Hey guys, as some of you may know, I bought a 1991 Trans Am 'vert about 2 months ago (early august) after longing for a thirgen for about a year and I'm pretty happy with what I got for $2800 (bought it off of pswanney off of this board, pleasure doing business with). Naturally considering that this was a Massachusettes car, then a New Hampshire car (now a Connecticut vehicle), it's got some rust. It "only" has 98,000 miles so it's not tragic. There is very little rot, with it being basically only on both front fenders underneath the gfx. But the car's suspension has a lovely coating of surface rust. Here are some pictures of my situation: Overall shot: Rotty front fender (gonna replace the whole thing most likely... I want the very least amount of bondo possible): Found this little spot not too long ago, I'll take off the taillights soon to see if there's any more "surprises" (i hope not!!!) Floors are very solid with this being the only questionable spot (checked underneath carpet and it looks perfect)... probably only surface rust: Rear end:

Rotty passenger fender:


Oh and I forgot to mention that the battery holder is VERY rotted, dunno if you can tell but the batter is sitting kinda crooked, I'll have to bring it into a shop to weld me a new holder in:



How the hell did these rust spots get here?! More stuff to fix...



Underneath front bumper right in front of rad... what are these lines for?



Front suspension:

And a couple more...

Not very pretty:


And thinking of getting non-airbag firebird steering wheel, since I think it looks better overall and the airbag part is kinda warped from age.

OK here are my plans and concerns:

1.) Repair surface rust on body
2.) Remove most suspension parts and bring them in for blasting and powder-coating.
3.) Replace rear drum axle with disc axle (maybe with lower ratio too, what's the stock ratio?). And is a rear drum-to-disc conversion difficult for people with minor experience?
4.) New rear shocks (they work but they just look UGLY)
5.) Get new battery box welded in.
6.) Paint body (obviously)
7.) New top (current one is kinda ratty).

Fortunately I got a car with a very nice and clean interior, save for the cracks on the leather on the driver's seat but that's typical.

I have no idea how much this'll cost me (any estimates would be great). This is gonna be a winter project (depending on funding.... money is kinda hiding right now) which will hopefully be done by May (might put it in memorial day parade that I attend yearly).

And my biggest concern is the suspension. Obviously the load will be taken off of it when I'll be working on it, but do the swaybars/springs/whatever hold any force in them that I need to be careful around? I'm afraid to tear into it without advice first for fear of losing bodily appendages.

Oh and I'll probably buy a non-airbag steering wheel from an 82-89 firebird so will it be bolt-on? I'm also a little nervous about the airbag deploying on me while working on it, any means of disabling it? Or am I just paranoid?

On my vert those are power steering lines. I am assuming to help cool the fluid.

r u looking to do a 100 percent stock resto? if so great, if not all of the suspension pieces u can buy bettter tubular pieces alseady coated with the poly bushing installed if not u could send ur stock pieces to get coated probly would cost almost as much as after market pieces though. the first thing i would worry about if i were u was the body itself which looks pretty good other than the corners of the wheel openings... (only to adress the rust that is there and to get it stopped) the first thing i did is removed the gfx so i could see what i'm workin with,,, the best rust converter i've seen is hard to paint over so be careful as to what u put on the body i'm talkin bout ospho here really nasty used on rods of pipe and things the best remedy for rust is to remove it completely definatle dont' cover it with body filler and paint youll be sorry nice car man alot of that looks to be surface rust on the undercarraige.... ur core support needs some attn the plastic tanks on these radiators are notorious for seeping as for cost the sky is the limit... i have more into mine than its worth not counting the paint or cost of the car but it's not for profit it's for the love of a vert

Be real careful in removing the front fender ground effects when you replace the fenders, if you break them GFX they are pretty much impossible to find, and if you do find them they will be very pricey.

Otherwise it does not look too bad, good luck.
Mark

Well I'm planning to keep the stock feel and look of the car. I don't need it to be totally stock. I'm on a tight budget with this car. Where can I find the tubular arms like you mentioned? Any benefits added to handling? I'm probably gonna do whatever is cheaper (probably blasting/powdercoating the pieces).

And does anybody know much about tearing apart the suspension? I could tear it apart and put it back together but my biggest concern is if there's any force behind the parts... ie springs/shocks blowing out and taking out an eye, etc.

You mean like this?





I got the car like that... apparently one of the PO's high-centered the front on a curb or something. Oh well, at least it looks (somewhat) easily repairable.

Well I took off the taillights just to see what's going on under em and I was pleasantly surprised, except almost EVERY nook and cranny exposed to the elements is covered in this pollen/dust crap. Probably because the car was kinda neglected.
Few random spots of rust, nothing that a little sanding shouldn't fix... I'll use rust converter on harder to reach places.



Found that these things were rusty, where can I buy new ones?


And I found this random plug that wasn't connected to anything, I'm assuming trunk release that was disconnected for the convertible conversion?

the electrical connector behind your trunk trim panel is likely for the electronic hatch pulldown motor

As far as the GFX go, those do not look that bad at all, that is definitely repairable, and not that badly damaged at that. Just be careful removing them and a little resto on them will go a long way.