Project: "New Bird" - 1970 Pontiac Trans Am LS1

[cdoggy81]

Well, after buying, driving, & selling a few early 2nd gen F-body's (as well as taking a LONG time to figure out what I really want to do) I have finally decided to pull the trigger & start building my car.

Please welcome: Project New Bird - 1970 Pontiac Trans Am

Please sit back & enjoy the show as I take you through my long journey on building my piece of happiness




The car:
1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am


Color:
2006 Pontiac GTO IBM blue with correct white/black stripe. I wanted something a tad bit more "blue" in color than the original Lucerne Blue but still wanted to retain an original Pontiac color. I still may consider HOK Oriental Pearl Blue or the blue Frank @ Prodigy sprayed on the 57 chevy with the white back.



Engine:
550 HP LS1 (original bottom end from my 2004 GTO)
90MM FAST Throttle Body
90MM FAST Intake ported to match heads
30lb SVO matched Fuel Injectors
Texas Speed 5.3 LS heads ported & milled to 59cc 2.02IV/1.575EV (flow 312 cfm @ .600")
Double gold Springs w/ Ti Retainers
Comp 7.35 Pushrods
Frutral F13 Cam 230/232 .595/.585 114*
Roller Rockers
LS6 Ported Oil Pump
LS2 Timing Chain
8.5mm MSD Plug Wires
NGK TR6 plugs
180* T-Stat
12577901 Cadillac LS1 Oil Pan
Aluminum Radiator 70-81 F-body w/ dual fans from a 2004 GTO set to 190* & 195*
BPR Plates & Motor Mounts for LS1
Hedman Custom Stepped 1 3/4" --> 1 7/8" Headers w/ 3" collector
2.5" exhaust w/ x-Pipe
Walker Dynomax 17276 Transverse muffler



Tranny & Rear:
4L60e tranny from my 2004 GTO
TransGo HD2 shift kit
TCI/Hughes/Derale deep trans pan
shift points reprogrammed for 6500 RPM (the rev limiter will be set to 6750 RPM)
Vigilante 3200 stall torque converter
TCI/Earls trans cooler
8.5" GM 10 bolt posi rebuilt with 3.73 gears (the original 12 bolt was long gone)
TA aluminum gear cover for added strength as well as the perches & tubes will be welded up



Suspension & Rear End:
DSE upper control arms
DSE 1 3/8" front Sway Bar
DSE solid body bushings 1/2" drop
Varishocks front coil over adj. Shocks w/ 550# springs
SPC brand lower control arms (add 1" drop)
HOTCHKIS 1.5" drop rear leaf spring kit
Varishocks Rear adj. shocks
PT F-Body sub frame connectors
PT F-Body front suspension rebuild kit
AGR 600 series power steering box or have Lee Eng rebuild my original to quick ratio steering box (12:1)



Wheels, Tires & Brakes:
Pro Wheels Stealth or Boost
18" x 8" fronts w/ 4.5" back spacing
18" x 10" rears w/ 5.5" back spacing
BFG KDW2 245/40/18 fronts
BFG KDW2 295/35/18 rears
13" front D/S corvette rotors w/ LS1 calipers & corvette brackets
12" rear D/S LS1 rotors w/ LS1 calipers using BRP mounts
2004 GTO master cylinder



Interior:
I will use the complete setup from my 2004 GTO (F & R seats, dash, steering wheel, center console, etc.). The seats will be recovered not to say GTO as well as the dash & gauges. The door panels & trim will be custom made to match. Inside will be covered with Dynamat or equivalent for noise deadening. I would say this is by far going to be the hardest part of the build. Basically I will have to recreate the GTO inside of the Trans Am...



Sound system:
Pioneer AC3
US Amps 4x50 mids/highs amp - especially since they were hand made here in Gainesville!
US Amps 1x200 sub amp
Seas/Focal mid & highs front
Seas/Focal mid & highs rear
2 10" Seas/Focal subs in custom enclosure
Hidden Escort SRX radar detector





The goal is to have this done for SEMA 2011 (I HOPE....) so any Vendors / Sponsors looking for a car to show off their new stuff let me know...

Thanks to all who have helped so far as well as the many who still will. This site is a fantastic source of information & inspiration!!! I would never be able to do something like this in my garage as a 1st time project without you

[rlplive]

incredible

[cdoggy81]

Thank you. I am EXTREMELY excited to get going on this!

[1971CHEVELLE]

Wow I like the color combo This car is gonna be awsome

[SamHatco]

Great project! This will be fun to follow, good luck on the build.

Sam

[NOT A TA]

Looks like a great plan! 2 years for a 1st time at home build of that magnitude is going to keep you busy in that garage!

[rockytopper]

real nice. I really like the ramair induction to the new ls engine connected to the oem scoop. Good luck with your build.

[PARKERRS]

Engine and renderings look killer, keep up the good work.

Tommy

[Motown 454]

Sounds like an awesome build . Keep us updated.

[BossaNova]

Forget Smokey and the Bandit. I love those Trans Ams.
Project looks awesome.
Keep the faith!

[ssean92]

Yes this looks like it is going to be a hot build.....looking forward to the pics

[cdoggy81]

Thank you all very much for the good words & encouragement!

John, it will be tough to do in 2 years as my friend helping me said the same thing.... but I'm an optimist

Rockytopper, that is one of the key elements I wanted to keep with the design. Glad you like the idea too! I will end up building something like what my friend Jeff D. did:



BossaNova, I like the Bandit year cars but the 70-73 cars are the $hitznit! I really love the look of those.

[cdoggy81]

I also thought I would post some pics of the doner car before I start cutting it apart. It is a 2004 GTO with 19000 miles on it. Originally I was going to have Butler build me a stroked 400 or 455 with E-Heads. Then I got the quote... For the price I was going to pay for that alone I bought the entire running GTO Considering I had no tranny or interior lined up yet, this was the way to go.

[cdoggy81]

Here are my pics I posted a few weeks ago when I got the car back from the blasters. This was the day after Thanksgiving. It took me 2 full days of dusting, vacuuming, prepping, cleaning, mixing, painting, CLEANING UP SPILLED PAINT, looking for a new gun, putting everything away, getting everything back out, vacuuming, prepping, cleaning, mixing, painting, cleaning up, & putting things away for good. I hope you get the idea it was a real P.I.T.A. I think next time I am going to bring my car to Orlando or Jax to get soda blasted & primed all at once (Frank, know any good people to recommend?). I used a local guy here in town that uses a new sponge material that is very easy on the metal & doesn't have any problems associated with it like other media.









Day 2







Next post: start on metal work & GTO tear down

[T_Raven]

wow man, awesome project. I also love the early 2nd gen birds but settled for a 79 lol. I'm not one to care much about keeping cars original but in this case, knowing what a real 70 TA is worth, I'm very surprised to see you modding one. But then again I guess if you were missing the original drive train then that woulda killed the value anyway.

[2ndgenracer]

Lucerne Blue Sweet!

[cdoggy81]

Now that she is all primed I can start to work on the metal repair.
1st up is a small piece on the upper 1/4 near the window.

















It might not be perfect but that's why I have one of the best painters in FL (Chris Dobbs - www.huegenics.com ) doing the final touches

Up next: smooth the firewall...

[cdoggy81]

Brett, I thought about Lucy Blue but wanted something just a bit more "blue"

[icebird84]

Excellent project looking forward to the next up date

[cdoggy81]

Thanks!

T Raven, I totally agree with what you are saying which is why I decided not to mod it & waited to find a clone to just cut up