1969 Trans Am Clone started 2008
 

Some of you may have seen what I started over 4 years ago on P/T website but I look in here all the time too just thought I'd introduce myself - Im Rich and my son Bill are building a p/t 69 TA "Clonification" - not all clone not all resto mod of a 69 Trans am with what i started with a stock 98 LS1 auto and have changed direction and gone with a LS6 with goodies and a T56 the car is now mini-tubbed and flared 1" per side - that will be hard to notice as is not so radical but i have test fitted with 17x11 and a 315 tire. currently waiting to install the rear a 8.5 10 bolt with 3.42s and F-body disc brakes on it. i don't feel a 12 bolt is warranted as 8.5's will take all I have IMO i wouldn't wast your money on one thats why they quit making them as the 8.5 was the HD replacement rear. its been in body man jail and is finally getting close to painting. here are pics that I've taken along the way - enjoy
OK updating some pics - THANKS PHOTOBUCKET!

some more porn
 

photos re-added

more porn
 

more photos re-added

Looking good ZMan. I saw your paint pics over on pro-touring.com. I hope you have better luck with your hood than I did. I recommend a test fit with the bumper and headlight surrounds before you paint.

We'll have to get together once we are both on the road.

Don

Looks good ,nice job on the subframe. I like the way you put the rack on.

Very cool. More please. :cheers:

more
 

I cant imagine that my bodyman wouldnt. its not a complete glass hood its a glass skin on a steel oe frame. now somebody is making a complete steel repop hood - saw them selling on e-bay $1250 - ouch :faint: id of bought one or waited if i had any idea that they would make one. I REALLY didnt want to have hood pins on it. I dont have much more but will update this as things happen
FNQUICK thats BRP Hotrods conversion - the jury is out on it -I'm worried about bump steer they claimed it dosent have any but i really doubt that even year one has changed subframes out og that pace car looking LS powered camaro- I wonder why.... Id love a DSE hydro frame but 8+k isnt in my budget. someone offers a bare frame for like $2600 that takes C5 suspension- that may be doable but its a long way till i get this driving - then ill think about it

My hood is also the fiberglass one on an OEM steel frame. The Parts Place was the source and now they are the ones making the complete steel ones. I wonder if they got the beak right on the metal ones. I saw a progress pic of Empty Nest where they were modifying the beak so I don't think I am the only one to have this problem.

The hood latch on mine doesn't line up very well for some reason. I might have to resort to some nice billet hood pins if I can't get it to work. I like the locking ones from hoodpins.net.

Don

my hood was from some place in New York -I'll pass your info on to my bodyman- thanks for the tip!

Digging the project. What part of the metroplex are you located? I'm from Denton.

near hit
 

pretty close I'm in Lewisville neighbor

Car is coming along nicely


The hoods are made by Early Birds (who ships out of Niagra Falls). They need a LOT of work to fit. They are basically TOO BIG for the opening because the fiberglass skin is much thicker then the original steel skin. We have done 5 of these now and we figure 40 hours of trimming and body work to make one fit.

Omg
 

UHG! not what i wanted to hear:faint: . that co name dosent sound right but from what i remember about the skin it was like 1/4" thick - really wish they came out with that repo all steel hood earlier have you tried fitting that hood yet Frank?

I had to dimple the fiberglass to clear the buttonhead screws that attach the fenders to the gusset. Even then the clearance to the fenders is very tight, I cannot install the fender bumpers. I could probably add more dimples for the fender bumpers but the fit is so tight that I don't think they are needed. It took quite a lot of trimming just to get it to clear the fenders. I think the gaps are around 1/16" on each side. Sounds like Frank did a lot more trimming.

I did finally get the hood latch to work.

Make sure you have your body guy do a mock up soon.

The metal hood has to be better (how could it be any worse?) but it's hard to spend another $1300 after spending $800 or so on the fiberglass hood...

Don

I have not. I am building another one and will use the steel hood this time.

looking good. :thumbsup:

little more progress
 

Well we took the motor and got it bolted up to the trans, new LS6 clutch, slave friday evening- did it in the back of my pickup truck, tied it down and saturday went up to my body mans place - its about 40 mi each way which isnt bad but at least its not a $25 trip now, unfortunately with the colder weather he didnt get a chance to paint the fire wall so it didnt "make it home" but will be next trip we did pull the old 8.2 pont rear end and springs out. we figured up where the shock crossmember needs to be welded in the lower back half of the car will then get some paint on it and the built 8.5 rear end will be ready to install with the Hotchkis springs and hardware. was hoping to get that done but his welder was inop at that time - oh well, more delays but it was some progress.
We then turned our attention to the interior we pulled the steering column, all the wiring harness and all the rest of the insulation - thats falling apart anyway and we also used some body filler spreaders to scrape the cardboard like stuff off the roof - all in all, nasty dirty work that HAD to get done sometime! Dirty nasty stuff- blowing all that out of the car and then his shop I'm glad that its done! We did also manage to have some tasty beverages :cheers: so it wasnt a total loss - next time out I should have some pics of the engine drop in and the rear getting put in it.

update
 

its been a while but finally got the rear end in and back on the tires

oh and the motors ready too
 

finally rolling again

Looking good :thumbsup:

Hey Roanoke neighbor here. Love the hood. Good luck with it.

updates
 

only 4 years at the body shop to get to the point where I could install the motor says it will be painted by June - any takers? NOT ME!

another
 

shifter in its place too

Nice project . Thats a sweet drive train.

Those pics sure bring back some recent..and painful memories! Haha! Nothing like scraping the gunk off the roof to build up a good sweat. I sat in there for two nights with a scraper doing that before I could install the new dynamat in it's place. Argh! Keep up the good work!

Best of luck with the hood and bodyshop purgatory. FWIW, I just spend last weekend fitting my steel '400' hood, and the gaps are pretty close also, I had to move both fenders out a hair and remove my hood bumpers also. I 'dimpled' the sides in to clear the bolt heads as well, and was able to put the little bumpers back in. Dang, I thought these old cars had all kinds of room...but apparently not when you're trying to line up the nose and hood on a '69 Bird. My gaps are barely 1/4" all around after much massaging. I had to hammer in all four corners to get that...they pretty much touched. Good thing it wasn't painted yet.

You're in for some REAL fun times when you get to the nose. Mine fits like crap, gotta pull it all apart and start over now that I got the hood on. NOTE TO SELF...don't put the nose on without having the hood and fenders lined up first..DO-OH!!

The new HP Pontiac magazine has a brief article on putting the nose on a '69 bird. It wasn't real informative or detailed, but they did recommend building it up in pieces on the car, checking headlight cover to fender clearance as you go....I'm going to try that method since mine obviously didn't work. :willy:

I would recommend, if at all possible, to fit the nose to the car before paint, everything, including the bumper and headlight trim. I wouldn't worry about the headlights or grille inserts. But all my stuff was painted, and it got pretty hacked up in spots where they would interfere. Trust me, you want to know exactly how that goes back together and make and corrections BEFORE you get to that point. Most of mine will get repainted once I get it to fit. The aftermarket valance is a hair too wide, if you have one of those, beware. My sub-structure was bent, but I was able to straighten it out and it works, but I may need to find a new one and start fresh. 1/4" doesn't seem like much, but by the time you get it all together and it's off by that much...it's annoying has heck.

dreading it like Swine Flu!
 

Josh and guys thanks for the encouragement. my roof was cleaned in a hour or so - used a filler spreader and it came right off - what kind of sound insulation did you use? will it stay stuck to the roof? here in Texas it hits 100 degrees regularly and I can see the roof hitting 130 or so im afraid it will end up stuck to the headliner. as far as the front end its will all be fitted prior to paint - it sure aint as easy as a 69 Camaro - pretty well bolt part A to part B i used to have a nice 400 hardtop car -

and someone had it lined up pretty good IMO-OK the hood is sitting a little high in the pic (kinda what I don't like about 67-68 birds is few people ever get the bumper lined up well with the fenders) Ill look up HP Pontiac mag for that article
thanks for the tips

Hey Zman, looking good!! :thumbsup: I just got my engine installed also. Looks like were getting there.

http://www.fquick.com/images/vehicle...7994252807.jpg

Sam

Mr Clean!
 

Sam , no one likes you very much :D
yours is ALOT farther than I am and its is looking SWEET! but some progress is better than none!
I just got my 3.5" aluminum Denny's drive shaft was looking at going up to my buddy's where the car is Saturday and installing it and a bigger yoke for the larger u-joint they talked me into the larger due to the power this will be putting down -easy enough to do. also was going to play with my Percy's wheel rite and see what offset wheels I need hoping for 17x11 in the rear with 315's I'm still hoping I can stuff 17x9 with a 275 in the front but cant check till the front end is on - my green 69 above had 16x8 with 255/50 that were an easy fit so whats 1 more inch gonna hurt?

sure wish it would stay looking like this clear-coat anyone?
Sam, by the way what seats will you be using? I've been looking for some blue GTO seats ...........

Awsome drive shaft!!! As far as seats, I'm not sure. I had GTO seats but sold them due to the fact that they were too wide and too tall. Some guys have figured out how to make them work in 1st gens, but it seems they are not willing to share how they make them work. One thought I have is to take my original seats and rework them into GTO seats. Keep up the good work, looks awsome :thumbsup:

Sam

updates
 

I had the hood hinges powder coated gloss and I like them, not into 600+$ billets
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010582-1.jpg
and it actually looks like a car! first time since I've owned it
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010588-2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...P1010587-2.jpg
not much progress but its some really wish my body man didn't have so many excuses - couple more years and this may actually get done:(

How is the car coming along? Very cool project. I'm sorry to hear you are having to deal with a SLOOOOOW body guy with excuses.
Post some updates. :cheers:

no updates
 

Sorry to hear about this Im sure somebody in metroplex can hook you up. keep your head up things will work out

Sorry to hear that, good luck with the search.

Have you talked to Pete at COMP-SPEC?!?
He does killer paint work. See to Karma to verify. Good luck!:thumbsup: :cheers:

Pete is a supporting vendor on this site. He's in the Boston area. Go to his web site his work speaks for it's self! One of THE best here!!! And one of the nicest guy's you'll ever meet I might add..

I've seen his work in person , Very nice .

Pete is an awesome guy that does killer work.

The Boston World of Wheels is coming up in a couple of weeks, and they should just rename it "Pete's House of Worship":hail: , because for the percentage of cars that enter that show, that he has painted or worked on in some way, the awards given out to them are definitely above the status quo for a normal shop's number of entries.

I'm just bummed that I can't make it this year (bad timing for me) with my car that he painted, so I could maybe get an award in my class for the third year in a row

Boston?