[78Macho]

Congrats! Looks beautiful! Sounds like your son will have a new ride for summer break this year?

[Gator67]

Originally Posted by 78Macho

Congrats! Looks beautiful! Sounds like your son will have a new ride for summer break this year?

Thank you.

That's the plan! We updated the punch list yesterday and it looks like we have 39 items remaining which should take us about 80 hours to complete. Should be able to knock it all out by the beginning of May. Of course, we're still a couple weekends away from the first shake down run, and so we won't know until then if there's anything unexpected that we'll have to deal with. We talked about Bandit run, but not sure if the timing will work for us this year given other summer plans.

[kingbuzzo]

Wow that's a bucket-list item for me...I hope y'all make it!

[Gator67]

Not much visible progress since my last post. We replaced the cam position sensor, installed the Vintage Air hoses, and cleaned up some wiring. Also started to think about how we're going to install the shaker. We went to set up the gauges but the tft screen was dead. Shipped it off to Dakota Digital on Thursday for repair and it's already on it's way back. Looking forward to the first voyage the next time my son's home from school.

[Gator67]

Gauges all work perfectly now. Kudos to Dakota Digital for a quick turn around. Not sure I mentioned this, but we're running the gauges through a Dakota Digital bim module which connects to the Terminator X...this way we don't need separate sensors for the gauges, and as a bonus, it provides info that can be displayed in the tft window in the speedo. From the ECU it reads RPM, water temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, A/F ratio, and intake/manifold temp. I run the same basic set-up with the Sniper in my 70 and haven't had any issues, knock on wood.

[Gator67]

Been chipping away a couple hours at a time, but making progress. Tidied up under dash wiring, wired the reverse light and neutral safety switch from the TKX, labeled under dash/hood wiring, installed vintage air hoses, mounted Dakota Digital switch, adjusted the fuel pressure and voltage on the Vaporworx controller.

Also installed the Retrosound kick panels, which fit well and accommodate 4x6 speakers. The rest of the sound system consists of a Retrosound Daytona radio receiver, Infinity Kappa 6x9s in the package tray, JL audio 10" sub in the trunk, and a stereo 4x10. The speakers are driven by a Infinity Reference 5 channel amp mounted in the trunk. It's a simple system but sounds great.

Also installed the Lecarra steering wheel. The color works well with the rest of the interior. Took a while to figure out how to get the horn working with the Flaming River column and their spacers and cancel cam (had to trim the stanchions on the switch adaptor so that the center cap didn't protrude too far) but it turned out nice.

[kingbuzzo]

Where did you get the kicks...thx

[Gator67]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

Where did you get the kicks...thx

Retromanufacturing.com

[Gator67]

Last week took the car on its maiden voyage...down our driveway. No issues but not buttoned up enough to take it on a public road.

A couple friends came over today and helped with the hood and lining up the front sheetmetal & bumper. We left the gaps alone when we did the bodywork but it turned out nice enough. Still lots of little odds and ends, but getting closer.

Starting to wonder how far we should go with the Y84 decals.

[JUDGE3]

thats awesome. full on special edition decals, very deserving car for them.

[EVO]

Gator, Fantastic build on this TA. Love the work and the parts choices. I just finished up a 79 for a client and used alot of the same. As for the graphics, you cant go wrong with the full special edition set. For my client, I spiced it up a bit and had Joe Martin of Martin Brothers Customs here in Tx custom paint the hood bird. He did a fabulous job on it. Here's a pic

Cheers,
Evan Q.

[johnta1]

Nice paint job on the Bird!

[Gator67]

Yeah, that bird does look great!

[Gator67]

Not much visible progress, but actually accomplished a lot in the last week. We forgot to install the impact cushion behind the front bumper so we had to pull the bumper to take care of that. We stripped, painted and installed all various bumper/core support/fender brackets and headlight buckets. Had to modify the battery hold down bracket to fit the Odyssey battery. Soaked the original cowl & hood seals in Simple Green and water to clean them up...they look and fit great. Painted the headlight bezels. Installed the park lights. Finished up the last of the wiring.

Gonna wait to install the headlights (we got Holley LEDs) until after we sand and polish the bumper...actually, I'm not sure how to polish the headlight recess areas...anyone have recommendations for a good tool to use for those area?

[Gator67]

Decided to install the headlights to make sure everything fits. Rather than running a '79 steering column, we're running an aftermarket earlier one, so we had to mount a high beam switch on the floor and redo some wiring to accommodate that. Was happy to see it worked like it should! The LEDs are nice and bright.



We thought we were going to have to fabricate a custom splined sway bar to clear the front tires, but we decided to try the updated version of Ridetech's sway bar first...at full turn we have 5/16" clearance on both sides, so should be good to go. If we get a little rubbing, can also adjust the wheel stops a little.



All we have left on the exterior is the chin spoiler, and grills, and on the interior we have door panels, carpet and seat belts. After that charge the A/C, alignment, polishing, then decals. We'll drive it a bit then another tuning session. Almost there.

[Gator67]

The full length headers on the car now fit fine, but I've always been bothered by the fact that the right header is lower than the left by a good .75". Well, now that the car is at full weight and the suspension has settled a bit, it's become apparent that the RH header hangs too low. The stance is really nice now, and the coilovers don't have much more room to adjust, so the headers will need to be replaced. I know the smart solution would be mid-lengths, and we have a set on hand which should work well enough, but we decided to try another full length set, this time from Ultimate Headers. Was told that these sit even with the subframe and work with the engine mounts we installed. The bad news is they have to build them and won't be here until early-mid July.

[JUDGE3]

Incredible TransAm build. if this were the good 'ol magazine days it would be an on the cover issue.

[Gator67]

Thanks for the compliment! The original plan was to install budget pro-touring goodies and put it back to together using what we had on hand. If the car wasn't in bare metal when we got it, this would have been where we landed. But we had to paint it, and the paint turned out so much better than we expected and things just sort of snowballed from there. That said, there really isn't much that is over the top...we did splurge here and there, but rather than spending time and money on things like perfect gaps and panel alignment, smooth firewall, hidden wiring, custom interior, crazy sound system, modern power accessories, flush mounted glass, stainless fasteners, etc., we tried to keep the factory vibe as much as possible. I did this with my 70 Formula, which I've referred to as a Day 3 car ...like a Day 2 build but with contemporary rather than period performance parts.

[Gator67]

Waiting on a couple deliveries from our host to finish up the carpet (sill plates, upper and lower shifter boot, etc.). Will tackle the door panels tomorrow.

Shaker is done (except for the drain hose).The stanchions we built are adjustable so can easily tweak the height of the shaker. That should do it for the engine bay (at least until the headers arrive).

[JUDGE3]

Shaker is done (except for the drain hose).The stanchions we built are adjustable so can easily tweak the height of the shaker.

can you post a picture of the adjustable stanchions you built? I am anticipating the need on my upcoming engine swap in my 79. would really appreciate it.