Alright, I talked with the wife, and she is supportive.

So, in a little over a year, I hope to start my next project.

I love my 1991 trans am. But, the frame (or lack thereof!) appears to be bent. The rear seats absolutely refused to line up when I took them out. Furthermore, one of my front wheels sits further back in the wheel well and gave me some issues when installing ed miller's GTA wilwood brakes.

I plan on having the project done through Hawk's (if they'll take it on), since I hope to be living in the area in a year. I will ask them if it is worth it to repair the frame, but I have a feeling I might be better off buying a second GTA.

I was going to put 85-90 style gfx/bumpers on my 91, but if I'm buying a new one, I'll just go with an 89 or 90 GTA.

89 or 90 GTA, LOW miles, mint condition - probably $10,000
-leather interior a MUST
-want t-tops (since my other GTA is a hard top)

First question, what are the differences between the 89, 90, and 91 TAs?
-bumper/gfx are different between 89/90 & 91 (but are the 89 and 90 identical?)
-90 GTAs had an airbag (along with the airbag steering wheel) and a different interior switch pod for the foglights and related items
-i know the 91s had 245 horsepower (for the 350). Were the 89/90s 235 hp?

Drivetrain
-LSX/T56 swap. Right now, I'm leaning towards an LS2 out of a GTO
--LS1s/LS6s are becoming outdated
--LS7 is nice, but too expensive
--how much should I expect to pay for a low mile, good condition GTO LS2/T56?
--should i even bother considering an LS3 or other motor?
--This is going to be a show-quality car. Every motor I see on flea-bay has rusty headers or something. How much should I budget to have the motor/tranny/components painted and spruced-up? Should I budget in a rebuild since the drivetrain will need to be torn-down for paint anyway?
--since I want to go manual, am I better off finding an 89/90 305/T-5 car? (since a factory 350/T-5 is almost impossible to find) What are the differences between a 305 and a 350 car besides the computer chip and the engine/tranny? Is anything on a 350 car beefier?
-I have an Auburn Racer's differential on my current GTA. The guy I bought it from says its just as good as the Zexel-Torsen, and that I should get it instead of the Zexel since Zexel got rid of their warranty. If I buy another one of those differentials for the project GTA, will it hold up to the LS2?
-Are the rear axle splines the same for 89,90, and 91 TAs? I want to make sure the differential will be compatible.
-What rear gearing is a good match for an LSX motor? I know a lot of guys like to upgrade the rear gears in their 305/350 cars, but I've been told the 3:23 is a perfect match for a TPI motor's rpm range. What rear gears are best matched to an LS2?

Exhaust
-Stainless steel is a must. Ground clearance is an issue for me, so I'll need shorty headers. Does anyone make them, or do I need to stick with the stock headers? Also, I love the look of true duals. But, horsepower-wise is it worth the extra money if I can get the same flow with a single 3 inch or 3.5 inch? Cost?

Body
-want the same black and gold scheme as my current GTA (see my sig)
-would consider upgrading the hood, but I haven't seen any hoods I like. (There was a Sunset Orange Metallic TA on here a while back. It had GTA rims and a custom hood, but I cannot find the thread for my life.) Does anyone make a carbon fiber hood for our cars?
-was thinking of incorporating a knight rider scanner (amber lenses), but I haven't seen a way that doesn't look tacky
- Front Bumper (see attachment) Does anyone have a shot of something like this on a TA? I would like to get rid of the swiss cheese holes and make that a mounting spot for a license plate
- Rear bumper (see attachment) I borrowed HCR13's sig (HCR 13, if this bothers you , please let me know, and I'll take it down.) because I love the way the exhaust tips look in the cartoon image. Does anyone have a shot of this bumper modification on a real TA? Is any hp lost by using one of those custom tips?

Rims
http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sho...t=68195&page=2 .... if they ever reveal who made them. (Probably $3000-$5000?)
-painted Gold (rivets painted as well)
-I am undecided on the width. After we determine the brakes (Ed Miller, help!), and how much they will affect my offset, I guess I can travel down that road. (Is bigger necessarily better?) With the exception of 18' rims, I'm not sold on a particular tire size or wheel width (as long as it as least as wide as the stock size and clears the wheel wells without rubbing). Granted, going to bigger tires will lift the car up. But, I would like to keep the car at stock ground clearance. With that said....

Lowering/Stance/Suspension
As it is, my 1991 GTA is almost unmanageable when it comes to driveway ramps, speed bumps, etc. at STOCK RIDE HEIGHT! To be honest, sometimes I wish I could lift it. The front air damn is in shambles.
-After the rim/tire size is determined, the car will need to be lowered to stock height
-how much do I need to lower the car?
-what is the best lowering kit available?
-what do I need to do to negate the negative affects of lowering the car? (custom length drive shaft? rewelding suspension mounting brackets?)
-I will go with a new k-member (spohn?) and control arms. I have heard bad things about coil-over setups, so I'll stay away from them. How do koni yellows work on a lowered car?
-BMR strut tower brace
-TDS wonderbar
-Spohn crossmember/torque arm

Thanks for your input! There are more questions to come!

-Bill

 

What does mileage or original engine size matter if you plan on yanking it right out? Just find a nice body you like and build the new engine how you want it. No sense in paying extra for stuff you're removing

85-90 TA's and GTA's used the same style nose and GFx. Id suggest 86 or newer to skip the $300 for the cable-x box, but 90 would be ideal for the newest electronics. Minor issues still, just find a nice chassis. Beginning to end you can still be under $10,000

Dont stress too hard over leather interior or not. 4th gen seats are very similar and super plentiful. GTA ET seats can be recovered in new leather kits for under $600 even if they started life as cloth. Good luck finding original 3rd gen leather seats in presentable condition, let alone mint

Finding a T-top 350 GTA is pretty difficult, and the seller will want more for the rare car. Back to the buy a body you like regardless of engine. No one will know/care that it was a 305 off the line

Year sets were 85-90 for the flat nose and 91-92 for banshee birds. Interiors changed in 85 and remained mostly the same until 92. The minor overhaul came in 90 with the advent of the airbags. To keep you from breaking your knees with an airbag deployment, the knee pad was installed and the dash pieces around it redesigned. IMHO the 90-92 dashes and surrounding trim look better than prev years

LS1/LS6's will never be outdated even 30 years from now. For the stock power and prevalence you cant beat the package. They wont let you down
GEN IV stuff like the LS2 is still pretty new so the cost factor is pretty steep compared to the GEN III stuff. Expect $5-6k for a decent package. Be aware most LS1/T56 packages cost about half that and with a CAI and headers it produces nearly the same power

LS3's are also good motors, but require more to drop in. Read up on V8Rumble's VVT swap and see the extra work required since the LS1 Fbody parts dont directly swap on

Read over BlueZee28 and TPI TERROR's swap threads. Those are show quality drivers that make significant power without being ridiculously expensive

Going back to find a good chassis, auto or T5 cars are minor changes. It takes cutting a hole, hanging some pedals and changing 6 wires to convert an auto car to manual. Dont worry about finding a T5 car to convert

LSx/T56 cars LOVE gears. You can go 4.10 and still get good gas mileage on the highway along with excellent acceleration

Read five7kid's thread about his recently smeared 10 bolt. Stock LS1 cars are known to snap upgraded 10 bolts. Know that a better rear is both a good idea and recommended

Refer to the suspension/chassis forum for differential interchange

Exhaust: read the sticky at the top of the page, then scroll through the first few pages of the swap forum. Hawks has came out with a large tube LT header with complete exhaust system from stainless

Most of the rest are covered in the sticky or are common to other forums

 

especially that the LS1 will never be outdated so long as we have crude oil to process into gasoline. They're not the latest update, but that's actually a good thing in about every way.
It's fine to prefer the pre-Banshee looks, but not everyone agrees, and the Banshee bits are rare, so you should sell them.

 

Thanks for the fast reply.

Besides the actual motor and the chip in the computer, are there any differences between 305 TPI cars or 350 TPI cars? (different speedometer?) Is anything beefier on a 350 car?

I have seen pleather kits for GTA seats, but never leather. Do you know where these kits are available?

Also, ground clearance is an issue, so I need shorty headers, not long tube. Any suggestions?

Thanks again,
Bill

 

As far as I know, I'm the only one who has announced any thoughts of building and selling shorties for LSx in these cars. I was going to do 1.875" long tubes first, but Hawks read about me doing that and decided to steal my market away from me, because I publicly stated my belief that their prices are unfairly high.
Anyway, until I do shorties, (or someone steals this from me also), your options are either the Hawks long tubes, or stock fourth gen. F-car LS1 exhaust manifolds. You can get them Extrude Honed, but they'll support 400 RWHP without that. I can link you to a thread where it was detailed how. But the cam used was mild, driveable, and emissions-friendly.

 

Nothing is extra beefy from a 350 car that could be had on an equally optioned 305 car, like the WS6 suspension package. Speedo is 120 or 140 depending on the options once again, not specific to 350 cars

4th gens also have shorty headers that are the same dimensions of the stock manifolds, even with the stock flange. Swap LTs dont hamper ground clearance nearly as bad as stock SBC headers do. Build your trans crossmemeber to account for the exhaust routing and you may end up with better than stock ground clearance

 

Hawk's sells the Hampton Vinyl seat kits. I've seen a set of 4th gen seats done with these and it was awesome, looked and felt like original leather (actualy better) There was a guy in Atlanta that did the original seat covers but it was like 1k per seat, or maybe it was 1k for the front two, and the saddle color was all he had (it was for the Turbo Trans Am).

As for t-tops, I wish my '87 (it was converted) and my '98 were hard tops, I am getting to hate t-tops (actually have a roof that Bruce cut off of a Camaro I'm going to one day get around to putting on my GTA and put it back to a hardtop)

 

The Hampton VINYL is better than real leather?

if by Bruce, do you mean Hawks?

Was there anything standard on a 350 car that wasn't standard on a 305 car?

 

I loved the feel of the Hampton Vinyl (or what others call Pleather) it didn't look like Vinyl at all. Yeah, by Bruce, I mean Hawk's he's a really good guy to work with, I bought a set of '88 black cloth GTA ET seats for my black interior swap from him, he tries to keep alot of the GTA stuff around and that's where I'm going to get the seat covers for when I get the top put on the car.

 

Nothing beyond never having a T5, T-tops (rare exceptions), factory convertible etc

 

4th gen shorties fit in our cars.

 

I was under the impression that noone had yet tried them. I recall reading that someone was thinking of trying them, but hadn't read that they'd done it, let alone successfully or not.

 

I dont know either way but I was going to run 4th gen manifolds for the time being and then try 4th gen swap shorties. I was following your thread about making the headers and I was interested in them (sorta) if you were going to produce them, I really dont have the need for LT's though, going to be a mostly stock swap for a long time.
If you started making shorties I would be interested

 

There has been a lot of discouragement aimed at LS1 shorties, true. Perhaps it was me saying I'm going to try them that you recall. I haven't bought anything yet (waiting to get the LS1/T56 reliably on the road before I pull the ZZ4/TH700 and sell them, which will provide the funds - hopefully - to finance the LS1/4L60E swap).

 

the pacestter / ebay 4th gen shorties work with most mounts in 3rd gens. i have a set and they have all cleared with various mounts.
but there so many ways to mount ls in 3rd gens. now