Author Topic: my 79 trans am project in wv  (Read 5439 times)

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Offline swims350

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my 79 trans am project in wv
« on: December 12, 2017, 08:42:04 PM »
I just traded for this a couple weeks back, been wanting one for years. My dad had a 79-81 t-top he did in candy apple red back in the 90's was blue when he got it, don't know much more on it, then his friend had a 78 hardtop t/a it was black they did it in white, first car I ever drove.

Anyways pretty solid car, got an olds403 and th350 that were in it, and got a chevy 350 and chevy th350 not sure what I'll use. The 403 was pulled from a PO to get body work and paint done, got water in it, locked it up, I free'd it and tore it down to rebuild. I got almost every part to rebuild the chevy 350 but nothing for the 403.

Car has solid floors, they had replaced one portion before, trunk looks good, had some patches done on the 1/4's and fenders before paint is ok, was done 4-5 years ago, and never put back together. I got quite a bit of new parts with it, door panels, one white, one been dyed red, I don't like. The seats were dyed red too, wanting to do em in black, I guess re dye in black, i tried to remove what was on them but it wasn't working and I didn't want to risk ruining the vinyl itself.

Anyways the worst part is my roof, it had a sunroof, somebody removed and tried to patch it but they overlapped it and used a good thick coat of bondo which cracked and came off. I can't weld or I'd just weld it up right, and I can't afford to pay for someone to do it right either.

I know my garage sucks, but it's better then out in the open and aint the first one I've built in it before.

I have to upload the pics to host and post so hang in there
« Last Edit: December 12, 2017, 08:44:29 PM by swims350 »

Offline swims350

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Re: my 79 trans am project in wv
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2017, 09:35:50 PM »
here we go....














































Offline swims350

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Re: my 79 trans am project in wv
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2017, 09:41:19 AM »


forgot a pic of the hood, paint cracked bad and came off and let it surface rust on the majority of the panel, I got it cheap so figure why not any hood is better then none and 400 for a new repop is out of the question right now. I plan to strip it down, sand it, use one of those rust removal discs on it and then treat it with rust reformer stuff, then self etch or epoxy the whole hood.

Offline swims350

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Re: my 79 trans am project in wv
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2018, 06:00:43 PM »
I didn't update this at all, I've torn the car down to nothing at this point and found alot of bad stuff.

I removed the front clip, was just going to clean and paint the backsides and what not.
I found a rot hole in bottom of the subframe, had my buddy come get it and fix it for me. I found 2 broke coils off the driver's spring, got most of the front end parts cleaned, painted and rebuilt, new bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, center link, idler arm, new coil springs, all moog stuff. I also got poly boots for them all in red, and have to order the red poly bumpstops.

I need to clean and paint the subframe still yet, I just got it back from my buddy a few weeks ago.

I found rust holes in the floor pans, covered with caulk, torque box rot, seat belt area etc.

Crappy patches in the 1/4's

I decided to strip it down and build myself a wood tip over jig to get under it and work on it.

I also cut that roof patch out and picked up a t-top roof but it's got rot in all 4 corners not sure if I'll use it or not yet.

I also started doing youtube videos on it but they suck, crappy camera and sound and had to switch to cell phone which aint so great. I'll try to link them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW6VmtKe2Ik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9bdbEEWWmg