A second Gen Trans Am with shaker hood is high on my list of must gets. My folks had one when I was like 1 or 2 and I have a pic of me sitting under the hood checking out the shaker.
A second Gen Trans Am with shaker hood is high on my list of must gets. My folks had one when I was like 1 or 2 and I have a pic of me sitting under the hood checking out the shaker.
I swear that every car I want ends up in Fast and the Furious series. Was watching the fourth movie yesterday at work while bored when this came up at the end...I completely forgot about it. This was also the one with the F-Bomb Camaro
I had to look at craigslist...I found a '76 Trans Am in need of love.
By the way... I STILL have that Olds small block factory EFI intake manifold. 
Shaker hoods look cool, but mine has been nothing short of a giant PITA. All of that coffee frappe-looking oil that came out of my car was due to there being a giant hole in my hood. Of course, I no longer have the proper shaker setup, but I aim to change that soon one way or another. Either I am combining a factory air cleaner base from a late 70's BOP-equipped B-Body (in this case, a 1977 Delta 88 with a 403 Olds) with a parts store 14" Holley-style air cleaner base, or I am just going to say "berkeley it" and get a 1980-81 Turbo Trans Am hood with the offset bump. Both are solid options. I'm going to try and make the shaker work before going with a turbo hood.
And NO, I refuse to bolt the shaker to the hood. That is dumb. I hate when people do that.
Yeah don't do the bolt on that is just terrible. I hope you don't end up having to go to the turbo hood I like the shaker sooooo much better. I am trying to figure out if I want to bite on the '76 for $1000. No motor but has a Ford 9 inch swapped in. I was thinking it could make a good body to drop the 350dx gas conversion 434 stroker into. If I got I though I would have to get rid of the Cutlass or my wife would kill me lol.
My 78 has the original shaker setup with the gasket and drain hose. I keep it garaged, but when I wash it the gasket and drain hose gets the job done, so I don't end up with a soaked engine.
Geekspeed wrote: Damn you. Now I am perusing CL looking for nice 2nd gen f-bodies. Of course, they are basically ALL autotragic. Does anyone know if the swap to a 5 speed from a th350 auto is an easy thing to do?
I swapped a muncie (4 speed) in my 72 in place of the th350 and it was an easy swap. I just used pedals, z-bar, trans, cross-member, and drive shaft from a donor car. Make sure and put a pilot bearing or bushing in the crank.
Cotton wrote:Geekspeed wrote: Damn you. Now I am perusing CL looking for nice 2nd gen f-bodies. Of course, they are basically ALL autotragic. Does anyone know if the swap to a 5 speed from a th350 auto is an easy thing to do?I swapped a muncie (4 speed) in my 72 in place of the th350 and it was an easy swap. I just used pedals, z-bar, trans, cross-member, and drive shaft from a donor car. Make sure and put a pilot bearing or bushing in the crank.
Keep in mind that if you buy an Olds 403 car, the 403's crank does NOT come with the provisions for a pilot bearing/bushing. You will have to have it drilled out. 1976-up Small Block Olds motors are the same way.
They also have windowed main webbing, but that is another story. Thanks GM!
Cotton wrote: My 78 has the original shaker setup with the gasket and drain hose. I keep it garaged, but when I wash it the gasket and drain hose gets the job done, so I don't end up with a soaked engine.
I don't have the gasket/drain hose on mine right now because it needs to be refinished. I have a new gasket sitting in a box somewhere, and a piece of rubber hose works fine as a drain hose.
I smartened up and put a trash bag over the air cleaner/engine when I'm storing it. It works for now.
SilverFleet wrote: Ok, so here's some more pics and info about the car.This is the speedo I was talking about. It was manufactured by Trans Am Specialties of Cherry Hill, NJ in the early 1980's. Here's a link to their catalog from way back then: http://www.transamcountry.com/misc/TASCatalog.pdf As you will see, there are a few items from my car right from the catalog.
These guys were an interesting outfit. They built full turn-key tuner cars, sold parts at retail and through mail-order, and they also tuned customer cars. So, my car's first owner either got his or her hands on the catalog and went nuts, or brought it right to them for installation/tuning. Since they were based out of NJ, it's not too far of a reach to say that it could have been tuned there, but I have no way to tell for sure. And besides, the original motor is long gone anyway. But anyway... The speedo is a fully calibrated unit, not just a faceplate. Pretty cool. The interior is in rough shape these days. It was originally a "Deluxe" interior car, which meant that the seats and door panels were nicer and it had a color-matched steering wheel. The back seats are ok, but the fronts are shredded. The driver's seat tracks are locked into position, and no longer move. The carpet is faded and a lot is missing, and the front floors have some holes.
That's the headliner. It has a few tears, so I will have to replace it. O am pretty sure a rodent ate a chunk of the backing board, so that has to go too. The headrests need to be re-stitched, I think.
Excuse the mess... but yeah, those crap seat covers are still on the seats. The dash is getting a dash cap or one of those carpeted mats. It has a crack and a weird discolored spot that looks like a plaque was once attached to it. I've seen a lot worse. Dashes that are uncracked for these cars are extremely hard to come by, and colored versions can go for north of $1K. OER was supposed to make repro dashes, but only a few have been made with varying quality and the waiting list to buy a new one is unreal. Not to mention they are also very expensive...
The driver's floor. I've since cleaned it up and removed all the noise insulation to inspect the damage. If you remember my CSX thread, these aren't that bad. I AIN'T SKEERED!!!!
The Dual Gate Shifter, another item from the Trans Am Specialties catalog. It's a little loose these days, but it is all there and still works (that's what she said!). The bezel took me a long time to find. After years of searching, I found one through Jegs. It was one of the last ones in the country, and both the shifter and bezel are now discontinued. The original bezels had a sticker inlay on them, but I prefer the looks of the newer style.
And umm... yeah... I wasn't kidding when I was saying the oil looked like a large iced coffee "extra extra" from Dunkin' Donuts. I changed the oil over the weekend, and I'm glad I did. A little bit of near-water came out first, and then this crap poured out. It smells like oil, and no, there's no head gasket leak. Remember, these have giant holes in the hood.
170 mph Speedo + Hurst Dual Gate > Viagra + Cialas
I want one of those speedometers!
Cotton wrote: I want one of those speedometers!
People on another forum based around these cars have been chasing me for YEARS trying to buy mine. I'm never selling it. So far, I have seen only one in person, and that is mine, and about 2-3 more on the interwebz. It's just too damn cool!
According to the catalog, they also made a 8k tachometer, which I find hilarious. If you take a 403 past 4500 rpm, parts will leave the crankcase. This happens on Pontiac engines around 6500-7000rpm or so.
Then again, would any of these cars actually make it to 170mph?
I've never seen one of those cool speedos in person, only pics. I have wound my early 2nd gen factory one past 160 (on track)but know the car isn't really going that fast. The stock speedos are off on the high end. I replaced the clock in my tic-toc tach with a shift light. I really like the shifter. Keep up the work! The floor doesn't look all that bad so just dig (cut) in and get it done!
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In reply to Rad_Capz:
I'm not scared of it at all after doing the floors in my CSX. These should be easy. I need the car mobile right now to yard drive, so it needs to wait until I kick my CSX out of my small one-car garage.
In reply to Gasoline:
I haven't done much of anything to the T/A since the initial "get it running so I can move it" phase, as I've switched gears to try and get my other project (Shelby CSX) out of the garage. I changed the oil a few weeks back, and that's about it. I really need to get it into the garage so I can tackle all the major issues.
Not much of an update, but I decided to fire the car up yesterday to prevent the engine from locking up. Started right up after sitting over a month on 3 year old gas. 
Two quick things:
-The car actually healed itself partially. Since I have owned it, the high beams have not functioned correctly. You pull back the turn signal stock to activate them, and that would just shut all the lights off. Well, I turned the lights on yesterday, and they were on. I flipped them off and on a bunch of times, and they were working fine. Strange.
-Last time I tried moving it, the transmission didn't want to go into reverse without lots of effort. I figured that it was from sitting and because I but a higher stall converter in it. I pulled the dipstick and the fluid is burned. Looks like it's going to be TH200-4R time sooner than I thought.
I am still going to attempt to get this in my garage for some winter surgery so I can get it back on the road. Hopefully I can change out the transmission fluid and make it last a little bit longer.
Why 200r4 instead of 700r4?
In reply to Gearheadotaku:
A 200-4R plops right in without having to get a bellhousing adapter or shortening my driveshaft. They fit B-O-P cars, and it's a common swap. I will have to lose my Hurst Dual Gate shifter though, but I have a factory Rally Shifter (factory slap-stick ratcheting style shifter) that can be modified with a kit to work and retain all functionality.
SilverFleet wrote: The car actually healed itself partially. Since I have owned it, the high beams have not functioned correctly. You pull back the turn signal stock to activate them, and that would just shut all the lights off. Well, I turned the lights on yesterday, and they were on. I flipped them off and on a bunch of times, and they were working fine. Strange.
On my rat 81 TA that sat in a field, I went through the firewall fuse box and replaced all of the fuses with new ones and scraped the gunk off. That alone fixed a lot of my electrical gremlins and now everything works except the horn.
The 81 has flat blade-style fuses and my 78 has glass tube fuses, so I'm not sure what year the change over happened, but if you have blade-style fuses it may be worth a try.
I think 1981 is the only year of the 2nd gen cars that has blade-style fuses. I have the glass ones in my car.
The issue most definitely resides in the column. The cam is messed up and doesn't return after signaling left. I bet it's either all nasty in there or just worn out. Still weird though.
So, most of the snow is now gone from my property, and I found a Trans Am in my driveway that I forgot about!
Last week, I scored a stock replacement gas tank from a local guy for the Trans Am. After I prep and paint it, it's going in. I plan on re-adjusting my roller rocker valvetrain and getting it running as soon as this weekend. After it runs, it's getting patched up enough to pass state inspection and it's going back on the road. Ratty muscle cars are in right now, right?
You had me at "Dual Gate"...
Yay it's back!!!
You ever get the csx running?
Dusterbd13 wrote: Yay it's back!!! You ever get the csx running?
Yes! Well, kinda.
It does run, but the turbo is not plumbed, the cooling system is open, and the return line for the new fuel system isn't routed to the tank yet. Once the fuel system is fully sealed up, then the outer rockers need to be welded in. And once that's done, I can do all of the other BS I need to do to the car, like the entire braking system, suspension bits, replace the clutch, make sense of the underhood nonsense, etc...
At this point, the Trans Am is closer to being road worthy, and driving my Mazda 3 has been destroying my soul, so I need to get some V8 Pleasure back in my life.
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