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Just picked this up today, ‘93. Unmolested one owner Carolina car. Been parked a long time. Timing belt failure.

A friend of mine bought this off of Ebay and wanted to share it with everyone. Pretty cool historical information of the car's development.

'91 GTP 5-speed

Here's the link to the timing belt change I did on 11 January, 2020.

Went out on a long test run through the neighborhood backroads and man what a car! I had to put some 1x4s down at the end of the driveway to keep from scraping the road. Also had a near panic moment coming across some new speed bumps. I recall seeing the lowered cars hit the bumps diagonally and that seemed to work just fine. To much traffic on the main roads and even on the backroads to get into the pedal though, plus the no tag thing...

A little more clean up has been done. I need to order another round of terminals to crimp one of the fan plugs, and some others for the right electrical buss (fuse box), as well as the PCM terminals. I also need to either modify the throttle and cruise cables or get different ones, as they are overall too long (not a big deal), but more importantly, the throttle end is too short to attach properly. Also also, I'm debating retaining the EVAP function. I know I don't have to, but it doesn't hurt to have and helps to avoid having transient gas fumes venting all the time. Thoughts?

Alright here she is, the 1989 Pontiac "2000 Le" from Trenton. For some reason that was what the auction lot labeled it as. I had a 3rd party inspector check it out and run the VIN prior to bidding. It was a one owner car from NJ until it went to the auction lot, a slight front end collision a few years ago that set its title into the salvage category. That had to have been repaired out of pocket and when the car was repainted as theres obvious overspray and some peeling around trim. Theres some slight scratches here and there as one would expect but over all it looks amazing for how old it is. 1st pic on the truck when it arrived, It didnt start at first so we pushed it off the trailer and into the driveway, the brakes worked great and the valence only suffered a little. It seemed to have a lot of odd electrical problems and wouldnt crank at all. Thinking it was the aftermarket alarm I went to pull the battery out so I could unplug the damn horn and saw it was from 2011. A new battery had the engine fired right up and I drove it around the block a few times then topped the tank off at the ethanol free place. ...TBC

The Lost Cutlass: My First Car It was 2009 and I was 15 going on 16 and searching for my first vehicle. My parents said I could pick any vehicle as long as it wasn’t too old. One day while riding through town I spotted a car that just struck a chord with me. It was Aqua Blue, two door and had mini quad headlights. I knew nothing about vehicles so I tried to find out what that car was. It was a 1993 Cutlass Supreme. I knew then, that’s the car I want. I searched Craigslist for months and never found one that was in good shape. I began to lose hope at finding one and settled for a Grand Prix. We arrived at the second hand dealer to inspect the Grand Prix and the salesman says “Sorry folks, it sold this morning.” We drove all the way to the city for nothing. On our way home, I searched Craigslist again and came across a 1991 red two door Cutlass Supreme. We were not very far from it since we were in the city so we crossed the Mighty Mississippi and headed into Illinois. It belonged to a old woman who recently passed, 95k miles on the clock. We looked it over and It was in decent shape for being 18 years old. I wasn’t thrilled about it. It didn’t have the quad head lights, wasn’t the blue I liked and it had this digital cluster that was not my taste. I was tired looking at cars and bought it on the spot. Let me sum up the next few years, I FELL IN LOVE WITH THAT CAR!! Cutlass Charlie, I named it. I graduated high school still driving Charlie and she was starting to show her age and the repairs kept getting costly. My parents offered to buy me another vehicle as a graduation gift. I gladly except the offer. I ask to keep Charlie as a project car, not wanting to give her up. My dad says “No, it’s got to go.” I sadly put a For Sale sign in the window of my car. A man stopped by my house and said he was looking for a car for his son,who is turning 16. He looked Charlie over and wanted to buy it. With a heavy heart I take one more drive around town and remove my license plate. Before I let the car go I take the owners manual and all the papers as a keepsake. Vowing I will find the car again...someday A few years later, I was heading to a construction site to help my dad with a job. Off to the right of the road I see sitting in tall grass Charlie with a for sale sign in the window. My heart started pounding but I was a broke college kid and couldn’t afford to buy it back. The next day I drove by to see the car and It’s gone. One day, a few month later, I was driving through town and pass by our local funeral home and in the parking lot was Charlie. I’m wondering who the new owner is. The next week, it’s sitting in the same spot at the funeral home. A few more weeks later I see it again at the funeral home. I’m starting to feel bad for the owner. Every one they know is dying! One day I was sitting at a stop light and coming down the road is Charlie. Finally, I’ll get to see the owner I thought. The car drove by and to my shock it’s a local Catholic priest, Father Ted. No wonder it was at the funeral home all the time. I got a full time job and a little bit of extra money just burning a hole in my pocket. I miss Charlie so much I began my search for another one. If I can’t have my original car I want one exactly like it but I ended up falling in love with a 90 CS Convertible, Rocket I named it. In October ‘17 I bring home the convertible and begin working on it. I returned home from the auto parts store when my mom asks me if I had heard the news. “What news?” I said “Father Ted passed away”, showing me the headline on Facebook. I hated to hear that. He was a family friend and well respected member of the community but in the back of my mind I thought where is the car? In January of ‘18 , I was asked to come work for our local Assessors office doing some real estate work. I eventually get moved to personal property doing data entry for vehicle tax values. One morning my co worker was showing me how to add and take off vehicles in the computer and the functions of the Missouri DMV website. The Mo DMV website has every vehicle registered In the state of Missouri listed by VIN. Out of curiosity I looked into older tax records just to see if the VIN for my car would still be on file. After a few minutes of searching I finally found the VIN. I immediately ran it through the MO data base hoping it was still registered to somebody. Watching the screen load felt like forever. It was still registered to Father Ted but next to his name was a Transfer on Death, a woman named Bea. As the months went on I searched the county trying to find Bea. I wanted to know what had become of my CS after all these years. Everyone I asked knew her but they didn’t know where she lived or knew how to contact her. February 12, 2019: The mail had arrived at the office and it was all personal property tax forms. I began sifting through the large tote and select few at a time to start working. I grab the next form to input into the computer and it is Beas form WITH HER ADDRESS! I finally knew where to find her. I immediately typed it into google maps and she lived only 5 miles out side of town. After work I jumped In my car and set out for her house. After taking a winding road out of town I turned on a old forgotten gravel road that was lined with rusty barbed wire and overgrown weeds. I headed down the road and out from behind a tree as I rounded a corner appeared my CS; sitting alone under a pine tree covered in Sap and mold with flat tires, peeling clear coat, foged headlights and no license plate. I stopped the car and stared in awe. I finally found it! The memories started to flood and seeing the damage that time had done made me angry and sad. Then the question arose, was it for sale? I wasn’t a broke college kid anymore. The next morning at work I wrote a letter to Bea asking the question if she would want to sell it. The worst she could say is no. Two days went by and my phone rang and I didn’t recognize the number. I picked up the phone “Hello” “Hello, this is Bea, I got your letter and I have a few questions before we go any further” I could tell her guard was up and she was suspicious. I explained to her who I was and we made some family connections and small talk. After a few minutes on the phone she became more comfortable with me and freed up. “I’m sorry to badger you” she said “I’ve been In law enforcement for 30 years and now a days you can’t be too careful with people” “I understand, do you know anything about the car and it’s condition?” I asked She let out a big sign and said “Well...not really, Father Ted and I were friends for 20 years. I found the car on the side of the road. He was looking for a car to just drive around town. I’ve never driven it. He started to get sick and he didn’t want to fool with the car anymore so he was going to take it to a junk yard. I convinced him to not do that. I thought it was a cute and neat looking car and I didn’t want to see it scrapped. I just got it because I was the Transfer on Death. I have no plans for it. I just didn’t want to see a perfectly good car get scrapped. If you want to buy it I’ll sell it to you but I would like a fair price. “I understand, that’s ok with me!” I said. We chatted some more and she said “I will get in touch with you later, my brother passed away. I just wanted to call and touch base since I got your letter. Give me a couple weeks to get some family things worked out and I’ll call you again.”I gave her my condolences and said to take all the time she needed. I wasn’t in a hurry. I hung up the phone smiling, knowing my foot was in the door. Summer was in full swing and I had not heard from Bea. I wanted to call her but with a death in the family you never know how a person is doing and I didn’t want to badger her. I got the courage to call her again but there was no answer. The next day also no answer. I was getting concerned. Finally one day at work I get a phone call. “Hello, this is Bea. I’m so sorry I missed your call. My sister passed away a few weeks ago and I’ve been busy with my family” I held the phone speechless. I felt terrible calling her. “I’m so sorry” I said “I didn’t mean to bother you. I just wanted to let you know that I was still interested in the car since we haven’t talked in a while.” “Oh yes, I remembered.” She said” I’ve just had a lot going on. I know you want your car back and as far as I’m concerned it’s yours and I’ll sell it to you. Just give a couple weeks. I have the title and have to have it corrected to my name first” “That’s fine” I said “I feel terrible for calling you now, I had no idea. I’m so sorry” “ thank you” she said in a trembling voice. “I feel bad for you though too. I know you want this car and I’ve had all this stuff happen to me and I know you’re eager.” I told her it’s just car and I’m in no hurry to get it. When ever it’s a good time just call. As the air began to cool and the leaves change I began to grow more anxious. I had found the car 7 months ago and still had not seen the car up close,only from a distance. Bea and I exchanged phone calls from time to time just to touch base and talk. She said she was searching for the title but couldn’t remember where she put it. I wasn’t worried about the car. It was behind a locked gate on her private property. One afternoon I was out and about and decided to drive by the car just to gawk. I headed down the road and I began to panic upon seeing the car. There was a dent in the door and the driver window was shattered! I screamed inside! How long had it been busted out! It wasn’t the last time I saw it! Who did this? Some of the interior pieces are hard to find and where I live there isn’t a W body in the junk yard for miles! I got home and immediately call Bea. She answered. “Hi Bea, I went and looked at the car today and I noticed the window was busted out.” She said “You know I thought I noticed Somethin was different the other day.” “With the window broke, if possible, I would like to get it out of there as soon as I can or at least put something over the window.” I consernly explained. “I know, I know” she said. “I know you want the car and I’m just too sick right now to meet with you. I’m trying my best and I know you’re worried but ,if you want,the gate is unlocked. I don’t mind if you go and look at it and put something over the window.” The window had been broken I’m guessing for close to a month. I was nervous. It had been hot and rainy the whole time. I just new the interior would have some damage. After work one evening, with her blessing, I grabbed my tool box and the battery out of the convertible and headed to check it out. As I headed down the long barbed wire lined gravel road the butterflies in my stomach began to fly and hundreds of memories began slowing resurfacing. I parked next to the gate, got out of the car, and unwound the rusty chain. Bea told me she didn’t live in the house the car sits at. I walked into the yard surrounded by vehicles just sitting in the tall grass with flat tires and expired plates. There were Jeeps, Tauruses, Sables and utility vans scattered about but sitting in the corner of the fence, parked next to a 88 Blazer, under a pine tree, rested my car, Cutlass Charlie I named it. suddenly every detail of my teen years became clear and car seemed to speak to me in a sickly tired voice, “Hello friend.” A lump began to gather in my throat seeing the damage that time had done. The car had a zombie like appearance with the fogged headlights, peeling clear coat and caked on dirt. I sat down my things and opened the door. Spider webs woven like streamers began to tear away while the rest of the shattered glass fell to the ground revealing a dusty, dirty, cat hair filled cabin. Besides the dash being slightly curled from the summer sun, the interior was intact down to the cassette player with the keys in the ignition. I reached down to open the hood and and it unlatched with a load squeaky moan. I lifted the hood to a oily and dirty 3.1. Once again to my surprise everything was intact. I put the convertible battery in to see what worked and what didn’t. I turned the key and the UB3 dash lit up immediately showing 122k miles. The passenger power window rolled down flawlessly with out any tired noise and the glass was churning in the driver door. The power locks snapped up and down and the blower motor churned out a musty smell form the vent system. I flicked on the lights and the head and tail lights shined through the dirt. Charlie was alive but barely. I popped the trunk to reveal a swamp. Pine needles had clogged the channels and water filled the trunk. I left that day knowing It was a race against time to get the car. I taped a bag over the window and left. It was a week before Thanksgiving and Bea called to talk. She was very ill and in and out of the hospital. “Well, have you thought of a price?” She said. “I have, I’ll offer you $400. It very rough” I said. “Oh my gosh” she gasp. “That’s what I was thinking,$400” So we agreed, $400. Winter was approaching and I told her we should just wait till spring. I didn’t have an indoor place to work on the car and I kept driving by periodically to check on it Over the next few months I combed local junk yards searching for parts but they were few and far between. I did manage to find the window. More waiting then, the day came; August 29, 2020: It was hot, cloudy and humid. I finally got to meet Bea and take Charlie home. We did our paper work and I grabbed a small bowl to scoop out the water in the trunk. The water was brown and muddy but submerged were the original jack and tools, starting to rust. The tow truck arrived and he began hooking the car up. With a moan, the car slowly came out from the grave onto the roll back. “You know, I’m a MOPAR guy but, I always did think these cars were neat when they first came out” said the tow truck driver. “This was my first car.” I said. “No shit, that’s awesome you found it. And it was still local too!” We loaded the car and headed home. As I drove away, Charlie behind me, I saw Bea standing on her porch watching the car leave just as I had done eight years prior. Only, she was saying good bye to a piece of her friend, Father Ted; not just a car. At home we unloaded the car and the rain began to fall. I taped more bags over the window to keep the water out. Seeing the car in the driveway was a time warp. All the memories came flooding back again. I felt as if I should say “welcome home, it’s ok now” It had finally hit me. I set out to find Charlie five years ago and here she was. Let me sum up, I FELL IN LOVE WITH THAT CAR...again.

Over the weekend I did a down and back to central Florida to pick up a white 1994 Cutlass Supreme convertible I saw on Auto Trader. Pictures are forthcoming as I put the car right into storage for a few months until the weather turns. It has just under 60,000 miles and has the infamous 3.4 motor. It's got some issues but what old car doesn't. Someone got some crappy oily/sappy goo on the hood I will have to work at to get off. The weather-stripping around the tiny rear window is not staying on it so I'd better not drive this car in the rain until I fix that. The motor has a slight miss when idling and I'll guess being driven 100 miles in the last 10 (!) years might have something to do with that. I have new spark plugs and new spark plug wires on the way, it could use a good tune-up. The white top is filthy, I just ordered a kit to hopefully address that. The interior in this car is absolutely MINT and it's burgandy, really sharp. It has an aftermarket radio which gets the boot as soon as I locate a correct CD player so I can get those steering wheel controls working again. All in all I think this is going to be a great car once the above is addressed. NO rot underneath and no funny smells anywhere leads me to believe this car was always garage kept. Even the trailing arms have no rot. We'll see........

Greetings all! I've only been poking around this forum for the last few weeks after I acquired my recent project, a 1989 Cutlass Supreme 5 speed FE3 with what I've been told is a 3/4 of a Razzi body kit (based on the rattled canned front bumper cover, I'm guessing the Razzi cover was damaged and removed). I've also read that these were often dealer installed? It looks well done. But I guess the original owner could have just spent the money to have it installed elsewhere. I saw the car on FB marketplace a few months ago and was instantly telling my wife we had to go get it. We drove the 4 hours with a dolly to pick it up only to find an issue with the title. So I told the seller if they could get the issue resolved, I would buy it. Well fast forward a few months and the FB ad gets posted on the GM FWD Society FB page. I comment saying I'm in talks to buy it but I'm waiting to hear back on the title. A guy comments mentioning a way to get the title issue fixed and says if I don't end up buying it, he's going to and use it for parts for one of his projects. I told myself "The hell he is!" and quickly made plans to go buy it. This is it the day I brought it home. Sat in a field for months and got mowed around, so it was dirty The interior isn't bad, I'd say 6/10. It needs some love and I am going to try and restore it as much as possible with some liberties. Its the red interior, so I've been toying with the idea of putting red 04-06 GTO seats in it. Would also allow for the passenger seat to be power as well. Ideally I would love the higher end buckets that came in the later International coupes but those are a lot harder to find. The reason the seller sold the car was supposedly because the engine was "blown". However after putting a battery in it and reconnecting the plug wires, it started right up and ran great (did hesitate a little when revving). No knocking like the seller said it had. No coolant in the oil or vice versa. Not sure what they determined was blown about it lol. However, I have plans for an engine swap anyway. Leaning mostly toward a L67 but turboed instead (I have a lot of experience with building and tuning turbo cars). Just a small turbo with baby boost to keep the 282 alive. Oooorrr an LS4. The latter would be a little more involved with finding a clutch and flywheel though. But I will still need to find a setup for an L67, so I'm still weighing the options. Sorry, I'm letting this introduction post get away from me. Just excited to share and hear everyones thoughts! I plan to start a build/resto thread in the near future! Oh which reminds me, if anyone has a factory shift knob for one of these and is willing to let it go, please message me lol. I recently discovered the Cutlass Supremes have a unique lever and other factory GM screw on ones won't work :(. Anyway, thanks for reading! Here is a pic in the garage after we washed her.

And it's in............. hopefully for the last time................for awhile... or at least until it runs. The cradle is bolted solidly to the car at this point, and the motor mounts are loosely attached (gotta get more bolts and nuts). Everything fits so far, so now its on to wiring and plumbing. I also did a little trimming on the PCM box to tuck it farther into the fenderwell. My goal was to keep it in the stock location, and I think it'll work.

Here is More Vintage W-body Photos that I been meaning to get myself to share