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What did you do to your Car today?

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I drove my GTP to Canada this past weekend. I had a fun time.

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View from my hotel room

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You Buick fans should appreciate this... I'm typing with the wrong hand because my right caught my airbag as I went for the horn during 5PM rush hour today. Yep, junked another GTP. Broke the rear u-joint of a Ranger in half, if that tells you anything. Either I ran a red light or the kiddo coming out of the turn lane did. Unless a witness comes forth, a fault decision will be tough. To all those who have had a disabled hand before, I sympathize because it sucks. And hurts. Wrist is quite swollen and I just missed the boat on getting an X-ray of it at least til tomorrow. I was right in the middle of something urgent and timely at work, and worry about somebody else finishing it. The kiddo in the Ranger appeared to be dazed but unhurt.

The GTP? I never got a chance to look at it after bailing immediately due to both bags worth of explosives' smoke choking me. After that I was surrounded by like ten cops and medics. I took a splint n sling but passed on a ride to the ER. Dammit I live off my right hand, this is gonna get complicated... theres no pics to post yet. I might as well grab my ankles now because we all know what 200K+ GPs are worth in the book.

A couple bizarre notes:

Eight times others have ran into my Grand Prixs, not counting today's wreck or anything caused by me. My '69 GP has never been crashed into, but has been slammed by hail twice.

The same guy who came and got me after my rollover in Nov '13 just happened to get caught in the traffic jam following today's wreck, and gave me a ride home. What are the odds on that? We were both 20 miles from our homes.

If anybody out there is sticking a pin into a black GTP doll... STOP! Its working over here. Anybody know how to break the voodoo? Speak up. I'd just get a Monte but they are bad ug, to me. Anyway, I'll be tossing back Advil and trying once again to re-group after a crash. This is getting so old, I almost want to change my user name from what it is... Bill if you read this and are tempted to do so for me, don't if you want me here at all. It fits me. Besides who else can wipe out GPs as fast as this for you?

Keep yer eyes on the road and hands on the wheel out there folks, that traffic wants your blood.
 
Dang...grand Prix's aside I'm glad you're basically okay. We aren't gonna give you grief just because it was a Prix, we know there's a million out there. It kept you alive. But I must say you either do so much driving that the odds are naturally high, or there really is something behind all the crashes. Hmm don't think any voo-doo though lol.

Random thought, maybe after the invention of the airbag, the steering wheel is no longer a good place for the horn? Chances are before an accident, your hand will be there.

Also fault aside, I don't even like driving without a dash cam. If I'm already down the street and realized I forgot my memory card, I'm going back.
 
You're onto something with the dash-cam, Blue. If the traffic light camera feed is available, that should make the case. I drive near 50 miles a weekday average, that includes over 60 redlights. I sure am hoping its just the odds. If not, I'll probably be homeless in another year! At this point, I'd prefer to buy a mule rather than a car. Guess I screwed up by liking the car so much and speaking well of it. I should know by now that natural forces will destroy any achievements I make, like having a car I dig for daily use.
 
You're also onto something about airbag placement... I have been wanting to take SIR, ABS, TCS, etc off my GTP. Should have! Heres a visual for them that requires it-

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Yeah I'm no doctor, but I can say something is wrong there. Can you move your fingers? I'd assume so or you would have been to the er for some x rays asap. Hope its nothing too bad. Idk if its just the swelling or the camera angle, but is your hand actually indented so to say?
 


Nope, its just lump. And I have movement, feeling, no tingle, and no discoloration. Ambulance dudes were trippin on my BP, it was high sho nuf. You can imagine the initial profanity stream. Due to the prevailing circumstances, I missed getting x rayed today. I'll go to a clinic tomorrow. Made it there tonight but without my DL due to the confusion. Went back but they were closed. No ER fees if I can avoid them, even though I have coverage. Its all cool but mostly I'm worried about my project stalling. I better put some sleep on the wrist, although if I toss/turn I might get a YOW! This Monday sucked, somebody take it out back and shoot it thru the head...
 
Went to pick up my ssei yesterday and filled it with oil and fired it up and then went to add water and the water kept disappearing.....into the oil. Guess i'm doing the LIM gasket first thing, and it blew a brake line :( I'm hoping my buddy with a trailer can go with me to get it soon.
 
Dammmmm icrashjunk, like others mentioned, at least it's only a hand and not a totalled body.

I'm kinda thinking you have enough parts cars that you can nearly fix anything at this point? Toss up your local CL area and the crackheads here can look up some new GP's for you.
 


Think so lol.

I'm no ls expert but any (few) details I know about the gxp ls4 applied to what I did. I saw the lifter valley cover and not a lifter valley, since it only has one intake manifold. And the knock sensors were recessed under the cover. My boss says there's a tsb for moisture corroding the connections on the sensors, so I inspected them and applied dielectric grease.

I used the improved fel-pro metal gaskets.
 
one of these babys 6.0 here. you take them two foam inserts out, ( and toss em in the trash, they hold water in there) and seal the foam over the knock sensors with rtv. make sure the harness is ok, they like to bake up and die. back one was 1.2 fill of water. why the k/s went bad. and why i had the intake off.

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Harness looked fine, no codes. There was no water in the cover at all. All dry. I didn't see any foam inserts, just the dust covers or whatever (what you see in your pic). I used plenty of silicone grease on the connectors and I smeared some around the covers to kind of seal them against the valley cover. I suppose rtv silicone would have been the best but there was no existing damage.
Then I fired it up, and I noticed a clicking like a voltage leak. Ended up being a loose spark plug, I saw the boot jumping up and down while it was running lol.
 
I learn something new every time I visit, SD. Glad TSBs are in you guys' vocabulary, they can be big timesavers on the job. Y'know- in the near future those Coyotes and Hemi swaps are gonna catch up to LS popularity ... methinks.

I dunno, maybe "idrivebadly" will apply to me, Bill. The police report will tell.

Visuals below, thanks for keeping it positive, gents. Reckon I am glad to be shiny side up. I got x-rayed and my bones are OK. Hyperextension of my wrist / thumb is responsible for the painful swelling. Doc said use it as much as my body will allow, pain-wise. Some meds for that, and I told my boss I'll holler Thursday. A day of taking the pills and treating the hand right will take me a long way to recovery, then I'll just go from there.

Called the rental joint, they are hunting up a fullsize for me and will call. Finding another GTP isn't real interesting at this moment but I should look. MY GTP is telling me borrow background Betty's right headlight and just stick the bumper back on it and cut the blown bag off. Keep going, the fender ain't too bad. We shall see, but i gotta let all the BS clear out before I plan any actions.

Insurance investigation is underway, Friday is the earliest possible time I might get a police report, and an adjuster will go see the car probably tomorrow. I did that today, in the '69. Needed more things out of the car. Boss man had it secured for me.

This is the GTP bumper cover, you can easily see the Ranger tailpipe and tire marks on it.

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Heres the front end. Airbags went because the impact was perfectly positioned to transfer energy through the lower unibody rail. Don't take much in the right spot.

You can kinda tell that I almost got mine stopped. The truck spun about 130 degrees.

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Bill, I'll be at car-part looking for whatever I'm missing, in black. My front end pile is all hurt stuff. It kills me that of course, if you let a useable part go to the scrap man, that will be the thing you need shortly thereafter. I didn't want to deal with throwing away a good dash bag from the 40th so I sat it back in place before it was hauled off. Perfect! meh-who needs 'em anyway? I just wonder if this thing would look good with a Century front clip... not sure if these hits are knocking sense in or out.
 


Is the whole car tweaked? It really doesn't look that bad. I feel bad kinda I did make a comment months prior so I might have jinxed you. So I'll owe you a beer or two because of that.
 
I'd match them beers but by then I'd be dronk, ha! No worries, Osaur. I haven't measured the engine compartment yet (to see if its still square) but the fender trouble is mainly just the little bonk on the front tip skewed the gaps majorly. That fender was already flattened right over the wheel somewhat. I bet I get back into this car with a lot less work than the GT needs. However dash stuff is insanity on these. My only concern is that cream puffy coupes are all pretty used up by now, I'll have to check the ol 72762 and 56 CLs and keep my eyes peeled. Its supposed to be 68 high tomorrow here and I'm supposed to use it to rest, thats all I 'm wanting to focus on. Short sleeves today made things a lot more convenient than they could have been if it was colder. The elder GP kinda liked seeing town today, maybe since it has recirculating ball steering I'll take it out for a short weekday joy ride again tomorrow as part of my therapy. One-finger steering input.
 
Heck Matt that doesn't look bad at all and it's good to hear on the hand. Women will be happy to know that you can now extend it in ways never before possible. :th_thumbsup-wink: Going on gut feeling here..he was at fault. Hope the insurance see's it the same way. BTW, I've started a thread for ya on a new car. However ole reliable there in the pictures looks easily fixable. As for the dash, don't be a wuss. Pull out the 7mm, 10mm and 13mm, take a trip to the jy and nab any decent looking dash and column with good bags and a hole for the hud. Drop your wiring harness on it and poof. Your glass buddy tosses in a new window, the boys strap a black bumper cover on and off ya go.

Due to a crash, I swapped a non hud car over to a hud


And with Bonnevilles, there seemed to be a bit more wiring involved


Lookie..the backside of an airbag




Finished product


I've also pulled the dash on an 02 GT, wasn't bad at all.
 
I've got a prime dash pad off the 40th GTP coupe I rolled, and everything else from the dash. My teardown of it was down to the bones, and that dash pad is consuming half my living room anyway. Tore that down until I was looking at the backside of the firewall. Its not complicated but is frustrating, and by the time you get that far apart, you're going "Why in the hell did GM make it this way". The complete column is also stashed, although being 02 stuff, the steering wheel and bag are different. The poor 99 GT is so stuffed with so many 02 parts theres barely room to get inside it. I seriously do not want airbags again though.

Glad the GTP is no worse than it is, although I need to dig further to be sure about the structure. The arm swelling is going down but now a larger bruise area is beginning to appear, that goes halfway to my elbow.
 
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