August Spotlight

[nblanchard]

Wow.. I knew Yumiko put A LOT of work into her car.. but man, that is one sweet car, great work on the restore!!!

Not sure if anyone has started a similar thread... so I opened my own :P

[FearThisGTA]

Yeah she did and there is in the Spotlight section, but she done such a beautiful job on the resto, she deserves 2.

[nblanchard]

true dat man!! Love that color, when its done right, it looks like a million bucks

[gtayumiko]

Thank you guys for such great compliments, that really means a lot to me. I have many friends who helped me and it would not have been possible without their help. Two of my American friends help me even with the right up because I could not do it that well by my self. So I want to thank them too. But the real center of all of this comes from my love for my GTA. I could talk for hours about it but I do not want to bore you.....too much. What I would say that the write up does not is how I remember actually sleeping sometimes in my GTA when it was new because I could not afford gas for it two day before paydays. That was a really long long time ago to me. I lived in San Francisco with two room mates and worked in Redwood City (30 miles away one way). Can you believe, I used to sleep in my GTA once or twice every two weeks before payday came. That time is special memories to me. That is why I still love my GTA and feel some bond between me and it. Those times were hard times, I did not make much money then. It was easy, I would bring change of clothes and take shower in fitness room in building I worked in. It was like going on short vacation with my GTA. But I do not ever really want to do that again, it is fun remembering though.

So thank you for your nice compliments. I really really appreciate them all. ;-D Yumiko

[Transam54]

Yumiko, I just wanted to add that you are an inspiration to people like me who own a GTA. I am the proud owner of a 88GTA, and although I don't have the resources to restore it to mint condition such as yours, your story brings the excitement back in me, and reminds me why I'll never sell it! Thank you very much.

Ron

[strc09]

That is a very nice GTA and I love the color. Hopefully mine will be that nice one day. :D

[gtayumiko]

Unfortunately the only way to keep it nice like this is not to drive it that much.....I wish I could drive it more, but I always fearing that it will get chipped or someone crash into it, etc. So basically when I return the GTA to new condition after years of working on this project, I have to decide whether to drive it a lot and wear it back out or keep it new by not driving it that much. So I drive it only few times per entire year. But in order to do this, you must have a second car for transportation.

My best advise to you guys are if you buy new parts or almost new ones, do not put them on your car unless you have to. Keep them stored and then when you can completely restore the entire car at one time, then you can put all those new parts on your car during restoration project. But then you have to consider not driving your GTA that much so the parts do not break or wear out again.

This is my "problem" with my GTA. I wish so much I could drive it more often. But I can not bring myself to actually getting it out of the storage facility and driving it that much. But if you get another car for driving, it makes it much easier, I just "forget" that I have this GTA for a month or two at a time. And it never is out in winter, rain, or times and days when there is a lot of bad traffic. I just do it like keeping a valuable piece of jewelery safe in my jewelery box and only wearing it out once every month or two.

But all your GTAs are very very nice also. Believe me....I hardly ever see any nice GTAs anymore in person on the roads. The best ones I ever see are everyones on this site on line. Yumiko

[Fred91GTA]

Unfortunately the only way to keep it nice like this is not to drive it that much.....I wish I could drive it more, but I always fearing that it will get chipped or someone crash into it, etc. So basically when I return the GTA to new condition after years of working on this project, I have to decide whether to drive it a lot and wear it back out or keep it new by not driving it that much. So I drive it only few times per entire year. But in order to do this, you must have a second car for transportation.

My best advise to you guys are if you buy new parts or almost new ones, do not put them on your car unless you have to. Keep them stored and then when you can completely restore the entire car at one time, then you can put all those new parts on your car during restoration project. But then you have to consider not driving your GTA that much so the parts do not break or wear out again.

This is my "problem" with my GTA. I wish so much I could drive it more often. But I can not bring myself to actually getting it out of the storage facility and driving it that much. But if you get another car for driving, it makes it much easier, I just "forget" that I have this GTA for a month or two at a time. And it never is out in winter, rain, or times and days when there is a lot of bad traffic. I just do it like keeping a valuable piece of jewelery safe in my jewelery box and only wearing it out once every month or two.

But all your GTAs are very very nice also. Believe me....I hardly ever see any nice GTAs anymore in person on the roads. The best ones I ever see are everyones on this site on line. Yumiko

Sound advice. My Gunmetal Grey GTA is at 52k miles right now. I hardly ever drive it since it's in such mint condition. However, that's why I bought a second GTA... a black 91 with 110k miles. Needs some work, but is still a blast to drive....
:sly:

[strc09]

Yeah...I could only wish that my GTA only had 52K on the odometer.

[gtayumiko]

Wow....my GTA had 52,000 miles on it in September 1990 which seems like million years ago, I put 203,000 miles on it since then. I was looking at my excel spreadsheet last night. Interesting I see that two years ago exactly to the same day (August 7), I drove it only 4,900 mile on my GTA in two years. Yumiko

[strc09]

Since my digital odometer doesn't function correctly (flickers on and off so mileage isn't accurate) I have no idea how many miles my car actually has. I know it has over the 123,XXX that registers when it does come on. Does anyone think I can still get a new one from Pontiac?

[gtayumiko]

I asked my source at GM dealership a few years ago if I could get a new analog one in case my original one stopped working, but he say that they discontinued them a long time ago. Not so sure if digital and analog would make difference here. Another thing he mention was when they were available, they had to do something special so that no one could put new one in a car that had lot of miles and then say it did not have many miles, it is a accountability issue because now mileage to cars is so recorded and documented. Perhaps only dealerships were allowed to put them in, sort of like the fire mechanism that deploy air bags, those can only be sold to only certified mechanics with special qualifications because those are considered "explosives". Yumiko

[FearThisGTA]

Since my digital odometer doesn't function correctly (flickers on and off so mileage isn't accurate) I have no idea how many miles my car actually has. I know it has over the 123,XXX that registers when it does come on. Does anyone think I can still get a new one from Pontiac?


I know you cant get them from GM anymore, but, you can get it calibrated at a Speedo repair shop. There is one just NW of the ATL called Speedometer and Electric, they are in Roswell, Ga. They do very good work, ALL of the dealers send there stuff to them. hth.