I am trying to think of how to kick this Blog off............."Fueled Paradigm". Soooooo many things going through my head at this point,with all I want to cover, which photo scanner I should buy as I piece together!!?? All these thoughts, memories, perspectives and ramblings. I have been known to weave a good story verbally, and usually with some very off-color humor...........So why not give the inner blogger in me a chance?
My new friend KiKi over at http://www.ablithepalate.com/ was the one that encouraged me to take this leap of faith into the cyber world. She lives and breathes social media, and professionally we had started to go down a road in the business world with our respective careers. Over many lengthily discussions we got onto the subject of her food passion and how her blog has allowed her to share something she loves and engage with others with the same interests...........
The gears starting turning!!
I put the "wheels" in motion and thought to myself about the passion I have for automobiles and transportation in general and how that could translate to the cyber world. People are always asking me for car advice. In a previous career capacity, I worked for the Midwest's largest dealership group in the Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Scion manufacturers "Import Super Store"..............This was years ago and even today people are asking me competitive comparisons across the different models, brands, and usually how to navigate the "lease vs. buy" continuum of questions. Many times I thought about going into business as a "vehicle inspection service" for people that were unsure of the used vehicle they were buying, or even where the numbers should fall on a transaction..............Even today I get constant calls. My career is significantly different now..........Still in the sales world, but now for a well respected advertising agency..........
You can take the garage out of the boy, but not the boy...............You know.
So, here I am!! Going to share with all my journey, opinions, and soul deep passion for most things with an engine. I have decided to start sharing with you my most recent project:
The 1987 Chevrolet Sprint Turbo
The love affair with this car started somewhere around the time I was 14. My cousin Samantha had gotten one new as an early high school graduation present and when I saw it for the first time (as a car that was a few days "new") its red paint and pint size body made you want to look at it. The bright white decals saying "Turbo Sprint" jumped off the side of the car to let you know that this was no measly attempt.
Even as a teen I could see that the car was very unique in that it ran an inter cooled turbocharged 1.0 liter Suzuki engineered 3 cylinder power plant which made the Turbo Sprint the smallest and most fuel-efficient model in the Chevy lineup and yet, one of the quickest at a 0-60 time of 10.5 seconds.
Unfortunately, as with many of these cars that suffered the same fate, my cousin and her subsequent siblings to her (and many friends along the way) managed to run the car in the ground with little maintenance and rare cleaning. I can remember one time helping them change the oil in it and we had to clean the sludge out of the oil cap passage so we could dump the new oil in..............The change intervals were probably every 15,000 or so, if lucky. As the story went the car was traded in for a camper of sorts when the kids were done with it. After that one left my immediate viewing, it was many years till I saw another. These cars are rare, and the handful that survived is most likely very few.
So, now that I am older and have some "play" money at times, I had a mission to find one of these cars and bring it back to Wisconsin. My only criteria was that it had to be a ZERO rust car, and very mint condition would have been nice, but I was open to one that needed restoration.
The hunt was on..................I feared finding a car like this:
With much diligence, I was able to locate one in the greater Los Angeles area. The Craig's List classified said that the car was complete, 100% solid, and in need of a full restoration. Oh yeah, and it did not run at all either. Many extra parts to go with it. Sounded interesting!!! We started corresponding regarding the car, and the pictures that came were from a camera phone and very low quality at best. I could see however that yes, it was complete, filthy, "beach rat faded" red in color, and somewhat looking to be abandoned in a way..............a lonely way. Anyway, the gentleman indicated that it was headed to the crusher in a week if he was unable to sell it because he was loosing his space (in the ghetto I think). Anyway, $350.00 he said, with a NOS turbo head, new clutch in the box, as well as boxed brakes, extra engine items from a parts car, and the assurance that he would secure the car once the cash was received and prepare it for shipping.
I got the cash rounded up and overnighted it to him, and then got my tried and true car shipping guru Goldie at http://www.reliable-carriers.com/ to make arrangement to pick up the car in L.A..........She is the best and true knowledge base of how to get it done. I have brokered MANY cars in the past, and she handles most of my cross country (usually enclosed due to vehicle $$).
I thought to myself about the prize that awaited me and how I looked forward to having a project to dive into once it arrived. My workshop has a hoist in it, so with my mechanical aptitude, tools, and sheer will I was determined to get it back up and running, restored and road bound!!! I can do most but paint and body work..............That I leave to my neighbor and body man Dan, down the road. He does great work and is very fair. He also knows I am picky.
Two days later the 1987 Chevy Sprint Turbo arrives:
Rough it is............He did not lie!! But, it is solid!! ZERO rust and the CarFax reads that is has never been out of California, and was last on the road in 2004. My work was cut out for me!! But, good "bones" I guess you could say. The vehicle had all the evidence of being thoroughly cooked over many years. I was glad to see that the A/C system had not been tampered with and this car had the RARE cruise control.
Within an hour or so of its arrival the bigger question stood of "Why does it not run"? The man I bought it from said he was not mechanically inclined and that the engine had oil in the pan (which was true)MMMMMM. Well, I hooked up the battery in the car and all the lights go on, so it has power, and the horn works too. Therefore it should at least turn over right? NOOOOO.........It makes this horrible straining sound as if it was actually dimming the lights in the neighborhood trying to get it to at least turn over...........Nothing. Plenty of juice, and the starter sounds like it is engaged, but nothing!!
So, up on the hoist it goes for the underneath inspection and very quickly I realize that the piston is blow out the front of the motor next to the oil filter. That's why...........If not looking at the right angle, it is blocked by the Turbo and subsequent exhaust elements. The engine is tiny to say the least too. So, now the true assessment happens as to what direction to go..............I have an NOS head and all I need is a good lower end.
Being in Wisconsin, many older established salvage yards hang onto older merchandise......Maybe it is our conservative nature of the Midwest to hang onto things because you "just never know when you might need something". So, with this in mind, the search was on for something local in the salvage yard in the Turbo Sprint form. Low and behold, this old timer had one in his yard that "arrived running many, many years ago, but had the tranny out of it." I had to go and see for myself. The yard was about 30 minutes away and once there realized that this Turbo Sprint that was almost rusted in half, still had a good engine in it. I bought the car right there and had it craned onto a flat bed that afternoon and delivered to my workshop before dinner.
The Junker:
Okay, so it seems like I have all the ingredients..............With the help of an aggravating fight a day or two later with my father, I had the engine out of the donor car pretty quickly (a focus helps to turn the temperature down on boiling blood). Things are easy to remove when you are cutting the car apart!!! Once the engine was out I removed the head and saw that the lower end was in great condition, and actually was the product of a car that appeared to have routine maintenance
The "Turbo Sprint only" block (due to the detonation sensor, different pistons, and turbo oil outlet) I took to Tim at my local machine shop for a good boiling, boring, the installation of Suzuki Vitara pistons (very close to Turbo which are no longer available), along with seals, bearings, etc. Tim then used the NOS head provided, assembled it all, and then finished off the timing belt, gaskets, etc.
One step closer to the road!!
Next was to get the old engine out of the car, which was nothing short of a mess with grease, oil, and grime. GUNK is such a great thing!!! Do some soaking with it and bring out the pressure gun..........This stuff is great!!
Once the engine was staring at me on the workshop floor, and the transmission was separated, I thought it would be nice to see what I could find for a low mileage transmission for the car. Considering that is was high mileage, has some rattly sound in it with the car rolled, and was pissing grease out of the seals................I yet again went for the needle in the haystack search because it is a Turbo spec trans. There is a resource out there for a nation wide salvage vehicle search called http://www.car-part.com/ , and I was able to find a Chevy Sprint Turbo entire power train assembly (engine and trans)(500 miles only!!!), that was removed from a car in 1988 that was rear ended and salvaged out at that time. The guy said I was the first person to call on it in 20 years, and that he was tired of looking at it. He had 500 mile front hubs, radiator, engine and trans, along with the ECU. The rest of the car was long gone..........I bought the stuff CHEAP and had the items boxed and shipped to me. The great thing is that this car got the 500 mile trans installed on this project, but even better now I have a 500 mile engine as a spare.
Above: The final Assembly of the new power train.
With the addition of some MOBIL ONE Full Synthetic motor oil, a newly found and purchased NOS Turbo, NOS distributor, and a wing and a prayer, I turned the key to see if it would turn over...........It FIRED!!! On the first attempt it started and purred as if I just pulled of the HWY. In the shadows of the night I took it down the country road that surround me and it never missed a beat (mind you without a muffler). I thought I better not push my luck since it was not licensed, no tail lights.............need I say more.
After a few weeks of tweaking the drive train, I took roughly 2 weeks to refurbish the interior with new dye for plastics, seat steam cleanings at the local car porter, the addition of a Canadian 1990 Turbo Sprint MK2 steering wheel, and some great quality carpet.
The rehabbed interior:
Next it was time to comb the pig's hair, and get a new paint job!! Dan from the body shop worked on this over our harsh winter we had for the 2007-2008 season. The car was completely stripped, windows removed, trim, fenders, hood, etc.
The Paint Process:
The Result:
I had installed some larger wheels and soon realized they were a bit too big with the rears rubbing a little. So, the originals where cleaned, new tires and then the Sprint Turbo factory white colored wheel covers were resprayed. I also found a guy online still making the original NOS style decals that caught my eye back in 1987 as a kid. I have a list of people that want to buy it from me right now, and the car I can see has gone up in value some degree due to the fuel crunch!!!!!!
So........The Unveiling:
Did I mention that I think I opened a can of worms? Well I happened to come across a few more Chevy Sprint Turbo's, and well.............lets say I have a few more things to blog about as well as many more things NON Sprint. We all have to have a niche right?
Hopefully I will get this blog up and running and make it a fun place for many to visit.
Posts
