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wud up boyz and galz. its ya boyy darkblood--- ok cut it out.
Welcome to my Trans am build. Not actually my car, but a car I am building for someone.
A bit of a back story to this project, because its a big one. This is a 1976 Trans am, which was put together/rebuilt a few years ago ( I believe 2015-2016 ). The cars body LOOKS good in the first few images, and overall the car was relatively well put together. This is the sort of build one would have done lets say in the 1990's to 2010 era. It has a 400 pontiac motor, dual exhaust, th350 trans with a stage 2 shift kit with a B&M shifter. Even a vintage air system, pretty standard stuff. The interior was clean, new carpets with a few odds and ends missing ( ash trays ). The body was redone ( this came to haunt us as you will see the progress ) it was repainted, fixed up. and overall the car was running ok.
The owner was however, just not satisfied with the full build. so they came to me INITIALLY just for a cam swap, maybe headers, and an overall tune.....
This is where the snowball began rolling.
Having seen my previous LS swap build of the 1980 Golden firebird, the owner started asking me about potentially doing an LS swap since the old pontiac 400 just didnt do it for him.
And then, they began inquiring about how sloppy the car drove, so we discussed suspension.
And so on, and so forth... and so I present you with our 1976 Trans am build.... a full ground up rebuild.
The following images are what we got when we started.
Enjoy!
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LOVE This!! I miss my 1976 T/A. So many more parts out there now than when I did my swap in '11-12
yea its a really nice car! I'm a big second gen fan. so I've worked with a lot of them. and I'm super stoked to be given such a huge build. This will all be on my YouTube at some point. So I'm documenting the full build for LS1tech as well
@Shiftworks Thank you! I will definitely keep your info for this build.
So I've done a few LS 2nd gen swaps.
First was a 79 Camaro with a stock 2002 LS1/4L60E swap. I used the Shift Works shifter mod. Worked perfect. I used it because it had a stock auto console.
On a 71 Corvette LS/4L60E swap with an originally 400 turbo I used the Shift Works parts. Again worked well.
Current project 80 Camaro was a manual with a LS3 swap so I used a Lokar shifter for the 4L60E. The stock 80 Camaro manual console was/is mint.
Beauty! yea. the next build I will do, will be my personal 1981 Camaro. its already sorta been ( built ) but I sold the motor and trans a few years ago, and its sat since. I will be doing an LS3+671 blower with a tr-6060 transmission. this wont happen till next spring as im collecting parts. So for now I will focus on this Trans am
The red 79 I built in 2002-2003 time frame. Hard to believe it's been that long ago. I was lucky enough to find a wrecked 2002 Camaro with a LS1/4L60E combo.
My current mostly done Camaro is a 80 RS. Bought it from the original son. Dad had passed away and the son just was not a car guy. 28K original miles. No hit zero rust car. That's the good. The bad was it had the super powerful 229 V6 three speed combo.
Now it has a L92/4L60E dressed like LS3 combo. Runs great.
10-21-2023, 12:01 PM
1976 Trans Am Full Build. 
