Hey guys,
I finally starting a build thread on my project of a couple of years – a pro-touring ’78 Trans Am named “sinisTAr”. I purchased the car a couple years ago with the intentions of cloning it into a Special Edition “Bandit” Trans Am. I quickly realized that there are WAY too many of these things out there so I decided to take a slightly different route. After surfing sites, like Lat-G and Pro-Touring, I really started to get the bug to make my own pro-touring TA. When Year One introduced the BRE TA I figured “well, there goes my idea again… So what color do I want to make this thing??? I’ll figure that out later…”
I knew I wanted to make this thing handle like crazy, have a modern power plant and just look mean while being very functional – i.e. fairly cost effective “wear items” like brakes, tires, etc…
So, on with the show…
Vitals:
- '78 TA - Arizona car practically 100% rust free. Very light flash rust in the trunk area, but overall a really solid car! There are some dents but no rot.
- '99 LS1/4L60e mounted, wired and running.
- Speartech modified ECU, Dave-modified harness (me)
- Ceramic coated Hedman headers, 3 in Pypes exhaust, in the process of mounting the exhaust with Magnaflow muffs
- GM600 Box
- Detroit Speed upper and lower control arms
- 1LE front spindles 12" front brakes with Caprice calipers/'86 GN front brakes mounted on the rear (No e-brake at this point, plained on changing that)
- DSE Booster/3rd Gen Master cylinder
- Pro-Touring F-Body LS1 Competition level suspension/solid body bushings (the ride feel is equivalent to a 4th gen Fbody)
- Electric Walbro 255 external pump, sumped tank. Works well but I wanted to eventually get a stainless tank...too damn loud!
- Torq Thrust IIs 255/45-17 fronts 285/40-17 rears.
- Driveshaft correctly shortened.
- Cobalt Gauges not installed yet.
- OBDII connector present but not wired in yet.
- Aluminum Rad with dual Electric Fans wired to run off computer. Car hasn't gotten warm enough to fire on its own yet...haha but are wired in properly.
- Also have an Additional Pair of Texas Speed Heads Stage 2.5 5.3L heads with Springs and valves ~1000 miles on them - that will eventually be mounted once everything is together.
- Currently jamming in the car with a BMW Sparkling Graphite which will be the car's color
- I have a full set of BRE Year one Spoilers (flush mount) and I am not sure yet if I am going to paint them matte black or body color.
- Yes I am putting the birds on the car...probably silver/black combo or POSSIBLY a little ZR1-esque style set up with Blue decals on the silver body.
I will post pics when I get home from work to show the progress.
Dave