1998 trans am rebuild father/son project
08-28-2013, 08:36 AM
#1
Teching In
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy, TX
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1998 trans am rebuild father/son project Hello everybody, my name is Hayden and I'm new here. I just graduated high school and I'm currently attending my first year at University of Houston. My father and I share a huge love for cars. We started this project at the beginning of summer. This will be our second build, as our first one was a 96 f150. Anyways, on to the car...
We started off with two cars. The first one was a running and driving 1998 trans am. It had several go fast goodies, such as, ls6 intake, huge cam (don't know the specs), built 4l60, 9 inch w/4.11s, and suspension goodies. The previous owner wrecked the car beyond repair. The floor is wrinkled and the left frame rail is kinked. The second car is a complete shell minus some misc interior pieces and suspension. The goal is to build the roller using everything from the wrecked car. In the process of this, we are reprinting every little piece or bolt to make it look brand new.
The old car.
We started off by painting the engine bay of the roller. We decided on sonic blue as the color.
Next we swapped everything on the core support over to the roller.
The nest weekend we swapped rear ends. This is usually an easy task, but like I said I wanted to clean everything up.
Had to add a little flair... So we painted the springs and sway bar. Springs are already replaced with lowering springs.
This was the reason of the death of the wrecked car.
Apparently he went through a culvert, and I'm assuming the torque arm mount caught something and bent the floor and bracket.
Random pictures.
My current dd...
The 96
Projects
We started off with two cars. The first one was a running and driving 1998 trans am. It had several go fast goodies, such as, ls6 intake, huge cam (don't know the specs), built 4l60, 9 inch w/4.11s, and suspension goodies. The previous owner wrecked the car beyond repair. The floor is wrinkled and the left frame rail is kinked. The second car is a complete shell minus some misc interior pieces and suspension. The goal is to build the roller using everything from the wrecked car. In the process of this, we are reprinting every little piece or bolt to make it look brand new.
The old car.
We started off by painting the engine bay of the roller. We decided on sonic blue as the color.
Next we swapped everything on the core support over to the roller.
The nest weekend we swapped rear ends. This is usually an easy task, but like I said I wanted to clean everything up.
Had to add a little flair... So we painted the springs and sway bar. Springs are already replaced with lowering springs.
This was the reason of the death of the wrecked car.
Apparently he went through a culvert, and I'm assuming the torque arm mount caught something and bent the floor and bracket.
Random pictures.
My current dd...
The 96
Projects
08-28-2013, 10:24 AM
#3
Teching In
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy, TX
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
After we swapped rear ends, the motor had to come out of the wrecked car. This was the first time my father and I pulled a ls1. We had it out in about 3-4 hours.
Once the motor was out, we found out the "little" fire that had happened after the accident was much worse than what we had thought.
Fast forward a couple weekends, we swapped the interiors over. Before we laid the carpet down I had to make a patch panel for the 6 speed hole. I also drilled the a4 shifter bracket out of the wrecked car and transferred it to the roller. I put seam sealer between the patch panel and the floor. I made it removable just in case I want to do a t56 swap later down the road.
Before
Sealed
Me laying down base
Then came the dash swap.... I don't think I will ever do a dash again!
A sign of relief was seeing the dash lit up.
95% complete.
On the dashi wanted to something different, but not ricey lol. I decided to paint the ac vent surround body color.
The interior isn't in perfect shape, but I rather spend money on the engine/suspension first. This is how it sits today. this weekend we are either gonna stab the motor or start prepping for paint. Oh and I'm looking for a harness lol.
Once the motor was out, we found out the "little" fire that had happened after the accident was much worse than what we had thought.
Fast forward a couple weekends, we swapped the interiors over. Before we laid the carpet down I had to make a patch panel for the 6 speed hole. I also drilled the a4 shifter bracket out of the wrecked car and transferred it to the roller. I put seam sealer between the patch panel and the floor. I made it removable just in case I want to do a t56 swap later down the road.
Before
Sealed
Me laying down base
Then came the dash swap.... I don't think I will ever do a dash again!
A sign of relief was seeing the dash lit up.
95% complete.
On the dashi wanted to something different, but not ricey lol. I decided to paint the ac vent surround body color.
The interior isn't in perfect shape, but I rather spend money on the engine/suspension first. This is how it sits today. this weekend we are either gonna stab the motor or start prepping for paint. Oh and I'm looking for a harness lol.
08-28-2013, 02:38 PM
#6
Teching In
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy, TX
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I definitely like blue lol. The truck was originally blue so it got reprinted the factory color. We just happened to stumble across the blue Tbss. The trans am is gonna replace the Tbss so I picked my all time favorite color.
Trending Topics
08-28-2013, 06:07 PM
#8
Teching In
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am Southtexasplayn's dad and the 3 blue vehicles is a funny story but he summed it all up. The most important part was we did want the typical colors black, red, white, black, silver & did I mention.....BLACK! lol No one get butt hurt we both like all colors he just wanted to do his favorite.
Attached is a picture of the blue truck 2 weeks after we bought it and right before we painted it. Btw it was in one piece when we drove it from Humble. lol
Attached is a picture of the blue truck 2 weeks after we bought it and right before we painted it. Btw it was in one piece when we drove it from Humble. lol
08-28-2013, 09:19 PM
#9
Teching In
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Ft Worth TX
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What are you gonna do with the TBSS? I like blue too. I looked for one in that color for months before I found a Yukon Denali and bought that instead. Awesome build pics.
08-28-2013, 11:58 PM
#10
looks like a real cool project, family projects are the best! My father and I work on my 98 and also have a 86 vette were trying to do maybe a ls1 swap but anyway what are your plans with this motor now that you see the extent of the damage? By the way sonic blue is a sweet color cant wait to see the outcome of this build!
08-29-2013, 11:04 AM
#15
Teching In
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy, TX
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
looks like a real cool project, family projects are the best! My father and I work on my 98 and also have a 86 vette were trying to do maybe a ls1 swap but anyway what are your plans with this motor now that you see the extent of the damage? By the way sonic blue is a sweet color cant wait to see the outcome of this build!
08-30-2013, 04:13 PM
#17
Teching In
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Father son projects are fun until we disagree on something. Usually I do the mechanical and my dad does the painting/prepping. For now I'm gonna try to get away with just replacing the harness, injector, maybe intake, and all the other bs items that burnt. Im on a college student budget so I'm trying to put it together as cheaply as possible for now, then later on upgrading everything.
...lol.....Life's too short to argue over petty stuff but $$$$ is another story. 
08-31-2013, 02:13 PM
#19
Teching In
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I wish it was my shop! lol It's my work shop and I am fortunate that I can work on my own stuff. Prolly not gonna pull the cam out, as I can still get ahold of the previous owner. But we will keep it in mind as we may need other parts.
09-03-2013, 07:51 AM
#20
Teching In
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Katy, TX
Posts: 22
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Had full intentions to work on the trans am this weekend, but the radio broke in the 96 f150. Since I try to drive it a couple times a week to school, I have to have some kinda beat while sitting in traffic. So I worked on that. Probably the 5000th time I have had the dash apart.
Although while I worked on that, my dad painted the intake. When the car caught fire, the intake melted some.
Since I'm trying to put the car back together as cheaply as possible (remember I'm on a college budget) my dad took a grinder to the melted part of the intake.
After he did this, I Thoroughly inspected the last two runners for any cracks, holes, distortion, etc. The runners were perfectly smooth on the inside. Next my dad smoothed the whole intake out.
Add some sealer, base, and clear, a voila a chiny intake.
Although while I worked on that, my dad painted the intake. When the car caught fire, the intake melted some.
Since I'm trying to put the car back together as cheaply as possible (remember I'm on a college budget) my dad took a grinder to the melted part of the intake.
After he did this, I Thoroughly inspected the last two runners for any cracks, holes, distortion, etc. The runners were perfectly smooth on the inside. Next my dad smoothed the whole intake out.
Add some sealer, base, and clear, a voila a chiny intake.
