Calling all 3rd gen convertibles

Wussup.

Been trying to search around a little to find anyone else here, but it's been mroe difficult than I thought. You have a busy board here...lol

I have a "welcome myself" thread in the lounge, but I'll repeat some stuff for the sake of this thread. This is my second 3rd gen convertible...I had to part with my '91 4.5 years ago when my daughter was born, and I finally got the chance to get another one.

So now I have my '88, and although I love having another 3rd gen, I gotta admit, I miss my '91...but maybe you guys can help me with this.

1) The mechanism for the 87-88 top sucks. My '91 had the little handle that you could sqeeze to get the roof latch to let go out of the tonneau (sp?), the '88 has a cotter pin (maybe the prev owner jipped me??).

2) The '91 had the button on the center console to release the tonneau (sp again?), the '88 doesn't, but I'm convinceed it should, mayeb someonen can chime in and tell me it should. :cry:

3) Does anyone else find the 89-older gauge cluster hideous? I miss my 91 cluster, and would love for someone to tell me it isn't too big of a PITA ot swap it out.

So here is where I begin. I am just in love with the 3rd gen, I always have been/will be, and the kid thinks it's awesome too, which is a plus...but I must get these bugs worked out so I can concentrate on the important stuff, like ridding myself of the tired 700R4 and 305 TPI and making this ragtop move a little better. :cool:

Just wanted to let you know that I don't have any problems letting my top up and down. I do have a switch between the window switches that let the piece in the back up to tuck to top in. If you would like to take a look at my car go to www.cardomain.com and look at the 87's Mine is Buds 1987 #0163 Check it out and let me know what you think. If I can help any with more questions with the top just let me know.

That's a beautiful car, Bud!!! I have that switch, but it's not connected to anything! I have to manually pull a pin on each side of the tonneau to get it to raise. :(

I got the switch and the little lever thing. Possible that your tonneu cover was mangled at some point? Was it ever stolen? New ones are avaliable. If I knew more about the release switch, wiring, and solenoids, I'd help but...sorry..

Post some pics!

Oh yeah! I do not like the guages all that much. :death:

Some general pics from when I first brought it home are here:
www.merfz28.mypicgallery.com

I don't have any specific pics of the problem areas.

:eek:

If you paid less than $10,000...I :bow: to you... haha. Looks awesome man.

LS1/T56 swaps are all the rage. www.thirdgenresource.com has nearly everything for the swap. Locally, a donor complete LS1 with trans is from 3000-5000 which is well ahead of a built 1st gen engine and new 700R4. The Headers, mounts, etc will add up of course but you have a nice project on your hands.

An LS1 with a 150 shot in that car would be the sleeper of the neighborhood probably.:D

Don't forget the sticky tires out back:D

I haven an 88 vert as well. My latch mechanism broke into pieces one sunny day when I was putting the top down. Of course the latch for the 87-88's was discontinued, so I was told many times that the only fix for this, is to completely update the tonneu to the newer style...89-92. You can get a new one from fbodymotorsports.com for around $235.
Nice car by the way!!
Here's mine. http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/441000-441999/441750_29_full.jpg

....
Thanks man! Appreciate the praise. The car is one of those that is beautiful until you start digging around. No major biggies, but enough small problems to keep me busy and make the $3,800 I paid justified. But it's very driveable on a daily basis, so no complaints!
As for the drivetrain...really struggling morally on this. Looks like I'll just be maintaining the 305 for a year or two and get the body up to snuff before spending the douhg on the powerplant. This is more of a family cruiser than anything, but when I do start up on it, I won't stop at less than 450 at the wheels (which is where I stopped on the last project car).
completely update the tonneu to the newer style...89-92.
That is a BEAUTIFUL color! Yeah, the wife and I alraedy agreed that the new tonneu is what we'll be getting. no big deal I hope. :p