John's 98 Trans Am Build Thread

[FurchesPerformance]

John (jonnyman on here), brought his beautiful Trans Am to be back in July to sort out a few issues. At the time, the car had an LS3 based 418ci motor with a rebuilt T56 and a 12 bolt. It made some decent power and looked really nice.



After some diag, we determined that the current motor had some oil pressure/ consumption issues. We weighed our options against John's vision for the car and pulled the trigger on a pretty aggressive game plan. First step was to tear everything apart!



We pulled the motor and transmission and completely stripped the engine bay of all the wiring and accessories. We also modified the upper radiator support to house a new stand-up radiator and condenser combo in an effort to clean up the bay.



At this point, John went nuts with the bay and took it to another level. Every non essential hole was filled and smoothed, and the bay was painted to match the rest of the car. I couldn't believe the difference it makes, and the photos really don't do it justice.



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As for this years combination, there are some major changes underway!

-ERL 427ci Short Block
-Direct Port Nitrous System with Stand-Alone Cell
-T56 Magnum from D&D
-Holley HP EFI System
-Lot's of Suspension Upgrades (watts link, k-frame, struts/springs etc)







I will be keeping this thread updated as the build progresses in different segments, and I am sure John will have some time to chime in as well. Stay tuned, this thing is going to be one hell of a car this year!

-Brandon

[jonnyman]

Subscribed

[Naaman]

Nice!

[SMWS6TA]

Sub'd

[theorangeguy]

[pajeff02]

Subscribed.

[SMWS6TA]

Jeff may have a challenge now to "cleanest ride"

[35th-ANV-SS]

Awesome build. Subscribed.

[FurchesPerformance]

Few more parts dropped for John's Car. The Spohn stuff is looking top notch as always!

[jonnyman]

Brandon pulled these out and the gas tank and lines.

[theorangeguy]

I just want to cry when I see your car...you've got one of the nicest ones around man. Kudos on the build and kudos to Jonnyman for spending the money

[jonnyman]

I have been busy trying to keep up and paint parts to look good for the build.

[TransAmTerry]

subscribed as well ! ...and +1 on all the above kudos

[jonnyman]

the image of the bay that Brandon put up was before I put clear on it, here is it after clear.

[ASh302]

Just beautiful

ASh

[jonnyman]

I Finally got around to painting the intake so now Brandon can start putting the engine together.

[FurchesPerformance]

Photos of the engine and a few other areas we tackled will be up tomorrow!
All I can say is this car is going to be ALMOST to nice to drive!

[Ed Blown Vert]

Very nice!

[RONS98TA]

I Finally got around to painting the intake so now Brandon can start putting the engine together.

I love the color of the intake and the burnt orange accents are bada$$.

[FurchesPerformance]

So John's car has been keeping my hands full. We have every single component stripped from the undercarriage including brake lines, fuel lines, suspension, fuel tank and etc with the intention of putting some paint and corrosion protection on the boards front to back. Before I can go any further with the paint plans though, I have had to tackle repairing previous installation attempts of subframe connectors!

This is what I started with...




This is the pile I removed from the drivers side alone...



And this is the repair we made! 3/16 plate shapped and tigged to the floor and into the front subframe. 1-5/8 .083 chromoly connector.




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Motor has been going together smoothly as well. Here are a few sneak peaks of where we are at...





Slowly but surely the car is coming together. This thing is going to be absolutely gorgeous when its finished!