81 T/A restoration

[81Resto]

I had started a thread over a 78ta.com's forum, but am unable to access the site.  I bought this T/A back in 2003.  I had worked on it off and on until 2009/10.  Then life pulled me away.  I started back up on it around Thanksgiving this past year.  With goals of getting it into paint by the end of 2024. 

Around 2007/8.  We had replaced the floor pans.

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I had started prepping the car to replace the lower section of the tail panel,  this is where the work had stopped years ago.  I had just recently finished this job.

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I have continued welding to fix up seams and also tie in the trunk floor to the tail panel.  I could still used some grinding and clean up before I would call it complete but is close. 

This past weekend I replaced repaired the passenger side trunk hinge mounting area
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test fit hinge and trunk lid
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Next up will be repairing the rear quaters where the rear wheel spoilers were, there is some rot. 

[5th T/A]

Welcome to TAC and congratulations on getting back to work on your 1981 TA restoration. Lots of great members here who will love seeing and hearing about your progress.

[wheels78ta]

Great to see you working on it.  Nice job on the replacement sections.

Any questions just ask.  Plenty of members here with great knowledge on these birds and other projects.

[FormTA]

Nice job on the hinge area! I was lucky and both of my project car were good in that area.

Those tail pans are a pain. Did you make the replacement panel or did you use an aftermarket or parts car one?

Just keep making progress and eventually you'll be done! Even if it's just cleaning nuts and bolts.

Great work!

[kentucky yeti]

Welcome to TAC!

[81Resto]

Thank you everyone for the comments.
 

The tail panel was off of a donor car, I have had it for awhile (bought before they were reproducing for 79-81.  The hinge area I had cut out of a reproduction panel.  I have debated doing the other side as well but seems solid. Hard to get a real good idea until the seam sealer has been taken off that area.   

[ryeguy2006a]

Welcome to the site! Looks like you are making some great progress. Keep up the good work.

[81Resto]

Well I missed a couple weekends due to an unexpected work trip but was back at it this weekend.  This weekend I started work patching the rear quarters where the rear wheel flares go.  They were in pretty poor shape. 

Drivers side:

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Did not get a before pic of driver side but it did fit up pretty well with the flare.
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Started work on the passenger side.  Passenger side had mush more rot, I will have to make my own panel to go along with the patch panel that I purchased:

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Will be looking to continue next weekend. 

[roadking77]

Welcome to TAC, glad to see another T/A being brought back to the street. I have to say that I enjoy doing that kind of work but also that I am glad that it is far behind me with my current restoration. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming!

[FormTA]

Oh, I remember making those panels... if using a aftermarket patch panel, make sure you use the flare to create the concave part. Most aftermarket panels don't have it. I see in the one picture you are checking things with the flare, keep doing that so you get a good fit in that spot later! Keep up yhe good work!

[81Resto]

Worked on patching the passenger side this weekend.  Overall patches came out well.  Will be doing a little massaging to get fit a little better with flare, to keep bondo to a minimum.

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Rotisserie chicken anyone??

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[FormTA]

Oh man, I would have loved to be able to use a rotisserie when I did mine. Scraping and painting the bottom was the worst job ever.

Nice work man!

[roadking77]

Ha, thats pretty funny. Nice shop!
Before I started the resto on my 77 I built a rotisserie. It was great to work on the underside of the car. I think I had it on there for about 3 months or so then that was it. Glad I didnt buy one! When I started my 79 it did not need near the amount of work of the 77 so I didnt bother. I spent months laying on my back underneath that car scraping and painting. I had wished dearly by that time that I had used the rotis. again
I loaned it out to a fellow tac'r, since he brought it back years ago it has been sitting behind my barn. Thought about selling it a couple of times but never got around to it.

[5th T/A]

Having spent lots of time on a hard floor, inhaling lots of dust and getting covered with lots of debris. If I were ever to do another car, I would defiantly use a Rotisserie, but that ship has sailed.

Your car looks great. Nice that you are willing and able to do all the body work yourself.

[81Resto]

Thank you all for the replies.  5th, it really helps that I am the only body guy I can afford haha.  I do enjoy the challenge and want to try to do as much as possible myself.
My dad and I just finished his 1968 Mercury Cougar this summer.  The only thing that was sent out was the engine block to get bored and have the camshaft bearings put in.  The paint could have been better,
but hopefully my trans am being round two will help.

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[81Resto]

Haven't done a whole lot picture worthy.  I did weld around the perimeter of the floor pans. Just been patching and grinding.
I did repair one of the cages for to hold the subframe nuts captive and fixed the hole in the floor from it.
 Looking to tackle replacing the at least one of the torque boxes over the long easter weekend. 

However I did take apart my doors.  They are in a little worse shape along the bottom then I remembered but will see how they clean up.  There are no holes just rusty.

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Also have some pictures of internals If that may help anyone when it comes time to put back together.

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The nuts and studs for the door handles are very rusty and will have to be replaced.

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[TATurbo]

Welcome to TAC!  Congrats on being able to get back to working on your project. My 81 TTA sat for around 20 years before I was able to get moving on it…so I understand how life has a way of dictating our priorities. 
I lucked out having a brother with a body shop to do our body and paint work @ cost.  I just don’t have the skills or talent for that part of the job.  I spent a lot of hours rough sanding and doing a lot of  mechanical stuff that comes along with doing that part of the resto.  But we learned during that process that I’m just not good at it. 

Congrats on the progress.  I greatly appreciated the community here helping to keep me motivated and the support TAC provided on those nights whenI came out of the garage frustrated with more work to do than when I started the night.  I’m looking forward to following along.

What’s the finished project look like in your head? Straight up restoration? What’s the color combo gonna be?

Good luck!

[roadking77]

Keep the pics coming. I think I spent more time on my doors than anything when doing body work. The bottom edges were ok, but the parking lot dings were a major pain. Hope you dont have too many of those. Cougar looks great, Im sure the TA will be just as nice.

[81Resto]

Thanks guys,  Car was originally a turbo T/A but had a bent rod and previous owner had sawed through all the turbo piping.  My plan is to do a 400 and 4spd swap.  Color wise I have been torn between
Atlantis Blue and Noctorne Blue.

This weekend I tackled repairing the windshield bed/cowl.

Rot on the passenger side
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Passenger area cleaned up
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First patch laid in
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Second patch
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Final passenger side, still need to touch up some welding
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[81Resto]

And Driver side.  I did buy the cowl panel and A pillar repair kits.  It does add expenses vs. making your own but it did make this job much easier.

Driver side original condition:
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Area Prepped
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First patch laid in:
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Second patch laid in
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Mistakes were made, making the final patch two pieces.  I had laid the piece that I had cut out of the dash on replacement panel and traced it forgetting that I had removed more material from the car
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One thing to watch out for is that the cut out for the vin about an 1/8" wider and about 3/4-1" shorter then what is on the car.  The hole the reproduction is also about a 1/2" towards the center of the car
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[roadking77]

I wish they made those patches when I did my 77. Looking good.

[81Resto]

Well a couple more work trips slowed progress but still going at it.

Both torque boxes were in rough shape and the floors above swiss cheese.

Started with the driver's side:

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First cut frame rail behind where torque box ends

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Removed piece by piece

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Used a jack and some bolts to help with fit up.  After drilling for a bolt frame piece was removed to weld torque box in

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Started welding in

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Mostly welded in, set my latest purchase on for fun, some PTFB subframe connectors:
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Everything has now been welded in just need to grind welds.

[81Resto]

One more thing I need to do is finish relocating the seat belt hole.  It is in a different spot on the reproduction panels, too far to the rear of the car than what was there from the factory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unwq7VT4TSw&list=PLk7-aUIsLAC_6MlGE63FDt2XD7VaseOVF
This is a link to a good series of videos on youtube on the "Restocar" channel that I found helpful
 

[roadking77]

Looks good.

[FormTA]

Looking good! I replaced the ones on my 79 TA. Word of caution, on my replacements the seat belt bolts weren't in the exact same spot. I had to make new mounting locations.

[81Resto]

I noticed that too Luke.  In the videos linked he was repairing a '71 Camaro I believe and those holes weren't correct for that year either.  They are also not in the correct spot on the seat pan also.
They will be relocated. 
I do need to clean up and weld the e brake brackets back on still in addition to relocating the hole.  I do have the correct position marked out just need to finish.

[5th T/A]

Ambitious project and impressive repair work.

Thanks for posting.

[81Resto]

Been awhile since I updated but work has continued.  Past weekend got the body sandblasted.  This revealed a couple areas that I need to address.  Holes around the rear marker light on passenger side were
hid by bondo as well as rust damage around the driver side door sill.

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after
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I am going to try to finish the body work with the long labor day weekend.  If that goes well maybe get some paint/primer on it.

[5th T/A]

Nice to see your progress. It’s exciting to see some one put in the time and money to save this car. I am sure there are others out there with a partially completed build that just need a little push by seeing what you have accomplished on your car. Looking forward to seeing it in primer and paint.

[roadking77]

Yes, looking forward to seeing your progress. I enjoy doing body work paint etc. I like seeing what you have going on.

[81Resto]

This weekend patched up some of the bad spots exposed when sandblasting.

Rear quater around marker light, used a bead roller to make indentation on panel:

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Driver door sill, looks like someone had patched in the past:

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Transmission tunnel 4 speed hump added thanks to measurements from wheelsta78 in another thread

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[N PRGRES]

This weekend patched up some of the bad spots exposed when sandblasting.

Rear quater around marker light, used a bead roller to make indentation on panel:

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Driver door sill, looks like someone had patched in the past:

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Transmission tunnel 4 speed hump added thanks to measurements from wheelsta78 in another thread

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  Nice job!!!

[81Resto]

Here are some updates from the past couple of weekends. 

Sprayed the body of the car with epoxy primer

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The next day put seam sealer on the joints and sprayed a second coat of epoxy primer

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This past weekend I found a Pontiac 400 engine for sale on facebook marketplace

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Sunday, disassembled the engine and is now on the engine stand.  This weekend I am planning on cleaning up the block to get it ready to go to the machine shop. 

[N PRGRES]

Awesome progress!

[roadking77]

Body looks great, always nice to be able to start putting some paint on. Good find on the motor.

[wheels78ta]

Awesome to see the progress.  Keep up the great work.

[5th T/A]

Phenomena body work. One would never know you started with a piece of Swiss cheese!

Out of curiosity's sake, what are you plans for the engine?

[81Resto]

As far as plans for the engine, I having been looking at some of the stroker kits that Butler Performance has avalible.  Still need to get to the machine shop, to get block checked out/bored. Probably going to go .030 over since #1 cylinder needs it. 

I have seat covers on order for all the seats, foam has arrived for the drivers seat. 
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Also been redyeing the interior panels.  Car came with silver interior and all plastic panels are severely sun faded.  Here is a before and after of some of the plastic seat pieces:
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Even though it didnt make the picture I do have the SEM primer for this too. 

Also had to repair the radiator support
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[81Resto]

I also had purchased a reproduction console.  Car has power windows so I had to cut the new console for that switch.  While I am thankful for the help on the facebook group I am glad the forum is back!

One piece of information that I am still trying to figure out is what the correct color dye would be for the dash and console (dash also needs to be repaired.) It is a dark blueish gray.

Original on left new on right
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Mounting holes were different for rear cap between old and new. I had to elongate one of the mounting holes.
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Switch is mounted on new console on the right
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[5th T/A]

You sure have a lot going on here. Great that you could save the core support. Was that rust area damage from the battery tray?

 I feel any build activity on TAC is a good thing. It’s nice to see another Firebird restoration.