10 Seconds' 78 Trans Am Project

[jonny51]

Originally Posted by Bandit Ls-1

lmao! hey man same thing with me...i post over on transamcountry too but ever since i found this site ive strayed away from T/Acountry. i posted about my build of my ls1 79 T/A build and basically every1 frowned upon me asking me why i would do such a thing on a 2nd gen....lol those guys love those stock 2nd gens. i love the styling on these cars but the horse power is not their so i just want to build my own car. but your car looks pretty sweet my car has t-tops and my floors were gone! from the pics of ur floor pan its nowhere near as bad as mine were, looks good dude. i cant wait to get home and finish mine, dam you college! lol

Yep,those guys really like there numbers matching cars.I do like the stock 70-74 TA's though(can't leave out the 74 SD455 )

[10Seconds]

Originally Posted by ProdigyCustoms

Wow, My first new car (first new car) was a 78 martinque blue, gold bird, blue interior. Nice color although I would not do the powder blue interior now. Cool build, I am watching with envy as I am dying to do one. I need more time in the day.

Frank, at least you are helping supply me some parts for this one, I will have to post a picture with those QA1's on it. Now if you just sold the polished steering shafts and components, I would have to give you another call...

[10Seconds]

Another one of those decisions that you make in the early stages of the project - the engine bay is way too cluttered on these 2nd Gens.



And the stuff cluttering it really looks like crap.



So I just had to have a smooth firewall. Here was my first attempt to fill and smooth it out.




And





Also of note, since I cant seem to find the pictures of the Dash repair, note the rusted out condition of the corners of the dash in the first picture - it was even worse on the driver's side. And then in the last picture, its repaired and repainted - though I will have to redo it, I now realize I had too much gloss in it.

[ProdigyCustoms]

You mean polished shaft and borg joints? I got ya covered man, we run that on Prodigy, HOTT!

[10Seconds]

Originally Posted by ProdigyCustoms

You mean polished shaft and borg joints? I got ya covered man, we run that on Prodigy, HOTT!

That's what I mean. Just sent you a PM.

[10Seconds]

Ok, here is another "catch-up" update:

Since I had decided to go with the Hot Rod Air A/C system, I did not need this cowl vent:





So, in my desire to keep everything clean and smooth, I decided to fill it in:




Here is how the firewall looked after this work was done:

[10Seconds]

I originally had intended to use the stock rear setup from an 1980 model Trans Am for the project due to its rear wheel disc brake setup. However, after I mounted it up on the car, I was not happy with it. I knew I wanted to go with larger tires under the rear without it sticking out. I decided to do my own version of a mini-tub and move the leaf springs in to accomodate the larger tires. This was before there was any "kit" for the 2nd gens out there.

However, I ran into a few difficulties - first, the rear frame rails swing outward 1/2 way through the rear wheel opening, severely cutting into the space for the wheel and tire. Secondly, there was no good way to make /or adapt a bracket to move the leaf springs without binding it up at the front eye.

So I got a little radical here. I ordered a 4-link setup from Martz Chassis and a set of Competition Engineering Formed rear frame rails. I cut the factory rails completely out and used the CE ones to get rid of the factory flair out. I then attached the Martz setup to the CE frame. Since I was going that far anyways, the 8.5 10-bolt was replaced with a 9-inch too at this time.

[O'Neall]

Dang this is gonna be a cool car. Are you gonna go back to Marty Blue? I hope so, that is one of the coolest colors PMD ever used on a T/A of any generation.

As for us TACers (yes I'm one of them too)... don't give us too hard a time. T/A fans are fanatical... and as such, it's not that strange that most would be sticklers for numbers matching drivetrains and factory correct restos. I've owned several 2nd Gen T/As... some drivers and some pristine low-mileage survivors, but my heart and soul is really going into the (mild) pro-touring restification of my 77 Y81 T/A. No, I won't be yanking the W72-400 in favor of an LS motor, but I completely understand why some would. Hey, as long as it's got 2nd Gen fenders and flanks I love!!!

[10Seconds]

Nah, I still love TAC, I am still going to post there too. Its just I finally wanted to have some enthusiam and positive feedback for my car. Stock restos get more excitement there 3 to 1. And thats fine, its just not me. Thats kind of like over at Performance Years, if you even type BBC in a thread, man are you in trouble. (And FYI, I am going with a built 455 for the engine here, so I guess I am safe at PY)

As far as color, I am actually going with a custom red that is about a shade off of Viper Red. But the Martinique is a cool color. I may do another one in that shade someday. Since the whole Black thing (my favorite on a car) is SO overdone on 2nd gens.

Originally Posted by O'Neall

Dang this is gonna be a cool car. Are you gonna go back to Marty Blue? I hope so, that is one of the coolest colors PMD ever used on a T/A of any generation.

As for us TACers (yes I'm one of them too)... don't give us too hard a time. T/A fans are fanatical... and as such, it's not that strange that most would be sticklers for numbers matching drivetrains and factory correct restos. I've owned several 2nd Gen T/As... some drivers and some pristine low-mileage survivors, but my heart and soul is really going into the (mild) pro-touring restification of my 77 Y81 T/A. No, I won't be yanking the W72-400 in favor of an LS motor, but I completely understand why some would. Hey, as long as it's got 2nd Gen fenders and flanks I love!!!

[O'Neall]

Originally Posted by 10Seconds

Since the whole Black thing (my favorite on a car) is SO overdone on 2nd gens.

Hey, I resemble that remark!!!

For many a year I was only interested in factory correct T/As. I owned a few drivers that were lightly modified (headers, duals, etc.), but always longed for a super low-mileage original car! I always wanted to know what it was like to own one of these cars new back in the day (since I was only a kid when they were new). In that vein I pursued several "survivors" and ended up owning a 23k mile 77 Y82-SE W72-400/4spd and later a 7300 mile (yes you read that right) 79 W72-400/4spd WS6 car (still had the original Goodyear Polysteel Radials when I bought it). I loved both of those cars... BUT, they were also kind of anchors around my neck. Both were so nice I was very tentative to drive them... didn't want to put miles on them, let alone risk anything happening to them. Can you imagine what a bummer it'd be to have some teenage idiot plow into your 25 year old survivor T/A with only 7300 miles on it. Even if you did get it fixed... it still wouldn't be right... wouldn't be a survivor anymore, etc. You get the picture.

Anyway I sold both of those cars and set out to find a decent T/A I could just drive and enjoy. I stumbled across my Y81 on ebay of all places! My goals were (and still are) to have a car I can just get in and drive anywhere and enjoy the ride and since I'm not a 1/4 mile kind of guy I was strongly attracted to the pro-touring style... PT cars are built to handle like a modern performance car, and most of all they are meant to be driven!

Anyway, I look forward to watching your car progress, and call me old-fashioned, or a stick-in-the-mud, or a traditionalist, but I like the fact that you're sticking with Pontiac power. Nothing wrong with the modern LS conversions, heck the amount of effort it takes to convert an old car to a modern powertrain is commendable, but I still love good old-fashioned Pontiac torque!!!