This is going to be fun for you, It's cool that you got a 6 speed car. Watch for water in the fuel, the drain pocket doesnt really drain sometimes and water could have passed the fuel cap. I guess that's how water got in my tank, mine had been sitting for something like 2 years when I bought it. 104K is NOTHING on the powertrains in these cars, just on cosmetics. The deep overdrives result in almost no engine wear.

If it fires and runs ok for a couple minutes and then starts misfiring really bad--check the tank.

 

Raise the door to the gas fill, you will see a small grommet and hole below the fuel cap. Run a piece of weed wacker line down there, or put an air hose on it and blow it out. This is a common issue and it's good maintenance to do it every so often.

 

Should be picking it up today. My Dad arrives this afternoon so we will go pick up the car together. I was told George ran it out of fuel before parking but who really knows.

I'm planning on getting it up on jackstands and hitting the major things,

Shop vac the spiders, power wash the car, vacuum out throttle body etc..

Fuel filter, all fluids front to rear.

Remove wheels check out the brakes, suspension.

New Battery, assess electronics

Pull a fuse to the fuel pump, crank till I get oil pressure and start the beast up. See just how bad the existing clutch is and probably pull the trans and install.

After that its hit any random issues, detail the car inside and out, steam clean the interior, tint it, install a clear bra if the front end is clean enough and shop for some tires.

I work as a mfg rep for a window film company so we will probably do something special with the tint. Maybe a new ceramic based film we are testing out.

Updates soon!

 

Wow, best of luck and keep us posted (as you have). We're just as excited as you are and look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

Sounds like this will be alot of fun for you and your dad. When tinting the rear glass, make sure to cut around the hatch strut mounts on the glass as opposed to removing the mounts and tinting under them. They actually twist every time the glass is lifted and will ruin the tint.

 

Lol you know whats up! I used to hate doing these cars when I had my shop! They just don't look right w/o clean tint though! I am pumped for some before/after pics!

 

Just updated my location, if anyone is around here just let me know if you ever wanna come by and see this thing!

 

Update*

Got her home last night, rinsed off all the spideys and crap this morning.

We decided to get her buttoned up and running to establish what is going on.

The alternator, power steering pump and ac compressor went on, serp belt and then we attempted to start her. No fuel, the fuel pump died during her hibernation I guess. Threw one in and got the car running....

She sounds like a friggen tractor. Misfire for sure, maybe a header leak. Sounds about right though, everything that enters my shop comes in running like shiat. Also noticed a coolant leak from down by the radiator once running. So the plan is to now pull her into the garage under her own minimal power and really start looking hard at everything.

Interestingly enough, we put her in 6th gear tried to take off no clutch slippage at all. So we are starting to wonder on why exactly do we have a new in the box clutch in the back of the car. We also noticed a thermostat and a distributor and plugs.

So... time to assess the coolant leak, the gnarly misfire and tinker away. Looks like a rear main seal is going bad though so that gives the clutch some merit.

Well there you go guys, chapter one in the "saving a C4" begins. She cleaned up nice on the exterior at least!

Here is a "Joe Dirt" shot of my father hitting the fuel filter.

 

Reminds me of an 84 Camaro Berlinetta that I "saved" out of someone's yard a few years ago. They swore to me that I'd need to tow it away, that it was parked because it wouldn't run. I removed 8 years of sitting in the same spot's worth of acorns and mouse goodies from the intake, and it fired right up...

 

I did that with a '96 Mustang. They parked it because it wouldn't run and NO BODY could figure it out. I had it running in 10 minutes and drove it away. .....some people.

Good luck with the "restore".

 

Keep us posted on the progress.

 

Good stuff! You are heading on the right direction.

Have fun!!

 

This is an awesome story. Good luck and congrats. When you get it done you should take it and let the previous owner see it.

 

Does it sound like its running on 4 cyl instead of 8?
My 92 did that - took me months to get the courage up to try and fix
Wound up being one of the Injector fuses!

Good luck

 

Hmmm.... All the fuses in that block were gnarly looking. We cleaned them up but this might need some extra attention. That was the first spot we hit when we weren't getting any action to the fuel pump.

 

May get lucky and find the clutch slave had some air in it (or was seeping)causing the PO to think the clutch was bad. Should be nice though once up and runnning right the interior sure looks good that counts for something they arent cheap to make good and yours already is. Nice color, too.

 

The saga continues....

Coolant leak looks to be a drain plug on the radiator that was loose. Sweet! That is handled.

Decided to pull the plugs and check compression. The plugs looked TERRIBLE.

So we will check compression, and keep y'all posted. Still no clue on the exhaust leak, sounds like its coming from the exhaust manifold.

Family BBQ today so I'll be limited to my work on it today

 

I need a strong drink!


Luckily, the little piece that broke was next to the valve spring so all random pieces of metal are accounted for. No wonder it sounded like a tractor.

So we have the tools en route to fix this. We will not need to pull the head so that is fortunate. If that was going to be my car at this point I'd yank the motor. Dad seems content with fixing this valve and moving forward. Feeling a little butthurt that I mighta paid a bit too much on the car now but its a simple repair and truthfully the fact I've been wrenching on a project all weekend with my Dad is worth more than and money I could save.

 

Lots of C4 people in So. cal. PLRX is having another cur run in November that would be local for you. Im in on the car run. Thay should give you time to get your car dialed in

Mike

 

Enjoying the posts!

Might be tempted to take a drive down and nose around If not definitely do a car run. I've missed out so far this year and they still haven't re-opened my Highway 2 so I've not really driven it this summer.

Oh check your plug leads, or just get rid anyway. I had a misfire problem that came down to the leads, and it wasn't visible from the outside. The new dizzy (opti) is a nice thing to have! They're not cheap.