Thread: 2000 GTP: Still Alive! New Trans?

I like the fact that you are able to use the old style fuel rails over it, most upgrade rails as well when they do the swap, I didn't think it'd work.

Haven't done much since last weekend due to sunburn from the fishing\swimming trip, lol. I did work on it a bit today and yesterday though. I decided to go ahead and debadge it for now, also pulled the spoiler and spaced it away from the trunk lid so water can flow under it (instead of trapping it). I did quite a bit of the engine, but mostly little things. Finished rebuilding the injectors, then installed the S\C, the fuel rail (and injectors, duh), most of the wiring harness, and did some more cleaning underneath. All that left is the torque converter bolts, the starter, P\S pump, spark plugs, and then the TB (still need the adpater plate for that).


I'm still going to do the 12 inch brake upgrade before I get it back on the road though, these brakes are in BAD shape.
Pics:
Under side of Spoiler:

Trunk lid without spoiler, I cleaned it but have to do some touch up painting:

Rear debadged, I won't weed whack my car so the grass has gotten tall, lol:

Passenger side:

Engine where I left off:

Finally back at it, my wife has been pretty sick from pregnancy so I've been taking care of both my son and her. She's starting to feel better more of the time, so I have some time to get back to the car. I went to the JY today and picked up some brake upgrades. Originally I was going to just buy the caliper brackets off of a Deville, and buy the rotors\pads new (giving me the 12 inch brake upgrade). When I found the Deville at the JY the rotors and pads looked damn near brand new, other than the rust. I asked the guy that worked there how much he'd want for rotors and brackets, and he said $30. I went ahead and bought them so he gave me the pads for free. I normally wouldn't use used rotors and pads but these look so close to new I'll try it out.


I set up a hot tank to clean the rust off of the rotors using electrolysis, so we'll see how they turn out. I took a plastic drawer from on of the tool storage rubbermaid things, covered the bottom in some scrap nails I had, then took some old pushrods (from when my truck was flat tappet), clamped them to the out sides of the drawer (making sure that they made contact with the nails at the bottom), then connected all the push rods with some bail wire. Then I hung the rotor in the middle of it all from a prybar and some bolts, making sure it did NOT make contact with anything. Then submersed the rotor in a water\washing soda mix (1TBS:1GAL of water). Once I made sure nothing was making contact with anything I took an OLD battery charger I had laying around and connected the negative cable to the rotor and the positive cable to the nails\pushrods.


I used a similar process with great (although not very fast) results on my truck's heads, so we'll see how these turn out.


Pics:
Hot tank:

The rest of the brake parts, both rotors were in the same condition:

I'm sure I'll still need the rotors turned, but I'd like to clean them off as much as possible while I still can.
This was when I used this method on my heads, I think the rotors will work better. Less water, more metal to clean it, etc.

This was something like 13 hours later:

So far the results are better with this setup, roughly 8 hours of this, 10 minutes of wire brushing (with a hand brush, not drill) and it looks brand new! I don't think they even need to be turned! Not sure how long the second one will take, I think my sacrificial metal (nails and push rods) are about spent. The first rotor ran about 5 amps and the second one is running around 2 so it'll take a bit longer. I'm in no hurry though. Pics:
Rotor Chili anyone?

No difference:

that's awesome.

Damn I kick myself for not thinking of this. I'll need to do this on my control arms and other things that are annoying to clean. Hmm wonder if this would work on Aluminum if I throw some aluminum ingots in there. (To de-corrode F-body brakes and H-body knuckles)

Nice... Keep at it!
: )

I have yet to try aluminum, but I hear it works, but you have to keep a CLOSE eye on it. The electrolysis will erode the aluminum once it is clean. This means it cleans much faster, and if you leave it in there after it's clean, the aluminum will start to erode. Once my rotors are done I see if I have some scrap aluminum laying around to try it out on.

This is so cool. With all the equipment no need for taking them to a shop for the tanking.

Awesome job

Thanks guys, a metal container is best, but I made do. The sacrificial metal (the nails\push rods, or a metal container if I had one) sucks the rust\dirt off the metal by line of sight. The more metal you have to suck the dirt off, the more dirt gets sucked off and more areas of the part being cleaned get clean. For example with my heads, I only had a few bars clamps to the side so the process not only took longer, but I had to go out and rotate the head every so often so the bars could "see" different spots on the head. Here's what my heads looked like right before I painted them:

That was after 30 hours in the tank and changing the water twice...plus the trash can had a small leak to I left the hose dripping slowly. I also hit it with a small hand wire brush for about 15-20 minutes after I pulled it out. It's amazing how much easier the rust and paint (thats left) comes off. A guy I used to know had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with hot wheels and I hot tanked a few of them for him to get the paint off. Worked great!

Should do a separate "How To"... Just sayin...
Awesome and sticky worthy ; )

I'll do a write up on this, hopefully this weekend. Just pulled the second rotor out and did a little scrubbing on it, but nothing major. I'll finish it up in the morning. I might have to get this one turned, but I'll see if I can't clean it up enough to be usable. Anyways, pics:
MMMM more chili:

Water drained out:

2nd one is on the left:

Here's the brush I used, it's actually cleaner than when I started using it:

Here's the scratch I was talking about, it's not as bad as the pic looks...we'll see if I can clean it up with some emery cloth or maybe just a little sanding. If I need to have it turned, then oh well. This project is still WAY cheaper than I anticipated.

And that is only on 2 or 5 amps? SO that's not a lot of power draw to the electric bills.

It's only an 8 amp (MAX) charger, and anything higher that 5 or so would start to cause heating problems since the connections aren't that strong.

thats awesome man, id like to see a write up aswell
also subbed for more

I'll do a write up this weekend hopefully, or at least start one. When I do it I'll show the bad part about aluminum as well. What do you guys think about that scratch? I'm thinking that if I can get it smooth with the rest of the rotor it'd probably be okay.

I would get it turned. If you tried to sand by hard you'll create a dip or hump that will chatter your brake peddle. Also measure for thickness. Rotors really aren't made too much thinker then min spec anymore.