decibelle's 1976 Trans Am - 455/4spd/restomod

;)

This build will eventually include some oldskool audio, but it would be such a waste to not include everything up to that point. Backstory:

Ever since I was a youngin I had a special love for the good ole American muscle cars; the ’69 Camaro in particular. High school turned into college and that love never faded. But the availability did. I didn’t want to (couldn’t) buy someone else’s years of hard labor, another enthusiast’s dream. I wanted to build one of my very own. If anyone else has done some searching for restorable 2nd-gen Camaros, well… let me know when you find one. Coming from the north, I was not in a mood to deal with rust, and I preferred a car with a manual transmission. That cut about 90% of all potential cars in the entire country. I expanded my search to include the Camaro’s less popular cousin, the Trans Am. I was living in Oklahoma at the time and preparing to have to do some heavy lifting to get one to me from another state where people actually live.

And then my husband attended a local meet in Oklahoma City one evening, where we found her sitting in the back of the shop. Beneath the coating of dust lay a virtually rust-free, 455 cubic inches of firebreathing Pontiac muscle with a 4-speed and a once-radiant red interior right before my eyes. I swear she smiled at me.

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I asked the owner about her, and to make a long, 6-month story short, I finally bought her from one of our own in May 2015.

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Day one on the lot and she's already making some young friends

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When you see it...

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Her tires wouldn’t hold air. Both doors were horribly misaligned and bounced open during one particularly exciting test drive. Her weatherstripping had long since disintegrated. The entire engine bay was covered in a ¼” blanket of decades-old mud and dirt. She ran rich and smelled like arse. But anyone who’s had their first dream project car finally in hand – you’ll understand the feeling.

I knew squat about rebuilding old, carbureted cars, but I bought her to learn. In the spirit of learnin’, one of the first tasks I took on was teaching myself to teardown and rebuild a quadrajet. These aren’t your run of the mill Holleys I had seen before, they are far more complex – some might say justifiably so, others not. We can’t all be right ;)

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Bath time!

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Pretty much everything was replaced.

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.135" needle & seat assy
HD accelerator pump & spring
power piston spring (silver)
secondary cam/spring
fuel filter & spring
idle tubes
float
primary choke pull-off
all gaskets & seals

That looks good!

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But.... oh.

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Turns out ya still can't polish a turd. But the time was coming to move her into our new home in Texas, so everything had to be put on hold for some new wheels and tires to get her up on the trailer. There was only one truck headed from Enid to Abilene in the timeframe I needed it to, and if the car couldn't drive up onto the ramp, it was a no go. What a convenient excuse, then... :D

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After the big move, things slowed a bit due to me living 5 hours apart. I mostly had to pick at small projects during my weekend visits. Since she was now permanently stationed inside our workshop, she made a nice winter cabin for the local pests which started to eat her interior away. So that comes out, and now there is some minor floorboard rust to handle. No surprise, these are the most commonly rusted spots on these cars, and 9 times out of 10 they're MUCH worse than this.

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The next order of business then, in my ADD world, is to get the car running smoothly. Since I became her owner this car has always run a little hot. I found this out the hard way while tweaking the mixture screws one evening. Let's just say the workshop has a strictly no-smoking policy and the T/A did NOT agree! A peek into the radiator and...

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Aww, shoot. I made an honest attempt at flushing it in the hopes that I could save it for a *little* longer, but no dice. The radiator is roasty toasted, and if the motor runs with it any longer, so too will it be. Given the reality that every nut and bolt in front of the firewall needs to come out for replacement or cleaning, I might as well make my life easy and pull the engine. Since this car has been somewhat of a vagrant for most of her life, the state of the internals are more or less a mystery until it's cracked open. I took a passing-ish compression test as a green light to start getting down to bidness.

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Everything surrounding the motor now lives above in the rafters. It is a good thing we don't have earthquakes here.

The 455 is almost ready to come out and play. Getting the exhaust manifold bolts off was a nightmare that ended in 1300ft-lbs of torque utterly destroying half of them in the pursuit thereof.

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Which brings us to the present day - she's almost ready to come out. Wean her off the transmission one bolt at a time, and she will be free at last.

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Then the real fun begins. ;)

AWESOME!

I've had 2 second gen f-bodies, loved em both. Good luck with the quadrajunk, I've rebuilt 4 with a 50% success rate. Doors are a cheap fix. Pins and bushings are normal wear items. Dorman used to make them.

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Originally Posted by decibelle

Ever since I was a youngin I had a special love for the good ole American muscle cars...

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Sooo, 3 weeks? :nana1:

That looks sharp, I can't wait to see what you do with it.

OMG!!?! Love two headlight TA's, especially 455's!! Needs the dual ram air hood to be complete. Will enjoy watching this build.

Keeping the 455 or going with a newer LS? Looks like the car is complete and in good shape. How is the trunk floor?

This should be fantastic!

That is an awesome find. I used to have a '77 Cutlass with a rocket 350 with a qudrajet, turbo 350 trans with a shift kit, Enkie 10" wheels in the back 8" in the front, lowered 2", all emblems removed, holes filled........(sigh)I loved that car. I love cars you can work on that doesn't require a laptop and a degree in computer electronics. I want my Cutlass back so bad now. :cry:

Wow! That's sharp! I remember being in love with those cars all the way back to watching Short Circuit as a kid. Excellent score!!!

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Originally Posted by Kornnut

Keeping the 455 or going with a newer LS? Looks like the car is complete and in good shape. How is the trunk floor?

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One might say that there's a lot of... junk in tha trunk. :drum:

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Still pretty much untouched since I got her. Nothing critical in there, so it's sitting comfortably at the bottom of the Neverending Project list.

Re: engine. The original plan was to do an LS swap, because duh. Then I found this car, and I realized that LS motors are for people who can't get a 455. :nana:

Every F-body and their grandma has an LS today. Finding a restored car with anything over a 350 is rare enough; a 455 is almost unheard of. I'd rather stay nostalgic, and this 455 is pre-emissions (1974) restrictions. I'd also like to avoid the infestation of electronics that we are forced into with every late model car, because we do more than our fair share of fiddling with laptops and wires and starting electrical fires enough as it is, amirite?

Or maybe that last bit's just me...

I agree with that last statement, as long as there is nothing wrong with the block that came with it. If it's solid, that thing can be a beast.

This is my kinda build thread!

Indeed the LS or the 455 is a good choice. I love 2nd gen f-body cars.

Aw shit....nice project ally! If solid, that 455 is worth building, but be forewarned, a big block poncho is going to be a large investment.........they are torquey beasts, that unfortunately weigh a ton. Respect for keeping it origional. One question.......it isn't a super duty is it? It would be worth your while to do some investigating into the Vin to see exactly what you have......see if the engine matches......may sway your decision on what path you want to go. A carb that isn't a Quadra jet would be my first investment......lol. Good luck, I'll definitely be watching........


Oh, and I love yer choice in wheels......fuck dem honeycombs......

In the real world an LS would wipe the floor with a 455 on a drag strip. If that's where this car was headed I couldn't possibly justify keeping the old engine in. But there are a few of us out there for whom speed isn't the primary factor in a cars value. I'm looking to get around 500-550ish which is so stupid easy with these things you could just as well ask it nicely. Rear is good out til 600+ and really, I don't want more than that on a street car. Not my first one anyway!

Clay - you've brought up my favorite thing about this car. Crunching the numbers has been a wild ride. I use Wallaceracing to decode the numbers and let me tell you, this girl is a mutt!

Let us begin with the carb.

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Survey says:

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Factory. Huh. OK... whattaboot the block?

"485428" is what that is.
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Code YH.
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... As expected - a '72 455. Just prior to the 74/75(?) restrictions. Wait... I don't have 7L4 heads! So what I have here is a factory 400 carb, on a 455 block, with the factory 6X heads. Naturally, the carb's gonna have to go as I'll have the 455 bored out .030" (assuming it's able to be), as well as a multiangle valve job, align hone, and mild cam. Perhaps more - we'll see where that will get me. Needless to say, should the poor bastard responsible ever stumble across this post... I've got some questions for ya, good buddy.

As for the wheels, thank you. Not a fan of the factory honeycombs on anything older than a 77, and EVERYBODY has them freakin' Cragar wheels. I wanted them to say classic muscle car, not fanboy (girl). All they're missing is a set of red PMD center caps!

Lol, I should've known you'd be all over the numbers allready.......congrats and have fun!

I'm thinking you'll need aluminum heads and a big bump in compression ratio to hit your hp goals. If I were building that engine, would do both those things, but real focus would be on torque.

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Originally Posted by BigAl205

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:nooo:

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Originally Posted by BigAl205

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Al, you are so WTF!

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Originally Posted by astrochex

Al, you are so FTW!

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FIFY

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Originally Posted by BigAl205

FIFY

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:moon:

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Originally Posted by claydo

......fuck dem honeycombs......

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I actually kinda dig the honey combs. You don't see a lot of 2 headlight Firebirds, and those wheels typically get replaced so they're unusual to see.
Props for not going with Cragar S/S's.ss..s.s..s..........lol
I always liked the Formula Hood a little more than the T/A.

Jay

Personally I'm not a fan of any of the factory-style wheels. Just too much going on visually in one condensed area.

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Now the real work begins. Choosing what stays, what gets powerwashed and what's getting introduced to the trash!

Dunno, I certainly love what Chip Foose selected for wheels. I always liked the snowflake better than the honeycomb.
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http://www.eastwood.com/internal-fra...nozzle-qt.html

While the frame horns are exposed you can treat them with this stuff real easy.

As far as wheels go, I'd love some Forgelines, but @ around $1500 A WHEEL it won't happen EVER. lol...unless I win the Powerball.

Jay

Last update for a while. It's parts-collecting time!

The thing with project cars is that you never quite know what you get 'til it's got. Case in point: both the previous owner and I were under the impression that this was a factory 455. Upon further inspection, however...

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Not. Even. Close. This explains even further why the car ran like absolute dog ass. Everything else, however - rods, crank, cam, rockers + arms and all internal hardware - is factory. I have yet to settle on a particular machine shop, but I do hope they will still be able to do the job right with so much overbore. Were this a solid 400 block I would have no doubt, but the 455 is a "weaker" block and .040 is pushing it for yet another rebuild. I wouldn't say it's unlikely it can be saved, but it's now on the table. A lot less room for error that is for certain.

On the brighter side, things are starting to look better than they have in 40 years! Still a long road ahead.

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I hope your quest will be fruitful, Decibelle !

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Originally Posted by JayinMI

As far as wheels go, I'd love some Forgelines, but @ around $1500 A WHEEL it won't happen EVER. lol...unless I win the Powerball.

Jay

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You just have to know the right people... :D

I see you said "No updates for a while" but have you made any progress lately?
It looks like a huge project. Best of luck and I'm ready to see your vision.

Wow. What a beast. 455 cubes. Awesome.

Not sure how I missed this thread? Keep up the good work!

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Originally Posted by Notloudenuf

I see you said "No updates for a while" but have you made any progress lately?
It looks like a huge project. Best of luck and I'm ready to see your vision.

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Oh, I have. Saving up for the engine build is a project in its own right, so in the interim I thought it would be a good idea to take on another colossal project -

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Bodywork!

In stripping her I had uncovered the last of the untold secrets she had been hiding from me... and they were many. Right now the primer is curing for a few days so it can be sanded and the blocking can begin. I will post more as I get to a better stopping point in the next few weeks or so.

Wow you went to town on that thing. Hopefully with all the dirty secrets uncovered it will all be good news from here on out. What color do you plan on painting it? And will the paint be diy or farmed out?

Not much further along visually, but I'll be paddling this river through at least the rest of the winter.

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The car was being prepped for its umpteenth paint (and general hack) job; it had more filler than necessary for the "repairs" a previous owner made. Said "repairs" were poorly done but superbly disguised.

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The work of an artist - not a bodyman. Rookie mistakes!

Anyway, once I had the main body stripped, I discovered the car had over 10 dings that had been filled over with 2 different types of bodyfiller, or pulled with a slide hammer and the holes left open. I also learned the car was born a "deluxe" trim package with thicker chrome trim and door guards drilled into the body. Obviously the ugly guards were gone, but the 2 dozen holes it left in its wake had foolishly been bathed over in bondo and left to rust out. Lucky for me most of them had only minor surface rust when I got to them. The fenders will either be properly repaired or replaced as soon as I get my hands on a mig and learn my way around it.

I dollied out a few of the more accessible dents and ground down the tumor-looking patch job also lovingly applied by the PO.

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The car was wiped clean with a wax and grease remover and tack rags, then sealed with two coats of black epoxy primer (using a 1.8 tip from a siphon fed gun) from Eastwood. I would caution anyone considering placing an order with them - the quality of the product is fine, but each of the several orders I have purchased took five business days to even make it out of their warehouse; my first can of $70 epoxy primer was completely destroyed and blamed it happening "all the time" on the shipping company - in reality it was due to an employee failing to seal the can with little locking tabs. This resulted in the can exploding during shipment and a half gallon of the stuff leaking through the bag and two boxes it was shipped in. In all, I waited the better part of a MONTH for a single, in-stock product. Isocyanates with a side of cancer for breakfast, anyone?

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Isocyanates are bad, mmmmkaayyy?

[ /rant]

Um, anyway - so the car was cleaned and sealed with the nasty stuff. Now we have an ideal foundation for the rest of the bodywork. I started the long and arduous process of blocking the other night, hoping to use as little filler as possible to get a straight and smooth body. We'll see about that. After the initial coat of filler, the car will be reprimed with a sandable urethane primer and blocked until perfection. Even though the car won't be black - or even glossy - the work will be done as though it would be.

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Have you watched any of the eastwood/Kevin Tetz videos on paint and body? Real good stuff.

I've had pretty good luck with everything I ordered from Eastwood including my welder which is head and shoulders better than my old welder. I got the Mig135. If I had it to do again, I'd get the 175. Other than that I got it in reasonable (though not what I'd call 'fast') time.

Good luck with the rest!

Jay

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Originally Posted by JayinMI

I've had pretty good luck with everything I ordered from Eastwood including my welder which is head and shoulders better than my old welder. I got the Mig135. If I had it to do again, I'd get the 175. Other than that I got it in reasonable (though not what I'd call 'fast') time.

Good luck with the rest!

Jay

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I bought the same one. Good to hear it is a good one.