Restoring my 1989 Turbo Trans Am and have a number of pictures of the progress of my project with many pictures from the body shop etc

http://la.rsson.com/tta1078resto/

So far it looks really good, car is ready for final polish then fenders, bumpers, hood and all the small parts will be painted.

Lots of parts been powder coated and or plated.
New weatherstrips, emblems and decals is waiting to get installed. Another week or so and I will do the final assembly.

 

Awsome...it looks like a very thorough job. Should look amazing when completed.

 

wow...lookin good!

 

Powder coating and plating... Shibby! :hail:

 

Yep, will last better than when it came from the factory 15 years ago!

 

Wow, every nut and bolt is being done too? Thats gonna be one sweet ride inside and out. Probably better than from the factory because of the detail going into the job.

Can't wait to see it done.

 

damn thats going to be one nice TTA, are you going to go with a bigger turbo?

 

man u r so lucky i wish i could find a TTA. it looks like your doing a great job and doing it the right way to, not some haft a$$ job, keep up the good work and keep taking pic shes gunna be amazing when done...man i wish i had a tta lol if u dont mind me asking how much did u pay for it??? and did the owner know what he/she had??

 

Awsome job can noy wait to see it finshed.

 

Hey Jan!

Good to see you are doing the restoration properly!

 

That's awesome man, hope you take pride in your hard work.

 

ooooooo...

 

I want it!!! How much?

 

Same here!
:hail: TTA

 

that is really nice man, looking at those picks, I clicked on the link on the forum, I also clicked on the more picks link on the link you posted on the forums, I just want to report that it must be dead, it didn't work for me. Once again nice job, questions on the Head Lamps, how do I pull them out without removing bumper?

I have some restoration of my own to do

 

Links should work fine, works from here. Anyone else had problems?

I bought the TTA in 99 and been driving it and soring out all the mechanical stuff detailing rearend, poly bushings, powdercaoting LC's, panhardbar, springs etc also changing breaks, breaklines all stainless. Sorting out any missing or broken bits and pieces. Also been planning for the restoration for years so been collecting (buying) all the stuff I need, I'm fortunate to be in the US about 1's a month so I can pick up whatever I need instead of ordering it from over here.

For the headlights you have two bolts up top (you see them holding 2 90 degree brackets when you open the hood). There is also 2 bolts from the bottom you only can get to if you remove the lower airdam pieces in the corners below the front bumper cover. Once this is done you can carefully lift the whole headlight assembly and remove it.

Just prep and paint (I stripped the car my self and will put it back together again as well) is nearly $4k USD ....

 

thanks man, also do I need to remove the head lamps to remove the bumeper? as you can see from the pic I already have the head lamp in that I needed to replace the info is needed, thanks again just incase it needs to be moved inside, but is there a way to remove the bumber? by looking at it, it doesn't seem I could....

 

You can remove the bumper without removing the headlights, but if the headlights are out you will have much easier access to the top bolts holkding the bumper reinforecement to the front top part of the fenders. I've done it both ways so it's not a problem but just much easier if you plan to remove the headlights anyway.

 

I have a question, does anyone use a 7 lb psi radiator cap? My machanic replaced my 16 lb psi cap with a 7 lb and told me the original cap was too much?

mind you I have a v8 305 4bl tpi? or tbi it's still stock

 

Man your doing a great job, im redoing my car to right now too. i thought i was paying attention to detail by putting all the nuts in bolts in labeled boxes but you put me to shame. Good luck!!! :hail:

 

hehe, I don't even do that, I just put whatever bolt/screws are left over from the job in the center console or ashtray in case I find I need it. :lala:

 

nice work, good attention to detail. Are you going to put new carpet and seat covers in also?

 

The carpet is good so I will keep that one, the seat you see in the pictures is a old seat I got from a friend just for the trip to the body shop. I got my original GTA seats (leather) re upholstered a couple of years back so they are like brand new.

Picked up more parts I had powder coated today.

 

Damn, that looks like it will out perfect!

One of these days mine will get re-done like that.

Every nut and bolt? You are giving me ideas here....

 

Be warned, it is a lot of work and planning not to get stuck with a car and 1000's of bits and pieces. Plan ahead and make sure you have everything you need then start taking the car apart and do stuff in parallell while car is at body shop this will save you a lot of time and final assembly will be a breeze (I hope ...) And yes it will cost you more $$$$ than you think to start out with :-)

 

That body work looks excellent. Very nice indeed!

 

where did you get the hardware kits? never seen it packaged like that before or did you do that?

Jeff

 

That is just spare bolts / clips off my own car and numerous cars at the junk yard. I been collecting a lot of bolts / nuts / clips from the junk yard over the past years (all 3rd gens) and picked the ones that were rust free and not been tampered with. I then had them all phospate plated (and stripped of any paint) and some of them zink plated if they are to be painted again like the ones holding the fenders.

When I stripped down my car I replaced all the bolts / clips with the new fresh ones and put them in marked bags then all my old ones went to the plater to get done as well. So I have a number of spare ones nice and black for future use as well.

Alot of work but makes a big difference to the end result and it's much more fun putting stuff back together as well!


I never seen a complete package of fasteners for the 3rd gen, they are avalible for the 1st and 2nd.

 

Wow, looks awesome!

 

Impressive! I love it.