Annual Summer Cabin Trip!

07/29/11 – 07/31/11

We were invited to my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nette’s cabin again this year.  I think this is the third year we have been up there, and we always look forward to it!  This year we again had an awesome time!  The weather was perfect, the food was plentiful and very tasty, and the kids had a blast!  We all enjoyed the pontoon rides which allowed us to chat, enjoy some snacks and cocktails, and go swimming!  Will is old enough now that he can play in the water and enjoy himself.  He loved splashing and throwing rocks!  Typical boy!  The Sea-Doo was again a big hit with Maeve, and this year we even got Shannon to drive it!  I was very proud!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was great spending the perfect weekend with family!  I would like to again thank my Uncle Bruce, Aunt Lynette, and cousin Jordan for having us up again!  We all had a blast and great memories were made!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Reassemble Back Seat Area)…

Mileage: 88,493

 

Finally.  I am putting large pieces of this car back together!  The reassembly is obviously in reverse order of disassembly, so the back seat area goes back in first.  This consisted of both the Interior Lower Rear Quarter Trim, both Interior Sail Panel, both Coat Hooks, the Rear Headliner Trim Piece, and all three parts of the seat!

 

I neglected to take pictures of the seat installed, but I can assure you, they look awesome next to all of the freshly dyed interior pieces.  Having all the hardware bagged and tagged from when I took the car apart, really helped the installation process come together.

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Vent Work)…

Mileage: 88,493

 

It seems weird all the parts that had to come off this car just to replace the carpet.  A perfect example is all the under dash heating and air conditioning duct work.  I had to take all of the lower duct work out just to remove the driver’s side kick panel!  There wasn’t enough room to get the parking brake assembly moved with them installed.  The nice thing about removing all these vents, is that it gave me a change to clean them (they all had 30+ years of dust and dirt in them), it gave me a change to replace all the worn and deteriorated foam gasket strips, and it allowed me to install them properly (it appears the factory missed some of the intended mounting hole locations!). 

I didn’t do a real good job of taking photograph of this process, but if you have any questions, contact me!

Maeve’s 4th Birthday!!!

It is really hard to believe that Maeve is turning four already.  I have no idea where the time has gone.  For her birthday this year, we decided to do an outdoor/water fun type party.  We basically got a bunch of sprinklers, kiddy pools, and water toys and invited some of her friends over to play.  The party was a blast, the food was good (BBQ), and everyone had a great time.  I don’t have many pictures of the actual party, but I have couple before party pictures and then some of Maeve opening her presents later in the day after the party was over!  I will now let the pictures do the talking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, Maeve LOVED her party.  She has been having a great time playing with all of her new “Tinker” toys and has got really good at riding her big girl bike already!  Thank you very much to all of our friends and family that helped make this party possible!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Driver’s Side Kick Panel Install)…

Mileage: 88,493

 

Now that I had the correct carpet and it was installed, I could FINALLY start putting parts back on the car!  The first part was the driver’s side kick panel.  This part has a calk type material that seals the kick panel to the sheet metal behind it to prevent leaks from the vent opening hole (which was used in earlier model Firebird, but not mine, hence the kick panel).  I first had to scrape and strip all this old calk material off, clean the surface with carb cleaner, and wipe it down with 409 (a great degreaser!).

The product I decided to use to replace the original calk material is call “Thumb Gum Putty.”  It is a material used by HVAC technicians to seal the hole around the air conditioning lines run into your house.  You can pretty much mold it to the shape you want it and it stays sticky.  It is water proof and can deal with extreme temperatures very well.  I tried to find a website or link to post about this product but couldn’t find one.  I would imagine you would be able to get this product, or something like it, at any HVAC supply company.  I have heard that “big box” home improvement stores do not carry it.   I am lucky enough that my brother Michael works in the HVAC industry and supplied me with what I needed!  I simply rolled the material out and lined the opening with it.  Simple!

After I got the Thumb Gum installed, I carefully fitted the newly dyed kick panel into position and pressed it into the putty.  After installed the kick panel screws, I reinstalled the parking brake assembly and nicely tucked the new carpet under the kick panel!

What a great feeling finally having some interior panels installed!  I think it looks great!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (New Carpet Delivered & Freshly Dyed Parts)…

Mileage: 88,493

 

The new, correct colored carpet arrived today.  The Cognac #9205 is a perfect match and as always the quality and construction of the carpet by ACC is amazing!  Since we were experiencing record heat in Minnesota, I put the new carpet in the driveway so it would “relax” from the form it took when it was shipped.

While the carpet was outside I took a couple minutes to install the custom carpet pad I made HERE.  It looked great and only required minor trimming to fit!  After the carpet “relaxed” in the sun for an hour or so, I placed it into the car so it would start to take the form of the car.  You have no idea how good that carpet looked sitting in the car.  It really made me happy that I didn’t have to look at the floor and the carpet pad any longer!

I didn’t have a lot of time to start with the reassembly, but I had a chance to get a couple pictures of all the parts that I had been dyeing and getting ready to be reinstalled.

 

I was super excited to have the new carpet and be so close to getting my car back together.  I really miss driving it and can’t wait to see how everything looks when it finally comes together!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Reupholstering the Front Seats)…

Mileage: 88,493

 

The front seats in the Trans Am were not in bad shape, they didn’t have any rips, tears, or stains, but they were worn out and looked like they had 31 years of use!  Since I was going to the trouble of getting the interior freshened up, I didn’t want the worn seats to take away from it, so I opted to reupholster them while I had them removed from the car.  In the below “before” pictures, the driver’s seat is on the top row, the passenger seat is on the bottom row.

 

 

In the three years I have been driving my car, I have noticed the driver’s seat bottom foam was sagging a little bit, so along with the seat covers, I got new seat foam for the driver’s seat.  I purchased the front seat covers from Classic Industries for  $305.14 and the driver’s side deluxe seat foam from Performance Years for $129.00.  I also purchased a pair of hog ring pliers and hog rings to help with the installation.  I had never done any kind of upholstery work before, but like always, I did some research and referred to 78ta.com.  This video HERE and HERE also helped out!  I made sure to take a bunch of pictures so I had reference material on how everything went back together.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t realize until I went to write this post, I didn’t do a very good job of photo documenting all the steps of reupholstering the seats.  I will try and fill in some of the blanks and hit the highlights:

- The seat bushings mentioned HERE which cause the seats to “lean” were bad on my seats also.  I used a nylon spacer that I found at Home Depot in the hardware section to replace it.

- Reupholstering both seats took two days.  I did the passenger seat all by myself, the driver’s seat (cover and foam) my Dad helped with.  Having two people make this process much easier!

- The original foam “flap” mentioned HERE was removed from the original foam and fitted to the new foam and seat frame.

- When I removed the driver’s seat, I noticed I got lucky enough to find ANOTHER build sheet for my car stuck between the lower seat frame and the foam.  This build sheet was in poor condition, but still neat.  I removed it from the seat frame and flattened it out.  I will add it to the other three I have.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished passenger seat, but the last picture above is of the finished driver’s seat.  The material looks great, the new foam feels awesome, and adding the freshly dyed seat back panels complete with the chrome piping I bought from 78ta.com for $16.99, really set off the seats!