Project Greyscale 1971 Trans Am

[BossaNova]

Ahhh. Welcome to the world of hot rodding.
Love your ideas. Don't give up!

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

you really thought that the LQ manifold was going to fit under the hood?...


well then.. prepare your anus..

cause all of that will be surely charged to the game of HOTRODDING..

beat the floor up til it fits!..

[Sonar Chief]

That rendering is spot one! I know the feeling ... just this Friday I was ready to bolt on the upper bars and wtf, where is the other 5/8-11 jam nut? Luckily, there is a Fastenal here in town, so mad dash before they close because they aren't open when everyone else has time!!!!

Keep at it ... it will be worth it!

Michael

[bsharpe]

Originally Posted by Rick D

As the great Weld would say "that's Hot Rodding"

But seriously just because the parts "bolt"on doesn't mean they are "bolt on" parts, you have to find the right combination for your car to make it all work correctly. Remember this cars are VERY different from one another to begin with so some adjustment may be necessary.

By the way love the car and project!!

I understand the hot rodding mindset and never expect things to "blot on". Especially considering I tend to do things a little differently with my builds. I dont think a 6l80/90 has been put in a 2nd gen yet so i new there were going to be plenty of challenges.

Originally Posted by Mr.VENGEANCE

you really thought that the LQ manifold was going to fit under the hood?...


well then.. prepare your anus..

cause all of that will be surely charged to the game of HOTRODDING..

beat the floor up til it fits!..

I know i can make the truck intake fit. I love running the truck stuff on my builds. the intake performs the same as an ls3 intake but more torque and everything is dirt cheap.

I have the same setup in my chevelle.



It is close now. I just need to figure out where to put the subframe before i make any more changes.

Originally Posted by Sonar Chief

That rendering is spot one! I know the feeling ... just this Friday I was ready to bolt on the upper bars and wtf, where is the other 5/8-11 jam nut? Luckily, there is a Fastenal here in town, so mad dash before they close because they aren't open when everyone else has time!!!!

Keep at it ... it will be worth it!

Michael

The car has a lot of potential. I am going to do a couple of custom body mods but the cars looked great stock.

I build my cars during nights and weekends, its tuff to find time to make calls and buy things during regular business hours.

[bsharpe]

The 6l90 is huge and has awful ground clearance. I want to be able to comfortably drive this car. I raised the trans 3" to allow plenty of clearance. I might need to raise the entire driveshaft tunnel but i wont know until I get the rear 4link setup.


Unfortunately, I found my fully welded trans tunnel interfered with the vintage air unit. I moved everything to the passenger side as far as possible and hammered the cowl area allow more room.


Since I am using vintage air, I shaved the firewall. the firewall on the 2nd gens arent flat. The gas pedal area is recessed more and sticks out farther into the engine bay. I think it turned out alright.



You can also see I relocated the wiper motor to under the drivers fender. I used a motor from a 4th gen i picked up for free.

[bsharpe]

I really like the c5 Z06 wheels, I plan on using them on this car as well. I found a set on craigslist for 450 and they came with a decent set of tires. The tires are old but they aren’t dry rotted. I will use the 18x10.5’s on the Trans Am and the 17x9.5’s on the chevelle. I plan on running 295/35/18 on all 4 corners for now but I might end up buying new tires and going with 315’s for the rear.



I want black wheels on the Trans Am but I don’t want to devalue the wheels so I decided to plasti-dip them. This was the first time using plasti-dip and it worked out really well. Hopefully they will hold up to the abuse but again this is not a show car.

[bsharpe]

Scott verified that his subframe had a similar fit on Grendel's Mullet Camaro. The half height body mounts can not be used at the firewall. I can now move forward with confidence in my setup.

I might keep the subframe wedged as i have it now with the small body mounts in the rear and full height at the firewall. I did the math and the suspension angles will only change by 1.2 degrees.

I am going to move the motor mounts again but I am waiting on my new headers to show up first. You can see how i already lowered the mounts in the pictures below.



I will also add Scotts new extended shock mount to allow a lower ride height.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Want to see this thing done!. The big front splitter screams awesome

[bsharpe]

The 8.5 10 bolts are strong and could handle the LS3 but mine was an open rear. I would have needed to rebuild it and by new stronger axles. Considering I was going to change the rear suspension I started to look at my other options.


I started reading about the detroit lockers and learned the 9" lockers will perform better since they dont have c clips and cross pin. I was able to pick up a complete big web 9" that included a 31 spline third member with 3.20 gears and a locker for around $280 on Craigslist.

It was in rough shape but it cleaned up after a little work.

I will go over the suspension in the next update

[WSSix]

Nice score!