1980 Turbo Trans Am Indy Pace Car Resto

[overZealous1]

well i am back at it again. needed another project to keep my sanity. this time it is a 1980 trans am turbo pace car. i searched for 8 hours a day, for a couple weeks, made 3 deals that fell through for one reason or another, and finally ended up with this one out of utah.
it was originally an idaho car. it was missing some of the outside stickers and didn't have the correct paint scheme, but i planned on painting anyways. it is bone stock though and numbers matching, previous owner just went super cheap on a repaint. we will be going to bare metal.
DAM!! am i glad i spent a little more and didn't get someone lying or talking the car up. we are at just day one of tear down and does the car not only have no rust, the floor pan is still almost perfectly painted. under car looks nearly new, and now that we have 2/3 of the car apart i have not been able to find evidence of one single repair or bondo anywhere on the car. not one single front end bracket has any unusual bends or anything. this car is ending up being completely bone stock and no accidents!! i lucked the **** out! great car to start with and will just be making it better replacing and refinishing all the parts.
will update with pics. one of the guys that works for me wanted to learn about cars so he is helping (paying him but cheap labor!). we are shooting for a month for the whole resto going 40-50 hours a week on it waiting for next job to start in 4 weeks.

plan first of all is to get the car completely restored and refinished. every last thing on the car still works including cruise control, so it is mostly refinishing. once that is done, then the drivetrain will be pulled out in one complete unit and wrapped up and set to the side. probably get a cheap truck LY2 4.8 and do a single turbo on it and 4l60. the 4.8 can easily handle 600hp out of the box and boost friendly 9 to 1 comp. then just bolt on suspension mods, lowered stance, and a good set of wheels. stock wheels will be refinished and preserved also. no mods that will be non-reversable will be done.
interior and exterior will stay 100% stock. i think it will make for a great driver and a pretty original restomod car. i have yet to see a pace car done.


landed in utah friday, got car home (830 miles) by saturday afternoon, and today was day one of a 4 week goal to refinish car.









by end of day today we had the passenger inner and outer fender off also and all of the bumper brackets. still no sign of rust or bondo or even any panel replacement. VERY happy i chose this car!!

[SPDMETL]

That's a really nice Firebird-I'll bet you thought long and hard about disassembling it like that...

[overZealous1]

seeing as i have had the car for a total of 5 days now, i had it planned all along! haha.

car is almost completely disassembled minus just the trunk lid and rear spoiler. interior gutted, and all other panels and hardware off entire "to be painted" surfaces. front fenders and part of doors are down to bare metal already. hoping to have doors done and hood possibly by tomorrow. we should be ready for primer next week and hit the booth end of next week or early the following. since we are only on day 2, progress has been great!
found alittle surface rust on passenger floor, but nothing close to needing panel replacement. only rust on entire car i have found. even inside the front fenders and doors has been a little dusty, but factory paint still in almost new condition. i really lucked out with this car. so far paint has come off with not even any bondo or filler in the panels!!

the brown and blue guys have been showing up the last 2 days with new parts, so we will have everything we need once assembly happens.



pics of floor pan. the guy who was doing the seam sealer that shift at gm must have been drunk or something. it has been piled on super thick in areas and sometimes he missed the seam entirely! i am chipping/scraping it all out and am redoing it. will remove surface rust and repaint, then sound deaden the cabin. not trying to make it a 100 point car, just a good driver you don't need to worry about.

[Chadman27]

Looks familiar, good work so far!

[overZealous1]

thanks. lots more work done today!

[overZealous1]

all removable parts have been taken down to bare metal/smc/plastic and received a coat of epoxy primer, and 2 very high build coats of primer also. the rear fenders and trunk jam still need to be stripped on car itself, but that should happen in one day. today is blocking out all the previously primed pieces.
we are going about 10 hours a day on this thing and it is getting exhausting! staying to deadline though and should start spraying color by wednesday, and take a day of rest thursday to dry. that will leave us 8 days for cut and buff and assembly. not out of the frying pan yet!

[overZealous1]

car has been going back together for the last couple days finally. cutting and buffing the panels before they go on so it is a slow process. today marked 3 weeks into the project, so progress has been pretty staggering considering the complete dismantle, brought to bare metal, and about 40-50% assembled again.
got the bird and other graphics on today. that really raised spirits to get to see how all the original colors work so well together and how much better the car looks than just 3 weeks ago. can't wait to go cruising!!









this was just 4 days ago (with even taking 2 days off!)-



inside the doors, fenders, trunk lid, hood, and the inner fenders, core support, front and rear bumper brackets, and all other brackets associated with that stuff also got blasted and a coat of epoxy primer put on it. most all of the bolts also got blasted or wire brushed and primed too. so the car is really looking good.
didn't touch anything that could be reached by pulling the engine itself though. but, no body parts or panels will need to be removed to continue the resto.

[67goatman455]

wow you did that quick

[overZealous1]

2 guys, 8-10 hours a day (subtracting weekends) is what it has taken. nothing getting farmed out at all. my body hurts. haha

[overZealous1]

another day another graphic!

[todd8525]

nice! i had one about 20 years ago.painted it pearl white with a 427 sbc.boy if i knew then what i know now? then again think of all the big block and hemi cars that wear cut up into race and drag cars.wow- my rims wear chrome turbine with red inlays with red interior.would of could of should of.nice car and nice work.enjoy your ride.

[instro84]

nice, wish i had time to work on my buick like that

[overZealous1]

well it was supposed to be a project inbetween jobs for me. new job starts on monday and while being very close to done, it will now have to spread out since i only can afford one day a week into after monday. hoping to get it close enough to drive it the 4 miles home, and bring my 67 camaro over there to conmmence work on it and clear room in garage. once home, i will have evenings to complete.
my life normally does not afford near this amount of spare time to fart around with cars. haha

[overZealous1]

well the rapid pace it was going at before has slowed due to super busy work schedule, but getting close to cruising now. have replaced all steering, rebuild steering box, all new poly bushings in entire car, new ball joints, and a few other things round out alot of the mechanicals. little bit more fitment and striping on the exterior, but about got the stance right.
finish sound deadening the interior, then interior is ready for install.





will get better pics when i finally pull it out!

[WS6]

The car looks great! Good job. I like your build plan as well. Simple yet good and effective.

[BuddyP]

Looks great! Need more pics! Amazing how fast of build turn around.

[immrtransam]

I need Me another Bird

[overZealous1]

The car looks great! Good job. I like your build plan as well. Simple yet good and effective.

thanks. ya, these were all the parts the car desperately needed. even though it only had 70k on it, the bushings were all shot. when i first jacked the car upand saw how much the subframe flexed, i immediately loosened up my fender bolts!, yes, it was that bad. close to 2" of flex at front of car! new ploy subframe mounts helped, but i will be tossing in some subframe connectors this weekend. waiting till car is sitting on all four again until i do my final fender fitment and will support car in middle when installing subframe connectors. that will put them in tension when car is back on ground. either way, it will be alot tighter and should be a great driver, show car, and cruiser!

[overZealous1]

Looks great! Need more pics! Amazing how fast of build turn around.

thanks buddy. i do have a shoot lined up for when the car is done. imo no one has pulled off 20's on a second gen yet (that i have seen) that looks good. the stance of the car and color combo really works though. from the outside the car is basically stock, but the stance and wheels make it appear all custom.

this was kind of a test of how fast i could turn a car around. i am in a position to be opening a shop in the next 2 months and already have a couple full custom builds lined up. if i had the ability to do this full time, this could have been a 5-6 week turn around! will be opening with my own booth, media blasting equipment and separate room, lifts, frame jig, and all the other little goodies. more to come on that when the doors open and i become a sponsor here. ;)

[overZealous1]

I need Me another Bird

i am addicted now! i can honestly say they are not the prettiest cars out there, but dam do they rack up a ton of points in the cool factor!! i have a feeling these will be the next big hit, so grab one while ya can and they are still relatively cheap and restorable.