So, here it is

So here it is, my 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix. It's an eBay buy. 58,000 miles on the clock. Previous owner bought it from an estate sale. Apparently the old woman parked it seven years ago when she couldn't drive anymore. Sitting stillin Columbus, Ohio, isn't really good for a car. The previous owner was a car guy, and replaced a bunch of crap. The thing has fresh front brakes, all new hard brake lines, new rear brakes and drums, and it had a decent set of 15x7" American Racing wheels.

The rest, however, is a little off. The doors are shot. The steel ends at the chrome strip along the bottom. The suspension bushings are shot, and there's a little rot in a few places I've found, along with plenty of surface rust.

When I got it home and started driving it, it ran like crap. No power at all. I soon found the secondaries on the carb were rusted shut. I pulled it and attempted a rebuild. The top and base were worthless, so I swapped them with another Quadrajet I had laying around. It helped, but wasn't the greatest. I gave in and slapped a 500CFM Edelbrock four barrel onto it to get me by. I also had to rig up a switch to lock the torque convertor, since without a TPS signal from the carb, the computer won't lock it.

Next to come were new shocks. The original dampers were still on the car. It handled like a big fat ass. All waving and bouncing around. New $13 apiece cheapy shocks from O'Reilly's and a rear swaybar from a junked Monte Carlo SS helped a ton.

Chronic overheating was fixed with a new radiator, though I think the water pump is going to need replacement soon. I had the A/C converted to R134a by the Local Roppel's (on Dixie, good guys, go there), and got the non-functional A/C controls fixed by cleaning the vacuum switch in the dash as well as plugging a gigantic vacuum leak under the hood.

Future plans for this thing? I'm going to build a monster. You see, I also have a 1970 Datsun 240Z. I have spent the last three years getting it restored from sitting in a barn. I have determined that for what I've spent to get that Datsun up from 111 horsepower to a stout 175, I can get this Pontiac well over 500. It will also have A/C and a radio, which the Z will probably never have while I own it. I know what parts to get to deal with the suspension, and building a 500hp small block is cake these days. You can do it for $4000 using a junkyard core 350 and a mini-blower.

No, the hard part is going to be doing the rust repair, body work, and paint, all while trying to drive the thing to work each day. Stay tuned for more...