Parting out 1995 Firebird Trans Am

**crushedout** · 07-24-2007, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by gvincent

Crushedout
I shipped your item today,
Thanks,
Greg

received yesterday. Thanks

**Brad5150** · 07-24-2007, 09:35 AM

kind of interesting-i added up all the things hes selling, and if he sells them all for the price listed he will have $6800~..i always thought that you lost money in parting out a car rather than taking a claim from insurance..i guess that is true if it was a LS1 where it still is worth more..but he probably could barely get 5500-6000 if he was lucky before it was wrecked!

btw, seller, are all the dash componets the same on the lt1 cars as the LS1s? on the part of the dash that goes from the top of the steering wheel to under the passenger airbag, not sure what its called, i have a few cracks, and would like one? iff it is the same, how much?

**Zapper2003** · 07-24-2007, 01:18 PM

received swaybar today. Great seller. Everything was as expected.

**gvincent** · 07-24-2007, 04:11 PM

Brad5150
I wish it was true, this forum asks that you give a price for every item. What my list doesn't show is what each piece actually sold for only that it was sold.
I will never part out another car in my life!!!!

It is a LOT of work. besides stripping the car which is obvious and a lot of hard work, cuts, smashed fingers, bruised knuckles, sore back, Lumps on your head, sweaty and dirty long nights and wasted weekends, I needed to:

1. Buy an engine hoist
2. Buy another set of jackstands
3. Buy a car tent to cover the car and work on it in the New England weather.
4. Rent a spring removal tool
5. Buy a fuel line removal tool
6. Buy another bottle jack
7. Replace broken tools
8. Buy a couple of worklights and a long long extension cord.
9. Buy lots of packing tape
10. Buy packing material and boxes
11. Drive around time (GAS spent) and scrounge for big cardboard boxes in dumpsters.
12. Spend hours packing this stuff up for shipping
13. Drive Time to the UPS store (GAS spent) to get items weighed and sized for shipping quotes all the time
14. Waste weekends waiting for people to show up that never do! wasting valuable weekend time!
15. Holding items for people who change their minds when you could of sold it to somebody else!
16. Answering emails into the wee hours of the morning.
17. Taking pictures of everything and emailing them.
18. keeping track of listings on 4 forums and updating the lists and checking for questions.
19. Time spent Researching Ebay and junk yards to come up with prices.
20. Time spent in a shop manual on how to take something apart or identify what it is and what it is called.
21. Making trips twice (Time and Gas spent) to the post office for people who don't want to pay ups charges and want shipping quotes.
22. Making trips twice to the Greyhound bus terminal for the extra large items people don't want to spend on UPS charges and want shipping quotes
23. Having PayPal take a precentage of every dollar you make.
24. Waiting for money orders to arrive, checking the mail box daily
25. Emailing deadbeats that said they sent a money order and never did.
Not getting paid for something you shipped.
26. Having the person who did come by and bought some stuff ask for some extra free stuff
27. Having a person come by and break stuff and then not buy it (What was a Mint center console)
28. Waiting for an email response from a person who said they wanted an item and you have another buyer but as a courtesy to the first buyer you give him first dibs, then he doesn't want it and now you lost the other buyer because he found it someplace else.
29. Contributing to making UPS even richer
30. Haggling with a buyer over a $10 part for 1/2 hour
31. Helping a buyer install the rear hatch and spoiler on his car.
32. Hours spent testing out everything to make sure it works before I took it apart.
33.Paying too much for the wreck to begin with.
34. Having this eyesore tent in your front yard for months.
35. Having parts laying around everywhere.
36. Having to find places to store and put all these parts.
37. getting calls from the west coast at 1:00AM
38. Having to bottle up and dispose all oil, antifreeze etc, drive to recycle place (Gas and Time)
39. Having to buy additional gas cans to store the old gas from the gas tank which was a little over a 1/4 tank, (Used in lwan mower only)
40. Paying for extra trash removal.
41. Having a buyer say it was the wrong color when you sent him pictures.
42. Having to figure out what I am going to do with the shell once it is completely stripped.
43. Calling scrap metal places to see who will take what
44. Buying a bunch of blades for the sawzall to get ready to cut it up
45. Gas and time to make several trips to the metal scrapper.
46. Not having time to spend with my family
47. Trying to keep up with my normal job and not being too tired.
48. Having a pissed off wife for not spending time
49. Having a pissed off wife for having all this junk around and looking like a white trash junk yard in a nice neighborhood.
50. and most importnat not having the time to work on my own project car which is what I bought the wrecked car for in the first place for, I should of just bought the engine and transmission from the junk yard in the firts place.
Now the scary part, what do I do with all the stuff that doesn't sell?
EBAY??? Oh no here we go again! but now I also make eBay richer!!

So if you think it is profitable go ahead and do it. There is a reason why there are junk yards and why they wanted the same amount of money for the engine and transmission for what I paid for the entire wreck.
I wold of loved for somebody to make an offer on the whole rolling chassis. too late for that now!
When it comes to cars, "the parts are worth more than the whole" they say, that is why most cars that are stolen are chopped up for their parts.

As for your dash, I will send you a picture and you tell me if it is the same or not. My dash is one solid unit with removeable knee panels on both sides. the dash pad is free of any cracks cuts, holes or dents. and is listed in my newest parts list which I haven't posted yet including the passenger air bag.
Send me your email for pictures and the new list.
Thanks and sorry for the log post to all,
but it felt good to vent a little,
Greg

**Silver Streak** · 07-24-2007, 05:33 PM

Sorry to hear that man.. but think of it this way.. you've done all the research, you've gotten all the tools.. you know what things are and what they go for... so the next one would be TONS easier and you know what to do, what not to do, and what to look out for.

**ATCharming** · 07-24-2007, 05:40 PM

will the rear end fit on my car without any fabbing? i might be interested, since its a manual tranny car, it must have 3.23's or higher, right?

anyway, i need a step up from 2.73's, and i know ill need a new transfer case at least for it, so the whole rear end would be great. also, the disk brakes come with it? thatd be great too cuz im stuck with rear drums right now

**gvincent** · 07-24-2007, 05:58 PM

KITT vs KARR
If I was your age and had the facilities to do it in like a lift and garage etc. I would do it but I am a 53 year old Geezer that built many custom fast cars when I was your age. Right now I am building probably my last toy, a mint 1976 Datsun 280Z with the LT1/T56 out of this Trans Am which I will stroke to a 383 and supercharge it.
My other toy is a 78 Datsun 280Z set up for road racing, it was built by Bob Sharp motors and Dino Liang back in the early 80's it is a 3.1 stroker Datsun L6 with triple Mikuni's etc. very fast car but not street driveable.
The LT1 will be my killer street weekend cruiser.
By the way you never got back to me on the parts you were interested in does that put you in at #28 on my list? (:-))
Just kidding let me know if you still want them please.
Thanks,
Greg

Originally Posted by KITTvsKARR

Sorry to hear that man.. but think of it this way.. you've done all the research, you've gotten all the tools.. you know what things are and what they go for... so the next one would be TONS easier and you know what to do, what not to do, and what to look out for.

**Silver Streak** · 07-24-2007, 06:11 PM

Sorry about that man.. yes.. still need a lot of parts.. just been swamped with everything else lately.. I haven't fingered out what parts I need. So not blowing you off.. we just need to get together.

**gvincent** · 07-24-2007, 06:12 PM

ATCharming, I know people swap the drum rear ends for the newer disc rear ends all the time. Having never done it myself I couldn't really tell you for sure. This site as well as LT1LS1.com, Fbody.com, CamaroSS.com and a half dozen other forum site have write ups and discussions on doing this swap.
I think there is a site strictly for the 80 something to 92 F body cars that I had visited recently but the name escapes me, Part of being an old geezer!
I would love to sell you my stuff but considering how much a rear end would cost to ship to you it would probably end up costing you the same to buy one from a junkyard local to you. Check out car-parts.com and do a search in your area. In my area the rear ends go for 350-550 at junk yards so my rear end would be a bargain to someone local to me and didn't have to pay for shipping.
I hope I helped you out a little, check out my list and don't be afraid to offer a different price for anything and if you need anything else that wouldn't cost you an arm and a leg to ship let me know.

Damm I hate doing that this was the second person I talked out of buying my rear end because of shipping costs!
Oh well at least I can sleep at night (:-))
Thanks,
Greg

**gvincent** · 07-24-2007, 06:22 PM

KittvsKarr,
No problem, let me know what you need and I will see if I still have it at the time.

The way I been doing this lately is if somebody asks to hold a part I will, but as soon as I get a second person interested in the same part I will let that person know that somebody has dibs ahead of them and that I need a day to get a response back from the first person to see if they still want it and if not or no response I then sell it to the second person.
That is the fairest way I can see to make this work for everybody.
Thanks,
Greg

**Silver Streak** · 07-24-2007, 06:26 PM

Perfectly ok with me.. go for the sale... as I don't need any of it tomorrow.. but I do need to start the ball rolling.. or my project won't get off the ground.. which is why I needed to tear out the engine and tranny and tear the engine down... But I will try to get the list up in the next couple of days and see what you can come up with for me.

**gvincent** · 07-27-2007, 04:29 PM

Check out the list, it has been completely updated and lowered a ton of prices.
If you don't like the price, make an offer!
Thanks,
Greg

**0rion** · 07-27-2007, 10:44 PM

bump for the greatest top 50 of all time.

Personally, I wouldn't do dibs at all. That just makes headaches for yourself. Show me the money. First one paid gets the part but that's just how I would do it.

**gvincent** · 07-29-2007, 04:52 AM

Thanks Orion, Top 50 of all time, WOW, and from a Moderator as well, this is huge!
Yeah I probably shouldn't be such a nice guy and try to be fair, it is just about the money these days.
Well at least I got a freee bump out of it.
Orion, need any spare parts? (:-))
Thanks,
Greg

**gvincent** · 07-31-2007, 03:30 PM

Can I bump this early?
Lots of stuff left, Make an offer!
no reasonable offer refused!
Car has to be completely gone by the end of August.
Thanks,
Greg

**Silver Streak** · 07-31-2007, 03:45 PM

PM sent.

**sic2001** · 08-01-2007, 12:08 PM

do you have the passenger sun visor still?

**gvincent** · 08-01-2007, 01:18 PM

Sic2001,
No my son scoffed those for his Formula before it was even off the trailer!
need anything else? Spare Parts?
Gawd listen to me, I'm starting to sound like a freaking used car salesman!
Well at least I still have my morals intact.
Thanks for looking,
Greg

**crushedout** · 08-02-2007, 05:12 AM

Did you ever sell the e-brake cable I asked about from junction point to calipers? I also need light bulb socket for front passenger turn signal. Cant remember which one so if you got them I'll just take both. How much for all 3 things shipped 40065?

P.S. If you have sockets please leave as much wire coming out of them as possible.

**gvincent** · 08-02-2007, 05:48 AM

Crushedout
Hi Brent, Yeah I did sell the emergency brake cables already, I only have the handle and the single cable that has the connector on it for the other two cables.
I will check the turn signal sockets on the wire harness tonight for you and let you know if they are ok, I do remember that the fog lamp sockets were crushed but can't remember if the trun signal sockets were ok.
Thanks,
Greg