The 1988 Big Red Car Story

[gq4200]

Ok here it is.... bought this car in 1999 and still have it!
1988 GQ ST Automatic. Paid $16000 for at the time and bought it from a deceased estate. Car was pretty much standard as you can see from the photos. Check out that standard Clarion Double din with Cassette... haha. I remember test driving this car and the thing wouldn't go into 4wd. I had to just about rip the selector out of the vehicle with my knees against the dash.. and it finally crunched into 4wd. Pretty sure that hadn't been used in quite a while :)


Plenty more pics to come ..

[gq4200]

The problem with the 4wd selector while I remember was that the bottom boot on the selector mechanism had filled with water at some stage and it had all rusted up in there.

[Woof]

Very nice Q there mate looks in top condition, will look forward to the changes and the off road photos.

[Ade]

Pristine..! Luvely interior mate.

[AB]

Ive still got the same stereo in mine...lol

Very nice, the clock also works too which is rare!

[Sir Roofy]

the the colour mate and in good nick as well

[Bigrig]

Is that how it looks now?? Am
I missing something?? Classic!!!!

Think of the times in 1988 when that came out - would have be the pride of the neighbourhood!!!

Very nice!!!

[gq4200]

Ive got a few off road pics ... I used to video the lot as well but never watched it again... :). Right now the car is off the road. Im just in the process of getting it back together now.

[growler2058]

Shes a bloody ripper mate nice one

[gq4200]

Only reason the clock works is because Ive resoldered all the joints :)
In 2001 in the search for more power I manged to pick up an EFI inlet manifold... cost around $350. I blanked off the Injector Holes, replaced the Throttle cable with a longer EFI one. LPG system was swapped to an Impco 200 mixer and E-series Converter. At the same time I added a VN Commodore Airbox.
This gave the car a noticeable power increase that it badly needed.

[gq4200]

Problem with this setup that annoyed me for years was the amount of k's I could drive between fills. With no petrol now the most I would get out of a tank would be 400 ish k's

[gq4200]

In 2007 I managed to crack the head on this car. This showed up with the chocolate thick shake in the oil cap that eventually takes over the whole sump. I took the car off the road at this time and picked up this Damaged 94 model gq as a Donor car.

[gq4200]

One of the main things I wanted was the EFI gear to get this car back up and running on dual fuel so I can get some decent range out of it. This meant swapping the entire wiring loom which turned out to be a huge task ... heres the old loom coming out... it runs right behind the dash and requires pretty much everything out.

[gq4200]

This is what happens to your engine when you drive it around for months with water in the oil. This crank was scrapped.

[gq4200]

Engine is now running. I ended up replacing crankshaft and all bearings, also some of the lifters were pitted (I believe this was an early gq issue) and were replaced as was the camshaft. Reco Cylinder head was put on as the old one was cracked and was therefore scrapped.