Introduction - Silver the Sandy flood car
#1
08-08-2014, 07:03 AM
Introduction - Silver the Sandy flood car
Most of the cars I've owned over the years have been GM, and predominately Chevy. I've always done most of my own work, and restore old British cars as a hobby.
A few month back, my daughter finished her first year of college with a 4.0 average. As a reward, I decided to get her a car. Nothing remarkable, but a good solid used GM car that I could maintain.
If found a white 2001 Monte Carlo LS with 130K on the clock on Ebay. It was local, and although it had some problems (they turned out to mostly be common problems with the Gen 6 cars), I managed to get it for $1550. I spent a week and about $700 fixing it up and another couple of weeks driving it to be sure it was OK.
My next problem was that I didn't want to give it up. I did, but then started thinking about getting one myself. The 2001 Monte was pretty bare bones. It didn't have much in the way of options.
I started watching Ebay for another local car, and soon saw one that was kind of suspicious. It was a 2003 Monte Carlo LS with less than 19000 miles on it. It was loaded with options; Allow wheels, leather power seats, leather steering wheel, sunroof, trip computer, auto dimming mirror and more. It was not running, but the seller claimed the engine could be turned manually.
There were a lot of pictures of the outside of the car; it looked new. Not many of the insides, but it looked new as well.
Except.... If you looked closely, you could see rust on the brake and parking brake levers. Why? There was picture of the title. The address was blocked off, but you could make out the last 4 digits of the zip code if you looked closely. The zip turned out to be right in the Sandy flood zone.
Flood car. But only 19000 miles all of the options I wanted and the guy said the engine was free. I went for it. I bought it and went to Queens NY to pick it up using my '97 Land Rover (another project) and a tow dolly.
I soon found the engine was seized and complained to the seller, who tried to claim the car was listed "as is". I told him that not only had he claimed the engine turned free, which it did not (cylinder #5 was full of water) but he failed to disclose that it was a flood car. He agreed to refund me $1000.
I've been doing a little bit every day. With the title in hand I could now see that the car had one owner from new. I check him out on the Internet, and it turned out that he bought the car in March 2004 when he was 73 years old. He lived two blocks from the beach. He drove the car and had it inspected each year for 3 years. He put about 6000 miles on the car each of the first 2 years has shown by the inspection records. Then he never had it inspected again. I'm guessing it just sat there in his drive way for the next few years until the storm hit. The seller said that he picked it up in an estate sale, so it's likely that the car continued to sit there after the Storm, until the owner died. Someone had cleaned the inside of the car thoroughly after it was flooded, so there was no mold or rust.
I had no mold anywhere in the car, but I pulled the seats and carpet and cleaned them thoroughly. Had the same problems with the seat tracks, but I managed to get them out just as you did by lifting the foam. The power seat racks are all one assembly, and not designed to be repaired, but I did some cutting to get them apart and repaired them.
I pulled the entire interior out of the car, cleaned out rust & corrosion and rebuilt it.
I've replaced the climate control assembly, blower motor, vent servos, headlight switch, blower motor resistor assembly and body control module. I rebuilt the instrument panel with new motors and blue LEDs. I also rebuild all of the switches with blue LEDs and added them to the climate control assembly. I'm working on a PWM dimmer control to replace the regular one, since the LEds don't present enough of a load for it to work correctly. Making the circuit is easy, but I want to integrate it into the light switch so that using the existing **** still dims the instrument lights.
I had to replace the electric door lock motor in the drivers door and the trunk.
I also had to get new power mirrors, turn signal flasher(typical Monte problem anyway), and windshield wiper motor.
The sunroof & trip computer work, but the temperature sensor under the hood must be bad.
I'm hoping to salvage the engine and plan to pull the heads this weekend to see if I can free the pistons.
I've put in a touch screen Pioneer stereo and relocated the OEM stereo to the trunk, so I can still used the setup stuff and get the chimes.
Power door locks, power windows, Instrument panel, climate control, turn signals, remote entry, windshield wipers & washers, and rear defogger are all now working. After 2 weeks, the foam attached to the carpet is still wet, so I can't put it back in yet.
I hope to pull the heads on the car this weekend to see if I can free it up. removing it without being able to turn the engine looks like it would be beyond my ability, so one way or another it's going to get freed up!
A few month back, my daughter finished her first year of college with a 4.0 average. As a reward, I decided to get her a car. Nothing remarkable, but a good solid used GM car that I could maintain.
If found a white 2001 Monte Carlo LS with 130K on the clock on Ebay. It was local, and although it had some problems (they turned out to mostly be common problems with the Gen 6 cars), I managed to get it for $1550. I spent a week and about $700 fixing it up and another couple of weeks driving it to be sure it was OK.
My next problem was that I didn't want to give it up. I did, but then started thinking about getting one myself. The 2001 Monte was pretty bare bones. It didn't have much in the way of options.
I started watching Ebay for another local car, and soon saw one that was kind of suspicious. It was a 2003 Monte Carlo LS with less than 19000 miles on it. It was loaded with options; Allow wheels, leather power seats, leather steering wheel, sunroof, trip computer, auto dimming mirror and more. It was not running, but the seller claimed the engine could be turned manually.
There were a lot of pictures of the outside of the car; it looked new. Not many of the insides, but it looked new as well.
Except.... If you looked closely, you could see rust on the brake and parking brake levers. Why? There was picture of the title. The address was blocked off, but you could make out the last 4 digits of the zip code if you looked closely. The zip turned out to be right in the Sandy flood zone.
Flood car. But only 19000 miles all of the options I wanted and the guy said the engine was free. I went for it. I bought it and went to Queens NY to pick it up using my '97 Land Rover (another project) and a tow dolly.
I soon found the engine was seized and complained to the seller, who tried to claim the car was listed "as is". I told him that not only had he claimed the engine turned free, which it did not (cylinder #5 was full of water) but he failed to disclose that it was a flood car. He agreed to refund me $1000.
I've been doing a little bit every day. With the title in hand I could now see that the car had one owner from new. I check him out on the Internet, and it turned out that he bought the car in March 2004 when he was 73 years old. He lived two blocks from the beach. He drove the car and had it inspected each year for 3 years. He put about 6000 miles on the car each of the first 2 years has shown by the inspection records. Then he never had it inspected again. I'm guessing it just sat there in his drive way for the next few years until the storm hit. The seller said that he picked it up in an estate sale, so it's likely that the car continued to sit there after the Storm, until the owner died. Someone had cleaned the inside of the car thoroughly after it was flooded, so there was no mold or rust.
I had no mold anywhere in the car, but I pulled the seats and carpet and cleaned them thoroughly. Had the same problems with the seat tracks, but I managed to get them out just as you did by lifting the foam. The power seat racks are all one assembly, and not designed to be repaired, but I did some cutting to get them apart and repaired them.
I pulled the entire interior out of the car, cleaned out rust & corrosion and rebuilt it.
I've replaced the climate control assembly, blower motor, vent servos, headlight switch, blower motor resistor assembly and body control module. I rebuilt the instrument panel with new motors and blue LEDs. I also rebuild all of the switches with blue LEDs and added them to the climate control assembly. I'm working on a PWM dimmer control to replace the regular one, since the LEds don't present enough of a load for it to work correctly. Making the circuit is easy, but I want to integrate it into the light switch so that using the existing **** still dims the instrument lights.
I had to replace the electric door lock motor in the drivers door and the trunk.
I also had to get new power mirrors, turn signal flasher(typical Monte problem anyway), and windshield wiper motor.
The sunroof & trip computer work, but the temperature sensor under the hood must be bad.
I'm hoping to salvage the engine and plan to pull the heads this weekend to see if I can free the pistons.
I've put in a touch screen Pioneer stereo and relocated the OEM stereo to the trunk, so I can still used the setup stuff and get the chimes.
Power door locks, power windows, Instrument panel, climate control, turn signals, remote entry, windshield wipers & washers, and rear defogger are all now working. After 2 weeks, the foam attached to the carpet is still wet, so I can't put it back in yet.
I hope to pull the heads on the car this weekend to see if I can free it up. removing it without being able to turn the engine looks like it would be beyond my ability, so one way or another it's going to get freed up!
Last edited by gprtech; 08-08-2014 at 07:22 AM.
#5
08-08-2014, 11:18 AM
#9
08-29-2014, 09:02 AM
Sorry, no pictures yet, I'm not much of a picture taker. I tend to just jump in and work.
So far I've pretty much completed the interior work. Everything is working. I've got the new Pioneer touch screen stereo installed, new speakers all round, backup camera installed in the rear bumper.
I've had to replace the pins in almost every connector in the interior , but fortunately Mouser Electronics stocks all of the pins, and a lot of the connector shells.
I got a used BCM off of Ebay, and it seems to work fine. My guess is that the programming affects the options you have (supposedly my car has tire air pressure monitoring, but I can't see that in the radio options), but that the VIN programming only affects the stock radio security. Since my stock radio was trashed, I don't have any problem. I've mounted a replacement radio in the trunk to keep my chimes and allow easy programming of options, but that radio was hacked to bypass the security lockout.
I've added fog lights (the LS doesn't have them) and added the wiring for them, but the BCM doesn't operate them.
I've ordered another BCM off of ebay from a car that had fog lights, so we'll see if that works.
Since electronics is my business, I'm familiar with the processor used in the BCM, and I've downloaded the programming from the one I have. What I get the new one, I'll do the same. My plan is to look for the differences between them and try to identify things like the bits set to enable options and the VIN code storage. I can reprogram the units, so if I can identify the required changes, I can set up any options I want.
The engine wouldn't turn, so I had to pull it apart. It turns out that sometime before the car was flooded, animals must have crawled up the tailpipe and stocked up seeds in the front exhaust manifold( the car had been sitting for at least 3 years at the time of the storm). Since the exhaust valve of cylinder #6 was open, seeds spilled into it.
When the storm flooded the car, water came up the exhaust and into cylinder #6, turning the seeds into cement and rusting the rings. Cylinder #1 had the intake valve open, and water filled the cylinder, rusting the rings in place. all the other cylinders were like brand new, no wear at all.
I managed to clean out the stuff from cylinder #6, and filled all of the cylinders with PB blaster. For two days, twice a day, I would suction out the PB blaster and pound the two rusted pistons with a hammer on a solid steel bar at the 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock positions. At the end of the second day, I noticed that there was debris in the #6 cylinder. After looking closely, I could see a mark around the cylinder was where the piston had been. It had moved.
After a few more whacks, The pistons were moving. Not freely, but enough so that I could rotate the crankshaft and remove the torque converter bolts and remove the engine.
I pulled the engine and removed the pistons. The two cylinders where the pistons had been stuck had some pitting from rust, but the others were just like new, no ridge or measurable wear.
I've honed the two damaged cylinders 0.005" oversize to clean them up, but that's not even enough to make the first oversize.
I've ordered an engine rebuild kit with new pistons , rings, seals, gaskets, and bearings and will replace replace what I need to, but this engine is totally clean, no even any residue in the pan.
I figure to build the engine back up this weekend. Maybe I'll even get it back in.
So far I've pretty much completed the interior work. Everything is working. I've got the new Pioneer touch screen stereo installed, new speakers all round, backup camera installed in the rear bumper.
I've had to replace the pins in almost every connector in the interior , but fortunately Mouser Electronics stocks all of the pins, and a lot of the connector shells.
I got a used BCM off of Ebay, and it seems to work fine. My guess is that the programming affects the options you have (supposedly my car has tire air pressure monitoring, but I can't see that in the radio options), but that the VIN programming only affects the stock radio security. Since my stock radio was trashed, I don't have any problem. I've mounted a replacement radio in the trunk to keep my chimes and allow easy programming of options, but that radio was hacked to bypass the security lockout.
I've added fog lights (the LS doesn't have them) and added the wiring for them, but the BCM doesn't operate them.
I've ordered another BCM off of ebay from a car that had fog lights, so we'll see if that works.
Since electronics is my business, I'm familiar with the processor used in the BCM, and I've downloaded the programming from the one I have. What I get the new one, I'll do the same. My plan is to look for the differences between them and try to identify things like the bits set to enable options and the VIN code storage. I can reprogram the units, so if I can identify the required changes, I can set up any options I want.
The engine wouldn't turn, so I had to pull it apart. It turns out that sometime before the car was flooded, animals must have crawled up the tailpipe and stocked up seeds in the front exhaust manifold( the car had been sitting for at least 3 years at the time of the storm). Since the exhaust valve of cylinder #6 was open, seeds spilled into it.
When the storm flooded the car, water came up the exhaust and into cylinder #6, turning the seeds into cement and rusting the rings. Cylinder #1 had the intake valve open, and water filled the cylinder, rusting the rings in place. all the other cylinders were like brand new, no wear at all.
I managed to clean out the stuff from cylinder #6, and filled all of the cylinders with PB blaster. For two days, twice a day, I would suction out the PB blaster and pound the two rusted pistons with a hammer on a solid steel bar at the 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock positions. At the end of the second day, I noticed that there was debris in the #6 cylinder. After looking closely, I could see a mark around the cylinder was where the piston had been. It had moved.
After a few more whacks, The pistons were moving. Not freely, but enough so that I could rotate the crankshaft and remove the torque converter bolts and remove the engine.
I pulled the engine and removed the pistons. The two cylinders where the pistons had been stuck had some pitting from rust, but the others were just like new, no ridge or measurable wear.
I've honed the two damaged cylinders 0.005" oversize to clean them up, but that's not even enough to make the first oversize.
I've ordered an engine rebuild kit with new pistons , rings, seals, gaskets, and bearings and will replace replace what I need to, but this engine is totally clean, no even any residue in the pan.
I figure to build the engine back up this weekend. Maybe I'll even get it back in.
Last edited by gprtech; 08-29-2014 at 09:15 AM.
