1987 pro-touring grand national, from the ground up
- Thread starter dsapper
- Start date
Welcome!
By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.
Yes I did. A vacuume setup
So, good news is that I think we can make a full 2.5" dual exhaust exit through the watts-link. The bad news is the down pipe I got is a p.o.s and isnt bent right on top of them forgetting to weld the flange up correct. So I think we will have to either rebend or cut and adjust the down pipe or make a custom test tube. To make it work easiest with the new crossmember and have the least restriction I think its going to end up being the down pipe going under the knife. Ill try and get pictures tonight
So, I finished my final interior render and thought I would share it with you. Amazing what you can do in a few hours of slacking at work. Its not professional quality but it gives a good idea.
This is the image I started with
This is the render
The only difference is I will have dual gagues on my A-pillar, boost and fuel pressure. The carbon fiber look is whats called di-noc, its a 3m carbon fiber vinyl that is very nice and used on some very high end cars.
Here is an example on a Bently
On the passenger side I mocked up a GM performance badge but I'm thinking of reusing the stock, the GM badge or a grand national badge, not sure yet.
The seats are black leather but they are actually GTO seats like these
I already have them and they are red but Ill be recovering them after mock up, not sure about embroidery, maybe a black grand national logo or gunmetal grey to be barely noticeable.
The door panels will stay stock with leather uppers matching the seats and insert in the rear, they will be black as well. I'm recarpeting the lower and keeping the concert sound pods on them.
This is the image I started with
This is the render
The only difference is I will have dual gagues on my A-pillar, boost and fuel pressure. The carbon fiber look is whats called di-noc, its a 3m carbon fiber vinyl that is very nice and used on some very high end cars.
Here is an example on a Bently
On the passenger side I mocked up a GM performance badge but I'm thinking of reusing the stock, the GM badge or a grand national badge, not sure yet.
The seats are black leather but they are actually GTO seats like these
I already have them and they are red but Ill be recovering them after mock up, not sure about embroidery, maybe a black grand national logo or gunmetal grey to be barely noticeable.
The door panels will stay stock with leather uppers matching the seats and insert in the rear, they will be black as well. I'm recarpeting the lower and keeping the concert sound pods on them.
hello; I don't think it's bashing if anyone tells there pros and cons about a product. How is a vendor going to improve. Of course there are bad days but it's a good thing to give opinions about aftermarket products good and bad.
Also I quickly went thru your posts and I see alot of red X and no pics. What's up with that?
IBBY
My hosting on uploadit.org is down, someone hacked their site and its been down ever since. I gave the owner of the forum my new hosting information and he said he would switch it all, so far though.......
Anyways the down pipes first issue was that the sleeve holding the bearing for the puck wasn't welded in and shifted during shipping. Took quite awhile to figure this out with phone calls back and forth between the turbo manufacturer and the down pipe maker both saying it couldn't be their part. Either way we figured it out and got the puck centered and the sleeve tack welded in. Honestly it was an easy fix but it was an hour to figure it out. And if it wouldn't have been at a shop with a welder it would have been a bigger issue.
Now that it is installed on the turbo the down pipe doesn't line up with the rest of the exhaust. With the test pipe on there is a 5-6" gap between where the exhaust ends and the downpipe ends. I know its the downpipe again because the crossmember has a notch for the exhaust to fit under and the cat back rests there with room on both sides while the downpipe is nowhere near it. 20 degrees more bend when they made it and it would have lined up fine. We also took the old down pipe and elbow just to see and it lines up perfectly. We are fixing it now but still another couple hours worth of work and a wasted exhaust coating down the drain.....
Also there was quite a bit of welding mess on the inside of the downpipe and some overlap on the flange and the tube. Enough to where we all thought it needed to be ground down to make it smooth again. Not a huge issue but it was easy to get to and a large enough restriction to where I wanted it gone and sloppy enough to be dissapointed with fit and finish after paying what I paid.
Like I said I've heard enough good things on this forum about the part that I bought it. Unless you've heard multiple accounts I would let it slide knowing everyone has a bad day now and again. On the positive side the tech support was great and nonstop. They would have been willing to exchange, ship a new puck etc. They went on and off the phone with me for an hour with me emailing pictures trying to figure out the problem and they were completely in the dark which leads me to believe that it was an isolated incident.
Anyways the down pipes first issue was that the sleeve holding the bearing for the puck wasn't welded in and shifted during shipping. Took quite awhile to figure this out with phone calls back and forth between the turbo manufacturer and the down pipe maker both saying it couldn't be their part. Either way we figured it out and got the puck centered and the sleeve tack welded in. Honestly it was an easy fix but it was an hour to figure it out. And if it wouldn't have been at a shop with a welder it would have been a bigger issue.
Now that it is installed on the turbo the down pipe doesn't line up with the rest of the exhaust. With the test pipe on there is a 5-6" gap between where the exhaust ends and the downpipe ends. I know its the downpipe again because the crossmember has a notch for the exhaust to fit under and the cat back rests there with room on both sides while the downpipe is nowhere near it. 20 degrees more bend when they made it and it would have lined up fine. We also took the old down pipe and elbow just to see and it lines up perfectly. We are fixing it now but still another couple hours worth of work and a wasted exhaust coating down the drain.....
Also there was quite a bit of welding mess on the inside of the downpipe and some overlap on the flange and the tube. Enough to where we all thought it needed to be ground down to make it smooth again. Not a huge issue but it was easy to get to and a large enough restriction to where I wanted it gone and sloppy enough to be dissapointed with fit and finish after paying what I paid.
Like I said I've heard enough good things on this forum about the part that I bought it. Unless you've heard multiple accounts I would let it slide knowing everyone has a bad day now and again. On the positive side the tech support was great and nonstop. They would have been willing to exchange, ship a new puck etc. They went on and off the phone with me for an hour with me emailing pictures trying to figure out the problem and they were completely in the dark which leads me to believe that it was an isolated incident.
Turbo Indian
worlds quickest 6cyl bird
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2003
- Messages
- 3,493
very nice build, but 1 question, you are spending that kind of coin on a car & yet you are using those welfare Autometer gauges? there are much better & more accurate gauge options on the market.
hello; Back to the DP one last time as it was the correct thing to do with the vendor. Now there eyes will be open and there QC has something to work on. I called about buying a DP from RJC but it's on BO and there going to call me when ready. I have there exhaust. It sucks you would think something like a DP would be right on and too bad you had it coated as it looked super. Maybe there's a lesson to test fit aftermarket products and then plate,coat or whatever. As a matter of fact I was talking to RJC about selling there DP already coated as most people are going to do it anyway.
We'll see.
your car is going to be a great for show and go
you must be tasting being behind the wheel of a car that's been thru all that. Keep posting!
IBBY
We'll see.
your car is going to be a great for show and go
you must be tasting being behind the wheel of a car that's been thru all that. Keep posting!
IBBY
You can load them directly to the site if you want so that none of the pics dissappear later also. I realized that if I put things on through photobucket they may end up missing so I started uploading directly so info wouldn't be missing if something happened later.
scot w.
GNSperformance.com
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2005
- Messages
- 8,810
Dave,
You might just need a longer test pipe! I had a customer here who ordered a downpipe from I think Southeast performance (no exactly sure) but the downpipe had the exact same problem where there was a large gap at the test pipe...I called the place and they said that we must have a problem with the exhaust and that it wasn't their parts... I had a Terry Houston test pipe sitting here and low and behold it fit Perfectly! The test pipe they included with the downpipe was way too short and since then I have Never delt with that company again...
Scot W.
allblackcars
War Eagle
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2009
- Messages
- 479
This is an older thread where Carbon Fiber was used on the interior
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/cars-sale/343933-87-gn-24-000-mi-show-car.html
I've had Autometer in every car I've ever done and have never had one fail and have seen no accuracy discrepancies. The dash panel came from a member that had it in his car and it is pre wired for the GN. I stated from the beginning I have a budget whatever anyone else may think. If money wasn't an object I would get the all in one setup in Dale Earnheart Jr's 70's camaro and might update to that a few years from now.
You can load them directly to the site if you want so that none of the pics dissappear later also. I realized that if I put things on through photobucket they may end up missing so I started uploading directly so info wouldn't be missing if something happened later.
Thats what I do now but there is no way to edit an old link and upload it. I started this thread before that was an option. As of last night it looks like the hosting site is back up
Thanks Scot but its also at the incorrect angle. If the test pipe is longer it would try and go through the crossmember
Thanks, I hadn't seen that before. Ill take a look!
You have to remember that the crossmember is intended for a V8 car with headers so you are going to run into some interference issues. As far as the downpipe not being up to standard - if I was the company in question and knowing the attention this build is getting I would be sending you a new one and PAYING to have my POS returned to me; along with issuing you an apology.
As far as the gauges go... who cares? You won't be able to read and process the information fast enough for their accuracy to matter. Your best bet is to tie in some pressure transducers into the oil and fuel system, plug them into a PowerLogger and call it a day. The best you get with gauges is that something went wrong, datalogging can at least show you trends leading up to potential failure.
