP, and runs very well at that, which made me happy. Second, once I get some other odds and ends taken care of (like a futon to sell, a desk to place in my room, and a weight machine to give to someone that wants it), I'll start going out to the car to begin pulling the junk parts off of it.

Now for the even better stuff! I called my cousin on the way home from going out to the Blue Ridge parkway today, and found that he still has the trunklid and spoiler from his Daytona 500 replica that was wrecked, as well as the hood scoops cut out from the hood (the car was smashed in the front, but the scoops are still good) and the exhaust from the cat back.

And I'll be getting it all for $300. Haha!

I'd like to get this car on the road in time to go to the Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals at Norwalk this year. That'd be wild! I took my current rust bucket last year, and he got 67/100 points. BAHAHA! That was more than I expected from a daily driver in as bad of shape as he was!

I've been able to make it out to "G2", as I'm calling it now, a few times already, and I've made some progress. I've been able to take off one of the fenders, the hood, the old battery, one half of the airbox, and recently, his ignition key.

PICS TYME!!

May the regeneration begin:


...And yes, the red GP in the background is ours as well. We love our GP's! That's the other car we got from Maryland for less than the asking price. There's a few problems with that one, but more on that later.

In the process of removing the junk parts:


The reason I couldn't get the other fender off was because it was riveted from the sideskirt's rail, I'll have to bring a drill and take it out:


This is how he looked after the first day of work:


The hood is disconnected; me and my Dad jumped on the crumpled hood to smooth it out a bit. Haha!

I ended up taking the parts home that I took off of it, since I couldn't open his trunk and leave them there. I now have about half a car materializing in my room. I've got his airbox sitting next to me on the desk, his fender staying behind the door, and the old headlight housings also sitting on my other side on the desk. Lol I've also got several other parts in my closet. XD

Later, I had a day where I wasn't busy, and wanted to clean G1, buuuuuuut the weather said "NOPE!":


However, with a tarp, I said "Screw you weather!" and ended up vacuuming my car out anyway:



It actually worked out pretty well, even though I did have a small collapse of the tarp on the passenger front door, allowing rain to hit it, but I promptly dried it off with my shower towel and kept going.

It did a pretty good job, though! It kept nearly all of the water from hitting the interior, save for the aforementioned event and the big-@$$ hole in the tarp at the top that kept letting some rain trickle under it.


Yes, I have a snowbrush in my car at all times, even though we're in Virginia. You can never be too prepared! Also, the weather stripping around the trunk is failing near the latch, but that should be rectified soon once G2 is fully repaired.




Yay, nice clean interior! A clean car is a happy car!

After that, I was able to get back out to G2, and clean his interior as well. I don't have pics, save for what I found once I took Axel's battery out of G1 and placed it as best I could in G2. I couldn't screw in both of the contacts, but one of them was hitting the contact by itself, while a good 'ole ratchet propped on the ignition wires pushed the other contact onto the battery, enabling me to turn the key over so that the car had power from the battery, and found that the radio didn't turn on, and the DIC remained blank, save for the Trac lights when I toggled them on and off. Could that mean my DIC is fried?

I was then able to turn the key all the way back, and pulled it out of the ignition, which allowed me to pop the trunk. There was another wheel, possibly from an earlier generation of GP (not a Pre-gen like many would love to have on here, though, it's a different version of the lace wheels on my current driver) and an extra fuel pump in there. Since my car is an '01 GT, I read that the fuel pump style was different from earlier years, and upon looking at the picture I took of the pump, I do not see a venturi, unless I mistook what was said in the thread that I read.

Picture of said pump:


Is this pump correct?

I also popped open the access hatch for the fuel pump on the car, and found everything was still connected to the original pump. I've tried calling the guy we got the car from twice to ask him about it, leaving a message both times, but he hasn't called back. I'm going to check whether the pump works sometime soon to see if either an injector fuse was blown, or if the pump is indeed bad, which would lead to the other pump being tested.

Now, here is where that other red '02 GP GT comes in. We got the car for my Mom, so she doesn't have to use either mine or my sister's (A '99 GP GT, with a non-working HUD) to drive anywhere, thinking that all it needed was a hub assembly to be drivable. Upon taking it to its current resting place, both my mom and my dad described a feeling as if the whole front of the car was going to shake itself to pieces--definitely not a hub problem. It didn't matter how much throttle was applied, the whole thing felt like it was shaking horribly. Before we got the car, the seller we got it from said they tried replacing an axle shaft, but the noise and feeling were still there, leading to its sale to us. Fortunately, we have an axle shaft left over from a transaxle swap that was done on my sis' GP (Her car has a GTP transaxle, hence the need for the axle change), so I'm thinking about throwing that at it to see if it lessens it somehow. My dad, who is pretty much the master mechanic of the house, been around cars nearly his whole life, said that it wasn't an engine mount. Any of you have any idea what that might be? I'm planning on going out there tomorrow to see if I can fix it, so I'll report back here what I find, if I'm able to do what I want to do. I'll scour the forums to find out a good way to replace the axle shaft and the fuel pump test.

I've also made some changes to what I'd like to do to the car: I've found a type of taillight that I'd like to have: the euro tails from IPCW:
IPCW® CWT-CE339CB - Pontiac Grand Prix 1997-2003 Bermuda Black Euro Tail Lights
Has anyone here had any experience with those tails? I've seen good and bad reviews for them, with the bad review saying they weren't sealed well. Could I bake the tails to reseal them? Also, what about IPCW's halo headlights? I've heard good reviews about Spyder's halo projectors, aside from upgrading to HIDs to improve brightness, but how can I tell if a pair is Gen 3 or not?

I'd also like to get a set of these wheels for my car:


Zinik Z32's!

/Ridiculously long update

nice fleet you got going on there

Thanks! All of the GPs we have have some sort of issues with them, still, but nothing we can't fix.

I'm planning on using the core support, radiator, fan shroud, A/C condenser, and anything else that's compatible between the two that's needed from the SE to the GT that isn't rusted out on my car. My current car has the frame rusting out, as well as the rear suspension rotting away, so that's why I'm seeking to resurrect the GT, since it's really clean and pretty much rust-free.

The gen 3 spyders have CCFL halos and the corner marker looks a tad different. Those tails look horrible to me but to each their own I suppose.

Originally Posted by MAX_COOK

The gen 3 spyders have CCFL halos and the corner marker looks a tad different. Those tails look horrible to me but to each their own I suppose.

Thanks for the tip! Yeah, I saw a picture of a GP with those tails on it, and I liked the look, so I'll still go through with it, unless I find another style that catches my fancy. Thanks for respecting my choice.

Originally Posted by 87IROCZOWNER69

Should be close to everything since the SE is a 3800 (well atleast I think that's what I see sticking out of there).

Yeap! Both of these cars are 3.8s. Great engines, once you treat them right and fix their problems.

Now, Axel's second generation is able to fire up on its own! I switched out the old pump with the one I found in the trunk, first hooking it up and turning the key to see if it would even work, and the screech I heard later was possibly one of the best sounds I've heard in my life. Seriously, though, it truly made my week. However, when I installed it, the middle connection was a little loose, and the end of the pump assembly didn't quite go down the hose a good amount like the others. Could this mean trouble down the road? I could replace the pump itself in the original assembly if I really wanted to, I guess.

Anyway, here's a vid of him finally firing up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ28bdHtuyI

That scraping sound could be the alternator rubbing up against the coolant overflow tank on the strut tower next to it, as the engine was indeed in contact with it when I was working on the front. Sorry for the shakiness and the rather wussy revs, though, I was excited, and I wanted my dad to know how it sounded. I also wanted to keep the temp low, since the radiator's busted and not working. Don't wanna toast the motor! I like the sound, really. Can any of you tell if there's anything else done to the motor besides it being a Jasper re-man? It sounds pretty orderly for an idle.

Regardless, the next step is to get his transaxle hooked up, whether it's by reconnecting the shifter cable or getting a new one if the original broke in the wreck. Taking off the fender is a priority, and so is getting Mom's car (as we're calling the other red GT) on the road, so that when we're ready, both of Axel's generations can stay in the same place while we transfer parts after G2 is straightened. That leaves the question of what to do with Axel's first generation, though, as we already have plenty of our cars here at the house and in someone else's little barn. XD We really want to move out of the neighborhood and settle on a large piece of property and build a shop with a large storage barn.

As for Mom's car, I'm thinking that the people that did work on the car before us probably didn't tighten everything down to spec, especially the pass side axle nut. I'll be going out to where the both of them are tomorrow to do work on either. Probably to analyze and possibly rectify G2's transaxle situation and fender removal, and move Mom's GT into the bay to take each side apart and see whether everything's tightened down if I have time. And if it is, I'll take out one of the axles and replace with the one we have to see what it says.

I feel quite satisfied with the amount of work we did today!

I found out that Axel's (G2's) Transaxle is still hooked up; he can still move around, but it's pretty finicky. It looks like gears 1 and 3 only show up on the shift indicator, and show up at points that are not respective to the locations of those two gears (i.e. "3" shows up when put in R). A weird tendency of this thing right now is that when I put it in "Park", the car actually slides back a little bit, as if it's in Reverse, and then settles into Park, where it doesn't move at all, so those three/fourish gears are working. I tried checking the trans fluid level, but the dipstick has been pinned in its current location, hampering me from even being able to take it out one inch. If this trans is on its way out, there's another one that's currently attached to G1 (My current driver) that functions very smoothly, so if worst comes to worst, we can replace it.

I also drilled out the rivet that was holding the fender on, and this is what it looked like after drilling through it with one bit, then rotating it and wiggling it out with a bigger one:



Nonetheless, the fact that G2 is still able to move around under his own power is enough for us at this point to say that he is as ready as he's gonna get to be taken to an auto shop we know (and trust) that can straighten him out on a frame machine, and possibly do it for a very well-discounted price if someone we know is operating it, I'd say. Axel's regeneration is beginning to take wing!

Me and my dad replaced the axle shaft on the passenger side of Mom's car, as well, and the severe shaking was lessened, but not exterminated. When the key was placed one click up from completely off, my dad turned the wheels from the driver's side wheel while it was on the lift to help us with replacing the axle, and a sloshing/grinding noise resulted while the wheels were being turned that sounded like it came from the rack and pinion. It's leaking, meaning we should replace it soon. Additionally, while my dad took it for a test run, he said that under heavy acceleration, the car shakes, but nowhere near as bad as before. From the research I've done on here so far, it would seem the driver's side shaft will have to be replaced as well. As more background information, here is what the axle shaft looked like when I first pulled the wheel off today:



Upon taking the wheel off, there was a little bit of play in the joint next to the transaxle, and it felt like there was nothing in it at first after we took it off. The people that put it in before us probably didn't install it right, and driving it in this condition might have worsened the original issue that they were trying to correct, probably beginning to take out the rack and pinion. We'll see upon further examination of the issue, unless any of you here are 100% sure (Or close to it) that it could be either an axle shaft or rack and pinion, or both. I'd put my money on it being both from what I see, but I'm nowhere near as much of an expert on these cars than some others here are, so I'd be willing to listen to what others have to say on this, unless we find the problem out ourselves and solve it soon, which could be a possibility. Oh, and the trans fluid was low, too, since it was brown and stinky when some of it came out of the open hole from the axle shaft being removed. Not much poured out, but regardless, the people we got this car from pretty much drove it and didn't check anything. So, more ATF fluid will be necessary, more oil (after the LIM and valve cover gasket replacement), and I guess to cover all bases, flush the coolant.

Not much more work will be done for this week or the next, as we have cousins coming down from MI on Thursday and we'd like to clean the house and prepare for their arrival. They'll be staying for a week, so we'll be spending time with them until we take them back to the airport on Thursday after this week. I'll still check this place, but I probably won't contribute much to posting for the whole week.

Finally got back after spending time with the cousins! We did a lot and had a lot of fun, but that's not the focus of this thread, now is it? ;D

While my cousins were here, though, I dropped the key off for our friend that was going to straighten it out, and lo and behold, only two days later, not only is the car straightened out, but the old radiator and the core support have been uninstalled! I find it kinda weird now that I can look through the front and see the engine and transaxle! XD

Anyway, PICS TIME!








Souvenirs!


Because--air scoop!







When our friend dropped off the pile of scrap you saw above, he told me that the shifter cable is indeed broken on the car, so that means Axel's current shifter cable has been added to the list of parts that will be transferred for sure. I saw a post or two on here that detailed how to pull it out, so I'll search for it again when we need to take it out.

Yesterday, I picked up Mom's rack and pinion from the parts store (It's not any of the big ones like Advance or Autozone, it's a locally owned store up the road from here--Odd little tidbit of information, its initials spell F.A.P. ), so now that G2 has been straightened and the core support has also been taken off with the radiator, the next step is to get her car on the road so the two generations can sit next to each other while we pull parts from one and put them on the other. It's gonna feel weird taking apart my car to get this one on the road, but it'll be all for the best. Heck, that's partially why I'm calling this a "regeneration" of Axel's older generation! That, and I just wanted Axel to stick around with me more. XD

My parents went up to Michigan this week to help with funeral services for a family friend's family member that passed away, and while they were there, they were able to pick up the parts I was buying from my cousin, as well as a few other odds and ends of their own.

Here is what I got:



Look familiar?

Everything was in pristine shape, aside from the wrinkled up hood, but that's to be used to install the air scoops in my hood, so we only need the panel that the scoops were sitting on. The exhaust felt VERY solid when I moved it out of the truck and into a tent, and looks good, and the decklid, I think, is the best piece of the bundle. It doesn't surprise me that much, though--my cousin took great care of this car until it got in an accident, as seen with the crumpled hood. Why do I like cars that are crashed in front?

I plan on painting the hood scoops (Or heat extractors) red and black, with the grilles and raised lip black and the lower planes red, and plan on painting the outside of the trunklid red with black accents on the outer areas of the spoiler (the pieces that go over the taillights). I plan on leaving the underside of the decklid and its hinges silver as a tribute to the car that it came off of, even though it'll clash with the inside colors. The car was that much of a family member to us. Well, to me at least. In fact, she had a name: Katrina. Little sidenote, that car was actually a Hurricane Katrina survivor, as partially seen with the auto dealer's stickers on the back, so hence the name of the car. My cousin, his dad, and my grandfather had hands in bringing that car back to life after it was transported to MI from LA, using the engine out of my cousin's first car that also perished in an accident. So, yeah, it has some history with our family...And now I know how I'm going to paint the badges and the lower fascias in the bumpers--galaxy silver, if it looks good.

Moving on, I also plan on painting a black stripe that goes across the center of the spoiler, on the top lip and on the back, so it'll partially tie in with the heat extractors up front. The exhaust will be unchanged.

Originally Posted by TEXASTANKER19KILO20

I like these BUILD threads the best.

Thank you! I think it a great morale booster when things go well and a car is literally brought back to life like what I'm doing. It's pretty inspiring.

Speaking of which, I've been busy the past couple of days...

Yesterday, me and my Dad pulled out the old rack and pinion and replaced it with the new one we got for it; unfortunately, the wobble was still there, but when my dad was testing out the steering, with the hood up, I noticed that the strut appeared to be moving in a certain way that didn't seem right. Today, I exchanged both front struts with the struts on G2, and the wobble improved greatly! However, it was still there, to me, whether it was me being overcritical or it was still there. From my dad's recommendation, I changed all wheels from G1 to Mom's car, and the wobble was all but gone.

As always, PIIIIIICCSSSS!!

When I lifted Mom's car on the lift yesterday, I beheld this at the usual position of the u-bend:


Is this an aftermarket DP? Or did the GM engineers finally take out this restrictive part of the exhaust in 2002?



Trans Jack that really helped with keeping the engine cradle up. It really allowed us to move the cradle up and down to have plenty of room to work.



All of our GPs except my sister's. The door molding is missing because it was ripped off in a car wash, possibly because some idiot rammed into my car and hit the left rear wheelwell while backing out of their driveway while I was at a friend's. Probably jarred it loose and the car wash finished the job. I hate it when people are inconsiderate.



First strut replacement



Side 2

Now, after the second strut was replaced, I also switched wheels between G1 and Mom's car to remove any doubt as to whether the tires were just crappy or improperly balanced. In the process of doing so, I thought I'd take advantage of the time and show you just how bad the rust is on this car. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the very reason this car will be retired:





Both of these pictures were taken depicting the area in the rear where the frame meets the body. It's laced with rust, and you can see gaping holes where metal should be. I wonder how much work it would be to powdercoat the underside of G2 while it's still intact to let it last much longer. Heck, when I looked at these areas on G2 and Mom's car, I thought to myself "So THAT'S what it looks like with metal under it!" Lol When we first got the car, Dad had done a LOT of rust-removal, but we just can't catch up with it. Now here we are with what we're doing to "continue the legacy", so to speak.

So, the current plan is for Axel to keep the wheels from Mom's car, while Mom's car keeps Axel's wheels, since they are in great shape. Plus, it serves as a segway into Axel's parking next to G2 and for Mom's car to be used as a main form of transportation (It doesn't have a name because we're looking at selling it after all the work is done). Tomorrow, I'll be going out to do the Intake gasket, valve cover gaskets, and the fuel sending unit, which will be coming from G2 as the final piece before the car is aligned and inspected. I won't mind driving it, as I did a couple test runs with it to test the wobble, and it felt good. ;D

Now for the weirdness to commence of my wheels not being on my car anymore:



He looks so weird with normal wheels! Mom's car looks great with his wheels, though:



So, tomorrow, Axel 1 may very well be taken for his final ride out there before he's turned into parts. It comes with regeneration, I suppose. Heck, during this whole thing, I'll learn how to weld while transferring his core support! I'm excited!