1976 Trans Am Resto-Mod

[Chadman27]

Lookin good!

[ryeguy2006a]

Thanks for the compliments.

[srh3trinity]

Make sure you document the gas tank conversion well. I am thinking about using a 70-73 gas tank so I don't have to recess anything for clearance issues. I may lose a couple of gallons, but I think that is a worthwhile swap if I don't have to fab up any special recess.

[ryeguy2006a]

Seems like most of my updates have been parts updates, but I plan to get some time in the garage this Friday and Saturday so I am hoping to make some real progress. These are hopefully the last two large components for my LS1 swap! I am sick of spending money.

Here is the Vetteworks Kit that will allow me to use my 1999 LS1 fuel pump Assembly. It was a nice touch that they laser engraved the panel on the top. Also came with a full set of color installation instructions.





And the other is a Universal Painless wiring harness that I got from Mrbandit. Great guy to deal with. It is an 18 Circuit harness with provisions for power windows, locks and other accessories. He gave me a great deal on it and my next project will be fully wiring my whole car. I am actually excited to do because I like the challenge of wiring and getting everything to work properly.



And a big box of wires for the rest of the wiring.



Cheers,
Ryan

[srh3trinity]

I have a nice upstairs bedroom that you could sleep in for a week if you like to re-wire 74-76 Firebirds and need a project after you finish yours. I found a 76 on Craigslist the other day and I am very tempted to pick it up and use some parts off of it for my 74.

[ryeguy2006a]

I guess we will see how much I like wiring after I get finished with my car, lol.

[ryeguy2006a]

The motor is finally in!!! I am excited to have the motor in for good as it is one huge step towards getting my car back together. To me this is a big deal because now, I can do many of the little projects as I get time. Once the motor was in finally for about the 20th time, I started on some of my other larger tasks. Here are some pictures.

Before I could put in my motor I wanted to clean up the sub-frame and freshen up the paint. I painted some of the steering linkages to break up all of the black. Here is what I started with and here is what I ended up with.













Now that the sub-frame is all painted up it is ready for the motor. *:grin:









Here is the wiring mess that I have to look forward to! And as a side, I am still up in the air about what center console to use. I really like the way that the 99 console looks, but where the shifter comes out, may not be comfortable. When I had the full interior in with the transmission in its current spot, with the straight shifter shown with the stock tan console, the shifter was very comfortable. I feel that it may be a reach for the 99 console. For now, I am going to focus on the wiring.





I put in the clutch hydraulics bracket on and got my clutch test fit. It is amazing how easy things can be with the right parts. The bracket is from DSE and it is made specifically for the LSx swap which allows you to bolt on the stock slave cylinder and puts it at the correct angel. All I had to do to modify the firewall slightly and drill another hole in the clutch petal. The bracket sandwiches between the firewall and the brake booster.











I drilled my one hole in the firewall for my engine wiring. I laid out the wiring where it will roughly go, and will eventually loom up the harness and get everything looking clean.



I feel like accomplished quite a bit this weekend and I feel great because I am not starting to bolt things back onto the car rather than tearing them off or modifying. I should have the car fired up within the next month. I hope to have it running by the end of the month.

Thanks for looking.

Ryan

[mdes0]

Nice work man.

[zamora7]

Great looking car and awesome work you do. Just read all 11 pages and will be following closely as I near the start of my second gen swap.

[Ravenworks]

Gotta feel good to get to the assembly phase! Congrats!!!

[ryeguy2006a]

Gotta feel good to get to the assembly phase! Congrats!!!

Thanks for all of the positive feedback. I am really looking forward to the assembly phase! What I am most anxious to hear is my exhaust notes.

[ryeguy2006a]

No really huge progress, but I couldn't sleep last night so I went in the garage for a few hours to clean up and package up some parts I sold. After I finished cleaning up, I looked over at my wiring mess and thought to myself, "What have I done now..."

I sat down and started looking at the wiring and started placing bundles of wires where they would go. Once you break the wiring down into sections it really isn't as intimidating as it looks. Each wire is labled "radio section" or "lighting section" so it is very difficult to mess up. The biggest task is going to be figuring out the wiring diagrams for my stock car, because the wiring is a universal harness, everything is un-terminated and you have to re-use the stock connectors. Which isn't a big deal for me. I like the idea of upgrading to the blade fuses with newer technology. Over the next few weeks I will be blending the Painless harness into my car, and integrating with the factory LS1 engine harness. As well as adding my Speedhut wiring, as some gauges have their own sensors. (oil pressure, coolant temp)

Here is the mess a little more organized and the engine a little more complete.





I will get some better pictures, and some better updates soon. My wife will have to start working on Saturdays starting Feb. 23rd so I will have a lot of Saturday's to get the car back together.

All for now.

[ryeguy2006a]

It is difficult to capture what I have done through pictures as I have been doing a lot of wiring. I did find a final place for my ECU, and I am really happy how well it is hidden. I mounted it in the vacant pocket where there used to be a vacuum operated flap for the A/C. I used a modified ecu bracket from the 99. I removed the insulation that was glued into the cup and slightly trimmed the back of the cup. Here are some pictures.









That is all for now. I am hoping to start up the car within the next month... We will see if that happens.

Cheers,
Ryan

[yellow1098Greg]

rye, awsome stuff....I followed this whole thread and all your info on the TA country site and im about to start a project here on my 77 without ever doing it before. Im gonna pull the dash and carpet and all....did you have any info on a step by step process on this? or did you just dive right in your first time?

[ryeguy2006a]

rye, awsome stuff....I followed this whole thread and all your info on the TA country site and im about to start a project here on my 77 without ever doing it before. Im gonna pull the dash and carpet and all....did you have any info on a step by step process on this? or did you just dive right in your first time?

I don't have any step by step on removing the dash, but it is fairly straight forward. There are two main bolts on the lower ends of the dash, behind the gauges, there are 2 or 3 screws holding the dash on, and remove the glove box and there are three nuts holding the dash on. Other than those, just carefully remove all the components bolted to the dash and it should come right out. Also, it makes it a little easier if you take the wiring and dash out all at once. Thanks for the compliments.

[ryeguy2006a]

Again, not much for visual progress for an update, but I got most of my custom wiring done. It was difficult figuring out all of the wiring schematics and finding a way to splice them all together, but in the end it turned out great. I was able to get all of the relays and fuses hooked up for my LS1 harness and was able to splice it all together and blend well. It helped once I found a good easy to read relay diagram, which I can share if anyone needs.

I was able to mount the relay box in the glove box for easy access, while not taking up too much room. I have also been trying to think ahead at any future modifications that I may want and wiring them in now. I brought in a constant main feed into the cabin for any future electronics. I wired in the trunk release and ran that to the trunk so I can finally hook up the auto release button. Here are the few pictures that I took.

A lot of my time was dedicated to making the mess of wires manageable and neat. I decided to use zip ties rather than electrical tape because it is much easier to cut a zip tie and replace rather than trying to tape and retape everything.



Trying to make all the wiring neat and easy to read.







I also started to wire up the tail lights and trunk release. There was a lot of custom wiring and although, I don't have much to "show" for it, there was a lot of progress made. In reality, the fuse block I wired up only accounts for about 20% of the wiring, but due to its complexity takes up majority of the time. I am about 70% done with my wiring now, since most everything will be very easy to splice and solder together.

[cdoggy81]

nice job so far!

[ryeguy2006a]

I got some more wiring done yesterday. It isn't completely done, but is getting close. I got all the wiring done for the trunk, which has provisions for a third brake light, power antenna(or amplifier remote), and one other thing I can't remember. lol I finished my wiring for all my Speedhut gauges and wired in connectors for ease of removal. I soldered all the joints and shrink wrapped all connections for longevity. I don't want to have to redo everything in the future.

Here is the wiring in the trunk with the connection.





I didn't realize that I was going to have to take out almost all of my interior just to get the wiring routed to the trunk...





I started with this mess and had to sort, solder, and heat wrap every connection. Doesn't sound like a lot of work, but very tedious to do, although I am having a lot of fun.



This is the type of connection that I used for the gauges.







Here are my gauges installed and one with them lit up at night. I am not sure if Speedhut made the speedomoter brighter than the rest because that is the most important gauge, or if it was a mistake. I need to call them to verify, but all other gauges are the same brightness. The gauges also have a rheostat controller to control the dimmer. *







All for now,

Ryan

[srh3trinity]

Wiring would stress me out. I like the look of the dash though. Your gamble on the guages turned out to be dead on.

[ryeguy2006a]

Wiring would stress me out. I like the look of the dash though. Your gamble on the guages turned out to be dead on.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I am very pleased with the gauges. As for wiring, it really isn't bad at all. I have just grouped everything into sections, and worked from there. Started with the steering column as the focal point, and worked out from there. I just need to finish up the dome lights, headlight switch, and radio adn the interior is done. Then I just hook up my headlights and some gauges and the wiring is all done.