@@loganv944 the body style is called a T-top. It's a halfway step to a convertible. While retaining the coupe roof line, there's 2 removable glass panels. Which leaves a center support running front to back when removed, for strength. The seals on the glass panels are well know for leaking as they age a little.
I'd take a Trans Am over a modern Toyota. If you can fix a Lexus rx300 then you can fix anything. As changing the power steering hose on a Lexus takes more effort than changing a transmission on a Trans Am...
Love your videos. Had to comment on this one, because I have a similar story, if somewhat reversed. As a 16 year old (1996), my dad helped me buy an '85 Firebird. I had trouble with it passing smog but revving it in the parking lot of the inspection place fixed that. As an idiot 16 y/o, I nearly wrecked it numerous times, and was finally successful by slamming it into a wall trying to take a turn too fast. My uncle, who sounds a lot like yours, bought it off of us because he knew he could fix the front-end damage for cheap with ubiquitous junk yard parts. He got it back to 100% again and loved that car. He too lived a hard, but party-filled lifestyle after a bad marriage sent him down the other path. He was the black sheep of the family, but I always liked him. He drove that Firebird until the day he died, far too young, for being hard-headed and not taking care of himself. RIP to all those crazy uncles that danced to their own song, likely coming out of a Pontiac down by the beach.
This is my car. I love your uncle, I love your videos. Your uncle sounds like a pretty cool guy. I aspire to be like you, keep up the great work with your videos.
so are the seatbelts, they don't lock. the relays are for a newer version mine is a 1984 with some weird ass wiring stuff so I wouldn't be the one to ask anyway about wiring.
As an owner of one old American Chevy I can tell you that this is most likely normal for the seatbelts to not react to yanking. In a square body Burb from 1989 the seatbelts lack any mechanism that would lock them up under fast unreeling, only a swinging weight that locks them under G forces. Combined with super weak retractor springs it feels unsafe compared to any other car I've ever driven.
I’m 43. When I was growing up everyone had 80s boats and pickup trucks. I got to drive one of these when I was 16 and it was like a F1 car compared to everything else I had driven.
Hi. It’s me again, strtmstr with the 88 GTA. you are correct: the shoulder straps on this car are worse than useless. Mine go through a little opening attached to the seat that proved useless the first year I owned it. you might want to not get rid of those seats. I’m going to get a pair of racing seats, and weld some brackets to the original seat bracket. I’m then going to use a four-point harness. It will undoubtedly work better than the OEM, and, might actually help me survive a crash.
I’ve seen that as well. You might check any junkyards in your area. There’s bound to be a few fourth gens there. Also, FYI if you didn’t know already, you can interchange a lot of parts for Camaros. sometimes it’s easier to look for Camaro parts.
Thank you for honoring his life and memory, while at the same time expanding your own! Your mercy to his memory, rather than judgement gave you freedom to grow and learn. Thank you for the great content.
The relays that you noticed at 9: 28 are supposed to attach to the firewall. I had to remove all of them to do my clutch master cylinder (don’t ask). There’s a bracket that holds them up there. I’m letting mine flop in the breeze, until I’m sure I don’t have to take the brake booster off again.
Absolutely masterful transition from discussing your uncle's fun in the car, to you giving the interior a deep clean. I also appreciate the savagery on Columbus. Regarding the engine service light, it was probably too scared to come on while your uncle was around. The headunits thing is wild! Both cars playing absolutely appropriate songs for the car. Do not delete. Honour your uncle in the way only you know how.
I'm sorry that I got rid of the Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the Rocket 454 engine that had been my dad's. I recall the engine compartment was so huge that the engine actually looked small. It was pretty rusted out and I was happy at the time to get $125 for the thing. But that money is long spent while the memories of the effortless miles that car ate up remain.
i thought those were pennsy inspection stickers! i'm from bucks county, but i like to think i may've been in the same place at the same time as uncle bill. i'm only 4 minutes in, and absolutely loving this. thank you so much for sharing this story dude. and thank you, uncle bill. that guy is everyone's uncle
in the seatbelt mechanism in the b-pillar, there is a literal metal ball bearing that when it rolls under g-forces the seatbelt locks. So, that is considered normal for 80's pontiac. Source: Bedraggled fiero geek.
Beautiful story man. The issue with the head units is hilarious, especially because you somehow ended up with two of them. I'm starting to see a pattern with this channel.
I'm sorry to hear of your uncle's passing. Better a crash while having a good time than bedridden dying of cancer, good on the crazy dude. Glad his car went to someone who'd make a video about it. Too many people view the "stuff" as just that after someone dies. It's refreshing to hear the stories that went with the stuff, the personal side.
12:18 Those songs seem to be most appropriate for those cars 😅 The constant repeat is a feature not a fault 😂 (I’m a Miata NC guy and had an NA before so it’s all good 😅) Beautiful glorious NA Miata specimen. Nicer even perhaps than my NC. Great story about your uncle.
10:04 the seatbelt arrestor has a pendulum that swings during hard breaking or a sudden impact to lock the belt, and unlock again when you stop pulling Gs.
Welcome to the GM world, I can say once you start you can’t go back. I love work on my ‘90 K1500, I try not to touch the subaru anymore. (Yes the multi-function switch just feels like that)
5:47 - 90s Toyotas probably seem less damaged because all the plastic was made with 10-year newer material/technology and was cooked in the sun for 10 less years. 10:10 - They don't lock up because they probably didn't have that technology yet. It would not be uncommon for an 80s car not to have locking belts equipped because those were only required to be equipped on vehicles starting in 1996. They may have been optional. The newer ones you showed have an internal centrifugal clutch, which is why they pull slowly and lock on harsh pulls. It is a safety feature designed to keep you in your seat in the event of a collision that would otherwise toss you out the windshield. On my car, I have two separate seat belts, one for the lap and the other for the shoulder, and they do not have any retractable device or locking device, they are just bolted directly to the body interior and have an adjustable latch for tightness. Works great for keeping you in your seat, but not great if you need to pick something up in the interior while driving such as a water bottle rolling under the pedals. 11:03 - Cooper Cobra Radial GT, good enough tires that won't break the bank. They got raised white lettering on one side but are a soft tire. They look pretty good on older cars, I have them on my 1968 Ford Galaxie 500. Daily drove it for 2 years in California and didn't need to replace them. Car's been getting worked on since. Not sure about your area, may need different tires depending on road conditions and weather. 11:45 - That plunger switch is almost assuredly for the trunk interior lights or for the dash warning for open trunk. It is possible that it is connected to the electronic close circuit, but I wouldn't count on it.
My dad had a 1988 Blazer in the mid-90s that had the EXACT same turn signal/windshield wiper-washer/cruise control stalk. I hadn't thought about that car in 30 years, but as soon as I saw the way your turn signal stalk operated, I instantly remembered the Blazer: the turn signal stalk operated the same as yours and felt like it was broken from the day my dad brought that car home. (The turn signal stalk action never got any worse or actually broke; it always felt cheap and crappy.)
As a current mechanical engineering student who’s high school car was an ‘83 El Camino pulled out of a landscaping lot, I know the feeling. A lot of “what does that do?”
These cars will always be cooler than anything made today. They drive well in my opinion because they allow you to actually feel the road, like a sports car should. I dislike how soft modern cars arez they give you tactile feel of the road.
I was also used to working on Toyotas and then bought a C5 Corvette. The difference in build quality is insane. Love the video, it’s a great tribute to your cool uncle.
Working at a classic american auto shop but owning an 86 Volvo 240 that's always broken in one way or another, I can relate with this video a lot. I hate these things. Always a crapload of water damage and never taken decent care of. Yeah, those plastic parts just do that. That signal lever is probably normal knowing those. Pretty sure the seatbelt issue is a really common GM thing. Id swap em but that's expensive. Most customers who own these don't care since their rusted out frame makes a crash unsurvivable anyways. Changing carpet, I've found rust so horrendous in these that I didn't know how it hadn't collapsed under it's own weight, so check that. Those T tops leak like crazy. I've never changed the seal but it doesn't look difficult.
I was worried about the seatbelts not locking in my grandfather's 1990 F-350 when I inherited it, but as others have said, that was apparently normal back then. Apparently the thing that locks them is called a pre-tensioner, and the ones that lock from being pulled hard only started showing up in the mid 90's. While I was looking that up, I also found out that most seatbelts actually have a small explosive to immediately pull the slack out in a crash, which is pretty metal. (I just noticed this video is 2 years old, d'oh!)
Damn this hit me so square in the feels you could level a mill bed off it. Rememberances of the shadetree derpgeineer. I hope I can seem as cool to my nephew and nieces when I punch off to the Great Reward for them to adopt all my janky crap and have them find meaning in skinning their knuckles on it just like I did.
I have one of these turds and worked relentlessly to polish it into something special. At every step of the way I asked myself "What were they thinking?". The most amazing thing is that out of every muscle car ever made up to this point, this was pretty much the pinnacle. The 4th gen car was pretty much the same except for a new front suspension!
All GM turn signals from the late 80s and 90s feel broken don't worry. They only click over at the very end of the travel. I actually found it nice once I got used to it because it means signaling a lane change is less likely to trip the blinker on all the way.
As a weirdo "liberal" guy, my whole philosophy is "Don't be an asshole." Or as a classical libertarian would put it, "Do whatever you want as long as it doesn't infringe on the freedom of others." Not the tax dodging live in the woods neo-classical libertarian. The kind that just doesn't give a shit as long you don't fuck with people. Then I rant about how we need to yield to certain things to ensure the group is supported over the individual blah blah blah that's the Liberal part. Not the point. So all this windup is just to say, don't fuck with people who understand society is a reactive construct built on glass pillars of unspoken, self-imposed Lockean contracts. Because you will always get 1 before society gets you. Now be a good human being, do whatever you want, live how you want; just don't stop others from doing the same. Unless you want to break that Lockean contract and thus void all the safety it granted you. ((Now a John Locke tangent)) Lockean contracts is not a common term. I just can't remember what it was called. Basically we are all born with liberties which are represented in actions or things we can do. We have the liberty to murder, eat, steal, and rape. But we don't want those to happen to us. So we decide that we will give up that liberty if others also give it up. Thus we live in a tenuous limbo built on trust. Society then codifies these "giving up of liberties" as laws.
Iconic car. I would fix it up and enjoy it daily. I grew up when these were new and just as British love jags, I find myself love late 70’s and 80’s American cars. Build quality 😅😅 bla bla , awesome curb appeal 😊😊😊😊
I know it's been two years...and ya probably have already figured it out...but bleeding knuckles vs sparkplugs can be rectafide by jacking the front up, jack stands...remove front wheels...three feet of extension and a swivle later...easy peesy.
I worked on one of those absolute dumspter fires like 2 years ago. It had the cross puke intake recaro factory seats and the hood was signed by....Ladies and gentlemen,.....Mr Conway Twitty.
It has a manifold leak. It would be wise to go to a junkyard and just find a 350. It's not really worth it to put much money or effort into a 305. A rusted out Express Van, Silverado or Sierra HD with an LQ4 6L and 4L80e would be the greatest thing to do. If you found an earlier version with iron heads they're usually cheaper, a swap from 317 to 706/862 heads plus a thinner head gasket than stock to bump the compression more, the NBS/TBSS intake, a cam and valve springs, lifters and trays, swap headers, a converter. I would recommend Sloppy Mechanics for research. Matt Happle over there will tell you everything you need and everything you don't need. If you use his Don't B.S. Me build formula, all you really need is a 4.8/4L80e from an Express/Savanna then do your cam+springs, injectors, fuel system and chinese turbo. You can make frightening amounts if power with just a 4.8 and a GT45. Your Holley Terminator EFI is going to be the part that is most costly. Even if you set the boost low, you would have a more economical on fuel and reliable setup than the old TPI305 700R4.
Trans Am suck. They’re slow, handle poorly and don’t stop. I love it. I love the colour, I love the KITT conversion, but that wheel has to go. Needs a proper KITT wheel which also suck, but are awesome, and the wheels are also awful, but fitting. I’m jealous.
The pretensions on your seat belt is toast. It should lockup when pulled quickly, just like your other cars. Also you need to adjust your rear hatch pull down motor. They get out of alignment over a few decades, and gives trouble opening or closing.
