What's up LS1tech? It's been a longgg time for me since I've visited.



Meet Alice. This is my latest F-Body. It is my fourth 4th-gen F-Body. I also owned a 2010 2SS. But something about 4th Gen T/A's really makes me happy to drive them.





This is a 1995 Trans Am. Red exterior and red leather interior. This car has 80,000 original miles on it (and going up fast because I'm driving the crap out of it). It's in excellent condition given that it's 19 years old. I was on a tight budget when I bought this car. Having only paid $4700 for her, I feel like I did pretty good since almost everything works. The horn doesn't work, the A/C needs charged, there was a fog light out, speakers are blown out, and there's some damage to the passenger rocker panel, and there are chips in the paint and the rear bumper is faded. All in all I feel like it was a great buy. Especially now after the plans I've come up with for this car.

One thing I've really noticed is how strong the exhaust gases always smell behind the car. My friend's car smelled the same way, and his catalytic converters were gutted out, so I'm wondering if that was done here. The "Service Engine Soon" light comes on from time to time for a while, I have yet to scan it to see what it is, so maybe it's related. But regardless, It IS a 1995 car, and because it can't be emission tested, this could be a great project.

Here are some ideas I have for the car.


- Engine swap: Dumping the LT1 in favor of an LS1. I'm going to have the engine built before dropping it in.
- Transmission: LT1 to LS1 T56 swap. Swap parts to configure T56 for LS1 use. Maybe use this opportunity to beef it up as well.
- Rear End: Moser 9" and a new driveshaft too
- Weld in Subframe Connectors. I'm sure I'll do other suspension stuff too once I decide what I want.
- Brakes: Corvette Brakes conversion I should be able to get the hookup on this.
- Exhaust: Resonator muffler(s) and pipes (SLP?), getting rid of the Rustmaster that's there and the stock pipes. SLP Longtubes? I guess it depends on the power adder.
- Supercharger. Still up in the air on what I want. Probably NOT going to be a turbo setup.
- Body parts swap. Ditching the 93-97 parts in favor of 98-02 parts.
- Paint. Not sure whether or not I'm sticking with red. I hate red cars (and red interior) but I actually like this one for some reason. I just can't escape the thoughts that since it's getting repainted maybe I should go with a color thats more fun. I had an SOM WS6 and loved it. Maybe?
- Honeycomb tail light swap, nuff said.
- "CETA" painted rear bumper.
- WS6 Hood w/ slim stripes down the sides of the scoops
- 01-02 Seats (that means I'll be selling my red interior) in Ebony
- Hurst Shifter with UMI Short Stick (actually have the stock hurst shifter from my WS6 still.
- LS7 Clutch and LS2 Flywheel? I think that was the popular choice back when I had my old one.
- 18" C6 wheels/tires by OE Wheels in Black (? this is still up in the air)
- '02 center console swap
- Window tint... dark
- Replacement speakers, old ones are blown
- New Head Unit with Nav, requires double-din conversion. My buddy's came out great. I already bought a Sony single slot head unit that does everything it just doesn't look as nice. This will be the absolute last mod.


Having owned both a 97 and an 01 prior to buying this car, I really do like both body styles, but obviously there's more curb appeal with the newer styling. If I had the money at the time I would have just bought another 01-02 WS6. Then going back to the emissions testing and inspection, those cars require you to have cats and for it to pass. Not on a 1995. I've heard how controversial people find this subject, but I feel like this is a valid reason given the extremes I plan to take this car down the road.

This isn't a month-long project. This is going to take at least a year or two for me to tackle. I would be interested to hear what everyone thinks.

It will be really cool for people to swear its a 98+ even after looking under the hood.

 

I think the red seats look really good.

 

thanks. I actually thought it was custom and was marveling at how much it looked factory legit. It actually is factory and was an available option in 1995. The leather (and the rest of the interior) is in remarkable condition for 19 years old!! Someone is going to be VERY happy to buy the interior from this car when the time comes to change it out.

I think I'm going with Ebony 01-02 interior. I really liked that on my 01 SOM WS6. I've even considered painting the car SOM when I finish it.

My line of reasoning behind all of this modding/converting is that I'll have a "street legal" race car with damn near twice the power of my WS6 I had for about the same price after I sell of the stuff I'm taking out. LS1 shortblocks are a dime a dozen now and from what I understand there's not a whole lot involved in LS1'ing an LT1 Borg Warner T56. Basically My car is going to get parked as an LT1 @ ~285hp to supercharged fully built street monster the next time I drive it away.

 

another plus to having a pre-'98 model is you won't have to worry about the roof getting zits and oozing all over the place

 

Nice, I thought about doing the later front clip on my 93, one thing that pushed me away from it was that you never see 93-97 Trans Ams any more, when you do most are pretty rough. I do still see 98+ cars all the time still.

 

Those seats are sick.

 

Those seats are awesome. Ive never seen those in any FBody before. I elect doing a darker color or something that looks good with the red and keeping that interior

 

KEEP the red leather, it looks good. But like you I hate red cars so when you swap the front end paint the car black, that red interior would be awesome and very unique against the later body in black.

 

Nice car... Funny I had a 01 som ws6 too and now have a 97 formula with an ls1 and all the parts to convert the body to a 98 + trans am..

 

agreed, white exterior would go nice too.

 

idk though, that car looks like it was meant to be red, and its clean, leave it red and build it. tint the windows and get some black wheels with a polished lip. im also a proponent of keeping the old body style, the road is littered with 98-02 cars, a clean 93-97 is hard to come by these days.

 

I have to agree with keeping the 93-97 front. I just sold a 2000 WS6 and kept my 96 WS6 just because they're less common. I'd kept that car as is except the wheels and hood. I've seen factory 96-97 ws6 hoods go for $300 in perfect shape. Having had both I agree with swapping the ls1. But when I do mine I'll miss the sound of my lt1 and longtubes. Best sounding engine to me. Enjoy your car whatever you decide. It's beautiful.

 

Uh oh I just upped a really old thread! GASP!

So it's been a while and it's been a really crazy year. I actually bought this car when my wife and I split. I needed wheels and figured I might as well buy something really nice. Since then we've actually started talking about getting back together.

First and foremost, thanks everyone for the compliments! I realize it's been a while but I appreciate it. After all this time, I've really weighed out what I wanna do. I've even considered strongly getting another 5th gen Camaro, but then there's the car payment aspect. This thing is paid for already and that is a great feeling.

It's also nice because I live in Charlotte now and there aren't many nice v8's on the road but there's an impressive subculture of Trans Am owners here -- there's just a lot of good looking 'birds on the road. Then I actually had a guy with a built 02 SS try to play with me on the road the other day.

Anyways I'm looking back over most of the things I posted on here about what I wanted to do and I'm really thinking it's going to happen. I'm about to have a few thousand dollars to spend on it. So i was thinking about buying a donor 98+ LS1 car and moving over what I want to complete mine. My rocker panels need replacing, the center console pre-97 sucks, and I could easily bolt up the headlights, front bumper and rear bumper (my rear now is faded), and fenders/hood.

I would sell my LT1 and Borg Warner T56 and have the donor parts rebuilt. I would love to take the money from selling the LT1/BW T56 and buy a nice 9" rear end and maybe an LS7 clutch kit. Otherwise there's still the aluminum driveshaft that started coming on the 98+ cars.

Has anyone does the engine swap? What challenges am I in for?

 

 

if you get rid of the seats, probably get rid of the door panels too huh? If so, good luck finding a set that aren't cracked. I tried to fix my cracked ones, to no avail, and bought a set from a 97 Trans Am that a guy was parting out, so now I'm going to dye the panel to match my interior and call it a day.