Car Restoration

[1MAttDRippah]

Fellas, any help is greatly appreciated.

I just bought an older car about a month ago. Its an 1988 Chevy Caprice, a box Chevy if you will.

It needs almost everything, I got it for a steal, $500.00 so
I have the money to invest on making it nice. I'm a southern guy but I'm not going for the "Donk" look. I want it to sit nice on like 22 or even 24 depending on what I can find.

Basically I'm doing a few things myself, like the interior and the audio myself but I need a few pointers.

Does anyone know anything about the auto upholstery or anything. The upholstery is my main concern now. I want it to be nice but for what I want I can't see paying what I've been quoting. I've been planning on taking the front passenger seat out and playin with it but I dont wanna fuck it up. I've googled it and I've found a few good tutorials but I want a little first hand knowledge.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Osca Lee]

Are you planning on doing a frame off resto or just the minor stuff?

[1MAttDRippah]

oh shit i didnt even know u replied.


but i'm just doing minor stuff.
i'm deep under the hood now doing a few upgrades and repairing an oil leak but i'm gonna be doing body work like repairing dents and the interior work like re doing my seats, headliner, door panels, and carpet.

[Osca Lee]

Man pull the entire engine and rebuild it right. Keep what you can but go ahead and spend the money for new parts. Gut the inside out and get new carpet fading and carpet. Once you get in it you will see shit you didn't even know needed to be fixed.

If you can upgrade the engine and transmission.

Take your time and do it right... It's winter pull that mf in the garage and work on it during down time so when it starts to get warm it will be completed

[1MAttDRippah]

Thanks bro. I got a guy I met out here with a 82 El Comino and he told me my Transmission had about 100m left. in about 90 my Torque converter is totally shot. So I'm gonna heed you guy's advice and just fully restore and rebuild it. its gonna hurt but It'll be worth it. I'm not even touchin the cosmetic before I get it purring. Thanks again.

[Osca Lee]

get a turn key 350 and put it in there. You can find them for about 1500 to 2000. Get the trans rebuilt to a stage 1.

Everything should set you back about 3500 if you do it right.

[BkSc400]

I wanted to do an old school myself, but I'll probably wait to do one in a couple years from now.

Here is a couple of pointers:
1. Create a budget and try to stick to it as close as you can.
2. Join the Caprice forums or Chevy forums so that you can get some tips and help when you need it.
3. If you need tools go to Harbor Freight and when it comes to accessories try Walmart.

If you have any other questions give me a holla and I'll be glad to help you.

[GET YOU HOT]

You can do the seats yourself, if you have a way to sew the material. What you need to do is take the seats out, flip them over, peel off the material and unsew it, using a razor blade to carefully cut through the thread. Pick out a material and lay out the old pieces onto the new one. Mark it off using a sharpie on the inner part. Cut it out and resew it, including the zippers. Lay it back onto the seat stuffing. Attach it under the seat.

If I were you I would have someone do all that for you! Handle things that may be more at a beginner level like arm rests, headliner, door panels dashboard, steering wheel and carpet.

Originally Posted by 1MAttDRippah

Ladies, any help is greatly appreciated.

I just bought an older car about a month ago. Its an 1988 Chevy Caprice, a box Chevy if you will.

It needs almost everything, I got it for a steal, $500.00 so
I have the money to invest on making it nice. I'm a southern guy but I'm not going for the "Donk" look. I want it to sit nice on like 22 or even 24 depending on what I can find.

Basically I'm doing a few things myself, like the interior and the audio myself but I need a few pointers.

Does anyone know anything about the auto upholstery or anything. The upholstery is my main concern now. I want it to be nice but for what I want I can't see paying what I've been quoting. I've been planning on taking the front passenger seat out and playin with it but I dont wanna fuck it up. I've googled it and I've found a few good tutorials but I want a little first hand knowledge.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[GET YOU HOT]

Originally Posted by 1MAttDRippah

Thanks bro. I got a guy I met out here with a 82 El Comino and he told me my Transmission had about 100m left. in about 90 my Torque converter is totally shot. So I'm gonna heed you guy's advice and just fully restore and rebuild it. its gonna hurt but It'll be worth it. I'm not even touchin the cosmetic before I get it purring. Thanks again.

As far as your transmission goes, you can make it go a little longer, if you still have all your gears and no slippage by a mechanic's trick. Flush it out and refill it, sauf add a can(at a time) or two of brake fluid in with it running. Hold your foot on the brake and, pass it thru all the gears a few times. When it jumps into gear you will know your gears have been temporarily restored. You can buy a torque converter with a guarantee and it can be reused with a new transmission. If you decide to have your original transmission rebuilt down the line, buy a shift kit to put in it...

[1MAttDRippah]

thanks to all who replied I'll be saving this post for future reference. On friday morning I crashed my Caprice. Its just front end damage but I can't really afford to fix that and keep all my other affairs in order. I'm keepin it, just gotta focus on gettin another car now. hurts my heart though.

[Dhustla]

Originally Posted by GET YOU HOT

As far as your transmission goes, you can make it go a little longer, if you still have all your gears and no slippage by a mechanic's trick. Flush it out and refill it, sauf add a can(at a time) or two of brake fluid in with it running. Hold your foot on the brake and, pass it thru all the gears a few times. When it jumps into gear you will know your gears have been temporarily restored. You can buy a torque converter with a guarantee and it can be reused with a new transmission. If you decide to have your original transmission rebuilt down the line, buy a shift kit to put in it...

What does the shift kit do besides make it shift hard from 1-2 and 2-3?

I don't like that shit

[Osca Lee]

Originally Posted by 1MAttDRippah

thanks to all who replied I'll be saving this post for future reference. On friday morning I crashed my Caprice. Its just front end damage but I can't really afford to fix that and keep all my other affairs in order. I'm keepin it, just gotta focus on gettin another car now. hurts my heart though.

man just take your time and work on it every so often. If the damage isnt too bad you can fix the front end yourself. I have a unfinished project just gathering dust but when it grts cold again I get the itch...hang in there bro

[twiggy]

spend the money have someone else do the majors drivetrain but with practice you can learn how to do the interior and even buy ready made interior kits and shit. headliners and trim are fairly easy.

and if you have the skill but don't have the money you can learn how to paint a car yourself it's easier than most would think

[nofrillz]

a suggestion

do an air bag system
it like 1500 for the kit and really easy to do on the chevy frame but look sick as hell on 20 it like 3k less then if you want to do juice

[GET YOU HOT]

Originally Posted by Dhustla

What does the shift kit do besides make it shift hard from 1-2 and 2-3?

I don't like that shit

Gets you to the next gear with a kick, reducing shift time. I like the little skid skip while the gears lock and there is a loud screech...

[GET YOU HOT]

Originally Posted by 1MAttDRippah

thanks to all who replied I'll be saving this post for future reference. On friday morning I crashed my Caprice. Its just front end damage but I can't really afford to fix that and keep all my other affairs in order. I'm keepin it, just gotta focus on gettin another car now. hurts my heart though.

Shop around at wrecking yards, you can replace the damaged part, if it is just cosmetic and the frame is not bent. Otherwise I would suggest parting it out and using that money to get a different car...

[Osca Lee]

What happen to the car?

[Lick]

Originally Posted by GET YOU HOT

Shop around at wrecking yards, you can replace the damaged part, if it is just cosmetic and the frame is not bent. Otherwise I would suggest parting it out and using that money to get a different car...

Damn woman... I have something I need you to do...