What Did You Do to Your A-Body Today?

[lemons bob]

I think the fuel system likes to wait until its full to mess up. Wouldn't want to make dropping the tank easy.

[mechanizeddeath]

I think the fuel system likes to wait until its full to mess up. Wouldn't want to make dropping the tank easy.

Ugh, that reminds me of when my Subaru died with a full tank of gas, less 40-50 miles. I wasn't letting that go to waste! I ended up using the fuel pump to move it all into the Olds, but what a pain...

[Century7667]

Yea too bad I'll never see it once it's installed It has a nice quality feel to it and fit perfectly, so far never been disappointed with felpro stuff.

In the meantime, some light reading material came in...



Compare to the older books I had:



Keep in mind that the FSM covers one year only, others cover all years and all divisions... I always buy these factory manuals for my cars now, they are priceless for engine control stuff and wiring. Only paid $10 for it off ebay (and $40 for shipping it to europe...)

Here's volume one of the '95 "A Platform" FSM:

[a1veedubber]

I only get to work on my Celebrity on Sundays, but I did manage to finally get my tank out today. I said F-it and cut the lines, I figure I will just run new ones although I HATE it! I did spend quite a bit of time inspecting the underside of my car looking for rust and ETC that needs repairs. I did not find any structural rust at all, but I did notice that where my floorpan meets my inner rockers (right above the pinch weld) the metal does have some surface rust on it in some areas. Since the car is out of commission for some time I am thinking about rehabbing the entire undercarriage now before any of that stuff actually becomes bad!

[SCREECH]

I don't think I've posted in this thread at all yet (or if I did it was quite some time ago). The following wasn't done "today" per se, but recently. How's that?

As far as factory service manuals go, they are definitely by far the MOST valuable resource when it comes to vehicular information. I usually buy the manual(s) for every vehicle I purchase, even if it's just a parts vehicle - this is especially so for ones that I'm planning on yanking the drivetrain to install into something else, as the wiring diagrams alone are usually worth the purchase price! As a result, I've collected a small number of manuals over the last few years. I just recently put a new bookshelf in my garage. I initially thought the shelf would be much larger than what I needed, but on the contrary:



The top two shelves are already full and are my most used manuals, including my A-body and U-van manuals:



More recently, I went to see my '76 Cutlass and my '89 International coupe at the storage facility I've got them at. The guy that runs the place failed to tell me up until the past week that the temperature swing in the springtime produces a high degree of humidity in the building, and that the cars were getting mold in them. :S So now I'm working to get the cars back home, out of storage, and this is what I will have to look forward to cleaning up:

[Century7667]

That '94 manual is very fat! I guess it's good they split it into volumes for '95.

Ken T.

[mechanizeddeath]

That is one heck of an impressive library! I have a few Subaru manuals, but they're all the unofficial ones, and not very good. I know those manuals sometimes miss the mark, but in the case of the Subaru version it is so vague I swear they just looked at the general area and imagined how it might be put together and thus come apart. Worthless.

Sorry to see the mold. That happened to my Legacy GT just before I sold it, and it is a pain but it does clean up easily, and I saw no surface damage. I live in the woods and nature is constantly trying to "take back" everything, including parked cars. The mold was the worst in the trunk, I had a couple of the interior panels stored in there, and the last time I opened it a small twig got in between the lid and the rubber seal. Because it was on an incline, this allowed small amounts of water to drip into the trunk, and by the time the car was ready for sale, the entire spare tire was submerged and all the trunk stored panels had heavy layers of mold. There even appeared to be a sort of lichen growing on the trunk carpet.

[mechanizeddeath]

Haven't done much with my A-body lately besides loan it to family since I don't start work until next week. Everyone keeps needing my car since theirs is in the shop for some problem or another, and my phone is ringing nonstop with "can you pick me up, I'm stranded?" and "can I borrow your car for work?" I don't know what they're going to do when I start working.

I swear, between my parents two cars they've spent $5000 keeping them on the road over the past 16 months, and I've spent probably $50 on the Ciera. I know at 15 years old that eventually some big repair is on the horizon and I'm not immune, but it just baffles me that something can cost that much. I can do some basic repairs, but they usually won't let me take a crack at it, preferring to pay a "professional" instead.

[Century7667]

Haven't done much with my A-body lately besides loan it to family since I don't start work until next week. Everyone keeps needing my car since theirs is in the shop for some problem or another, and my phone is ringing nonstop with "can you pick me up, I'm stranded?" and "can I borrow your car for work?" I don't know what they're going to do when I start working.

I swear, between my parents two cars they've spent $5000 keeping them on the road over the past 16 months, and I've spent probably $50 on the Ciera. I know at 15 years old that eventually some big repair is on the horizon and I'm not immune, but it just baffles me that something can cost that much. I can do some basic repairs, but they usually won't let me take a crack at it, preferring to pay a "professional" instead.

Take care of your Ciera; it'll take care of you. I've owned a few cars in my day, these a-body cars reward you for caring for them.

Ken T.

[SCREECH]

That is one heck of an impressive library! I have a few Subaru manuals, but they're all the unofficial ones, and not very good...Worthless.

Thanks! The official factory manuals are indeed invaluable when it comes to specifics, be it in procedures to remove or install something, or wiring diagrams. The Haynes manuals (my favourite non-factory manual) has to cover so many years and models that you have so many diagrams to look through to make sure you're looking at the right one for what you're working on, and even then you don't get all the detailed info such as where the various connectors are, pinouts, wire color and gauge (sometimes) - things that make it very easy to find the circuit/wire you're looking for. And when it comes to very specific systems, the factory manual is the ONLY resource. For example, when I did the supercharged 3800 in my '92 van, that big gray Park Avenue wiring diagram manual (the wide one sitting on top of the other manuals on the second shelf) allowed me to wire in the VATS system and two-stage power steering. I'm pretty sure you won't find THOSE systems in the Haynes manuals.

Sorry to see the mold. That happened to my Legacy GT just before I sold it...The mold was the worst in the trunk, I had a couple of the interior panels stored in there

Thankfully the trunk seems to have been largely unaffected. I have a whole crapload of stuff stored in there, and it all looked ok. I'll post pics once I get the car home and cleaned up. Hopefully it will clean up as well as you experienced. I'll have to borrow my brother's steamcleaner for the fabric inlays in the seats. My '76 Cutlass was WAY worse than this, however.

[SCREECH]

Ok, so this was Friday, but I swapped out the headliner in my '88 Ciera Brougham with the board from the '88 Celebrity coupe I just recently scrapped. The Celeb's headliner board remarkably shows no sign of fabric separation as of yet, in spite of a few spots where it got wet thanks to a leaking windshield. All in all the operation was completed inside of an hour, in spite of my picture taking and attention to detail. I am super happy to no longer have my passengers complaining about having to slouch in the back seat! I just took the car on a 3hr round trip to Rockton, ONT for over two hours of the best figure-8 and (mini van) demo derby action I've ever seen! As for the board swap, I have indeed answered the question "can the headliner board of an A-body sedan be removed without damaging it?" And the answer is a resounding YES! In fact, you can even install a replacement without any trouble if you're careful or have a helper on the other side to help guide it in! Here's a smattering of the 57 pics I shot:

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Just removed from passenger door:


Gray one replaced the blue one for now - I will attempt to reattach the material to the blue one's board.


I would love to do a brief write-up on the procedure as I experienced it, but I definitely won't have time until winter anyway. For now, enjoy the pics, and ask any questions you'd like!

[Century7667]

Screech,

That's what I was wondering. Exactly *how* did you get it out? Front door passenger side?

Thanks,
Ken T.

[SCREECH]

Exactly. Once it's freed from the roof, push it all the way to the back of the passenger compartment so it'll clear the rear view mirror. Then drop it down on the front and bring it forward. Tilting the right side up will allow it to clear the steering wheel and allow you to rotate it toward the door, bringing the front right corner out first. You can then continue tilting it as you turn the top towards the front passenger door, ultimately ending up with the left side sitting on the front floor, the back edge facing the driver door and the front edge on its way out the passenger door. The board will slide down between the steering wheel and the seat so it will just slide out the side with little effort. I took more pics, but I'm in the middle of nowhere posting from my BB, so they'll have to wait for now, sorry.

[Century7667]

Thanks Screech! I clipped your post and saved it. I've got to do one for my '95.

Ken T.

[DarkFox]

I cleaned my interior, probably the first time it's ever been shampooed.

My weatherstripping failed during all this non-stop rain, got it replaced ASAP but it was too late, water everywhere.
My car smelled like a dirty wet dog.

Rug-doctor to the rescue!

Pre shampooing



Hot chocolate anyone?



Ugh, it was like sludge



Didn't get all the stains out, but at least it doesn't smell like wet dog anymore







Also got my trunk all sorted out, after telling myself to do it for a few months.