Meet...The BEAST. 1973 Trans Am turbo .... to feed my appetite for vettes/porsches

[aronhk_md]

It would wouldnt it Doug? The Galaxy Grey would be a more stealthy color without some of the worries associated with going black. I love black, but any flaw in prep and future upkeep can be hell. How is your car going? I'm signed up to receive updates on your thread but havent seen anything in a long while.

[cdoggy81]

Gray or Orange look good for that year

[aronhk_md]

I agree! Galaxy Grey is this darker metallic grey....almost charcoal with grey. What is that 2nd silver/grey bird? Any more info on it? It looks really interesting.

[cdoggy81]

??? It was just some rendering I found on the net.

[Doug1]

I have 4 going on at once but only 2 are pro-touring material. You are probably asking about the Triple Threat car? The car and all the AME stuff has been sitting at Fletcher's Customs for the last 2 months waiting to get in line. Chad a lot of stuff come up in Nov-Jan so he is just getting on her full time. We should see some updates from him pretty quickly.

The other pro-touring build is going back for paint a THIRD time in the last 2 months. I stripped it to bare metal and as soon as the painter finishes a 79 SE paint job for me, then he will do this one again. I did order a sway bar, upper and lower tubular control arms, g-braces, a cowl brace and some other stuff from Pro-Touring F-Body. That stuff should be here soon.

[fletcherscustoms]

We finally getting on Dougs car 100%. Its been a whirlwind around here for the last couple of months, between building the chevelle for the auction and finishing up a lot of random projects. We are finally making head way on the Triple Threat T/A. We have been wading through cutting out all the flooring, frame rails, etc in the rear to get ready to slide the the new ART piece under the car. Pictures are coming soon, well as soon as I can find that damn $1500 camera I just bought that has sprouted legs and ran off!

[aronhk_md]

??? It was just some rendering I found on the net.

Gotcha....it looked like an interesting car.

I was watching Doug's car....I guess its triple threat? You have a build thread on it here and it WAS headed to Fletchers.....so that must be the car. Just knew I hadnt been notified of any posts to the thread in a long while...lol. I'll keep watching for updates.

[aronhk_md]

So as I continue the sanding of my intake and heads on the road to polishing them, my dremel suddenly stops turning at the bit and the motor free revs. Thought maybe the flex shaft came out of the square nut...but that wasnt it. The end of the dremel unit itself wouldnt turn.

So I opened it up.....and there is this clear flexible plastic coupler that connects the motor shaft and the tip of the dremel tool. Only the one I'm staring at is chewed up and not connecting the two any longer. Considering I've had this dremel at least 15 years I cant complain about that. Although the thing has always annoyed me by being somewhat under powered and a vibration/noise in the mid range rpms. Been that way since new.

So I called Dremel in Racine Wisconsin and spoke with this very pleasant lady by the name of Terri. She asked what model it was, and when I told her it was a 395 she said, "well....there are 6 types of that model, but I'm going to guess its a Type 3, you have had it at least 10 yrs, and you are calling me to get a coupler." She had hit the nail on the head. I laughed and we had a very nice conversation. Total for the coupler, and the plastic end piece which she recommended I replace as well, was $4.75 shipped. I had been wondering if the price was going to be high enough that it wasnt worth fixing even though it was a simple piece.

So during this conversation I explained that I always wanted one of the more expensive Foredom jewelry type flex shaft tools, and I didnt understand why Dremel didnt make one. They are a HD motor which hangs, and a flex shaft. Usually they have a foor pedal or a knob control rheostat to control rpm......and they are much better than my little Dremel. Unfortunately they start around $125 and go up from there. Terri explained that Dremel did in fact have one years ago, but when they were purchased by Bosch they dropped their 2 largest models to concentrate on the roto-zip tools.

She went on to tell me that she had one of the Dremels they discontinued, and that she hadnt used it in years. Said that she was going to check with her husband, but didnt think they had a need for it any longer and that she would hold onto my # and perhaps pass it on to me. Very sweet of her, whether she does or not.

So in the meantime I was sitting here and started thinking.....that silicon tubing Mark used to have connected to the wastegate control looked like a very similar diameter to the coupler...

Five minutes later I was back to sanding on the head...lmao. Now I'm almost out of dremel sanding drums though............so off I go to ebay where one can purchase them in reasonable quantity bulk rather than pay some stupid price for six in a package with the Dremel name on it. Be back shortly.....lol

Right now the intake and heads feel like the never ending project, and it really looks like I'm making very little progress. LOL I decided I will NOT be polishing the timing cover as well. I'm going to sand that a little to smooth out the casting irregularities and then paint it with the engine.

BTW....while you can get decent deals on the dremel type sanding bands on ebay in 1/2, 3/8 and 1/4 inch sizes in 100 quantities, the best deal going is on the 1/4" ones from nail/beauty supply places. They use 'em for pedicures. 100 run $4.00

As of today I have the car stripped to the firewall. Front suspension is off and I will get some pics tomorrow before I start prepping the frame and firewall for a touchup paint job. Going to have to cut the welds on the subframe to connectors to put in the solid body mounts. Still havent heard back about the rotating assembly. Really hoped it would be done by now. I still need to finish prepping the block for paint though, but hopefully tomorrow that will be ready too.

[craigs73]

cool i also like these cars why dont you go with the tangerine as your body color and do some type of striping rather it be custom or stock striping in galaxy grey

[aronhk_md]

Well, I'm not normally a fan of stripes. BUT, I do like the stripes I had on my 71 and 72 TAs as they came from the factory. So it has occurred to me to perhaps do a stealthy look with Galaxy Grey, then mix the Grey a little darker and almost ghost in a single stripe down the middle as a tribute to the 70-72 TA's.

[Scarelane]

Cool ride. Really like those years of Trans Ams. Will look MUCH better when you lose the old school paint job. Looking forward to seeing some updates.

[aronhk_md]

Well, the project was put on hold for a bit....one of my cats got sick a few weeks ago and died 2 days ago. Took a lot out of me. She slept with her head on my shoulder or on my chest all the time. I'm going to miss her.

So the weather was really nice today and I went out to the shed intending to do some work on the car. Instead I made myself a windscreen for my little Honda NX250. Great little bike that will do 90 mph and gets 70+ mpg on the highway. Only made for 3 years here back in 88-90 but until the mid 90's in Europe. Kind of a cult classic. 6 speed gearbox and water cooled in a dual sport these little single thumpers can go 60,000 miles without breaking a sweat. Picked this one up with 2200 miles last year....its the 4th one I've owned.

One issue with them is the buffeting you'll take at 70+ mph mainly due to the upright seating position especially on longer rides, so some people have made windscreens since there are no aftermarket ones that fit. I'm getting an oven to do some powder coating so will likely powder coat it later.

Hopefully back to the TA starting tomorrow.

[aronhk_md]

Just babbling here a little....had a line on a Garrett GT4788 at a good price to possibly replace my 77mm TV8101/TV7101 hybrid. If I was figuring things correctly there was a possibility with the new e-heads flowing 320 cfm at .600, 39cc dishes in the pistons and 87cc chambers that the old turbo might run out of steam toward the top of my self imposed 6000 rpm limit. Wish I had Bruce sitting here to see if we were correct when my machinist helped me try to figure it out. lol

Anyway the guy with the 4788 kinda flaked after offering it to me and I hadnt heard back from him......until last night. We arranged a COD deal, and he says he'll ship on Tues. Guess we'll see. Its always a gamble too that what you are getting is what you were offered condition-wise. The pics look quite new though and there are even plastic caps in place on it. Supposedly it had seen very little use. We'll see if I ever get it.

Still waiting for the block to get back from the machine shop though. Heads and Northwind intake are polished, and I'll try to get some pics up soon. There is a woman who recently entered my life, so thats taking up a bit of time...lol. With the polished heads and intake though, I feel I am going to need to polish the tanks on the radiator, the 3" tubing, and probably the snail housing on the turbo. Sigh.............polishing is an ugly, steep, slippery slope....LOL. The hot side of the turbo I'm going to get coated to retain heat.

I have the tilt front end being worked on.......hole cut for shaker, extractor holes cut out and inserted, wheel flares glassed on, front spoiler, flashing smoothed.....

Looks like the car is going to get painted after all in the next few weeks. Next week will begin body prep. I will be helping the guy who will do the paint. The car is going to be House of Kolors Galaxy Grey metallic shimrin. The block, valley pan, and timing cover will be painted and cleared to match. Already spent about 4 hrs smoothing that nasty cast timing cover a bit, and smoothed the casting flash from the front of the block.

I'll be getting the very first set of stainless steel 1.75" Tri-y headers from Ron Watt, so there'll be no need for ceramic coating them. They should turn nice shades of blue/purple from the heat of the turbo. I like that look.

Vette Brake Products transverse leaf front suspension is going on over this weekend I hope, and the new wheels have tires mounted and are ready to go next week as well.

This whole thing has taken longer than I had hoped, but it MIGHT be done before the end of the summer. I really hope so. One of the delays involved the cam. Turned out my nice Comp Cams cam was a defective casting. Only had 1000 miles on it, but 12 out of 16 lobes had little pits on the lobe peaks that Comp Cams admitted was a defective core. That means my 1000 mile lifters were potentially shot too. Not going to put them back in....not that stupid.

Comp Cams wouldnt replace it though because it had been manufactured in 2005 and purchsed 2007......it was outside their 1 yr warranty period. Pfffft! Had to research specing a new turbo cam, and that took some time. Still dont have the final details on it, but its sitting at the machine shop too.

I know, I know.....pictures.......will try to get them up here as soon as possible.

[LeighP]

That sucks....warranty period or not, you'd think they'd try and help you out someway.

[aronhk_md]

They did offer to let me purchase a new cam at approximately $138......a reduced price. But its not that much less especially when you consider I still have to buy lifters too, and in talking to some turbo people I decided to shoot for slightly different specs.

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Welcome back Aron! You've been radio silent for a while. Congrats on getting your (both) your motor(s) running...:0

[aronhk_md]

LMAO Ron.....its been long enough on both accounts! Seriously though I hope to have some good pics in the next few weeks.

[aronhk_md]

ok........the Northwind manifold and crossover are done. Heads are almost done.

[Rumblin70SS]

Looks great Aron!!

Tony

[Off Duty]

Well, the project was put on hold for a bit....one of my cats got sick a few weeks ago and died 2 days ago. Took a lot out of me. She slept with her head on my shoulder or on my chest all the time. I'm going to miss her.

So the weather was really nice today and I went out to the shed intending to do some work on the car. Instead I made myself a windscreen for my little Honda NX250. Great little bike that will do 90 mph and gets 70+ mpg on the highway. Only made for 3 years here back in 88-90 but until the mid 90's in Europe. Kind of a cult classic. 6 speed gearbox and water cooled in a dual sport these little single thumpers can go 60,000 miles without breaking a sweat. Picked this one up with 2200 miles last year....its the 4th one I've owned.

One issue with them is the buffeting you'll take at 70+ mph mainly due to the upright seating position especially on longer rides, so some people have made windscreens since there are no aftermarket ones that fit. I'm getting an oven to do some powder coating so will likely powder coat it later.

Hopefully back to the TA starting tomorrow.

First-I love the Firebird build!

Second- Why would you make a windscreen from metal?
At that angle, and will all those exposed sharp edges, you're asking for trouble if/when you go over the front.

I'd re-do it in plexi, with breakaway nylon fasteners.

I'm a long time rider, former motor officer, and instructor, and having taken that ride before, I can tell you without hesitation, that had it not been for the design mentioned above, I may not be here today.

Our HD FXRP's has a similar slant to the windscreen.
From the factory, they were hard bolted on.

IIRC, it was somewhere in Hawaii and a couple other states, where motor officers were catapulted over the front, striking the windshield as the went.
At least one fatality and several injuries from the windscreen breaking in half an lacerating the officers.

Finally, the lightbulb went off in some genius' head, and they put out a tech bulletin showing us how to scribe the lower edged of the windscreen to allow it to break away at the mounts.

After several broke due to the vibration, HD started retrofitting the windscreen mounts with nylon fasteners that would shear on impact.

The Kawasaki KZ1000's were already configured from the factory.

It's this modification that probably saved my hide.

You did a beautiful job on the design, now, please fix that for your own safety.

And more pics of the 'Bird please.
I'm really starting to take a liking to these!