My 69 Trans Am clone

[zman1969]

78mm will work fine, specially since you won't be leaving much on the table with that cam. What TB are you going to use?

Are your heads 243 castings? Did he mill them any?

You will be VERY happy with the engine when you are done!

I had been looking for a fast 78 T/B but have gotten stock ported- bump stop mod ect , yes they are 243 casting CNC by Livernois in Detroit dont believe they are milled so stock compression. was seriously going to get TSP 5.3 CNC until the deal on these came up- 1100 shipped -I couldnt pass them up

[BMF Machine]

Gonna be SweeT!

[cdoggy81]

for $1100 I'd be all over those too!
Did you get the Cometic .04" MLS head gaskets since no mill?

[zman1969]

for $1100 I'd be all over those too!
Did you get the Cometic .04" MLS head gaskets since no mill?

Nope cant stomach the fact of 140$ head gaskets - went GM MLS like 30$ a set
I would have preferred the thinner but not worth the tiny gain for the $$$

[cdoggy81]

I know, they are big $$$!

[Steve Firebird]

Sounds like a great project. I am gathering parts right now for a 69 firebird. I will be using the steel TA hood from the parts place and all the ram air stuff with it. I am going with a mostly stock Pontiac drivetrain 400 and M20. Good luck with yours.

[zman1969]

Hey Steve glad to hear from another "if you cant own it clone it" car builder. as rare as 69 T/A's are its surprising to me that someone actually made a steel hood and sure would of gone that way(I even contacted Goodmark and inquired) if they would consider or planning on making them then .- Ive had my hood at least 3 years now - and was happy I found that over the pin down glass thats all that was available then. I actually ordered and paid for one from one vendor in Chicago area that now sells mostly on E-bay-TAMRAZ I arranged to do a pickup while coming back thru Chicago on the 04 Power tour- I showed up and the hood we agreed to have waiting for me-it wasnt!! so they said they would ship it free the next week- well a month later and still no hood -excuses saying they sent 2 different ones that were damaged in shipping :bsjerk: , I cancelled and it still took them 2-3 weeks to get my refund. I will never deal with them again! good luck with your project too

[cdoggy81]

TAMRAZ used to be mail order & catalog back in the day just like NPD, YO, TPP, etc. I thought he went out of business. Now I see he is on eBay.

[zman1969]

Now my body man is starting this slow tease - he's been talking about how close he's getting well he finally sent me a picture on my phone! Well Y'all know how small that is and hard to see. so I sent it out to a few friends , then I thought I'd E-mail it to myself so heres what he sent me - just to keep leading me down the path so it seems like this will torture me for a few more months. I mean who am I to rush him? its only been over 3 years -since May of 2005. I have done 4 power tours since I let him have it, 4 of them!! I have changed engines and transmissions. This has really been kept up in me and now - this little teaser

a sign of the color that some day this car will be,

I asked him to email me more pictures ? he said he's got to get batteries for his camera

this is really worse than child birth - that took 9 months to happen X3 kids is 27 months

WOW i could of had 2 more kids is how long this guy has had my car!!

well at least I'm not paying any storage

[zman1969]

like I said it isn't much progress but its SOME progress
cant wait to see it assembled and painted for real. next he needs to paint the firewall the proper semi gloss black -then its time for the engine/trans to be slid in
sorry for last comment was just poking fun at the painter and all the time he's taking, lord knows he deserves it

[Motown 454]

Must be nice to see paint. It looks good. Keep us updated
Wayne

[SamHatco]

Thats great Zman!!!! Looks like you will have color before me.

Sam

[icebird84]

looking Good keep it up

[zman1969]

Thats great Zman!!!! Looks like you will have color before me.

Sam

Sam mine may have color but yours has a drivetrain installed we'll have to meet up when we get em running - up for a power tour?

looking Good keep it up

at this age it takes alot to keep it up!


thanks for the encouragement all! what bums me out is if i had it back right now I'd think it'd be another year to hear it run much less drive Ive found out as I age my enthusiasm to actually work on it is going down hill.

[zman1969]

well now its been 4 months since my last update - installing Hotchkis rear springs
and the rear end - Geez you think the rear end has been sitting a while? rotors that rusty and its been stored inside all this time..




this is a 8.5" 10 bolt with 3.42s and posi of course , I was originally doing a LS1 auto and now going 6 speed and with it all assembled so I would of built it with 3.73s I'll do a swap later when its running(if it ever gets that far) housing was powder coated and here it is back on the ground!!



and I think these tires fit really nice - with no clearance issues

Ok well those are all I had that would clear the rear discs handy with the fender flares and the mini tubs the REALLY look tiny on there! next time I should be able to measure for the rear wheels 17x11
for a 315-35. I do have one concern after welding in the rear shock cross member it looks close to the pumkin- with 600lbs on the back its about 2" from the mount and I'm thinking about another option for rear upper shock mounts- heres a picture without the 600lb load

- what do ya think? and I also wonder about rear tailpipe clearance too - has anybody welded a bracket to the inside rear frame rails that dosn't connect side to side?

[zman1969]

I am sure glad I made it to this day as it seems like this car would never get going -I'm still a LONG way off but I'm happy finally getting it in the car, now my body man can assemble the front end for fitment and I can start working on getting to all the stuff from here- ordered drive shaft, need to figure on adj master cyl - either modify a stock one or try a used mcleod c/m i just picked up

[SamHatco]

Looks really great! Looks like we are running parallel builds. I've made some progress on mine just haven't posted updates. I know the feeling when getting the engine installed for the final time.

Sam

[zman1969]

Thanks Sam - I hope its a final time install - who knows, I cant even imagine the fenders, hood,front end- getting installed and it would "look" like car! its never had a front end on it since I've owned it!! I'll probably going up once a weekend to do this or that. Oh I forgot to take some pics of the hood hinges/springs I brought to the shop - had them powdercoated gloss black and they look sweet IMO

[zman1969]

well also have the hole where the shifter will be

and a new 3.5" Denny's aluminum shaft waiting to go in - I do have to swap rear yoke for the bigger joint - I didn't think I needed the larger one but Denny's talked me into it

ready to get out to the shop and get some of the little things done maybe even measure for rear wheels Id like to get some coming - hopefully this Sunday afternoon... stay tuned

[zman1969]

I originally wanted some black anodized fuel lines but decided thats another $200 that doesn't make it run any faster so I had a buddy thats starting to do powder coating do my stock rails - what do you think? I think I dont need the black anodized anymore sorry they are a little dusty