I don't really have anything against automatics, but mine was a POS that leaked and never shifted right. I got quoted $1800 to have it rebuilt so I said to hell with it and started gathering parts for a manual transmission. I've never done anything this in-depth so I really had to take my time and the internet was my friend.

W/ the auto:


Everything stripped out:


Shifter hole cut, pedals and transmission mounted:


At this point it was drivable and I was going to school like this for about a week:


Tying up some loose ends:


Done!


My car was out of commission for about a month...but most of that was spent idle trying to track down hard to find and one-off parts needed for the conversion. As far as labor goes I probably spent 3 full weekends.....6 or 7 days working all day on it. Total cost about $650 using mostly used parts pulled off other cars....pretty damn good in my opinion considering the price to rebuild that damn auto! And I got a manual to boot....something about ripping through those gears with a torquey V8 in front of you just makes life grand. My city mileage shot up at least 3 or 4 MPG too.

Amazing. I'd never have the balls to try something that big.

This.

This times a bajillion.

Also props, manuals are much more fun to drive.

I am truly impressed. On a 1-10 scale, what was the difficulty of this.

Also, thread needs more manual pics. Automatics suck. I hate them.

Very cool man, congratulations on the job well done.

I couldn't possibly rate this 1-10.... it depends on your level of experience I guess and what kind of space/tools/time you have available. By far the hardest part was drilling a perfect oval shaped hole in the firewall, about 1-1/2" x 2", as well as the 2 bolt holes on either side of it for the clutch hydraulics and mounting the clutch master cylinder up behind the pedal and under the brake booster. Hanging the pedals was also a complete ***** because **EVERYTHING** is in the way such as tons of wires, cables, steering column, etc etc etc.

And dalf, sorry, but that has WAAY too much "new car" written all over it for my tastes :-p

I agree.

That is extremely awesome. There is no way I could pull that off.

Wow.

All I can say is huge props to you, I can't imagine the hours and frustration that went into that. Really awesome.



obligatory pic of manual shifter: Steeda Tri-Ax

Dalf: Have you done the full TRD conversion to your tC? If so we should talk. I've been thinking about doing it to mine.

nice work

I only have a pic of my old car

i really want to do this on my impreza. i'd love to get ahold of a 2.5 engine, stickshift, and do the work myself. my only problem is that right now the engine and tranny are the strongest thing on the car and it wouldn't be worth it because of the body

congrats on the upgraded toy

You have a Scion tC? Pics!

The short shifter isn't TRD so it isn't gonna be a full TRD

I have TRD springs installed and the aforementioned shifter knob. I'm not sure about the rest. I want to put this on. I heard sound clips of it and it sounds quiet, not "fart can." There are a myraid of things I want to do to it. However, it's my daily driver so I can't really do much.

Edit: I would love to do something like this and this (anybody with some EE experience in San Diego?)

Congrats! Feels great when it's back together, doesn't it.

BTW -- whats up with the carpet on your dash?

People buy the Scions? They look god awful.

That said, amazing job, and the final product is fantastic.

THEM'S FIGHIN' WORDS!

You own a Civic or WRX don't you.

It's called a dash mat.

I prefer to call it a Han mat.

Hell no, I own a crappy '99 Ford Taurus. And I'd still take it over a Scion, they're UGLY.

Nice work on the third gen. Did you go T5 or T56?

Moar. (6 speed goodness :hist101:)

You've got awesome cargo space! (Vulcan or Duratec engine? The Duratecs are pretty good for what they are.)

As dirty as it makes me feel, I agree with Merkle.

Scions are pretty crap. And not just the extra-ugly Rolling Toasters. All of them.

Hell no, Vulcan. The thing is bare minimum on features (it didn't even have power locks or cassette player).

It does have a ridiculously large trunk though

Wow. Nice conversion dash! Your car must be a lot faster now.

Manuals FTW. Out of the 10 cars I've owned 7 have been manual.

I saw one of the ugliest cars on the road the other day. It was a PT Cruiser, so it was already off to a head start. But it was a 2-door coupe. And a hatchback. And a convertible.

Did it have the wood panels too? Cause that would've just completed the horror.

No, unfortunately it did not.

what about manumatics

As long as they have a legitimate gear shift lever, and not a sissy flappy paddle.

[For the record, I don't like manumatics. I've used "Tiptronics" in VW, Audi, and Porsche; "Sporttronic" in a Mazda; and the "Geartronic" in a Volvo. Didn't like any of them.]

i agree... fugly boxes on wheels

of course i have seen uglier (the Cube "mobile device" is one recent example)

Yeah, those Nissans are pretty ugly.

What's up with these stupid toaster cars these days? Scion xB (I didn't think they could make it uglier, but they did!), the Chevy HHR, Honda Element, and now the Mobile Device. They're all so ugly. Ugly than Merkle's Ford Taurus.

I'm too lazy for manual. Plus I need a free hand to smoke.

Doing a manual conversion on a 80s (or looks like early 90s in that car, probably 90-92, which is when the third gen camaro got that ghastly interior update), isn't as hard as it is on later models. The ECUs didn't control nearly as much information as they do today.

Props on doing it though. Dropping the transmission in those cars is wretched, I had to drop my 700R4 from my camaro 3 times due to faulty rebuilds.

Never heard of/seen one.

I can smoke and shift gears no problem

That's pretty cool; my buddy has an old Dodge pickup that he wants to do the same thing with. He bought another truck that was falling apart, just for the 4-speed manual transmission. However he's got so many vehicle projects on the go that it's unlikely he'll get to it this year. It's gonna be a blast to drive once he's done, though.

Yay Dash, welcome to manhood.

And yes, I'm truely impressed like everyone else.

Very impressive. You always hear people talk about how they could always "drop in a manual trans" to justify buying an auto, but I've never seen someone do it.