The window motor was completely inaccessible with the factory door panel intact. Required cutting cutting into the inner door skin to reach the motor bolts, then refinishing the area to preserve appearance.
The original electronic lock relay was obsolete. Created a custom wiring solution using two 5-pin relays—one for lock and one for unlock—to restore full function.
Despite replacing the alternator early on (based on the previous owner's suggestion), the battery continued to drain. After months of troubleshooting, discovered the alternator had never been wired correctly from the start. Original fuse was wired into a circuit that no longer existed, requiring a custom fuse and wiring solution. Heat wrap was used as an insulator to prevent heat from getting to the fuse and wiring.
After weeks spent refreshing the engine bay as well as retiming and retuning, a poorly routed battery cable made contact with the exhaust, causing it to melt, ground out the system, and completely drain the battery. Required a rewire of starter, battery, alternator system, fortunately, the failure was isolated to the starter circuit and did not affect downstream systems.
The factory radio wiring harness was gone, and only one speaker worked. After replacing the front speakers (which demanded more power than the factory radio could supply), I discovered the right channel of the internal amp had failed. I disassembled the head unit and identified the issue: two blown DM165 ICs and degraded 1μF 50V capacitors. OEM replacements were nearly impossible to find, but after extensive forum research, I sourced the ICs from a Camaro hobbyist named John and the original caps on eBay. The repair restored full OEM audio function.
Lack of a tachometer required all ignition timing and carb tuning to be done purely by ear and feel, increasing the complexity of tuning sessions.
A swapped rear differential (now 3.42) and non-stock tire size caused severe speedometer errors. Researched gear ratios and used factory tables to calculate correct driven and drive gear combinations. Plugged in the new tire sizes and differential ratio to determine new drive/driven gears needed.
The original driver-side fender was so warped and rusted that it had to be cut in half to reach and remove the hidden bolts behind the hinge pillar.