1981 Pontiac Trans Am LS1 Swap - South Africa

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I thought to post up my post of my LS Swap that I started in 2013, in case it helps anyone attempting something similar.
Now please remember, I'm out in South Africa and an IT guy by trade. So the build was done with a very limited budget and it was a huge learning curve too. Unfortunately out here parts are not to easy to come by and extremely expensive to bring in. At the time, the LS thing here locally was also pretty rare. It's picked up momentum.
The aim of the build was to freshen up the Trans Am and turn it into a cruiser, yet leave it as close as possible to original.
A quick recap was that it started off when I purchased it in 2006 with a Chevy 350....then upgraded it to a 383 after it ran bearings. A few years later I landed a LS2 in pieces which I was going to fit, but landed up buying a accident damaged Chevy with an LS1 and moved it all across into the Trans Am.

Here's my thread 

The time has come. My Trans Am has had its final drive with a 383ci motor to the workshop where it will over the next few months. It will be receiving a little heart surgery. The 383 has been sold off to a good friend who will be using it in his 36 Chevy and in its place my Trans Am will have a 6.0l LS2 motor.

Last night I started removing everything for the motor to be pulled on Saturday morning.




Since the conversion from 350 to 383 a few years back, I have had no issues with the motor. It's ran without skipping a beat. I’ve managed to cover about 12k km with it in the last 4 or 5 years. The 383 was a HUGE step up from the old 350. The difference the torque made to the drivability of the car was immense, and suited the car perfectly. The only thing I hated was the 3 Speed Auto. Once upon a time I decided it would be a great idea to have a shift kit fitted to it. This turned out to be a bad idea as shifting from 1st to 2nd was so hard it felt like you dropped the diff and snapped your neck every single time it changed up. It was great for when you were giving it some stick but when just cruising it was a royal pain in the neck.

On a recent trip down to Durbs with it, I had the bright idea that the 3speed auto needed to be chucked out as sitting on the highway at 120kph the motor was spinning at almost 3500rpm which killed fuel consumption and made it quite uncomfortable. Long story short, I sat with the boys at the workshop discussing fitting a gearbox with an overdrive that I had purchased and somehow am now doing a LS2 with a 6 Speed Manual gearbox project! 

So…the plan at the end of the day, with a very tight and limited budget, is to have my Trans Am kitted out with slightly more modern technology. A more Pro-Street version of a Trans Am. From the outside, I want to make it look as standard as possible but underneath it must be slightly more up to date with the times. I have already purchased a LS2 and a brand new 6 Speed Lumina gearbox. 

The LS2 will be fitted with fuel injection. I still need to source coil packs. It came with a Spitronics management system, but I’ve been told to rather try source an original GM system. I’m importing a set of wheels for it from the States, made by a company called Year One. They are a modern version of my original “snowflake” wheel, but just in 17x9 inch exactly the same as below.
From this


To this


 This will allow me to fit a proper brake system to the car. I haven’t decided what brake setup to go with yet, but it will include a new booster, master cylinder, rotors up front and I will be doing a disc conversion on the rear axle too. The diff will be redone. It’s currently an open diff, which will be converted to a LS diff. Suspension wise, at the end of the day I would like to dump the leaf springs at the rear and have a proper coil over setup installed. This however…..at the moment is still in the “dream” part of the build as is the air con, but I’m hoping to eventually get this done.

Converting it to a manual is also going to be lots of fun. I’m going to need to source a pedal box and do something with the centre console. From what I’ve read on the web, it doesn’t seem I will need to do any sort of cutting to get the box to fit. Interior wise I may need to do some cutting on the centre console, but will tackle it when I get there. I’ve already sourced a Centre Force clutch for it, which apparently is quite decent.

The plan is also to have the car painted. I will be doing a lot of the prep work myself, slowly over the next few months to save on cost for the paint job. A friend of mine has his own paint booth and will be helping me out with the spray. The car will be kept black and gold, but this time, it will have the budgie on the bonnet 

This is going to take a while, but I’m pretty amped for it. I’m going to miss not having my toy for now, and am frightened as to how much work and money is going to into this…..but I do love my TA and the end result will be worth it.

Wish me luck!

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Saturday the motor came out, nice and easy and the cars back home.

The weather held out and we quickly pulled it outside. Wilson had to get in on the shot. 


Motor and gearbox were pulled out in one go. This motor treated me well.


You can see just how big that lump with the gearbox is in this picture.


We hooked it up onto the trailer and dropped it off back home. Like this it will be out of the way while I move onto working on the LS2 and getting it all ready.


Here's just a little video of what it kinda sounded like with the 383 and Auto gearbox. Not sure if you can hear just how violent that 1st to 2nd gearchange was...and that wasn't even flat out.
Trans Am Changing from 1st to 2nd

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Just a quick update. This weekend I spent some time stripping off the nose cone, front spoiler and front fender. Stripping is always easy, hopefully I know how to put this all together again. 


So this weekend the strip down continued.
I managed to finally get the car looking like this.




Passenger fender is off as is the whole front end of the car. Spent quite a bit of time stripping all the clips, rubbers etc of the frame.  Also tried my best to get all the wiring labelled and pulled back. This is one area I’m going to need to focus on redoing. Luckily when I rebuilt the motor to 383 I wired up the headlights and fans etc all with nice proper silicone cabling. All the relays etc were also neatly packaged into water proof boxes, but some of the original cabling still exists.



The fenders are in good shape. Only the passenger fender seems to have had some damage to the bottom of it, but it’s not to bad. I stripped off the side lamps as well as the heat extractors.


The wheel arches are in good nick. I’ll be covering up some of the unnecessary holes, just for a neater finish.


The nose cone was also disassembled. Basically it’s just a cover. Remove a couple of screws and a few brackets and it all comes apart. This I will need to do some proper research for when it comes to painting, as it’s very flexible and needs to be done right because it was always prone to cracking. I once spoke to Barry who mentioned that with today’s paint technology, paint has become a lot more flexible.




The rear spoilers were removed next.


Some body putty was found on the driver’s side rear fender. Can’t wait to find out whats underneath there.




The rear lights were removed. These came off easily. A few nuts and the pop right off.


I need to make some space to store all the parts. It’s amazing how quickly it all starts adding up. Next up I want to remove the mirrors, but I think to do that I need to remove door panels to.

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I've been a bit lazy with the TA and now with winter coming, evenings in the garage are probably gonna be at a minimum.

Not much has happened other than me finally ordering my wheels.

I am so freaking excited 

17' by 9 Year One Snowflakes


Shipping is a bitch though. Import duties and customs etc is going to probably work out close to what I paid for them in the USA, if not more.

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Thought I'd quickly post up some progress...
My Year One wheels finally arrived. Man, that that took a big chunk out of my wallet. It's worth every cent though as they're absolutely stunning!





Along with the wheels I've received my Dirty Dingo engine mounts and Energy Suspension body mounts.




I had the car at my place while I waited for some space at the workshop. Finally I managed to get a spot back at the workshop, and off the car went.



Once back at the workshop, I carried on taking things apart.
The doors are now off


And slowly the interior has mostly come out. The Trans Am hand brake is a foot brake. What a mission that was to get off.

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The floorpan is in good condition. No rust here.


Roof lining also came out...all fairly easily....lets see how easy it's gonna be to put it all back in 




The old horrible exhaust needed to come out to. This has always been something I wanted changed, and now it will finally get done. Looking forward to seeing some proper Stainless pipes under there.


I started removing some of the paint off the doors. I was quite surprised to find quite a lot of damage on the passenger door. Who knows what happened there, but lots of body putty was used. Yes, that's my door! 


The driver's door also has a little damage on it, but this was the nasty bit.


I'm going to have to get that rust cut out and the door repaired. Shouldn't be to hard. Luckily, my one of my friends is a master at metal work and will help me get this sorted.

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So, next up, before I start removing the subframe etc...I need to get the LS2 and the manual box lined up. We quickly did a test fit of the motor and gearbox and here you can see how the "Lumina" oil pan won't clear the cross member on the Trans Am.




So, to sort this out, I had to import a new Oil pan for it. You don't even want to know how much this cost to get it here. I had a couple of different options, including a Hummer oil pan that fits, but from what I've read on the web it hangs to low, so I ended up ordering a 1998 - 2002 Camaro/Trans Am oil pan which has also arrived. It's a genuine GM pan and includes the windage tray, pickup and dipstick.


So now that this has arrived, I want to do another test fit. This should now clear the cross member. I will need to do some cutting to get the gear lever to come into the car. At the same time, I'll be doing the gearbox mount and measuring up the prop shaft etc...

Here's a crappy pic of where the gearshift is trying to poke a hole into the cabin.

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I sent the two front fenders, bumpers and bootlid in to my friend who is going to be painting the car for me. Here's some photo's he sent me with some progress.

Marco, post a pic of the gearbox for me please, as much detail as possible bud.
Cheers.

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Thought I'd quickly update this. I've changed my mind with the transmission on the Trans Am. I was keen on doing the whole Manual conversion but after lots of mulling it over, I've decided to stick with and Auto box. The 6 speed manual has been sold, and a temp 4l60e has been arranged to do my mounts etc. The 4l60e is a 4 speed with overdrive gearbox, and should work nicely.

Slowly I've been sanding away at everything. Trying my best to get the panels back down to metal. Unfortunately this becomes boring, but slowly slowly I'll get there.
The rear spoiler has been sanded back down to it's original fibre glass.


The rear spoiler sides are a type of rubber.


The bonnet's pretty much done on the outside. It had quite a bit of filler on it in certain places and I think may need a bit of strengthening. I need to do the underside now, but that's a pain in the butt.


The mirrors have also been done...They've come out nice and shiny.


I'm a little sceptical to get things sandblasted, but I decided to have the inner fenders and the core support sandblasted. The sandblaster guaranteed me he would go slow and easy and they've come out really nice.


I'm going to have to do some serious work on the door, as the rust has eaten right through.


The bootlid also has some rust issues. Luckily my buddy Quinton knows his way around metal.

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Ahh, hopefully one day this will all come together. 


The whole interior is out and I'm in two minds as what to do with the seats.

I don't know weather to just import the original foam and seat covers or take it through somewhere locally and get them to recover as close as possible. Importing the foam and covers is going to be expensive, but if I see how my brother's Corvette came out, they'll look dam good.

I've also been toying around with the idea of upgrading the seats with something a little more modern, but I'm worried it will make it look....Common. Trans Am's you have to be very careful with them. I find "standard" they look good but if you start messing around with them they can end up looking real hill billy very quickly. This luckily, is something I only need to worry about much later on.

Last weekend I had a bit of fun. I managed to get the auto box and the LS2 hooked up temporarily and we did a test fit into the car to see how everything lines up.
We hooked it all up


And Bob's your uncle it all went in nicely.


The Dirty Dingo engine mounts worked like a charm and there's tons of clearance everywhere.


The gearbox mount is the only thing that needs to be modified. The cross member is currently being chopped up and a proper mount made to fit. Quinton's helping me out with all the cutting and welding.


The 2002 Camaro Oil Pan I brought in clears nicely.


And this is how she's looking at the moment.


Next steps is to finish up the gearbox mount and get the box back to the suppliers. They're sending it in for a full refurb with stronger internals. The engine will come out and onto a engine stand. The whole front clip will now come off and get stripped down and parts sent in for relative sandblasting etc.

Thanks for watching 

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I’ve been quite hectic at work and have not had much chance to get too many things sorted. A couple of things have been ordered online and I’m waiting for them to arrive.

One of them is this Spectra fuel tank.


What’s nice about it is it should hopefully fit perfectly as the original did, and it has a fuel pump already built into it. I wasn’t too keen on running an external pump as they can be quite noisy.

I spent a few evenings stripping out the rest of the front end.



The chassis came of easily. 31 year old rubber was completely worn out and falling apart.


The original fuel tank was removed. If you shake it around you can hear either rust or dirt is inside.


The diff was a bit of a pain to get out…and bloody heavy too.


This will be sent in and checked out. At the same time it will have a  LS kit installed. From what I've read up, the ratio seems to be well suited to the Lumina gearbox. I will get this confirmed though.


The front and rear glass was removed. Not sure how this goes back as it had some sort of strange silicone seal on it.




Eventually, this is what I was left with.


The wiring harness all came out and is still in decent condition. I've checked the wiring and it should hopefully be rather easy to put back. All wires are still neat and whatever I am not happy with I will replace.


Trans am Steering wheel and rack


The chassis needs to be notched a little to clear the exhausts and the engine mounts need one or two extra holes. Once his has been done, it will get sent off for sandblasting. I’m not too sure if I will get it powder coated or spray it myself with some decent hammerite. I’ll have to see how much powder coating costs.

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Some more parts came back from plating.




My suspensions bits have also all come back from getting powder coated and are looking so good. I'll try get a nicer picture of them all laid out.


With the help of some friends I managed to load up the Trans Am.


And a week later…This is waiting for me at the workshop.




I’ve been away in Botswana, so I’m hoping in the next day or two to start getting the car into primer.....Exciting stuff!

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Whoop whooop, I'm so excited!

Loaded it up.


And with a little help


I have finally managed to get the car to Barry! 




Can't wait for the next 2 or so months! Thanks Barry for the help!

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Last week this arrived from the good old US of A


It's a new fuel tank with a built in fuel pump for the LS motor.

Unfortunately the neck was a little damaged, but I should easily be able to have it fixed up.




While the car is at the body shop, this is the next thing I need to repair. Some horrible rust which will be cut out and replaced.

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So while the car has been at the panel shop I've been cleaning up parts etc.

I redid the bushings on the door hinges.


Lots of work has been done on the chassis.




I've blocked up all the unnecessary holes.




I've had to make some space also for the exhausts. We cut the frame here.


And then strengthened and closed it up here.




It has been sent for sandblasting and once back, final touches will be made so that we can paint it up.

Barry has been working hard neatening everything up. He has smoothed out the rear fenders which were rippled up. The rust through the door has also been repaired.

This is how it looks currently.


Doors and fenders temporarily fitted for alignment.




Fenders nicely fixed up to.


While it's in the shop, I've also had tyres fitted to the new rims. Man oh man...I can't wait to see them fitted to the car.


I was hoping to run fatter rubber at the back but in the end opted for 255's all the way round.

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This weekend I also got to meet a distant cousin   


Fully functional interior....made all the noises if you pushed the buttons.

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While the car has been at Barry, I got my chassis back from sandblasting.
I spent some time fixing it up, cleaning up all the ugly welds and one or two tiny cracks.


I thought this would be quick, however it still took quite some time. Eventually I finished and I managed to get it painted up. I was thinking of having it powder coated but eventually decided on painting it with some Hammerite Direct to Metal so that I can touch it up over time.
This is how it came out.




Barry managed to get the lines all nicely sorted on the car and into primer.


A few hours later, I received this picture from Barry


I'm so happy. We settled on the original colour the car came out in, Starlight 19.
Barry found it in a Spies and Hecker and I think it came out just perfect! I had a quick look at it and so far I'm extremely happy. From what I could see under spotlights in Barry's shop, he worked his magic. Can't wait to get it out in the sunlight!

So the body has been done and hopefully this week the underside will be sorted with rubberizing and the rest of the panels done. If all goes well, I'll be collecting Saturday.

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Been a while since I've posted, so here's an update.
I understand why people sell off project cars. Sometimes it becomes a bit painful, especially when things are going slow...costing plenty cash and with dealing with people in the trade that aren't very helpful.

Anyhow, the car was collected from Barry. There's a few things I'm not to happy about, but Barry has assured me he will get things perfect. That's another reason I was persistent on having Barry paint the car for me as anyone else would have just wanted the job out and gone.

Barry had the car all packaged up.


After a bit of effort we got it up on the trailer.


And all hooked up


The plastic bits, like the nose cone were quite hard to get painted as they flex quite a bit and you are left with cracks in the paint.
The nose cone came out perfect, but I see the rear bumper has a few marks. I've reassembled it all and with the brackets all in place it's much stiffer and should be easier to sort out. For now, I've got it all back and the plan is to assemble as much as I can and then send it back to Barry to see what can be done.

It looks so nice though.




Fenders are also perfect and the black is super shiny.


Back at the workshop.


Really exciting to see it all painted up.


I wasn't to happy with the firewall, so I asked Barry for some paint and decided to flatten it out and run another coat. It came out BEAUTIFUL.

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The 6.0l Lumina motor has been stripped out and I've sent everything in to the engineering shop to get checked out. From what we can see it probably didn't even need the rebuild, but seeing as I've gone through this much effort I would prefer just to make sure everything is new.

The block was lightly honed


I have been pretty bad at taking pictures...but the crank was sent in also for a light polish as well as the cam. Engineers are happy with them.

Here's what the cam looks like.


I've done my best to clean up the pistons too.








I'm just waiting on a flexplate to be able to send the rotating assembly in for balancing. I've been told it's not necessary...but as I said before...I've gone this far, I want it done.
I'm getting help with sourcing spares for the LS motor from a company that specializes in American cars and motors. To try and keep costs down, they've agreed to help me out with sourcing things like a good used flexplate...computer box etc... as this can start getting extremely expensive.
Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on many of these items. It seems nobody in this game is in any rush and that business must be booming, as week after week nothing happens. Same thing with my brakes. I sourced them from a someone who is very much involved in the racing scene. It was agreed on that I would go with BMW brakes up front and back and to fit the LS diff. I handed it all in before the car went in to Barry, and was promised that I'd get everything back way before Barry finished with the pain. I've managed to get the front brakes back, but am still waiting on the rear and diff. That's my rant for the day.

The front spindles came out really nicely. I've painted them up to. I'll double check, but I think the discs measure up at 330mm.


The original spindles had to be modified and at the same time new bearings have been fitted.




They fit nicely in the wheels


Hopefully the diff will be done this week so that I can have it all cleaned up and painted. That means, the Trans Am will finally have front and back discs, with a handbrake and a limited slip diff.

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I ordered this conversion box from Ligenfelter. Basically, because I'm using a older Lumina 4spd with overdrive gearbox and trying to keep my original pedals, I need to convert the throttle body to a "cable" throttle body as the 6.0l ls is DBW. Because of this, I need to use the 5.7l engine management. Problem is, the 5.7l had a 24x reluctor wheel on the crank and the 6.0l has a 58x wheel. I had the option to swap out the crank, but would prefer to use what I have. This convertor converts the 58x wheel to 24x so that I can still use the 5.7l ecu.



My mission for the next few evenings is to sort out all my bolts. I've had them all plated and they're all mixed up now. It becomes a mission when you're looking for the right bolts. Thankfully I've taken tons of pictures of what bolts came out of where.

I spent the last weekend fitting the chassis. Here you can see how nice and shiny the firewall looks now.




I've also fitted back the rear leaf springs. One day....a proper coil over will replace this...just not now. I also fitted the fuel tank.


Sound deadening pads are almost all in too.


This evening, the control arms were sorted out. Bushes have been installed and the ball joints pressed in. Hopefully, weather permitting, Thursday night I'll have the front suspension bolted in and hopefully the front of the car down on wheels by the weekend.

Thanks for watching 

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Christmas is over and I've been getting back into the swing of working on the Trans Am again. I really need to start using something other than a crappy cellphone camera. Sorry about the bad quality pics.

I spent some time getting the front assembled. All brand new Moog stuff.


I also fitted up the new discs and calipers.


Finally managed to get my diff back too. We settled on Audi calipers for the back as they work best with the handbrake setup I am using. An Detroit Truetrac has also been fitted.


The brackets had to be made up and adjusted to fit with the wheels on.






A quick test fit to make sure it all cleared. I also painted up the diff with some of Hammerite's finest.


I got the interior back over December. Only thing left to do is sort out the centre console. The previous owners had drilled holes into it to fit gauges and some bmw seatbelt warning light and a cheap digital clock. It's always bugged me, so I decided to change it up a little. I got myself two cupholders and a tray. The car will be mainly used for cruising so it's always nice to be able to put a drink down somewhere.
In this picture you can see what it used to look like.


All I need to do now is have it recovered and the gaps filled.


My gauges from Speedhut arrived. Really excited to get these fitted. The speedo is a gps unit. I added the Pontiac Trans Am in as an extra.


Also ordered a new electric window switch as the old one had seen better days.

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I finally started feeling like I was getting somewhere with the Trans Am this week as I managed to fit the diff and get the car back onto wheels. As much as it's still miles away from being completed, seeing it on wheels felt so good.


Was hoping to get fatter wheels on at the back, but with the limited tire sizes available 255's is what I settled on.

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I really really need to start taking my proper camera to the workshop as these pictures really look terrible.

The car has been coming along...sometimes it feels as if nothing is happening.


I fitted the rear suspension nicely, including the brake lines. Here you can kind of see how it all looks nice and shiney.


The steering uses a rag joint. I had a new one made up and fixed up the rack.




I also spent a little time fixing up the air ducts and box. I really want to try and have the aircon working once all of this is finished. I fixed up all the little levers etc and tested all the vacuum pumps. All seems ready to work.
I had to buy a new heater radiator which I imported. It's all fitted and mounted inside the car now.


Playing with the vacuum has been quite fun and interesting to see how it all connects and moves.

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I decided to fit the rear lights and bumper, just for motivation 

The bumper has one or two small "spider" cracks in it. Barry warned me that it may happen as the bumpers are made of this rubbery material which flexes quite a bit when it doesn't have all the metal support in it. Hopefully he can fix it all up nicely once the car is put together.


I had the brakes all refurbed at Summit Brakes and steering in Rivonia. They came out really nice and look new.
Fronts are BMW 3 series


Rears are off an Audi so that I can use the footbrake cable.


They also refurbed the master cylinder and brake booster. I'm really hoping once this is all done, to never have braking problems again with the car.

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As some of you may remember, I had purchased a 6.0l Lumina motor which I was getting ready to build.
I had a bit of engineering work done on the block and crank. I also had the heads refurbished.

This is what everything was looking like.

The crank.


Heads all refurbished.


The block was honed.




Unfortunately, I was getting a bit fed up with trying to find the rest of the parts needed for the build. South African V8 suppliers, especially here in Johannesburg are not there yet with the newer tech. They're all still only focused on the old Chev 350's with carbs, so finding help and spares you need is virtually impossible. The few guys that are in the game hang on to the Lumina stuff as if it were gold. Also, I started adding up the sums and the cost of building the 6.0l was seriously getting out of my budget, so I decided to call it quits. For quite a bit less than the cost of the 6.0l we managed to find a bumped 5.7l Lumina complete (This is also known as a Holden Commodore in Australia). Barry helped me out in selling off the 6.0l and I purchased a 2004 Chev Lumina, exactly the same as the one I previously owned.



Although it took quite a knock, the car was still running and we managed to drive the car up and down the yard. It sounds pretty sweet. Going this route, I managed to score big time and this has brought my project much closer to completion. I now have everything I need. Also, there's still quite a bit that I will be selling off to hopefully recover some costs.



My friends and I got going at it and the motor and gearbox have been removed. We also have removed the wiring harness and computer boxes which was tons of fun

And this is what a LS1 looks like.

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I'd love to see just how much wiring must go into a modern day BMW/Mercedes.
We've removed the engine bay harness and computer box.


The sump was swapped out with one I purchased from the states, as the Lumina sump wouldn't fit my cross member.


I had purchased a refurbished 4l60e gearbox, which is what the Lumina comes with. I decided to swap it out with the "crashed" Lumina's box as and fitted the refurbished torque converter.


The refurbished one has been slightly beefed up.




I spent some time cleaning up the motor. It's amazing how nicely it all cleaned up.


This last weekend....I managed to fit motor and gearbox. This has been a huge step and extremely satisfying to see it all in place!


Don't ask me how, but somehow, the way it fits now, I can't get the exhaust manifolds to fit. They won't clear the cross member. When we test fitted etc, we managed to have it all in nice and snug. So the next mission is to see exactly how we misjudged it. I could leave it this way, but I'm not really up for having custom branches made for the car, primarily due to cost and also, having to leave the car some place for a few weeks while they make it up. I have a sneaky suspicion it has to do with the air box for the airconditioner. We'll be fiddling with this over the next few days.

Some of you may have also noticed the Alternator and Aircon pump have been removed. I did this as I will be ordering a relocation kit from the states from Holley to move them up to the top part of the motor for better clearance.

Thanks for watching! 

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So I figured out where I messed up with the manifolds. Lets just say old age is creeping in. 

What happened was I originally test fitted with the LS2 motor and LS2 manifolds. Then I sold off the LS2 motor with it's manifolds. Somewhere in the process I acquired 5.7l manifolds and convinced myself that these were the ones I used to test fit. I managed to figure this all out eventually and sourced LS2 manifolds again and they fit.

Relief!

This is what the LS2 manifolds look like. They come straight out towards the firewall and then down.


The 5.7l manifolds come straight down, hitting on the crossmember.


Luckily they're interchangeable. I must say, branches would have been the way to go, but right now they're out of the budget. So for now, these will do.

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With the fusebox being fitted into the front of the car and me still needing space also for the airbox, I decided to relocate the battery to the boot.
I used the battery holder of the Lumina for this and it actually worked out well.

The Trans Am’s boot is pretty shallow but there’s ample space on the sides for the battery.


I just need to have it painted up and longer cables made up that can run to the front fusebox.

Next up, the ECU. As per many guys doing this sort of conversion in the states, I decided to mount it up against the firewall, but hidden by the front fender.

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Many guys with these old cars end up skipping out on the AC. I however have always wanted one. My Trans Am originally came optioned with AC, but over the years it disappeared. I ended up ordering a Holley relocation bracket for the aircon and purchased a matching air con pump.

I’ve had to fit this thermostat into my airbox.
This goes through the  condenser and helps regulate the temperature and when to turn off the compressor.




I don’t have any photos of it yet, but the gearbox radiator has also been fitted.

This is what the aircon pump and bracket look like. I need to order in a different pulley and tensioner.


With all these changes on the brake setup, I wasn’t happy with the length of the original wheel studs. They were not long enough to have decent bite on the lug nuts.
My father in law managed to make me a nice set. Helps knowing people with engineering businesses




I also fitted the Shiftworks kit. This allows me to keep my original shifter. Was fairly simple to bolt it all in.


I’ve been using this fender gripper which works like a charm to protect the car from people leaning over it.

[Picard]

The fusebox has been properly fitted. The battery was relocated to the boot for me to mount this here.  Like this, most of the stock wiring from the Lumina fits nicely.




All the stock fuses are wired up.


I've spent quite a bit of time sorting the brakes out. With me converting the car to bigger brakes up front and discs at the back, I’m had to change hoses and fittings etc.
The hoses are all Teflon braided brake lines, and after a trip or two to the hydraulic shops they’re sorted.




The Lumina’s battery tray has been cleaned up and painted and securely mounted in the boot.


The gearbox cooler has also been mounted as well as the two hooters. I should actually change these as the originals sound quite lame.


The last few weeks I’ve been doing my best on getting the car ready to go back to Barry. He is going to sort out some of the issues we’ve picked up and sort out one or two scratches we’ve got on the car while working on it. If I ever had to do this sort of project again, I’d have fitted the motor etc, stripped the car down again and then sent it in for paint. Lessons learnt I guess.

Thankfully I have Barry who keeps reassuring me it will all come out perfect.

We’ve picked up a few bubbles around the roof section. I’ve heard it has to do with how they originally built the cars and welded the roof’s on using lead. Barry will hopefully work his magic here to sort it out.

[Picard]

I had to bring in the correct tensioner and was able to source a belt locally.


The new tank I brought in I noticed started rusting out in a few sections, which was a bit of a surprise. I painted it up and this is now ready to go back in again. Once I’ve got it in I’ll mount up the fuel filter and hose.




We fitted the door and fender. The refurbed hinges seem to be working nicely. They used to droop quite a bit when opening them. Lots of aligning needs to be done.




The steering rack has been put back in, and I can now sit in the car and pretend to drive 


This weekend I fitted the hinges and the bonnet…. but I can’t get the hinges to move. I think with me having had them powder coated, they’re now stuck and won’t budge. Even with the weight of the bonnet. I’ll have to take them off and see what I can do.


Next up hopefully will be the nose cone, and then off to Dr Barry.

[Picard]

So after hours and hours of pulling hair out...at least...whatever hair I have left....with the help of some mates I managed to get the doors, fenders and bonnet lined up. I had read up on the forums how patient you need to be to get it all together nicely, and they sure as hell weren't kidding.

I need to tighten up a few more bolts this week, and hopefully will be able to get it to Barry around Friday.

Looking forward to having him sort out the few issues on the car and getting it back to start hooking up the interior.

[Picard]

Dropped the Trans Am off at Barry a week or so ago. Was nice to see it out of the garage.



Hopefully Barry can sort out all the niggles and get the car back so I can finish it off. Dying to get it started up.


I'm still contemplating what to do with the budgie on the bonnet  and with the rest of the decals. 

There are a million different variations of birds available for the different year models.
Mine had this one, but only on the sides.


I'm pretty keen to put it on, but when I see these pics, I kinda like the idea of having nothing at all.








The SO thinks the bird will be kitch....It's a Trans Am...can't really make it more gawdy can I? 

I had to bring in new grills as the old ones were damaged at Barry, Once he is done with the car I'd like to have the lip on the grills sprayed gold as per the top picture.

Popped in at Barry to check out if he had sold off the Trans Am for spares.

He decided the Trans Am wasn't looking how he wants it and is basically redoing the whole car.

The bumpers are made of a rubbery material and over years tend to get a bit warped and wavy. The back bumper seemed to suffer quite a bit from this waviness and I see this is being sorted out.




The front nose on these cars also tends to develop tiny cracks as the material flexes. Hopefully it won't happen any time soon.




Will check in with Mr B later in the week to see how it's looking. Can't wait to get it back and try get to the finish line.

[Picard]

Went past Barry last night and the car was being taped up and getting ready for paint. If all goes well, the car will be getting it's new paint job this morning.



The spoilers have all been secured on to the car and I asked Barry to do the join to the body with Sikaflex instead of with the horrible rubbers you see on some of them. I'm super excited to see how they come out. 




Everything else has been covered up.




Whoop whoop



Will check in with GSAB a bit later and see how it's all worked out. If all goes well, tomorrow she can come home and the build can continue!

[Picard]

Ok, I'm ready to go home now. Barry just finished with the Trans Am and sent me these pics.








Can't wait to get it back and get going!

[Picard]

Picked up the Trans Am from Barry. He helped me get a flat bed to take it back to the workshop for me as I wasn't up for the hassle of loading it up on a car trailer etc...




Once I got it back to the workshop, the first thing I had to do was put back my wheels 


This time the car has come out with a deeper black with tons of shine. Lots of clear went onto it this time round and it looks stunning. 


Unfortunately the bumpers still seem to be an issue because of the material they're made of, but one day, I'll hopefully replace them with fiberglass units.





Our main aim for the week was to get it fired up.
I managed to fit the fuel tank in again and my brother and I did some plumbing work.


We fitted the fuel filter in just behind the tank where it has enough clearance from anything.


This is how it's currently looking, but I may still take the hoses off and go get collars pressed at the hydraulic shop to eliminate the clamps.


Once the tank and filter were hooked up, we primed up the fuel system. The Spectre tank I purchased seems to be doing what it was designed to and I'm very happy that I went with it as the fuel pump is inside the tank. With all the setups I've heard with a external fuel pump, they can be quite noisy and to me it doesn't sound very nice when you standing outside the car and can hear it buzzing away.

We double checked all the connectors, earths etc....before hooking up the battery and trying to start it.

[Picard]

It didn't start. 

We could get the motor spinning but weren't hearing any spark.

Out came all the tools.


Plugged everything in, pulled out the multi meter and went through it all again. Picked up a slight discrepancy on the earth readings, which we resolved with a better ground. Checked the Crank Sensor and everything was showing that we should be getting it fired up.

After a bit of "forum research" I spotted a post about how someone had the same symptoms and it ended up being their injectors were stuck from standing. After a couple of light taps on the injectors...here's what happened.



Whoop whoop. I can't describe how happy we all were to hear that noise! 

Now, we're one step closer!

[Picard]

Time for an update. Quite a bit has been happening since we've managed to start her up. Last few weeks the excitement has started building up big time. Being able to take it for a spin is starting to become a reality so the motivation to get it out has been huge.

I've spent some time fitting the lights and trim as well as the windows. I need to adjust them, but I've got them going up and down nicely. I'll lube up the rails once I've adjusted the windows.
To do this, I've also had to fit all the new rubber I bought for the car. Door, T Top and boot seals.

Shitty picture of the T Top Seals. Hopefully they work nicely and don't leak all over the show.


Here's a picture of the fitted glass, door handle and lock.


Was a bit of a mission getting the links inside the door hooked up as everything is held together with clips and the space is quite limited.

Fitted the new side markers.




Got the mirrors on.




Hooked up the front lights and the park lights.


Got my intake pipe connected up. Had to drill out a hole in the Core support to fit this into my new BMC air filter. Think it came out quite nice.

[Picard]

Had to make a little bracket to hold it up. Dam custom work always takes a lot of time. 


Wasn't really keen on the blue pipe, but it's grown on me. Think it looks quite nice in there.


Used my old water bottle again. Yes, a VW product on my car Fitted this bottle when I went 383 and it's always worked very well, so decided to keep it.
Had to make a bracket to fit it. Ended up modifying a bracket that held the rear bumper onto the Lumina and it worked out very well. 


Wasn't to keen to mount it close to the fuse box, but it was the best spot we could find.


Helped my brother pull the motor out the Buick. We wanted to get rid of a irritating gearbox leak and replace all the welsh plugs. At the same time, the engine bay will get a nice clean and paint as well as the motor.




Fitting the glass was quite challenging as I had stripped everything out the insides of the doors and even though I had taken tons of pictures, none of them were quite good enough to see how it went back again. Luckily, it's quite easy and logical once you lay it all out.

As I said, the windows are in, but once I've got all the seals hooked up and the electric windows connected I'll spend some time aligning it all.

[Picard]

My Trans Am has 2 speakers on either side of the top of the dash and 6x9’s in the boot. The originals were working but quite old so I decided to reuse a set I had at home for the front. They’re a bit bigger than the standard size so I had to make up a few brackets to get them to fit. Only worry now is if they will impact the fitment of the dash. Hopefully not. They’re quite a nice set of Focal’s and together with a set of JBL 6x9’s that fit in the back should sound good enough. I was still contemplating fitting an amp etc…but that’s not the really necessary in this car. I want to hear the motor and on long drives, this setup should be sufficient to bump out some tunes. If necessary, it’s something I can fiddle with later on.



All these brackets I’ve made have been all sprayed with Rustoleum.

I was hoping to use the Lumina’s accelerator cable, but ended up having a new one made. I see I didn’t take picture of it, but it came out nice. They managed to reuse the original firewall grommet and has an adjustment for slack.


I measured up and sent my prop shaft in to PropMaster in Edenvale. R1500 later a new one was bolted into the Trans Am. They fitted new Universal’s and hooked up the Lumina’s yolk to fit the new gearbox.


I fitted new vents into the doors.


The last few days I’ve been fitting the interior. I did the floor pan with sound deadening material and cut out some underfelt to go under my new carpet.


I then started fitting the new carpet and back seats.


I also fitted the extra trim pieces and the roof lining.

I had all of these recovered a year or so back and decided to try and remain with as close to original as I could. I opted for vinyl instead of leather. It’s a personal choice but I prefer the look of it to a leather interior in the Trans Am. Hopefully with a working Aircon this won’t be too bad in summer.
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