a sunny day in august 2003 marked the begining of a era of sorts for me. driving along down 16th ave in langley, i spotted 1st gen z24 sitting under a pine tree, and it didnt look like it had moved for a while. after talking with the owner and much thought, the next day i returned with $300 and transfer papers, and the 86 z24 cavalier was mine. after 365k km on the 2.8l ironhead and muncie 4 speed, it needed a lot of work.. the car ran, but had many electrical issues aswell as a smoked clutch. after completly going through the entrie car front to back, 2 months later it hit the road.
it didnt take long to be bitten by the modding bug, and and a couple months later i had it lowered on sprint springs, added an 86 sunbird gt wing aswell as a small stereo
after a long search, i found an 87 z24 valance. it was rather beat up, but deffinitly worth the $30 and weekend of repairing
18 years wasnt to kind to the paint, so after penny pinching for a long time, i found all the peices i needed, and sent the car in for paint
the car was painted metalic emerald charcoal with semi gloss skirts and bumpers, a very unique color
just before summer, it was time for some new rolling stock. after carful thought, motegi dp6 17x7" wheels were picked out and wrapped in yokohama h4s tires.
after a few nights at the track in summer 2004, it was determined that the car needed some serious motivation changes, as 17.4@83mph was the best the now 380k km motor and 4 speed could come up with. a 5 speed was installed mainly for fuel milage. after buying a core, i slowly started the engine buildup. the block was bored .030" over, line honed and decked. it was filled with probe industries 9.5:1 forged flat top pistons, beam polished rods, speed pro rings, clevite bearings. the entire rotating assembly was balanced
the cylender heads were ported, had bronze valve guides installed and seats ground. a full comp cams valve train went in feturing a comp 260h2 cam, 1.6:1 rockers, comp springs, locks retainers, timing chain, as well as SI stainless steel valves. a fiero intake and throttle body was used, after going under the die grinder for several hours.
july 2005, just after rolling 400k km, the old motor was pulled, the engine bay cleaned up and painted, and the new motor went in. 2 more weeks of building custom headers and a full dual exaust, and she finaly came to life.
now in the meantime i had done some small things in the interior, aswell as picking away at the stereo struff. at this point, i had a moulded gauge pillar with air/fuel and oil pressure gauges aswell as an autogauge tach.
a hurst pistol grip shifter
apc racing seat, and quad bucket swap
in fall, a stroke of bad luck hit when i was backed into in the pits at the track. the damage was all cosmetic, but it was a pain finding parts, aswell as the paint not being able to be matched. the good news was a ran my best time that night of a 15.64 at 87mph.
after driving on blown struts for a long time, it was time for an upgrade. KYB gr2 struts and shocks, energy suspention controll arm bushings, addco swaybars with urethane bushings all got installed. to slow it all down, a 92+ brake swap with slotted rotors and semimetalic pads and goodridge brake lines were all installed.
after the tragic loss of the dark obsession, justins 87 z24, i aquired the entire black interior. after a lot of work on and off, the entire interior was swapped over, along with brand new carpet from trim parts. new racing seats had also been installed, along with a momo wheel
it was also time to finnish off the audio. i had been collecting and installing some gear, but it was finaly starting to get finnished. a pioneer 940mp deck sent the sound down baseworks rca's to jbl gto 75.4 and 601.1 amps. 2 gto 12" subs in a custom box rattled the windows, while jbl power series 6x9 and 5 1/4" componets in custom door pods filled in the rest. the car had around 100sq/ft of sound deadener to quieten the rattles.
june 6, 2006 marked the end, just a couple weeks after finnishing the interior and stereo. on my way home from work, a drunk driver ran a light, turning out right in front of me, i wasnt able to even react before the impact.
a week and a half later, icbc confirmed what i had feared, the car was a total loss. i bought the car back, and it returned home. the next week and a half the car was stripped of everything. the interior was completly gutted in a matter of hours, the usable parts of the body were stashed away along with the entire interior and exaust system. less than a year later, the motor was back on the engine stand with only 20k km on it. the car was reduced to a shell, and filled up with the scrap peices, and awaits its finaly destiny.
this was my first car. it gave me 2 1/2 years of joy. the money i spent realy doesnt matter. i never saw it ending like this. 2 1/2 years of blood sweat and tears was ended all because of a drunk driver.
