Saved a Gen 1 GTM : DAY 65 Build Graduated 3/17/2022

[wallace18]

Looking Good!

[Shoeless]

There is a good chance you will need to trim that plenum cover to clear the rear firewall. Nice thing will be that you can likely trim it even painted and you won't be able to tell the difference. At least I needed to trim my LS3 cover on my Gen2 GTM.

[beeman]

Yeah I ditched the plenum "beauty cover" (what guy at GM came up with that name?) completely, it contacted the firewall.

[Erik W. Treves]

Still here - making slow progress at the body shop - but still moving forward - I am busy with the F9 so not effecting much right now, but I am also getting excited to start putting this one in final assembly

[beeman]

No F9 pics?

[Erik W. Treves]

No F9 pics?

ha - nice try - It is looking very good though

[beeman]

Are you doing a carbon bodied F9 or fiberglass? Sorry to divert the thread, do you have a build thread for the F9? Will it be a street car or track car?

[Erik W. Treves]

CHeck the F9 forum

[Erik W. Treves]

Took a couple days off after the F9 left - back on the GTM now... took a couple days and put the Engine and Tranny in, wired the engine up - had to flip all the wires to the front - now you wont see any wires from back. Got the exhaust installed for first start...The probe cable shift arrangement seems like it will work.

[Shoeless]

I didn't think you take any time off, let alone stop building to sleep at night

[beeman]

That Daytona looks familiar. Did I see you giving rides for charity in that Daytona at London a few years ago? When that roadster took out a tree?

[egchewy79]

That Daytona looks familiar. Did I see you giving rides for charity in that Daytona at London a few years ago? When that roadster took out a tree?

Beeman, that WAS the military themed 65 that was smoking it's tires during the charity rides...just before the tree went down.

[Erik W. Treves]

Yes Sir... that was me.... smoking the tires.... not hitting the tree

[Erik W. Treves]

good day today -- been working an hour a night this week to this point - a good 5 hours today trying to figure out why my DBW was dead - car started but no throttle at all..... setup is a remanufactured E38 ECU out of a 2008 GTO, ebay LS Harness and 2010 GM Throttle pedal - with a GM crate motor (throttle body) - was getting a "out of sync" code out of HP tuners.... drove me absolutely nuts.... burned Wayne's phone down - ended up buying 2 tunes and modifying one of them - then I found a thread that someone had the exact same issue - ended up needing to reverse 2 pins in the throttle harness ---- and VROOM!!!!!!!!! sounds nasty!!! gonna be a nice piece when it's done - makes all the right noises - the break between the F9 and the GTM was a little hard to figure out where I stopped - but I think we are back on track....so Day 28 (1 hour each day this week +today) is success- going away for a week - but go cart is soooo close... hopefully - still need to bleed the brakes and the clutch - but making progress on this Gen 1 - bringing it back to life and to a completed state, very cool - crushes me that that this car was never gonna be finished....

[Erik W. Treves]

Worked on the car an hour or so each day this week and hammered hard today - looks like rain tomorrow and I really wanted to at least drive it.... still needs an alignment - but it is officially on the road to recovery from not being finished.

[GoDadGo]

Nice Seat You Have There Sir Erik!

.........Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!

[Erik W. Treves]

well looks like I might have hit my first official snag in the build - was wrapping up the systems yesterday and started on the interior. One of the last things was to finalize the controls around shifter and plug in the and verify that at least the AC controls work.....CRAP... well the Vintage Air Blower isn't working... the controls lit up initially but the blower motor isn't moving any air..... after a little but of messing around I was able to get the blower working .... and all sorts of junk came out of the unit and all the hoses.... like a mouse had built up shop in the unit.... so right now it blows heat but the doors inside are not moving....I am guessing I need to take all the hoses off and take a good look inside of the unit... I am not looking forward to having to remove and replace the unit - this blows....lol

[Erik W. Treves]

Got up this morning and started pulling pieces off (not the right direction!) I was able to remove enough aluminum to get to the Vintage Air and take a good look inside. Here is the second load I pulled out:



So I decided I should take a really good look at the unit since I think it has been in the car since 2009.... I took all the door resolvers off and lubed all the doors to make sure they were free and easy to move... I then checked the voltage from the controller - it seemed ok - I biggest thing that stuck out was that the driver voltage from the ECU to the resolvers for defrost and vents was steady at 12 volts and didn't drive the doors - the only one that seemed to work was the MODE resolver for AC or Heat.... so I plugged the other 2 resolvers into the one working slot and confirmed that they do in fact work and they can open and close the doors..... so I think the ECU is all done.... pretty frustrating but at least I found it now!

So I basically walked around the car for an hour being pissed off...... finally decided to do something else since there was no fixing it now..... although I really didn't have too much left I had planned on closing everything up....crap...

anyway figured I would go ahead and start carpeting and insulation... also got my push button keyless setup wired in as well as the USB charger ports... still not what I wanted to work on today but it was gonna have to be done at some point anyway...



Firewall and rear glass in - Seatbelts in ... but in the theme of today the passenger side is damaged and will need to be replaced......




Driver's side foot box all done - that was a PIA - couldn't do the pass cause the frickin AC unit needs work...rrrrrr




Here is the shifter plate and push button start (the red button is the fuel pump on/off cut off - still need to find a home for it.)

[beeman]

Those mice are a pain. Had one climb up the exhaust manifold on an ls6 that was sitting in my shop for 6 months. I pulled off the manifold prior to installing it, and found granola and strips of fiberglass cloth sitting on a couple of the exhaust valves. Pulled the plugs and got out the bore scope, luckily nothing got into the cylinders...I'll be better about blocking access to tunnels in the future.

20210424_175719.jpg

20210424_175516.jpg

[egchewy79]

Those mice are a pain. Had one climb up the exhaust manifold on an ls6 that was sitting in my shop for 6 months. I pulled off the manifold prior to installing it, and found granola and strips of fiberglass cloth sitting on a couple of the exhaust valves. Pulled the plugs and got out the bore scope, luckily nothing got into the cylinders...I'll be better about blocking access to tunnels in the future.

20210424_175719.jpg

20210424_175516.jpg

Beeman,
with all the animals you guys own, you're telling me you don't have a barn cat?

[beeman]

Beeman,
with all the animals you guys own, you're telling me you don't have a barn cat?

Ha! Good point. No cats in the shop. Or in the house for that matter. A few years ago a stray cat snuck in the shop when I had the overhead door open for a few hours. It was probably 3-4 days before I was out there again. There were paw prints over every single square foot of horizontal surface in the shop. The only thing he found to eat was a tanned coyote hide that was on a shelf, chewed it up and ruined it. The only liquid he found to drink was motor oil in a drain pan. So the whole shop smelled like motor-oil-cat-sh!t. I live trapped him, kids said let him loose, I figured he learned his lesson and wasn't coming back.

[Erik W. Treves]

Pretty productive weekend... started a little rough with getting the tires mounted and then trying to get the rims on the car... the wheels wouldn't fit over the hubs! not sure how that happened - i honestly just threw the rims on to make sure the bolt pattern was good but didn't bolt them up.... anyway about 3.5 hours later they are now on! - Finished up the driver's side cockpit, addressed 2 leaks that showed up after the go-cart (coolant leak at degas tank and transmission fluid from drain plug)... glad I found both of these now! Finished up the alignment (car rolls so much easier now). Powered the reverse switch so we will have backup lights, extended OBD2 cable, ran oil pressure sensor for the AIM gauge. Finished up the Air Intake Tubes and put the air filter on - while it looks like there are 2 tubes - the right tube is fake and plugged. I also installed USB and USB-C port as well as redundant ignition switch (in case the push button switch fails); Ran a 0-gauge ground wire from the battery to the starter. Also installed the hood release cables, Painted all 4 brake disk hubs (so they wont rust anymore).....

Still waiting on the last part (hopefully) to fix the AC - I got the new ECU for the VA, which fixed the blend doors; but then the fan speed controller died.....

Interior pieces are still be recovered -

that's about it - it seems like I have about 452 small 5 minute jobs to finish up - but it's these details that will make it so much nicer and so much easier to do now! THe painter sent me pictures of the nose and now I can't wait!

[wallace18]

Looking Good!

[Erik W. Treves]

Pretty good weekend - had to crank it up a bit after being at the car show all day yesterday - lots of wiring going on today - had to swap out to a larger battery as well... all in all got a lot of the hard stuff done today so this week I can deal with the simple stuff -

[Erik W. Treves]

Well - we actually have paint!!! should have it back on the Chassis next week!

in the booth....





nicer outside!

[FFinisher]

I love a nice clan spray booth.

[Erik W. Treves]

Lol... it works for him - every car I have had has been painted there - minus my Mark1 and 818 - and in this case it "will" buff out - but I get it....

[Erik W. Treves]

I would like to say the body install went smooth - but I think we are finally getting back on track - all back home and ready for the final details and fitment... this is what will make the car... the paint is really "in your face blue" and I think the black really works well....

[wallace18]

Looking great!

[Erik W. Treves]

Still managed to get out to the garage for a few hours today - I think I figured out the hood not quite being centered - I can at least keep my OCD at peace now Looks so much better now!! I then had to address the "modified cable shift" that was on this car - the lateral cable was using the spot where the exhaust went... so I had to come up with something else... also the gate was so narrow that I was not happy with the geometry of what I was handed.... so, break out the old welder and then moved the pick-up point slightly inboard - also SOOO much better... Threw on the taillights - having lights installed just makes it look like a car I will wire them up tomorrow (hopefully) - but I really need to clean the garage - what a mess!! all the Christmas stuff and trash is all over - and my wife has started a new "hobby" - furniture restoration - so there are some pretty big pieces in these.... course I have no room to say anything ....lol..... so I will live with the mess for a minute or two longer....

the rear hatch is all down for good as well - and the latch all works - I like the way I finished the rear of the GEN 1 Hatch - definitely makes the rear of the car look better - I have to give credit to the other forum on the solution

seems like it is coming along now!

[frankeeski]

Adapt and overcome. Good job my friend!

And good luck with that OCD thing................ I've yet to find a happy place with mine.

[Erik W. Treves]

Moved into the interior today - center console is all done - missing defrost vents to be done this the dash - I really like the blue thread trim and custom dash wrap - THe double DIN has both front and rear cameras...

[wallace18]

Blue thread is a nice touch!

[michael everson]

Did you ever figure out the A/C problem? If no call Vintage. I had a similar problem and there is a reset procedure for the control and computer. Fixed all my issues.
Mike

[Erik W. Treves]

Happy Holidays Mike!

I did actually figure it out - I called Vintage Air - Really Great Customer support by the way - The ECU was bad - so they sent me another one - had an issue with that one and they walked me through some more troubleshooting - I actually had 2 problems - 1. bad ECU and the controller was shorting against the bezel... once we addressed both of those - works like a champ!

[Erik W. Treves]

DAY 45 - been at it pretty heavy over the last week - got the wiper rod and mount installed, covered the halo cover and A-pillar covers - came out pretty clean.... I didn't do my normal New Years Day drive - but I did install the dash and powered the whole car and did one last function check on everything - all switches and AC - just don't want to get the windshield in and doors and have to work around all of that.... not much to show as far as exterior pictures - we are all about the small details right now to give the car the little "extra" fit and finish... overall I think it will present pretty well....still some details to get done (speakers {tweeters in the dash}, mount the hood release, and will probably hang the passenger side door tomorrow). I also ordered a steering wheel which I think will finish off the interior presentation - there are some GTM's out there that have some really NICE interiors - but this is the best I could do since I am not an "interior" fabricator.... hopefully this meets the mark...

[wallace18]

Looking Good!

[Erik W. Treves]

Day 46 - put the door off long enough - definitely not the part of the build that I was looking forward to and it didn't disappoint ... got the door hung and it wouldn't close - hit the seat and the dash - it hit the dash because I had to modify the door to get the door glass to work - never went back and checked the dash.... seat was too far forward.... so had to backtrack a little - I didn't want to mess with the window frame (although I think I will need to in the end after I try and install the door card) - I cut about an inch out of the end of the dash and folded the vinyl back... looks good for an in car modification - the blue stitching is off a bit now but you couldn't see it really well before since it was on the end and under the A-Pillar. Door gaps and everything else look great and door opens and closes well! on to the driver's side....Joy.

[crash]

Just for clarification, I see that when you picked this car up it had the body and doors mounted on the frame. Are you saying that you did not finish fit the doors until after paint? Or are you just saying that now that the interior is in place there are some interferences with those added components?

[Erik W. Treves]

When I picked up the car - the doors were NOT mounted and body was loose on the frame. I fit the doors prior to paint - and they fit fine. I am saying now that the dash is in - the right door metal frame is hitting the dash. I had to do the "standard" door frame mod to get the window track to work correctly - I must have moved the bar out too far toward the "inside" so it was crashing with the dash - which wasn't installed when I prefit the doors and windows....

on post #68 - here is the subject door completely pre-fit to include window