FINALLY!!! - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

79T/A · 10-15-2007, 12:20 PM

To quote WayFast84, it IS a great day! Even for a Monday. The Trans Am was finally towed home so that I can begin work on it! Woo-hoo!

For those that don't get it, I got the car in February of 2006. On the coldest friggin' day of the winter, I towed it to where I was living in Piscataway. Then I bought a house in November way up in Wantage. The car has sat in my uncle's yard, untouched and unloved as I left it (Fenders, hood, front end off and engine and trans out). I finally managed to get a buddy with a trailer to tow it up to the new house! Tonight, it goes in the garage for complete disassembly. I plan on spending the winter completely tearing the beast down, sandblasting and refinishing parts as I go along, culminating in primer before the spring. What better way to hide from the snow than to lock myself in the heated garage with a whole bunch of solvents? I've missed the conversations I used to have with the technicolor animals that I'd see when using too much of the ol' PB Blaster in the closed garage!

Right off the bat, I've got a new set of floorpans to put in. I'll post up with pics as I go along if anyone's interested. Ought to be fun reading as I'm not the best with a wrench.

MonmouthCtyAntz · 10-15-2007, 12:22 PM

curious to see the finished product..congrats

WildBillyT · 10-15-2007, 12:42 PM

Cool! Shoot some pics of the resto and post them up.

transamkid · 10-15-2007, 12:47 PM

need any help let me know. my old job was AT a sandblasting place....and i parted out/stripped down 3 second gens

=D
and currently own a running one

ar0ck · 10-15-2007, 12:53 PM

Congrats! Sounds like good times! Pictures are a must!

Untamed · 10-15-2007, 01:03 PM

Yeah definately take pics along the way so that when we get the... *cough* tech section *cough* up and running, we can preserve whatever wisdom you've gained while working on the car.

Good luck!

79T/A · 10-16-2007, 07:52 PM

Well, did some poor guesstimating. Discovered my T/A, assembled, is about 16 feet long. The garage is about 17 feet deep. Which equals one foot of working space. Which ain't going to happen. Plan is to break off the subframe ASAP and work on the car in halves. Spent a little time today before work pulling the radiator support and brakes. Hoping to have the subframe stripped and in the garage this weekend.

Mike · 10-16-2007, 07:56 PM

second gens were that much longer than 4th gens? my cars about 14 feet long

BonzoHansen · 10-16-2007, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbrrmike

second gens were that much longer than 4th gens? my cars about 14 feet long

I dunno, the 4th gen in my garage looked to be the same length as my 77, +/-5"

Anti_Rice_Guy · 10-16-2007, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbrrmike

second gens were that much longer than 4th gens? my cars about 14 feet long

95 Z28 is between 16 and 17 feet long I measured it once. So your 4th gen is i'm sure the same.

Mike · 10-16-2007, 09:52 PM

umm definately not. or else it would hang off of the 16 foot trailer its sitting on.

79T/A · 10-16-2007, 09:59 PM

I took the measurement from the rear spoiler to where the nose should be. 16 feet alright, give or take a few inches.

Tru2Chevy · 10-16-2007, 11:14 PM

I just Googled for stock specs on a 2000 Firebird, and every overall length I saw listed was 193.3" = 16.1 ' Specs I found for a 2000 Camaro SS were 193.5".....

- Justin

Mike · 10-16-2007, 11:37 PM

wierd that it dosent hang off the trailer then

Tru2Chevy · 10-17-2007, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbrrmike

wierd that it dosent hang off the trailer then

Grab a tape and check the trailer....maybe it's actually an 18' or something.

- Justin

Untamed · 10-17-2007, 08:33 AM

Metal expands and contracts with the ambient air temperature....

mtnhopper1 · 10-17-2007, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Untamed

Metal expands and contracts with the ambient air temperature....

That's what I was going to say, too. The thinner steel of the car expands at a faster rate. Does it hang off the trailer in the AM and PM? In the sun and shade? What direction is the trailer facing? Into the wind or cross-wind?

Mike · 10-17-2007, 09:49 AM

this is soooo funny

79T/A · 10-22-2007, 06:55 PM

Played hooky from work today and got dirty. Before I bore you with the details, here's a few 'before' pics. The first is obviously my avatar.

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Here's a shot of the nose.

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A little history: A buddy of mine bought the car in 2000 with the intent to restore it to factory original. It promptly sat in his driveway for six years until he decided to get rid of it. It was just about on the way to the scrapyard when I mentioned I wanted a project, to which he said, "Dude...if you tow it out of my driveway this weekend, it's yours." SOLD!!! Trucked it home and tried to get it running. Sadly, the original Olds 403 was (As are most Olds 403s) complete and utter poo. I actually got her to run for about thirty seconds (Wow, did the neighbors love the smoke show I put on...tried to make a noise like I was doing a smoky burnout but I don't think they bought it) when I realized the water pump was gushing antifreeze. Decided there and then to pull the motor. Also discovered that while the body itself was extremely sound, the floorpans were shot.

Realizing that now was as good a time as any to start a rebuild, I yanked the engine and tranny and pulled the entire front clip. When she was finally towed into my driveway last weekend, all that was left was the radiator support and headlight support. Yanked those before work last Tuesday.

So this Saturday, I set out with confidence (Oh, I just never learn) to the garage. My goal: Strip off both sets of A arms and free the subframe from the unibody. I started on the driver's side. I don't have a fancy spring compressor, so I ratchet strapped the spring to the lower A arm. I was able to easily unbolt the shock from the underside of that arm, but where it bolted to the frame...no good. In the end, it took quite a bit of force (Read: I smacked the crap out of it with a big hammer) to free the lower arm from the frame. Once that was done, I unbolted the upper and pulled the whole assembly out without launching a coil spring through my neighbor's bay window.

This took quite a bit of time given my ineptitude combined with 28 year-old parts, but I was ready and willing to move on to the second...which did not cooperate with me in the least. In the end, two wrenches went sailing across the garage leaving twin jaw marks in my drywall. They are not the first, nor will they be the last.

Today, I went outside with a better attitude and did indeed get the lower A arm disconnected. Problem: The bolts holding the bottom of the shock absorber to the A arm are spinning in place. After a bit of head scratching and experimentation, I gave up and said, "Screw it! I'll just pop the subframe off and get at it from underneath!" Well, three out of four subframe bolts came out easily. The fourth? Yup. Spinning in place. And of course, I can't get a wrench on the square nut that holds the body to the subframe. After another hour of experimentation, frustration and one flying ratchet, I broke out the grinder and said sayonara to the bolt. I was able to easily yank the subframe into the garage with the engine hoist. Here it sits:

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I still have to get that shock off to remove the A arms. Tried the Sawzall, but it bound part of the way through. Clearly, I'll be doing some welding on that A arm. Doh! But hey, it's off, and I've got all winter to sandblast and grind away on this puppy and get it in primer for the spring. Plus, now I have room to push the rest of the car into its new home and get at those floor pans.

Up next: Stripping and cleaning THIS mess!

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WayFast84 · 10-22-2007, 07:24 PM

and i thought my car was apart... good work man

ar0ck · 10-22-2007, 07:42 PM

Good to see you making progress with the car! Just don't give up on or else you'll become an admin

Anti_Rice_Guy · 10-23-2007, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Grab a tape and check the trailer....maybe it's actually an 18' or something.

- Justin

I wiiiin. I knew i didn't have an extended limo Camaro in the garage.

79 t/a looks like you got your work carved out for you on the t/a and that blazer/jimmy in the background haha

79T/A · 10-23-2007, 11:36 AM

Quote:

79 t/a looks like you got your work carved out for you on the t/a and that blazer/jimmy in the background haha

LOL! Yeah, the driveway is starting to look a little too Sussex County! The Blazer is an '84 K5 I'm building to be a family hauler/plow truck. That's going to get far less massaging than the T/A. Right now, I'm concentrating on the T/A because I've had it for a long time and didn't get to wrench on it, and broken in half, it'll fit in the garage until I reinstall the subframe.

WildBillyT · 10-23-2007, 12:06 PM

Wow, that all looks familiar!

When you do the subframe, don't forget to add a couple of welds to critical areas. The factory ones are usually pretty crappy.

79T/A · 10-23-2007, 12:33 PM

Read my mind on that one! I was noticing some areas that could use a little more snot when I was taking it apart. Thank you!