F-Body Europe

Sorry guys, that's going to be a long read

Nearly 14 months after i bought my car i finally passed TÃœV, emissions and got german plates a few weeks ago. It took 2 different TÃœV stations, 1 friend owning a dealership, countless hours working on the car and around 800 to 1000EUR...
I never thought it would be that hard.

The TÃœV guys in my hometown Coburg allowed e.g. red turning signals, but didn't have a emission datasheet and were also unable (or just too incompetent?) to get one - and didn't want to use the one from the camaro. No way there. Thanks for nothing to those guy, btw

So I tried to get this emission datasheet, got dubious offers for 400 to 1000EURs, tried to get something from GM stating that Camaro and Firebird are basically the same cars (engine, transmission, rearend, pcm...). NOTHING for half a year.

Then recently when i talked to an old friend he told me he knew some guy at TÃœV (I'm not saying names here ) who was very helpful getting some oldtimers through TÃœV. So, we tried that - but that guy was pensioned for almost one year. Great. Nevertheless we drove to that TÃœV station and gave it a try - and i'm still wondering why i didn't do that earlier. They were so polite, fast and knowledgable, just great.
15minutes and 3 calls later they had a emission datasheet for my car!
I had to do some more modifications to the car, which i finished in one week and passed final checking in 2 minutes
He also approved e.g. the big 18" wheels in the papers, so i won't get in trouble with police.

All "little" *cough* *cough* modifications i had to do,
and funny enough both TÃœV stations had different opinions on most things,
so i did probably twice as much as i needed to do if i had went straight away to the "right" station:

Swapped out all 4 headlights for Bosch H4 units (400EUR) with the "e"-sign on them.
Bonus: Doubled up all ground wires and put in another fuse/relais which allows me to use optional 4 high beams - which is in fact LEGAL in germany

Disabled DRLs.... well, i soldered in a switch.

Wired up the front sidemarkers as turning signals, which really makes sense as you can't see the turning signals from the side.
And with running DRLs they still act as side markers AND flash
(I wonder why they didn't do that from the factory?!)

Had to punch in the VIN on the passenger side as it's required from the EU to be there. Of course it's clearly visible on the driver side, but laws don't have to make sense at all. And it safed me the fee for special approval...

I disconnected the yellow parking lights and wired up the parking lights in the headlamps. Well... let's just say i have two relais in my front fenders, but i don't tell you what they do

I dismantled the tail lamp wiring harness and soldered in two fuses, so left and right have different fuses. Now if you blow one fuse the entire rear doesn't get dark, which isn't funny on the autobahn... makes sense.

I removed the lamps from the red rear sidemarkers. But as german law clearly states only -yellow- lights/reflectors on the sides i had to put black foil (normally used to put advertisment on buses) on them, so they don't reflect red. Honestly, doesn't look that bad, i'll leave it that way.

No more red turning signals in Bavaria (that's different in other states, right Garry? ).
So i put in the EURO tail lamps from my yellow coupe.
Plug & Play? WRONG.
There's only one wire per side running to the back, doing flashing AND braking. So i dismantled the wiring harness again, put in a seperated wire from the brake light switch to the back, and disconnected the brakeswitch wire running to the steering column (otherwise my yellow turning signals still would light up when i brake...). Then i wired in all sockets from the euro tail lamps as the US-sockets just didn't fit, even if the look the same. Lot's of fun At least i now can get replacement bulbs at any gas station as they use european bulbs

I put in another relais (getting power from the cigarette lighter source), another fuse and another 5meters of wire to the rear red fog lights.
I'm using the original fog light switch on the left and put another factory switch (stolen from my yellow coupe) for the front foglights in the center console (and another 5 endless wires), right to the convertible switch. But looks stock

I had to put red reflectors on the tail lamps as they didn't reflect from the factory... mandatory *grrr*

I made a good solid battery mount out of 4mm steel for my big optima battery. Previous to that it was held by gravity and a bit by the stock mount, which didn't really work - and TÃœV wouldn't like that either.
I also put in another -good- big ground wire. I had a HUGE 50mm² wire running to the back to the stereo system - and the stock ground wire running to battery

I replaced the 3" adjustable Borla catback with the stock 2,25" pipe and the Borla rear section kit from the yellow coupe.
Additionally i made a little "catridge" with perforated plates on each end, filled with russian mineral wool (completely fire proof - just don't ask how i got it ), which i put in one of the tips. Isn't visible from the outside and works wonders for noise reduction!
Probably i should produce that kind of stuff, i guess there's a market

Honestly i also don't feel a difference to the 3" catback, 3" is already just way too much for a "little" V6. BTW i had to adjust the -stock- pipe 5 times (take it from the car, cut it apart, weld it back together),
so it fitted finally... thanks to the headers and adapted 3" cat (which still sets a SES light from time to time.. i'm building a 02sim soon...)
nothing was in the stock place...

After TÃœV i the spent like half a day registering my car... but after some calls from someone who knows someone who knows someone there everything went smooth, i even got the very small plates on the back.

But all that is history - Now i can finally enjoy my convertible
I really love cruising with the top down and the stereo volume up, the automatic tranny is just the right thing for that. Just gas mileage sucks a bit...

Here are two pics from the first cruise i made with the car, 600ks up to Rostock (Baltic Sea) and back
And normally i blur the license plates on pictures, but i just have to show off with those plates a bit (I guess you can't get a plate saying that in the states..?)




(click on the pics for full size view)

What a royal PITA ... guess I lucked out getting off easy with my red tail lights ... didn't have to mess with the markers, either ... wiring the front markers as blinkers is actually a cool idea ... I still need to put a switch in for DRL ... still thinking about where to put it ...

I found a quite coole spot for a little dual toggle switch, easy to reach in case you need it, but will never be found if you don't know where to look.
I'll PM you, won't post it here for several reasons

Congrats on the plates. I didn't think you would ever get them.

Want an LS1

yeah right, after going through all that to get it registered ...

Depends on the price
But i guess i will get even less than 20mpg with it...

Depends on your driving style ... I've been driving mine @ around 10l/100km ... (to and from the track, not ON the track )

I guess the keyword is "manual transmission" I would love to have 2 more gears, but even with the V6 5speed it's 2 liter less per 100ks...

? You're driving the V6 @ 8L/100k?

Its a 6 speed if you want I could get with you and see the buy back price when all is said and done all I want is the hood

Cool idea, thanks! I know that nobody till now could adapt the 6speed to the V6, but i'm willing to try. Please let me know about a price!!

@Garry: Right now it guzzles around 11.5 to 12.5, and i'm not flooring it all the time. A friend has 00 Camaro with the 3.8 and a manual, he drives it at around 9.5 / 100.

Me too. But thanks

Wow! thanks for the email chris!

I'm glad to see its finally all approved.

The exhaust was going to be part of the turbo kit, one of the reasons I got it. I also got it for a really good deal.

I miss the look of that car on those rims, nice to see they are approved...and the rims were bought at a German tire dealer, so they should be TUV approved from the start.

Hehe I still see my legacy is still hanging in the rear view, thx for that as well.

Car looks great..hopefully running smooth still and is the stereo still bumpin'?

Later all from okinawa (yeah its 90 degrees and 1000% humidity...still.)

Thanks
I consider that legacy part of the car, and even if most people think it's kinda "ghetto", i like it somehow

And it's still running smooth (uh, it's time again for an oil change, i just rembered), next thing i'll do is get an extra tranny cooler, just to be safe.
The stock panhard rod was bent, but i simply painted the BMR one you gave me black and put it in, works perfect. I also replaced the tie end rods and got the wheels aligned, i guess the 18" wheels just take there toll on the suspension, also got new tires.

BTW Do you remember what kind of PCM you ordered from intense back in the days?

I also revived the PowerProgrammer, wired it up to an spare OBD2 port,wired that up to 12 Volts and a ground, and voila - it came back to live. Told me something like "Programming was interrupted"... i think i'm going to play around a little bit with the fried PCM, perhaps i can get it working... then i have one for the yellow coupe



Some more pics...
The back of the car looks kinda... european. (some say cheesy.)
I can't ditch the reflectors (you get pulled over all the time if nothing reflects on your car), but i'll try to put reflecting foil on the red plastic inserts on the bottom of the tail lamps...

It still looks better than putting yellow lamps in the backup lights, and mounting a red foglight and a backuplight down on the bumper

The new battery mount

(bolted down with the stock bolt and also to the front of the car, it also keeps the heat away as it's pretty close to the radiator - biiiig battery...)

The guys at the car stereo shop freaked nearly out as they discovered that i only had the stock ground wire with that kind of "competition system" and that somone crimped a 32mm² connector on a 50mm² wire... fixed that, and put additional connectors on the top, so i can disconnect the stereo without disconnecting everything else. Somehow i think the stereo punches even harder now

In winter i'm going to rearrange the amplifiers a bit, probably put them in the spare tire place, just to gain some trunk space back...

For a daily driver it's really hard: You have to decide between a girl OR a rack of beer!

And the engine bay (sorry, didn't clean it)

I took the STB from the coupe and painted it hammerite black. Looks ok, i think and really makes a difference. Next on the list are SFCs

SFCs are a definite must ... even with just the SFCs and the sway bars from the Firehawk, my 'vert still drove lots better than it originally did ...

PHR was bent due to ADAC. There is no "euro" tow hitch in the rear. You might want to weld one on there. I claimed it with ADAC - since they did it and they broke my hand brake cable too. NO, I didnt wreck the car, just was stuck aside the road in the snow. Sooo...I got the new PHB and cable. Cable was installed at GM dealer and was very cheap -and since its the same as camaro, they had it in stock...

1 question, did the drilled rotors pass TUV?? Always wondered about that...and did they ever crack? I think they performed very well. Also there is/was performance Lower Rear Control Arms installed (major wheelhop even in the street with stock ones)

What I suggest for the trunk is to get a nice plexiglass deck made, with breather holes, so you can protect the amps in the back and have some space. Thats what I was going to do with it sooner or later.

ndhello from Sasebo japan, as i am here for a while TDY. NEX is Waaaaaaay better than BX/PX btw.

Yeah, i discovered the LCAs - quite solid
Had no problems at TÃœV with those rotors at all, seems like that's something they just don't care about as long as you pass the brake test... and i did that I also had crossdrilled raybestos rotors/pads and goodrigde steel brake lines on my old car, it even impressed the TÃœV guy
No signs of cracking, till now.



Good idea I was thinking of exaktely something like that