Project Achieva

[!!!TED!!!]

Its been nearly 5000 Kilometers since the repair (yeah, fun June!).

She gets 23/24MPG city like clockwork, and Iv got her to 28.5MPG mixed!

But....

Theres a new problem brewing.

As of last week, it looks like transmission fluid is dripping out!!! .

[Intrepidation]

Well if it makes you feel better, the Shadow has leaked trans fluid as long as I can remember.

[!!!TED!!!]

Well if it makes you feel better, the Shadow has leaked trans fluid as long as I can remember.

And the trans is fine? Do you just add more?

[Intrepidation]

And the trans is fine? Do you just add more?

Yep, just keep an eye on the fluid.

[!!!TED!!!]

Is it leaking from the pan or the bellhousing?

Im not sure. She is due for an oil change, so when its on the lift will be the best time to investigate.

Im gonna take some pics today underneath.

Im not %100 sure if it is trans fluid, but its pinkish so seems most likely.

LOL

Ongoing saga!

[!!!TED!!!]

It looks like the leak is at the very front of the motor.

Passengers side link is lose

[Intrepidation]

Well Ted, at least your fluids are staying in their own compartments

[!!!TED!!!]

While on vacation in Stayner Ontario, I visited a scrap yard, and got myself some nicer radio knobs, buttons and cigarette lighter from a 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier sedan.

Before and after:

A little classier, nicer tactile feel, and better visibility at night!

[ocnblu]

I am not even going to mention anything about polished knobs in this post. But yeah, they do make a difference. Did you know you can get billet aluminum HVAC knobs that will likely fit your control unit?

[Intrepidation]

Those do look much nicer Ted, which reminds me, I need to get a hold of some GMC Acadia knobs.

[!!!TED!!!]

Those do look much nicer Ted, which reminds me, I need to get a hold of some GMC Acadia knobs.

????

[!!!TED!!!]

I am not even going to mention anything about polished knobs in this post. But yeah, they do make a difference. Did you know you can get billet aluminum HVAC knobs that will likely fit your control unit?

Ima hit some local scrap yards this week and see what else I can scrounge up.

I want to get some kick plates, and spray paint them silver (saving my originals).

In preparation for this, the other day I replaced all the screws holding the kick plates down. Most were completely rusted and badly degraded.

Would you happen to know the correct size of screw (cause I kinda winged it and got simular screws at WalMart). I would like to replace the screws holding down the plastic panel around the inside (where the door meets the car). They are skinnier and longer (yeah, whata setup!).

Im not that handy, but Im learning.

Update about that leak: it seems to have stopped mysteriously. New cardboard last 2 days, and its dry. WTF?

[Intrepidation]

????

Maybe it was' the Acadia, I or maybe it was just the stereo knob. I can't remember. Basically you hollow out one of GM;s chrome ring knobs, then sand down the LH knobs and fit them in, securing them with epoxy. It was a really cool mod. I have to look for it again.

[!!!TED!!!]

Project Achieva update:

The leak, whatever it was, has stopped. I had an oil channge done, and the bottom of the transmission is clean, no signs of leakage.

All the oil was accounted for also.

I was up in Stayner Ontario again, and went back to the scrap yard for some more pickins'.

It seems that I forgot the "front/rear/right/left" knobs (that go under the main radio knobs) the first time around. Luckily, the poor Cavalier was still there, so I got them.

Also got the kick plates and rear ashtray from a 1996 Buick Skylark.

The ashtray replaces the black one I have now (already installed, and looks great), while the kickplates will be painted chrome :AH-HA_wink: (to be done tonight).

I also got the HVAC knobs, but they don't really work in the pre-96 dash. May play with them in the 95 Lumina.

The Oldsmobile script is from a G-body Cutlass coupe front bumper.

The Olds rocket emblems are from the rear clip of a late 70's full size Olds (forgot what exactly). They are now installed on my front inside door panels (ala 60's Oldsmobiles). It also had some amazing interior trim, but was infested with bees! I woulda braved it, but I decided it was too nice to pilage (and risk getting stung).

The RAM badge will make a nice keychain for a friend with a '97 Ram short cab/long bed .

Pre-clean-up pic:

I mainly want to add some brightwork to the Achieva interior. Something Oldsmobiles in the past always had.

The buttons/lighter and ashtray make a big difference, and I hope the kickplates come out looking ok.

Being a purist, I am keeping all the stock bits. Everything I am doing can be reversed.

[Intrepidation]

I know what you mean about wanting to add brightwork. Adding the chrome handles, switches, gauges and shifter really brighten up the cabin in my car.

What are you using to paint the kickplates? Last time I used chrome paint it was nothing more than silver, and wasn't durable at all.

[!!!TED!!!]

What are you using to paint the kickplates? Last time I used chrome paint it was nothing more than silver, and wasn't durable at all.

I don't have it infront of me, but its a tall can of spray paint, that is appearantly chrome colored.

It was $9 at WalMart.

If it doesn't work, I can always get more kickplates and experiment.

I wonder if I could use it to paint the engine cover?

[Intrepidation]

I don't have it infront of me, but its a tall can of spray paint, that is appearantly chrome colored.

It was $9 at WalMart.

If it doesn't work, I can always get more kickplates and experiment.

I wonder if I could use it to paint the engine cover?

You need to use high-heat primer, paint, and clear coat for that. I got away with using regular silver for the lettering, but it's just a small portion and I covered the whole thing with 3 coats of high heat clear.

[!!!TED!!!]

You need to use high-heat primer, paint, and clear coat for that. I got away with using regular silver for the lettering, but it's just a small portion and I covered the whole thing with 3 coats of high heat clear.

Yeah, I figured as much. Its actually very clean. I bet i could just polish it up actually.

[!!!TED!!!]

The radio is now more inline with the Achievas fancier predecessor, the Calais:

Complete radio knobs...classy:

Door emblems:

New rear ashtray:

Spray painting the kickplates (it went pretty well, and looks alright. Shiny!):

Now, gotta wait for it to dry and see how it looks on the car!

[Intrepidation]

Looks good, the radio knobs are much more classy. The "chrome paint" looks more like bright silver...but not bad. I would put several coats of clear on it to protect the stuff from rubbing off, which silver/chrome paint has a habit of doing.

[!!!TED!!!]

One coat, and test fit. Looks pretty blingy...

Quick video:

Pics:

[Intrepidation]

Hey not bad! Came out better than I though. Did you add some clear to protect the paint from coming off?

I'm actually pretty impressed with that chrome spray paint. They don't look chrome per say, but they do look like polished metal...which is nice.

[!!!TED!!!]

It doesnt really translate in pictures, but they look very shiny in person. At night, they are very visible under the courtesy lights. I didn't clear coat them. Im thinking of giving them a second coat of "chrome". First time Iv done something like this, so I dunno?

[Intrepidation]

Well I only suggest clearcoat because it will help protect the paint from coming off since that area will see foot traffic, and chrome paint has a habit of coming off.

[Delta Force79]

I've used the exact same chrome paint before on my '79 olds, clearcoat it....it WILL wear off unless you do.

[!!!TED!!!]

Project Achieva Updates:

The "chrome" kickplates are holding up OK. The drivers side (ie most used) did scratch a little. I didn't do a second coat, and no clear coat.

August 20, 2009:

1997 Pontiac Grand Am GT sun visors installed. My old ones had sagging straps. New visors have extendable sunshades too!

before:

after:

old (top), new (bottom):

August 21, 2009:

Blue 1969 Ontario licence plates. Look cool at car shows!

August 23, 2009:

The Achievas car show debut! 1st annual North York Chevrolet All GM show.

September 29, 2009:

188,888.8 KM!

October 7, 2009:

RIMZ!!!!!! 2000 Cavalier Z24 16"ers! Will get cleaned up and put on the car within the next 2 weeks!

its gonna look awesome!

October 8, 2009:

#1 Achieva on CarDomain!

And the latest is that the AC compressor is crapping out.

Much more adventures ahead!

PS, heres something for dodgefan...

[vonVeezelsnider]

Hope you get Olds center caps for those Cav wheels.

[!!!TED!!!]

Hope you get Olds center caps for those Cav wheels.

Thats gonna be a problem, as they are 2" centers, and as far as I know, there are no OEM Olds caps that size.

Plan B is custom stickers. Don't worry, Im all about the details!

First order of business is to sort out the AC compressor noise/any other possible issue.

I hope the end results are as follows:

*photochop

[fightingbee]

A tacky suggestion perhaps, but if anything else could you buy four of the Achieva hood badges and apply them over the bowties on the wheels?

[!!!TED!!!]

A tacky suggestion perhaps, but if anything else could you buy four of the Achieva hood badges and apply them over the bowties on the wheels?

Tried that already. I have a spare badge, and its too big.

[BigPontiac]

What about the centers from the late 80s Olds Ciera International Series?

Or these: Link

Edited October 16, 2009 by BigPontiac

[!!!TED!!!]

Time for a big update...since its been...2 years!?!

Where did we leave off...um...late '09 right?

The Achieva had a rocking 2010 season, travelling to many many car shows!

The Z24 wheels where installed in March...

It turned a lot of heads!

In August, the heater core blew up! I had it by-passed.

Around September, the transmission failed completely....and the project was once again shelved.

I had an estimate of $1600 to install a new tranny!

After debating for months, I bit the bullet and saved the car!!!

On December 11, the Achieva once again roared back to life...

...And was promptly put to severe winter driving!!! (WITH NO HEAT...remember...by-passed heater core! d'oh!)

To be continued in 2011..................

Edited March 26, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[!!!TED!!!]

Achieva in 2011:

The year started out hopefull.

I was attending classes for Automotive Engines....a course supplied by GM with 3100 V6's to dismantle (perfect!)

In February, she was put back on the stock wheels, as the tires for the Z24's had gotten really bad...

March 15 2011:

At the end of March, I bought another set of Z24 wheels in mint condition, with near new tires!

On the car they went...good to go for the car show season!

March 31, 2011:

The Achieva ran flawless...and everything was peachy once again!

April 7, 2011:

April 17, 2011:

To be continued.....

[!!!TED!!!]

It was a beautiful, sunny spring day on May 7, 2011.

I had detailed the car, and went for a 100km drive on my favorite roads!

I drove back to the city with a big smile on my face!

Before I got home, I decided to stop at the bank.

As tried to start the car again, it wouldn't crank!!!

After failing to boost it, and having it towed to a local shop..it was found that the starter had gone bad.

A new starter was installed...and she started....but to my horror.....puttered, and died again. Some piston rings had come loose on the #3 cylinder, causing the engine to fail!!!! &^$&*($&^$&^

What to do...what to do?!?!?

Project Achieva was ONCE AGAIN put on hold.

May 29, 2011:

I had an estimate of $2200 to drop a new engine in!

It was very painful, but the decision was made to get another car.

Car searching commenced....

[!!!TED!!!]

Some interesting candidates where found..........

1992 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight. Original old lady owner with all paperwork. 60,872 Kilometers!!!

June 26, 2011

[!!!TED!!!]

1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera SL International Series. Owned since new by a little old lady. 44,576 Kilometers!

June 28, 2011

[!!!TED!!!]

And then I snapped out of it.

Wait a second....I want an F-body! I'm not an old granny..why am I looking at old granny cars!!!???

The search turned to SPORTS CARS of the Camaro/Firebird persuation!

Now, If you know me (from the boards or otherwise, you know I'v long been a huge Camaro fan).

As fate would have it....things turned out quite different...

I looked at a few Camaro's, and even

....had dibs on this glorious Trans Am:

[!!!TED!!!]

After my Birthday on July 3, 2011, my uncle asked me if I wanted to see a car he found.

We traveled 1 hour outside of the city, and I was greeted with this gem:

A 1996 Pontiac Firebird. One family owned. 3800 V6 producing 200HP. 47,320 Kilometers. Cloth interior, automatic, power everything. Runs and drives like brand new, with working A/C!

After hagling on the price, and hammering out the paperwork, I drove her home July 6th!

I had now become an F-body owner!!!!

Not a crooked hood, but plastic black edge liner...which was later removed...

The dealer badge was also later removed by me....The tramp stamp...is still there

Edited March 27, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[!!!TED!!!]

My new car had its official debut at an All-GM Show on June 11, 2011:

My friends cars, back to front: Mike/black G8, Eric/red '99 Z28, Billy red '02 Z28, me

To be continued.......

Edited March 27, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[SAmadei]

Welcome to the cult of the Poncho.

Shame to hear you gave up on the Achieva, after you took so much care of it. I feel you could have swapped in another engine for considerably less than $2200.

That said, the Firebird is more in the styling of your !!!TED!!! logo. Good luck with it.

[bobo]

Nice Firebird. That was a pretty nice selection of low mileage cars you were able to choose from. A certain former C&Ger would be impressed with that 98.

I had a smile that you still had the tape on the hood of your Achieva. Too bad the paint was coming up with it.

[!!!TED!!!]

Welcome to the cult of the Poncho.

Shame to hear you gave up on the Achieva, after you took so much care of it. I feel you could have swapped in another engine for considerably less than $2200.

That said, the Firebird is more in the styling of your !!!TED!!! logo. Good luck with it.

I didn't give up! I wanted to fix her (once again), but everyone was against me (family: STOP THE MADNESS TED, friends: let her die a graceful death)!!! I found a mechanic who was going to install a complete low milage engine and tranny for $1800 all in. It was to happen the week I found the Firebird!

Nice Firebird. That was a pretty nice selection of low mileage cars you were able to choose from. A certain former C&Ger would be impressed with that 98.

I had a smile that you still had the tape on the hood of your Achieva. Too bad the paint was coming up with it.

The stripes stayed BECAUSE of the peeling issue. I never attempted to remove them! Mr. 98 would have been proud indeed lol!

[!!!TED!!!]

The saga continues.....

So now, I had a new car.

The poor Achieva sat dead for a while. Having spent $1600 on a new transmission, and more recently $300 on perfect wheels and near new tires....I needed to recoup the money. More importantly to me, I wanted the car to go to someone who could keep it going, and not scrap her!

August 10, 2011:

A few people came by, but mainly tire kickers, and scrappers.

Then, I got a serious buyer, but he was only willing to give me $250. I really needed my parking spot back at this point, so I said screw it.....lets get it over with...

Before the buyer came, I took the wheels off the car, and put the stocks back on....

August 29, 2011:

I also discovered considerable frame damage due to excessive rust!

The car was sold that afternoon.

Here is the final video of her leaving my garage.

After I shut the camera off...I cried (man tears..come on...you would too!)

Edited March 27, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[!!!TED!!!]

But wait!!!!

There's more!!

A buyer by the name of Joe contacted me about the wheels/tires. He claimed to be my biggest fan!

Apparently, he had been following my "project" on YouTube, and was the owner of a 1998 blue Achieva! He wanted to make his look like mine (stripes and all!).

When he came down, he showed me his cell phone, which had my car as the backround!

He let me take a spin in his car around the block lol!!!

He was happy to pay $300 for the wheels, and revealed he is friends with my Camaro/Firebird clubs president! (WOW small world!)

We where having a big fall show soon, and he said he would come by with the wheels on his car to show me!

Aaaaand......so he did.......

So...a little piece of my car lives on....and the spirit lives on!

Joe says he will have black stripes (professionaly done vinyl!) on the hood for this car show season!

I can't wait to see it!

I told him that I wish he had come by earlier. I would have given him my car as a parts car! That was the kind of person I was looking for!

Edited March 27, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[!!!TED!!!]

So ends Project Achieva, June 2, 2008 - August 29, 2011.

Some might say I wasted a lot of money on a lowly clunker.

To me, she was worth every penny. A rare, cool GM car, that is becoming very scarce nowadays.

From dirty, unloved day one:

To rocket action....

You never forget your first car!

Edited March 27, 2012 by !!!TED!!!

[GMTruckGuy74]

I figured something was up with the silver Firebird in your signature, and no Achieva in sight. I also wanted to wait for you to post the story on your own, and what a great story it was (though sad in some ways). As a former owner of a '95 Pontiac Trans Am with T-tops, I sure do admire your new car. I gotta say though - grandma-ish or not, that '92 Ninety-Eight would have been a nice car to own too (and our friend, 98 Rgency, would have definitely approved of that purchase).

I'm glad you found your way back to C&G... a lot of the old timers are gone or don't publicly show themselves. I know you'll treat your Firebird very well, seeing as how you took care of the Achieva all of these years. What are your plans, if any, for the Poncho?

[knightfan26917]

I'm glad you found your way back to C&G...

Same here, Ted. VERY good to see these new posts from you. When I saw this topic pop up in the "unread" files, I thought, wait, what?

Cort | 38.m.IL | pigValve + paceMaker + cowValve | 5 MCs + 1 Caprice Classic

CHD.MCs.CC + RoadTrips.hobbies.RadioShows.us66 = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

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"This can't be the end" __ Bertie Higgins __ 'Key Largo'

[LosAngeles]

Hey there, Ted. Just read the whole thread, couldn't wait to drop some suggestions, but since you replaced it with the Firebird, they all still apply:

-That Achieva could've used a 3800 swap and a turbo (you should see the YouTubes of the W-bodies and swaps into other platforms). But the turbo still applies to this and all 3800 cars (including 98s and Cieras)!

-Definitely could stand to be stanced FTW!

-And for the love of Jeezus, stop driving your pride and joy in that awful Ontario salt! Let the frame of the Achieva be a lesson to you.