Thats like my dream car. Love all gen 2 Esprits, Formulas, and Trans Ams. But the metallic blue 79 is my absolute favorite. Im going to subscribe to your channel and watch the progress. 👍
Looks like the car has all the options that Pontiac had to offer, except for the 400 and 4 speed tranny and disk brakes. I like it. Hopefully you get the gold snowflake rims back on the car.
That’s the plan! Rebuilding the engine now, and then it’s onto all the little odds and ends. Yours truly used to detail professionally, so I have everything to clean her up. Can’t wait to see how it turns out - there will be more videos for that! I’ll keep you guys updated through the process. Thanks for watching!
It was a very nice car 😀 California cars are notorious here in Norway 😁 Here we struggle with rust... I bought a 79 black Trans Am, which I will start working on after being there too. It will be fun to follow your channel! Starting to follow you! 😀
Hey there! I have a good friend over in Norway. The rust must be tough, being surrounded by so much water. That is awesome that you brought a Trans Am over there, that must be really cool to see on the street. Thank you for watching and good luck with yours!
@@BriGuyGarage There is a large Amcar environment around Norway. But the Trans Am is no ordinary car there either. A lot of older Mustangs and Corvettes have been imported in the last 10 years.
Dude, I love Trans Am’s but a bit earlier models like 1970-74. You did pick up a nice car here. Best of luck to you with your project. Very articulate and clear speech 👍
I’ve always been a Camaro fan since I was a kid, but I had a few 4th gen Trans Am’s. I never really liked the 79 too much, always dreamed about an early second gen Ram air car like you mentioned. But man, once I saw this one in person, I fell in love with it. Still prefer early second gens though! Thanks for watching and the kind words, I’ll have more videos up of this and my 73 Camaro!
@@fixxforlife1569 I don’t like the 74 either except the 1974 still had the SD 455 Engine, which made any car it was in a dream. My favorites were the 1970-73 models.
I drove a 1981 Trans-Am for several years in the mid to late '80's. Very memorable for both my wife and I. Once you work out all the kinks they run great. Mine was a daily driver, summer and winters. Winters in Montreal. Drift City. Woot-Woot !!
@@pavloosh I always hear my family tell stories of the 60’s and 70’s like it was a dream - I was born in the wrong decade! My cars and music are as close as I’ll probably get!
Love your trans am is that Atlantis blue ? Neat all California trans am were from van Nuys assembly plant plus there were equipped with the olds 403 because the pontiac 400 did not meet California emissions standards this is my favorite gen is the 2nd gen
Yes car has had a refreash at some point the color tones on the interior are due to the fade of diffrent materials use the vinyl vs plastic vs metal used on the diffrent parts fade to diffrent degrees very nice car n the engine upgrades are a nice change. Id go with the new larger snowflakes 18x9 ;) enjoy the car. Maybe check out my car
It's a 403. I was 20 years old when I bought the car. There were about 30 trans on the lot, but only 1 with the color blue and that's the one that I wanted. I still have original plate on the car. Car needs some work, interior has faded. It's been garage kept all this time.
I own a 1979 same color as yours, my decals are brown in color. i bought the car new january 79.your car speedometer has been changed by 79 they were 100 mph on dash and is missing all sticker decals under hood also rear spoiler decals lettering should be on the flat part. that's how mine is from factory. anyway you have a nice hole solid beautifull car
Hey man! You’ve had yours since new? That’s wild! Yes, the original owner changed the speedometer, but fortunately I still have the original one in the trunk. Once I finish rebuilding the engine, I plan on getting all the under hood decals correct again. I’m going to look at references for the spoiler decals - thanks for the heads up. Is yours a 403 or a 400?
Car has definitely been repainted, as someone molded the fender vents into the fender, they should be removable. Why would they go to the trouble of hopping up the motor and then keep the single exhaust? need to let it breathe! The interior plastics didn't match the door panels/seats/dash from the factory very well unless it's black! still a very nice solid car though, good find!
Yes it was respray Ed with a urethane base coat/clear coat in the factory color! The molded vents was something the original owner did as well, forgot to mention those. Thought they looked pretty cool lol. I have no idea about the exhaust, I’ll have to see what other parts are in the engine once I take it out. That’s the first time I’ve heard about the interior panels not matching well, that’s interesting. Can’t wait to get it running right and going down the road again! Thank you for watching!
I come across this video and I have noticed it's already 3 months old. Curious to know how far along you have come in the past three months or so on your Trans Am project?
@@BriGuyGarage that's good I hope everything has been going ok then for you. Found your channel and was really im anticipation for other videos but life does happen
I've owned a 10th Anniversary TA since 1987, have three other 79 Trans Ams, one is similar to yours with no AC and no To tops. That minimal option list makes them rare since most had AC. Also have a 79 WS6 4 speed Formula, it was originally a 301 4 barrel car, but now its one of my street strip toys with a 461 and E heads on it. Its been lightened extensively.. All total I have eleven Firebirds, because for many years they were dirt cheap. The most expensive 2nd gen was the 72 455 HO Formula that I got from a friend, paid more for the 98 Formula when I gave $7500 for it in 2004. You could say I know something about these cars. I am somewhat big into Pontiac, also own four GTOs, six LeMans, a 72 Ventura, and others. If you have questions about them, other than date code type stuff which I don't care about, I probably know the answer. Check my channel, I have some videos of the 79 Formula up along with the GTOs. The hassle of putting a 330 crank in a 403 makes no sense, the cast cranks are more than strong enough for the power level you can get out of the short deck Olds, especially with the windows in the main webs on a 403. If it were mine I would source another 403 crank to make balancer and flex plate changes a non issue. The chevy needs a forged crank because they are weak suck taxi cab engines built with barely adequate parts, but the BOP engines came with good design, engineering, and machine work. The Pontiac cast cranks are good to well over 800hp in either the 3" or 3.25" main journal size. The 403 is not an RPM engine, they are all done by 6000rpm, but they can make very good torque below that. Porting the heads and going with a 236@.050 ish cam wakes them up with a set of headers, but still keep it under 6200 because its not making more power up there. BOP engines have long high velocity ports, so they make torque off idle to about 5k, its better to maximize that than it is to try to make them do something they are not designed to do.. e.g. 7000rpm. If NY lets you, put headers and 2.5" exhaust on it, keep the gearing under 3.42, the 403s really like 3.08 gears, they will pull it easily and get mileage in the 20s with the 3.08s. For a heavy car like these thats doing rather well. My 79 Formula was 3750lbs AFTER I lightened it a bunch, have it down to 3000 now which was not an easy thing to do.. and if it hits something, there isn't much ahead of the engine. The 10th and the other TAs weigh around 4000lbs, give or take 200. They are not light, so making more torque works better than gears and RPM. Likewise you don't need more than 2400 stall, its just wasting RPM which you do not have in excess. If you follow the trendy people and put an LS in it, you will spend a lot more to go slower than you could with the 403. Its all about the torque, and most of your 403 seems to be there already, just need to address the crankshaft issue. Valve springs are another problem area, the 403 had some funky aluminum straps that acted as the fulcrum for the rockers, the earlier heads don't have that, and I am not sure when Olds started doing it. It limits how much lift and valve spring pressure you can run. If its the earlier Olds 350 heads from 1989, I forget the casting number on them, they raise compression and have similar flow with smaller valves. Stock 403s were in the 7:1 range. I like to run E85 and E100, which is why my performance engines are Pontiacs, the Olds can't make as much compression as easily since they used dished pistons rather than chamber size to adjust compression. If it has over 9.5:1 or if you don't want to pay for premium gas, I can hook you up with converting your carb to E85. It will pass the sniffer test easily if NY has one of those for the 79s on E85. California is why it still has the factory exhaust under it, they don't let you change anything in that area. Looks like your channel is starting to go pretty well. I had 110 subscribers back in March, I barely make content and I am almost to 1000. This car can be a goldmine for content. My Firebird videos do relatively decent for views, so keep making content and the thumbnail is pretty good too.
Thanks a bunch for all the info! I was considering trying to find a 403 crank, but I learned quickly how difficult it is to find parts for these engines. I’ll keep looking though. I also need to look up what size journals the 330 crank have compared to the 403 to make sure I can get the right bearings. I’m new to these old BOP’s, prior to these classics I had a bunch of LS 4th gens. Speaking of LS, I definitely do not have any desire to LS swap this thing lol. Toughest part is probably going to be getting the right color for the interior panels. SEM doesn’t make the color, so I’ll have to go another route and have someone scan a panel and get a color mixed. My interior panels seem to be a mix of grayish blue, a light blue, and a couple light gray panels. It’s odd. I can pretty much do whatever to these cars here in NY. I’d be very interested in the E85 swap, if not just to learn how it’s done. Are you on any of the Pontiac groups on Facebook? I’m in Pontiac Motor Division as well as a bunch of TA groups. I’m curious, what do you think this car would be worth once it’s all cleaned up and running right?
@@BriGuyGarage I'm not sure what value the 2nd gens have, some people are asking a lot of money for them, don't know if they are getting it. The only ones I know the value of are the early round port cars, like HO, SD, and RA IV. When it came with round ports its $$$$$$$$$$$$. The 350 and 403 have the same crank, balanced different for the heavier pistons because a 403 has a bore nearly as large as a 460 Ford. The short Olds 330, 350 and 403 have the same short stroke compared to Pontiac and the tall deck Olds, but they are still not an RPM engine. Its more about port length and size than the stroke. I am pretty sure the journal sizes are all the same for 330,350,403 but it has been a while since I did anything with them. If you were going to all the trouble, why not use a stroker crank? Eagle has one that will fit with a little work, its for the 425/455 engines. The counterweights need cut down to fit in the 403 block. The windowed mains are an issue with RPM, but under 5500 its not a problem. Some of the Olds forums will have more info on the options you have with the 403. Doing the things you normally do to a sbc to make it faster will make Olds and Pontiac engines slower, like 4.10-5.13 gears, 4500 stall, single plane intakes, etc. Its especially true with the 4.21"/4.25" stroke engines (455s), they need the airflow through the heads doubled before you can consider doing the high RPM thing. I don't use facebook much anymore, but I am on several Pontiac pages on there. I try not to cross YT with FB much, because I am rather outspoken about certain things that YT doesn't like people to disparage... like so cia lism, which I have to spell like that or my comment gets hidden. Being an old Cold War veteran I am not a fan of that ideology. Also have been on forums, like Performance Years. Most of them have petty squabbles between groups of nut swingers, and I am not a big fan of drama. I haven't been going there much lately, but you can find my older builds on several of them. My 79 WS6 Formula had the same interior, same color, same pattern, and 30 years ago when the car was only 10 years old, the piece around the column didn't match. Its a slightly different shade of gray in the 10th Anniversary too. The black and tan ones seemed to match best, blue and gray not so much. E85 is fun if you can find it near you. I have to drive two hours south to Wisconsin and fill up 55 gallon drums. My 65 GTO and 68 LeMans run on it, the 79 Formula can go with either 92 octane or E85, its just a carb swap on that one. If it gets the 6-71 next year it will run on E85. Not sure which one I will put the blower on... I have some chevy guys to prove wrong first. I also make E100 from cattails, tree sap, and starting this year coffee grounds. The farther south you go the more crap they put in the fuel, and the additives they put in are what cause problems like the yellow waxy/gel stuff, the white powder, and the rusty parts. Its not from ethanol itself, its additives causing the problems.
@@SweatyFatGuy That’s rally interesting, I’ll have to look into the E85 and E100 more just out of sheer curiosity at this point. I gave you a sub and will try to keep up! I have some more content to plan for this car, but I have to get my engine assembled and back in my Camaro first.
@@BriGuyGarage its good to have more than one project going at a time, if you have the space for it. There is a lot of bad info on ethanol out there, most people just repeat what they were told. Some of us have been working with it and testing for years. The thing I like most about ethanol is that I can run high compression, like 13:1 to 16:1 in a daily driver on it, and I can make the stuff for less than $1 a gallon.
It’s hard to see in the video, but it’s definitely an olds 403. The filler tube in the front has been blocked off, so at a glance it may look like a Pontiac. It has the engine code stamped up front as well!
Firebird Trans Am in 1979 model year had two 6.6 Liter V-8s. The W72 400 cubic inch V-8 version was equipped by Pontiac, and the L80 403 cubic inch V-8 version was equipped by Oldsmobile. General Motors had Oldsmobile Division eqiup Trans Ams sold in California with the 403 V-8 because of California's emission standards, while Trans Ams in the other 49 states were equipped with Pontiac Motor Division 400 cubic inch V-8
wow...!!!! awesome. Looks in GREAT shape..!!!!!! Good luck and enjoy..!!!! I just subscribed because i want to see your progress. And... i once had the same car and i really do miss it..!! hahaha
@@BriGuyGarage same color. but 6 cyl. I saved the snowflake rims as well as the 8 track player. But my x tossed them out during divorce.. lol. i wish i still had that stuff as well as so much other stuff that would have helped you. Ugh... so sorry brother.
