Slimjim

I recently purchased a 1992 firebird, and well, i put it through inspection, and it failed. Needs a few little things, ball joints in the front, a completely new set of fuel lines the whole length of the car, and new floor pans are the major ones. Other than that its third brake light and a bunch of little stuff. Anyway the question is, i found a shop that will put in the pans for 35 an hour. How long does it usually take a shop to weld in pans? I dont have any welding experience or i would put them in. Im just wondering who has had their pans replaced by a shop and what did it cost?

Has anyone replaced all the fuel lines, i believe the sender unit/pump has the three lines comming out of it, all bent down and ready to be hooked into new lines?

Also, Anyone know if its one bulb or more in the third brake light?

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

wow, that's a lot of work to do. High pressure fuel lines like the ones on your car aren't easy to bend yourself and connect with rubber hoses (like you would be able to do if it were carbed). The floor pans are a major undertaking. Do you have any pictures of the floorboards so we can see how bad they are? It'd give a better idea of how much would be involved and how sucessfull you can hope for it to be.

Slimjim

I found a kit for the fuel lines from www.inlinetube.com for 65 bucks a tube. But it has to be replaced, i could probly knock enough rust off them to make a hole in areas. The floor pans are rusted along the subframe. I want to get them fixed before the rust spreads, it has already eaten through the passenger side, and is working above the hole at the inner rocker. So im just gonna have the pans replaced. I have no problem with stripping the interior down then getting it to the body shop, because the shop is so close i could throw stones at it and hit it.

Derek The Great

if i were u id walk away, because first of all, the cleaner the car is when you buy it, the easier it will b to maintain it yourself and lastly, you dont just weld floor pans in... at 35 an hour its gonna cost u just as much as it did for the car. cos they gotta pull out the seats, the carpet (thats prob garbage now...) cut the old ones out, cut the new ones to make em match and then weld them in place, grind the welds down, under coat and all that..... AND if the floors are rusty chances are high that there is more rust else where, walk on slimjim, pontiac made plenty of birds, this one just isnt worth it

Slimjim

I cant really walk on, the car is clean on the outside. I just took out a loan for 4 grand and have already bought the car. Theres no way im gonna be able to get my money back. I was thinking of useing the repro floor pans, which shouldnt require cutting, atleast how i understand it. I am going to be pulling the interior in the car. I looked for rust other places and didnt see any. cept on a fender bracer in the front.

Bull

iTrader: (5)

Dude, I feel for you. Been in a similar situation once before. Did you know about all that stuff when you bought the car? Did the seller misrepresent the car to you? For 4 grand, you should have gotten a car clean on the underside as well as the outside.

Derek The Great

yea for 4 grand you should have gotten a cleaner car, but someone had that thing painted, to make it sellable, and it sucks that you have to deal with all of this crap... all floor pans need some cutting here and there and they still have to chop out the old ones... and there IS rust in other places, you just havent found it yet, because if your floor pans are toast that car has seen alot of action...

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

Repop floor pans or not, they're going to need to be cut and fitted to the car before they can be welded. I did a set in a friends Falcon. Granted, it was my first time, but it took me right around 35 hrs.. It was pretty straight forward but if I did a few more sets I think it would still take at least 30 and thats not counting pulling out the interior.

As for the lines, try Classic Tube, I think they make a pre-bent set. Or you could run braided stainless that will be better and close to the same price in the end when you consider parts and labor. The braided line and fittings are more, but it's a cleaner install, faster and will last longer.

Slimjim

Looked at the car again. It will not need pans(I went a little overboard in assumeing they needed them) just rust patched. I got a price of 215 to drop the tank and install the new sender unit (180 dollar) And than 100 dollars to run brand new fuel line the entire length of the car. Body shop isnt open today, so ill wait until monday to get their price for fixing it.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

What part of MD do you live?

KissThis

I'm sorry to hear about your woes, but a life lesson has been learned here. For 4 grand you could have had a sweet 4th gen.

Also The inspection should have been done BEFORE you handed over money.

If I were you I would check into the local lemon law. If none of this was disclosed to you and they sold you the car that way they are at fault and you should be able to get your money back.

Or..

If you just took a look at the car, fell in love with it and handed over money right then and there without the thought that things could be wrong, that it would look sweet drivin down the road.. I'm sorry to say, they saw you coming.

Especially if you live in MD. that would be the first thing I would check, for Rust.

I stared at my firebird for 7 years. I looked at it at least a dozen times. Before I finally asked them about it. In this case I knew exactly what I was buying.

But to stop being a I3itc* Check into that lemon Law.

Slimjim

Carroll county.

Slimjim

Like i said, i got a really good price to replace the fuel system. And i have to call the body shop on monday to see how much they can patch the floor for, than its a few small things to fix, and she should be good to go.

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

be sure to get a price on repairing the floorboards before spending money on anything else, including the fuel lines. Is there any way you can get pictures of the rust on the floorboards? you can get some good second opinions from guys on this board that have been through it before.