So I haven't posted any threads on her before, so I would like to start this thread off with a brief (not really) history (with pictures!!!) of how I got to where I am.
When I first got my liscence,I started driving my mom's black 97' fire vert.
The first day I had it, I tore everything out of the inside and cleaned it thuroughly, buffed and waxed it several times, and kept it maintained, but never really did any mods to it.
Most of my money and effort went into the car I got early the next year.
As soon as my sister could drive she took over the vert, so I bought a red 96' fire and drove that around for a few years.But it wasn't the drop top, so I never got attached to it.
Over the summer, my sister ended up getting a really good deal on a 07' Equinox, so I got the vert back. My sister never maintained it, and hardly kept it clean. Since it needed quite a bit of work, I decided to start modding it in the process. I found a good deal on a 99' Alero and swapped over the suspension and tires and still managed to make my money back parting it out.
I also got a 96' GT rear bumper, put in a 2k+ console, grand am steering wheel, started making it so the rear windows went up and down independently, and started tearing it apart for a 2k+ wiring swap when it got cold out and I parked it for the winter.
Then the brake lines started rusting out in the 96' fire, and after spending too much time bending and flaring brake lines because the old ones broke as I put the new ones in, I lost all interest in the car, sold it, and put the vert back together enough to drive.
The day it sold
About this time MRThompson put tabs old vert up for sale, so I grabbed that as my new DD.
Now on to progress!!!!
Man wish i had had the room to snag the vert when it was bens glad its still with a fellow vert owner. Take care of it its sorda a whore legand lol. i saw u say you were working on independant rear windows? hows that turning out cause id love.mine to do that.
Yeah, I noticed when I went to title it, this is the third state its been title in this year alone.
For the rear windows, I haven't worked on it lately, but the sedan window switch was fairly easy to wire in ( I had the whole interior out, including carpet), and I have the window motors and cables from the Alero that I planned on using, but when I was talking to jr he thought the windows had their own motors, and that would make it easy to do. I'll find out when I tear it back apart in a few weeks
Yes they both have a geared motor in them. the verts have a motor.for.each window
good to see you started a thread. i will be keeping an eye out for the progress.
Nice, how are those hood pins workn for ya?
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
not well, they were cheap and I broke one tightening them down. But I can still make them work and they match the hood perfectly
as i keep seeing this car i have a Stange feeling that those zwheels are the wheels off our one project up here. They had been traded off by the prior owner when ours was a parts car and he traded to guy in maryland for other wheels then i beleieve that guy traded them off also the chips and such look really similar. hmm ill have to ask ben. That would be funny lol.
nope those are my old z wheels off my 2 door. lol pins look mint.
Nic Crosby wrote:Nothing beats a night time cruise with the top down 
oh, god man you have no idea. well, i guess you do. but most of the other people have no idea. night cruising in the summer was by far my favorite part about the car. sure, its great on a hot summer day. but you simply cant be the night! on a full moon i liked to turn on some classic tunes (i.e. 60s/70s rock) flip the radio faceplate down and turn all interior lights off so there was nothing visible, and just go cruise down some dusty country roads. simplicity at its best.
good luck on the car man and hopefully you'll get to enjoy it at least as long as i did. and if you ever go to sell it hit me up first!
I should have jumped in for a ride when you were at my place.
im surpriced no one noticed the alero wheels on the sunfire, aleros are 5x115 .....js 5x100. what all did you swap from the alero to the fire ? or did you get wheel adapters?
JR - thanks, I used your idea of hood pins for it
(tabs) - I've never quite gone to that extreme, but I do like the cool air and driving through all the hills and curves outside of my hometown, it's really tranquil
Mike - could have made that 2nd trip to the parts store with me. If we can get a meet going I can let go for a ride then
jon - Your right, I've never had anyone notice the Olds rims on the fire. It has pretty much the full suspension off the Alero, everything but the front springs/struts cuz those were shot. I should take some pics, the springs were broke when I pulled them out. There is a whole thread on the
IRS swap, do it the same way Lenko did and its really easy. C.T.S. did a whole how to on it as well, his is very detailed but not on this site. There is a link in the swap thread though
come summer time, when I have the money, the fire is getting newer springs/struts. Maybe JR will have the coil over setup he's working on done by then, so I can copy that
Nic Crosby wrote:JR - thanks, I used your idea of hood pins for it
. Maybe JR will have the coil over setup he's working on done by then, so I can copy that
thanks. for the suspension, i have the upper plates made and swapped. i am waiting on the sleeves. as soon as i get those i will weld on the lower plates and make the how to.
Bluedriftcavy(Eco Swapper) wrote:Evan Undead (The Black Pearl) wrote:I know I haven't been around much lately, but when in the hell did Thompson decide to sell Ben's car?!
with in the last month.
And when I came across a good deal on another Wrx wagon.
Updates
I added some of the plastic covers and tried to shine it up a bit more, but not much different
Had to tear the rear bumper off to fix the license plate light, so I did it in the parking lot
Modified a trunk release bezel to fit the vert floor pan
Here is the Grand Am wheel I have in the fire, and the bracket I made to make the GA clock spring to work
And I picked this up cheap today
It came with my new parts car
Sorry for the crappy cell phone images
C+C welcome
ooooh, sell me the eco, tranny and wiring harness.
I'm looking for a swap
Oh, and here is a picture that kinda shows where I located the switches for the rear windows, look just above the passenger headrest
I am looking to sell the eco, and the F23 has the wrong bell housing for what I want to do, but I want the wiring for my sunfire
im not against an eco....but please please please keep it 5sp!
and you should really get vids of those rear windows in action. im very curious to see them
keep it up!
The parts car had a 5 speed in it, kinda why I bought it, but it is for my fire (mostly). I plan to rewire the fire and do an engine/trans swap, looking to do more of a V6 and F23, but I guess if that doesn't work out, I now have the eco for a back up. About the only thing I plan to use from the parts car for the cav is the trunk pan, it has too many pin holes and one hole I can almost fit my hand through, all a part of my plan to get the underside cleaned up before the car sees a salty MI winter.
oh yeah...forgot it no longer got mild winters
