Hey guys, first post and i figured i would start it off right.
Relative crashed this Sunbird in a ditch and stored it outback of her house for some time under a tarp, walked by one day and saw "gt".
After this i was curious and looked it over to find an almost rust free Sunbird just chillin so i asked almost every time we went around it
and kept pestering her about it so finally i paid a whopping 200 bucks for a running 99% rust free Sunbird GT!
First thing i did was back it into the garage and start cleaning it up which was a greater task then expected..
Mice, spiders, squirrels and every other small vermin you could imagine liked the Sunbird just as much so with
about 3 hours or vacuuming and evicting the small pests it was time to start in. I don't want to make this boring so
here's a little progress list I've done so far.
Also thank you to everyone on here because i learned almost everything about this car on this forum!
Replaced rear window.
patched rips in roof. (yes i used black tape that tops not gonna be around for to long)
New radio.
Boost gauge.
Front mount intercooler
Repaired a very mangled front bumper.
Removed AC, it's a convertible who needs AC?
Replaced radiator.
Aftermarket intake.
Manual boost controller.
Replaced all boost lines.
Had to flush the brake lines due to sitting so long.
Oil looked brand new when i pulled the dip stick which is always a relief!
I bet I'm missing a couple things but I'll let the pictures do the speaking.
When i first got it home.
After a week of work...
Had to weld that back on and bang it all straight due to it being crushed flat.
Only rust was on the bottom of the drivers side door, which is no longer there.
If you look closely you can notice the color difference between the door and the right fender.
The door was all scratched up and dented from the accident and for the first time doing that type
og body work I'm impressed with myself.
I also need a new right front fender, i can't believe out of all of the pictures it doesn't show it once but it's
damaged beyond repair. They cut half the fender away because it was touching the tire when they crashed it.
Interesting, I will be keeping an eye on this.
Advice/comments are welcomed. I'm still learning about these cars so any information is helpful.
awesome! makes me miss converti-box, my 87 drop top sunbird
What year is it?That is a rare car seriously and guessing maybe 1st gen but,closer to second gen idk being super tired.That is stupid nice car and please share this even just pics over in the forum to share with 1st or 2nd gen forums.82-87 is 1s gen 88-94 is 2nd gen.Nice super low cost find(I hate you) not really but,dang a da!! good find.Just try and keep it stock as possible this retains the true value of it,and rarity!!!!!!
What's holding that intercooler in place. From the pics, it looks the just the intercooler piping, I can't see any mounting spots.
It's an 88' and yeah as more research i do i'm coming to find i did get a good sort of "barn find".
It's a work in progress and not on the road yet due to the salty roads.
The intercooler has these super thick zip ties holding it in place for the time being, i saw someone on here made mounts
that I'm going to do as well. I also need an aftermarket fan due to the original not fitting in place correctly because of the accident
it was in.
It's in storage right now and won't be touched until summer weather rolls around. Right now it's research and deciding which
way i want to go with the project. I had the idea of lowering it but I haven't really worked with suspension except for replacing stock parts
and as ron said i kinda want to keep the stock look. The intercooler was necessity to performance or i wouldn't have even bothered.
thanks for the positive feedback and I'll for sure keep this updated as the build continues! I actually woke up this morning to all of the snow
around town gone so hopefully she'll be on the road sooner then expected!
Also another thing i mine as well ask is how many of these were made? And standard at that. I forgot to mention that as well because i feel like
i don't see many standard ones.
I actually woke up this morning to all of the snow
around town gone so hopefully she'll be on the road sooner then expected!
I woke up to about 5in after wearing shorts yesterday...
I don't remember that reservoir on the firewall between it and the I'm being on my 87. Power steering? Is it a 5spd or auto?
Jason
USACi =>146.9db
14.88 @ 90.73MPH =>GM Charger, Motor Mounts, Catback exhaust
never saw anyone intercool one of these, interested on how it performs. If you can get ahold of a chop tuner ill bet it will be pretty nice.
I'm not sure what reservoir you are referring to but yes it's a 5 speed.
I'm also curious on performance, this is my first impression on the Sunbird as it being my first and first time ever
hearing about one. Summer time comes around and I'll have more photo's/updates/video.
looking around the nyc area craigslist i found a few cheap tops and parade boots for yours. was looking for my third gen but here you go
Parade boot stamford ct $50
COnvertible top NJ $300
also have windows available.
Just a quick look around, kind of mad the secondgen has more availability but hope it helps!
Thanks guys. A little update to try and keep the thread alive.
As soon as I sell some parts from my previous mazda protege the sunbird will be on the road!
I need to get back to work and this is the only vehicle I have so I mine as well get the ball rolling early.
Thanks for the heads up on the parts too! I have the parade boot for it but I would like to redo the top.
I know once I get it on the road somethings gonna come up so be prepared to put you're thinking caps on and help a brotha out!
Also thanks 84 for the build thread on that sunbird i love build threads because then i can know what to expect when something
does go wrong, hopefully it won't.
Nice Sunbird, first time I've seen a black one. I have a 1984 red sunbird (donor car) that we had on the road for 2 years before I bought my present bird.
The one we drive now was silver until someone T-boned us last year, that's when we decided to change colors.
I changed my top back in 2011, it was time consuming but not real hard. A lot cheaper to do it yourself. I believe there is a thread on
this site where someone gives directions on how to change a top.
Yeah while installing the new rear window i got a gist of how it goes on. Not a huge fan of convertibles but I
think for the first time I'm glad it is.
The only thing i saw that was flawed was by the rear window it doesn't really connect to anything except
a small push button snap that attempts to close it yet there's a pretty wide opening for water/bugs/ someones hand to enter.
Has anyone had this issue? I'm assuming it's from the top being old and shrinking because there is no way it can stretch to cover
the opening.
Where the trim has the faded white mark is what I'm talking about. That's obviously not my car but an example.
