'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 Hey everybody! I'm new here. I've got a 1993 Buick Regal Gran Sport 4 door with the awesome 3800 TPI motor. The car has been in my family sense it was new. It has since moved from being an Arizona car to being a full time Florida car. It ran mountain roads in Arizona and carted me around to school and back in Florida. ATM I'm working with the interior because it got water logged from the recent floods we have had around here. I was able to get the wet carpet out and the dry stuff inside and fortunately it still runs like it should. I'm thinking about eventually doing a complete frame off restoration to bring this car back to it's former glory. A few questions I have: Has anybody ever thought of doing a RWD conversion for these cars? It pisses me off that GM missed the opportunity to make the W-platform a nice RWD sedan with a high performance V6 and manual transmission to boot. In factory form the awesome 3800 was shoehorned into a cramped FWD layout with no room for activites and no manual trans option. I'd hate to be the only guy on here that has thought about this idea. I love working on this car. I have no trouble with the interior and I would not think I'd have too much trouble with the body but the engine bay is rather cramped and access is constricted. I swear you have to pull the motor to do anything with the engine or transmission. Anybody else feel the same way? I'm thankful I have finally found a forum with people that love these cars. I thought I was an odd one out for awhile there. I'm sure I'll enjoy my time here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94 olds vert Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 Welcome! We know a fair amount about these cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galaxie500XL Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 I seem to recall even GM at one point was working on a possible RWD Lumina. Good to see someone from Pensacola on the list, growing up in a Navy home, we spent several years stationed there. I used to live in Crescent Lake, not far from Car City, and went to Brentwood Middle, and Pensacola High, till Dad retired, and we moved to Tennessee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertISaar Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 i want to say i've seen GM prototypes for both RWD and AWD 1G Ws. i think they were more design exercises than anything, but i have to wonder what production parts went in without modification and what ones required modification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Fury Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 Welcome to the madness! People have come and gone with ideas of RWD conversion but the reality is, you'd have to alter the entire floorboard to even get started. with the 3800, you have one of the more roomy bays, believe it or not. Try the 3.4 DOHC on for size Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 Welcome to the forum. When you get a 3.4 Dohc, you will miss your 3800. It's worse to work on a 3.4 than a 3800. To be honest, you don't really need to drop the engine to do anything, just take off the intake manifold. Loads more room there. RWD conversion is always tossed around, but not worth it. Swapping to L67 is also another thing that can be done instead of RWD conversion. It's tough to do but it's a lot easier than an RWD conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psych0matt Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 having picked up a 3.8 recently, and currently owning two LQ1s, I can say stress level on what I've done so far is about 1/6 when working on the 3.8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 2, 2014 Report Share Posted May 2, 2014 On the flip side, working on a 4th gen Camaro makes the W body look like childs play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thanks for the replies guys! I never figured that GM was actually working on the idea of a RWD W car. Nice to know I'm not the only one that thought of a RWD conversion. I'm aware that the floorboard would have to be cut and a few things would have to be relocated. So my car has one of the roomier engine bays because of the 3800...I still find it a pain to work around when you start digging deep. Some things are just infuriating to get to. FWD is rather intimidating for me ATM. I had a MUCH better time working around the engine bay of a 1986 Camaro with the 2.8 (SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES.) I guess I'll figure out some tricks as I go on. To summerise...the only thing I don't like about W cars is that they are FWD. GM nailed everything else but that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich_e777 Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Might have better luck custom fabricating W-body parts to a G-body(80s Regal, Cutlass, Monte C and Grand Prix) I looked into RWD conversion pretty heavy, even got a junk cutlass and stripped it down and gave up on a conversion. I love my car to much to do something that would F it up beyond fixing. RWD car might have us on the straights but damn I`ll but my CS up against any RWD car in the corners, my seats are the only thing holding me back from pulling more G`s. Instead of going after MOAR POWAR! I`m going for just a really cool looking ride that turns heads as a classy sporty daily driver. Something to add a bit of excitement on the road amongst the humdrum of crossovers, minivans and tiny little compact sedans. My very first thread I said similar things about how I disliked FWD, ruffled a few feathers at the time. Always old school Camaros out there already RWD and they are just getting rarer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Might have better luck custom fabricating W-body parts to a G-body(80s Regal, Cutlass, Monte C and Grand Prix) I looked into RWD conversion pretty heavy, even got a junk cutlass and stripped it down and gave up on a conversion. I love my car to much to do something that would F it up beyond fixing. RWD car might have us on the straights but damn I`ll but my CS up against any RWD car in the corners, my seats are the only thing holding me back from pulling more G`s. Instead of going after MOAR POWAR! I`m going for just a really cool looking ride that turns heads as a classy sporty daily driver. Something to add a bit of excitement on the road amongst the humdrum of crossovers, minivans and tiny little compact sedans. My very first thread I said similar things about how I disliked FWD, ruffled a few feathers at the time. Always old school Camaros out there already RWD and they are just getting rarer. I've thought about taking a donor W & 4th gen F and combining them to make the RWD W car. I'm just going off my general GM knowledge with that one. Probably what gets everybody hung up on the conversion is the K-member. It would take a lot of work to make a custom one to fit the RWD motor and still fit with where the stock one mounts. Then there is where the gas tank sits and mounting the rear axle. Your right about the Camaro's being around. Too bad the one I got was a total parts bin because I would have had it going if it were in decent shape. I've been trying to part that 'Maro out for over a year. All I have is the Buick to work with right now. Once things get in line I'll have 2 major projects to work on next. Fun times for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 What year Camaro is yours? I may need some parts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 What year Camaro is yours? I may need some parts... It's a 1986 Camaro Sport Coupe. 2.8 V6 with a 700R4 and a 3.42 rear end. Black interior and black exterior. PM me for more info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l67ss Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 On the donor car for rwd drive conversion 78-88 g-body is best donor. Nearly identical track and wheelbase. Plus you wouldnt have to worry bout extra bracing(full frame). Theres a rwd 96 monte somewhere on youtube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 On the donor car for rwd drive conversion 78-88 g-body is best donor. Nearly identical track and wheelbase. Plus you wouldnt have to worry bout extra bracing(full frame). Theres a rwd 96 monte somewhere on youtube Glad to know that bit of info. I was just going on getting a transmission tunnel from a car about the same age with a RWD 3800 drivetrain. No doubt that actually doing the conversion would be a tedious task. It's currently a pipe dream of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertISaar Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 the F-body/W-body graft has been done before and looks horrible. done with a 1st gen lumina, it gets to looking like a beretta because the guy decided to shorten the body panels rather than stretch the frame to the wheelbase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 the F-body/W-body graft has been done before and looks horrible. done with a 1st gen lumina, it gets to looking like a beretta because the guy decided to shorten the body panels rather than stretch the frame to the wheelbase. Any pictures? I'm kinda curious about how it looks and how the drive train is placed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l67ss Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 Glad to know that bit of info. I was just going on getting a transmission tunnel from a car about the same age with a RWD 3800 drivetrain. No doubt that actually doing the conversion would be a tedious task. It's currently a pipe dream of mine. My current pipe dream is a turbo ls4 5.3, f40 six-speed in my 97 monte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 It's a 1986 Camaro Sport Coupe. 2.8 V6 with a 700R4 and a 3.42 rear end. Black interior and black exterior. PM me for more info. Mine is a 2002 so nothing would be able to swap. I Was kinda hoping you had a 1993-2002. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Mine is a 2002 so nothing would be able to swap. I Was kinda hoping you had a 1993-2002. Shoot. That sucks. Well good luck finding what you need. I know that there are tones of Camaro pages out there. It should not be too hard to find what you are looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 4, 2014 Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Yeah finding parts for my Camaro is a cake walk compared to my Cutlass Supreme. Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Yeah finding parts for my Camaro is a cake walk compared to my Cutlass Supreme. Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk. I have a feeling that I may have the same situation with finding parts for my Buick. So far I've been told that I'll have to find new carpet and an interior cateletic converter heat shield from a donor car. Fingers crossed that I might find something on J.C. Whitney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l67ss Posted May 4, 2014 Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 I have a feeling that I may have the same situation with finding parts for my Buick. So far I've been told that I'll have to find new carpet and an interior cateletic converter heat shield from a donor car. Fingers crossed that I might find something on J.C. Whitney. Ws parts are easy to find, part of why I like these cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted May 4, 2014 Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 I have a feeling that I may have the same situation with finding parts for my Buick. So far I've been told that I'll have to find new carpet and an interior cateletic converter heat shield from a donor car. Fingers crossed that I might find something on J.C. Whitney. The beauty of your situation is that things interchange between cars. It's not like the Vert that had specific pieces for it, like say... the panels. You can easily get the carpet from stockinteriors.com but it will cost you around $150. It's premolded though but I've heard conflicting reviews about their stuff. The heat shield will interchange with all 4 W's. You can also get em from a 96 and call it a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'93RegalGS3800 Posted May 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 The beauty of your situation is that things interchange between cars. It's not like the Vert that had specific pieces for it, like say... the panels. You can easily get the carpet from stockinteriors.com but it will cost you around $150. It's premolded though but I've heard conflicting reviews about their stuff. The heat shield will interchange with all 4 W's. You can also get em from a 96 and call it a day. Thanks for letting me know that! I was not sure about if I had to get them from an exact car or if they would interchange between all the cars. I'll head over to the website and have a look at it. $150 sounds cheap for new carpet to me. I bought my P.O.S. '86 Camaro for $150! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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