1976 Trans Am Resto-Mod

[LeighP]

Hey, mate...nice to see your build thread over here.

[ryeguy2006a]

Once I got the car on 4 wheels it was time to start the body work on the car. My dad and I worked to get the car into primer and get the car prepped for paint. I was able to get some rust free doors and fenders. The rest of the parts that came with the car were in good shape so they didn't need to be replaced.








I wanted to remove the rear window because I thought that there may be some rust in the channel and I was glad that I removed it because there was some in there. Nothing was through so I cleaned it up and got it primed.

[ryeguy2006a]

Once the Shell was in primer it was time to get the other body parts into primer.




The one door had a little rot, so we grafted some metal from another door that I had that was in poor condition and sealed it all up making sure that everything was square and straight.






Once the doors were dry we mounted them on the shell to see how the fit. We were happy with the way that they fit with all of the gaps being symmetrical.

[ryeguy2006a]

Here was my first attempt at going more towards a resto-mod. I got a good deal on some BMW rims, but ended up selling them as they weren't in as good of condition as I originally thought. They were Staggered 19x8.5 front and 19x9.5 rear. It just never really fit the car, so I got rid of them.

[ryeguy2006a]

The engine that I am using is a 1973 Pontiac 400 that has been mildly rebuilt. It has been bored .030 with TRW postions, stock rods and crank. The heads are 6x-8 and an aluminum Edelbrock P4B intake. I have several pictures of the various carbs that I have run on my car, when I finally settled on a Holley 750 DP.

Here is what I started with



All cleaned up and ready for some paint.


Painted Pontiac Blue, if you look closesly you can see the cross hatches from the rebore.


All cleaned up and back in the car.




Here is my engine with the stock quadra-jet.


And with the 600 Edelbrock carb,


with the 850 Holley DP race carb, Way too much for this engine.



And finally I settled with the 750 DP

Here is a picture of the Borg Warner Super T-10 all cleaned up too.

[ryeguy2006a]

I also upgraded to cooling fans from a 1999 Camaro LS1, and used a home build relay box with dual sensors to control each fan.



I cleaned all the brackets up and painted them with POR15. I also put on the rest of my engine accessories.







I mounted the relay box where the charcoal canister used to be on the core support.

[ryeguy2006a]

Now we are off to the paint shop!! The car was primed with high build primer and blocked roughtly 7-10 time to ensure it was super smooth. Then I had my body guy lay down 3 coats of Ford 2010 Dark Shadow Gray paint. That was followed with 3-4 coats of Clear for that deep finish. I also had them paint my dash and rear trim panel with SEM Trim Black semi-gloss paint to replicate what it came with from the factory.

Well to my surprise one morning when I started to work on my car there was a hair line crack down the side of my quarter panel where the skin was put on and come to find out we didn't weld the skin on with the correct technique so it cracked. I took it to the body shop for them to repair and paint the car.






Then the dash and rear deck panel got some color.




Then some Dark Shadow Gray

[ryeguy2006a]

Then a little wet sand and buffing.








Once we got the car back it was time to assemble the car finally.

We got the car home finally and put the doors on and got the deck lid adjusted. After fighting with the doors for a while we were finally able to get them adjusted to my liking. Then I was able to get the front end on and took the car out for a photo shoot with my dad's 1971 Chevelle SS.






And now the front end goes on.






I also replaced the factory mesh for a honeycomb mesh. Eventually it will get painted body color.

[ryeguy2006a]

And the photo shoot, with my Dad's Chevelle SS. Also here is a shot of my Custom Chromed Aluminum 17x8.5 rims. I got an awesome deal on them and couldn't pass them up. They are beautiful and the chrome is amazing. Gotta love Craigslist.