View Full Version : A Tale of two TA's
TA #2
I haven't posted a build thread on here in quite a while if ever so I guess its time to start. Im self employed with my own shop and have 3 kids that have all grown up and flown the coup so I seem to have a bit extra time on my hands. So far I've built a nice custom 71 C10 with an LS 5.3 for daughter #2, plus a really nice 72 C10 for my son with a Roadster shop Fast track chassis and a crate LSA. However, Daughter #1(the oldest) has eluded me with her choice of favorite car. Ive offered to build her whatever custom she wants but has always been content with her daily. Last year, she surprised me with the revelation that her absolute favorite was a Brown Trans Am. She says "Dad, Its gotta be brown! No smoky n the bandit for me! OK! So after several months of internet searches, I finally found an original Brentwood Brown 1977 Trans am in relatively good shape. She has maintained that she doesnt want a show car, just a cool classic she and her husband can cruise around in. My specialty or favorite custom is a classic muscle car or truck resto-mod with mostly original paint and interior but with modern suspension, brakes and driveline. So Im going to try to keep the TA mostly original with all the changes being reversible, I.E. the original 400 and 10 bolt will be preserved and go with the car if she ever wants to sell it.
TA #1
The other Blue TA is my personal ride. Its a slightly modified '74 I got off ebay about 8 years ago and havent had time to work on. The only mods it has is a 70-73 front clip and 17" wheels, I still has the 400 ram air and 4 speed. Since its not original, I plan to do a few more mods to mine but they will be subtle and tasteful I hope. Plans are a Roadster Shop Spec chassis and a crate LT4-8l90 combo. Stock interior with some updated guages and reworking the console to accept the 8l90 tap shifter. 18" honeycombs and some big Baer brakes. Again, not a show car but a nice street cruiser.
So here are few pics of the two cars. Currently, Ive received the roadster shop frame and LT4 for the '74 TA and have mounted the engine, tranny and baer brakes. 4 new Gunni wheels makes it a roller to move it around the shop. The Brown 77 is on deck currently as Im trying to get it done before my Daughter's birthday which is fast approaching.
Evan Q.199347199346199348199345199344199343
So here's where I'm at with the blue '74. Probably no further progress until the Brown '77 is done.
Roadster shop really makes a nice chassis. This one I ordered already powdercoated which really saved some time.
E.
So for the Brown TA, I had a left over 6.0 iron block truck crate motor not doing anything and since I don't want my daughter driving with too much HP, I thought it would be perfect and reliable. First step was to clean the motor and apply some fresh Pontiac Metallic blue along with Holley's Accessory drive and accessories. The stock truck intake was ditched in favor of an LS3 lower profile intake. I also got some new year one gold snowflakes in 17" so I can keep the stock look and run some bigger wilwood brakes. After that, the old brown bird was put up on the lift to start the tear down.
E.
199368199367199365199366199364199363199362
So tear down on the 77 went smoothly, I yanked the front clip and found a nice surprise when I got to the core support. The driver's side core support mount had died a lonely death some time back and you could move the entire core support about 3" fore and aft. Not good. Proceeded to yank the crusty but running original 400 and Th350. I then rolled it outside and powerwashed and degreased the front end to make it easier to work on.
E.199370199371199372199373199374
Then pulled all the suspension off and dropped the subframe. Found more rusty mount stands and wasted body mounts.
Ill post more pics tomorrow.
E.
199375199376199377199378199379199380199381
Next step was to wire wheel the subframe and then take it outside and blast it. I had some 1/8" pieces of sheet steel in the shop and proceeded to make new subframe mount pads to weld into the frame. I also took the time to clean up the nasty factory welds
E.
199389199387199388199385199382199383199386
thumper877
04-27-2022, 03:24 AM
Very cool that the whole family loves old hotrods. The TA looks like a solid car body wise. The motor looks amazing. I have to say im jealous of that garage. Looks like you have plenty of room. Watching
Thumper, Yeah the body is in nice shape as is the original interior. Faded but not tore up. The doors have a tiny bit of rust bubbling on the lower corners and the floors are not the best. Someone in the past welded in some toe panel patches which seem to be holding ok. I might have to do a floor pan replacement after a couple of years.
So after welding up the subframe I gave it a coat of epoxy primer followed by Eastwoods ceramic chassis satin black. I then started on the control arms. Im installing RideTech's street grip system for F bodys on this TA. removed all the old bushings and cleaned and blasted the arms followed by epoxy primer and ceramic chassis black although I ran out of satin so ended up doing the arms in gloss. I think the contrast looks kinda cool. New ball joints from the streetgrip system and Suspension was put back together with Ridetech progressive coil springs. The stock spindles were modified to accept the bigger wilwood brake caliper brackets. last up on the subframe was the ridetech streetgrip steering set up. all new tie rods and links attached to the original steering box. I mounted the engine and trans to the subframe to give it some weight to put the suspension back together.
E.199419199420199421199422199423199424199425
NOT A TA
04-28-2022, 06:41 PM
Nice projects you've got there!
Thanks John! I enjoyed your build thread on your TA as well.
So I took some time off from the brown TA and took a few of my previous creations to a car show at the Country club in houston. My son's C10 and the 69 vette I built for my brother in law. Both LSA powered.
E.
199570
After that it was back to the Brown Bird. I couldnt resist dressing up the motor a bit. Some valve covers from Butler and a coil relocation kit with new MSD wires. The 17" year one snowflakes also came in, so I quickly got them shod with some Michelin pilot sport AS in 255/50/17 front and 275/50/17 rear.
E.199571199572199573199574
Next up was the drudgery of cleaning a really crusty firewall. Since Im putting vintage air, I got the cover plate from Detroit speed to cover up all the holes. I just couldnt stand looking at the nasty double wrinkle at the center of the transmission opening so I cut it out and welded in some new steel. I also folded the pinch weld lip at the top and outer edge of the firewall and welded it closed. Some seam sealer and a bit of bodywork and it was ready for the Raptor liner.
E.
199575199576199577199578199579199580199581199582
ih8z28s
05-06-2022, 07:56 AM
Just one question, how does one get adopted so I can get a car built for me! beautiful work!
thumper877
05-06-2022, 02:18 PM
Just one question, how does one get adopted so I can get a car built for me! beautiful work!I almost wrote the same thing lol. But i wanted to get to know him first :)
68Formula
05-06-2022, 03:23 PM
I almost wrote the same thing lol. But i wanted to get to know him first :)
Loves Firebirds and does great work. Only thing left I need to know, is my new last name. :woot:
LOL Sorry Guys, not adopting anytime soon. Those 3 kids put me thru the wringer. Im really enjoying my newfound status as a grandfather. Daughter no. 2 had a beautiful baby girl last november. Cant wait to start teaching her how to turn some wrenches when she gets a bit older.
Now that the firewall is done, I went ahead and pulled the carpet and mass backing and the floor is rather worse than I thought (arent they always). The dreaded floor cancer is pretty evident. Oh well, I guess I get to practice my welding again. New floor panels have been ordered and while Im waiting, I went ahead and tackled the Vintage air evap mounting and also started planning the location for the ECU and Trans ECU and DBW pedal. It looks like I will have just enough space to mount both ECUs center of firewall above the tunnel behind the AC evap hose manifold. its the little area I painted with etch primer. Plan is to fab a mount that will bolt to the cowl area on top and to the tunnel at the bottom. This way I don't have any unsightly bolts in that freshly smoothed firewall. Ugh, I hate repairing rusty floorpans. :pat:
E.
199601199602199600
ih8z28s
05-09-2022, 10:36 AM
The drivers side looks like it's been patched before, how do the rear floor pans look?
Joe, Both sides have been patched before. The short strand fiberglass filler is still evident. The rear floor pans have also been patched but are holding much better. Leaky heater core probably the culprit as its the worst on the passenger side toe area.
E.
Still waiting for my floor patch panels to arrive so staying busy with firewall stuff. Made a simple bracket to hold the engine ECU and Trans ECU at the center of the tunnel. One of Speartech's nice firewall harness grommets has just enough space to allow the harness to come thru right behind the pass cylinder head. Also applied the dynamat (Eastwood's version anyway) to the firewall area and cowl area. When I was mocking up the ETC pedal, I actually had one of the bolt holes line up from the original throttle plate to the new etc plate that comes with the pedal. (never happened before, WOW!) I made an extension tube for that bolt and used the remainder of the original throttle bracket as gussets to weld the two together. Three bolts on the lower section that use the original weld nuts on the firewall and one upper bolt that goes right below the wiper motor. First time its been that simple and this is like LS swap no. 11 or so.
E.199706199707199708199709199710199711
So while waiting for the floor sections to arrive, I went ahead and installed the vintage air vent adapters on the dash as well as installed the Dakota digital RTX guage package. Once the floors arrived I wasted no time in cutting out the rusty areas in both foot wells. The floor sections I ordered came with the toe board piece already attached which saved a bunch of time. Once I cut out the floor, I had to weld a new piece on the lower section of the torque box which was rusted out as well. Sprayed the whole area with weld thru primer and then proceeded to weld in the floor section and attach it to the torque box as well. I used my TIG and welded most of it from underneath while it was up on the lift. The last little bit inside was difficult and I felt like a pretzel afterward. Hitting the foot pedal on the TIG with your knee gets old. LOL. The passenger side rust was worse and I had to reconstruct most of the lower torque box and some of the inner rocker too. BTW, while working on this bird, I found liberal amounts of beach sand in all the crevices. Looks like the P.O. took it to the beach one too many times which explains all the rust.
E.
19995319996019995919995819995719995619995419996119 9955199962
Well, after a quick trip to Milwaukee to see Son #1, Its back to the TA. Ive finished the passenger side floor repair with the rebuild of the lower part of the torque box. All welded up and primed outside with etch primer and inside with some red oxide that for some reason looks orange.
E.200203200206200205200201200202200204200200200199
Once the floors were done, progress has increased quickly. Ive finished the dynamat on the interior plus mounted the pedals and ETC bracket along with the detroit speed wiper and booster/master assembly. With the new body mounts, the subframe mounted up really easy. I also installed the ridetech composite springs along with the new currie 9" with 3.50 gears and posi. Now I can measure for the driveshaft and get busy with the new wiring.
E.
20021020021420021320021520021220021120020820020920 0207200216
thumper877
06-04-2022, 03:58 PM
Moving along. Looking great
jaybee
06-11-2022, 06:16 PM
Awesome projects, I'd be proud to have either. And I love the LS motor painted Pontiac blue. Very cool.
Thanks Guys, Having lots of fun on this one. Now deep into the wiring. Ill post pics soon.
E.
Blown396
06-16-2022, 11:55 AM
78 build is looking great! What type of bed liner did you use on your firewall? Also, what brake booster/master cylinder combo is that?
Just finished stripping/painting my subframe and getting to reassemble. Want to refinish the firewall and liked the way yours is turning out.
Thanks,
Eric
Eric, The bedliner is Raptor. Its an easy to apply urethane bedliner kit that comes with 4 bottles of bedliner, one bottle of hardener and its own dedicated cheapie spray gun. The master cylinder and booster are a set sold by Detroit Speed for all 2nd gen F bodies.
Speaking of raptor, I went ahead and sprayed the inner fenders with it to match the firewall. I ended up replacing the drivers side inner with a new one as it was rusted out from the battery tray. I also installed the new core support from Dynacorn. The original was salvageable but woulda taken alot of work. Much easier just to replace it. Seguin Equipment Services made me up a nice 3.5" performance steel driveshaft to my measurements. Great turn around service, only 3 days! and only 5 min drive from the shop. New fuel tank and in tank fuel pump installed along with new braided fuel line all the way to the rail. I also ran the hoses for the vintage air ac. I like how they are hidden in the fender, makes for a nice clean install. Wiring is coming along too. got the Dakota Digital box mounted and wiring started. The new harness is from American Autowire. Ive used several of their harnesses and like them as they are pretty straightforward and easy to install. On a side note, I sprung the TA to my daughter last month on her birthday. She was absolutely ecstatic! Even though it was all disassembled, She was instantly in love with it. She promptly gave it a new moniker. Its now officially known as "ROXY" My other 2 kids trucks are named Estelle and April and have their names engraved in a wood glove box overlay so I plan to do something similar to the TA. I was thinking a small wood overlay for the glove box door with the name ROXY but the letters made from engine turned aluminum plate just like the dash. More on that to come.
20052420053320053020052520052720053220053120052920 0528200526
Vimes
06-17-2022, 08:59 PM
How much did the 4 bottles of Raptor and bottle of hardener weigh? Kinda curious how much this adds.
Not much, its 4 liters of paint plus hardener in the kit so about 10-12 lbs.
I used all 3 on the firewall and floor and the last one on the inner fenders.
E.
Vimes
06-18-2022, 12:20 PM
Not much, its 4 liters of paint plus hardener in the kit so about 10-12 lbs.
I used all 3 on the firewall and floor and the last one on the inner fenders.
E.
Useful and lightweight. Adding it to my list. Appreciate it.
Lots of progress on the Brown TA. Im using the cold case radiator setup for the LS conversion so I had to fab up an upper radiator mount. Also welded up an upper radiator line as it was almost impossible to find a hose with the right bends and end diameters. I had some 4" polished stainless left over from the C10 so made an intake tube to grab air from behind the headlight. Also made a custom battery hold down and new cables from 1/0 welding cable. Made a little platform mount for the GMPP harness fuse box and installed the PCM of NC double fan kit that uses the stock GM relays and operates the fans in 2 speed mode. Finished up the wiring for the front end with the nose and headlights and turn signals. Made some mounts to hold the transmission cooler as the cold case wasnt available with an in tank cooler. Suprisingly the front end went back together rather smoothly with all gaps looking respectable.
E.201272201273201274201275201276201277201278201279 201280
So after all that was done, I took a week off to get over a case of the Rona. Really sucked for a few days but all better now. I next tackled installing the Pypes 2.5" stainless exhaust system. All the bends lined up nicely and fit well. I went ahead and Tig welded all the connections as well as the Pypes famous Trans Am split exhaust tips. I also ditched all the pipe clamps and installed 6 stainless Vband clamps to make the system removable as I really hate using bolt clamps or having to cut the pipes to get the transmission out.
E.
201289201286201287201288201284201285
Jonathonar89
08-28-2022, 03:18 PM
Great build on the brown car thus far! Nice selection of parts.
Thanks Jonathon! Its coming along.
Been making progress on the wiring and also finished up the MAF sensor install on the intake tube. Had to get a SS mount so I could TIG weld it to the tube. The crate motor came with an aluminum mount. I also sprayed some fresh Dark Saddle on the dash, console, various dash panels and kick panels. Light Buckskin on the new sail panels and the rear seat side panels. Intstalled the Digitails LED tail lights and new holley LED head lights.
E.201844201845201848201849201850201851201847201846
thumper877
08-29-2022, 03:37 AM
Interior pieces turned out great. I like that color. Very fast progress. Bet ur daughter is getting excited
Thanks Thumper. Yeah she's pretty stoked about it. She's demanding regular picture updates daily! I don't know if ya'll are into this sort of thing but my other hobby is building and flying giant scale remote control warbirds. I just recently was able to attend the Warbird meet at Fond Du Lac Wisconsin. Great flying field with a huge grass runway and way cooler temps than down here in Tx. Here's a few pics of my fleet of 1/4 scale German warbirds at the show.
E.
201860201861
bkbkbk
08-29-2022, 08:48 PM
Awesome birds you have there!
Thanks BK! Ive been enjoying your 73 build. Nice work so far!
E.
Martin71RS
09-09-2022, 11:10 AM
Nice build.... and wow on the planes!!
69CougarXR7
09-09-2022, 06:31 PM
Big fan of the DO-335 and ME-262.. There is a 335 at the Smithsonian. I have a fondness for the FW-190’s design also.
Brian
Thanks Brian and Martin. Yeah, Ive seen the 335 at Dulles. Its an A model , the second of the production models. My RC model is of the B, or heavy destroyer version with the big wing cannon. The B or V14 as it was known survived the war and was flight tested by the French, who promptly crashed it and it was bulldozed into a pit sadly. Its one of my favorite models to fly, having and 80cc 2 stroke single piston front engine and a 45cc 2 stroke single in the middle driving a 3 ft driveshaft to the rear propellor. Only one flying in the States at 1/5th scale. The 262 is quarter scale and has two 120N thrust turbines. Both fly great.
As for the Brown TA, the new LS started with the first crank after checking fluids and gauges and stuff. Runs like a champ. Had to shut it down early as the power steering pump started making hellacious noises and the PS fluid got seriously hot. Im thinking the pressure valve in the pump is sticking or the original firebird steering box may have a blockage somewhere. Ill figure it out on monday.
E.
So the new power steering pump did indeed have a sticky pressure valve. Took it apart and cleaned it and it started working noise free. Went ahead and finished most of the interior install. I had a hard time finding new seat belts in tan color with the correct retraction reels for the rear. I ended up disassembling the original retractors and feeding in the new belts. Fresh Buckskin on the original covers and they are good to go. I also installed some cool little Trans Am projector lights in the bottom of each door. They are wired to the dome light so come on whenever you open the door. New carpet from ACC was easy to install. Finished installing the dash and started programming the Dakota Digital Dash. My daughter requested pink gauge lights for daytime and aqua for night driving. Gotta say, the RTX gauges look really cool in this bird. Next up is painting new fender flares in Brentwood Brown with gold pinstriping to match.
E.
Forgot a pic of the projector lights. The logo will be much smaller once the car is at ride height.
E.202191
thumper877
09-17-2022, 02:17 AM
Car is really turning out awesome. Bet your daughter is getting excited. The projector lights are cool touch
Update time! So I think I mentioned before that my Dad is really into woodworking. He has designed and built 2 different wood glove box overlays for the 2 C10's I built for my other kids. The first was "Estelle", the blue C10 for Twin no. 2. The second was "April", my son's C10 and since Twin no. 1 named the brown TA "ROXY", Dad came up with this custom glove box overlay. The wood is Cambodian burl wood and the name ROXY is inlaid in mother of pearl. To get over the inward sloping glove box on the TA, Dad came up with the center piece thats angled to show the name. Came out pretty cool I think. Once all the sheet metal was installed, I was free to install the Hotchkis subframe connectors while the car was sitting on its own 4 wheels with full running weight. Connectors were bolted to the front subframe and welded to the rears with rosette welds where the bolts would normally go. This did wonders for chassis rigidity. Now when I pick it up on the lift it doesnt turn into a wet noodle like it used to. Once the connectors were in, I was able to install the lokar parking brake cables with a small plate thats welded to the connector as I didnt want to attach it to the floor. Also just managed to squeeze in the windshield washer reservoir in the front fender outboard of the battery. It can still be filled with a funnel and the detroit speed washer pump does the job well.
Evan Q.
20290720290820291520290920291020291420291220291320 2911
Next up were the wheel flares. I ended up using the plastic front flares and a new plastic chin spoiler along with urethane rears as they were the only ones in stock. The plastic ones only needed a quick scuff and were ready for adhesion promoter and primer followed by some freshly color matched brentwood brown. Turns out the car has had one repaint and the color wasnt quite factory so Its a good thing I took one of the old flares to the paint shop to get it matched. The rear urethane flares were another matter. They needed quite a bit of pinhole filling to get smooth but turned out nice. The edge welting that goes between the flare and body was also treated to fresh brown then I put new gold pinstriping on the flares and finished it up with 2 coats of 2002 clear. they look SOOOOO much better than the cracked and pitted originals.
Evan Q.202920202919202917202918202916
So when I removed the original wheel flares, I was met with a nice little surprise in the form of a giant rust hole in the pass side rear rocker. The wheel flare had been covering it and I kinda knew it was there but didnt know the extent. Turns out the pass rocker was one giant mouse nest. pulled out a big whopping pile of nest from the inside. Well, nothing for it but fix it up! I didnt have enough time to do a full rocker replacement so just settled for a half rocker re-do. I had to cut out a much larger hole to get decent metal to weld to at the front. Turns out this rocker had been patched before so I had to put a patch on a patch so to speak. The inner rocker was basically gone at the rear so I made a plate to extend down to form the pinch weld area that was missing. Not enough room to fully weld around the perimeter so did rosette welds on the join to the inner rocker that was still there. Once all the interior part was welded up, I sprayed a bunch of rust converter and then etch primed the whole interior. I cut out the rear of a replacement rocker and made a patch panel for the exterior part. TIG welded in the patch panel, did a bit o body work at the welds and painted and primed it up. Pretty much invisible once the wheel flare is put back on.
Evan Q.
20292620292120292320293020292220292920292820292720 2925202924
Then all that was left before road test was mounting the shaker scoop to the top of the engine. I used the top part of the air cleaner base mounted to brackets which were bolted to the LS intake manifold. The shaker scoop just mounts to the air cleaner base with the giant ring clamp just like the original.
Evan Q.
202932202931
So here's the finished product. Came out pretty nice I think. Ill probably have to strip it down and do a full repaint sometime in the future, but I think my daughter ought to enjoy driving it for a bit before it heads back to paint prison. Hoping to get some pics of all 3 vehicles together soon.
Dyno tune this week!
Evan Q.
thumper877
10-22-2022, 04:04 AM
Really turned out great. You did that in record time too. She's going to have a blast. I really love the glove box overlay also. Looking forward to the pic of all three together
AB69Z
10-22-2022, 04:31 AM
Forgot a pic of the projector lights. The logo will be much smaller once the car is at ride height.
E.202191
any pictures of installation of these?
also where did you source these from?
The lights came from lumentrendz.com (https://www.lumentrendz.com/product/lumenz-cl3-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-led-courtesy-lights-100886/)
They are mounted on the interior bottom surface of the door close to where the lower window track attaches to the bottom. Dont bother using the little hole saw that comes with them, its junk.
Evan Q.
So thats it for the Brown TA, just gotta give it a nice dyno tune and its off to its new home. Was able to cruise it around with my daughter this weekend. She sure does love it and cant wait to start giving it some street time. Took a min to get all three outside for a quick photo shoot. Now I get to work on MY TA!
Evan Q.
202990202988202987202989202986202985
thumper877
10-23-2022, 02:49 PM
Cool pics
tcronkright
10-24-2022, 03:20 PM
Nice build and great attention to details. I really like the gauges and extra lighting touches you added.
Thanks Tom! and Thumper too! On a side note, I installed a hydratech booster on my Son's C10 with the willwood brakes and love the feel and performance of it. I had ordered a pair of them way back in feb when I bought the brown TA, The second for my TA. Anyhow, They just now finally arrived. I guess Hydratech was way behind on orders and materials just like the rest of the world. The Detroit vacuum booster worked fine but it just doesn't compare in my opinion to the hydratech power booster. Installed it in the brown TA yesterday along with a Wilwood master and WOW! Instant stop. Love it. Hope to get back to working on my '70 bird soon.
E.
Well I guess Im gonna have to change the name of this thread to "A Tale of 3 TA's"
Evan Q.205661
After finishing Roxy for my daughter, I started watching the values of these 77-78 TA's climb outta sight. Always loved the look of the Solar gold paint so I went hunting for a real Y88 Trans Am. Finally found one in Georgia. Nice Y88 in fantastic shape. 4 speed car so its one of 1670 built in '78. Im kinda thinking it might provide a home for my Roadster shop spec chassis as it should fit. Would be kinda cool to cruise a Y88 with an LT4 in it....................
Evan Q.205662205663205664205665205666205667205668205669 205670
thumper877
02-17-2023, 03:28 PM
Wow car looks really clean. Couldn't agree with u more with the lt4
So I was about to start on the Gold TA back in Sept of '23 when a good friend approached me and said he had just bought a '79 TA and was looking to do some modifications to it. So the Gold TA got put on hold AGAIN! The black TA project quickly snowballed(as they all do) into an Roadstershop frame swap and LS3/T-56. and full restoration of everything else. On top of that, 2 months into the build, He asked me to paint it once I had done all the mods to the underneath. And me like a big dummy agreed to paint a BLACK car. :rolleyes: I think the only color worse from a bodywork standpoint is silver. The car was pretty straight, had the same rust hole in the passenger rocker under the fender flare and had good floors. He informed me that the car was to be named "Roofus" in honor of his favorite dog that had passed. The build was pretty straightforward so I wont post all the build pics, just the relevant ones. The black car also got a set of flush mount front and rear glass from Fesler. Roofus was completed in March of this year so Im finally free to start on my Gold TA. Here are a few pics of the transformation of Roofus.
Evan Q.216959216958216960216961216962
Here's the finished roadstershop spec chassis with the LS3/T-56 combo plus detailing the firewall and body
Sorry Guys, I plumb fogot to post the rest of the pics of Roofus. The build was a great success. The client loves it and has already put 7k miles on it. I ended up getting Joe Martin of Iron Ressurection to paint one of his signature birds on the hood after I painted the whole car. Here's some pics
E.220017220018220019220020220021
Anyone know how to rotate photos during upload?
Josh@Ridetech
04-03-2026, 04:11 AM
Awesome thread, I love these cars. Great work, sir! :cheers:
Raszaron
04-03-2026, 06:41 AM
Fantastic builds Evan! I enjoyed reading about the process and attention to detail you put into this classic birds! I also like the fact you built a few trucks along the way for your kids! I bought the 64 (STEEVE) I restomodded to enjoy with my kids. And I have a 78 Big Ten that I will be building sometime in the future once I get 'Fool's GOLD' done! Look forward to seeing more updates on your 74!
Thanks Guys! Ive really enjoyed building these birds. After the black TA "Roofus" was done, I finally got a chance to dive into rebuilding my '78 "Goldie". Its finished now and Im having a blast cruising it around. Ill try and catch up this thread with some pics of the Gold car build.
Evan Q.
220023220022220024220025220026220027220028220029
So the Gold car build finally commenced about this time last year. The body was prepped to go over the RS spec chassis with the Lt-4 and 8L90 combo. I went ahead and put in some mini tubs to fit some wider rubber in the rear. The Spec can handle 335s but I chose to use the 315/18 in the rear as it fits better. The firewall was smoothed like the others and the bottom of the body was stripped, seam sealed and Raptor Lined. I was not expecting the 8l90 to be so damn big and have the pan hang down so low below the frame. I ended up raising the engine/trans combo up in the chassis 1.25" to get more ground clearance for the pan. Kept all the same driveline angles to that part was easy. Most time consuming part was putting in a new tunnel for the trans.
Evan Q.
Continued.
Had to build a pocket to hold the '15 Impala shifter at the correct angle so that I could still utilize the stock console auto shifter location. 220031220030220032220033220034
Next up was getting the wheels sorted. I went with Forgeline TA3C which is the concave version of the snowflake. Fronts are 18/9 and 18/11.5 rears220035220036220037220038
Cont.
After that I installed the Fesler flush mount glass on the rear. I took the glass to the tint shop before install to get it one piece tinted.
220040220039220041220042220043
Installed the Fesler flush mount windshield and built a sub box for the trunk. Using the Focal dual coil 10" sub in a home made box that fits into the side of the trunk. Then commenced wiring up the whole car with a new AAW harness.
220044220045220046220047220048220049220050
Lots of work later I finished up the interior with most of the original panels except I used the Year One door panels so I could fit a 6.5" speaker in the door and be able to fit power windows. I got a full Y88 correct seat cover set from Legendary interiors to round it out. 220053220052220051220054220055
Once the interior was done, It was time to finish up the engine bay. I like using Wizard Cooling's bigger radiator and dual 14' pwm brushless fan setup. I had to do some mods to the core support to fit it but it works well. Added the vintage air condenser and the intercooler heat exchanger plus mounts for the PSC steering reservoir and lots of plumbing.
220057220056220058220059220060220061
Those with sharp eyes will notice the passenger side Camaro battery tray and A/C lines ran around the outside of the core support.
Next up was the exhaust system. I did a full length 2 1/2" stainless system for the back car. I decided to challenge myself and do a 3" stainless system for Goldie. Once I found a good supplier of pre cut pie pieces in 3" i was off to the races. Tried to back purge most of the welds but had to skip a few when I ran out of Argon so quick.
Evan Q.220068220069220070220071220072220073220074220075
While I was in welding mode, I also built a 4' stainless intake tube that places the air filter where the battery used to be. Hence the camaro pass side battery tray. 220076
Next order of business was to sort out the nose section. Anyone who's built one of these birds knows how much of a PITA the nose is. The original nose for this car was rather perished and had been patched numerous times before. I decided to try out a fiberglass nose I found online from Showcars rob from Canada I think.
Sooooo Glad I did because it fit almost perfect with very little filling and was easily painted with no cracking or chipping. The only drawback was that it didnt have a mount for the front splitter/spoiler. I added about 1" of glass to the bottom of the bumper to extend rearward enough to mount the chin spoiler and it worked well.
Some time in the paint booth and they were all color matched to the gold that was on the car. Its not quite solar gold but very very close. I went ahead the painted the driver fender while I was at it because the paint was not very well applied on that fender.2200772200782200792200802200812200822200832 20084220085
jaybee
04-05-2026, 06:40 PM
Great looking cars. Can't disagree with the fiberglass nose. A lot of times the stock noses didn't fit that well when the cars were brand new.
Thanks John B. Yeah, even when they did line up they were saggy in all the wrong places. So once I got the nose all together and mounted, I tackled fitting the hood. The Hood bird along with the hood bird on the black TA were both painted by Joe Martin from Martin Bros. Customs or you may know em by the Iron Resurrection tv show. I did all the bodywork and base coats and commissioned Joe to paint the hood birds. They both came out fantastic. Joe is a true artist and has done many different examples of the screamin chicken. Once Joe was finished with both birds, I put the hoods in the paint booth and shot 6 coats of PPG2002 on them and let cure for a bit. I then proceeded to color sand the clear through at least 6 blockings from 800 all the way to 8000 Trizact. 6 coats were needed so that I wouldnt break through the clear, especially around where the hand applied pin stripes were. Happy to say I didnt cut through on either hood and both were buffed up to a mirror shine.
Here's some pics of both birds
Evan Q.220087220086220088220089220094220090220091220092 220095220093
So once the clear had a few weeks to cure, I started on the sanding and buffing. Started with 800 grit on the Linear blocks and you can see the highs and lows on different parts of the bird. Worked up to 3000 grit then 8000 trizact. Then 4 stages of buffing compounds and the bird really starts to come alive.
Evan Q.
220134220131220132220133220135220137220136220130
last few items to finish up. Mounting the shaker to the intercooler of the Lt4. There wasn't a lot of room between the intercooler and the hood as I had to raise the drivetrain in the chassis to get more pan clearance for the 8l90. However, it did fit with a smaller size weatherstrip around the shaker perimeter. I made some small brackets to mount to the intercooler studs which bolted to the bottom of the shaker. Topped it off with a 3d printed honeycomb insert for the shaker. I also took my homemade intake tube to get Ceramic coated. Looks much better. Ive put about 500 trouble free miles so far. The car handles great and is very smooth.
Evan Q.220138220139220140220141220142220143220144
Jk918
04-13-2026, 02:46 AM
Amazing builds! What product are you using on the firewall and inner wheel wells?
Thanks Jk. Im using Raptor liner from UPol. It comes in a kit with 4 bottles of unmixed urethane liner, one bottle of hardener and a simple spray gun. coverage is pretty good for each bottle, for example it takes one bottle to do a firewall or one bottle to do both inner wheel wells. Most paint shops carry it as well as Amazon
Evan Q.
Powered by vBulletin®