A few more months have passed since I last checked in on my Trans Am, which is in storage while we renovate our house. I realized that the state inspection was due, so I dug it out, wiped it off, and got it running.
Only drama this time around was with the carb. The fast idle cam wasn't kicking down after getting it running, so I had to pull the shaker off and manually actuate it. It was just a little stuck from sitting, and never did it again after that.
After the inspection, I figured I'd take it around town and let the horsies run a little. That included going on my "old" test loop from when I lived with my parents.
The road is more congested than it was 20 years ago when I was putting this thing sideways around corners on the loop thanks to urban sprawl and a million more condos in town, but I did "test the Positraction" a couple times. 
The car runs fantastic, and I hate that it has to sit until the house project is done.
Also, it doesn't matter that it's a rusty, crusty rattletrap; people LOVE them some Trans Am. I felt like I was a damn celebrity driving this around town on a nice day. People were quite literally hanging out their car windows to yell "TRANS AM!!! YEAH!!!" and other epithets at me and the car. A guy on a construction crew even stopped traffic to step out into the road and let me go, saying "SWEET TRANS AM MAN!!!" as I rolled by. It's really something.
I've been coming up with a laundry list of things that need to be done to make it "reliable transportation", and nearing the top is sorting the suspension, especially in the front. I need to replace the OEM ball joints, the decrepit control arm bushings, and do a brake service before I put serious miles on this car. I can feel how loose the car is in the corners, and it's sketchy. This car used to handle like it was on rails, and now it feels like those rails are on a mountain of marshmallows. Rust repair, of course, is high on the list as well. I'd like to get an interior back in this car ASAP.
I cannot wait to get this home next year and tear into it for real. It's such a fun car.
My sister texted me this yesterday:
I have the car sitting in outdoor storage at my parents' place while my house renovations are being finished (can't park on the property permanently until final inspection is complete). I bought this cover a few months ago, and it's already ripped to shreds. This one was a Budge "Ultra" one from Walmart. Add that to the list of covers I'll never buy again. I swear, this thing goes through car covers like Hulk Hogan went through tank tops in the 1980's.
We'll see if the "premium" one I just ordered from Amazon will make it through the winter. Grr....
So, it's March, and the car is still being stored at my parents' place (cover has held up well, BTW!). I'm starting to get Trans Am Fever again.
So, where did I leave off?
Oh yeah, it's still rusty and the front control arm rubber bits have crumbled into dust. Great!
Once I can get it home (and I have a proper place to work on it, which admittedly, might be a while), I need to probably tackle the front control arm situation first. A friend mentioned that I should probably just get those cheap pre-loaded control arms they sell for everything now. Yeah, about that... unless my Google skills are getting rusty, all I see available are tubular setups and a handful of expensive "restoration quality" lower control arms. I'm honestly looking to do this to restore original performance and keep things affordable, so it looks like I'll be going down the path of restoration on the ones I have.
I think that I at least have a set of spare uppers in storage from another 1979 Trans Am, so I can at the very least restore those ones and swap them in. They will need all the bushings and ball joints replaced. Might do shocks while I'm there, as those are old enough to buy me a beer at this point. Maybe I can source some used lowers to refurbish as well. I did have the foresight to do the tie rods, poly sway bar links, poly bracket bushings, and poly body mount bushings, so that's a plus. Those are all still good, even if I did them years ago.
I also need to address the brakes. Pads are fine and have low mileage, and the calipers all work, but I will need to at least turn, if not replace, all the rotors. I did the brakes before it sat for a decade; the fronts might have 500 miles on them but have been sitting forever. The rear rotors were turned back then, and I was told they were getting thin, so I should just replace those. For the record, it DOES stop, but it doesn't do it as well as it should for a car that has 400+hp. Sketchy would be the best word to describe it.
After about an 18 month hiatus, my house and garage were done enough to bring my Trans Am back home. Having been stored at my parents' house, it was really no worse for the wear thanks to a really good car cover I bought last winter. Aside from a fresh battery and needing a couple quarts of ATF, it fired right up after sitting for a year. Not bad! That said, it was sitting near the woods, so I knew there was the potential for rodents making residence in the car. And as I was about to pull the car out of the driveway, I saw something in the shaker scoop:
This litte jerk made a 70's bachelor pad out of the remaining door panel carpet!
After evicting the little freeloader, I pointed the car south, and drove it about 35 miles home without incident. The thing did great, with plenty of power and no weirdness at all. The brakes are still not the best, but they improved quite a bit as I drove. The suspension and tires though... that will need to be addressed.
I need to clear some things out of the garage in the coming weeks, but for now, it'll live in the driveway. Really glad to have it home. I do need to get a state inspection before the end of the month, and I'm anticipating that it will fail due to the tires, front suspension, and wonky high beam switch. But I'll take it anyway and see what happens. With the house stuff pretty much done save for some organization and yard work, I'm hoping that for the first time in over 20 YEARS I will have some real time to spend on the car.
I've kicked around the idea of selling it and getting something else newer that needs less work, but honestly, this car runs and drives so well and is in better shape than a lot of the project cars I've seen recently that are selling for absurd amounts of money. It wouldn't be worth it to have to start over.
You're not helping my irrational lust for a 75 or 76 Trans Am today
Since the car is home now, I figured I'd start picking at stuff that I haven't gotten around to doing for years now.
First up, the dimmer switch for the high beams.
When I bought the car way back in 2002, the high beam switch was finicky. For the 1979 model year, they moved the dimmer off the floor to the column. You pull back on the turn signal stalk to engage them, much like a modern car. While this is nice, it is a PITA to fix when the switch goes bad. I bought a new dimmer around 2003 and it's been sitting in a box since. Fast forward to today, and after looking at some tutorials on taking the entire column apart and realizing what a can of worms that is, I decided to try something easier: DeoxIt.
I bought this stuff to save my Vectrex game console earlier this year; the power switches on those are notorious for getting corroded connections, and spraying some of this in there actually fixed it where other contact cleaners I tried didn't. So, would it work on the dimmer switch?
Yup! Sprayed some in the switch and after clicking it on and off a few times, it reliably works! This stuff is amazing. Saved my butt twice now!
Next up: installing the custom fender braces that haven't been on the car since about 2006.
These cars came with some steel fender braces, but one of the previous owners installed these way back in the early 80's, probably when they installed the Trans Am Specialties speedometer and the Hurst Dual Gate. I thought for a long time that someone made them, but no, these were aftermarket.
That's from an issue of Thunder Am Magazine from 1981. This company HT Enterprises apparently sold these for $47.73 (plus $4 shipping). They are made of aircraft aluminum and are really light, but they do make quite the difference in handling vs not having them. Last few times I had the car out, I was alarmed at how spongy and darty the car's handling was. I chalked it up to old tires and the ancient control arm bushings, but after bolting these back on, things are MUCH improved. I drove the car for a bit after reinstalling them and it felt a lot better.
Going to keep pecking at the car and fix stuff when I can before it's time to put it up for winter.
Trying to keep the ball rolling, I had a few minutes to tackle a couple small things with the car this afternoon. First, I wanted to turn down the idle speed a bit and diagnose a top-end ticking sound. This has been driving me nuts for a while now, and I once fixed a similar sound by replacing the header gasket. So, I got my trusty piece of tube and went to work listening while revving the engine. I thought for sure it was a lifter tick, but nope...
Header gasket AGAIN! Same exact spot as last time, too. This time, I'll try some Remflex gaskets. That reminds me, I need to install some on my truck too...
Anyway, next up was cleaning the interior a bit. It had gotten grungy from sitting this past year, so I cleaned some surfaces and remembered that I had these:
How do you make the trashiest Trans Am even trashier? This is how. They are completely ridiculous, but they'll do the job until can do something about the seats, and I'll have fun while I'm waiting. These aren't the factory front buckets; those need to either be recovered or replaced and are sitting in storage. Speaking of storage... let's check on the rear seats:
How these have avoided being chewed by critters for the past decade or so is a miracle. They are actually in decent shape, save for one of the bottom cushions:
This one still has tile grout on there thanks to the previous owner who used the car as a truck, and they have this black gunk on there from sitting next to something while in storage. I'm confident I can get it cleaned up nice.
And to hell with it, they are in the car now! I figured they are better off in here than sitting in a storage box outside, and it will help cut down on the road noise. They pop right out for when I need to install the rest of the interior.
Yesterday, my wife asked me to run to Target to pick up some stuff she ordered, so I decided to take the Trans Am. I mean, it has a back seat and a trunk to put stuff on and in, so why not?
Strangely enough, this is the first time the car has ever been to a Target. When I bought the car back in 2002, they didn't have any of these around where I lived. Weird to think about.
After that, I took the long way home and cruised to one of my favorite photo spots.
The car really did great. No weirdness, runs fantastic (save for that header leak/tick), brakes are coming back around, all the lights work, no fluid leaks, and it's handling better thanks to the reinstallation of the chassis braces. All in all, I've put over 100mi on the car in the past week without a hiccup. I even "tested the positraction unit" a few times for "functionality" and aside from some low speed chatter, it's doing positraction differential things (the chatter is because it needs the proper limited slip additive, it's on the list). I am starting to compile a laundry list of needs and small winter projects for the car. It'll be nice to get that stuff done.
First couple of things on the list are replacing the manifold gaskets again and reinstalling all the dash ductwork and making the heat work for some cold weather cruising. Once they salt the roads, it's going into hibernation.
This is so cool to see out again. A friend has a black '79 SE, but it got rusty and he completely disassembled it. I helped move all the boxes and subframe and tub once upon a time. It'll probably never be a car again.
In reply to llysgennad :
Thanks! There were certainly times that I didn't think the car would ever drive down the road again. But it's doing the thing! I'll have to do more work to "make it right", but it's enjoyable in its current state as well.
As I've been refocused on working on this car more and more, I've been thinking about piecing together the interior to make it more comfortable to drive. As much as I appreciate the car in Street Rat mode, not having carpet, sound deadening, and comfortable seats is more annoying in middle age than it was back when I bought the car.
Let's talk about those seats again, and the interior in general. I've done this before, but it's worth taking a refreshed look at this since I'm actually sitting in there more.
The seats in the car right now are from a 1978 Z28.
They are the "standard" style buckets, and the driver's seat is a bit busted. Every 2nd Gen F-Body seat does this thing where it reclines too much; there's a fix for it, but it requires some work. This seat is no different, and since there are no actual adjustments except for the seat track slider, they are kinda uncomfortable.
Then, there's the stock seats.
These are the "deluxe" buckets, with additional plastic trim bits and more padding. They are more comfortable than the standard ones, but as you can see, a xenomorph burst through the bottom cushion on my driver's seat, so at least one of them requires new foam. They also need the recline fix, new covers, some plastic paint on the trim, and more to be as good as new. They also do not have any adjustments except just sliding back and forth. For both the stock-style seats, you kinda sit ON them rather than IN them as you would in a newer car.
I've also considered aftermarket seats:
Procar by Scat (such a weird name) makes a few, and the Elite seats you see here would match best with the existing Deluxe Interior back seats. They are not too bad comfort-wise; a friend has a set in his Monte Carlo SS that I was able to try out. They do recline and have a headrest, although a tall seat may be a tight squeeze in the car. But, these are perpetually out of stock and will cost over $1000 plus another couple hundred for the sliders when you can find them. That's a lot. By comparison, it's about $650-700 to replace the driver's cushions and reupholster/repaint the stock front seats.
I also want to keep the seats and as much of the interior red if possible. Red's not for everyone, but the silver-on-red color scheme is really handsome in my opinion, and I like that it's a color that's not black. Going to a black interior would be cheaper, but not by a ton, honestly. The biggest advantage of going black would be in refinishing all of the interior plastics. Right now, I have just about everything needed parts-wise, but most of those parts are black. I would have to get custom Dark Carmine Red plastic paint mixed and a lot of it. You can get black plastic paint just about anywhere.
Then there's the door panels and headliner. The door panels are also the Deluxe ones, and replacing them is going to cost over $600 for the pair. The ones in the car have seen better days. The carpet is chewed and missing in areas, the chrome piping is gone, and the passenger side has a weird slice on the top that would require a big patch. Headliner board is completely missing, as it got eaten by rodents. That's about $200 to replace right there.
This is... a lot. But it's fun to think about again.
Before I can do anything about the interior, I need to fix that header leak again, because the car is due for inspection next week. Instead of going with another cheapo set of header gaskets, I opted for some Remflex gaskets.
To my surprise, they make not one, but TWO different types of Pontiac D-Port header gaskets. I think the cheap Spectre ones I bought last time were the wrong ones. The difference is the size of the end ports; these ones (the Street version) have more material there than the Race version. That plus the fact that they are made of metal should help them seal better and stay sealed. They should also be reusable in case I swap in the Ram Air manifolds down the road.
The funny part about all of this is that I went to Google a tutorial on the best way to replace the gaskets, and I found my own post from a few years ago when I did this last time in this very thread. 
Owning a project car for 20+ years means that you'll occasionally forget things you did, so I'm glad to have this thread to remind me how to work on my own car.
wawazat
SuperDork
10/23/24 12:42 p.m.
I agree that functional interior bits make an old car more enjoyable as we age. Old and ratty is harder to overlook it seems.
After fighting with header leaks and fasteners backing off I cleaned the RTV off the mounting surfaces (Sanderson recommendation) and used copper gaskets. I then added Nord-Lock washers under the bolt heads and have had no issues since May.
I'd definitely splurge a bit on the better seats considering how much it contributes to driver comfort and the overall driving experience
Tony Sestito said:
Before I can do anything about the interior, I need to fix that header leak again, because the car is due for inspection next week. Instead of going with another cheapo set of header gaskets, I opted for some Remflex gaskets.
To my surprise, they make not one, but TWO different types of Pontiac D-Port header gaskets. I think the cheap Spectre ones I bought last time were the wrong ones. The difference is the size of the end ports; these ones (the Street version) have more material there than the Race version. That plus the fact that they are made of metal should help them seal better and stay sealed. They should also be reusable in case I swap in the Ram Air manifolds down the road.
The funny part about all of this is that I went to Google a tutorial on the best way to replace the gaskets, and I found my own post from a few years ago when I did this last time in this very thread. Owning a project car for 20+ years means that you'll occasionally forget things you did, so I'm glad to have this thread to remind me how to work on my own car.
I forget stuff I did only a few months ago.
Tony Sestito said:
I'll have to do more work to "make it right", but it's enjoyable in its current state as well.
Im not really a trans am guy, but i love seeing your updates!
I feel like a kindred spirit with my 82 rx7 - engineless for over a decade, but now back on the road, and pretty solid mechanically, but cosmetically rough and most of the interior not installed.
Being in the south, i park it in the summer and drive it in the winter.
Yours probably gets better gas mileage
In reply to sevenracer :
Last tank was 6.9mpg. Not great. That said, most of the time it was running, it was idling or I was doing carb tuning. I've only tracked two tanks of gas with it so far since resurrecting it. The other tank got 10mpg on the nose. With the 2.73 rear gears, I'm guessing it is capable of mid-teens, which is probably better than an early carbed RX-7, strangely enough.
More thoughts on the interior stuff:
I've started roughly pricing out how much it's going to be to actually get that done, and man, it's a lot. I am going to need at least the following items:
-Carpet and padding/sound deadener
-Front seats
-Door panels
-Headliner board and headliner material
-Dash cap
-Steering wheel
And here's the other thing: I am thinking about converting it to a black interior. This is something I did NOT want to do, as I like interiors with colors, but it makes some things easier. It's much easier and cheaper to find the parts I am missing in black, and all of the replacement plastics I have already are black. Anything I have that's still red needs to be painted/dyed again anyway, save for the back seats. Those could be easily dyed or recovered. All the other stuff is either faded (like the plastics) or the red paint is missing (like the steering column). They don't really make a Dark Carmine Red paint/dye; it's usually something you need to get mixed up, and it's quite expensive at $30+/can at the last check. Black can be had anywhere at any parts store for half that.
The hard part is that the interior cowl panel is red. That would have to get painted. I think it can be done with the windshield in the car, but the dash will need to come out to do that. It should be removed anyway to install the cap.
The fact of the matter is, I would save hundreds turning the interior black. That allows me to spend that savings elsewhere on the car. Certainly something to consider.
Red. And cheap parts store i terior dye is NOT the droid you are looking for. SEM applied per best practices or nothing in my experience.
They wont call it carmine red, either. That name is probably trademarked. Get a color coat chip card from sem of their premixed reds, and i bet theres one thats spot on. Like camel for the early miatas, the grey i used in my stepside, the red i used in the el camino, etc. Its out there for way less than $30 a can.
And red is what you want to OWN. dont settle for less after 20 years.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Those are the most ridiculous seat covers ever. I love them.
It's funny, I've kinda talked myself into the black interior now.
It WILL be A LOT cheaper to redo the interior that way, and it's not that I don't like the black, it's just that I miss when interiors had colors, that's all. The red is cool, but a black interior with some red accents here and there would also be really cool. And since the car has the 5-color charcoal decal package, the black matches just as well as the red does. Black would look great. If I want a color, I can always go drive in the Power Wagon, which will remain Smurf Blue on the inside.
I know SEM makes a "Portola Red" and I actually have a can of it somewhere, and it's close. But it's different enough from the OEM Dark Carmine Red that it doesn't quite match. I remember this being a big issue back when I was looking into doing this years ago, and Trans Am resto guys were having to get custom stuff mixed up at body shop supply stores. I mean, the car is not going to get a concours restoration, but it would annoy me if it wasn't right.
Again, I already have most of the interior plastics in black. All I would need to do is bolt them in with no painting. All the stuff I need to buy is cheaper in black than it would be in colors. I even remembered that at one point in time, I WAS planning on turning the interior black, and I bought a set of black seatbelts, so I even have those.
It would also open up my choices in the seats department. On that note, I just discovered that these exist:
These are Sparco GT seats. They are cheaper than the Procar ones, and I think they look better, to boot. They only come in black on black, or black with white houndstooth centers. They look like they belong in a sporty 70's car. They are black imitation leather and microsuede, and I love the look more than anything I've seen yet. Definitely gives off the vintage Pro Touring/CAM-T vibe that I want for the car. The car DEMANDS seats like these.
Dusterbd13 said:
Red. And cheap parts store i terior dye is NOT the droid you are looking for. SEM applied per best practices or nothing in my experience.
They wont call it carmine red, either. That name is probably trademarked. Get a color coat chip card from sem of their premixed reds, and i bet theres one thats spot on. Like camel for the early miatas, the grey i used in my stepside, the red i used in the el camino, etc. Its out there for way less than $30 a can.
And red is what you want to OWN. dont settle for less after 20 years.
I checked SEM's website and the Napa Red looks to be the closest to Carmine Red. Buy the Sparco seats, dye the leather bits with the Napa Red and that way you have the best of both worlds. But, it's your car. Whatever you do should be the best for you.
I'm surprised to see how many people are on Team Red! Again, I haven't fully decided, but we'll see what happens. A black interior would still look all sorts of cool. It's really like choices 1 and 1A for me. They both look great. Again, younger me did start squirreling away black interior bits a very long time ago to do this.
Speaking of SEM, I need to hit them up anyway for some plastic paint for my Power Wagon. I have black door panels that I definitely want to change to blue for the truck soon. That is 100% going to stay blue in there. I even got blue vinyl flooring for it. 
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Well, frankly there isn't a "wrong" answer here. Except for carbon fiber dash inlays, those have no business near a 2nd gen F-body.
