70 Formula 535

[4mul8ion]

As others have said, a lot depends on what you want to do with your car. I started with the engine and have been closing the capability gap of the rest of the car to the engine ever since. I could have saved so much time and money, if I had planned out the suspension and brakes first, then go get the engine. It sounds like the brake system is your next step. Ron Sutton gave some excellent advice on brakes for a 1970 T/A that I wish I could have had earlier. See https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...-1970-Trans-AM.

It sounds like you want to keep the original Pontiac look as much as possible and have modern performance. I went through this exact same thing when I was figuring out my car too because I wanted to keep the original flavor of the car but just update it to something that I think Pontiac might have done today. It was a bit easier for me, though, since I didn't have many of the original exterior or interior pieces and what I did have was in such poor shape it wasn't worth rescuing. I didn't like the fit or finish on some of the repop parts either so I went custom. Since you said you have all of the trim pieces and they're in good shape why not use them? Save the money and your time for your other big ticket items.

I always liked the interiors of the Birds, so I didn't want to stray too far from the factory. I wanted a more comfortable seat that would recline that I knew would fit right so I looked all over for an 81 T/A Recaro interior to put in but couldn't find anything reasonably priced or in repairable condition. Plus I wanted a bit more lateral support for Autocross. There's an enormous amount of information from a guy in Tacoma who specialized in Recaros. He posted it on this site. See https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...Resource-Guide. I wanted to keep the factory gauges as well, but they couldn't do what I wanted them to do plus I wanted to add additional read outs. I have a thing about mis-matching fonts or non-matching gauge pointers so I went aftermarket. I selected Speedhut because I liked one of their fonts / pointer combo. They also said they could make gauges with a similar factory font.

Nice car and sounds like a great project. Looking forward to updates. Hope this helps a little.

Kevin