Slow build thread lol
 

This is my build thread of sorts, basically a record of what I've done to my little Oldsmobile over the last 7 years.

2005:
Bought a 2001 GLS, low milage, no accidents, perfect paint. Really didn't want an Alero until I sat in one and fell in love with the interior. Picked mine up on a cloudy day, it was the nicest car I had ever driven.

I don't have the pictures from the first year, I didn't even own a camera.

Mods:
Lowered on intrax springs. Payed way too much to have them installed. I had never done more than a tire change at this point.
Painted the headlight bezels but kept the reflectors to stay legal.
Pretty sure I installed a cd player out of my 84' Cutlass.
Replaced the foglights with brighter ones for a trip to the mountains.

Had an accident in November, was hit going across an icy road at night. It tore the driver side wheel off the car, popped the trunk, ripped up the rear bumper cover and damaged the quarter panel behind the wheel well. They didn't write it off, and for $100 the guys sanded and repainted my chipped front bumper cover and filled in the holes from the license plate bracket (Saskatchewan had just switched to "no front license plate")

2006:











Mods:

Messed around with leds
Painted my calipers red
Probably installed an amp and sub + some 4x6s
Removed the shattered air dam
Had the lower intake manifold gaskets replaced

Riced out that engine bay lol


Painted my interior


2007:









Mods:
Dremeled some speakers to fit in my doors


R1 concepts drilled and slotted rotors


Started to de-rice the engine


started playing with the idea of modifying the front end, which is the ugliest part of an Alero IMO
electrical tape:

2008:

Mods:

ASA AR1 18x8 +35 et Nitto NT555 225/40r18








Chrome rims are one of those nice things in life

Designed and built a front air dam, even though I was lowered the front end was so far off the ground it looked like a 4x4 with those 18's









figured I had to do something for the back wheel well, Barf... didn't work


2009:


Mods:
Bought some motorsport-tech wheel spacers for the rear - 25mm






Bought some Grand Am GT rocker panel moldings -> $20 each! they were a little rough, one was cracked in 6 places but it is just plastic so it is was easy to fix.


Had this waiting for meh :(


HAHA installed the sides while working on one of my many failed attempts at making a front lip. Man that front looks bad!


trimmed down the sides






Again playing with the idea of a grill. Looks kinda cool but mostly weird


Heh I don't know what the hell I was thinking

2010:

Mods:
Hella Supertone horns, these will make you jump haha


Projector headlights, used OEM DC2 integra projectors because they were non HID and cheap. I made my own turn signal buckets out of cupholder ashtrays.




Modified the front bumper cover to make an upper grill. Required removing lots of plastic, and the headlight panel needed to be re-enforced. This opened up a large area that leads straight to the top of the rad.

This was the point of no return:




I didn't think I could make a good looking front lip, so I went to the local junkyard and walked around. I found a 1989 cavalier (4 door, 1988-1994)


and it had this perfectly shaped lip that was approximately the same width and length as the Alero front end. For $40 it was mine and after some cutting it was a pretty good fit. It was miles ahead of what I could have made myself, plus it was made of OEM material so it was strong and flexible.




I realized that the Alero front end looked horrible mainly due to the soft round lines of the lower bumper cover, so I cut all that out. I extended the center section upwards past the molded body line. In the center I removed the lower part of the plastic bumper so that it wouldn't show through.


I made some side canards out of lexan and started modifying a set of foldable DC2-intergra power mirrors to go on there. I also threw on a set of s13 side markers on there to keep me legal as my headlights had no place for reflectors anymore


other mods:
Grand Am GT muffler
Pretty sure around this time I did a full re-install of my stereo.

2011:
Didn't take a lot of pictures this year.

Mods:
Did a lot of grinding, cutting and painting with POR-15 to stop the rust.
Painted my supertones dark blue so they didn't stand out so much.

Corvette front brakes. Painted em florescent snot green just for the lulz


Removed the spoiler --> definitely a good choice


made some new side canards, and made some grill fins for the center section.



I generally worked on finishing up all these separate projects. The car was looking pretty sad though, with burnt out lights (my turn signal buckets melted), I lost one canard to a snowy parking lot and the suspension was on its last leg. The front lip was sagging in the middle due to it being mounted without being attached to the wheelwell plastic. Once I bolted everything down it curled in the middle.

2012:

Bought some euro spec headlights off ebay for a hell of a good price. Way nicer than my skanky projectors.


Had my second accident with the car, I spun out on some graveled pavement and ended up on someone's lawn after grinding across a retaining wall. The stock rims with my winter tires were ruined, I bent a trailing arm and my front lip fell apart. The suspension was thrown out of alignment and my factory shocks had had enough.

So instead of writing it off like I should have, I decided to rebuild it.

New suspension


not pictured:
I bought some '99 aluminum control arms from leoalero - good deal
Replaced tierod ends
All new endlinks for my PFYC swaybars
I found out that when I had my lowering springs "professionally" installed, the guy put the front springs on backwards... ei the top mount was rotated 180 degrees from where it should be. This caused my bearing plates to shred and had made a ton of noise and clunking for years.

Replaced my rear passenger side hub, the rotating mass was actually bent causing the wheel to wobble.


Picked up some swag. only 3500 in 700km that I could find. Not really sure what I am going to do with it, I might just resell it. It has the complete valvetrain. The valve covers and upper intake are off of an Impala.




Bought for shininess


After a lot of work the car still shook and shuddered when I drove it. Turns out my tires were completely gone. The sidewalls had separated which let the shoulder tread disintegrate. It was like driving on a square tire.

I also ripped a cv boot while adjusting the camber on my passenger side, so I had to replace the axle. Derp de derp.

New tires. Only the finest Chinese tires for my car lol. 255/35zr18. WAY better than the Nitto nt555. Really impressed! At only $150 a piece it was a great deal (considering Canadian prices lol)




I fixed some electrical problems. The lights would dim when I hit the brakes or used the stereo. Turns out the 3 little ground wires were the problem. I relocated them to new metal because the old bolts were corroded and broke off when I tried unbolting them. Fixed it 100%. Next up, my ignition switch was going, car would start but the body module wouldn't, so no gauges or power windows. Turns out it is really easy to fix, you can disassemble the rear of the ignition module and clean the metal contacts. Was kind of pissed that I had payed to have the same problem fixed 2 years ago.

current holder 2

So, what type of material are you making you custom bumper out of?

You will see in 2010-2011

koo

I do like the look of the "riced out engine bay"
IMO it looks cool. How'd you do it?

I really like those rims.

Buy a cheap bag of red wire loom, you get a bag with three different sizes. Cover everything in thar, including rubber and metal coolant lines. Make sure you buy the kind that flakes off when heated so it melts all over your engine. Also ask your mechanic to paint your intake and valve covers when he fixes your lower intake manifold leak.
Thanks they have been good to me over the years!

Soooooooooo update???

what was that front air dam made out of? i saw cardboard in some pics......but in this pic it looks pretty damn sweet!

Dude this build thread is awesome! I'm really really liking the progress you have going. Especially what you've done with the front end.

x2

updated!


Cardboard was simply for the designing part of it. It was made out of ordinary sheet metal. It was fairly easy to make and it fit on a totally stock front end. I wasn't too happy with the look though so I didn't finish it very well. It rusted up so I threw it away.

well i love the the look! i want that!

Sell me your projectors...

the pic two up from where 2011 starts, where the front bumper is there and some pieces laid out in front of it. is one of the the bottom of a gagt rear bumper??

yeah it was cut down to be just a lip and was modified to fit over the narrower Alero rear end. I'm not sure that I will use it though. It makes the back end look too wide or too low or something.