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Jr's Trep Sig Page and little Whore thread.

42K views 293 replies 12 participants last post by  jradams350 
#1 · (Edited)
Well I think it is about time to start one for my dear sweet trep..

As most of you know it had a really hard life when I got it and it was worse for the wear. It could of been taken to the scrap yard, but I saw potential in it and it does not look like it is the same car from when I got it.

I acquired the car back in October 2007 for free (only had to buy the fuel to get there to it and back), and there is a very long history behind this car and why it came into my possession.

Mods (if you consider them as mods):
Took a 2000 RAS radio's tape deck (Radio itself was dead) and installed it into my 1997 RAS Radio. (Keeping as backup)
Bought an 1st gen AM / FM / Cassette / CD Player and installed it.

Specs of the car:
1997 Base model
3.5L engine
Column Shift
AM / FM / Cassette Radio (Radio connectors was missing)
Candy Apple Red Metallic Paint (PHC)
Cloth interior
Manual Front Bench Seats

Parts Bought to Fix it Up:
Headlights, brackets, and Front Turns
Right Front Fender
Complete Inner-Structure
Hood
Front Bumper Cover
Fuel Tank with working Pump

There are still a few things I need to buy and have on order for the car, but that is still going one step at a time.

Parts Still Needed or on order:
New Radiator (The mounting pieces on mine is broke, but Radiator is not leaking)
2 Bolts to hold the front bumper cover on (Can buy those at my local hardware store)
Replace the Passenger side Door
Subframe bushings (On Order)

Well Enough with all the mindless chit chatter, and on with the pics :D

BEFORE I GOT IT:



AS IT IS TODAY:





There will be more to come in this thread, and there are a few mods that I am wanting to get done to it.
 
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#3 ·
Yeah it is a really nice Deere. Ir runs and moves pretty fast. The only thing you do not see is that it still has the middle buster on it still.

Yeah the trep is definitely going to look nice when finished, but 2 things is kinda got me thinking.

1.) The paint scheme. I was originally wanting to go 1 direction, but now I want to go 2 different directions with it (Paint will come later0

2.) I guess I am going to have to keep the steel wheels on it and buy a set of hubs for it. i like the steels but having a set of aluminum wheels would look nice as well.

The paint and the wheels are in the near future, right now I just got to track down a few minor things to finish it up and then move on to cleaning the interior.
 
#4 ·
A little history lesson about this car...

In January 2007 the original owners of the car did not know that their son let his friend get behind the wheel of the car and drive it. Well from what I gathered, they lost control and slammed it into a tree doing considerable damage to it. The impact was so great, it caused the accessory belts to complete shred (I guess they hit he fan blades), ripped out the battery wires from the battery terminals and killed the fuel pump.

I received a message about this car in October and after seeing the photos of the car, I wanted it. I got down to where the car was at (Small little community just outside a big city with an AIR FORCE BASE) and found out that the true owner was not there but he gave hiss wife POA to give it to me.

It took some time to get it loaded onto the trailer because I had to fight with my truck to get the trailer lined up to load the car on it, but once I got into position, it took little effort to get it loaded (of course having a winch does help:D). I had to block off the whole street because my truck and trailer was so long, and part of my truck was in the neighbors yard (They did not care at all), and all the cops did that showed up, because they were called, was verify what i was doing and they went on their way. had some mad people, but hey I can not help it because I had a very long truck and my 18 ft trailer attached to it.

Well once it was loaded, I did not worry about strapping it down at first, just moved the truck and trailer to open the road back up, then i strapped it down tight. It made the 124 mile trip on the trailer here to my house without any problems.

From October 2007 to January 2009, I was fiddling with the car on and off, re-timed the engine just in case it was causing a NO-START issue, checked all plugs, and installed a belt on it. Also during that time, I got all the parts to fix the body and it only cost me $200.
 
#8 ·
Thanks Cean, Dan, and Spencer. This car came a long way from what it was to now. My neighbors saw me driving it to the mailbox and they liked it. Uploading more pics to photobucket but that is taking some time. Of course it has a new fuel filter on it as well which I bought and installed.

Cost of car - $0.00 Free
Current cost of parts and all - S350 ($200 in body parts alone)

I have to admit, at first I did not like the car, but it grew on me quickly. If I get ticked off enough, I may replace the carpet with a new one (Same color).
 
#9 ·
Here are more pictures as I promised. Breaking it down so that it can easily understood :D

Here are better pictures of before I got it to get a better picture of the damage:










The Unload of the car:













Body parts and Electrical / Fuel System Parts:









Test Fitting of Parts:







The car was started and moved from that area in late November 2008 / Early December 2008 and is now where it is at.

I am still going through and trying to get all the rebuild pictures sorted out and getting them ready to be uplaoded to photobucket. I have the fog lights here in the house still, and I am going to clean them up and then reinstall them (Had to install new bulbs in them).
 
#12 ·
That was the complete front-end off a donor car at the yard. The yard personnel that I got the parts from, they cut that off, and in the process somehow set the interior on fire.

All the wiring was still in there when I got it, just did not have the cradle on it, but it still had the Air box, Rack, PDC, ABS system, Air Bag sensors, TCM (Still have it), PCM (Sold to a member on here), and a few other items.

I have had this car going on 4 years and it has been my pet project. The previous owners of it actually offered to buy it back when I was finished repairing it (other people have offered to buy it as well), but I declined to sell it.

Still looking into getting a new set of headlamp assemblies to fix a small issue with the ones I currently have with mine. The only major mod that I have done and going to undo is currently have an Eagle Vision TSi leather front drivers seat installed. Going to remove it because it is binding up immediately when you start moving the seat.
 
#13 ·
Well a semi new mod is fixing to happen to the poor thing. I have been fighting the connectors (Wire end) for the battery and I can wiggle them around and with little effort, I can pull them off the battery.

One of the biggest issues with the connectors is the fact that when I go and try to start the car, it clicks and there is no power at all. I have to wiggle the connector at the battery and then try again. It takes like 2 or 3 times to get it started. Those were brand new connectors I installed, and everything was cleaned / tightened but it still likes doing it. One time when I shut the car down, it clicked once (relay style click) and all power was gone. I tried a different battery and it still does the same thing.

Well the mod will be converting it from Top Post to side post, and I just got the parts today to do the conversion. Tomorrow when I have a chance and it is not raining, I am going to do the conversion so that I finally do not have to worry about the issues it has been giving me and have an easy time starting the car...
 
#15 ·
What kinda clamps are you using that you can't get tight? Could it be that you have the smaller negative (-) post, but the clamp you've got isn't designed to be used on the smaller post?

Converting to side post won't eliminate your problems - but at least you will have a universal 'language' in your yard of having GM style batteries. :cokey hahahahah
 
#16 · (Edited)
The clamps from both the original and the replacements are the exact same. and most of the time it is on the Positive side of the battery that is the cause of the issues.

Well I have an extra battery that is side post only that I am not using, plus the one I have in the car right now is currently on it's way out. It will not hold a charge for no more than a few days before being completely dead. The side post battery that is currently not in use was a brand new battery when bought last year and only used 2 or 3 times before I pulled it back out of the vehicle that I had it in..

It is do as what you got to do. Actually converting it over, I should be able to tighten it down better and it should not want to create a bigger issue than what i am already dealing with..

**EDIT**

The Top Post terminals (Connectors) I bought was Red and Black and they were installed correctly. The side post battery itself has a story behind it and why I still have it.
 
#17 ·
Well I am planning on keeping the current terminals just in case the issue is actually with the battery that is the issue. The car will freeze you out during the summer with the A/C on, and it feels like it will roast you during the winter 9heat works well)... Of course the gauge only gets about 1/4 of the way off of Cold before it stops climbing and the heat is good.
 
#18 ·
Well a weird / unusual problem developed with my car today. When I went and started it up, the gear lights were going crazy, and then the battery went AWOL again.

When started, the gear shift indicator was saying the car was in Reverse, but it was actually in park. Shift it to Neutral and the whole gear shift indicator lit up like a Christmas tree, then put it in drive, it says I was in Drive. After fighting it for a few minutes and the battery deciding to cut out on me (Battery was low on power), I did get it fixed.

The repair to it was so simple it hurts. All I did was pull Fuse 17 (Insturment panel) and gave it a minute or 2 and reinstalled it. At first I thought it was the battery, so I pulled it and put it on the charger for a while, but that did not fix the issue. Everything on the dash is now working correctly again after I pulled the fuse and shoved it back in, and a pretty new light bulb I never seen before finally popped up.
 
#19 ·
Pictures and Videos........







^^^ Click on image above to see video...





























I know my Airbag light is on. I do not have the fuse in the system right now, and I do not have one of the Airbag crash sensors on the car yet either..
 
#20 ·
I would like to thank Tom (Shadowvox) and Cean (cdmccul) for the visor clips and radio wiring harness. I am going to have 1 set as a backup just in case something happens to the other set of visor clips. Tom and Cean came through with the parts and were pretty fast at getting them shipped out.

 
#23 ·
Yesterday I started the conversion for the battery but ran into an issue there. The terminal bolts that came with the terminals were to short and would not go into the battery (weird).

I went to my local hardware store this morning (Had to get some things there anyways to fix a water leak) and bought 2 bolts for less than $0.50 and when I got home, I installed them into the battery with the terminals attached. I had to dig out 2 washers (one for each side) and install them as well to make it tight and have the terminals not move.

At first I did not know if the battery was any good even with the charge I had put on yesterday. Well I shoved the key into the ignition turned it to start and the car started right on up (scared me :D) and is running like a champ again. I no longer have to jump it off the battery charger to get the car started.

You can say Mod #1 taken care of and on to removing the carpet to clean it.
 
#24 ·
These are a few videos that I shot today while I was out working on the yard. I was working on a very low battery on the camera. The only thing about it is that the camera does not do audio. I am trying these out on YouTube as well..

The 1st video, it will look like a drop of water or something fell in front of the camera. It was not a drop of water, it was just a piece of paper.





 
#25 ·
These are just a few random photos that were taken today.




This one is of the new conversion from Top post to Side post. It is a little ******* way of getting it done, but it works and nothing is touching at all even though it looks like it is. There is at least 1/2 an inch in spacing..



Um, something is missing here :D I need to get one of those if I can locate one..



This is where the needle stops rising on the Temp gauge.



This one is of the tire tracks the car was leaving in the dirt. You can also see my boot prints.



As you can see there is only one set of tire tracks next to my boot prints.
 
#27 ·
That was the original 1st gen radio that was in the car when I got it. I am guessing it is the original because the previous owners of the car did state that it was eating cassette tapes when they tried listening to them. They yanked it out and hard wired in an aftermarket unit and removed it and all the speakers before I got the car...
 
#28 ·
I got a question to ask..

Is there suppost to be a bolt, or somewhat of a push pin that goes in to hold the front bumper cover to the fenders? I only ask because I got a bolt in there right now holding the bumper on, but the bolt had seen better days after..
 
#29 ·
There is a bracket that has a pushpin going through it that when mounted to the fender the bumper slides over the top of the bracket and under the edge of the fender.
If i end up removing my bumper this Saturday when i replace my condenser i will get a real pic for you.

Here's a quick drawing of what it looks like.

 
#30 ·
Thanks Ty. My car has 2 of those on each side and I have the bumper sitting on them. There is a hole in the bumper and in the fender like a bolt goes through it or a push pin. I am just not sure if it is a push pin or a bolt. I will make a drawing to about show what I am talking about in a minute..
 
#31 ·
Here is a couple of pictures to show which holes I am talking about. Both are above the text written on them. The bumper cover is already sitting on the 2 black rectangle deals, just need to figure out what all goes in the last hole..


 
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