My 1997 Camaro: Top Swap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nos4blood70]

Woot! Progress.

[haro1225]

I have speakers you can just have for it, they are halfway decent but I have nothing to put them in. Also you know you want to put 9011/9012's in there.

[MattStrike]

If only you could still get the good 9011/9012 I might be tempted.

But I'm not feeling like tearing apart the door trim and quarter trim just to change out a few speakers just yet. My truck project has been derailed long enough as it is.

[dadofone2011]

This weekend I fixed the exhaust leak, converted the headlamps to use the 9005/9006 bulbs and put new springs on the adjusters so they hold the adjustment. Also installed a radio only to find the speakers are so crappy it's just as bad as not having a radio. I came across a good deal on a set of salad shooters too.

"SALAD SHOOTERS"?

[MattStrike]

Salad shooters:

[BBamm]

This weekend I fixed the exhaust leak, converted the headlamps to use the 9005/9006 bulbs and put new springs on the adjusters so they hold the adjustment. Also installed a radio only to find the speakers are so crappy it's just as bad as not having a radio. I came across a good deal on a set of salad shooters too.

Did you buy those wheels yet? A friend of mine just totaled his Firehawk and has two sets of rims for sale if you're interested. He's got a set of 02 Firehawk 17's with new tires on them and a set of 08 Hertz Corvette wheels (18's front 19's rear), but they need rear tires... I don't know prices yet but if you're interested in can get you in touch with him...

[MattStrike]

Yeah, I picked those up already.

[BBamm]

ok, cool

[MattStrike]

Managed to get a keyless entry fob, programmed it and everything works good. Now I don't have to crawl through the passenger seat to unlock the other door, which had the lock cylinder changed and not re-keyed.

[MattStrike]

Long time ago update! I saw I was nominated for TOCOTM so I thought I could share the progress I've made.

The keyless entry stopped working, not sure why, but I can't get the BCM into the reprogram mode and no activity from any of the fob buttons. No bad fuses. So that is irritating because once again I have to go through the passenger door to unlock the drivers door.

I managed to finally fix the tragedy that was my shifter:


And today I swapped out the drab, nastly, shady-used-car-lot smelling, noisy interior with something a little more, well, I'll let the pictures do the talking (also shout out to Ryan for not having power and coming out to help!):






I'm very happy with the new threads inside! The interior is from a '98. I think the color really goes well with the green. Still have some fixing up to do to the pillar trims, and the headliner needs some massive surgery and a proper color matched headliner material. I also took the time while everything was out to fix the speakers, and add the two additional rear speakers (the donor had a Monsoon system I think), so I finally have a decent sounding radio. I also need to find a different set of floor mats.

And finally managed to get it waxed, but not in time to get any daylight pictures.









And the best part of all this is, if you look close, you might see that the last of the redneck-ery is gone from the rear. Yes, finally, those two bowtie stickers are gone!

[nos4blood70]

Sweet! The interior does look great with the green.

[CMNTMXR57]

You know what she needs Matt, a set of 17" SS wheels. Those 16's are "meh". I had the plasti-chrome versions on mine and couldn't wait to get rid of them.

[MattStrike]

Starting to fix the already once repaired headliner board today. Learned that fiberglass resin starts to set up after about 5 minutes, so lost half a batch because nowhere did the container say it starts to set in 5 minutes...
The headliner board is broken in the middle, looks like it had broken once before, and that material that's covering it looks like seat cloth and is not flexible enough to have been used for the headliner.


Grabbed some daylight shots of the car:













I think I tracked down the issue with the keyless entry. I ended up pulling out the BCM and reflowing bunch of solder joints, I didn't see any that plainly looked cracked or anything. So not sure how that fixed the issue, but I'm not complaining.

As far as wheels go, I was thinking of either black/dark gunmetal or a dark bronze. I heart these customized salad shooters, but think bronze might go better with green:

[haro1225]

That looks pretty good in the daylight considering it was polished half in the dark.

[CMNTMXR57]

Not much of a fan of the salad shooters, although those in black, on the white car look good.

Glad the BCM is all sorted out.

[MattStrike]

I picked up a vacuum pump for A/C this weekend so I could get the A/C working on the Camaro.

The system was bone dry, looks like the condenser had been replaced and the system never recharged. So I hooked up the vac pump, pulled vacuum on it and let it hold for about 25 minutes, everything was still sealed up.

So I proceeded to start to fill it, using R152a, the vac pulled about 8 oz in before I started up the car and turned the A/C to the max. It took another 4 oz. Low side reading was 32psi and the high side 190psi. The pipe was appropriately cold and sweating, and the air coming out of the vents was colder than the ambient air. It was 95 degrees out with 60% humidity. But it wasn't getting ice cold like it's supposed to.

It was just too hot out to really troubleshoot any further. I know I should check that the blend door is functioning properly. But beyond that not sure what could be causing it to not work well. Without a thermometer I'd say it's maybe a 10 degree difference from ambient. Airflow seems normal. But even this morning on my drive it was only able to keep the car slightly cooler than outside.

[PRD2BDF]

What about sawblade wheels. Those would look interesting.

[MattStrike]

It looks like there is a small chance that there is a leak in the system. Values today did not match where they were when I filled it yesterday. I'll check again tomorrow, if it's dropped again I'll have to use the dye to find the leak.

**

So last night I managed to get the air to blow cold, I ended up with a high side pressure around 205 psi to get the coldest air out of the vents.(85 degrees out at 30% humidity). That seems a little high to me, but not going to sweat it until I know if there is any leakage going on. I'm thinking that something was up causing the high side pressure reading to be inflated when I filled it the first time, maybe the low side had some liquid refrigerant in it still. But the blend door was working correctly. And as of this morning it still had cold air.

Does anybody know if I can access the evaporator core through the blower motor housing? I want to check for leaves/pine needles or any other obstructions just to be sure I have all the bases covered.

[MattStrike]

I think I found what was once a cat or two inside my blower motor. I ended up replacing the cage with one from a '93 Astro, it's about 1/2" deeper and the vanes are a bit more aggressive. It's metal instead of plastic as well. Airflow is so much better now. So there has been some positive progess!! But the A/C has a leak. Going to have to invest in a dye injector kit. But I think I see evidence of the compressor shaft leaking (there's a dark line on the oil filter bracket exactly in line with the a/c compressor pulley now).

Good thing that the 152a is only $3 a can or so.

[Hotwheels]

Car looks great, I dig the color combo - always have liked that shade of green and the tan interior looks great with it. I'm liking the OEM wheels best...sorry....always have liked them better and think they make it look more up to date.