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Hey everyone! My name is Justin, I was active here many many years ago when I had my '91 Lumina. Since then I've gotten married, had a few kids (2 boys who both inherited my car-guy genes), and owned a few Jeeps. I picked up an '04 Impala with a 3400 a few days ago, and heading back over here was one of my first thoughts when I started looking up sound system and headlight fixes / improvements. - Justin

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I would have given you the heart and blown a kiss if Luke haden't changed it, but you got a "thumbsup"

Not that I'm a rampant homophobic or anything but at some point after we land on our feet would it be possible to change the "Heart" to something like a "ThumbsUp" when we like content?

Hello, everyone name is Adam was active on here for a long time with a 94 lumina that looked like it had a disease damn gm paint problems . Sold the lumina had a grandprix for a bit got a Mazda 3 and some other cars . Just picked up an 04 Buick century with 90,000 miles for free has the normal rotten rocker panels but otherwise pretty clean only have one pic in the process of doing all new brake lines and brakes front and rear . Already have ordered new rocker panels and will be going to pull a part to get the ground effects off of a regal to cover my crimes lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Took a while to get into it but success! Forgot to take pictures for anyone finding this thread later but I'll describe it best I can. I took off the kick panel, carpet cover, metal support thing, and lower part of the plastic steering column cover to check out all the wiring. Nothing appeared to have been touched so ruled out crappy aftermarket remote starter right there. I found the cable that runs out of the ignition cylinder and followed that way under the dash to where it plugs into the rest of the wiring harness. Unhooked that connector and checked for resistance on the two terminals while the key was is in the ignition and got a big fat open signal on my multi-meter. Proper solution to my security light now would be to replace the ignition cylinder but with how much those cost and getting new keys made I went for the bypass. I cut that ignition cylinder wire about halfway up the steering column to give myself some length and went inside to solder on my resistors, then simply plugged in that same connector now with two resistors looped on the end. Turned my key and the security light went out after a second or so in the run position and off completely while running. The wires on the ignition cylinder lead seem to be covered in a weird type of plastic that you can't really strip off. Tried a few times but just ended up taking wires out with the coating. Solution was to just burn off an inch or so with a lighter.

I think you posted that one for me before since I had pictures of it from an insurance auction place with the pictures date stamped 2010.

Glad you got it all sorted out!

Day 3 and not a moments trouble with the new starter. Still going well. Believe it's fixed up and hopefully will not have anymore problems with that issue. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

If it weren't 4 hours away, I would go. Check with Digitaloutsider, he's a couple of miles from that yard.

This is my first post with the upgraded site,,,,, AND also my 25h post!!! We'll see how this displays when I submit this... The posts were showing with NO spacing or gaps,,, No matter how I tried to set it up in the text editor... One thing I DO notice with the new site,,, The posts don't seem to be numbered,,, whereas they were with the old version... In a real long thread it's handy to be able io point to a specific post number... There is probably a setting for it somewhere..... If it is on my end let me know.... ThanxXx,,,, Tom B... PS: It looks GREAT!!! (as far as how it displays)

Big dreams of drag radial life for next year Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Now after all that, that wasn't so hard, was it?

New starters on. Fires right up and no lag. Gonna go for a drive and take the old back to Autozone. That will give it a chance to get good and hot. Then will see what happens. Fingers crossed it was just a crappy reman starter. This starter even sounds more powerful when starting if that makes any since. More responsive basically. Spins over really well so far. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Noticed after I posted these, they are different sizes. I do not know the part number for the smaller ones.

You're on the right track the resistor bypass is probably for you. If the car has remote start someone else's resistor could have come loose under the dash.

Good heavens...

Done the mini-quad LED upgrade on my '92 GTP. I used Opt7 (USA) off Amazon, 6K, 7000LM (3500/ea) in the lows and 8400LM (4200/ea) in the highs. Contrast that with about 1200LM on the HIRs. I think they were about $89/pr for the lows, and $109 for the highs. Obviously not the cheap route, about as expensive as you can buy on Amazon, but at $200 complete still way less than an HID upgrade. I had already done 9011/9012 HIRs in the housings back in 2013, so it was drop-in. You have to remove the existing bulb without damaging the housing itself. Then you need to rotate the new ones in the housing until the beam looks its best, and use hi-temp silicone (preferably the copper stuff) to secure them in place. What I found is you're better off finding (or buying) two more low-beam housings. They're rare to find good ones that aren't chipped or cracked in the junkyard, and matching two is even rarer. Depends on your patience and whether you care if they match. Only a handful of cars ever used them besides W-bodies. '93-97 Camaros also did. After 4 years with HIRs, I can say with complete and utter awe that the LEDs are jaw-droppingly better than the HIRs were. They are awesome once they're properly aligned and aimed. Especially the way they light up reflective signs, it's incomparable to incandescent. Pic below from a previous post.

If I had a lot of money and a lot of space it would quickly become a lot of cars, no money and no space.

I shipped my car to Botswana after i replaced the top, so i can't take pictures to show you. But what i did last year when i went, i installed three strips of stainless steel on top of the vinyl at the tack strip. One in the center by the third brake light, one across each seam where the quater meets the rear window. I secured these with long bolts (countersink heads) that go through the body. All this reinforcement then gets covered by the trim pieces. See if this is something you can try. The strips were scrap from a pile of metal i found at a metal shop.

Not bad out the bottom. It sucks holding it up with one hand and getting the bolts in though. Starters don't seem really heavy until you hold them straight up with a bent elbow.

For what it's worth, my 91 has chrome inserts on the outside weather stripping and black inserts in the inside top of the door panel.

On my old '97 GTP, I had a belt squeak that would not go away. There was no alignment issue I could see, my assumption is that it was the back side of the belt on one of the pullies. Car originally had a Gates on it, but it was old and in need of replacement. Went through two Daycos before finally giving up and just trying a (at the time) Gatorback. Squeaking never came back for as long as I owned the car afterwards. At this point all I run on my cars are the Continental Elite belts.

That brick has a ton of cartridges! That's a $300 date on Ebay.

Update: I'm mostly finished installing the top. It was very difficult to do as a daily driver, as I spent a lot of time getting out and putting away my tools and supplies. Plus I had to do every step two or three times at least because I did it wrong the first time or it didn't line up. Eventually I would just say "good enough", curse, and move on to the next step. The good news is that it rained this morning and the new top didn't leak! I was surprised to see the water beading up on the top surface because my old top, and my two fox-body Mustang tops didn't do that. What products should I use on the vinyl top to protect it and to keep it waterproof? The bad news is that my installation does not look professional, there are lots of little problems with the edges. I told myself I would be honest with you guys and show the blemishes so others trying this in the future don't feel bad (or they feel good for doing better than I did!). I didn't have time to re-paint the three plastic trim pieces or my windshield frame or my mirrors. Now they look really bad next to the new top. But if I wait until the car is "done", then I'll never take or post pictures because it's a 215k mile daily driver that is NEVER "done". I need to redo my cracked rear quarter rust repair. My paint is scratched and dull. The trunk doesn't line up right, etc etc. I'll post the pictures over the course of the next few days, in separate comments.