A Tale of two TA's

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[thumper877]

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

[EVO]

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.

[NOT A TA]

Nice projects you've got there!

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[ih8z28s]

Just one question, how does one get adopted so I can get a car built for me! beautiful work!

[thumper877]

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]

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.

[EVO]

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.

E.

[ih8z28s]

The drivers side looks like it's been patched before, how do the rear floor pans look?

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.

[EVO]

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.