1978 Custom G-Machine Trans Am. IT'S FINALLY DONE!!

[Takid455]

Since there seem to be a bunch of bowties and fords here, I will represent the Trans Am folk. I figured with progress being made on the car and hopes to complete it and drive it the T/A nats in august of 2007.
Back in 2001, I had purchased this 1978 4spd t top t/a with the intents of making it a street sleeper and an excellent handler hoping to keep up with M3's, vetts and maybe a 911. DO some weekend auto cross and compete in open road races such as the silver state classic, pony express, ect.


well after college, I found this current 1978 t/a which had may mods done to it so it took the lead. the other 78 will get the unsed or items that were replaced on the current t/a.
I purchased the car in September 2005 from the original owner. Prior to my acquisition, many modifications had been done to the car. It even had contact with a wall which is why it had not front end sheet metal. Some of the modifications include Herb Adams front and rear sway bars, brake cooling ducts and other body and suspension mods listed in his handbook, weld in subframe connectors essentially making it a unibody car, support )H-beam) for added strength, .45caliber bullet hole in left ¼, switches to individually turn on/ off tail, side and head lights for ‘stealth’ driving ( not sure why anybody would think of doing such thing J), 474 engine with Holley projection 4, accusump oil reserve, nitrous just for giggles. Here is what it looked like when I first picked it up.

Original back in 1992 before accident








Some damage


Pulling the body straight





In addition to what has been done, I have/ will add the following:
GW upper and lower control arms with Aldan Eagle coil-overs, Koni’s in the rear
Aluminum radiator w/ dual elec. fans
4 wheel disc brakes by Kore3 to fit C5/C6 rotors and calipers
Modern lighting
Lizard skin heat and sound insulation coatings
T-56 (currently being built) w/ hydr. T/O bearing
Engine beefed up w/ KRE heads and roller cam
17 or 18” 3 piece wheels, still trying to decide although I am close. Wheels are way more expensive than I ever thought
All undercarriage and suspension parts are powder coated.

Some more pics
May plan of “just put it back together” didn’t hold for too long

[Takid455]

At paint shop (10/06) for body work and primer, they will also do the final wet sanding on the high build sealer (HOK) and paint after I dry sand the initial high build primer(Claussen Z-chrome).





Few months later 12/06 its back. Looks like a leopard







Had to take the hood, trunk lid, and fenders down again because the original body guy I had lined up did something wrong and they were rusting under the freshly applied primer. Better to find out now than later.



Sanding the primer and under side. That hippie needs a hair cut. (1/06)

Looks like a car for the first time since 1993 (2/06)



Hoping this


Will fit into here




As of this writing 2/18/07, all plastic body bolts on are sanded and ready for sealer. I am waiting for G-Force trans to finish modifying the Lakewood bell housing to mate up to the t-56. I have found a builder for the T-56 which will be comprised of a 06 Z06 unit (don’t know how he got it, but it was reasonable and I’m not asking questions), the Z06 unit also has an built in pump so I can run a cooler for the trans should it be necessary, viper output shaft and tail and the usual keyway and fork upgrades. This should be good for 750 HP. Not sure why all trans are rated for HP when torque is what kills them. Once the bell is received, I will bolt the trans up to the engine and see exactly how much I have to open up the trans tunnel. A t-56 will fit in the tunnel w/o mods, but that is if you were to drop the body on to a frame per se, it will not be able to be removed or install with a clutch bolted to the fly wheel. I will have more updates on this as I make them. Oh, a custom cross member is also needed,

[jeffandre]

Love that car, has an interesting story and will be bada$$ when done. What width wheels/tires are you thinking of running?

[Leadfoot1]

Nice build!

Any other Z-06 parts available??? Engine maybe?

I saw you want to install the brakes...

Keep this up! (Like you need cheering up! this is up from '93 right?!)

Lead.

[WhiteG240]

Do you still happen to have the 4 speed setup? Car looks good. What setup did you end up using for the T56?

[Bandit]

Awesome job, and very thorough on the build. Rarely do you see a 2nd-gen (that is not a concourse resto) done to this level of perfection. It is going to be an absolute monster when it is finished! You are taking an already-cool car and ironing out all of the discrepancies from the factory, dramatically improving performance, and I'm sure it is going to look awesome too.

PLEASE keep us updated, I can't wait to see this bad boy finished!

Paul

[Takid455]

Thank you all for the comments. they all help add motivation. Here is the lin that has more pics of the car
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...old/?start=all

Jeff- I plan on running 8" w/ 255 up front and 10" with 275 or 295 in the rear. the 17"/18" choice is still in the air. The deciding factor will be how they look on the car. I have been aving and looking at other t/a's with 17 & 18" wheels. Most 17's look good, as for 18's, it depends on the wheel and tire size. I have seen 19 & 20's and don't car for them much. I am looking at Boze mesh, Forgeline WC3, frank's snowflakes and kinesis K28. either way they are not cheap.

Leadfoot - sorry, no other Z06 items available. The fellow originally thought it was a C5R trans but after speaking with G-Force, he said it was an 06 Z06. Either way its brand new and will serve me well. for 2k(just the stock trans. total build it around 3500) I figured its not much more than a used core and it has carbon triple syncro rings already in it and a oil cooler pump. Up from 93, 93 was the last time it was driving, I bought the car in sept of 05. car has been in the owner garage since then.

White G240- no 4spd stuff, car was automatic. As for t56 setup i am using, many variables here but I hope the following answers the question; LS1 front plate w/ hyd. t/o bearing, Z06 trans (any LSX trans can be used, even viper but you will need to switch the input shafts or go w/ a different bell), viper tail machine for triple syncros by g-force as with a viper tail housing. the viper tail is needed for shifter to come up in the stock location as well as provide clearance for the member going across the floor. I call it a mutt trans. that information right there will save any propect countless hours of R&D. custom aluminum drive shaft and gm 10 bolt for now since it has the WATT's link suspension hooked up to it. if and when it blows, i'll get a strange 9" made for leaf spring f-body's. all else not mentioned are stock 78 t/a items.
Maybe one day i'll market a conversion kit for late second gen t/a's.



Bandit - very moving words as always
I awaite it completion as much as anybody. just hope my gold and black color scheme will work out. picking a nice gold that doesn't look like mustard or from the 70's is tough. I'm sure it will have some pearl in it. Car goes in for final sealing and paint mid march and should return end of april/ early may.

[Takid455]

UPDATE 3/2/07

Since the last post, I stopped by the trans shop and looked at exactly what was inside this 6 speed mechanical device. Lots of parts, but nothing that looked difficult to build. Then again, nothing is hard if you know what you are doing. I supposed after about 3 shots, I might get it right. Gforce had sent the modified bellhousing and custom mainshaft to work with triple cone viper tail housings. Very interesting and nicely machine piece. Top notch work by Gforce. Here are some pics

Stuff, look at that bad boy. Rated to 750HP . Gears are the weakest link in this. Better gears are rated to 1200HP and cost 2200. I supposed if you can afford that power , you can afford the gears.


Gears


Carbon fiber syncros, not what I envisioned, but I guess they work well


I had thought that I would be in for a long night of cutting and welding to fit this trans in the tunnel. With the engine tilted at 4* which is the angle of the carb mounting surface relative to the centerline of the engine, the trans fit in and bolted up in about 1 minute. Not lying here. This is with clutch and all bolted up as well. I instantly doubled checked all heights, angles, ect and all were good to go.








So I moved on to the shifter using a stock viper unit. Sawzall and a carbide cutter made a nice opening in the tunnel. I have to move the shifter shaft in about 1” so it doesn’t hit the console. I will be installing a short throw, which will be normal throw with the add height/ length of the shifter. Mcleod makes a nice short throw that can be tailored to your specs.






This is all for now. Tomorrow is finish sanding spoilers and bumpers, fit hydrobooster and hyd. Master cyl in firewall.

[PonchoJohn]

Nice Dude!!

[AndyD]

what bellhousing are you using?; their wier piece?

[1971novaSS]

Gotta give respect to not only your incredibly nice project but also.... TO MILLER LITE BEER BABY.. In the trunk.... hehe

[Takid455]

"Gotta give respect to not only your incredibly nice project but also.... TO MILLER LITE BEER BABY.. In the trunk.... hehe"

haha - sometime you just need a nice cold one and things seem to all of the sudden get better.

"what bellhousing are you using?; their wier piece?"

Using a lakewood bell that has been modified to bolt to a t56. I dont know what you mean by 'wier piece". Last time I used a wier it was for a detension basin and to divert water in a manhole for stormwater. Being a civil engineer and growing up working on and building cars since I was a child, yeilds some odd thoughts that the DEP and towns frown upon. for instance, isntalling a turbo type devise in a stormwater system to shoot water up an incline w/o the use of electric pumps. How ever, the down side would be that during high flows, it would create too much upstream pressure in the system and manholes and inlets would fly in the air. A cool/funny things to watch, but if one of those boogers landed on your toe, you would be walking funny for a while. not to mention it would ruin your day.

[Beige]

Sounds like it's gonna turn out to be a sweet car.

for instance, isntalling a turbo type devise in a stormwater system to shoot water up an incline w/o the use of electric pumps. How ever, the down side would be that during high flows, it would create too much upstream pressure in the system and manholes and inlets would fly in the air. A cool/funny things to watch, but if one of those boogers landed on your toe, you would be walking funny for a while. not to mention it would ruin your day.

You'd just need to install the equivallant of either a wastegate or a blowoff valve to your storm drain turbo and there wouldn't be a problem. Or just add a braking system to keep the impeller from spinning too fast.

[WhiteG240]

PM Sent

[Bandit]

UPDATE 3/2/07

Hey buddy--looks familiar! Nice job on lining up the shifter location.

[AndyD]

http://www.weirhotrodproducts.com/id3.html

that's the bellhousing set up i was talking about. I thought it kind of looked like what u were using

[Takid455]

bandit - is that a stock 4spd shift rod there or an aftermarket unit? how do you like its position? ( your hand relation to the shifter knob)

[Takid455]

andy - oh ok, I remember looking at that bell. here are my thoughts on it;
Its Aluminum. After seeing pictures of exploding clutches, flywheels, ect and how I realy enjoy having my right foot(we're kinda close), SFI 1/4" steel bell was the only way I was going. those rotating parts will chew right through Aluminum and your foot. another point would be cost, not sure what wier sell them for, but lakewoods are 350 or so new.

now granted, if you have a 300-400 hp application that you just cruise, I suppose it would work just fine. I feel the wier has a good product for that market. Once power increases to 600ft/lbs and 525+/- hp and intend on racing, I feel safer w/ a sronger material. also it will pass tech.

[Ripper]

Wow, great project!

I have a -74 myself with similar modifications!
What are your plans for suspension? You talked about racing in an earlier post and I guess you mean track days?

My car lacks some comfort, but it's really fast at track or auto crossing. Let me know if you want some secret tips

[AndyD]

andy - oh ok, I remember looking at that bell. here are my thoughts on it;
Its Aluminum. After seeing pictures of exploding clutches, flywheels, ect and how I realy enjoy having my right foot(we're kinda close), SFI 1/4" steel bell was the only way I was going. those rotating parts will chew right through Aluminum and your foot. another point would be cost, not sure what wier sell them for, but lakewoods are 350 or so new.

now granted, if you have a 300-400 hp application that you just cruise, I suppose it would work just fine. I feel the wier has a good product for that market. Once power increases to 600ft/lbs and 525+/- hp and intend on racing, I feel safer w/ a sronger material. also it will pass tech.

I see. What are you using for a cluth and flywheel set up?