One Door Closes…

…and another one opens.

For my birthday this year I was going to order a set of wheels for myself, and was very close to having them. However, just before making the purchase, the seller vanished. Just like that. I never got the wheels, but fortunately I hadn’t paid yet.

I didn’t buy myself anything though, as I actually forgot about my annual gift-to-myself, until another opportunity presented itself. A better one, in fact.

A fellow forum member on one of my forums put his front coilovers up for sale, and I jumped at the chance. I messaged him immediately, we agreed on a price, and I paid. I have to wait for the package to arrive now (Which will seem to take forever), but in the meantime I get to order the parts required for the rear coilovers. Ideally, I hope to have the Grand Prix lowered for the start of 2011. Will it happen? I don’t know, but I hope so. We’ll just have to wait and see.

P.S. I know I had said I’d try to update before another two months passed, but at the very least I decided to post this tonight, on the two-month mark, instead of tomorrow. Oh well.

Are We There Yet?

It was over two months ago that I wrote “I’ll hold off on pictures until I can get the final pieces on. It’s almost there.” So, what happened? Well, life. Working Monday to Friday took most of my time, on top of that there were family affairs to deal with (Which are still being dealt with), and then I had a vacation thrown in too. It was just last week that I was finally able to get the Grand Prix to a state that I can consider ‘done’…for now.

The first order of business was to fit the ‘new’ tail lights. The skirts were supposed to come first, but a lack of both time and a working drill prevented installation on the first attempt. I should mention that the skirts were only put on because of all the help I had from a good friend of mine, Justin. They are not a one-person job, and as I’ll explain later, having his car around was a huge asset.

The tail lights were pretty straight forward. Except for a couple of stubborn studs on the original lights, everything went smoothly. After switching lights the driver’s seal let a serious amount of water into the trunk though, so that had to be sealed with silicone. However, hiccups like that (Especially when dealing with 18 and 20-year old seals) are expected.

The week after getting the car back from the body shop, a rather large box showed up at work for me. It was the replacement catalytic converter I’d ordered from Magnaflow. It was promptly installed by a local exhaust shop the next day, as I could not wait to get rid of the rattle that the OEM piece had developed.

With the rust gone, lights changed, and exhaust fixed, I was then looking for something else to do. The brake lights were looking too pale, and I was wanting to experiment with the fog lights on the front light bar, so I ordered some vinyl tint. I picked up ‘Iron’, the lightest tint available from the company I went to, and yellow.

With some time to myself, I started by tinting the fog lights yellow. I had done a rendering in paint a while before, and had been considering it since, so I decided to just go for it. Once I could see it in real life, I decided it was the right choice and I’ve kept the vinyl on.

The tail lights then got their turn with the vinyl too. As I mentioned above, the brake lights look almost faded. Instead of the deep red that my original lights had, they looked pink in some light. After experimenting with some different techniques and layouts, I found something that worked for me. I tinted just the brake lights with the ‘Iron’ tint, and was able to tuck the edges into the recesses of the lights. All seams are hidden unless the trunk is open, and even then you have to look to see them. I’m very pleased with how they turned out.

With the lights ready, the car was just about there…but not quite. It was another month and a few days until it was on jackstands in my garage for the final pieces. Until then though, I was still enjoying the car and how it had progressed. It made appearances at the local weekly meets and I took care of small details here and there to occupy my time.

At the start of September, I used my remaining vacation money (I had just returned from two weeks of lake-front relaxation) to buy a torque wrench, floor jack, jackstands, and a few more assorted bits so that I could stop borrowing from my friend Justin. With everything ready to go, he and I propped the GP up and got to work. After 7 and a half hours on the first day and another 90 minutes or so the next, the side skirts were finally on! Why did it take so long? Simple-we constantly had to make supply runs as we kept discovering that we needed something. First, it was stronger drill bits. Next, it was stronger bolts. After that, it was a socket to fit my torque wrench so that we could get the wheels back on after taking them off. Finally, it was another roll of 3m moulding tape as mine ran out about two inches too soon.  After all of that, we finally had the car on the ground and in one piece. A big thanks goes to Justin, as his Lexus was used for all of the supply runs on the first day. With the Grand Prix out of commission, it would’ve been much harder to get the parts if his car wasn’t acting as the back-up.

After ‘day one’ was done, we took the cars out for some gas and enjoyed the progress we’d made.

For day two, I headed over to Justin’s after getting supplies, put the GP back on the jacks, and installed the final piece. I had picked up some OEM ‘sideskirt-specific’ mudflaps, but I ended up drilling an additional hole in the originals and using them instead.

With the car ‘done’ (As far as my plans for this year are concerned), I went down to my usual photoshoot location to take some quick updated pictures. I’m no professional, and these are just snapshots, but they show the car’s new look. Aside from a possible respray some day, the exterior is done. I’m sure I’ll keep changing details here and there, but I’ve done everything that I’d planned to initially. It was a long and tedious process to get the car to its current state, but it was worth every minute.

So after all of the progress made this year, what’s next? Well, I’m always dreaming of the answer to that, and I’m currently in the process of ordering a birthday present to myself. Of course, it’s related to the Grand Prix, so wait and see. When it arrives, I’ll get right to the picture taking and hopefully, I won’t keep you waiting another two months before I post an update.

New Tail Lights

It just occurred to me that I made mention of the new tail lights in my last post, but I never actually showed a picture of them. Well, here’s one of them after I got it back from the body shop. They’re OEM ’88-’91 Base Model lights, and are in amazing shape for their age.

But wait, what’s that in the reflection? Could it be the Grand Prix?

Yes, the GP is home now. I’ll hold off on pictures until I can get the final pieces on. It’s almost there.

Fresh Paint.

Yesterday morning I stopped by the body shop again to check in on the Grand Prix. It’s one colour again! The paint looks amazing, so I’m very pleased. All that remains is reassembly, buffing, and then the car’s mine!

First up, the roof. I am glad to finally have that ugly, embarrassing rust spot removed.

A comparison with some OEM paint. As expected, no difference, even though one side is 18 years old (Left), and the other isn’t even 24 hours old (Right). No blending was done anywhere on the car.

Now, the door. As it was sitting, it was just the shell in place. Everything (And I mean everything) still had to be transferred from the old door.

If it looks like a different shade in the first picture, that’s due to the lighting.

The original garnish for the door was repainted, to freshen it up.

The quarter panel doesn’t look much different (Due to how limited and hidden the rust was) but fresh paint is always nice. Side note, that’s the first time that tail light has been out in…ever.

Another comparison-OEM on the left, resprayed on the right.

While I was there, the side skirts were being painted in the booth, so all I could get was a snapshot through the glass.

Seeing as how the car is going to be buffed anyway, I also dropped off the ‘new’ tail lights to have them lightly buffed as well. Being 20 years old, they have the usual light scratches on the lenses, but once those are removed they should look brand new. I also requested that the lights be left in the car and not installed (Just like the side skirts), so that I may do that myself.

My next update should be me picking the car up and taking it home for reassembly, probably tomorrow. Stay tuned!

The Grand Prix is Gone…

For now. Last Tuesday I dropped it off at my dealership’s body shop, and left it in the care of my co-workers. Its stay should almost be over, I’m expecting it back any day now.

A few weeks ago I brought it to the body shop for a quote regarding getting the rust removed, and my OEM side skirts painted (But NOT installed. I plan to do that myself). Upon receiving the quote, my father and I went through it and agreed that we should go ahead with it, so I gave the manager the green light.

Before I show ‘after’ pictures, I had better show some ‘before’ for comparison. There was rust in the roof, driver’s quarter panel, and driver’s door. The roof and quarter panel were actually very minor. The door turned out to be the worst, and we ended up ordering a completely new shell, onto which every nut and bolt from the original will be installed. I could have picked up a second-hand door, but it was decided that brand new would be best as it would eliminate the chance of any hidden rust.

The night before I dropped it off, I pulled apart most of the interior. Due to the roof having rust, I had to drop the headliner to look for hidden damage, and that required pulling a fair bit out. The upper trim, rear seat bottom, and passenger seat all had to come out before I could pull out the headliner.

And a note to first-gen GP sedan owners; the headliner ONLY fits through the front doors, it took me a while to discover that. It will not come through the back doors.

I did find a bit of surface rust below the spot on top of the roof. I was worried that there’d be more damage, but the inside looks fine.

After a couple of hours, I had a living room full of car parts waiting to be stored, and a pile of ziplocs with nuts, bolts, and other various parts.

Tuesday morning before work I loaded the side skirts in the car, and drove out to the body shop. My father came and gave me a ride home shortly after.

Before leaving, I grabbed a snapshot of the mileage for reference. 140,800 kilometers in 18 years.

I also took a picture just before getting in my father’s car (Red Lincoln) and leaving the GP to be torn apart.

This past Tuesday, I drove out to the body shop (My parents have lent me their Suburban for the week) to see how the car was progressing. I was greeted by a multi-coloured Grand Prix, but the good news is that the rust was gone!

This is how I found it, awaiting some paint.

The roof was sandblasted, and not surprisingly the rust was clean through in a couple of spots. The areas were repaired and it will be fully repainted.

The quarter panel only needed work on the inner lip. It was the most solid of the three areas.

As for the door, the new shell was still waiting on primer inside, before it could be painted. The original garnish will also be repainted and installed on the new door.

The old door, in all of its rusty glory. It says ‘Save’ on it, because I’ll be using it to have all of the factory decals reproduced, and then placed on the new door in the exact locations of the originals. Following that, it will be junked.

I do not have any pictures of the side skirts, because at the time of my visit they were being worked on by another employee. They had been smoothed and partially primed.

Following the repaint of the primed areas, I requested that the remaining OEM paint be restored to match the freshly sprayed areas. Even though the colours will match (GM’s Bright White is VERY hard to get wrong, it’s essentially guaranteed to match every time) the fact that some areas have nicks and scratches, while the repaired areas wouldn’t, would be a dead giveaway that work was done. I want the paint to be as uniform as it was when I dropped the car off.

As I said at the start, any day now I should be getting the call that it’s ready for pick up, so stay tuned for the pictures of the GP when it’s back together.