1974 Pontiac Trans Am		    
     

The object on this build: Street Machine, ground-pounder for weekend use and complete restoration.

Our customer purchased the car 1 year old in 1975. Everything is original, including the 455 under the hood.

The engine is a 2-bolt block, so we have recommended no more than 550HP and will have to go with aftermarket heads to reach that.

 

Car gets stripped.

  

The car gets put on the twirler, and glass beading begins.

 The rust on this car was mostly confined to the rear lower quarters and trunk/tailpanel area.  
We may end up with an aftermarket block, the 455 was in terrible shape. Here is what we found.  
After much deliberation, the customer decided it wasnt worth doing half-assed, especially in light of this mess. The kid gloves are off, time to make a serious custom designed Resto-Mod. New driveline: Custom IA2 505 650HP engine and TH400 to match with a Dana 60 from Strange putting the power to the pavement. The rest of the design will be custom as well.  

Panel patching.

      

A/C removal

  

Chemical Stripping

    

The owner said he bought the car a year old in 1975,.. but we found it had been in a major collision and received dealership-style repair work as a newborn. In addition, once we were to the steel, we found previous repair from another accident.
And then the suspension! Highest quality and state of the art. We upgraded to fully adjustable QA1 coil overs in the front with Global West tubular control arms upper and lower, Hotchkiss leaf springs and racing sway bars with solid and polyurethane bushings. The steering box is a racing 12:1 ratio AGR unit.

Fenders after repair and priming.

    

Finally the color added! 1974 Pontiac Admiralty Blue. I kept the color code to use later, its just that awesome.
We have now been waiting a full year for the custom engine from Indian Adventures, but it is finally here. It is an aftermarket IA2 455 block bored and stroked to a 505c.i. putting out about 650HP! We went with edlebrock heads with major porting work.

Preparing, priming and painting the inner fender wells.
Front disc brake assembly and core support repair and priming.  

Core support painted, and transmission prepped and primed, ready for custom paint.
Transmission painted in custom pearl white.

Here you see the wiper assembly and power brake assembly completely restored. Last photo shows the fender flares prepped for paint.
We also completely restored the steering rod assembly.  

The customer wanted to keep the rear drum brakes, so we added the factory drums to the Dana 60 rear end and completely restored them.

Drum brakes? Hmm, where's that liability waiver...?

Rear spoiler painted and installed, and front end body assembled.

The rectangular fuel cell wouldn't fit in the trunk correctly due to the odd shape of the 74 trunk. We removed the original trunk and replaced it with a 1970 trunk pan that was squared symmetrical and allowed fuel cell fitment.

  

Continued work on the trunk pan installation.

Now the fuel cell fits.

   

Back to the engine. Indian took our $15k and ran. It took another 6 months of machine work to finish the block machining that was not done or incorrect, not to mention all of the wrong or missing parts from our order.

End result is an engine in long block form that took more than $20,000 and over a year and a half of build time. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

 

  
Here you see it after all of the machine work. Indian has of course went out of business and after years of faithful service decided to let us have it right up the tailpipe as they floundered. But thats OK, we are used to doing everyone else's job anyway.  

Finally the wait is over. The engine is assembled and ready for a test run. The pipes are from Doug's Headers.
The test run went perfectly. The engine winds up fast and you can feel the power. Can't wait to get it in the car.
Here is the engine after paint. Still looking for valve covers that fit, I assume I'll have to build them from scratch, then we'll do some custom paintwork there as well.

More shots of the 505 painted.

Don't worry, the engine comes with a gremlin that lives in your engine bay and does nothing but keep the block clean.

Scattershield painted and installed, time to put the driveline in the car.

Everything went smooth, though the headers were a tight fit and took some persuasion, or do I mean percussion? Well, either way, it got both.

Custom brackets were fabricated to keep the pulleys symmetrical and to insure they use the same size / style belt.

 

Tank brackets made, painless harness installed, and starting to wire the engine.
Time to install the fuel cell, run the lines and install the BG pump and filter.

Most people will agree that the 1974 TA is not the most attractive.

The customer has requested that we retrofit a 1973 front end on the car. The hardest part is getting all of the correct brackets, and a few custom made mounting points.

  

Dynamat added to the interior for superior sound suppression and insulation.

  

Trunk painted, engine wiring started and dynamat finished.

Ignition installed. This will be hidden inside the fender and not visible.

  

The plug wires are hidden, wiring is routed through the frame and the coil is hidden behind the engine. We wanted the engine bay to look clean, and it will. The only thing mounted on the firewall should be the wiper motor.

Here are some images showing the evolution of the artwork for the car. The first shot is what this decal looked like stock. We won't be using a decal, we want it painted, and want to add alittle flavor.
Core support installed, hood installed with freshly powdercoated hinges, and more wiring, always more wiring.  
Its time to get back to the interior, so I started by restoring the dash in a custom metallic color to match the exterior.

The customer couldn't decide on what would look better with this color scheme, an Admiralty Blue shaker or a Pearl White shaker... so he did both.

Shaker scoops are alot like hats, one to match each pair of shoes....

  

Time for the custom paintwork.

Here we are cutting the car down for the detail work and a complete reclear afterwards.

We started with a custom stencil to use for masking certain areas. The end result will be a very multi-layered assortment of custom colors, so correct masking is very important.

We removed the areas where we wanted to start and applied the base.
More masking, and application of the House of Kolors black base.
Finally a carefully laid pearlized blue, faded in just the right areas to add a gradient effect.

Here is the finished Phoenix. You can see the way the color rolls as you move around it.

Now its time for flames.
Now thats a fire-chicken.
The shaker scoops were based and labeled with the correct cubic inch disclaimer, for those who might want to know.
Cleared and finished.

The client had some special requests when it came to the verbage on the body. I like his style.

We painted everything to look identical to the original decals in style and layout with our mixture of paint.

And the other side.....

Ok, quit guessing. It stands for:
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I really like his style.....

And the last thing you see as the Firebird from Hell roars past and blasts out of sight...

It is a wonderful thing.
Some shots of the hood after clearing.
New gauges and hardware are used to restore the dash to better than original condition.

Dash, column and radio installed

Not to mention a dozen special switches. The crap they put in cars after 1970.... wow. Still missing a few things for the column.
The reproduction 1973 front body pieces arrived and are test fit, repaired, primed and painted.
The above pieces installed after paintwork.
Wheel Vintiques comes through again with a wonderful reproduction set of the original 15" Rally II Wheels.
The custom engine brackets back from powder coating, more interior installation and custom exhaust made for the addition of sidepipes at the customers' request.
The center caps finally arrive. Beauty rings are here as well, but will have to wait until final detailing.    
The column parts finally arrived, so together it goes. Also, a new reproduction steering wheel and the rechromed levers.
Engine brackets and accessories installed.
Sidepipes installed.  
More front end alignment. Body panel alignment can take forever, especially when your dealing with damaged or modified parts.
Thats looking better. Much better than a 1974 anyway.  
Hood pins installed.  

Everything seems to be going together well. It is a very sharp looking car.

Next step is cutting and polishing before we move into final assembly.