Author Topic: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification  (Read 56048 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« on: January 30, 2012, 10:50:12 PM »
I bought this car in September. Finally got started tearing down this past weekend. This car has spent it's whole life in Iowa from what I can figure out. It is in pretty good shape considering the way a lot of cars look like that spend their whole life here. It has been repainted once, not a very good repaint, it's about a 20 footer. The motor and tranny were out of it but match the car. Going to load up some pictures and try to keep posting more as I progress. Going to do all of the work myself and aid in the motor and tranny rebuild as much as I can. This is a great site, have learned a lot about this car from the site, and hope to learn some more.

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2012, 11:04:43 PM »
Tranny Disassembly and washed with Hotsy

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2012, 11:05:29 PM »
Tranny Clean up, prime and paint

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2012, 11:08:38 PM »
Forgot to actually post the pics.

Offline ShakerBreaker

  • Adv. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1855
  • All Hail Phil Anselmo
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2012, 02:16:01 PM »
Sir----- thank you for sharing your pictures and starting a thread.
      What are your long term goals with your T/A?
    What modifications are you planning ?
-check out DOWN-NOLA.com

Offline Ga400

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 41
  • car crazy pontiac guy
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2012, 04:16:35 PM »
Nice ride I have the exact same year and color keep the updates coming

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2012, 04:47:02 PM »
The first thing I am going to do is learn a better way of loading pictures up to this site.

My plans are as follows: Rebuild the motor. My heads are at Butler Performance right now for porting and a valve job. Going to buy a rotating assy and roller cam.... not sure of all the specifics yet. That stuff is really all over my head, I'm a body man, this is the first motor I have gone through. Jim Butler was one person that I found that would really take the time to talk to a layman like me and give me some options of what I can do. So I am going to follow his advice as far as my rebuild goes.

The body on this car appears solid, but there is some rust. I will post pictures when I get a chance. A lot of you know that when there is a rust bubble on the outside there is usually a bigger mess on the inside. The rockers, rails and floor look really good at first inspection. I am going to keep it red, but I am a House of Kolor guy so I am going to paint it Blue Blood Red which is really close to Mayan red. I have been a custom painter for the last fifteen years and I have always wanted a T/A so I could paint the bird on the hood. I don't know how crazy I will get with that because I personally like the way the bird decals look, might just tweak it a little bit.

I like the looks of these cars with the 17" snow flakes, but only if they are lowered, so that will probably happen at some point. I'm doing my research on this site, and seeing some of the stuff the other guys are doing and I like it.  And we all know this stuff takes money so it will be as cash is available. I just ordered paint and materials today... 669.00 and that is with my discount. All the sheet metal I tore off the front is going to the media blaster Thursday evening.

I will post more pictures when I figure out a good way to do it. I read Hitman's post about it this morning, but I have to play around with it and figure it out. Thanks for the reply, it's great having a place to go to where people have the same interests.

Jarod

Offline Grand73Am

  • Adv. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2782
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2012, 06:37:22 PM »
For the pics, are you using www.photobucket.com ? If not, you register there for free. Then load your pictures there. Check the little box under each photo that you want to put in your posting here. After checking the photos you want to use, scroll to the bottom of the page and click where it says "choose action". Then click "generate link codes for selected" . A smaller window will appear with the image codes on it. Under "IMG for bulletin boards and forums", click on the codes under "Full Size" . That will copy the codes and you come here and paste them to your post. All those pics will show up here in full size when you make your post. 
Steve F.

Offline iceman

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 352
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2012, 06:57:21 PM »
Welcome Jarod and thanx for the pics! I have a 77 that was red originally(not sure if it's the same as Mayan though) and now in Dupont chrome illusion(I bought it that way). My jaw hit the floor when I saw how much you paid for supplies, then I read that you have a discount. I think I payed twice what you pay. I also am taking a shine to the 17" wheels and also agree on the lowering for the 'right' stance. Look forward to your progress as you post. Should be a great build, Mike
Check out my facebook page: River City Muscle LLC
1969 Pontiac GTO
1971 Pontiac LeMans Sport Convertible
1977 Pontiac Trans Am

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2012, 11:18:59 PM »
For the pics, are you using www.photobucket.com ? If not, you register there for free. Then load your pictures there. Check the little box under each photo that you want to put in your posting here. After checking the photos you want to use, scroll to the bottom of the page and click where it says "choose action". Then click "generate link codes for selected" . A smaller window will appear with the image codes on it. Under "IMG for bulletin boards and forums", click on the codes under "Full Size" . That will copy the codes and you come here and paste them to your post. All those pics will show up here in full size when you make your post. 

Grand Am 73, Thanks for the info , I will try that.

Offline Nexus

  • Lifetime Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3027
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2012, 11:30:05 PM »
Welcome to the site dude...I hope the build goes well for you

I see you started off perfectly by adding lots of pics...we likey pictures here!!!
Charlie
1979 - Esprit (21 years and counting)

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2012, 11:33:19 PM »
Welcome Jarod and thanx for the pics! I have a 77 that was red originally(not sure if it's the same as Mayan though) and now in Dupont chrome illusion(I bought it that way). My jaw hit the floor when I saw how much you paid for supplies, then I read that you have a discount. I think I payed twice what you pay. I also am taking a shine to the 17" wheels and also agree on the lowering for the 'right' stance. Look forward to your progress as you post. Should be a great build, Mike

Thank you, Iceman. That was just base coat , clear and a small amount of primer. I still have more primer to buy and sand paper and other odds and ends to buy. HOK has a new primer out that I want to try so I didn't buy a whole lot. It is an etch primer, filler and sealer depending on how you mix it. It comes in several different colors and can be intermixed between colors so you can get it close to your base color and save money. We'll see how that works,  but I have more to go. I haven't sprayed any of the major paint lines in a while. I used to spray a lot of PPG, and I sprayed Dupont when I was painting trailers right out of body school. Not sure how that stuff compares price wise today.... its all expensive if you ask me.

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2012, 01:39:20 PM »
Going to try the trick I learned from Grand73Am and upload some photos. Here are some rough areas:


« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 02:43:17 PM by Elz »

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2012, 01:41:18 PM »
More rough areas...




« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 02:45:03 PM by Elz »

Offline Elz

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 350
Re: 78 Mayan Red Trans Am Restoration/Modification
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2012, 01:43:04 PM »
Interior. Not sure if it will stay white. Check out the custom stereo!




« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 02:47:28 PM by Elz »