Performed the first part of the modifications I have planned for the shifter today.  The stock vinal wrapped shifters with the big button on top or t-bar with the button on the side are so dated and take away from the interior of the auto cars in my opinion so I decided to do something about that.  I picked up an adapter for the shifter that allows me to use most aftermarket manual shift knobs.  Here is a couple shots of it installed along with what the old one looked like.  I am considering trimming down the shifter a little to lower the height on it.  I will decide on that once the other parts come in and I see how they look with it this tall.

Next on the to do list are custom leather boots for both the shifter and e-brake.  The company making them is in europe so it will be a couple weeks before they arrive.  Looking forward to them snazzing up the interior a bit.

Put in the first suspension mod today.  An UMI Performance shock tower brace.  It links the tops of the shocks to stiffen up the front end.

A large portion of the F-Body community will say that this mod does nothing to assist with the handling of the car as the 4th Gens have coil over shock systems in stead of struts.  If it helps to stiffen the front end great, if not, I still like it because of the aesthetics that it adds to the engine bay.

The power antenna has never worked since I bought the car last October and GM doesn’t make the part any longer.  I also wanted to eventually remove the antenna altogether for a cleaner look on that quarter.  Not to mention I just simply became tired of only being able to catch 2-3 stations on the radio.  So I order a replacement solution that can be located elsewhere within the car.

Here is the Tune Trapper and the Metra adapter needed to connect it to the stock Monsoon head unit.  It is roughly 2 feet long, has a 6 foot cable and included sticky tape on the center mounting point.

So I go to pull the dash pad off in order to put this under it and snake the cable down to the head unit and everything just goes to hell.  Every single clip and guide post on the underside of the dash pad snapped off with little to no effort on my part.  Unfortunately I expected something like this to happen as it is a very common problem with these cars.  I was lucky to have had a crack free dash pad in the first place since tons of folks complain about their’s developing cracks spontaneously.  Along with the clips, it also began to crack lengthways down the dash and eventually a large chunk just broke off when trying to pull the pad out.

So the pad is pretty much fubar at this point and I have to decide what to do about it.  I don’t really want to get an OEM replacement since it would run me between $400-$500 just for the part.  I might be able to score a used one online if I wait around long enough but that’s also taking a chance that it would make it to me in one piece.  The other alternatives would be me trying my hand trying to repair it using some plastic weld, fiberglass cloth and plastic filler or I can pickup and aftermarket dash cover such as this one:

The cover would sit on top of the broken pieces and be held down with silicone adhesive.  The reviews on the cover are pretty mixed.

On the bright side, I now have a ton of radio stations to choose from 😛