Just starting to help a friend restore his severely neglected 1986 Trans Am. The car was parked outside for over 11 years. Two weeks ago we picked it up and brought it to my house. The front end has some damage from a previous accident, Interior needs work, body had vines that actually attached themselves to the paint. Gas tank has 11 year old gas in it. We are not going to attempt to start it until we have checked things out. The oil in the engine looks good (no water or sludge), Trans fluid looks good, The engine can be turned over manually, numerous vacuum lines have deteriorated, Pulleys have corrosion on them, Radiator is about 1/4 full, and wiring looks decent. We pulled the hood off and are working on pulling the nose off. We are going to need a nose, hood, and the steel beam and plastic that sits just behind the nose.

Here is a couple of pictures. One is it on the trailer right after we picked it up and the second is after running it through a car wash.

 

Here is a picture of the damage. After the accident the hood came up while driving so the windshield side of the hood is bent and the hood struts were ripped off the hood.

 

The damaged front end has been removed. Starting to check out the engine. Had to peel the belts off the pulleys as the are very corroded. All the pulleys spin fine so it's just a matter of cleaning them and getting new belts. Going to get some fresh oil into the motor and spin the oil pump to coat the internals before we spin it with the starter. Also want to oil fog the cylinders before we turn it over. Front end is going to need brakes and struts but rest looks fine.

 

Keep us posted. Wasn't too badly damaged, too bad they never fixed it and just parked it to decay. Get all new tires for it, don't trust those old weathered sit-outside-11-years tires on it.

 

Hi all,

Just thought I would post somee pics of the before and after so far..
Still alot of work to do but we were Amazed at how well the interior cleaned up so far.. Here is a before and after of the front and console area..Wow!!!
More to Come...

 

Not being disrespectful here, but You should start your own thread and keep us informed of your progress
are you the friend of DaveZZ4??

 

I think there is a misunderstanding here. Screamer86 and I are working on the same car. He is the owner. We are doing this restoration together. So we will both be posting pictures of our progress.

 

LOL,I thought so!!!,after I posted I noticed you mentioned a friends car

 

Here are some pictures of our start. We pulled the damaged front end off and Screamer started to clean up some of the paint. You can see one pic of the dull/dirty body, then him cleaning and polishing, and the results.

 

The paint on our cars is often very forgiving. Hope that's also the case for the mechanical parts in your case!
Subscribing and keeping an eye on this. Good luck, guys!