Finally drove the Junkyard GA

[zegoldfish]

Finally, after a month of replacing this, removing that and wondering what the hell all these extra peices are for :D the Junkyard GA saw the road. And lemme tell ya what, I wasn't prepared for what I found. The steering and the brakes were so responsive I had to wipe the drool from my chin and it took off like a bat outta hell. I've yet to test its potential since I could only drive it around the neighborhood (no title, plates or insurance) but I had a huge goofy grin on my face the whole time. I can't wait till it's all finished.

[Jagey]

what is a junk yard GA. Definition?

[zegoldfish]

The Junkyard GA is my 2001 Grand Am GT. I bought it wrecked and rebuilt it.

[2002GT]

how much did u buy it for?

[AMRAAM4]

zegoldfish, were you one of the few with the Gold GAGT on here??

[BrianS]

Fellow Junkyard GA brother here! :D

I know exactly how you feel. When I first got mine put back together, I drove it around the neighborhood alittle. I actually drove mine with only one headlight and one tail light as well as no title, insurance, plates. I just couldn't wait, I had to see how she ran. Just be careful though, that would suck to get pulled over like that. I'm all legal now though.

I was also surprised by the steering, brakes and stuff. It was a big step up from an 89 SE 4 banger with no power steering and worn out struts. lol

[2002GT]

all and all at the end... wouldn't it have been cheaper to have just bought a used 2002 GAGT? w/o all the hassel?

[BrianS]

I got my GT for $3500, put in a couple thousand for parts (all the labor was free) and I now have a 2000 with 17,000 miles for WAY less than I would of paid for a used one. It doesn't bother me driving a previously wrecked car since I know how bad it was wrecked and I know it was fixed properly since I did it myself.

And best of all.... it is totally paid off so all those would be car payments can go to mods. :thumbs:

[2002GT]

yea thats tru... well i wrecked my ga and i just got it back thurs... 26 days w/o my car... i dont care about driving a wrecked care either... power to you!

[zegoldfish]

It would have cost me an arm and a leg to buy a used '02 compared to the deal I got on this thing. Got it "as is" for $2900 and all I have left to do is to rewire the headlights (exposed wires sitting in a junkyard for months = not good), put the trim on the bumper, install a few misc plastic clips and put the dash back together. All in all I've spent maybe $2000 on parts, repair and the paint job, which my cousin did an excellent job on, hehe. Oh, and airbags... that was probably the worst part. If it hadn't blown the air-bags the rebuild would have been MUCH cheaper... but airbags aren't cheap.

Plus, when I saw the custom tint on the windows and rear window I was sold. It's the kind that fades from silver to black. Lovely. Plus, you can't beat the Galaxy Silver, the fastest car color around.

I just went to the dealer today to pick up a couple of finish-up peices. I can't wait til all the paperwork's done so I can get this puppy on the road!

[zegoldfish]

Originally posted by BrianS
I got my GT for $3500, put in a couple thousand for parts (all the labor was free) and I now have a 2000 with 17,000 miles for WAY less than I would of paid for a used one. It doesn't bother me driving a previously wrecked car since I know how bad it was wrecked and I know it was fixed properly since I did it myself.

And best of all.... it is totally paid off so all those would be car payments can go to mods. :thumbs:

Took the words right out of my mouth. Because I did it all myself I don't have to worry about some assclown doing half the job. And, just like you said, no annoying car payments. Plus the sense of pride you get once a project of this magnitude is complete.

BTW, how badly was yours wrecked?

[BrianS]

http://users.zoominternet.net/~brian79/images/myga.jpg

Had to replace both fenders, front bumper, headlight, tail light, passenger side quarter panel, right lower control arm, and a couple of other small things(A/C hoses, fender liners, etc.). Thank god the airbags weren't deployed. Those things are expensive. Also had to pull the frame a little bit, it was swayed slightly to the left.

[zegoldfish]

heh, looks a lot like mine did, except my front end was in a little worse shape. No damage to the rear, thankfully. I ended up having to replace the k frame and had the crumple zone pulled. Straight as an arrow now. I really wish I had taken pictures throughout the whole process. Don't know what I was thinking!

[red rocket]

That's amazing that you could repair those cars for $2000 in parts!

[zegoldfish]

Salvage yards are a blessing for something like these babies. Around my area there were a ton of wrecked 99+ GAs so most parts were dirt cheap. And having a cousin who rebuilds wrecks for extra cash helps a bit too.

[intrepidtek]

check this thread for another junkyard GA story :)

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14859

[matthar924]

I too pretty much have rebuilt my GA, except I'm the one that crashed mine. I've narrowed down the reason for the crash to this: For some reason, my stereo is still wanting too much juice even after installing a 1 Farad Cap and Optima Red top. At night when the lights, A/C, etc.. are running, the juice isn't enough to power two amps in addition to the rest of the car...so...the ABS apparently wasn't happy and the light came on. I tried to stop on a road that sloped downward, but my choice became clear: Either hit a wooden post fence on my right, or risk getting T-boned from either direction if I slid past the stop sign into a blind intersection. I chose the fence....The insurance company totalled the car .a 99 GA with 118,000 miles..they gave me quite a lot...$6,700 for it..less my deductable of a grand and buying the car back..that left 5k to put the car back together...but not so fast...I had been rear ended and the kid that hit me screwed around with me cuz he wanted to pay cash..I got his insurance company..ironically the same as mine and just had not gotten it fixed...so, the insurance company paid me the estimated cost of repair on that damage...around $1,090. But they claimed that should be deducted from the 5K they owe me...so it went to the insurance board of reviews and I have no idea when I'll even see that money....

Anyhow, I wish I'd had access to junkyards with lots of GA's in em or even a body guy. The car needed a fender..which i got off an 03' in the right color from ebay, the bumper i got aftermarket for 40 bucks...just doesn't have the pontiac logo indentation in it like "true" pontiac bumpers do. Got a new GM header panel, aftermarket Headlight, GM Front Pass front window trim, GM mirror..so far the cost is less than 700 to put it back together! Including bumper paint. I just need the pontiac emblem..which might look good potruding from the bumper and some double sided tape to put the fender molding back on...I'm also hoping another dealer might have the plastic trim pieces to mount the trim...the parts guy today said it was built onto the trim piece and then changed it to it being a "door part"...it's a crappy dealership...Anyhow if anyone has some advice or wants to complain that this post is so long...feel free to im or email me ...thanks!

[AaronGTR]

My car was in a pretty bad wreck in july too. Insurance said it would cost over $10G's to fix it and totaled it. I'm fixing it myself and it's only around $5G total including replacing the aftermarket stuff that got damaged, plus I'm building up the tranny while I'm at it. I'm leaving out the air bags though to save money. They want some rediculous cash for those things. They went off in the accident and didn't even do any good. They actually gave my passenger a friction burn, which otherwise he would have had no injuries. They're such a scam... all you need is seatbelts so thats what I'm sticking with. The only thing that sucks is even with me fixing it myself to save money it's going to use everything I got from insurance. By the time I payed the deductible and salvage fee to get the car back, and payed for my ticket and other miscellaneous expenses, the wasn't a lot left.