Hello, New member!! Excited! bummed! first Fbody, got wrecked after 4 days!

Hello everyone, new member from Colorado, and happy to say the proud new owner of a 95 T/A WS6 six speed! My LT1 was built by Arizona Speed and Marine and holy cow, this car is serious fast!! I LOVE IT!! Being a Mopar guy in the past, this level of speed refinement is great. Happy to be here folks!!

:cry: HOWEVER, during my fourth day of ownership, a lady in the Home Depot parking lot, apparently in a BIG hurry to get her sheetrock home, blasted in front of me and left me with the split second decision of tbone or huge curby planter deal. So, here is what the planter did to my car, hope you all can give me some insight as to where to start the repair. My passenger rear ZR1 wheel is smoked, totally broken around the bead, visibly bent in towards the front of the car. the brake rotor is completely broken off, as is the caliper, held on the axle tube and bound up by the ebrake spring I assume. SOOOOOOOO, does this sort of impact usually bend the whole housing? Axle shaft itself? Trailing arm? all of the above? Will my ABS NOT WORKING light ever go off?!?!?! Can I weld my caliper bracket back on accurately enough (I am a muscle car restorer/builder)? What can I do to determine which and if all of the bends have taken place? Gonna post the remaining three ZR1 rims and four BRAND new Proxies for sale on this site, what tire combo is right for the 17" black ZR1 rims one of the vendors on here sells?

Man, I hope you all welcome new, green members with LOTS of questions!! :bow: My Mopar and Early Bronco sites have been HUGE for me and I have been an active happy member of each, so I am pretty excited to get to know all of you! Thanks a TON!!!!!!!!

Buck Taylor
Durango, Colorado

man, sorry to hear about that, isnt allways ironic that **** like that allways happens to the nice cars, and when you drive a POS nothing like that will ever happen to ya

If I were you I'd check for any other damage besides the brake problem and rule anything like that out. If there's no other problems(like lower control arm bent,shock/spring screwed, etc.) I'd just swap in a whole new rear to assure no problems. Who knows what might have been bent or broken besides the brake parts. This would be a good time to get 4.10's installed to add to your 6spd enjoyment. Also if the other 3 ZR1's are in good shape why don't you just go out and buy a new one and have all 4 matching again. Or if anything buy 2 and have a spare. Sorry to hear about your prob. good luck. Oh and welcome to the family, you've chosen wisely. :bow:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no such thing as a 95 WS6, The WS6 package was not offered until '96.

If you bent your wheel and took off the caliper and bracket, I would say its pretty safe to say that you bent something within the rear end. From experience with bending stuff, I would say that it would be a safe bet to just replace everything that you can think might be bent....because 90% of the time it will be, along with parts you didnt think of.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no such thing as a 95 WS6, The WS6 package was not offered until '96.
isnt it called a Trans Am GT though, which is just about the same thing as a WS6?

Nope, the TA GT was just a body-kit difference, the high-rear wing I believe was the only difference.

The WS6 package was not offered until '96, until then the only thing close was a 1LE or Firehawk.

The WS6 package was not offered until '96, until then the only thing close was a 1LE or Firehawk.


...or the comp t/a, which are all silver with a single blue stripe and very rare. :)


...also the trans am gt was only available in 94 but the only exterior appearance difference was the high rise spoiler.

Nope, the TA GT was just a body-kit difference, the high-rear wing I believe was the only difference.

The WS6 package was not offered until '96, until then the only thing close was a 1LE or Firehawk.
oh well i learned something today. :) I always thought the GT was the same thing.

thanks everyone, I learned something also! I thought it was a WS6 from the rear wing, which is that style, and the body kit. See, I knew I would post a dumb@ss "new to GM" remark!!

So, anyway, crap. I'm off to the Classifieds to find parts!!

How bout the 1 1/2" Eibach drop spring kit from summit, any recommends on arms? that is $259, or the Granatelli kit with arms, panhard, and subframe connectors is $469. Probably be at that figure pretty quick piecing it together.

Wow, 4:10's, are you sure??!?!?!?! That seems waaaaay deep, even for a six speed, the thing will jump out from under me in 2nd as it is. Whats in it now by the way?

Are rotors usually stamped with manufacturer so I can get ONE to match?

And to the wheel comment, logic would say that I should get one, but I wasn't real crazy bout the combo, especially since they were only 16's, so, hey, what an excuse to get the rims I want!! Z06's here I come!

Thanks a ton everyone, I'm looking forward to any more input!! :D

4.10's are definately a MUST with a 6spd. Since you already have 3.42's bumping to 3.73's will hardly even be noticeable. Definately get the 4.10's. Almost everyone in your situation that opted for 3.73's first regretted it. It won't be bad on the highway at all with the 2 overdrives. Although I will say 1st gear will be pretty much useless.
As far as the Eibach springs go, they are a very nice setup but a 1 1/2 inch drop is huge for an F-body. Take special care in looking over your surroundings and where you drive. My buddy has em here in MI. Not only do the roads suck and he's always scraping the exhaust, but he basically can only get into maybe a third of the parking lots if that, the grades are just too steep. Although the car would look awesome, it might be FAR from awesome to drive on a regular basis. The G kit with the subframes and LCA's is a good idea, you'll want to eventually get those anyway, so it might be wise to get everything cheaper as one kit. Good luck.
Also rotors, you can get a brand new one for your car either at the auto parts store or online. I highly recommend getting a pair though, otherwise my guess is you'll have stopping issues or even if you don't, they will wear differently and through the years you'll be replacing one at a time back to back to back. Just get both rear ones(which I think are cheaper than fronts although still not cheap) and be done with it. Keep in mind though like I said earlier and someone else mentioned, if you hit hard enough to break stuff chances are you broke more than you can see or more than you know of. Have fun with everything.

AHHHHHH, good call, thanks for the heads up on the big amount of drop. I think I'm gonna rule that out, cause it already scrapes the Xpipe coming into my driveway! Thanks man, that's a good one.

I have sent a couple of notes out on rear ends in the classifieds section, I'll keep ya posted!

I had 4.10's, but when I put the 12-bolt in I went with 3.73s. With Power-Adders such as a Blower or N20, M6 owners typically end up shifting into 5th just before the 1/4 mile marker once you get your speeds up/time low enough.

But it sure does make for a crazy ride.

Suspension upgrades and what level to go with really depends on what you want the car for. Is it a daily driver, or a weekend warrior? Do you mind it riding a little rough, or do you want a smooth ride?

I've upgraded my entire rear suspension, and the front is next. The rear is all Aluminum PHR and LCA's, with Heim-Jointed ends. It's SOLID. I'm also running a BMR TA, with this combo the car is a totally different animal. It sticks like glue and goes instead of going up in smoke like it did with my stock suspension.

If you are a weekend-warrior type of guy and don't mind spending $300/year or 2 on rear tires I would also suggest getting a set of Drag-Radials, they help immensly on traction.

The WS6 package had no change to the body of either the Formula or TA, except for adding the Ram-Air Hood. It also included upgraded wheels and tires, swaybars, shocks, and springs. Not mentioning the R-A badging and WS6 badge on the rear bumper. The only true way to tell if a car is a WS6 is to check the RPO codes either on the DS door or in the Glovebox. If the WS6 is on the code list then it is a WS6 car.

Well some of us just wanted just a little more gear than stock, so going from 3.42->3.73 was perfect.

Any more and as you said, 1st gear will be pretty much useless, on the street.


4.10's are definately a MUST with a 6spd. Since you already have 3.42's bumping to 3.73's will hardly even be noticeable. Definately get the 4.10's. Almost everyone in your situation that opted for 3.73's first regretted it. It won't be bad on the highway at all with the 2 overdrives. Although I will say 1st gear will be pretty much useless.

So.. what, do you guys start off in 2nd gear all the time?

So.. what, do you guys start off in 2nd gear all the time?


Nah you can still start off in 1st. You'll just basically be shifting into 2nd before your even through the intersection, even at part or light throttle. Quite a nuesance to some people, but the added thrill of driving far exceeds that issue. Right now you can take off from a stop in probably both 1st or 2nd. After 4.10's you could probably take off in 1st,2nd,or even 3rd. You'd be riding the clutch on that one though I bet.

Also you haven't told us what your long term plans are for the car, and also what it's used for right now(daily driver,weekend warrior,trailor queen,etc.) We'll be able to answer your questions much better with that info.

Wow, tons of great info and input and even some new news on my part. First, my use of the car, I just like a fast, canyon carver, pretty much only drive it on weekends, just my play car. To be honest, the car is really fast enough for me right now, the guys at Arizona speed and marine said when I bought it that if it pulled under 420 at the rear wheels, they would buy my dyno time. I took their word..........but sixth gear is pretty tall right now.... muuuuaaaahahahahaahahahaaha!!!!


So, if anybody is on right now, I sure could use some advice before I spend money I may not need to. I took off that back tire, and happily found that only the rotor was broken (it has dainty cross drilled units), the caliper is knocked off the bracket, but neither is broken. I measured a million places to a million other places, man, I can't find two measurements that don't match. What are the chances only my rim and rotor are wasted? And if the chance is nill, someone please give me the measurement procedure to illustrate it to me! Thanks again everyone!!

Buck Taylor

btt

So what all is done to the car right now, as far as mods and the such. We can narrow down the advice even more with that info. There's no sense in recommending something if you've already got it.

just the crossed drilled rotors in the back, as far as the rear end goes. That is all I am trying to do is get the car drivable again. I just want to fix whatever is broken and or bent in the rear end and drive it some more. Is that what you mean? Or do you want a motor rundown and stuff?

I gotcha, read your post again. The rear end is totally stock except for the rotors. I don't want to lower it, the exhaust alread drags in a few spots around my mountain town!

No I meant what all has AI done to it. You said it was built by them, I wanna know suspension mods, engine mods, accessories, etc. That way we can narrow down our advice to either complementing mods on top of what you have, or any mods that are left out that you should consider. If anything it will keep us from recommending something that you already have.