Hey guys, well about a month ago I started tearing into my 91 Trans Am again because I wasn't happy with some of my work from a couple years back. I wasn't expecting it to become quite this big/extensive so I decided to start a thread to show you guys what's up. This project got this name because a lot of my friends (especially those not familiar with cars) think I have an obsessive compulsive disorder for fixing what they think is trivial lol.

For starters, I did some work to this car almost 3 years ago and some of my inexperience began to show a little while after. I replaced both front fenders (both rotted) with new units that have the 82-90 TA style vents. I couldn't get the plastic inserts to fit very well for some reason, so I trimmed them down, GLUED them into the fenders and smoothed out the gaps with bondo for a 1 piece look. Looked great while it lasted! But those started to crack about a month or so later .

Here's a pic of the fenders before the body filler around the vents cracked:


They looked like crap when they started to go bad and I cringed whenever I'd see the car with that.



^^that's actually a black pinstripe that I tried using to temporarily cover up the cracks... that fix lasted about a week.

The car also had a rotted battery tray with an awful ghetto repair (it was a free "favor" done by a body shop for me). They pretty much slapped a piece of sheet metal on top of the rust.



I started a separate thread on the battery tray issue, seeing that it's a project in itself:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...tery-tray.html

The passenger side door was also messed up from when I got that mirror caught on the side of my garage when backing out of it a while back. The mirror essentially tried to tear the door skin off when I got it caught. No pictures of that at the moment but I'll post the damage soon enough. So I got a new door and here's how it sits, waiting for a little bit of minor work and paint:



The garage is a bit of a cramped mess, oh well. Underneath it is a 3.45 9 bolt out of what I believe was an 88 Formula... hopefully this winter that rear end will be in my car but for now that's not a priority. The car has it's factory 2.73 drum brake and [worn] posi rear end right now.

And other issues I'll be fixing are the broken power antenna, bad interior/exterior window scrapers on both doors, worn door hinges, A/C will get reinstalled, and the front nose, fenders (obviously), hood, and passenger side door (getting replaced) will see fresh paint. I also hope to get the gold screaming phoenix on the hood . There are other plans too, and seeing how I make out financially and time-wise, the car might be seeing LS1 brakes and that 9 bolt put in it soon, but we'll see.

 

Here's some progress I've made with the fenders, I ground away the body filler and removed the old vents and made the factory clip-in style fit properly this time without any fillers. The seams will be there but it'll look just like a factory 82-90 Trans Am fender. This is an older picture because both have been stripped to bare metal by now:


And I'm also replacing the front fender ground effects, since both of mine are trashed (typical of 91-92 Birds). Ordered a pair from hawks, here's a picture of the passenger side mocked up before I tore the front clip apart. Driver's side fitment is so-so but Hawk's promised to send me a new one which will hopefully fix the issue.



And just a couple of shots of how the car sits now:





^^ I put the fenders back on just to use up less space in the garage for now; they're held in by only 2 bolts each lol. And it's hard to see the damage in this picture but you can see that the passenger side door is gutted and ready to get taken out once the new one is ready to go in.

 

Thought I'd throw in this picture of the car taken just a few days before I took it apart, back in early August. Looks good from here but closer up, the front end had a ton of scratches, the fenders looked awful with their cracks, and the front ground effects looked downright terrible (I had zipties holding them together underneath). But all of this will be corrected soon

 

When you do take pictures of underneath...can I get one of the inside part that the front fender ground effect bolts to the bumper and is help up by the body. The inner part of mine sag and I know there is supposed to be something that holds it up to rad support or something under the car. Someone had sent me pictures of this long ago but I lost those.

 

Looks like a good project you go going there. Hope it turns out more to your liking this time.

 

Looks good man!

 

Good luck on your projects, nice looking car.

 

Thanks guys! I'm excited to be finally addressing most of the issues that bug me about the car, it'll look and feel a lot more refined when it's done I'm sure .

Kinda hard for me to show you since the nose is apart but I held up the ground effect to where it would be once it's all together and you can see a little tab sticks out from it and is held on to the radiator air dam with a bolt (circled). Check to see if those tabs on both sides are intact on your car, mine were both snapped off and the front bottom of the nose sagged as well; another issue that's getting remedied

 

Ah, thanks, I appreciate it.

 

Just a little update: Almost finished stripping the paint on the hood. Started on the nose too but my DA s**t the bed in the midst of the work so I'm gonna have to pick up a new one. And my new AC condenser from Rock Auto came in yesterday. I also ordered some weatherstripping that I'm still waiting for. I'll have pictures up sooner or later... this weekend might not be as productive as I hoped due to a wedding tomorrow though... which isn't necessarily a bad thing .

 

You are making good progress.

 

Thanks! I wish it was a little faster though lol.

Anyway, not a huge update, but I got a little bit done and got some goodies in. As for the labor, I'm basically done using the chemical stripper on the hood. The rest I'm gonna just sand off. Did a good job clearing most of it though!



And the rest of my rubber came in today; got the window triangle seals, inner/outer window scrapers for both doors, and weatherstripping for both doors.



Shiny new A/C condenser too:



Also ordered a can of this internal frame coating from Eastwood since I saw some surface rust inside of the front subframe rails. It has a tube you attach to it which you snake into the frame rail and spray.



And here's the door damage I mentioned from getting my mirror caught a while back. Pretty wavy; not worth fixing hence the new door sitting in the garage.



And interior of the car: took a little bit apart to connect the new power antenna.

 

...

 

I'm so beat... just spent most of the afternoon/evening stripping the rest of the paint and body filler off of my hood:



Still gotta run through it with the DA one more time to address all the flash rust and small specks of old paint but the brunt of it is done. After that, gotta smooth the dents out with fresh body filler and then prime and paint . The only parts left that need their paint stripped now are the passenger side door mirror, the Hawk's ground effects, and the rest of the nose needs to be finished. But those are all pretty quick/easy compared to sanding paint off of a freakin door, 2 fenders, and a massive hood.

 

Not a huge update, BUT I did pick up an important piece of equipment! 30 gallon oil-lubed air compressor... should have no issues laying down paint and powering air tools!



Also organized the garage a bit... might still seem messy but its WAY better than before, I actually have room to comfortably walk around the car! And the cleaner garage just makes working more pleasant.



Threw some body filler on the dents on the hood too. Didn't have time to sand it down yet though.

 

Car looking good!

 

Thanks! Hopefully it'll look that way when it's done too! haha

By the way, I'm pleased to announce that some decent progress has been made! My friend finished welding up the rotted battery tray. Looks great and feels solid as a rock now! I'm just going to grind the welds down when I get some time and throw down some seam sealer and VERY rust resistant paint...





(more info here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...tery-tray.html)

The new door is ALMOST ready for primer/paint as well. All the dents are smoothed out nicely, only thing is that the little primer I put on revealed that the hole for the door lock is not very round. Seems as if maybe somebody tried to pick the lock at one point or something.





Also got some work done to the hood. This might not seem like much progress but I put a good 5-6 hours in today on the door and hood combined. Sanding down dents is so tedious! Especially on the hood where I'm dealing with all those factory creases!




Unfortunately, a couple months ago I thought that the car would have been done by now, but my school load has been crazy this semester as with life in general so progress is going at a snail's pace compared to what I was hoping to see. Oh well, decent work will take some time! I think I might move the final deadline till spring but I still plan on making the car at least mobile within a week or so and I need to get at least primer down on these body panels before the wintertime.

 

Hey man! Good progress! Isn't it a pain doing everything the right way?... lol

 

Thanks, and I couldn't agree with you more, but once the driving season is back in full swing I think it'll all pay off with a clean Trans Am to show off!

And a small update, got to do something to the car on a weekday (amazingly).

Went nuts with seam sealer on the fresh battery tray...



Kinda messy; the stuff came in one of those caulk tubes you put in the gun and I've always been terrible with those things. I'll try to tidy it up a little bit by sanding some of it once it dries.

Picked up a can of Chassis Saver too so that will probably be going on tomorrow if I find time. Once that's done, I'll be able to install the battery, radiator, wiring, and the new AC condenser. Car won't be totally ready but at least it'll be mechanically complete and mobile again.

 

Kinda quiet in here lol... but anyway the battery tray is now basically done; got the chassis saver on and everything. Got the rad, fans, and AC condenser in as well. Just gotta fill the radiator, put the battery in and get the wiring back to where it belongs and it'll be ready for it's first start in over 2 months. Then I'll go back to getting the body panels done!





Doesn't look extremely professional, but once the car is back together it won't look half bad. One day, (probably after I finish college) the car will see an engine swap and freshly repainted and restored engine bay. I'm just happy now that everything is a very solid foundation, and that refinishing the engine bay one day will just require some paint and little/no metal work.

 

I hear you bro, looks great to me.

 

Thanks!

Got a decent amount of work done over the weekend, put the wiring harness back where it belongs, topped off the radiator, battery is back where it belongs, and started working on the lock hole in the new door. My proudest moment was starting the car for the first time in 2 months. While that 305 isn't the fastest out there, it definitely is dependable! After just a couple cranks it roared to life as if it was waiting for me. I was happy to pull the car outta the garage and clean up a bit. Took it for a rip around the block the way it sits now too haha.







Also finally got around to using the Eastwood internal frame coating in the front two frame rails to address the surface rust inside of them:







Some seeped out and made a little bit of a mess but it doesn't bother me; not worried about a show quality suspension for now (one day...). Taking function over form here haha.

Thought I'd keep this as a souvenir, this was a section of the frame by the battery tray I cut out and had replaced!



I'm happy that the car is back together mechanically and at least able to move, now I can put all of my effort toward perfecting the body panels and getting those done!

 

Here's a funny pic, I left the remains of one of the old fender ground effects under the car the whole time while it was jacked up for the past 2 months. I guess I positioned it perfectly under the transmission... and now I know I have a decent leak coming from that 700r4 . At least it caught the fluid for me lol.

 

Damn! Any North-easterners feel that earthquake a few hours ago? I felt a little tremor today in the north eastern corner of Connecticut.

Anyway, Got the 85-90 style fender ground effect holes welded up at a body shop in town owned by my friend's uncle. I had these patched with bondo a couple years ago, but since I'm going this far I figured that this time I'd have them welded to avoid any cracking in the future. Barely managed to cram them into my daily driver; it's by no means a small car but these fenders make it seem TINY!

 

Alright, finally found a way to mount the vacuum reservoir. Might look quirky but it works and I didn't have to perform any significant metal work. I was hoping that it would've bolted to the holes in the battery tray but turns out the screws would have been poking into the battery.



And I began working on the fenders. They still need some more low spots filled in but they shouldn't take much longer. The hood is getting there too; only have a few more small dents to take care of on that. The door is all set! Once I finish the fenders and hood, I'll just have to sand down small things, like the passenger side mirror, front fender ground effects, front nose, and the headlight doors. Then all of this crap will be ready for primer and paint! Hopefully the guide coat phase in between won't reveal more dents/imperfections. When that's all said and done, the car is coming back together.

Getting closer.... gaaah I can just feel it. Here's a pic of how the car's sitting now by the way.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your car finished!

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to driving it again! Hopefully this weekend will mark serious progress. We'll see.

 

Well the winter is upon us here in CT with our first nor'easter occurring just a couple days ago. Obviously, the TA won't be making it out this year... probably wasn't going to anyway with the way things are going.

However the good news...

I think I'm going to end up repainting the WHOLE car since the winter will buy me a lot more time to work on it anyway. I'm very nervous that the color on the front of the car won't match what's already on the rest of it and I'm putting so much TLC into the bodywork that I'd hate to see my efforts go to waste with a mismatched car.

My buddy (who happens to have an 88 IROC-Z) also texted me today reminding me about the Hot Rod Power tour in June 2013. I am going to try my best to get my Trans Am ready for that epic adventure by making it a more comfortable and refined cruiser. Already starting on that by reinstalling AC as I mentioned before and the goal for phase II (which will be the interior) of this project will be to gut the interior and go batsh!t crazy with dynomat insulation. I'd like to re-do the whole floor, and even throw the stuff on the insides of the doors and behind the panels surrounding the rear seats (forgot the exact name of that area).

I'm also going to address the leaks in the top, and perhaps line it with felt or some other material to insulate it a little better against wind noise and just to give the car a higher-quality feel.

Then it'll be time for a more modern radio/sound system, preferably with bluetooth capability, satellite radio, and iPod input (I have all three in my daily driver and I love them).

Then hopefully I can get my 9 bolt ready and in the car along with perhaps a 6 speed for the fun factor and highway fuel efficiency with that double overdrive. Obviously I can see all of these things adding up to a considerable pricetag (which I can hopefully afford) so the car might stick with it's stock 2.73 gears and 700r4 but we'll see. At least the combo it has now is awesome for highway cruising... seeing that a 70 mph results in the engine humming at a leisurely 1700 rpm or so.

 

Alright guys, I haven't touched the car in weeks because I was tied up with school, however my winter break just started now and this project is coming back. With that said, I'll have about a month to make some good progress to the car. I started doing a little bit to it, but not much yet with Christmas just a few days away. I ground away the body filler I started putting on the fenders a month ago because it didn't look good to me and it sat exposed for a month, probably absorbing some moisture. I threw some fresh filler on but haven't had the chance to smooth it out yet. Also got a section of the driver's side floor from Hawks Third Gen that I plan on replacing, and they sent me a new driver's side ground effect to replace the one that didn't fit right.



I also found a good 5 speed swap. One of my friends' friend has a 91 bird as well and he's dropping his T5 for a T56 so I plan on grabbing that trans from him once he removes it. It's a world class T5 with the steep .63 overdrive gear (perfect for highway cruising, and should make up for the steeper gearing of the 3.45 9 bolt I'm throwing in) and I have the comfort of knowing that it works!

 

suscribed...some nice work!!!

something about green and gold draws my attention....

 

Thanks! Funny you should mention, when I was shopping for a Thirdgen over 3 years ago, I was never too keen about the 91-92 birds, however when I found mine (on this forum actually!) I fell in love with the colors and after doing some research and finding out how rare 91-92 Trans Am convertibles are, I HAD to buy the car. Especially for the money the seller was asking.

 

Looking good! I wish I was making even 1/10 the progress you are.

 

If your taking it on Power Tour paint the nose of the car thick and with some good paint. I drove my car very conservative but there are construction zones and what not you cannot avoid, and the GTA front end is like a Hoover for rocks. My car is not bad but on a pristine paint job the nicks and scratches will drive you bonkers. It does me! Also if your doing the door side effects. I need a lesson on those. I could not get mine to align, without chopping them up and recreating them.

 

I plan on having a Clearbra installed on my car after my fresh paint job has had enough time to cure.

http://www.getclearbra.com/

 

Yeah that's what I plan on doing, thanks!

I always considered one but I heard stories of the edges yellowing and peeling after some time. And I've also heard of those things ripping non-factory paint off when you go to remove it. Factory paint is literally baked on in a booth as the car goes down the assembly line so it's quite durable compared to a respray. I'm a little hesitant as a result, has anybody tried it on a repainted car?

 

Hey guys, a little update; progress has been slow but steady with the holidays but I'm almost done with the fenders! I set up a little booth in my garage to handle the bondo dust situation and some paint later on. Ghetto but functional lol. I finished block sanding the bondo itself and threw some glazing compound (the green stuff) on to take care of the small low spots/blemishes. Need to finish block sanding that.



And the other fender; mounted it on the car for now for extra space. Don't mind the mess lol. Threw some rattle can primer on the part I finished smoothing out just so the bondo doesn't absorb too much moisture. I plan on sanding it away once I paint the car (yeah I know, rattle can primer is no good for a paint job.



Hopefully sometime this week I can mount the new door to the car. After that I'm gonna finish the hood and continue on body work with the rest of the car.

 

It's getting there. Mounted the new door just to check fitment and the body work on the fenders is done. All I have to do now is finish the hood and take care of some other small odds and ends. Plans have changed in terms of painting however. I'm sending the car to a shop. Next weekend I plan on dropping off the door, fenders, hood, and nose for primer/sealer and to have the jambs done. Once that's done, I'll bring the parts back and mount them to the car and then for the final paint I'll send the car over so the guy can blend the paint with the rest of the body (decided against painting the entire car for now).

Also took her up and down the street today. Mashed the gas for just a couple seconds and the rears lit right up.



Also picked up LS1 brake calipers and rotors! Just gotta get the rest of the conversion stuff (hubs, spindles, etc.)

 

Hey guys, progress has been going at a snail's pace lately because of school but this weekend I finally started tackling the 9 bolt I got for my car. The posi looks like it might benefit from a shimming however otherwise the internals look good. The brake calipers also aren't seized so I'll be reusing those, gonna just order rotors and pads which I'll probably do tonight. I also ordered a FULL brake line set from inlinetube.com and I plan on getting the LS1 brake conversion parts soon. I also just won an eBay auction for 5 speed pedals . On top of that, I found a t5, bell housing, and lightly used centerforce clutch which I plan on picking up next weekend from a friend of a friend. Anyhoooo, here are a couple pics:




One of the rotors from that 9 bolt, yuck! Not gonna bother getting them turned, just gonna get new ones.

 

i do have to say that it pains me to see this car apart again but I know why you are doing it and so far so good

 

subscribed.

 

Getting there man be done before you know it

 

Yeah same here, I miss the hell out of driving it! But it's gonna be great when it's done.

I hope so!

Anyway, got another update for ya guys. Picked up a world class t5 today along with a lightly used centerforce clutch and bellhousing. I still just need hydraulics, flywheel, rear main seal (might as well replace that when the transmission is out), and a few other odds and ends for the transmission swap. Pardon the mess!



Brake lines from inline tube showed up yesterday as well:



My friend also finished sandblasting my headlight doors.



Also waiting to see if my friend's friend (with a machine shop) will be able to machine down the factory rotors for my car in order for them to be used as hubs for my LS1 brakes. Fingers crossed, don't wanna dish out the cash on conversion hubs, lol! My spring break is in about a month so the plan is to gather all the parts I need and HOPEFULLY tackle the 9 bolt refurbish/install, brake lines, LS1 brake swap, and possibly t5 swap if I get lucky. Then it'll be back to body work (still have some work left on the hood), and then paint soon enough hopefully!

 

Subscribed.

 

Manual transmission pedals are here! They're off of an '86 Camaro, according to the auction. Man, the mound of parts in my garage is just growing and growing and yet they're still not making their way onto my car, UGH such a tease!! haha.

 

Hey guys, long time but spring break is finally here so I'm getting down to business on the car. I've been working on the brake lines/LS1 brake swap. I got the old front rotors off, and the front brake lines. Next step is to have my old rotors machined down into hubs (any local places in CT that do that let me know!!) and I'll have to modify the spindles too. Bunch of parts came in as well, new rubber flex hoses, parking brake cables, disc rotors for the 9 bolt, pads all around, LS1 brake conversion brackets, and some other stuff.



Size difference between the brakes... man can't wait to see how these slow the car down!

 

Hey guys, Happy Easter, and it's been a little quiet here lately BUT I have made progress!

5 speed center console plate came in yesterday from another TGO member! A little dirty but it should clean up nicely.



Made good progress on the LS1 brakes, especially considering my limited free time lol. Got the old front brake lines out too. Here's a picture of the spindles after they've been modified with the brackets installed:



^ I had to grind off some more of the spindle ears under the brackets, the two pieces that are almost touching in the picture above. The calipers were hitting that but grinding the spindles down a little further was easy enough. Also had the factory rotor/hub assembly machined down into just a hub, and put in longer wheel studs to accommodate the "quick change" style LS1 rotors.

And here's the passenger side completed...



... at least that's what I thought; I noticed after that the caliper bracket is a bit too close to the rotor (almost rubbing) so I'll need to throw a washer or two in there. The driver's side was even worse. Unfortunately, I was hoping to be totally done with this by tonight but I couldn't find the washers at home. I'll have to pick some up and hopefully finish this next weekend, but that might be a stretch since the upcoming week is gonna be a hectic one for me. However I'm just glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this brake job, since bolting the brackets and calipers onto the car is cake compared to the prior work this swap required. I also found out I'll need to pick up 1/2" wheel spacers in order for my factory crosslaces to clear the new calipers... *sigh* At least these bigger brakes look awesome! Fill the rim up real nice.

And I've set a plan for the next couple months for the car. Fingers crossed for it to be done sometime this June. I'm gonna finish the brake work, then get the 9-bolt swapped in. Once that's done, I'll finish the body work and send her in for paint and then put her back together and drive! The T5 swap will come sometime after that during the summer when I find a free weekend... I'm starting to get sick of seeing the car apart like this so I might drive it with the automatic for a little while! Wish me luck guys!

 

Very Nice!

What brackets did you use for to mount the LS1 caliper?

 

Thanks!

I used the brackets from bigbrakeupgrade.com
http://www.bigbrakeupgrade.com/ls1_parts.html

 

Thank You!

 

Hey guys remember me? Haha. Haven't posted in a long time because of school but I'm done for the summer now and I plan on kicking this project into high gear. I've actually already started with that...

The front LS1 brakes are almost complete. All that's left for me to do is to bleed them and to grind off just a tiny bit off of the rivets holing the bump stops to the control arms (passenger side banjo bolt is just barely brushing up against it at full lock and the driver's side is very close). The new lines and hoses are in as well, and all of the connections have been triple checked. Hopefully I should have the brakes bled by tomorrow night, or Tuesday at the latest and the car will be back on all 4s. I also swapped the spring in the proportioning valve for a stiffer one to accommodate for the disc brakes the 9 bolt has.

All that's left is the 9 bolt swap along with finishing the remainder of the body work (some spots on the hood). After that it's time for paint, reassembly, and cruising! I plan on having the car driving in about a month.

The driver's floor pan section will be done at a later point, after the car is already road worthy seeing that it's not tragic and the Chassis Saver I put on it years ago is still holding up. The T5 swap should come later in the summer as well, hopefully sometime in July.

If finances allow for it, I plan on picking up bolt-on SFCs shortly after the car is driving again. Reason for bolt-ons is so I can determine if ride quality will still be tolerable, seeing that the car will essentially return to daily-driver status once complete. I have friends who have SFCs in their thirdgens, and while they appreciate the benefits in handling and body stiffness, they did notice ride quality worsening. I'm sure I'll keep the SFCs but I just like to know that I'll have the flexibility of removing them if I determine that they're really jarring. They would be welded in like they should be at a later point.

And of course, here are a couple of pictures of what's been done... I love seeing the shiny new brake lines!



^^ Picked up a wheel spacer because the crosslace GTA wheels that my car has would rub against the caliper face otherwise.



^ The old brake line for the rear is still connected because I haven't swapped axles yet. I plan on replacing that line along with the axle and then re-bleeding the system.