My 76' and I

[1_Car_Guy]

Entry 1: 2/10/2022

My name is Andrew, and this is the story of my 76’ Trans Am. I’m a long-time lurker on lateral-g and other pro-touring type websites. I’ve probably started this thread 5 times over the years. I’ve found it difficult to keep a thread alive since my life has changed so drastically and my car’s progress has been painstakingly slow and sporadic. I have a young growing family and with that, a limited budget for my 76’ with big dreams; ‘a champagne-taste with a beer money type-budget’. I’m finally situated in a decent career for the long haul and will hopefully have more cash to throw at it in the future.

There are so many great builds on this forum composed by professionals with great photos, accompanying technical write-ups that are backed by top tier results. There are also plenty of threads out there written by guys with far more experience building cars, more time, and a seemingly endless budget.

With that, I can’t imagine anyone getting much information or technical advice out of this thread other than pure entertainment. I just hope to stay on top of this thread once and for all. I plan on giving a great back story behind the car, what it means to me, why it means what it does and where we’re going. I’m not to be confused as a writer and that will become more and more evident as I continue to add content.

This thread will hopefully serve a multitude of purposes. First and foremost, documenting the journey from beginning to end of the project. I’d like to look back someday and have a record of exactly what the whole trip was like, the steps I took and in what order. I’ll include the setbacks, both mechanical and personal. I’ll incorporate the timing of everything, personal milestones with my defeats. Mixed in there somewhere will be car content. It will also serve as motivation to continue making progress, hopefully an avenue to prevent my childhood dream from evading me.

Any dream must have goals. Without goals the destination is unknown. Let’s keep this simple. As of writing this my dad is 67 years old, my son is 21 months old and I’m 34. I’d like to give my dad a ride in this thing before he’s too old to crawl over the roll cage. I’d like to finish this thing before my son starts referring to the car as a project instead of what it is, a car. In short, lets shoot for 12 years – so 2034. Jesus that seems like a long time from now. A lifetime away.

That’s enough of a general introduction for now. My next post will be a back story of the car, its history, and place in my family. No post is complete without some photos so here are a few to set the mood.

Mom, Dad, and the 76' in 1978:


My 16 month old son and the 76' in 2021:


Current state of 76' in 2022:

[camcojb]

Great project, and beautiful family!! Thanks for posting.

[ScotI]

Nice intro. I'm in for updates.

[Beechy]

"There are so many great builds on this forum composed by professionals with great photos......."

...........seems you've matched them already Andrew, great start, prefect grammar and composition. Am looking forward to more.

[87SS]

Cool...I have a 76 TA also....I will be watching! Good Luck!

[sleepertime]

After reading thru your post, I see you have put some serious thought into this project.
The one bit of advise from someone that has had a similar experience is write out a plan of the build Put together a excel spreadsheet with the products you are looking for and where they can be purchased and the cost. I found that it helped to keep you in a realistic check of how much it is really going to cost and how much you have spent. Little by little you can get there, but try and keep it realistic so that the scope creep doesn't overwhelm you and you get burned out on the project and give up. Set a goal to do something on the car everyday no matter how small it is.
The journey is a major part of the destination.
Keep the faith and it will get done.

[jarhead]

Cool project

I agree with sleeper, I have an excel on my build and it helps keep things on track

[Roscoe03]

Awesome first post. Looking forward to your build!

[1_Car_Guy]

Entry 2: 2/10/2022

Some backstory. Lots of ground to cover so I'll rush through this part. Just jotting this down as I remember it so I don't forget anything.

My father's first car worth mentioning was a 67' 390 Cougar that he bought second hand in 1973. It was piss green and had a tow hitch. The guy he bought it from pulled a boat with it.

He blew up the original 390 a few months after buying it and immediately purchased a 390 crate motor from Ford. Bought a better set of aftermarket heads, a new cam, intake, carb, headers, distributor and ignition. Also added a set of higher ratio rear end gears. If that wasn't enough he broke in to his old high school shop and manually shaved his aftermarket heads on a table sander by hand.

Car was fast as all hell but he ran it in to a tree and that was the end of it. Parted out what was left of the car and started chasing girls instead. Fast forward to 1975. It was around September and he was itching to get in to a new car. He was 21 and had some cash so he ordered a 1976 400 4 Speed T/A with no A/C. Really the only game in town that year.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve 1975. He was driving home from work in a Buffalo NY snow storm when he saw a car hauler with a silver 76' Trans Am up on top towards the end. Ended up following the car hauler to the dealership and it was his. Drove it home to family dinner that same night. The next weekend it got a set of headers, a cam, cragars, carb, air shocks, ignition, and distributor.

Later in the summer of 76' my Dad was out and met my mom in the car and the rest is history. They got married in 1981 and have been together ever since. Went on their honeymoon in the thing.

Some side notes/stories to recall someday:
1) Dad and the MG
2) Dad and Mom's first date
3) You go before the car goes
4) Stealing your own car back (clutch repair shop)
5) Corvette on a bridge
6) Getting it repainted in a field
7) Uncle Paul's 76' Formula
8) It almost got stolen 3 times
9) CB sleeper antenna
10) Weekend projects
11) Storing it in an abandoned building during the winter for free
12) Dad falls asleep in a crane, get fired by his boss (who was actually his Dad, Grandpa), and goes down to Pontiac to order his T/A while unemployed on the same day
13) Dad starts college at 34 years old to become an electrical engineer. Ketchup sandwiches, 1 bedroom apartment, newborn - refuses to sell T/A

Dad got it repainted in 1985. Blue decals from a 1979 Trans Am. I came around in 1987 and fell in love the first time I ever realized what it was. I can still remember drawing pictures of it. Dreaming about it. Bragging to my friends about it. This all started by the time I was 5. I've been in love with the thing ever since. It's the only car I ever wanted. Nothing has changed.

I graduated high school in 2005 and joined the Army. I was young and stupid and didn't save much money. I only had about $31,000 in the bank when I got out. After 5 years of the Army I had had enough of ol' Uncle Sam and decided not to re-enlist. Dad sold me the car for $176.00 a week after I left the Army. I enrolled in college in 2011 and graduated with a Bachelors in Finance and a minor in economics. 3.65 GPA. Graduated in 2013. University of Buffalo.

That's a whole lifetime in and of itself but it gets me to where I finally got possession of the car and started the project.

When I bought the car from Dad it had 36,047 miles. Rust free, perfectly running and beautiful car. Nothing to be ashamed of but it wasn't enough. I let my Dad know ahead of time that I planned on restoring it/would complete a substantial build.

The only criteria was that I'd never sell it to anyone outside of the family, hopefully pass it along to my child (should I have had one), keep the shaker hood scoop and not 'turn it in to a Camaro'.

Next post will be some actual car content.

[1_Car_Guy]

Entry 3: 2/15/2022

I knew for years that someday I'd be switching out the entire driveline of the car but had no where near the funds to purchase what I wanted. So instead of buying a motor and transmission I decided to turn my attention to the chassis and rear end.

So in late 2010 (as soon as I got out of the Army and purchased the car from my father) I moved it to my uncles shop. I was going to start school in January 2011 so I had about 3 months to work with. I had planned on doing a simple mini tub but decided to expand out the project. Went on do to an 8 point cage, Strange rear end, Ladder Bars, Sub Frame Connectors, 3 inch exhaust, new clutch, rear brakes, 11 inch cragars, BF Goodrich Drag Radials.

Image upload limit is 10 images, so here are photos of the Mini Tub and Ladder Bars. This was in the Fall/Winter of 2010.