Long story made short, spun out this morning on the way to work and hit the guard rail... and i couldn't be more pissed off right now. Anyway, AAA hasn't looked at the car yet, but judging from the picture, I'm sure you'll all agree with me in that my GSL-SE is probably totalled.

But here's the quirk, despite the aesthic damages, the only important thing that is f**ked up is the frame, which you can kinda see in the picture. Other than that, I can actually still drive her, as long as i don't have to turn right (passenger-side fender is in the way of the wheel). There is no engine compression, and the radiator is still in one piece (amazingly enough). She still can use all 5 gears (i assume, I only put her into 1st 2nd and reverse... but i assume there are no problems with the higher gears...), and sounds perfectly normal.

So now my questions for all you experienced 1st gen grease monkeys are:

1) "If I were to find an 84/85 FB body, would i be able to just swap in everything from this one into the new body?"

2) "Is this the best way to go about resurrecting my 7?"

and 3) (I know this should probably go in the classifieds section but) "Does anyone know of anyone selling a FB body/frame in the Seattle, Washington area?"

I'll probably post this in the want ads too...

Thanks!

 

If you find another SE shell it would be pretty easy, but with a non se shell you would basically need everything, wiring, suspension, fuel system,ect...

 

Why not just slice the piece of the bent frame that you need and then weld it onto the orginal frame and reinforce it so it's just as strong or stronger than the orginal frame. This would give you a perfectly good repair for the front part of the frame that's all bent up... assuming that that's the only part of the frame that sustained serious tweakage.

 

I dont think the "just" is justified in that sentence. These are unibody cars and so what may look ok may in fact be tweaked and if you are just gonna slice the peice thats bent.... well, look at the picture.

 

You're right about the difficulty in seeing if the whole frame is completely tweaked, only way he's gonna know is by removing all the front panels and hood and looking at that and the rest of the car. But Unibody frame repairs are all welding and patching based so it is just a bigger repair job really.

As long as his frame isn't out of true by more than a little bit ((prolly a couple degrees? I dunno how you'd measure the torsion...)) he should be able to repair the frame.

 

Bad mood now?

Wait till you get that smack in the face from the insurance company when you see the size of the check they are going to cut you.

 

just find any 84-85 chasis that has a sunroof. everything else you can swap from the SE. if youre going to stay fule injected then youll have to swap the SE hard fuel line that runs from the engine bay to the back of the car.

 

Take off the bent frontend panels (hood, fenders, center section) call around to frame alignment shops for prices, drive it to the best sounding one and they'll straighten it pronto for a modest price. Find your nearest Pick n Pull, try to go in on half-price day (look on their website) and the panels will cost about $100-200. they have prices posted at the entrance.

I've straightened headlamp mounts with a couple 12"-14" crescent wrenches employed as bending forks, some adept bumping with a ballpeen hammer, etc.

Live and learn.

 

Hey guys, I found an 84 GSL body on criagslist in seattle with a burnt out engine for 750, good deal? I figure i'll take what I need and part it out.

In terms of replacement parts, basically EVERYTHING in my SE is good, my radiator isn't even punctured. The only real mechanical things that are busted are my headlights, and turn signals. Airbox, radiator, engine, you name it, are all still in good shape.

Anyone know approximately how much it would cost to get the frame cut and re-welded like some people were suggesting? (I'll probably still just swap bodies... but I am curious...)

And I think it's gonna take a lot more than just some straightening to fix that passenger side headlight mount... that thing is seriously maimed... But yeah, I'll definitely call around to the alignment shops after the AAA guy comes and takes a look at it.

 

cutting and rewelding is definatly not a cheap and absolutely not easy job to do. Your looking in the 4 digits at least. If you can do most of the swap work yourself, it will be alot cheaper in the long run. If you really go at it, swapping both cars can take about a week considering you work in the morning during weekdays.Its really not as hard as it sounds. Just time consuming

 

I'm with dj55b on this one. If the frame is bent, I would suggest just swapping parts over to the new body. To make it really simple, you could pull the suspension, engine, trans, and crossmember as one unit and then just lift the old body up to remove everything.

 

Okay, I'm pretty much agreeing with this whole swapping business... Now, does anyone know of where i can find a comprehensive list of parts in each of the 1st gen series so that I can know what parts of the GSL i can continue to use? It would just be nice to know which parts in the 84 GSL are identical to the corresponding 83 GSL-SE parts.

Thanks again guys for your help!

 

You're gonna need the wiring harness and the suspension out of the -se. I think all the headlight **** is the same.

 

the harness, the ECu, the engine, the suspension, the front cross member(the piece that hold the engine at the front) are the only differences, but even then all the stuff you take out of the GSL-SE will directly bolt into the GSL. There will be no cutting or anything that needs to be done.

All the interior is 100% the same even the guage cluster and stuff. If you plan on swapping the whole interior too, I would take out the one of the donor car fist, like this you can learn where all the clips are and stuf, and just incase you break you don't have to do the same on the other panels.

Also when doing the wiring harness, the way you pull it is actually from the inside of the car. Also doing the wiring harness from the other car makes it easier to find out where exactly you need to remove the clips and stuff. Its fairly easy to take it out as a whole once all the interior is taken out.

 

Thanks a lot dj55b, that was a really helpful and informative post. I'm probably gonna go look at and buy the GSL tomorrow, I'll tell you all what I find, thanks!

 

So what happened with the insurance? Did they total it and cut you a check or what?

 

Hey sorry about not writing recently, I actually haven't gotten the 84 GSL moved to my house yet... issues with getting a trailer... anyway. no insurance isn't getting me a check cuz i only have liability on mine... didn't feel like paying for collision when the car was only work like 1.5 G's. I'm pretty much self-funded at this point. i'll probably part out the 84... and get some more funds from there...

Anyway, in summary, it sound like i need to switch the:

a) engine (duh)
b) transmission
c) wiring harness
d) ecu
e) and fuel injection line

Correct? (Remember, going from 84 GSL to 85 GSL-SE here...)

Let me know if there is anything else... I am pretty much gonna be working straight out of the 1985 Workshop Manual...

Please let me know if there are any other differences between the 84 GSL and 85 GSL-SE.

Thanks a lot guys for your help, by the way...

 

i would take the SE tank, fuel pump/filter assembly, front and rear suspension, wheels and tires, as well as any other parts that may improve your car cosmetically

 

You need ALL of the SE fuel system, including the hard fuel lines and tank. Swap the rear end as an assembly w/brakes, swap the front struts assembly w/hubs/brakes. Study the 12A/13B wiring diagrams side by side, the harness swap should be plug and play. Take lots of pics of wire/bracket locations before stripping the engine bay.

 

Okay, so it sounds like there's gonna be a lot of swapping going on here. At this point i may just look into taking EVERYTHING from my SE that still works and putting it into the GSL. Whether it needs it or not... should be an educational experience, and I'm in no rush to get the car running again. I'm probably gonna strip the GSL to nothing anyway to get all the nuts and bolts electroplated and get the entire car re-painted, inside and out. I'll post pics of the GSL once I get it to my place.

Anyway, my 85 manual has a wiring diagram in it, but are there any differences between the 84 and 85 GSL wiring?

And I assume since both the 84 and 85 are the same series of the Gen 1's, i shouldn't have to do any mods to the chassis and frame in order to make the switch from GSL to GSL-SE... right?

 

The nice thing about stripping a body down to the shell is the amount of detail work that be accomplished that, in the long run, will preserve the car for another 20 years as a DD if done right. Sine the S3 was only produced for 2 years, there will be very few differences between them. I have a hard copy of the 85 FSM, it's the best of the series, never have seen the 84 edition. Even with a comp in the shop, the hardcopy follows me around.

Afaik, the general body harnesses are the same. Options, such as PW, GSL/SE packages, the extra wiring should be plug and play. There may be minor differences in the under dash fuse box and harness.