Sept 15, 06
This is my 1991 HB. Got it for $600 from a guy in newmarket. It’s not running (busted exaust cam), but the body and frame rails were in good shape. This is my first 240. I’m probably older than most of the guys here, 30. I’ve actually done the whole Trans AM with the 350cid, drag racing thing when I was 17. I then moved on to an awd turbo isuzu impulse when I was 20. It was a fun car buy very expensive on insurance and repairs, especially since at the time I was working at pizza Hut. Anyways, it’s 10 years, a wife and a kid later and I finally now have a good job (Rogers cableguy) and the shop to do the work in. So I figured it was time to get a project car. I really liked the 240 for a long time, I was actually going to trade my impulse for one 10yrs ago, so I went with that.
I like the RWD cars, FWD is for grandma’s car and minivans.
Oct 9, 06
Started tearing into it today. My goals in this project are
Get the KADE running.
Do the body work and paint myself, I’m keeping it the same midnight blue
Keep the car clean looking, modest sideskirts, lip and back bumper
Lower the stance
get some new rims and tires.
Clean up the interior
Down the road
possible SR swap
not sure what else yet
Budget $6000 over 2 or 3 years (that’s all I could get appoved for from the wife )
This is where the work will be done, I put in the doors just for this project
These are the tools to get the job done right. (I have found princess auto is my new favorite store)
Air compressor $100 from my uncle
Mig Welder $280 from Hock Shop
This is why it’s not running
Took out some of the interior today. The car’s original interior color was blue, but the guy that had it before me painted it black. I’m going to try repainting it black with dupli-color vinyl and fabric paint, as i have found it’s impossible to strip it down to original surface and still have it look good.
Took off the sideskirts and rear valence, found that the back bumper has been melted under the valence so i’ll need a new one of those. The only bad part of the car are the rear quarters, the rockers were good under the skirts.
Also started painting some interior parts but that’s it for today
Got the cam cover off today, discovered that there is more wrong than just the cam is busted (surprise, surprise). There was a chunk of the cover ripped off by the cam and I suspect more metal chunks down in the lower timing chain. Oh well, good thing i’m not in a hurry to get this thing on the road.
Also started painting some more interior pieces, took off the door panel and discovered the previous owner forgot to take out some sweet pioneer 4x6 speakers.
Also, took out all the seats to paint the carpet with fabric paint, it turned out pretty good, from the pics it looks spotty but it really isn’t. That stuff works better than I was expecting. The key is to make sure you don’t cake it on.
just some quick advice on ur interior…if ur like me and like everything to be clean and close to mint, then i would just invest in getting a black interior. They can be had for around $100 and looks hela alot cleaner and original…
also ur better off to find some LE door panels and glove box, they are the best. Suede for the win over tweed
thanks for the advice about the door panels, i probably will eventually switch it to a black interior. I just want to get it looking respectable right now. my 2 priorities are body work and getting the engine running
after that’s done i’ll concentrate on totally redoing the whole interior. I wouldn’t have bothered with it but it’s driving me nuts looking at a 2 tone interior
Use black bumpercoating to paint many of your interior prices black like the dash, doorpanels, center console, rear sidepanels etc etc. Just scuff the panel very well with 320 fine grit paper and use gas antifreeze to wipe it down. This opens up the pores and allows the paint to soak into the panel more like a dye rather than a coating. Its verrry resistable to chipping and will last years. I actually took apart my nokia 6680($400) and painted it and theres not one scratch that shows the original colour. I couldnt scratch threw the paint with my own fingernail.
Took out the rear stock speakers cause they blow. The front ones were good pioneer ones so I had some 6 1/2 alpines that I had laying around so I modded the bracket so I could fit them. I had to keep an air space on the bottom side so the speaker cone could move freely. I also continued gutting and painting the interior today. I need to find a set up black seatbelts front and back now.
I got mine out of the supershopper, it’s more of a simcoe county mag though and there’s no pictures. I see 240’s in there fairly often, some weeks there 2 or 3, other weeks there are none. There’s a guy in innisfil who’s been trying to sell a sr20 motor forever. Not sure if it’s still in there.
hope your plaining on taking the head offf , what if the cam stopped spinning when it broke and a valve wass at fulll open making contact with the piston , unno something to think about
Got the rest of the interior painted and reinstalled. It turned out pretty good and the special plastic and fabric paint seems to be pretty scratch resistant. I even painted the seats black, mostly because when the last owner painted some of the interior parts he got black paint all over the bottoms of the seats. The seats look grey from the flash but are actually a charcoal black. The back one looks really good, but the front ones are pretty worn so I might just get some nice seat covers till I can find seats I want to use as replacements. I also replaced all the seatbelts and buckles with black ones I got from the wrecker for $20
After I got the interior done, I started in on the hatch which I knew was going to be a pain in the ass cause the guy who fixed it last used way to much bondo and it cracked. He welded metal under it but then still bondo’d the crap out of it. I think I may have to cut out the metal he put in because the edge is too sharp. I think i might try and butt weld a patch in instead. Tommorow i’m going to go get some 80grit disc’s for my DA sander and sand all the bondo out and see what i’m left with.
Congrats…give the dash and door panels a month before it starts chipping/flaking and you have yourself a bigger project removing all that crap and doing it the way i stated in the 1st place.
What you should have done like i said in the 1st place is scuffed with a fine 320grit then wiped it down with gasoline antifreeze to open the pores and then sprayed with black bumpercoating which wont chip after cured no matter how hard u try with your nails. This is a dying method not a layer of paint over your peices. I had a hard time scuffing down this mustang's beige interior that my dad did almost 15 years ago. The cars back again as its been passed down to another kid and this new kid begged us to redo his interior all black again because we do the best upholstery in mississauga.
The black bumpercoating also dries to a matt black...glossy looks cheese and cheap. Looks good tho...surprised you didnt take my advice in the 1st place..you'll see what i mean in a month.
Wow way to be a shitcock. Even if it does chip in a month, he’s already said he’s replacing it with a black interior eventually, and you could step down off your fucking throne to tell us the “proper” way of doing it, instead of belting it down from on high in a condescending manner. But to prevent from being just a “flamer” or “troll” I have to say, your car does look sweet, and that sounds like a good method of re-doing the interior.
That aside…
Looks sweet man. I wish I would have had the option to build my car back up like that, instead of just kind of rushing it to get it on the road. (I needed a car pronto)… It’s cool too, to see someone who was in the muscle scene come over to the imports. Can’t wait to see it done.
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