G/I: 1995 Z26, 3400 5spd

Post by **heavywoody** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:48 pm

Well, there are a lot of things going on in my life right now, and getting rid of the Z26 may be one of them. I'm not sure of the interest in a modified car, but I figure I'll put it out there to see if there are any interested parties.

I've had the car for 10 years (as of April this year). It had 61K on it when I got it. I'd prefer this go to a member of the community if at all possible.

Basics:
1995 Z26
Mileage: a little over 136K on the body, 25K on the engine, roughly 1000 miles on a freshly gone through transmission
Ext. Color: Cayenne Red Metallic
Int. Color: Light Grey
All factory options (power windows/locks, cruise, A/C, tilt, etc).

Drivetrain/Power:
3400 swap (internal work includes ported/polished/flowbenched heads and intake manifolds by Ben @ 60 degree V6, stainless valves, stiffer Comp Cam valve springs, polished combustion bowls). Engine was fully resealed with updated intake gaskets spring 2005.

5spd swap (Includes Fidanza 8lb flywheel, Clutchmasters Stage 3 Clutch, and Engineered Performance Race version LSD, new GM shift cables)

OBDII swap. This was not wire spliced; the full conversion was done... dash harness and engine harness were removed and reinstalled as one uncut piece. There are no cut wires from the swap... DRL's are functional as is the Twilight Sentinel feature (auto headlamps), has correct 96 PS lines to provide clearance for installed alternator cooling duct. Also provides capability for tuning with a DHP Power Tuner.

Borla Turbo muffler w/ Borla dual slash cut round tips
Catco hi-flow cat
2.25" smooth bent piping from the rear manifold back
Transgeniz CAI
FFP Underdrive pulley
FFP driver side transmission dogbone
SDI shortened passenger side dogbone (shortened upon request due to 5spd swap)
MRZ custom upper engine bracket
Fresh AC Delco Rapidfire plugs and Taylor 8mm plug wires

Suspension/Brakes:
12" F-body rotors with C5 Corvette dual piston calipers, new Hawk HPS Ceramic pads up front, new N-body Timken bearings, modified N-body aluminum spindles, new Goodrich stainless lines

Bilstien Suspension (semi-race valved up front)
Eibach springs
Addco 30mm front bar and 26mm rear bar
Poly everywhere (control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, endlinks, tie rod and ball joint dust boots, upper pass. side engine mount, transmission mount, both dogbones)
GM strut tower brace up front
Mantapart shock tower brace out back
17"x7" Enkei Shogun wheels, with Bridgestone Potenza RE730 tires (225/45/17)

Audio:
Battery relocated to trunk (easily put back to stock location if desired)
Alpine CDA-7894 CD/MP3 headunit
Alpine R-series 5.25" components up front (tweeters mounted where mirror knobs used to be)
Alpine R-series 6"x9" in rear
Alpine V12 4ch amp for interior speakers (120W/ch max)
Alpine S-Series 12" sub
Alpine V12 amp bridged to 400W for sub
Both amps are in the spare tire well with a false floor; clean install, you only see a couple wires when you open the trunk (that go to the battery).

Interior:
Dash is in excellent shape, no pulled corners/cracks/faded parts/etc
New carpet installed this past summer
New driver side foam installed this past summer
New armest a couple years ago (still looks brand new)
All interior panels/seats/belts cleaned, looks like new
No puncture marks in the door panels
White LED backlighting for the instrument cluster; blue coating removed from overlay to make the numbers actually shine white
Cupholders painted dk. grey to match other molded plastics in the interior
Overhead console added from previous generation L-body interior (dk grey in color)
Leather shift boot, leather shift knob (GM thread on style from a Firebird)
Factory extendable drivers side sunvisor
Lotek 2-gauge pod, currently has an Autometer Ultralite II Boost gauge and an Autometer Wideband gauge installed. I'll remove these and sell them separately unless the buyer decides to buy them at an extra cost.

Exterior:
New windshield in 2002, only about 13K miles of use since then (read: minimal pitting/no rock chips)
Repainted factory color in December 2003 using PPG basecoat
3 coats House of Kolor clearcoat
Shaved door moldings
Power mirrors (molded for a clean look), switch is in the center console
Euro tails (fully functional wiring, not hacked, clean GM style install)
20% tint all around, rear window looks like one piece
Blazer fog lights with deflectors removed (simulates brighter fog lights without upgrading wiring harness to accommodate 100W bulbs)
LED 3rd brakelight
Silver "BERETTA" script banner on windshield

The good:
This car is FUN to drive. It has plenty of torque, gets going fairly well (low 15/high 14 second car here), handles corners like nobody's business, and stops AMAZING with the new brake setup.

It gets 30mpg on the highway at 75-80mph.

I'd drive this car anywhere... it starts right up and purrs.

EVERYTHING works (well, except the backup lamps, but I'll get to those). A/C blows cold.

The bad:
There are some rock chips on the front end of the car (filled in with touchup paint, can't really tell unless you get really close), one small ding on the rear quarter passenger side under the window (this may be able to come out with one of those paintless dent removal ordeals, I'll look into that).
Transmission leaks slowly - a silver dollar sized spot in a 2 week period. This actually pisses me off since the trans was JUST resealed a year ago.
Backup lamps don't work (minor wiring issue; sensor on trans is new, I'll get this fixed before it's sold)
Could use new rear brakes (again, I'll more than likely fix all the issues before a new owner comes to pick it up). I only say it could use them because I've never serviced the rear in the 10 years of ownership... they were replaced when I got it, and it's only had about 96K miles added to the rear brakes since then.

Now for rust... ahaha....

This is a Michigan car originally. It saw Michigan winters from 1995 through 2002.

However, there is surprisingly little rust on this car. Rockers are not rotted out. The only signs of rust are underneath the seal on the trunk near the latch (minor, easily fixed, just surface rust which I'll take care of before the sale). There is a little rust on the underbody crossover in the back, but it's not bad... mainly surface rust.

There are a LOT of little parts I'm not mentioning... Rodney Dickman shifter bushings, clutch/brake pedal bushings, all sorts of things I'm probably forgetting.

Overall this is a VERY clean, reliable, GOOD looking car. It's amazing to see the looks of people when they see this car drive by... I've gotten many thumbs-up driving by people. You just don't see these cars anymore, especially in this condition.

I'm sure it would win show awards if I'd ever take it to a place like that. It's that clean.

Price... this is a touchy subject. We all know these cars aren't worth anything. I've poured way too much money into this car over the years... I don't even want to think about how much.

I'm thinking $4500 OBO. You think it's too high, shoot me an offer. Like I said before, this is a Gathering Interest post... so yeah.

Pictures can be found here: http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i162/ ... tta%20Z26/ (ignore the interior shots; that's with the old amp setup and the old original carpet)
and here: http://s72.photobucket.com/albums....toshoot

Money pit Beretta · Post by **Money pit Beretta** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:21 pm

Say it's not so. Dang a dream Beretta and I'm stuck with the purple pit! Hope you can find a way to keep it or have it go to a very good home.

wicked-irocz · Post by **wicked-irocz** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:38 pm

this car is one of the best in the beretta world.

2nejunkie · Post by **2nejunkie** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:26 am

This is very sad to see. I hope you Retta gets a Great Home in the South someplace.

I have a quick question on the 5 speed swap with obd2.
I see you didnt modify the harness (OBD2). So it is safe to say that the Auto Trans missing wouldnt stop the fuel pump from turning on?
When you did your swap did you have a Passlock issue?
How did you get the speedo to work?

I am in the process of swapping the 3400 OBD2 5 speed into a 90 GTZ. WOW what a pain in the rear!

Post by **3X00-Modified** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:59 am

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

You forgot the custom tuned ECM by Mr. Pink...

I don't want to see you sell this car.

Post by **Cliff8928** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:39 pm

(2nejunkie @ Mar. 18 2009,08:26)QUOTEThis is very sad to see. I hope you Retta gets a Great Home in the South someplace.

I have a quick question on the 5 speed swap with obd2.
I see you didnt modify the harness (OBD2). So it is safe to say that the Auto Trans missing wouldnt stop the fuel pump from turning on?
When you did your swap did you have a Passlock issue?
How did you get the speedo to work?

I am in the process of swapping the 3400 OBD2 5 speed into a 90 GTZ. WOW what a pain in the rear!
All of the parts were from a 96. There aren't any issues like that using original Beretta parts. There was no passlock or anything.

If you're using parts from a different vehicle, you should be able to disable the passlock, etc. with a HPTuners or DHP PowerTunr.

The harness was modified only to remove the automatic transmission wires and replace them with manual transmission wires. It was never said the harness wasn't modified, just that it wasn't cut / spliced.

The auto trans just gets it's parameters removed/ignored in the PCM via the DHP PowerTunr.

Post by **quad4berettagtz** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:45 pm

I'm like a broken record when I see things like this. I tell you the same thing I told Bundy- DON'T SELL IT. This could be one of those things you regret for decades.... You and this car have been through a lot!

Post by **3X00-Modified** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:34 pm

I highly agree with Mike...

I know times are tough, but I can see you pulling through without having to sell the car.... Worse case if its storage issues, send it back up to your parents house or something like that... I'm sure someone in your family can offer a place to put the car if thats one of the issues... As I look at it, its money invested, after its spent if the car has to sit till you can afford to work on it or drive it again then it can sit, because sitting doesn't cost you anything.

I would give up almost everything else before I give up my project car.

I can also understand the other side of things... When you need the money you need the money, But Hopefully you find a way to get what you need without parting with this car.

bszopi · Post by **bszopi** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:45 pm

If you need a place to store it, my house has been absent a Beretta for 10 months...

Post by **heavywoody** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 4:58 pm

No worries guys, what I was going to attempt to achieve by removing myself from this car has been blatantly shot in the foot, so there is no point in getting rid of the car at this time.

I won't be gaining the position I thought I had a chance at, so I might as well keep my Zed...

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