Grand Am Off Topic Thread

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yes it was !! :D

I had a blast , even though I did a lot of driving to my wifes family party/get-togethers.
And the weather was great christmas day. The night before was about 20 deg w/ 45 mph winds, very cold! I bet santa got frost bite. :lol:

Didnt ever find a PS3, ended up getting a Xbox 360 as a family gift for everyone. I must say in HD it's freakin awesome !!!!!! :grinyes:

To bad I had to work today.
I wanted to play with my toys... :(



:lol:

Well I'm, glad to here you had a good time! I guess "Santa" came through and made everyone happy over by you! :grinyes: I can't complain myself.... so far some clothes,, a few Dvds, and some stuff for my cell phone. BUT i still have presents coming my way from other family! :iceslolan I'm looking forward to it!

Well I finally got these pages to load on AF today.
I couldnt ever get any threads to load lastnight . :banghead:

Yeah santa came through with great gifts of joy! :lol:

All I realy got was a few gift cards and a few dvds.
Superbad, that Reno 911 movie, havnt had time to watch any dvds though.... did play Halo 3 for about 3-4 hrs lastnight though. :naughty:
My kids got a few 360 games, havnt played all those yet either.

Well, back to the grind(er)! lol

I got a second 8800GTS and Bioshock, along with a power drill (YAY!), a $70 mouse, $350, a crapton of clothes and stocking stuffers, and my sister got a Wii and a bunch of games. GOD do my arms hurt from the boxing game!

awesome awesome christmas but I miss my gf :(

btw, anyone have any luck with a rear strut bar?

Hey XI, if you ever setup your xbox live account with your 360 let me know ;) Ill play you in some halo3,

I bet HD on component looks pretty damn nice, I just use the front AV y/r/w cables..., everything is slightly blurr'd (small text, red colored font) but plays games just fine lol, just anything small sucks

OK WTF is up with the forums. For the past like week I've been having problems. Either it doesn't load at all, or the pages don't load, OR I can't login!!! GEEZ!!! I've been spending my time elsewhere cuz of this.

Well lost about 2 hours of my life today sitting in line at the state inspection station with my dad's car. :banghead: Gah that was brutal! I finally got through it all and passed thankfully, came home with a headache... THEN my sister came in with my 3 yr. old nephew. So needless to say my headache is MUCH MUCH BIGGER. :bloated: "uncle Paul, I want to see the trains... Ahhhhh.... as he bounced off the sofas." All i can say is Only child + sugar = a very bad combination. Plus to add to everything I just had christmas dinner #2 ( which isn't a bad thing) except I feel like I gained another 5 pounds. I need to find a dark hole and crawl in for awhile.....

Sorry Vipey I forgot about you needing that strut bar.
I havnt seen any though on fleabay for some time now.

Gir I might need to take our 360 to a high speed interweb for that, but sounds good. I rock with these type o games! :evillol:

Oh grfnkl, you are not the only one !!
Its been all f****d up the last 4-5 days. :disappoin
I've lost some posts and then get the page cannot be found or the busy signal.... :banghead:

Its being worked on as I've heard, though who knows when it'll be better.....
I think the servers might have crapped out. :dunno:


Wow I posted with no troubles this tyme Superbad !

My computer is running EXTREMELY slow this morning. I guess i t hasn't woken up completely. On the good side though I got my laptop up and running though.... not completely legit per-se... but it's working! :grinyes:

Well today is christmas #3 for me... my other sister is coming into town, with my other nephew and niece... and thier 60+ lb rotweiler that thinks she's a lap dog.... So I guess I'll be gaining another couple pounds...not that's a bad thing though. Well I'm off to get everything together for thier arrival.

lol I have a couple 60# lap dogs too. :)

Be safe in your travles and parties this evening everyone!!
Cops will be out in swarms ! :D

Happy Holidays!!

happy early New years everyone!!!!!

Happy Hangover !! :bloated:

no hangovers for me!

I was a little hung over.
Beer, shots, to many sweet drinks does it everytime. :D

I cant remember to much of lastnight..... except thier was tequila involved.

Then I got to listen to my snow plow grind the pavement all day, damn weather! :rolleyes:

it's friggen COLD here! I just went out to bestbuy a little while ago it said 22deg. in the car and the wind was kickin up. Tomorrow the high is only supposed to be 25! AHHHHH. To top it off i have to go to a wake tomorrow, that's more then likely gonna be packed so I'm probably gonna be standing outside in this cold as weather... :crying:

Well since I've been bored I did some stuff to the 6... only appearance stuff let me know what you think... I made my own custom eyelids for the car and blacked out the front emblem.... I also bought a set of blacked out taillights... I should be recieving them next week.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/grfnkl/Forum%20Pics/IM0010451.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/grfnkl/Forum%20Pics/IM0010491.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/grfnkl/Forum%20Pics/IM0010461.jpg

pretty sweet dude :thumbsup:

yeah it's really cold here too... up in Granger, we got like about 2 feet of snow :uhoh: thankfully not as much down here in West Lafayette, but it still took me 20 minutes to get ONE DOOR open!

low of -6 tonigth with a wind chill of -13... dear god!

thanks!

Right now with the wind chill it's 4 degrees and to go as low as -1 degrees maybe even more over night with the wind chill. We just have the cold weather... we haven't had any snow lately... even from the other day's storm. Just a flurry and that's it... it's such a tease it drives me nuts.

I wishd it was a balmy 25 degs...

The high yesterday was 8 deg, about 12 deg today. :rolleyes: With the wind it was below 0.
We got plenty of snow here too. Went drift bustin in the GT the other night when it was snowin/blowin it was much fun!! Almost got it stuck a few times, but I was able to back out.

After spending so much time outside the last week my ear and throat is killing me!
Goin to see my Dr today and get some drugs..

Yeah grfnkl, I like you G6's rims, they look like the GTOs.

Vipey, to keep your doors from freezing shut, use armorall on the rubber door gaskets, ice wont stick to silicone or what ever is in that stuff. :thumbsup:

Well back to being cold. :uhoh:

my footsies are cold :(

heh, I feel lucky every winter on missing out on the below 20F degree weather. right now its 48F with some wind lol pretty nice, cold tho at night.

I think I might be getting sick, ive had cold symptoms for a day or two, I think ima try and prevent myself from getting sick... grab some nyquil on the way home, sleep good for a while and see if it helps

not much goin on here, just work work work

orange juice for colds! and zicam... that sh!t is the sh!t! yum!

Colds are overrated.

It's a balmy 45 here today! :lol:

Took the SE out and blew off some dust..
and :uhoh: I think my flex pipe or my EGR pipe. :rolleyes:

Kinda peeled out in some of that loose sandy stuff, and about 7k rpms later the exhaust got realy realy realy loud all the sudden. :eek7:
To dark to screw with it tonight.

I was hoping the flex pipe I was using(since my last ditchin incident) came loose.... at least its the weekend! :D

What's up with that "dig it" box on the top of the page by the page numbers? What is that for, a new rating system?

edit:

I take it back I think it's an add.

Yeah dig it, I think its some kinda ad/rating stuff. I dont click it. :grinno:
Most of the time I dont even see it, it's that ad on the left that sucks unless... you have a wide screen.

WOOWA!

ITs a sultry 62 degrees today! :bigthumb:

I'm breakin out the shorts! :grinno:

Well the SE has a cracked rear header down pipe, I think I can fix it though. Guess that's what I get for not using the flex pipe to begin with. :rolleyes:

Though, it'll have to wait, got some football games to watch today!! :D

OK i have a somewhat dumb question to ask here but what the hell. Are there more then one size spark plugs for car (at the base where you screw them in)? and if so what size wrench would i need for I;m guessing what would be standard plugs for a GM vehicle? I thought I had the right size in my tool box to be sorely mistaken. I then thought WAIT my father has one in his tool box... WRONG still too big!!! If I can find out a size maybe I can hit the auto parts store tomorrow and pick one up.

The plugs should be 5/8".

Well I got the SE fixed yesterday. But now my GT has a broken rim. I hit a pot hole big enough to fit a basketball into. :disappoin I see my insurance goin up this year... :banghead:

Thanks Xi! I just checked my OTHER tool box that i never use in my garage... and what do you know... I have a 5/8th in there! I should have looked in there to begin with. :banghead: Oh well.

Giant potholes and a PITA right now. Sorry to hear about the GT's rim. I guess you are gonna be hitting the salvage yard soon for one!

Potholes the size of basements! :angryfire

Yeah I'll find a couple, my insurance says they'll pay for them, just not new @$500ish. Found 2 on ebay lastnight, $250(used)+$95ship, and the other was $350(used)+65ship. I'm in the wrong bussiness!

Hoping I didnt mess up the spring or strut, didnt have time to put it on a lift today.. mondays:uhoh:

Here is a pic of my rim, it is cracked!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/xeroinfinity/gtwheelbent2.jpg

At least its a balmy 70 today but now were in a tornado watch.... great! :rolleyes:
Thank god for big basements. :D

ouch ouch ouch!!!

That seriously looks pretty effd up LOL



-sent from my iPod

Yes it is.... still cant believe its holding air.

What's the iphone run a month ?

LOL thank god i lowered my car!!!!! great story, tell you all tomorrow about it :D

Yes it is.... still cant believe its holding air.

What's the iphone run a month ?

:dunno: lol I dunno... $399 to buy currently
I only deal with the product, and not the AT&T service.

Personally I dont like the iphone, sure its freakin sweet as in new technology but alot is left out from a 'standard' phone that costs $300 less and does more 'phone' than a iphone can.

Basically, think of the current iphone as a ipod slapped together with a pos phone lol and some bells and whistles lol

I got the ipod touch as my own xmas gift... and I hacked it and added my own bells and whistles :biggrin:

Jeez Xi... CRACKED TOO!!!! I'm shocked myself that it's still holding air. Definetly check those struts!!!

I got an interesting phone call this morning. My former manager called me, but since i was still somewhat sleeping I put it to voicemail. So I check the message about 10 mins later. So shes telling me about my former job and how bad it's gotten ( BTW she put her 2 weeks notice in so they are screwed) So she was telling me about that. Then she tells me that they are considering on calling me up to see if I want my job back. I laughed so hard at that one. :cwm27: I see they've gotten really desparate since they have NO new business coming in and no one wants to book anymore. :lol: Oh that made my day!

:dunno: lol I dunno... $399 to buy currently
I only deal with the product, and not the AT&T service.

Personally I dont like the iphone, sure its freakin sweet as in new technology but alot is left out from a 'standard' phone that costs $300 less and does more 'phone' than a iphone can.

Basically, think of the current iphone as a ipod slapped together with a pos phone lol and some bells and whistles lol

I got the ipod touch as my own xmas gift... and I hacked it and added my own bells and whistles :biggrin:

Yeah they are pricey.
I dont think they are all that either.
Out here, most of those services are crappy and costly I like my Razor. :D

Same with ipods thier over priced mp3 players.


Jeez Xi... CRACKED TOO!!!! I'm shocked myself that it's still holding air. Definetly check those struts!!!

I got an interesting phone call this morning. My former manager called me, but since i was still somewhat sleeping I put it to voicemail. So I check the message about 10 mins later. So shes telling me about my former job and how bad it's gotten ( BTW she put her 2 weeks notice in so they are screwed) So she was telling me about that. Then she tells me that they are considering on calling me up to see if I want my job back. I laughed so hard at that one. I see they've gotten really desparate since they have NO new business coming in and no one wants to book anymore. :lol: Oh that made my day!

When it rains it pours :disappoin
Speaking of which, it's been doing for 2 days. I bet Vipey's flooded out down there. Heard the rivers are over flowing, and people evacuated. :runaround:

I think the struts are good, though it sounded like they were coming through the dash. :eek7:
I have a new set of KYB GTRs but they are for the SE, they are shot for sure. Anyway I still cant find a rim, found lots of chrome 5 spoke but not the pewter... :banghead:
Might have to just buy a set of chromes... :loser:

I'll tell you right now grfnkl, works over rated..... :lol:

watch out for those pot-holes!

Well took the GT to the shop this morning, the rim is realy cracked on the inside. :eek7:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c242/xeroinfinity/gtwheelbent.jpg

A did find one recond.(used) from a wholesale warehouse for $175 w/shippin, it'll be here tomorrow afternoon, yeah ! :D
Strut, springs, and the tie rods all look good, just an alignment and it'll be as good as new... maybe. :lol:

BTW if anyone's interested in ram air hoods check ebay, $360 !!! :evillol:

Jeez!!! Cracked all the way through, and yet it was still holding air!!! That still amazes me.

Well I'm not having the best of luck today. I went and finally got around to starting up my Grand am after sitting for about a year and half now. The car fired right up on the first try. I was getting all excited thinking oh Great everything is working well! It was running very nice and smooth everything.... then began the problems!!! I went to rev the engine finding the gas pedal very stiff well when i finally got it to go, the car wouldn't idle down. so thinking it was just stuck.... WRONG the accelerator spring back thingy broke... and I have yet to figure out how that really goes. So after bandaging my finger up for slicing it open while bringing the idle down on the car. I figure well Let me put it in gear and see if I can move it.... I press the brakes and my foot goes to the floor... but better yet i hear the brake fluid squirting all over the ground. So now the car is completely immobile! :banghead: When it rains it pours! and since the car is on an incline in the driveway it's gonna be hard to fix this stuff right now....So now I have to figure out what to do and how to do it. :shakehead Sorry about the long post this just frustrated the hell out of me today.

As it got colder today the tire did start to go flat,
so i'ts on a jackstand untill the UPS guy comes. :runaround:

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with crappy luck this week. :D
Sorry to hear the GA is giving you fits, you know how it goes with the GA's. :lol:
Probly time to replace some brake lines. You might get lucky and it just be the rubber hose, and not a hard lines.
Those always suck changing. :p

I wonder what happend to Vipey...
It is realy flooded around down his way, hope he can swim. :grinyes:

Yeah your definetly not the only one with bad luck on the G/a's this week. I'm pretty sure it's one of the rubber hoses that blew... and considering that they are original of the car and that being 20 years old now... Oh WAIT I can now claim the car as a historic! holy CRAP!!!!! SCORE! I didn't think of that! That means cheap insurance, Historic plates, and no more state inspection! Wohoo!!!!

Yeah where has everyone been anyways lately? It's been so quite out here.

Well i'm off to continue to clean out my room some more so I can paint it for my parents so when i move out there is less for them to do in order to sell the house

wheeee! yeah it's pretty nastily flooded...

so yeah long story short, couldn't get out of a parking garage two days ago, so i found the highest opening gate i could (one of those wooden arms that come down to prevent you from leaving) and attempted to drive under it... it was soooo close to my roof, it was BARELY tapping it... i could hear the vibrations from the arm on the top of my car... and i snuck under it, ahahaahah! If my car wasn't lowered the inch and a quarter it was I would have been stuck in the garage with no gas! so I win :D LOWERING ROCKS!!!!

I'm still alive, not swimming my way out but definitely close :D

Historic plates ! Never thought of that :lol:

Glad youre keeping your head above water Vipey.
I saw the tipicanoe river earlier and it was way over the bank, probly 10 ft over. My wifes Grandma lives on the lake that Indiana beach is on.. Lake Shaffer I think. She evacuated yesterday just to be safe and dry. Rain realy sucks, I'm tired of mudd!

Looks like snow for the weekend, yeah! :grinno:
Might get to see the Colts play in the Dome on Sunday. :bigthumb: :D
TGFITDA !

yay ordered rear strut bar! hope it's not flimsy and stupid :D

Who would have ever thought an 88 grand am would be considered a historic... :grinno:

I'm sooo super excited right now! I just got my tinted tails in for the 6... And I can't wait to put them on! Urgh the excitement is killing me!

I'm actually surprised that I have heard NOTHING on the news about flooding out by you guys. Normally if there are any abnormal event going on outside the tri-state area we normally hear about it.... but nothing. Huh... interesting. Well stay dry guys.... I'm off to figure out how to get the tails in! :grinyes:

yay ordered rear strut bar! hope it's not flimsy and stupid :D

where'd you get it at??

where'd you get it at?? Flea-bay ... they have ram air hoods, cheapr too... :sly:

Yeah grfnkl, they dont want to scare the east coast, cause its headed your way. :eek:
I towed over 200 cars yesterday. Mostly due to trying to drive through deep
water, over 2ft deep. Idiots ! :rolleyes:

Now its getting cold out, snow predicted. :uhoh:
I did get the GT back in order the alignment was way out, now my steering wheel is actualy straight when going straight. :lol:
Was lookin through the packing slip and I have to send back the core on my old rim. Would have made a nice grinder stand. :(

I just done this search on google for pcm pinouts(circuit diagrams) and found this site... we're listed on it. :confused:
http://boardreader.com/fp/Automotive_Forums_com_Car_Chat_14238/Grand_AM_622259.html

Have a great weekend everyone and stay dry ! :D

Hopefully that rear sturt brace is of good quality and not made out of aluminum foil! :lol: Well we got some of your rain today, but i'm sure not nearly as bad as your guys. we were supposed to get another wave of rain, but it never happened. Just a few rumbles of thunder then the sun came out like a half hour later. Go figure.

Well I put the taillights in the G6. Here's a couple pics for you guys.... They aren't extremely dark, but it's a noticable difference from what was on there.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/grfnkl/Forum%20Pics/IM0010711.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/grfnkl/Forum%20Pics/IM0010691.jpg

Looks good!

I like your neighbors T-bird too! :D

Looks good!

I like your neighbors T-bird too! :D

Thanks!!!

I will say that my neighbors t-bird is probably worth more as scrap then a whole car. :uhoh: There is nothing left of the lower rear quarters or frame, he just bolts on new sheetmetal and bondos every 2 years. It looks decent now since he just did it again a few months ago. He put a whole bunch of money into the new vinyl roof top, but yet he has to hot wire the car to start it (when he can get it started) it leaks oil and other fluids really badly. The tranny makes a LOAD clunk into gear. Oh and he can't really open the trunk unless he pries it open since the spring mechanism broken. If i can get close enough to take some pics for you to see I will... ( hes very strange and paranoid about things :sly: ) So if he sees me taking a pic he may think I'm up to no good since I'm not well liked by him. :evillol:

Thanks!!!

I will say that my neighbors t-bird is probably worth more as scrap then a whole car. :uhoh: There is nothing left of the lower rear quarters or frame, he just bolts on new sheetmetal and bondos every 2 years. It looks decent now since he just did it again a few months ago. He put a whole bunch of money into the new vinyl roof top, but yet he has to hot wire the car to start it (when he can get it started) it leaks oil and other fluids really badly. The tranny makes a LOAD clunk into gear. Oh and he can't really open the trunk unless he pries it open since the spring mechanism broken. If i can get close enough to take some pics for you to see I will... ( hes very strange and paranoid about things :sly: ) So if he sees me taking a pic he may think I'm up to no good since I'm not well liked by him. :evillol:

Sounds like every other Old Ford out there. :cwm27:

I figured out that I towed 218 autos, which was actualy in a 36 hr period. Still that's a lot @ $60-80 each = aprox $14000. That should be enough to buy some new toys for the shop. :grinyes:

Play off weekend guys !!! :popcorn:

I know what you mean Xi... Ford= Fixed Or Repaired Daily!!! :iceslolan A nice chunk of change there for your shop!!!! I wouldn't mind something like that!

So something was brought to my attention just a few minutes ago. It's something for us (and me being former) G/a owners may want to look out for or into!

http://www.modexcool.com/

Yeah being up for 36 hrs was not worth it realy. Once uncle sam takes his share I wont make much.

I've heard about that Dex classaction thing but it was only in Canada.
I'll have to check into that, because they owe me for at least 3 changes of thier OEM gaskets.
Not to mention the 100s I've changed for others.

Cars they all suck! :lol:

Well I had an upsetting day... I thought we were gonna get some snow.. and much to my disappointment, there was nothing outside when i woke up. I was hoping that at least i wouldn't have to go to unemployment today. I guess i was wrong.

Yeah that dex classaction suit is for America! I'm looking forward to getting something back for the money i put out to fix the g/a!

Well dinner time for me... Later

We had a little snow lastnight and today, right now its snowing realy big flakes.
Radar map shows nothing. :uhoh:

Well the chuck hole took another bite, today I noticed the pass side trans seal was leaking.
It probly happend when I hit the hole, it shoved the axle up. :rolleyes:
At least I had one on hand.

.....not a good monday. :shakehead:

We had a little snow lastnight and today, right now its snowing realy big flakes.
Radar map shows nothing. :uhoh:

Well the chuck hole took another bite, today I noticed the pass side trans seal was leaking.
It probly happend when I hit the hole, it shoved the axle up. :rolleyes:
At least I had one on hand.

.....not a good monday. :shakehead:

Yeah you definetly aren't having a good monday already. Those trans leaks suck too. they start out all nice and slow then start flowing out pretty fast once you drive enough. At least you are getting it all fixed up. It's cold and rainy here now and I have no motivation to do anything. I'm just gonna kick back and watch my Dvd's... starting off with "The Italian Job" :popcorn:

at least it was ur GT and not ur SE, especially since u just got that beast fixed!!!

ugh, my weeks are so class heavy, yuck! :(

[ http://www.apple.com / http://store.apple.com ]

We've released new products and such, not sure if any of you would want to take a look.

We now have the world's thinnest notebook =) Along with a few more items.

Yeah the SE & GT, they've both been through a lot over the last year, they may need counseling. :D

If it wasnt for bad luck , I'd have no luck at all. :uhoh:

wow that mac book is really really thin!!!! Jeez! I just finally got my laptop working after a few months of sleep. I don't think I'll be purchasing much with no income right now... :grinno: well then again....