New '78 T/A Project

[monteboy84]

I'm thinking stock subframe and LCA's with a Savitske kit to correct the stock geometry, composite rear leafs, Bilstein shocks, and C5 front/LS1 rear brake conversion behind the snowflake 17 inch wheels you've already mentioned. Restore the body and interior to basically stock and give that 403 a once-over.

So basically just what you're probably already planning, I just typed it all out and pretended it was my idea

-matt

[rohrt]

Nice find

In my opinon there is very little that needs to be done to a WS6 car. Delrin bushings and subframe connectors is all I would do. Spend the rest on a pontiac drive train if California alows this.

[Torquedork]

Just an update. Despite the heat over the 4th, we just kept plugging away at the tearing the car down. Hope we remember how to put it back together!!!!!!
Dash

Stripped

[Torquedork]

Nice find

In my opinon there is very little that needs to be done to a WS6 car. Delrin bushings and subframe connectors is all I would do. Spend the rest on a pontiac drive train if California alows this.

Would love to go Pontiac Power but California's the Problem!!! Arrrgh!

Here's a few update photos.

We stripped it down to see what secrets lay beneath the paint and there were a few dings here and there. Then a quick coat of primer to seal it off with more to come.



Painting the Core Support along with other stuff blasted.

[SRD art]

Way to dig right in. I think the route you're going is a good idea, don't get too nuts with it. Stock restored muscle cars aren't my gig, although I know they have their place. If I owned one of 800 cars though I'd have a tough time not doing a full resto then sell it so I can build something more like what I was interested in, ie a PT 2 seater AMX.

[rohrt]

Looking good.

what are the CA laws on swaping a motor?

[Torquedork]

Looking good.

what are the CA laws on swaping a motor?

Unfortunately, '76 and newer cars still have to be smogged in California. We could do an LS conversion and it would probably be smogged based on the year of the engine and would most likely have to go to a special smog station.

There are two problems with the LS conversion here:

1. It's not in the budget for this particular car.
2. It's not something we really want to do to an essentially rare Loaded Gold Special Edition where only 800 plus were made.

We will "Tweak" it, but make sure it can be easily returned to a returned to a restored state. We simply feel it's more valuable that way. I tried to get my friend to buy a Formula that was sitting next to the Trans Am but he just has a thing for T/A's since he's owned a bunch of them in the past. The Formula we could have went nuts on.

[rohrt]

My brother has a gold edition. I got a least one ticket in that car and my brother got several including loosing his license. Good times.

Anyway, he has pulled the motors and put them in storage on a few of his T/As and then built what wanted. I think your smart to do bolt in mods only that can be changed back. Keep the pics comming.

[tylers88]

How about the late second gen camaro on the left?...gonna PT that baby too?

That Camaro looks exactly like the car I want to start with to build a PT/summer daily out of. A solid Z28 with ratty(decieving) looking paint

[bhcustomdesigns]

Looking good

[Torquedork]

Looking good

Thanks,

It's slowed down a little but making progress. A few update photos although the subframe is now out and being blasted. We also have some sponsors onboard and will list them shortly.

[damannhw]

That's gonna be a nice car when finished. Even though most people liked the black, I always loved gold on the Trans Am's ! Can't wait to see it painted.

[Torquedork]

Way to dig right in. I think the route you're going is a good idea, don't get too nuts with it. Stock restored muscle cars aren't my gig, although I know they have their place. If I owned one of 800 cars though I'd have a tough time not doing a full resto then sell it so I can build something more like what I was interested in, ie a PT 2 seater AMX.

Ben, it will be part Resto, part P/T to help maintain it's rarity and value so not to destroy it in the process thanks to some sponsors on board. And yes, we would like to do a P/T 2 seater AMX.

[Torquedork]

Just an Update:

Subframe returned from the Sandblaster and has been painted.




We also prepped the firewall and removed a lot of the factory undercoating and sealer.

[Swiftandswank]

Looking good

[Torquedork]

Just a quick update.

Our Heidts narrowed tubular control arm arrived along with a subframe mounting kit. As we mentioned, we are keeping it fairly simple as to not destroy what is a fairly rare car.

Old stuff pretty grungy!


This should be better!

[yellow1098Greg]

looks awsome i have a silver 77....love watching your build

[1tuff68]

Looks like a great project

[Torquedork]

A bit of an update.

After getting our Heidt's control arms and subframe mounting kit and putting the firewall back in pristine condtion, we slid the subframe back in place.



We also pulled the rear axle and sent it off to the blaster while we wait for our Stainless Steel Brake Kits.

[79-TA]

Hey, I have an Olds 403 in my car that I built. I built it around the Edelbrock big block aluminum heads. I'm afraid this isn't a good route to go for smog though as it requires you to run their high rise intake manifold that deletes most of the smog provisions.

The Olds 403 suffers from a severe lack of compression coupled with a lame camshaft. Your static compression ratio is 7.9:1. Windowed main webs and siamesed cylinders are also a limitation, but probably not so much for a smog motor.

You might go a bit more aggressive on the cam and then try bolting on a set of Olds 350 heads for more compression. I think that would still be fine for smog purposes. Other than that, make sure you keep track of of find all of the stock air intake items so you can pass the nonsensical visual inspection.