I just took possession of a 1996 B/W GTS. The last owner did some wonky things with it and I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. It was pampered it’s entire life and only had 13,000 miles from 1997-2010. Then from 2010 until now it shot up to 50,500 miles. Here is some stuff that I need to figure out and that bothers me.
1. Painted the hood, roof, and rear tail light bezel black with an ACR striped theme.
2. The stereo is like from early 2000s I’m guessing and one hatch speaker and the sub do not work.
3. He added LED light strips at the top of the windshield so when you open the doors they illuminate blue.
4. Both door stanchions are broken and only one door popper works. I did buy a passenger side that needs to be installed.
5. Both power windows are slow going up and down and require assistance to move them along.
6. The A/C doesn’t work. The heat doesn’t seem to work and when I drove it yesterday the cab instantly fogged up and it felt like steam coming in. As a result the defrost wouldn’t work and we had to wipe the windows down manually. Once I did that and cracked the windows it was just fine, but extremely cold inside.
7. I have the original wheels that started to show their age and I’ll probably need to have them refinished. I have a set of SRT wheels that are perfect and now on the car.
8. After my short drive the car was idling in my friends driveway and it stated gushing coolant out from the passenger side bumper and fog light area. I immediately turned on the auxiliary fan (that the previous owner installed), and shut the car off. It then stopped leaking. I couldn’t find any broken or cracked hoses. I let it cool down, it never got above 190-200 temps either. I then drove it home with no leaks at all. I just checked the coolant and can’t see any in the tank. Does the Viper use a special type of coolant?
9. When the hood decals were removed, for hood paint, new ones were not used and the letters look janky and are not lined up. I did buy new OEM emblems.
10. Door handle trim pieces have broken tabs and will not stay in place. A few panels have small cracks and there are missing fasteners and bolts all over the place. Where can I find replacements?
11. The car appears to be all stock with the exception of either hi-flow cats or the cats are deleted so it definitely smells like gas coming out the back.
12. When the car was painted the intake manifold and valve covers were painted blue as well. The paint is flaking because I don’t think it was high temp paint. I did buy a new intake manifold and throttle bodies. I’m still trying to find a nice pair of valve covers.
13. It looks like HIDs were installed. They only work when I turn the lights on and hit the brights.
There are also other things that I can’t think of at the moment, but I’m still happy to get my childhood dream poster car and restore it back to as original as possible and give it a safe home.
Mechanically, it pulls like a freight train and shifts great with no apparent issues. I just spent around $1400 buying one inner stanchion cover, rear hatch struts, new emblems, a new ignition key, new key fob, new radiator cap, rubber body seals, gas cap bolts (old ones were rusty), fog light rubber plug, door sill plugs (8), a battery tender, headlight switch that is missing, etc. I did buy some original shop and repair manual to help me navigate around this baby.
Any help on any of these issues? Are there any good Viper people in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota?
Thanks a lot!
1. Painted the hood, roof, and rear tail light bezel black with an ACR striped theme.
2. The stereo is like from early 2000s I’m guessing and one hatch speaker and the sub do not work.
3. He added LED light strips at the top of the windshield so when you open the doors they illuminate blue.
4. Both door stanchions are broken and only one door popper works. I did buy a passenger side that needs to be installed.
5. Both power windows are slow going up and down and require assistance to move them along.
6. The A/C doesn’t work. The heat doesn’t seem to work and when I drove it yesterday the cab instantly fogged up and it felt like steam coming in. As a result the defrost wouldn’t work and we had to wipe the windows down manually. Once I did that and cracked the windows it was just fine, but extremely cold inside.
7. I have the original wheels that started to show their age and I’ll probably need to have them refinished. I have a set of SRT wheels that are perfect and now on the car.
8. After my short drive the car was idling in my friends driveway and it stated gushing coolant out from the passenger side bumper and fog light area. I immediately turned on the auxiliary fan (that the previous owner installed), and shut the car off. It then stopped leaking. I couldn’t find any broken or cracked hoses. I let it cool down, it never got above 190-200 temps either. I then drove it home with no leaks at all. I just checked the coolant and can’t see any in the tank. Does the Viper use a special type of coolant?
9. When the hood decals were removed, for hood paint, new ones were not used and the letters look janky and are not lined up. I did buy new OEM emblems.
10. Door handle trim pieces have broken tabs and will not stay in place. A few panels have small cracks and there are missing fasteners and bolts all over the place. Where can I find replacements?
11. The car appears to be all stock with the exception of either hi-flow cats or the cats are deleted so it definitely smells like gas coming out the back.
12. When the car was painted the intake manifold and valve covers were painted blue as well. The paint is flaking because I don’t think it was high temp paint. I did buy a new intake manifold and throttle bodies. I’m still trying to find a nice pair of valve covers.
13. It looks like HIDs were installed. They only work when I turn the lights on and hit the brights.
There are also other things that I can’t think of at the moment, but I’m still happy to get my childhood dream poster car and restore it back to as original as possible and give it a safe home.
Mechanically, it pulls like a freight train and shifts great with no apparent issues. I just spent around $1400 buying one inner stanchion cover, rear hatch struts, new emblems, a new ignition key, new key fob, new radiator cap, rubber body seals, gas cap bolts (old ones were rusty), fog light rubber plug, door sill plugs (8), a battery tender, headlight switch that is missing, etc. I did buy some original shop and repair manual to help me navigate around this baby.
Any help on any of these issues? Are there any good Viper people in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota?
Thanks a lot!
