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87 Quest in Sacramento


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Hello- my name is Justin, I'm an electronics tech here in Sacramento, California. I have a 160k 87 Conquest I've been using as a daily driver for over a year- educating myself as it breaks down 'on the go.'

 

A fairly recent article entitled "Lost Cars of the 80s" featuring the Starion prompted me to buy one of these, and I don't regret the decision. I've traditionally been into 50s cars and trucks, and 80s Firebirds, but this car just "has the look" and I love it. I never even knew these existed until Hemmings.

 

My car was originally painted gray with a lipstick red leather interior. WHen I bought it, It has one older (bad) cheap repaint, over which someone had unevenly plasti-dipped it black. The seats had been replaced with black leather units.

 

Using about 3 gallons of goo-gone I washed off the horrible sticky black plasti dip and re-shot it with white pearlescent. An 87k mile '88 Conquest showed up recently at a pick n pull locally, so I was able to grab the black dash board out of it to put in my car, continuing on a red-black theme. Top of the door panels are re-done in fitting black vinyl to bring the theme together. Got rid of the 4-spoke 'sport' steering wheel and replaced it with the quintessentiually 80s "Galactica" wheel.

 

Bone stock otherwise. Car is a 5 speed, intercooled, wide body, adjustable shocks, and factory cassette which I've been using daily!

 

I'm about 6'3" and given the lack of head and leg room in this car- I've replaced the stock seats with black PMD seats from an '82 Firebird. 3 inches lower and 3 inches back. These are 'touring' seats- made the car absolutely 100% more driveable. What a difference!

 

Before:

 

1909225_10203559433367159_696997038_o.jpg

 

After:

10915019_10205854706627556_5476063082774197051_o.jpg

 

11050800_10206403929117775_4658505505014131463_o.jpg

 

 

 

Anyway, the car just quit on me the other day, and defies all logic. I have fuel and spark, but it just won't catch. That's what's brought me here.

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Nice! What a difference the paint job made!? That pearl looks great!

 

Thank you! Out of all the colors I would have opted to paint the car... yellow, green, or black... the two prior simply wouldn't match with the interior. As for the latter, I've owned nice black cars before and they are a BEAR to maintain. No thanks!

 

Welcome aboard. Paint work looks great!

 

Can you show us some pics of the seats? There were a many of different styles of factory seats. They all sit different, but nobody has really measured out the differences.

 

Hey, thank you! Be happy to take some pics. Since the seats I just put in it are for a GM thirdgen F-Body (Camaro/Firebird... purists, avert your eyes) I was going to start a seat retrofit thread. The seats that were in the car when I got it were the type with the adjustable lumbar, also with the adjustment for knee height. Driving the car with those seats moved all the way back, my knees practically against my chest and my head in the sunroof was not fun.

 

The PMD seats I put in definitely sacrificed the rear passenger leg room (who needs it?) and were a snug fit, but in the end were just right. Front brackets bolted to the frame brace, and the rear through the floor pan. I get most of the forward/rear movement and no interference with the lap belt. The seat mounted lapbelt latch mounted up to the GM seats with one fresh tapped hole & bolt, and another self tapping metal screw. I'll make a post about it.

 

I suspect one could also use a nice pair of the 'Ultima' seats from a GTA Firebird or a 4th gen car with similarly minimal modifications.

 

As a purist, I tried to do nothing that couldn't be undone. It was necessary, if I was to keep the car, especially as a daily driver.

Edited by Sharpshifter
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Welcome aboard. Very nice paint ! wife and I were just talking about painting her 86 that same color. Edited by 87redcat
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Thanks Mark.

 

I have thought about how black carpet might compliment the interior. I want to find a good balance of red/black and right now the red carpet is in great shape. Black carpet might actually highlight the remaining red trim. What shape is your carpet in? Price?

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