1976 Trans Am Resto-Mod

[NOT A TA]

I would lose that air cleaner, those are known to catch fire. The car is looking really sharp.

Your car is looking great! I strongly second the suggestion to ditch the air cleaner. I've seen several catch fire (including one of my own back in the 90's).

[ryeguy2006a]

Well looks like I need to loose this air cleaner... I hadn't heard that or I would not have spend the money one it. I guess it was only 20 bucks and and a few hours of fabrication down. I think I am just going to invest in the WFO, or blockers base.

[ryeguy2006a]

Update, working on version 2.0 of my shaker base since the current set-up is liable to catch fire. I also just got a completel left side rear brake assembly from a 98-02 fbody to complete my LS1 rear disk setup. No pictures until this weekend.

[70Uglybird]

Car is looking great!!!

[ryeguy2006a]

Thanks Uglybird. I am really jealous of your t56 though. I look forward to seeing the progress on that as that is on my list of things to do to my car.

[70Uglybird]

Thanks Uglybird. I am really jealous of your t56 though. I look forward to seeing the progress on that as that is on my list of things to do to my car.

They are pretty sound transmissions, so picking them up used is not a big deal and if you ever had a problem with one let me know one of my best friends rebuilds them and is a sponser on LS1Tech.

If you have any questions about it let me know I went through alot of different options before going the "expensive" route. But if you could make your own crossmember you could probably do the swap fairly cheap. Quite a bit cheaper than a Keisler 5 speed. In fact even with all the high $$ parts I got I think I'm less than a 5 speed...of course that would have been NEW and a direct fit.

If it makes you feel better I'm jealous of A LOT of things on your car You really have done a great job and are going to have an incredible ride when its done!

[ryeguy2006a]

I will definitly keep you in mind when I go to do the swap. Thanks.

[ryeguy2006a]

I worked on the car for a few hours on Saturday and I was able to get a few things done. I installed my new battery and that seemed to get rid of the problem I was having with the "Draw", just ended up being a bad battery. I was able to get the other headlight installed and wired up. I want to give a big thanks to richduty455, on TAC, he went above and beyond to get me a headlight retainer.



I also put on my door trim, which was the last piece of trim that I needed to install.



I won't be able to work on the car this coming weekend, but I am looking forward to getting a lot done for the following weekend. I sent in the request for registration for vintage plates yesterday. I hope to have that back soon and then I will be able to legally drive the car on the road.

Cheers,
Ryan

[ryeguy2006a]

I ended up finding someone who had a new in the box Blockers Performance shaker kit and I am buying it from him for a great price. Should be at my doorstep today. Looking forward to getting that installed. Once that is on, the only thing that is left is to final tune the car (on the road) and finish up some little remaining issues. Such as installing the rest of the seatbelts, washing the outside of the car, detailing the engine bay and interior, etc.

I also got my other complete left side LS1 brake assembly for the rear. Now all I need for the swap is some spacers for the axles to line up with the rotor, adjustable proportioning valve, and ebrake cables. Looking forward to that, I may end up getting it done by the end of the summer, but not sure yet. I will get some pictures up soon.

[ryeguy2006a]

I got some parts at my doorstep on Saturday and yesterday. I got some more of the parts that I was looking for to complete my LS1 rear brakes for my car. All I need to finish the rear brake swap is the spacers, ebrake cables, and adjustable proportioning valve. I am really looking forward to this and it should make a big difference in looks and appearance.





I also got the blocker kit that was offered to me from Am Fan who is a member here on TAC. He gave me a price that I couldn't refuse and I am glad that I got it. I will have to do something to modify the shaker piece as it is for a 77-81 style shaker piece. I don't think that will be a problem because it is a flat piece of fiberglass. I should be able to make another one and fit it into my shaker. I should be able to put this on this weekend and finish up the rest of the little things.





I should get my registration back either by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. I should have sent this in sooner and not waited, but that is the way that it goes.

All for now.

[Code Red]

real awesome work, love the vent mesh and how you molded in the tach and looks factory.

[ryeguy2006a]

I finally finished my interior. I got all of the seat belts installed and vacuumed out the carpet. I couldn't be happier with the way that it turned out. I also detailed the car and got all of the buffing residue off the whole car.





I also decided to recover my center console lid. Eventually I will get a new one, but I want to make it good enough to get me through the summer. Here is what I did let me know what you think. Keep in mind that I did this at 2:30 this morning and did it in about 20 mins. I used some more left over headliner material that I had. *











I also took my car for a test drive, again and unfortunately I found out that I need new axle bearings... So that means that I am now thinking of just putting the money forward and doing the rear disk brake swap. I don't want to have to pull the axles twice so I am not sure what I want to do.

I should have my registration back next week. I am using vintage plates that used to be my dad's plates. He ran them on his 1970 Chevelle, and his 1970 Camaro SS back in the day. I think that it will be really cool to use his original plates on my car, I know that it means a lot to him too.

Thanks,
Ryan

[ryeguy2006a]

My car is officially registered!!! I am hoping that I can take it down to my uncles shop tomorrow and have it inspected for a car show this weekend. I am taking tomorrow off from work and I am going to get everything prepared for the show on Sunday. I hope to get everything functioning as it should. Wish me luck.

Also, when I went to put on the fiberglass blockers kit it didn't fit over my Holley Carb. Seems like everything has been this way with this car. Luckily my neighbor is good with fiberglass and he is going to modify the base for me so it will fit over the Holley. Hopefully when I go to work on the car tomorrow everything will come together.

Wish me luck.

[ryeguy2006a]

Ok, I have a lot of updates from yesterday. I took the day off and worked my very hard and I am very glad that I did because I needed every minute I had yesterday. I was putting the finishing touches on my car throughout the day yesterday. I had a lot of projects going on. I will start with my blocker kit because that was the first thing I started.

Since I got such a great deal on the blocker kit I bought here I can't really complain, but it wasn't as simple as I thought to install. First the kit that I bought was for 77-79, meaning that I had to make my own insert for the shaker. This piece holds the filter. So I re-purposed my parents old shower and created a new shaker insert. I think that it turned out pretty good. I started with a piece of cardboard and scissors to get the right shape, then used the fiberglass board.



Here is the board fit in the shaker.



Cut the whole for the filter. And looks just like the one from blockers.... Well sorta.





And the insert with the filter installed.



Then onto the liquid nails and wait 24 hours. (which I didn't expect)



Also, since I have a Holley carb the shaker base wouldn't just fit in there. Of course why would it just bolt on that wouldn't make any sense. Anyway I have a neighbor that is really good with fiberglass and he helped me out by cutting out some holes for the float level bowls go on the Holley and patched up the holes. He even painted it for me. Great guy, he loves cars too. Even if they are ricers...



Ok, onto my next hurdle. We can call this an adventure, and I will explain along the way. I mentioned before that my rear end was making horrible scrapping sounds, so I figured it was the bearings. Well when I got the axles out I found that to be exactly the case. The bearings were toast and the axles were severely scarred.





I went to Autozone the night before and borrowed all the necessary tools to remove and re-install the bearings. Absolutely worth the time to get the right tools. I didn't exactly know what I needed for the install, so I bought the two stock bearings they had in stock and the one saver bearing they had. Once I got the axles out and realized I needed two saver bearings... So I made a phone call to one of my car guy friends, and what do you know he had a pair of z28 axles that were in great shape. The best part, only cost 20 bucks for the pair. Here is the comparison.



And up close.



And while I had the rear apart I painted my rear diff cover to match my body color. I thought it gave the underside a little more color than just the black paint.



That didn't sound like much of an adventure, but trust me there was a lot or running around to the parts store getting new fluids bolts, and then finally negotiating with the axles.

On to the sway bar, nothing can be as easy as the sway bar right? Wrong, I went to bolt on my sway bar and the threads on one of the bolts pulled out. So, I saw a trick that so one did on pro-touring that worked great. They drilled out the holes enough to fit a shoulder nut up into the holes and then weld the nut to the frame. Pretty cool little trick.

[ryeguy2006a]

To continue on, I found out that because I have a new MC (C3 disk/disk) that I need to have a residual valve installed for the rear drums. The residual valve is built into the factory MC, so when I switched I no longer had one and the drums won't work as efficiently without one, so I bought one. I still need to install it soon, just need to figure out where to install it inline.



Now, off to my appointment over an hour late. It is a good thing my uncle owns the shop or I doubt I would have gotten it in. I needed a front end alignment and inspection. I think that my uncle was messing with me during the inspection, saying things like "I'm not going to use my license to inspect this." or "I doubt this is going to pass like this" After all that work I was thinking, this can't be the case. It ended up getting the inspection and alignment done and then I was actually legal to drive my own car down the road. So first thing I did was got some gas. Which judging by how quickly my gauge went down will be something I am going to be very familiar with. Here are a few pictures to end the day.







Right after I got back from the gas station. And just so I don't get people mad at me, if you remember my shaker needed 24 hours to dry. It will not have that filter on it going forward. It seems surreal to me that I am actually driving this car after 7 years of ownership. I have already put 20 miles on the car and hope the numbers keep going up.



I have been waiting for a while to put this decal on so here it is. I think it looks so cool on the muscle cars. Since I have bought several parts from them, I will give them some free advertising. Also you can see my vintage plates. These actually belonged to my dad in the 70's so that is pretty cool that I can use them.





That is all for now, I hope to get some nice photos from the car show tomorrow.

Cheers,
Ryan

[ryeguy2006a]

I was able to get my car done enough to attend my first show. Here are a bunch of pictures. Once I got back from the show I took a bunch of pictures of the car at my parents house. Enjoy.

This Cobra had a 521 cu. fuel injected BBF! Wow.



I was too busy at the show to take many pictures of my car, but once I got home I took a bunch of them at my parents. That is where I store the car when I am not driving it.



































Lots of pictures, but I guess I am just a proud parent, haha.

Cheers,
Ryan

[70Uglybird]

Looks amazing. EXCELLENT work.. I hope what I say is taken the right way....I've never been a huge fan of 74 to 76 firebirds.....yours has changed my mind.

[CruizinKev]

x2 looks awesome Ryan! good work!!

[mdes0]

nice work man

[ryeguy2006a]

Looks amazing. EXCELLENT work.. I hope what I say is taken the right way....I've never been a huge fan of 74 to 76 firebirds.....yours has changed my mind.

Thank you, I take that as a compliment. And thanks for all of the other compliments. I have been waiting a long time to get my car to this point and it feels great. I need to tweak a few things before she is running really good, but for not I am more than happy.