1969 Trans Am Clonification

[GrabberGT]

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

[ZMAN1969]

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!

[ZMAN1969]

shifter in its place too

[waynieZ]

Nice project . Thats a sweet drive train.

[Josh69]

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.

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.

[ZMAN1969]

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

[Samhatco]

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



Sam

[ZMAN1969]

Sam , no one likes you very much
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 ...........

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by ZMAN1969

Sam , no one likes you very much
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

Sam

[ZMAN1969]

I had the hood hinges powder coated gloss and I like them, not into 600+$ billets

and it actually looks like a car! first time since I've owned it


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