CELEBRATING 20 YEARS!

Good evening, all. Some may remember me from the early days of this place. I've been mostly absent for many years until now. If I could sum up my life the last 20 years, it would be "life sucks." But, yesterday was monumental for me, as I was finally able to bring home my car, my childhood car since age 6, to finally begin the build process. It caught fire 21 years ago, been locked in storage ever since. I found some very interesting things inside, mostly cat poop and mouse skeletons. Anyway, I'm diving right in on this. Got the VIN tag pulled, scrubbed it down, placing an order for a few immediate things, and having a glass guy come to pull the window in the coming short weeks. Enjoy the pictures....







The last photo is so surreal to me. These fantastic parents bought the car brand new. I remember seeing plastic on the seats. I was so lucky to get the car for high school graduation, only to have it burn a year later. Now here we are, everyone and everything has aged in the photo, including the 1997 Z28 that replaced this car. I've been so motivated for anything in my life at this point.

WOW, good luck, that's a big project!!

Thanks! I'm keeping myself grounded and level headed about it all. I've learned a whole lot about how fires operate, so strangely. The frame is MINT. The trans and other underside components are untouched. However, the heat in just 90 seconds, warped the whole roof, on down the sides so it's not even easily salvageable up top. I'm simply going to find the cleanest, low mileage, stock 87-88 and swap my over my aerocoupe parts. I have a friend that could use the frame, so that's going to a good home. Dirt burners around here will eat up my g80 rear, the trans I'll keep for a core, and the engine will probably go to a Gambler 500 build until it dies. The charred remains after that, go to scrap.

Wow, welcome back! I forgot what the status was with your Aero, glad you are getting back to it. We’ve had some blasts from the past come back a couple times, usually after buying a “new” one. Look forward to seeing the progress.

Thanks, PaulB! I couldn't ever let myself go through with replacing this one. It's been packed away hard in the corner of my parents' shop under a bunch of old bicycles, blocked in by a bunch of hoarded crap. Couldn't even reach in far enough to touch it for many years. Now that I have built a house, got my career all dialed in, it was time to dig out out. Shooting for less than two years to have the aero stuff onto a clean donor, then another five years til its all built how I want it. Believe me when I say, I've been lurking this board a whole bunch recently to get the gears turning.

Is PaulC still current in the forums here?

Yep, largely the same moderators and administration, a few have come and gone and a few are here but aren't as active. I guess message boards in general aren't as active thanks to social media but we still have a good core here.

Could enough of the body be kept that a roof (t-top) swap repair the fire damaged metal? The doors look good in pics, would think the firewall is ok.

Hi Justin! Yes, I'm still lurking around here keeping things going LOL. Great to see you back. I too am looking forward to see your progress. Glad to hear life is getting on track for you. As always, let us know how we can help.

PaulC

Nice project, you will need a complete parts car to put the Aero back together. Question though, why was it necessary to pull the VIN tag? Did the fire destroy it?

That is going to be allot of work, but enjoyable work. Cool that your parents kept the car all these years in the garage away from the elements. Good luck.

Thanks so much, Paul! Great to be back and great to see you're still active! I'm more pumped about this than anything in my life. I recently got smacked with the most fateful luck I can recall. Turns out, a friend of a friend just a few miles away, has swapped two aerocoupes so far and even has the factory manual that GM sent to C&C for the conversion. He quoted me an incredibly attractive price to do the job. Now I just have to do some major gutting, cleaning, and patience for the right SS for my donor. I cant imagine a scenario where I WON'T have this done within two years. Glass guy comes tomorrow morning to pull the window, actually!

Thanks all, for the warm welcome back.