[The Boss]

Very nice work, amazing modifications you've done.

Is this what you do for a living or is it just a hobby for you? Either way, you must have a ton of time to invest.

[Socrates]

Amazing.

Really, this is an extraordinary build! I love what you're doing here.

Fantastic find with the M3 seats with the integrated belts, too. Nice modern leather sports seats make the oem seats look pretty pathetic in side-by-side comparisons, eh? And the modern seats are just so much more comfortable and take a ton of the road harshness away, too, which is really significant with low profile rubber if you're going that route.

Are you making the airbags functional?

What gears are your running in the 10 bolt with your T56?

For what it's worth, I was a bit shocked by the look of the 04 GTO dash when it was white ('ish) from your filler work. It had a nice transition to the hood, making it look like it belonged with the car originally, and the dark center contrast really tied together the rest of the interior for me. Just an observation. I'm really looking forward to seeing your final vision here.

Kudos for the very cool build and for your skill with getting the interior in there.

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by goquick

Curious, are you leaving white and blue stripes or going to a different paint color combo?

No it's white with blue stripes couple of shots when I picked it up after paint









Sam

[FLYNLOW]

::droooooooool::


WOW.

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Very nice work, amazing modifications you've done.

Is this what you do for a living or is it just a hobby for you? Either way, you must have a ton of time to invest.

Thank you very much. I must admit and I forgot to disclose this in my intro but this build has taken place over the last three years. That's why it looks like such quick progress. I just want to share my experiences and maybe help someone else in their project. I worked my way through college as a line mechanic for a chevy dealership way back in the early 70s. That's what we called ourselves back then. I think they call them technicians today. Believe me with all the electronics in these cars today, you have be one. This is something I been wanting to do for a very long time.

Sam

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by Socrates

Amazing.

Really, this is an extraordinary build! I love what you're doing here.

Fantastic find with the M3 seats with the integrated belts, too. Nice modern leather sports seats make the oem seats look pretty pathetic in side-by-side comparisons, eh? And the modern seats are just so much more comfortable and take a ton of the road harshness away, too, which is really significant with low profile rubber if you're going that route.

Are you making the airbags functional?

What gears are your running in the 10 bolt with your T56?

For what it's worth, I was a bit shocked by the look of the 04 GTO dash when it was white ('ish) from your filler work. It had a nice transition to the hood, making it look like it belonged with the car originally, and the dark center contrast really tied together the rest of the interior for me. Just an observation. I'm really looking forward to seeing your final vision here.

Kudos for the very cool build and for your skill with getting the interior in there.

Thank you so much. This car is going to be a cruiser. The 10 bolt was originally an 2.41 gear. I installed a 3.42 gear with an Eaton posi. Engine speed at 70 is about 1900 rpm. The T-56 in the 05-06 GTO is the M12 version which has a deeper gear set in 1-4 than the T-56 in the 98-02 firebirds, I believe they called it the M6. No airbags, I would need all the sensors and am just afraid one of them might go off unexpectanly. The interior came out of a wreck GTO.

Sam

[Samhatco]

When I got the car back to the house I started the final install of the engine.

I used a PRC aluminum radiator, with a Lincoln Mark VIII two speed fan, synister products front drive system and wilwood master cylinder.

Wilwood master



synister front drive system



radiator



I decided not to use the GTO engine covers and went this route. Really sets off the white.









Sam

[JeffersonMo]

Overachiever!








very nice






unbelievable

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by JeffersonMo

Overachiever!








very nice






unbelievable

LOL Thanks, my wife says I can never leave anything alone. She thought this was just going to be a quick little project. You know, clean everything up, tune the engine, fresh paint and interior, then start driving it. That was three years ago. This project just kinda evolved, and turned into a life of it's own. So many ideas and so lotta money.

Sam

[jmt455]

Sam, this is AWESOME!

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by jmt455

Sam, this is AWESOME!

Thanks,

Sam

[Young Pontiac Guy]

Sam, Hats off to you sir. This is amazing, in an amazing amount of time. I just showed this to a non-car girl and she was blown away. Wonderful work, nice craftsmanship, beautiful car.

Joel

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by Young Pontiac Guy

Sam, Hats off to you sir. This is amazing, in an amazing amount of time. I just showed this to a non-car girl and she was blown away. Wonderful work, nice craftsmanship, beautiful car.

Joel

Thanks, Joel. It took 3 yrs from tear down to completion, though.

Sam

[Young Pontiac Guy]

Sam, how much is left to be done before you get to take a ride? Im sure I speak for everyone that we want to see finished pics and hear about the good juicy burnout this thing will do...

[Samhatco]

I literally finished the car last Friday night around 8:30 pm. On Saturday took the bird to its first show. It wasn't really that big, about 75 to 80 cars, but we won top 5 award and was runner up in best of show. I lost out to an outstanding 32 deuce coup that was trailered. I'm pleased, and learned a few things that I still need to address. This car will NOT be a trailer queen. I built it to drive and on occasion beat on it, but I'm picky on some things.











Now you guys are up to date with the progress of my build. I still have a few items that need tweaking, I need to finish out the trunk, align the windows again (ugh what a PIA), fix a few leaks here and there, basically shake down stuff, so I'll keep posting as I go along. Thank each and everyone for the encouragement and compliments. You know Pontiac guys can be a tough critics. So if passes muster with you guys I must be on the right track.

Sam

[428RA4]

I don't know if I should congratulate you or call you crazy. WOW is an understatement. What a ton of work~!

I thought my L-85 project was a pain, but you take the cake man~!

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by 428RA4

I don't know if I should congratulate you or call you crazy. WOW is an understatement. What a ton of work~!

I thought my L-85 project was a pain, but you take the cake man~!

LOL, your right, you can call me crazy. Honestly this has been a extremely fun build. I had both my sons help and we created a lot of memories together. I was raised on a farm and we were pretty self reliant, so I learned at an early age to make something out of nothing. I really get a kick out of looking at something and saying "you know we could cut this here and add that there and I believe it would work". Then go and try it out and it does! If it doesn't so no big deal. My father use to say before he passed away "It aint broke until you can't fix it".

Sam

[65WJ]

I know one thing I do not like. lol


Its not in MY garage.
Fantastic car. Definately drive and enjoy.
The interior is fabulous.
IMO its better than the muscle car build for year one.

patrick

[Samhatco]

Originally Posted by 65WJ

I know one thing I do not like. lol


Its not in MY garage.
Fantastic car. Definately drive and enjoy.
The interior is fabulous.
IMO its better than the muscle car build for year one.

patrick

Oh wow, thank you. I never would think it's in the same league as the Year One T/A. Thanks for the compliment.

Sam

[Samhatco]

During the course of the build I had all kinds of ideas going through my head as to ways I could make the car better and different from the rest. While driving to work one morning I noticed all the cars with spoilers and they all had a third brake light in them. If I recall the trans am and the GTO were the first cars to even have a spoiler or as they called it back then an air foil.

So I looked around on the net and found a site called spoilerlights.com and you can purchase all different kinds of brake lights for them. So I purchased one for a toyota celica as it looked the closest to the size I thought I needed. Cost was about $50.00.

While the car was at the body shop I went down and started goofing around with what I could come up with. Here is what I did. Again, if it didn't look like the factory did it I wouldn't try doing it.


While they were working on a different part of the car I took the spoiler laid it upside down and placed the light on it to see what it would look like and thought, hey, this just might work.



The spoiler is hollow, so I found the center line and marked the light off about 1'' from the rear lip and cut a hole out.



If you ever wondered what the inside of a spoiler looks like, then here ya go.



I saved the piece I just cut out and made four pieces 1" long and one piece 11" long. I then epoxied the 11" piece on edge inside the spoiler to add strength to the inside. The short pieces were epoxied on each end to give the light a place to screw on to.





I then drilled a hole in the pedestal that attaches the spoiler to the trunk to allow the wire to go into the trunk



I then created a pocket for the light to sit in





This is what I ended up with





This is the finished look







You know, not one person has commented on the light in the spoiler. Now a couple of pontiac car guys picked up on it right away, and loved it, but everyone else did not. They just didn't know it never came that way, and that was what I was trying to do. It's a little thing but I think it's cool.

Sam