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#1
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1978 Y84 W72 WS6 4sp Restoration
It Starts! A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get a 78 Y84 4sp. A car I had been looking to find for over 20 years. It is a bit rougher than I was hoping, but certainly a worthwhile project. Because I plan to do as much of the work I can myself, I'm expecting this to be a journey that will take several years to accomplish. The first step was to take off the aftermarket wheel flares that it had been installed by a previous owner. I started with the rear flares over the weekend to see how much body work is needed. After getting the flares off the passenger quarter appears to be OK, but the driver side is a bit rough. It turns out that during the installation of the flares they just put fiberglass over the rot on the driver quarter panel which clearly didn't help. The next step is to get the paint off to see how bad the rust damage is and what sheet metal needs to be replaced. But at least the restoration is underway...
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1978 Y84 4sp 1979 T/A 400 4sp Blue/Oyster (special order) 2000 T/A WS6 6sp Black/Black |
#2
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Nice project.....
Previous owner prolly opted for the aftermarket wheel house flairs.....because they were cheaper than welding up the rusted areas |
#3
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That’s my dream car!
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Trans Am's, Formula's, Mustang, GN... |
#4
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Update
I know it has been a while, but progress is a little (lot) slower than expected. But I have managed to
- remove the hood - remove the nose - Remove the front fenders - remove the core support - and take the exhaust off Next steps are to take on the drive shaft, and remove the transmission so I can pull the engine after that. Lumarkhood - Yes one of my dream cars as well. After looking for so long and following so many empty leads, I was shocked I had actually found one.
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1978 Y84 4sp 1979 T/A 400 4sp Blue/Oyster (special order) 2000 T/A WS6 6sp Black/Black |
#5
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Replacement Flairs
Wondering what you will use to replace the flairs? Are there any real quality
aftermarket replacements? |
#6
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I've heard that Danko Direct........are the ones to use...
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#7
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I have never seen the flares like your car cams with. I suspect they were custom fabricated. Glad you are rid of them! Someone DID market flares that mounted behind the front and rear wheel openings, mimicking the flares forward of the front and rear wheel openings.
Glad you are saving this one! Will this be an exact restoration? Does it have the original engine? Carry on!
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1977 Black Trans Am 180 HP Auto, essentially base model T/A. I'm the original owner, purchased May 7, 1977. Shut it off Shut it off Buddy, I just shut your Prius down... |
#8
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Danko Direct flairs.
Thanks for that Danko Direct information. I'm going to start another thread for thoughts and conformation. Thanks again.
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#9
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77 Trashcan - yes the flares are going away for sure. They were from an aftermarket company in the 80's. The car is a fully numbers matching car (Engine , trans, carb, etc). Being a 1 of 20 it is getting a full restoration to stock specs with the goal on originality. I am in the process of sourcing all oem parts that are needed to completed the resto while I dig into it. Being one of my dream cars, I am having fun just getting my hands dirty working on it.
Yellow Bird - The flares are a full fiberglass flare that is bolted to the fenders and then body filler was used to blend them in. I simply removed the front fenders and di not touch the flares. The rears I had to removed. The passenger flare was damaged when I got it but it is salvageable. the drive side came of real nice and is in one piece. The set is for sale if you want them including the front fenders as I have no desire to spend the time to get the flares off. Let me know if you are interested.
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1978 Y84 4sp 1979 T/A 400 4sp Blue/Oyster (special order) 2000 T/A WS6 6sp Black/Black |
#10
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Subscribed. Neat project
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#11
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Any updates on your progress?
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Trans Am's, Formula's, Mustang, GN... |
#12
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Finally - more progress!
lumarkhood - Well. Through the spring I was keeping up with my goal to do at least a little bit of work on the Y84 each week. Unfortunately when the weather broke in late April, yard projects and mower repairs out paced the time I had available, and progress stalled on the car. Fortunately over the past weekend I was able to get back in the routine. The first thing was to finish cleaning up the original intake. The previous owner broke off the bolts that hold the EGR on so I had to remove the broken bolts and then as I was looking at the runners noticed that there was a large amount of flashing from the casting process. each runner had a noticeable lip on them and overall there was probably 5%-7% blockage from the flashing. So I got out the grinder and cleaned out the runners. Since this is a stock rebuild I'm not going for big HP, but at the same time it seemed silly to install the manifold with the restrictions from the casting flashing. Once that was done I finished disconnecting all electrical/fuel to the engine to get it ready for removal and I got the engine stand built. Then my son helped me pull the transmission and I got the bell housing off before I ran out of time. My son is interested in the project but not as enthusiastic about it as I am. But he does help me quite a bit, which I certainly enjoy. So Finally got a little more work done.
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1978 Y84 4sp 1979 T/A 400 4sp Blue/Oyster (special order) 2000 T/A WS6 6sp Black/Black |
The Following User Says Thank You to Shift'n Gears For This Useful Post: | ||
#13
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Once piece at a time. I am pretty much in the same boat with my tata. I was hoping to have it on the road this summer, but still waiting on my motor that has been in the shop since jan.
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#14
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I hear ya'
I have a '79 TA project that got stalled when we lost the weather here in NJ last fall. The car is in my home garage, half painted and waiting on the doors, fenders, nose and hood to get finished. In the mean-time I took on my cousin's Pro-Bracket Camaro to replace the T-top roof and do it up in a Reher-Morrison paint scheme. It took from Thanksgiving to the night before opening day at the track (4/17/21) to get it done and I was burnt out a bit. Now we are racing each weekend and the weather has been too cool, too hot or too humid for bodywork in my unconditioned garage. Slowly getting back into it tho |
#15
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Those are Massive flared rear fenders, only to keep skinny stock rims and tyres. The end result looks silly, and also not functional, so no point to either.
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#16
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My 78 Y82's engine had much casting flashing in the intake as well as the heads. Spent a good part of one day with a carbide bit cleaning up the heads. Pretty sure I had done the same to the lifter bore section of the block as well. Seems like they were getting pretty sloppy in the late '70's.
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#17
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Looking at the flairs. There were some folks adding the wheelwell spoilers to the back of the opening also back then. When autocrossing with sticky road race tires and getting several gravel chips down my doors I almost wished I had!
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Skip Fix 1978 Trans Am original owner 10.99 @ 124 pump gas 455 E heads, NO Bird ever! 1981 Black SE Trans Am stockish 6X 400ci, turbo 301 on a stand 1965 GTO 4 barrel 3 speed project 2004 GTO Pulse Red stock motor computer tune 13.43@103.4 1964 Impala SS 409/470ci 600 HP stroker project 1979 Camaro IAII Edelbrock head 500" 695 HP 10.33@132 3595lbs |
#18
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I believe those glass flares were sold by HOOKER ,,,,back a 100 yrs ago they did sell some fiberglass...IIRC
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