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Luke's GTP

Update. Got the brackets off. No heating required. Used a 18" breaker bar. I backed them all the way in a few times, back out, back in, and then they ended up coming out. They were warm/hot to the the touch, but no broken bolts. No pics yet...

You guys should have warned me about the trailing arm bolt at the hub/strut. That thing is a b1tch. Holy hell. I got the nut off. But the bolt is tough. Does that bolt thread through that knuckle under the hub? Or does it just pass through it?

The most important happening this weekend was that a welder came to look at the cancer. I discussed this GTP project with my uncle and turns out he knows a welder that's been working with him for some 20+ years. Dude stopped by to take a look. He's a short, fast talking Cuban guy named Gustavo, or Gus. Quoted $600 for both the rear strut towers. Welding 1/8" sheet metal in trunk and on the outside of the car, inside the actual strut bucket. Then, another $300 for both rockers. Getting this done will really move things forward towards getting the car back on the road. Excited about it!

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Which rockers do I need. The ones I highlighted yellow, and the blue ones? Or just the yellow ones?

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The bolts slide in, but I ended up "unthreading" them to get them out lol.

outter rockers is what you need they dont make any others.
 
cheatah faheatah said:
I would guess Coupe = 2 door, Sedan = 4 door. FWIW.
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Yes, Yes. LOL. I'm an idiot. I didn't even see that it said Coupe in the blue boxes. Those say "Right Outer", when none of the other ones do, which got me thinking. But, per Hurtz, they only make outer ones, so that solves that. I'll make sure to get the Sedan version.

ItHurtz said:
The bolts slide in, but I ended up "unthreading" them to get them out lol.
outter rockers is what you need they dont make any others.
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I'm gonna have to "unthread" those as well. They're really jammed up in there. Untouched for 17+ years, lol. I took off all 4 lateral arms which makes the strut itself flop around inside the tower. It has no firmness, which makes getting those trailing arm bolts even harder to remove. I will be putting those old lateral arms back on to give it some stability. Sucks that I have to re-attach all 4 arms tho. After that's done, I was thinking to the thread the nut back on the end of the bolt, and give it a whack with a sludge hammer. Do you recommend? Then again, I was also thinking that maybe the threads from the bolt made grooves in that hole over all these years, and whacking it will damage the bolt threads? overthinking it I'm sure
 
Mine did the same thing, I took one bolt out with the same big breaker bar and a ratchet once it started turning easier...

The other one had to get "persuaded" by my 12lb mini-sledge, just enough to get it to start turning.

And definitely clean and lube everything before you start putting it all back together.
 


WHen I did it I sat there for 30min with a ratchet and hammer. Now I would either try to press it out or impact the hell out of it.
 
No impact here. Maybe time to buy one. Looks like I'll be playing caveman with hammer. This might be the bolt I need to heat up to remove...
 
I finally, completely, finished the brake and fuel lines. I never want to talk about them again. Installing those was the biggest pain in the ass. Holy Hell. Took forever to finish. Getting the lines to line up correctly, getting the bends to flow right, keeping everything together, tightening all the joints once the lines were in place.... all a huge pain in the ass. Never want to do that again. I'd rather me doing LIM gaskets all day long then have to do these lines again! For real. After all that was done, and I though I was outta the woods, the freakin' fittings didn't want to thread into the ABS unit. Almost lost my shyt. Of the 6 fittings, 4 had trouble threading, and of those 4, 2 of them almost brought me to tears. HA! Thought I had F'd-up the threads.... Got lucky though. The lines aren't laid down perfectly, but then the manufacturer made bends aren't perfect either. The lines good enough, and that's how their staying. FIN

Talked to another welder this past Friday. Didn't like Gustavo that much. Got the impression that he wasn't listening to me, he kept repeating the same stuff over and over, and he's a welder, not a car guy that's a welder. I need a welder that's also a car guy. I called up a guy that ItHurtz had first recommended to me months ago. I called him up, we talked, he asked that I email him some photos of the rot. Emailed him 20 detailed photos. We will see where it goes from there. I sent him the pics this morning. Shared a few of them below. I'll let ya know what he quotes me.

Finished tightening the final few joints. Man ohh man. What a pain these lines were:
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Rats nest of lines going through that arm pit. Don't care how ugly it looks. They will work!
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My lighting rig. Used a bunch recently:
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How it looks at night:
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Drivers side rear strut tower:
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Outside of drivers side rear tower:
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Passenger side rear strut tower:
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Outside of passenger side rear tower:
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Both rockers look F'd up! Holy smokes. Rotted to shyt:
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Tank looks wet. Hmmm.... wetness doesn't smell like fuel. But maybe tank should be changed out anyway. How hard it that?
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Lol. Mann...That ain't happening. Holding on to this ole' Betty.

Did you have to swap out your tank? I think I remember you saying it was dripping, no?
 


odd my tank is worse looking, yet i still have rockers, but ill be doing them brake and fuel lines as well. miner rotted to hell, just did a repair to get me by til the new lines are delivered.

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Scottydoggs said:
odd my tank is worse looking, yet i still have rockers, but ill be doing them brake and fuel lines as well. miner rotted to hell, just did a repair to get me by til the new lines are delivered.
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Looks like your car is a tad less rusty overall. Good luck with those lines man! Start spraying oil on the bolts for the rear sub-frame now! LOL. Also spray oil on the fittings in the ABS unit under the hood. They're likely cooked into their holes. I also had trouble getting the brake MC off its posts. It was seized on there good! I'm sure you know what you're doing but just some tips having just done it myself. I started from the back and worked my way forward. Did you go with the Niccop and fittings, or with pre-bent lines?

ItHurtz said:
My tanks fine and looked no where near your guys does. knock on wood.
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Mines not looking so good. Although that wet spot smells nothing like gas. Gonna have to do research on how to replace it. See how difficult it might be.
 
CHI2000GTP said:
Looks like your car is a tad less rusty overall. Good luck with those lines man! Start spraying oil on the bolts for the rear sub-frame now! LOL. Also spray oil on the fittings in the ABS unit under the hood. They're likely cooked into their holes. I also had trouble getting the brake MC off its posts. It was seized on there good! I'm sure you know what you're doing but just some tips having just done it myself. I started from the back and worked my way forward. Did you go with the Niccop and fittings, or with pre-bent lines?.
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i still got rockers, a small hole in one strut tower, tank is all surface rust.

im one up on ya in the rear cross over line, it blew out years ago and got replaced already.

i got pre bent brake lines off ebay, just showed up yesterday, and all my lines that matter as far as taking the old crap out have already been taken off and put back on in the past. just had a line blow out the other day, to my surprise the fitting near the fuel filter just came apart like nothing.

fuel lines i also just ordered from lines to go, all pre bent, the lines to the engines rail are braided too. even comes with a new filter.
 
Your lucky you don't have to do all of them. That cross-over line in the back wasn't too bad, minus dropping the sub-frame and dealing with all those rusted azz bolts. The lines-to-go pipes is what I used. It's a nice product cuz each line comes in 2 sections. Those were pretty easy to install actually. I had to drop the front subframe quite a bit. Careful of the steering shaft. Since I did all the lines at one time, the most challenging part for me was getting them all "feng shui", getting them to pass through that armpit, and then tightening the unions. What a b1tch. That, and getting the lines into the line holding brackets was tough because they didn't really wanna fit in there. Hope it goes smoothly for ya.
 


Things got done. Pictures below.

Picked up some nice re-built Calipers from this place out here in the city. They specialize exclusively in calipers. Only place like it as far as I know. I had planned on re-building the ones I had myself, but after researching it, and reading how everyone complained about how much of a pain it was, I decided against it. I just don’t have the patience for some things, and this seemed like one of them.

They sure are pretty! Re-built OEM. Zinc platted. Dust boots. Guide pins. Pad Clips. Crush washers. Everything except the banjo bolt. $177 out the door for all 4 calipers:
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Info if your interested in contacting this place. Maybe they have GXP rears? I gotta email and ask. Maybe I'll exchange the stock rears I got for GXP rears:
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Picked up this special edition spoiler from RareGMFan back in early June:
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Got these GPO's from PurpleGuy back in April:
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Got the trailing bolts out. What a b1tch. Bent back the rusted azz backing plate and pounded the fu**ers out with a sledge hammer. Heated and pounded like an angry gorilla:
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Straight up junk:
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Man did that nut get messed up. Used it for both sides so only damaged one nut. Bolts are fine. These little piston looking things fell out from the e-brakes as I hammered. Got them back in though:
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Super corroded in there:
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Got these metal pipe cleaners on Amazon some time ago. Coming in handy for cleaning those types of holes:
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Blurry pic, but much cleaner:
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Couldn't get the bolts out again. This time they're stuck in the trailing arm itself. Soaked them in penetrating oil. See what happens. Bastards, these bolts are:
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