1978 Custom G-Machine Trans Am. IT'S FINALLY DONE!!

[Kiddi]

Awsome.... There are plenty of Pontiac nuts on here!

PS. Like your color btw!!! I kinda like the '93 look with the 3rd gen GTA wheels... looks good



KR

[Takid455]

Thanks for the comments. I think finding a nice color combo is on eof the hardest things when doing a cusom job. this gold seem sto look nice, unfortuately it is not camera freindly (every picture looks like a different color).

I have to ask why you spent so much time on the under belly of the car, looks good in the pics, but the firewall is pretty rough looking from the pic.

The underside was basically cleaned and painted. the passenger side firewall will be coverd by the A/C box ao that is why I didn't finess that area. the remainder of the fire will be mostly hidden by the time all the accesories are installed. this is also one ofthe reasons I didn't try to smooth the firewall.

[Takid455]

Finally bugged the powder coating guy to finish my parts and they magically appeared. I had to custom order some bushings for the VSE/Rancho components even though they (prothane) listed them. I don’t get it, but whatever. I had to send the shocks back to Aldan to be remade as they shipped me the wrong ones 1.5 years ago. They send me ones that fit no questions asked. A stand up company. I’ll get to finish the suspension this weekend hopefully. In the mean time, after looking through books of color chips, I picked a color for my engine. I is a 1971 AMC blue. Looks nice and I feel it will set the chrome items off well and stand out in the gold/black engine bay. I left the heads aluminum and took some recommendations from other members to use Alumiprep33 and Alodine 1001 to prevent corrosion. We’ll see how this works. I friend of mine mentioned that he had a lathe so I made new Watt’s Link bars. They came out decent after some buffing. I also scored so Recaro seats from a nearby fellow for 250. . I may redye them to match the rears or vise versa. These will sever well in the meantime before I redo the interior if I ever decide to do so. Even if I don’t use them, I always wanted a set of Recaro classic N seats. Some pics:

Seats




Rear suspension




Engine
Block


Bottom


Top



High build primer for a semi smooth look. I could make it look like glass if I felt like sanding for hours which I don’t.


Color, no head


w/ heads



w/ stock not so nice chrome valve covers




Next on the list is
1) making the tranny x-member,
2) Measuring for the required driveshaft length and farming that out
3) Running the brake and fuel plumbing
4) Measuring for location of ‘X’ pipe and ordering the RARE oval system
5) Install in tank fuel pump setup from 99-up t/a or camaro
6) Finalize hydroboost setup
7) Decide on either Mcleoad twin disk clutch or a centerforce unit
8) Decide on rims. 17’s or 18’s. 17’s look nice, but 18’s allow room for bigger brakes....hummm those Forgeline WCP3 wheels look nice w/ a gun metal center.

[TBART70]

tbart70 - where in NJ are you located?

Jefferson, NJ
that thing is looking nice!

[WS6]

Awesome build. What are the two silver rods connected to the diff?

[Code Red]

looking good man

[Takid455]

Awesome build. What are the two silver rods connected to the diff?

those rods are parts of the Watts link setup. they mount from teh frame of the car to the snout of the differential. prabably not the best for the diff case, but we'll see what happens. I have a Fays2 setup if the current setup does not satisfy.

[WhiteG240]

Why did you decide to go with AMC Blue and not Pontiac Blue?

[705.0Merc]

Car looks really good. I vote for 18's all the way around and a mini tub job to fit 335/30/18 on the rear.....

[Takid455]

I wanted a blue that had some 'pop' to it. pontiac/ GM lemans blue is close to the AMC blue. the AMC seemed too look a little btter in my opinion.

I'm am leaning towards the 18's. I have looked at several cars with 18's and the look is drawing on me. it will also allow me to upgrade the brakes if needed.

[WS6]

You can do a Watts link with leaf springs? I thought you have to have coil springs for that? Where can I find info on using this with leaf springs?

Thanks

[Takid455]

A photo edit to see have the 18" forgeline WC3 wheels would look. look bretty good to me.



WS6 - info on Watt's link suspensions can be found in text books and suspension books.( herb adams is one) takes a little bit of searching. my set up is home built so I doubt that there is any info on it in particular , however the principles are the same. keep teh center of gravity low (i.e. piviot point) Search for sport truck suspensions, they use it frequently. also Fays2.net older mechanical enginering hand books such as marks have information on it. not much , but some.

[Takid455]

1/26/08
Today was quite productive. First I gave in and order a set of Wc3 forgelines w/ KDW2 tires from Frank at Prodigy. That bill is going to hurt, but they should arrive right around by birthday so that would make for a neat gift. then I had to massage the rear sway bar bushing brackets as the new prothane ones have the bolt holes slotted north-south and the the orignals are east - west. this caused the sway bar 'sleaves' to be narrower than the bar. After some filing of the bracket and indenting the bushing, all is well. the rear suspension is pretty much complete, just waiting for a sway bar link bracket from the powder coater to return as it did not come out right. After lunch, I decided it was time for the next big step; install the drive train. with many blankets covering the engine, trans, firewall and subframe; the entire setup slipped in with relative ease and only a small blemish caused by the oil pan which I can fix. luckily it is in a location that is semi hidden. with time still left and the excitment of a big step complete, thr Tri-Y-bal tube headers became bolted to the engine. I had these ceramic coated on the inside and outside by a local fellow when I bought them. It is stated that the internal coating does such a good job at keeping the heat within the coatiing's surface that one can hold the headers as the car is running. we'll see about that, any volunters??? since all was going well, I did some preliminary measuring for the driveshaft and exhaust system routing. I should have these finalized before next weekend. tomorrow's task will be to install the Kore3 hubs, cut teh wheel studs to length, remove the powder coating form the front sway bar so the sleeve can move (yes, powder coating is quite a bit thicker than paint in case you are wondering), install the caliper flex lines, and pedals if I get to it so I can finish the hydraulic brake and clutch systems. I will post some pictures soon.

[brownz]

what size wheel and tires did you go with? just got that same package from Frank and Lisa great ppl and what color?

[79T/Aman]

that will be another nice T/A with Pontiac power to boot

[Young Gun]

thought it looked cool

[Takid455]

what size wheel and tires did you go with? just got that same package from Frank and Lisa great ppl and what color?

18x8.5 front and 18 x 10 rear
same and tire as you, gun metal centers. from frank and lisa as well

I will probably change the rears to 9.5 wide as 10" w/ tire bulge is a tad tight


younggun - interesting concept

[Takid455]

I would like to point out that there have been some bumps along the way. Some of the aftermarket items, have requires 'massaging' in order to fit/ function properly. I also have the feeling that someone took a handful of misc hardware from my stash at the platers and simply threw it out as i am missing random pieces. I will contact them this week to see what happened. I did take a picture of what was sent so that will help me identify any know missing items. I know of a couple at the moment that are more than just ordinary hardware.

anyhow, as promised, here are some pics. its really starting to look like something. I noticed that the one header hangs lower than the other, I guess i'll have to even them out in the pipes as having ron (maker of the headers) fix then is non existent as he owes people headers for 3+ years ago.

engine outside


ready to be installed. yes, I attempted to do it in one shot. to my surprise, it went quite smoothly. we had a small blemish occur, but it can be touched up and it is in a hard place to see which is good. wonder if my little viper head will show once installed.


success :-D :-D

[JACK_BURTON55]

Great progress! i am really liking the color of your motor since it matches mine Great to see more birds on here

[Takid455]

New Forgeline WC3 wheels arrived. Frank at prodigy was great great to deal with in ordering these wheels. Went with 18x8.5 up front and 18x9.5 in the rear.This seems about it if I want to stay w/in the body lines and not stick out. Since the car doesn’t have all its sheet metal on, I decided to place them on another 78 to see how they would look. My car will be a little lower than this one sits. Although they are nice wheels and construction is top notch, I am not sure I care for them as I was hoping that the centers would be dished a bit more giving the wheel a deep look. I’m torn.