In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I haven't seen a 2nd Gen Neon around here in at least 10 years. They have completely vanished!
There is a set of the SRT4 Neon seats on Marketplace, but they are almost as much as a set of new aftermarket seats, so that's out. They are also a tight fit for me; my friend has a set in his Omni GLH, and I have to really squeeze into them.
Tony Sestito said:
And here are my back seats:

Lseat.com makes leather upholstery kits for both of these for $349 in all sorts of colors. They have 3 shades of red, too. Either way, this is a cheaper route than going aftermarket, and I can keep the seats red if I want to.
I'm not a "keep it stock" guy, but considering how nice your back seats are, you might consider just reupholstering a set of 78-81 "Custom Trim Group" Firebird seats. As you mention, LSeat sells kits in real leather which would be a nice upgrade from the factory vinyl so you could have front leather seats that match your rear vinyl seats.
Also you would be keeping your interior Carmine which is a pretty cool look:
In reply to SEADave :
I still have my stock Deluxe buckets and the set of Camaro Standard buckets in the car now. Both have major issues: the deluxe seats need new foam, covers, and back plastics, and the Camaro seats have the dreaded "leaning seat" issue. Both of those sets of seats have no recline adjustment and need major work to make nice, and even after spending all the money, they will be uncomfortable. The main driver of getting new seats is the comfort level; These things have zero support or adjustability. If this was a show car, I'd invest the thousands of dollars in restoring the Deluxe seats, but I actually want to drive the thing and be able to enjoy it.
I would like to keep things red if possible. Red on silver is one of my favorite color combos ever. If I go with a set of covers from Lseat, I plan on keeping them red as long as one of the three red materials they have matches the rears. I have a friend with the color samples on hand, so I'll see how close they are.
I got the color sample sheet from them. I found it much more helpful to get a one foot by one foot square of the three different shades of tan they had to really see what it was. Their sample she just didn't give me enough to really make a decision
I would get those local 4th gen seats and see what's what. They may need some foam replaced now that they're at least 25 years old.
Today, after it stopped raining here (it really needs to stop raining on weekends, BTW) I tossed in 4 qts of ATF and fired up the car. I didn't see any leaks, so I decided to take it out for a ride. Took it around the area and put about 20 miles on it. Aside from the valvetrain tick, it ran fantastic. I stopped a couple times and even ran an errand before I pointed the beak home. And yeah, it struck up a conversation with a few people. Even ratty, people love these things.
I really do love driving this car. No matter how terrible things can be going in life, everything is better when you're behind the wheel of something cool.
After I got home, I realized I had parked crooked, so I went to fire it back up and ZAP.... right down by the starter.
I know that sound. The starter wiring crapped out yet again. Ugh... Last time I did this, I heat wrapped everything, so I'm not sure what failed this time.
I also checked the battery negative clamp and noticed that the wire (it's one of those DIY top post clamp-on ones) was corroded, so I cleaned all that up for a fresh connection. I ran out of time for tonight, but I will get the car up in the air and see what's fried. I also picked up some oil change stuff and some Lucas ZDDP additive as well, so I'll do that while I'm under there.
In reply to clutchsmoke :
The only thing holding me back on that particular set is that all of the side plastics are smashed up. They are hard to come by around here. But I'm keeping an eye out for a better set.
Tony Sestito said:

I didn't notice that the larger wire was that close to the block until I was typing this just now, but that's an easy fix.
Going back and looking at old posts about the starter, and I found this gem. Yeah, I don't think I ever employed that "easy fix". I can be a moron sometimes. 5 years later, I'll get this done. As you can see in the pic, there's not a lot of room to work with, and this is with a mini starter!
Yesterday, I dropped the starter and wiring, and yup, it was all sorts of nasty.


The big positive wire was almost touching the block (just like the pic above), and the starter had a wire which lost some heat shrink. Luckily, the starter itself was fine. I removed the heat wrap blanket I put on it, as I read somewhere that these Powermaster Ultra Torque starters will actually heat soak with them wrapped.

I used that wrap to re-wrap the battery positive wire, which I cleaned and inspected before doing this. I removed all the electrical tape I wrapped it with years ago and used proper heat shrink on the terminal end. It really helps that I got better with wiring over the years. After re-routing it (with a detour of fixing my wiper motor wiring which fell apart when my hand went close to it), The car started instantly. I let it come to operating temp and decided it was time to change the oil. So, off came the wheels; I forgot that was part of the process.

I used Castrol GTX 10w30 dino oil along with some Lucas ZDDP additive. After draining the oil, I thought to myself, that's not a lot of oil.

It's hard to tell, but only 3.5qts came out of the pan. That's... odd. The dipstick was reading normal, too. Where did the rest go? It's possible it went out the tailpipe on the driver's side. When I start it up, it seems to dump some oil out the exhaust on that side. I always chalked it up to extreme blow-by due to my rocker arm mishap years back and oil getting caught in the muffler. That got me thinking... I really need to make sure those roller rockers are adjusted correctly. Between that and my lifter tick, I am hoping I didn't hurt the thing too bad. I'll hopefully have some time this week to pull the valve covers and see what's going on.
Also...

After days of looking, I finally found my spare center caps. The crisis of my missing center cap is over, at least.
I read this start to finish over the last 2 weeks. I enjoyed the story and respect your determination. Cool car glad you never threw it in the towel! Subconsciously this my have inspired me to get back on my Nissan. So Thanks!
By the way, Red interior/ black sidewalls.
Just my .02.
In reply to madmrak351 :
Thanks for reading! Yeah, it's been a long journey. A long, stupid journey.
And I am leaning toward the red interior (or red and black) and not quite sure what to do about tires yet. If I do RWL, it will likely be Mastercraft Avenger G/T's, since they are the cheapest semi-good tire. They are essentially the same tire as the Cooper Cobras but cheaper. They don't do a lot of blackwall-only tires in this size, either. I think RWL tires with the blackwall out might be a crime in some states.
Tony Sestito said:
In reply to madmrak351 :
Thanks for reading! Yeah, it's been a long journey. A long, stupid journey.
And I am leaning toward the red interior (or red and black) and not quite sure what to do about tires yet. If I do RWL, it will likely be Mastercraft Avenger G/T's, since they are the cheapest semi-good tire. They are essentially the same tire as the Cooper Cobras but cheaper. They don't do a lot of blackwall-only tires in this size, either. I think RWL tires with the blackwall out might be a crime in some states.
If you have a 2nd gen Trans Am with white letters inboard in the state of Georgia, its actually a misdemeanor.
In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :
I believe it!
I've probably talked about this 56 times in this thread already, but I need to talk about what happened to the engine back in March of 2013... again...:


After a "spirited" run through some back roads by some friends of mine, the car came back running a little funny. I popped off the driver's side valve cover and saw that the #5 cylinder intake valve rocker arm was lying next to the stud. So I pulled the intake and saw the the lifter had lifted all the way out! After inspecting for damage, everything seemed OK and the polylock had just gotten loose and fell off, so I bolted and locked it back down and never looked at it again.
12 years and a couple months later, I am once again questioning my own work. I know a lot more now than I did then, and more so than I did in 2009 when I installed these Harland Sharp 1.5 ratio roller rockers. I remember having a friend supervise me locking them down, but I don't trust my past self. I am going to do it all again.
My biggest question: can an intake valve not opening properly cause oil or raw fuel to come out the tailpipe? In my head, I would think yes. Combustion isn't happening when/where it should, so it would pool up in the cylinder and come out at times. Before I put any more serious miles on the car, I'm going to make sure these are adjusted and scope the cylinder bore for damage. I have a feeling like it's just a misadjusted rocker arm that's causing all of the above, but we'll see.
I would think that parts would have come out for air by now if there was a major problem. Other than the oil/fuel and the tick, the thing runs amazing with plenty of power. Hoping it's just past me being dumb and it's easily solved.
Tony Sestito said:
I think RWL tires with the blackwall out might be a crime in some states.
It's a regional thing. California, always the pioneer, banned RWL out beginning in 1983, with an exception for factory installed tires and a convoluted "parade or exhibition only" clause. Most of the west coast followed suit (WA in '86, OR and ID in '87). Nevada, being the only Western state where oiled pompadours and pork chop sideburns remain in fashion, bucked the trend, and continues to embrace RWL tires to this day. Some tire stores in the Reno area still give away a free pair of gold-tone aviators with every full set of RWL tires.
Or so I hear.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
I would do the same. Right or wrong, who knows. It will tell you sooner or later.
DarkMonohue said:
Tony Sestito said:
I think RWL tires with the blackwall out might be a crime in some states.
It's a regional thing. California, always the pioneer, banned RWL out beginning in 1983, with an exception for factory installed tires and a convoluted "parade or exhibition only" clause. Most of the west coast followed suit (WA in '86, OR and ID in '87). Nevada, being the only Western state where oiled pompadours and pork chop sideburns remain in fashion, bucked the trend, and continues to embrace RWL tires to this day. Some tire stores in the Reno area still give away a free pair of gold-tone aviators with every full set of RWL tires.
Or so I hear.
I just read that in this guy's voice. Well done.

"Carmine" = "Guido", but it is perfect for a silver TA IMO
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
And I'm Italian, so it tracks.
Had to re-read and catch up on the build progress.
What about Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T tires?

If you use 4th gen Trans Am seats, slip a piece of cardboard on top of the seat wires. It keeps them from slicing through the foam. Also firms up the the cushion and is much more comfortable. Did this years ago on mine and the seats still feel great.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
I looked into the M/T Sportsman tires, and they are almost as much as the BFG's. If I'm going to spend that much, I'd just go for the BFG's. I was hoping to get something cheaper that holds air and won't kill me, so no weirdo tires like the Tornel Direccional or Gripmax Max Grip or anything like that.
I think I settled on the Mastercraft Avenger G/T; they are around $140/tire. They are essentially the same tire as a Cooper Cobra with a different name (Cooper owns Mastercraft). Eventually, I want to upgrade to 17x9 Snowflake wheels to get better, modern tire choices, but these will do for now. They look OK on the car, I think:

And that's a good tip on the seats. Still looking for a decent set of those that I can recover. Haven't had time to hit up the local junkyards yet, and Marketplace hasn't had much.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I had a few minutes here and there to mess with the car, so I decided that before I could go any further, I needed to make sure the valvetrain was OK. I dove in to see if I screwed up back when I installed the roller rockers back in 2009. And my suspicions were correct: I totally did mess things up. Check this out:

The polylock has WAY too many threads showing here. That can mean only one thing.

I pulled the rocker off, and yup, I installed the rocker with the trunnion upside down. I found two of these on the engine installed this way, and I'm almost positive that the one that fell off back in 2012 was installed like this as well. Why I didn't go around and check them all back then, I'll never know, but here we are.

As I'm sure you are aware, roller rockers have an inset on the trunnion where the polylock nut will sit. Installing it backwards may cause them to loosen over time. Don't do what I did.

There, that's better.
I went through the engine in firing order. I rotated it over by hand, and since I didn't want to pull the intake, I watched for the exhaust to just start opening and adjusted the intake. Then, I rotated over the engine until the intake went all the way open and when it just closed, I adjusted the exhaust. I did a full turn on the nut and then locked them down
The biggest issue I had was setting "zero lash". If you look that term up in terms of a pushrod V8 with hydraulic lifters, you'll get a thousand different answers to what it is. Reading some posts and watching some videos, I kept reading that the rockers should have preload and the pushrods should be tight. I did a full turn on the nut and then locked them down. So, I set it up that way and it ran TERRIBLE.
I then went back and did the process again. This time around, I checked all the pushrods to see if they were bent, and they were not. I basically got the pushrod so it could spin with slight drag but not move up and down. Then I turned the nuts 1/4 to 1/2 turn and locked them down. This resulted in the engine running much better. In fact, it ran better than it has, ever.

Next step was to button everything up, so I dug into the parts inventory and grabbed these:

I bought these at a swap meet 10 years ago for $5 as a backup set, because the ones I put on my engine in 2009 were rusty even back then. So, I polished them up and bolted them on.

With that done, I fired it up and tweaked some idle settings on the carb. The car ran great, but the driver's side tailpipe was still spitting out some fluid and the tick I had been hearing was still there, so the valvetrain issues did not solve that. Hmmm.... I realized that the car sounded different on the passenger side, so I crawled under there, and the exhaust was a little loose. I tried loosening and adjusting things and got it better than it was, but it's still not right. I'll have to get it on a lift to take a better look. I am thinking that the tick I hear is potentially related to the exhaust. It never gets worse as it runs and it changes with engine speed, so it's very possible it's a leak.
After doing that, I took it for a 30 minute drive. Engine aside from the tick ran pretty great, and oil pressure was solid as well as coolant temp the entire time. What I did notice is that the carb needs... something. I feel like it's just not getting enough fuel when it wants it, especially under acceleration. The carb is a Holley Street Avenger 670 that I pretty much bolted on and forgot about. It has the OEM jets, springs, and power valves; all I have tweaked is the idle circuit. I plan on going through it at some point soon once I figure out exactly what it wants.
Overall, I am happy I went through checking the work I did 16 years ago when I didn't know any better. It was worth the time, and it's one less thing to worry about now.
Took the car out this morning to do some errands. It feels weird driving it like a regular car. Even as ratty as it is, everyone notices it and wants to talk about it. All sorts of characters come out of the woodwork when they see the thing.
Also, driving it anywhere, even slow, gets the attention of the cops as well. It's probably because it's REALLY LOUD with the old school Flowmaster 40-series mufflers and a few leaks. In fact, every time I have ever been pulled over in the car, it's due to the noise. While it sounded great while I was in college, it grades on me in my 40's. Maybe I am too old now, hahaha.
So, I'm looking at maybe swapping the mufflers for something quieter that still retains the great sound of a high compression V8. Maybe a set of old school turbo mufflers would do the trick? I do have Hooker Competition mufflers on my Power Wagon, and it sounds great but never too loud. So maybe something like that.
This car is just plain FUN.

Dynomax super turbo mufflers have the perfect note on a big engine.