Project Frankenbird
 

I know this isn't a Camaro, but a friend old me to post the progress of my project here to show how easy a V8 swap really is.

On December 28th my beloved Trans Am got wrecked. Long story short, someone pit manuvered me into a 180 spin, and I ended up backwards on a curb. The person who hit me didn't stop. The T/A is also on storage insurance so it's not supposed to be driven except to/from shops for repairs.

Here are the pics of the wreck:
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The damage...rear bumper, wheels, driver side quater, wrinkles in the passenger quarter, hatch is askew, headlights/hood misaligned, t-tops visibly misaligned, front bumper, steering, etc. Suprisingly, the entire suspension survived and the engine still runs and the trans shifts fine, so that's good. Rear end will have to be disassembled and inspected. Suspension will also be looked over.

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After weighing some options, and talking to some friends, I came to the conclusion that the car is done, and I should move on. I'm going to completely strip the car of everything, and swap it all into another F-body. It just so happens, that someone in Norfolk, VA posted up a 1994 Firebird with a blown motor for sale for $500. He said the body and undercarriage looked perfect, and the only thing wrong was the motor. So, my buddy and I drive the 4 hours down there to get this car. It looked straight and the body is fine. The interior is destroyed though...good thing mine survived the wreck. I will also be swapping the front clip and the rear hatch. I have not decided on whether I am going to keep the hardtop from the new bird, or if we're going to work on cutting out spots for the t-tops. More research is required for that...we may just end up cutting the roof off the T/A and rewelding it to the Firebird.

While we were driving down to Norfolk, the appraiser came out and looked at the car. He quoted $3400. I'm surprised, I thought it would be a lot higher. Since insurance is not going to be covering the damage, I'm going ahead with the swap. No matter what the body shop does, it will look straight, but it will never go down the track straight again.

Here are a few pics of he Firebird before the tear down started.

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Day 1 (Saturday December 31st):

Interior is completely out...no rust what-so-ever.

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Day 2 (Sunday January 1st):

Made little progress...cleaned out the garage (a lot of dust), and got the car up on jackstands.

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Day 3 (Thursday January 5th):

Got all of the body panels off, so all that is left is the engine, trans, rear, and HVAC.

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Bringing the interior home in my GTP...this is safe, right?

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Day 4 (Saturday January 7th):

Got the rear end, driveshaft, torque arm, and fuel tank out.

Had to put the wheels/tires in the back to prevent the front end from crashing to the ground due to the lightness of the backend.

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I also picked up a T/A bumper for $50 off of Craigslist...it fits great in my wife's Corolla :icon_mrgreen:

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Day 5 (Sunday January 8th)

Ran out of firewood for the cast iron stove, so had to go out and cut some while the weather was still nice. As a result, I didn't get much time to work on the car today.

Spent less than an hour pulling the motor...this is the fourth motor I've pulled from a F-body, and I've gotten it down to an art :lol:

Then spent another hour cleaning up the stuff I won't need in the engine bay, which is practically everything.

Going up.
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I think I can squeeze it out of there.
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And it's out.
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Back down on the jack stands.
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Empty engine bay.
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Brakes, A/C, wiring, and other random crap removed.
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Can't wait to help with the swap, learning how to do an lsx/t56 on a v6 before I spend my own money :p

looking good so far.

sorry to hear about your trans am, that paint job was flawless!

Thank you...not bad for 11 year old paint, eh? :icon_mrgreen:

Progress I made today (was a busy week, so I wasn't able to work on it till today):

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Got the rest of the interior (shifter, HVAC, and steering column) out. Next comes the welding fun...roll cage, mini tub, sway bar mounts, subframe connectors, rear spring mounts, and travel limiters. After that comes the cleaning of everything before painting everything with some POR15.

This is all of the wiring out of a 4th Gen Fbody:
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I would not want to have to go back through all that wiring. Haha.

Looks like this is gonna be nice and fun build to follow.