Thread: Wicked's 01 GTP

Pics added, post #25...

I bought a 2001 GTP special edition several weeks ago. 101,000 miles on it and what appeared to be in decent shape given the age and mileage. Or so I thought... Previous owner flushed and filled the trans fluid to make it look good. 400 miles into my ownership, the forward apply band breaks and it starts slipping like a SOB. $1700 later from a reputable trans shop, I had it rebuilt to TEP's basix trans... new torque converter, hardened 4th hub assembly, Trans Go shift kit and a few other upgraded parts. Shifts awesome and feels great. Previous owner, while a scumbag for covering the trans mess, did do alot of other maintenance to it, such as new rotors and pads all around, new axles, new A/C condensor, new oil pan gasket, new valve cover gaskets, new hub bearing at 1 corner, new tires and a couple other odds and ends. He also spent some money on mods... SLP headers with downpipe and SLP catback, Thrasher intake, Thrasher 3.4 pulley, 180* thermostat, Accel plug wires, and an Intense tuned computer.

Today, 1/17/15, is the first time I have had a chance to really get under the car and check stuff out. Pulled a spark plug... PO put autolite double platinum 605's in it. All that money in quality go fast parts and he couldn't put a more appropriate plug in it? After some quick advice from Scottydoggs, went and bought some Autolite 104's, gapped them to .050 and swapped them out. Reused the Accel wires since I didn't butcher any of them taking them off the plugs. Overall everything else engine and trans wise looks good. Struts are going to need to be replaced soon and there was a little bit of play in the LF hub bearing. I will eventually replace all 4 struts, both front hubs and for good measure, just do the tie rods, the sway bars, bushings and links (GMPP) and the lower control arms. I plan to keep this car for the next 3-5 years, longer if it lasts, so I don't mind putting money into it like that. Stereo system flat out sucks because there are 2 blown speakers but I have replacements for them, just need to invest in a good stereo. I also have an amp and wiring. Got 1 burned out instrument cluster bulb so LED's will get in there eventually. Everthing else electrical works as it should, for now... I fully expect a LIM gasket job along with coolant elbows in the future. I have no plans for anymore go fast parts... it rocks as is.

Appearance wise... there are some ugly graphics on it that I am in the process of stripping off. Actually just started today since it is 55* today in January?! There is some clear coat peel and a few dents in it. Game plan here is to get it painted in a couple of years once I have all of the mechanicals done. I am thinking of some 18" mustang wheels unless a set of GXP wheels pop up for future replacement. Other than this, I am keeping it simple. I just want a decent daily driver that looks good, can go when I need it to, and get decent fuel mileage. Right now I am getting over 400 miles to a tank and the best the DIC has shown was 32 plus. The previous owner also installed a hood deflector and headlight covers on it which I kinda like and plan to keep.

I have done a lot of reading on this site and have found it to be packed full of good knowledge and cool people. As soon as I get a chance I will post some pictures when I have the car looking better. The graphics aren't doing it for me so when those are gone I will show it off. Once I recover from this trans rebuild and get going in my new job, I will get more stuff done. I want LED's all around eventually. More to come as time and money permit.

how them 104's feel? make if feel better?

Didn't take it out yet... have to run out in a little bit. My 45 mile ride to work on Monday should tell all.

i felt the difference as soon as i hit the gas. and i started at 60, then 53, then 50 felt the best.

they can also help your kr if you have any.

That is the next thing... glad you mentioned it... Gonna get the torque app and the OBD2 BT connector and start checking things out. I can't justify $200 plus on one gauge right now so Torque will do just fine. Granted, this car is 95% highway driven with the cruise set at 65-70 mph, with the occasional foot to the floor antics.

the t app is pretty damn good. its says the same thing as my dhp scans.

90 miles round trip to work... MPG held steady in the 29-30 range. Butt meter says the car felt a little peppier. I took a few minutes to look at the Elm Electronics website and am going to most likely order the version 2.0 directly from them. Seems like the best way to go to avoid getting a cheap copy.

Where did you find this car, is it black? It sounds very familiar to one that was FS up here in IL for a few weeks.

Yes it is black... bought it up in Joliet. It was on ebay for a while.

That be the one. Car looked super clean, was thinking of going to check it out myself. ****ty about the trans, but at least it's fixed now

It is fairly clean. Needs some TLC but not bad. Spring won't get here fast enough so that I can start getting more stuff done with it.

456 miles on the tank of gas last week. I could never get that with my Crown Vic. The needle went just below E and it took 17.5 gallons so I must have been on fumes when I stopped for gas. There are 2 stations in town with 93 Super so I am sticking with the one as much as possible. No updates to the car yet. I know... boring..

On another note, glad the Patriots beat Seattle... Sherman's face was priceless after the interception at the goal line... Can't stand Seattle...

Time for an update... Been farting around with the stereo system over the last 2 weeks. Car has two blown speakers and a buzz coming from another. Luckily for me, I stripped my 02 Grand Prix GT before I traded it in back in 2008. I kept my set of Polk Audio db componets and my Kenwood 6x9's, my Kenwood amp and wiring. I also have a Kicker 650.4 amp from the GTO that I removed. Yeah, my **** is old school, but it still works and so far, I have $0 invested into this project. I started on the passenger side door first. My Polks are 6.5" so a little modding of the factory speaker basket was needed to make em fit. 10 minutes later with a dremel and it was done. Their is a write up on here for modding the speaker basket but the link doesn't work. So for any newbs that are buying these cars and doing their own thing with the stereo, all you need to do is pop the 5.25 stock speaker out and set the 6.5 in the basket as far as it will go. You will clearly see how much you need to shave off the stock speaker holder. Make sure that your replacement speaker will not pertrude beyond the basket or you may have issues when you bolt the stock basket back onto the door. I haven't decided what to do with the tweeters since they are bigger than the stock ones. I may try to fit them into the sail panels but I am open to suggestions.... cough, cough....

Today I did the rear deck 6x9's. Pretty straight forward swap. In addition to the speakers I laid down some Dynamat on the rear deck to hopefully prevent any vibrations. I put a big piece around the speaker areas on both sides and put some on the section where the 3rd brake light mounts. While in there I hunted down a rattle I had since I bought the car... turns out to be the panel on the side where the Onstar antenna is. Previous owner removed the Onstar antenna from the back window and just left the antenna cable laying there. He also broke one of the panel clips so the panel never stood a chance of going back on securely. I am going to order a box of 50 replacement door panel clips and take care of all of them, since the door panels have been off before and half the clips are trashed.

So as it stands right now, I have left the passenger side door panel and left the back seats out as I have more work to do. I wish I could devote a whole weekend to this but I just can't. I still have to run power, signal and remote wires to the trunk. I may need more dynamat on the rear deck. I am going to put some in the doors but not too much. The driver's side door speakers need to be done. I also need to figure out how I am going to mount both my amps in the trunk where it will be neat and clean. I also need to determine what I am doing for a stereo... single din or double din. I did buy a dash panel at the junkyard last week as a donor... i am also going to buy a Kicker sub and box combo. It will be a 12" 150 watt RMS sub in a Kicker box. Nothing fancy, won't be hearing me from 3 blocks away, but it will sound decent enough for me in the car and for $120 brand new, the price is right. I give myself 6-8 weeks to get this project done and move on to the next round of stuff...

Front end will get rebuilt along new rear struts. My headers need new clamps on both ends of the crossover pipe and I want to put a resonator back on the exhaust. As soon as Diode Dynamics runs a sale on LED's, I will get a full replacement kit. I am hawking ebay and CL for Mustang 18's, Impala LTZ 18's or Bonneville GXP 18's.... I am going to tackle the lower intake manifold gasket and coolant elbows before they become issues... no leaks at the present but we know how long that may last. Hopefully within the year I can get this car sounding better stereo wise, riding better and looking better...

6 month update... Managed to peel all of the graphics off the car. Still working on the factory pin stripe... Removed the Grand Prix badge on the trunk lid and am torn on whether or not to remove the GTP badges from the doors. Stereo speakers are all installed and all wiring is run and neatly tucked out of sight. Can't stand seeing a jungle of wires just dangling there. I have the speaker amp mounted and am going to mount the sub amp and wire it up today. I am going to finally put the back seats back in as well. I ordered a replacement passenger side front window because my current one has a few scratches in it and tinting it will make them appear worse. $50 for a new window... Why not? The right front door will be buttoned up this week and that will just about take care of the interior. I have replaced several broken parts and have eliminated most of the rattles in the car. When the funds permit, I am going to order a Kenwood double din stereo and have the dash plate modified for it. Then the stereo system will be complete. Right now I am running the rear 6x9 Kenwoods off the stock stereo, lame, but better than nothing at all.

Eventually the front end is going to get done, along with a set of wheels. I am eyeballing the 2003 LE spoiler and instrument cluster for it. I am now also eyeballing the SD lip from PFYC. All in due time... Still need to fix the exhaust leak which I will get to this week. Hasn't gotten any worse but I am getting sick of it. More to come...

Stereo system is done for now. Got an old school loaner Alpine deck in it for now. My old Polk and Kenwood speakers sound good but it might be time to replace the 4 channel Kenwood driving them. The Kenwood sub and amp combo sound great, not too loud but not soft either. More to come on that project later, but at least I have tunes and my iPod for now.

Front suspension is completed as of today... Thrashed last weekend and installed new Moog quickstruts, new hub bearings, new inner and outer tie rods, new lower control arms with the new Moog vertical bushing and Moog poly horizontal bushings. The sway bar fell apart on me while removing the end links... Jeez, didn't see that coming... Put it all back together minus the new end links and orders the Dorman bar... Justed finished installing it along with the Moog poly end links and sway bar bushings... Car rides and feels so much better now. I really need for the front springs to settle so it doesn't look like a 4x4 up front. Next up is new 104's and a fuel filter today and then hopefully in a month or two, new rear Moog quickstruts, BMR trailing arms, Addco rear sway bar, new end links, and new lateral links. Suspension will be done at that point... I would like to find strut tower braces too, have to see what kind of coin I have to dump into that. Gonna need tires soon... Been stalking eBay for wheels and tires... More to come, pics some day...

Update...still waiting to order my rear suspension. In the meantime, I have bought used ZZP front and rear strut tower braces and a set of 18" Mustang wheels off of Ebay. With any luck, the suspension will be 100% done by the middle of the summer, maybe sooner, which includes new tires and an alignment.

I am going to dump my Kenwood 6x9s for a det of Polk Audio 6x9s and dump the Kenwood 4 channel amp for a Planet Audio 4 channel. Hopefully I can pull this off by summer also. I have more into this car than what it is worth, so there is no turning back now.

Just added a 2003 Limited Edition cluster gauge last week.... Got lucky finding it and got a great price on it. Immediately stopped at O'reilly Auto parts and grabbed some Sylvania LED bulbs in it. Put it in and ran it for like a mile to make sure everything worked and then pulled it out and swapped my original cluster gauge's odometer into it. My car has 131,xxx on it and the LE cluster showed 118,xxx on it. I wanted it accurate and no BS down the road.

I still have a 2003 LE spoiler to throw on and I still need to order my rear suspension. Been busy doing projects around the house so haven't had much car time. Been doing some research and am gonna skip the Planet Audio amp and go with a Rockville amp. Been reading good stuff about them and am willing to try it out, more so than a Planet Audio. I am still planning a double din stereo swap so that will be last on the list. More to come I'm sure.... I know it has only been over a year now, but one day I will get a photobucket acct and put some pics up. Maybe I will just wait until I have it where I want it.

Thank you. Been trying to do it in stages and be systematic about it, without going broke.

Rear suspension ordered this past week. Everything should be here, except for the Addco sway bar, by the middle of next week. Ordered from Summit is the Addco 22mm rear sway bar and the BMR control arms. Ordered from Rock Auto are rear hub bearings, Moog quick struts, AC Delco lateral links, and Moog sway bar end links. Install is hopefully next weekend if there are no other plans. I think the Addco is expected in the middle of June... Sucks donkey balls that they just can't keep a few in stock instead of doing batch runs. I will also install the ZZP front and rear strut tower braces next weekend too. Once the Addco goes on, I expect a night and day difference in handling. I have narrowed my tire choices down to 3 or so... Hopefully tires and an alignment by end of June and I can move back to the stereo system and redo it.