My 1984 T/A- Before, during and after repaint

[Agent83]

And yup, that's the same spoiler posted above! It looks great on the daytona. Did it touch the rear quarter panel on yours? It does on mine and I don't know if it should or not... I don't want it to rub against the paint, but then again, having it slightly raised might make it vibrate and rub the paint worse.

Thanks for the pictures of the new mounts.

The spoiler did touch the quarter panels. I know someone that installed the same spoiler on an '87 and it also touches the quarter panels.

[jeremynyr]

Well after man weeks of delays and waiting, my Trans Am is finally in for its new paint! I'm so nervous and excited about it at the same time... I've just waited so long for this. I want to be happy and celebrate, but I'm also worried about it coming out as good as I want it to. I know the painter does great work, so I expect to be very happy with the results.

[TAdan]

That is good news. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

[jeremynyr]

It's been a while since i put an update in this thread. There was the little incident of the fire at the paint shop that almost killed my bird. I was very lucky that they parked my T/A outside for the night. Here is a link to the thread discussing what happened in case you missed it:
http://earlythirdgen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=326

And a picture of my bird sitting outside and watching the fire:


I went yesterday and took some pictures of the little bit of progress there is to report. They removed all the decals and started the sanding and filling of little dings and dents:








The hood was in worse shape than I thought. The tape spots are to mark all the little dings. Since it was repainted before, they'll probably be stripping it down to metal and starting over. it looks like it just shaved for the first time and dabbed toilet paper squares on all the little cuts

[blg0720]

You just gave me the best laugh...my Dad accidentally went to church with TP squares on his face. When we told him, he just started snickering and couldn't stop! Good memory...

Anyway, did you decide what color you're going to go with? Are you going to do it MOPAR silver or are you going back with the white/gold scheme? The period interest just gets me with the two-tones. Kind of a soft spot for me....

[jeremynyr]

I remember my dad doing the TP squares and of course Homer Simpson made it famous as well I'm going with the platinum, I never really wavered on that decision. The two-tone did grow on me over the years, but I already have the engine compartment painted platinum and I really love the way it looks. I guess with the LT1 and T56 along with the updated interior and spoiler, I'm going more for a modern interpretation than a purely original look.

[blg0720]

So what made you go with an LT1 over an LS1?

[jeremynyr]

So what made you go with an LT1 over an LS1?

price and availability. A wrecked LT1/T56 car came up locally 2 years ago for a price I couldn't refuse. After selling off the parts I didn't need and selling my old L98/700r4 setup, the upgrade cost me somewhere around $800. I kinda wish I would've done LS1, but at the same time I like the look and sound of the LT1. It's the last engine that's still somewhat "old-school" in design.

[brother al]

Very Nice!
I added '86 T/A 16's to my '86 Bird. At full lock, they rub the plastic liner. Oddly, even with a perfect alignment, the pass side gets beat up worse, & is really getting thin.

[jeremynyr]

well I have a little bit of progress to report on. Unfortunately, rehabing their shop has taken longer than expected. When I stopped in today, they were putting the finishing touches on the paint booth and it looked pretty good. As for my car, I was happy to find out that there were no surprises underneath the door mounted section of the W62 ground effects! They're also very clean inside the door itself. The only damage is some rust on the inside of the door along the bottom lip, which I knew about. It turns out some of the weld for the drivers side door skin also broke, which was probably contributing to the rattling doors. It'll all be addressed in the coming week when the doors are removed and the hinges rebuilt. I've been promised a great deal of work will be completed in the next few weeks... we'll see if it becomes a reality.





here is the door sticker... one last picture before it is removed. the lettering mostly stays on the door when you start peeling the sticker, so I won't bother trying to save them.

[blg0720]

That door sticker is something I hadn't thought of. Of course, I don't know how to open my doors at the moment, because there are no handles. I'm going to see her tomorrow, so check my paint thread for updates!!

[jeremynyr]

a small update from checking in on the bird last week:





The rust isn't really that bad at all. most of what you see is just a "rust stain" from the t-bar. The t-bar is in decent shape... I don't think I could find one in better shape without paying a fortune. Hopefully the updates will continue and grow weekly.

[blg0720]

You need to check on my thread to see how to do PROPER updates!!

I have had the camera out on every visit and taken every possible shot. I'm going to take all the photos and put them in an album and keep it to take with me when I take the car to shows, meets, etc.

[jeremynyr]

You need to check on my thread to see how to do PROPER updates!!

I have had the camera out on every visit and taken every possible shot. I'm going to take all the photos and put them in an album and keep it to take with me when I take the car to shows, meets, etc.

haha! I plan to do the same with an album of project pictures. I do take a few more pics than I actually post, but honestly the progress has been at a snail's pace... there just isn't much new stuff to show! I can't keep up with yours at all and mine was in the shop since you were planning to paint your 83 T/A! I'm hoping that will change in the coming weeks, but I can't say I'm very confident that it will. I'll start another thread showing some of the work I'm doing on my garage to make a better home for when the T/A returns. I patched the concrete floor, it's about to get epoxy painted in gray gloss with granite-looking flecks and I'm more than likely going to be installing drywall all around too

[blg0720]

Sounds like it's going to be a nice garage. I haven't done anything with my garage floor, but it's already drywalled. It's a two-car garage, but Emma will have it ALLLLL to herself! I have some cleanup to do around it, but I'll be danged if my kids are going to screw up this paint job!!!

Remember, it took a long time for things to get going. She sat at the body shop for almost a month before they REALLY did any work on her. I had to wait for collision work to clear out. Your body shop had a pretty serious fire, so I'm guessing they have to catch up on all the jobs that came in before you. Just keep your mind occupied with how great it will look when it comes OUT!

[brother al]

Nice!
I can only hope that I can find a great bodyman that won't kill my wallet. All that Black sheetmetal is a big worry to me. We all know how hard/$$ it is to get Black panels straight & she's got a few dings n dents, thankfully no rot tho.!
Speaking of Garages, a bit off topic tho. I just finally got the one at my Apt. organized! Yay!!!, all just in time to tear it all out again... I was offered a great deal on a nice 4 bedroom ranch, decent sized 1 car garage that I plan on insulating & heating, 1 acre of land...
Anyway, I worked out a $950 mo. deal for 3 years, & then I'll buy it. Family friend needs to sell it ASAP, but can't w/ bad economy. I don't have enough saved up for the initial bank downpayment, so we struck a fair deal, & we are both making out.

[Raptor]

Hey, how did you remove the "rivets" at the bottom of the rear ground effect ?

[jeremynyr]

actually the shop removed those. I'll ask them the next time I check in on it (probably tomorrow or Thursday) since I was curious myself. I parted out a 3rd gen camaro but it was so long ago that I don't remember how I did it.

[jeremynyr]

Well I checked in today. Still nothing earth shattering, but some nice work:











The door jambs and t-top area are looking pretty good. The ground effects pieces look great. They look nice and straight with some good primer. They did some repair on cracked/torn areas using resin as can be seen in the last picture. They're just finishing up a car in their booth so mine is either the first or second car in line now.

[TAdan]

Great, glad to see some visible progress.