Red headed Stepsister of the Alero
 

So, a quick rundown of things.

From 2001-09 I had a '00 Grand Am 2.4 Auto Sedan. AED kit, hood, supercharged, etc.
My ex wrecked it. Years ago. I stripped all the goodies off it, rebuilt the body kit most of the way (it was bad) and scrapped the car. Shortly after is when I bought the Alero from Richie.

I got out of the car scene for a while, but never got rid of my stacks of parts (mostly).

Recently the bug has bitten me again, and I've refreshed the Alero about as far as I want to take it before some body and paint work. It still needs some stereo goods, and a rear air strut rebuilt, but I'm happy with where it sits now, and it's a competent daily driver if the need arises.

So. I perused Craigslist the last few months, and this week I bought this.


It's an '01 Grand Am SE Coupe 2.4 w/ 5 speed
114k on the clock, and it's a BASE model lol
No cruise control
Crank windows
Spoilerless (ftw)

It needs motor/tranny mounts all replaced, but that's about it really.
A/C is almost all brand new, and it came with a deck and 2 subs w/ amp (nothing super)

So, here's a few more pics.




I am gonna go turbo on this one. More to come.

maybe it's just me but none of the pictures are showing :(

If this one turns out as nice as the old ga I'm wanting to see how this turns out especially after you turbo it!!!

2nd that

Should work now. If not, I forgot how to internet lol

I'll get some pics of what I have for parts soon.

I recently sold the supercharger kit, planning on getting an ecotec, but this ld9 one fell into my lap for cheap (and with low miles) SO turbo will be the route on this one. Not right away, but as time and money allow.

Nice! :thumb: no quarter panel rust?? Drill holes while you can
Shined up tires and all, just the pics or are there really no rock chips? Driving the cruze all computer controlled I've been missing the alero. Manual windows were a lot easier to make small adjustments... ahh. Would have been nice if they offered more options with the MT but I miss the bare bones drivers' car a lot.

You match all 4 windows height when their half way down too? Awesome

i can see now!!! She's clean wow!!!

I loved my ld9 alero's... Both ran close to 300k miles and still ran smooth when i sold them...

No rust here in AZ. However I did go look at an ecotec sedan that was for sale here. It was an IL car, and was TERRIBLE.
There's rock chips. Hood mostly. Fenders some. And someone that parked next to him hated him. The pics don't show it well, but the driver side has a bunch of dings.
Indeed I do. Good thing the one with manual windows is a coupe ;)


Super clean car. Little dash warpage (mostly beneath the steering wheel. kinda weird)

I got a stack of service records from the last 9 years they owned it. They took pretty darn good care of it.

I need to get some pics loaded of what I found on craigslist the day AFTER I bought the car.... Best craigslist find ever.

Hood that I have partially repaired. the passenger side front corner was completely missing and I took a mold from a stock hood and reattached it. Then sanded down a lot of the cracks and even though theres still more to go, I'm pretty happy. The work on these parts I did years ago right after it was wrecked. Lost motivation, and they've sat for a while.

the front was torn in 2 and I glassed it all back together and reshaped it. It was crazy. I wish I took pics of it beforehand, but I was just too pissed about it at the time.


the back bumper. Everywhere you see black it was torn. It was bad.



pacesetter exhaust #1. I was the Test Fit Mule for Pacesetter.


I still need to get some other pics uploaded of my craigslist find and other parts that I've had laying around for years.

So I went to craigslist to find a wrecked GT to get rear disc brakes and a few other things, but what I found first was this.



A red AED front and back bumper plus a NEVER INSTALLED set of sides already trimmed for a coupe. Still with the green sticker saying FIT BEFORE PAINT.

He had the ad up for 3 weeks already. He only wanted 500 bucks. I texted him with an offer of 300 and he keeps the spoiler. And he took it. I was stoked.

I actually saw the car these were on, but YEARS ago. When i had just got my kit and hood installed, but not painted yet, It was the only time I've ever run into another AED car without it being set up beforehand. Small world. Definitely didn't think at the time that I would own that kit 10+ years later. lol.

Just saved me HOURS of sanding and filling to finish fixing my effed up kit. So stoked. AND I have a backup set now.

Lots of other parts to go on also. More pics later

that's an awesome find man!!! I like the front with the PONTIAC in it as though there was a plate filler moulded into it!

Yea, all the AED kits had it, but my old one needed so much repair it would've been next to impossible to keep the lettering. Another reason I'm happy to have found the new kit. It's in really good shape aside from a couple small blemishes. Just like the car.

That's awesome!! I've never really paid that close attention to the grand am aed kits, only the alero haha for obvious reasons :)

Those will look pretty good sittin next to each other!

funny, I never really thought about the fact the alero kit has no lettering on the front.


I think so too. :coolio:

Some progress on the hood. Redoing latch. Remade corner. Removing and repairing cracks.

Other than this, still waiting for some tires so I can put the wheels on. Then I can put the Baer brakes on.

Got a front STB that clears the clutch res, and put on the red IDI cover. Forgot to snap pics of the engine bay, but here's some "under hood" shots for now.

Put wheels on. 18" Centerline Dynos with 235/45/18 tires

That's one of my favorite brands for these cars....

Tires a little tall, though, huh?

Thanks. I love the look of these wheels.
The tires are a different size than I've had in the past. I've always ran a 225/45 on an 18, but I found a set of 4 Dunlops for 180 bucks used for less than 50 miles. I pressed my luck a bit and went ahead.

Since I will have the AED kit on it, I don't plan on lowering it (maybe eibachs lol). So the taller tires are nice to fill the wheel gap and keep from hitting the kit on driveways etc.

However, they rub.

Only in the back, on the strut perches. It's so minimal I could grind the perches a bit without fear of ruining their integrity. OR I could run a spacer, OR a set of washers since it's literally like a millimeter I need.
I used a washer set for the time being. I did it on a set of Konig Monsoon 18's for a LONG time way back in the day. The wheels I got from Len & Susana when I picked up my kit long long ago. Those wheels came from Bens98gagt if anyone remembers that car.

(and one of these days I'll remember to resize my pics lol. Sorry.)

Looks good! Very nice. :thumb: Can't wait to see how it looks with the AED kit on there.

Tower bar shouldnt be a problem.

I had one of the original RSM bars. It hit the clutch res. Couldn't even bolt it up unless I relocated it. And the V6 it hit the alternator.

But I got an ebay one similar to that one, and it works fine. I'll get a pic posted up.

Outer tie rod ends done this morning in about 20 minutes with Moog replacements. Nice that they are greasable with the zirc fittings. A little more expensive than the alternative, but after taxes the Moogs were only 100 bucks.

Now, back to sanding and filling that hood... it's getting there.

Little progress update. Most of the underside of the hood is done. Still some 80 grit scratches I need to go back over, but I sprayed a black guide coat on it because there was so much work in so many places, it was hard to tell what was done, and what needed more work. But all the cracks are gone, save for one tiny spot I didn't notice until far in. Plus the latch mounting is all redone.




Now to flip her over and do the other side ;) I had to keep reminding myself I was working on the underside of the hood. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect, and since there's so many lines in the underside of the hood, it made for a lot of sanding and shaping when I carved out cracks running through multiple body lines.

Sorry there's a coat of dust on it from sitting out the last few days.

looks good!! Can't wait to see it finished up :)

Lots of parts coming in now. Things are getting interesting



























more to come.

nooooooooooo not eBay chinese knockoffs :(

Yep. The turbo, intercooler, bov, boost controller, charge piping, couplers and clamps are all going to be from an ebay setup. I have a decent log turbo manifold, and a turbonetics wastegate. I'm not trying to light the world on fire, just a nice streetable car.

I was originally looking at getting a turbonetics turbo for like $750 and then still needing everything else. I couldn't justify spending so much on a turbo only to still need to spend another hefty amount to get all the odds and ends. Not to mentions the cost of HPtuners.

This is a budget build and if there's a catastrophic failure, I will go get another motor on the cheap. Then I will upgrade what breaks. I also will likely go with an OBX LSD when the time comes to do the clutch.

In the meantime, this should be fun. We'll see what breaks. I've reflashed the car to the gm s/c file w/ 310's and a 2 bar map and tinkered with it a bit. Next step is to fit the HO intake manifold and 62mm TB, then start figuring out charge piping and intercooler mounting. Also need an oil catch can so I can do the PCV setup correctly.

I don't doubt that a gt35r and an equal length tubular top mount manifold would be beneficial, but it's not needed. :rolleyes2::p I'm going the cheap route, but it's gonna get the job done way before I could justify throwing 4x the $ at it. I've got the injectors to go bigger on boost, so we shall see what shakes loose ;)

I might even paint the hood and sideskirts in my garage with a sub-optimum turbine hvlp setup. But it will work, look nice, and 99% of people won't be able to tell a difference.

No need to buy caviar and escargot when I'm putting it on a Digiorno pizza. :scpimp:

Drive-able, practical, clean budget build that will still yield a good end result :thumb:

Just ordered a few last odds and ends from summit. Bungs for 02 sensors and IAT sensor and oil return. Plus a couple silicone reducing elbows not included with my set.
Also, to whom it may concern, the proper size silicone coupler for the LD9 or LG0 Throttle body is 2.75" I thought 3, but it was too big.
Need to mock things up, then get downpipe, oil pan, and charge pipe bungs welded in.
Slow progress, but progress none the less. Mock up pictures soon

hows it coming?

Turbo is complete! Pics.

More recent pics.

how is your intake run through all that? it always amazes me when people run their turbos so the intake is on the driver side, that area is super jam packed with stuff on my car

It was a tight fit, but not impossible. The intake pipe is a full 3" while the rest of the charge pipes are 2.5" actually.

Just had to attach a 3" 45* silicon elbow to the turbo, then a 3" charge pipe about a foot long with a 45* bend at the end with the filter.

The heater hose line was the most "in the way" but everything moved just enough to allow the pipe through. I was worried at first that it wouldn't work, but perseverance paid off.

Where is your intake routed?

Don't have one, just a properly sized stainless steel mesh clamped to the inlet right now.

I thought I was gonna have to go that route at one point before I got things all situated.

I did have to get a new TB butterfly made. This thing you could see light all the way around it when it was closed. Had me chasing a vacuum leak all over the place.

I require videos! looking good!!!