I am in the middle of resto modding this car. Basically I picked up this 87 GTA for $2700.00. 5.7 liter with 56,000 original miles. Loads of options.The funny thing is I was not even looking to buy it. I went to a local dealership who sells Grand Nationals and other old muscle cars and she was sitting over in the corner of the lot. I bought it with the intention of just restoring it but have changed my mind on a few things. Here are some pics. I hope to post a lot of pics with different ideas just to see what evryone thinks. Enjoy!

 

pics

 

Some more pics prior to being taken apart

 

more pics

 

I finally got some pics to upload. When I bought the car (last december) I drove it home (about 67 miles) car drove perfect. Some thing right off the bat that I knew needed to be done. Headlights would not work at all. Both fenders needed work, rear spoiler was completely shot. Interior ragged. Does have a new headliner though. Bottom line, this is a 56,000 original mile 5.7 GTA with a clean carfax. I started to get to work.
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Some miscellaneous other notes. I was surprised to find when I bought this car that it had the rare "Euro mirror" option. Since I did not like to look of these I decided to change them. My original idea was to put this car back to completely original condition. Restored with no changes. After some time I decided that would just be to boring. So I began kicking ideas around with some friends as well as my next door neighbor who is a auto painter in a dealer body shop.

 

My neighbor and I were thinking about painting this the Hugger Orange Clearcoat (WA523F). This can be seen on the later model Camaro SS as seen here.

 

After some deliberation I decided to go with the same color as my 1992 Formula 350 (WA9567) as pictured here. The original color for the GTA is WA8554. In my opinion the 9567 is brighter.

 

I have also decided I am going to have a stripe like the 25th anniversary Trans Am put on the car. I am going to use Argent Silver and leave the bird off the nose but the rest of the stripe will be put on. Here is a pic of the stripe on the 25th Ann T/A.

 

Another thing I decided to do was change the rims. I do like the look of the 16 "Mesh" wheels. I did some research on having the wheels redone with estimates ranging anywhere from $500.00 for painted and polished to $750.00 for bead blasting powder coating and polishing. I figured since I will be eventually be putting Baer brakes on the car and the stripe would not match the gold rims, another choice was in order. I bought a set of ROH Z6 wheels. They are Argent silver and 17 inches. They will match the stripe and not only allow the brake kit to fit but allow me to have a larger tire as well. Here are the rims.

 

At this point I began dismantling the car. I'll post some pics of what I found, what I did to correct it. Ideas I have had, as well as where I got the parts to fix it as well as prices.

 

IF you got the 9.5" ROH rims as pictured above they may not clear the ball joint steering knuckle in the front... You might need a 7mm or so spacer...

Your other option is to get some 1LE front brakes or get some Baer Brakes ( I highly recommend Stopping power before you invest in any kind of Horse Power )...

Install a LS1 or any LS series engine for that matter and it will make you smile every time you drive it...

Cool Car... I will tell you that RED & Oranges usually wins car shows...



John

 

These rims are the 17x8.5. That should not pose any problems right?

 

After I started taking everything apart, I found some of the mmost common problems we all know and love. First and most obvious. Pillar cracks. Common to most hardtops. What I decided to do was weld in a set of Spohn subframe connectors and then fix the cracks. After the connectors were welded in, I took the smallest drill bit I could find. Drilled a small hole a the end of the crack so it would not spread. I then took the welder and sort of spot welded the crack. The metal is way to thin to lay a bead on it. After I got it all tacked I ground it down nice and smooth. Can be seen in these photos. At this point I will put some filler on it and sand it smooth. I think this plus the subframes should stop it from cracking again.

 

Good luck man... your starting point is WAY ahead of my starting point on my 87 GTA... but I took mine all the way down to Doors and glass were pretty much the only things left in and out of the car... putting in a 6 speed (was auto) and an LT1 engine...

Might be done by then end of the century... LOL

 

You should not have any problems with the 8.5" Rims... I have the 9.5's in the rear and 8.5" in the front... After I got my rims I found out I could have used the 9.5" as I have Baer Brakes on Front and the spacing is 1/4" more outbard which would have given me clearance...

John

 

Kitt,
Was it a pain in the *** to take the master cylinder/booster out?

 

Since I am going from an auto to manual.. the pedals had to come out.. that took a little doing.. but once that was done.. 4 bolts and remove the lines.. done. Hardest part so far was cutting the tunnel for the shifter.. which isn't finished yet... but I know reassembly is going to be a pain.. as I was stupid and didn't lable things... and its been over a year.. so I have NO idea where some of the bolts are or came from.

 

Here are some pics of the headlight assemblies after I restored them.

 

Have not posted some pics in a while. Here are some new ones. Fuel pump wenet to bed. Got a TRE 255 LPH works great. Brand new Flowmaster exhaust. Changed when I replaced the pump along with the rear sway bar links which broke when I took them off. Car runs like new now. Almost ready to paint.

 

some recent pics.

 

again

 

pics finally

 

some more pics

 

I guess I got a little ahead of myself. I replaced the driver side door bushings with a kit from TDS. What a great company! Quick to ship and I even got some advice on the phone from the owner of the company. Everything fixed, door opens and closes like brand new.

 

Having a friend that lives next door that works in a body shop helps. I am getting ready to spay some color build sikkens sealer/primer on the car.

 

I was going to leave the original engine in it and still may. I purchaed a 355 from a guy who bought it for a project and got sick of waiting for Phoenix Engines in AZ to sfinish and ship it. I got the engine for a really great price. I have my choice of induction since I have an Accel Superram as well as a Holley Stealth Ram.

 

Looks like chesterfield, noticed va tags.

 

Actually noticed from some of the posts I had up for sale. Fooled.

 

All body work complete and some final pics before I spray the sikkens color build primer tomorrow.

 

All primed up and nowhere to go! This is the car primed with the Sikkens color build primer.

 

What are the specifications on the 355?

 

I am not sue about the sikkens, but I know with PPG and Sherwin Williams you have a very limited time between the Primer and the color coats...

John

 

Sikkens color can be applies at any time after the prime it just needs to be sanded down (scuffed)

 

355 hp 375 TQ Chevy Built By Phoenix Race Engines
Brand new in crate. NEVER RUN
Chevy High Performance 4 Bolt Main block one piece seal
First Generation Vortec Heads Steel forged rods, nodular crank
Chrome valve covers, Timing cover, 5 qt oil pan
One-piece stainless steel intake valves
One-piece stainless steel exhausts valves
Premium positive valve seals
Heavy duty roller timing chain
Heavy duty, high volume oil pump
(High pressure, high volume blueprinted oil pump)
Heavy duty steel collar oil shaft
Heavy duty oil pickup screen
Brass freeze plug kit
High quality rear main seal double lip polyacrylate
PermaTorque heavy duty head gaskets and gasket set
Main bearings, tri metal, high quality - Competition series
Rod bearings, tri metal, high quality - Competition series
New rod nuts and rod bolts installed, ARP brand.
speed pro hypereutectic pistons
Cam bearings Moly push rods, in sets
Roller tip rocker arms
Cam-Speed Pro hydraulic cam with .480/.480 287/287 230/230 @.050 109 LSA.
9.7 to 1 CR
2500-5800 rpm range

 

Subscribing... i love these resto threads.

 

time has come to get the car painted. will be going to the paint shop next week. post some pics when i get it back

 

Well I toyed with the idea of selling this due to lost space but I sold one of my other vehicles so time to get this finished. Car is currently at the body shop being painted. I will be ordering the fiberglass replacement spoiler from Hawk's. If anyone wants to know how that winds up let me know. I also picked up a brand new set of outer sweep moldings (GM) from seller perrypam on ebay. More to follow.

 

Got the original GM outer door sweeps from the seller on ebay. They are exactly as advertised. Brand new. I also have ordered a few things from Classic restoration like inner door sweeps, new carpet (rear) I also scored major with a brand new set of headlight bezels (damn they were hard to find). I also am going to pick up some interior material from a guy recommended on the interior boars to get the driver seat and rear seat re done Gonna be done soon.

 

Well I finally got the car back from the paint shop. It was painted in the original WA8554 color. It looks great. Here are some pics when I just got it towed back to my house

 

Now I will begin the process of putting it all back together. As I have said in some of my previous posts I lucked out and got some NOS parts that are nearly impossible to find. I thought about putting the correct tail panel bird in the rear tail light panel. But then I figured why not do something different. Here are two pics one is with the correct bird emblem sand the other is with the 89TTA emblem. Any thoughts?

 

Here is a picture of the correct GTA emblems that I will be putting on the car. If you have read some of my other posts, I toyed with the idea of selling this car. I can say now that I am glad I did not.

 

I am going to take my sweet *** time putting this all back together so it is done correctly with much attention to detail. I have a few more things to buy like some weatherstripping and the jute cloth that goes under the carpet. I also bought some items from year one like a brand new shifter plate, new sail panels and a few other little things. I bought a brand new pair of power window switches from a guy off ebay. So not only will the outside look brand new so will the interior. I also found a place called originalauto.com that has loads of original cloth for our year cars if anyone is interested. I have to get the seats redone so that is in the near future as well. i will post an *** load of pics if anyone is interested.

 

Also still thinking about putting some stripes like the 25th anniversary T/A on it.

 

Started putting car back together and it looks pretty sweet. I basically have the back of the car together. I also noticed I am going to need some new weatherstripping. Tried to find and read all the posts I could and have decided to go with the Hawks kit. It has the door seals, hatch seal and window seals. They are made by soft seal. I will post my opinion about them if anyone is interested.

 

Nice build! so is the car basically just an roller right now? or is there an working engine in there? have you decided if you wanna keep the engine origional or if you want the 355?

I'll probaly not do the stripe as it would of probaly been an better idea to have the stripe painted on (well it might still be able to be done though) Good luck on the rest!

 

It has the original 350 TPI with just a tick over 56,000 original miles. Just got my new sail panels from Year one . I'll post a pic.

 

I went ahead and painted the hood louver inserts for the hood the original black. I toyed with the idea of painting them gold the other accents on the GTA but changed my mind.

 

Here is a pic of the almost completed back end. The only thing left here is to mount the third brake light in the Hawk's fiberglass win. What do you think?

 

Looks like you're cooking with Crisco to me. Keep up the good work.

 

Cool project. I am looking at an '87 GTA to purchase and save. Just waiting on the owner to find the title (still waiting).