Transforming A Budget Pontiac Into the ICONIC Bandit Trans Am! | Roadworthy Rescues

Well a guy recently watched Smoky in the Banit for the 93rd time and was inspired to build my own cheap Bert TransAm so we need a T-top 77 TransAm that's black so here we are in Alabama where we found this not so 77 TransAm . a blue one with primer and a 79, not black, but it was much cheaper and something to work with. Let's try to

trans

form this into something unique and similar. Try to do it on a

budget

, but first we have to go 150 miles. Back to my store, this is the first time I've seen it in person so just walk around and see what we have, so this is a pretty unique color.

I think it's Atlas blue or something, you don't see many of them. The front clips were replaced or something, but I don't know, it looks pretty solid. We are missing some things. We have some black Bandit plastic parts here. It's a T-shirt that is a winning formula for any guy. from Bert tribute again, although this is a 79, not a 77, but you can save a lot of money if you choose the wrong year. It had some scratches. We have the typical speed holes that one might have for drifting. It's nice. Good fist size, but the plastic almost covers it.

These are anniversary wheels. They are pretty slick and we have some Integrity tires. I don't know if they are round. AHA. Okay, we'll ignore all the rust on the deck lid. We have a lot. of its plastic and trim pieces and plastic some assembly is required I guess we have a flopp, it doesn't even have a latch, woo, we complete some kind of motor in the engine compartment, there are all the ingredients for a successful system air conditioning, has a new fuel pump working, it was great and I think everyone here could get a good idea of ​​this thing actually working, but before we dive into this, I have to get into this thing to see if I actually have a steering wheel and the stuff needed to start the car smells like a wet shoebox full of alligator legs and red onions, not good, both seats are reclined in Tupac mode and I think they're just ruined that way .

This one already has a stern wheel, that's good. The shifter seems to change things. It looks like we're going to need all that plastic because there isn't any. Plastics in the car practically not at all. Yeah, I mean, you get what you pay for. You can use Flint Stone. big ol' back hole back here that's nice and a window spins nice, I think a guy is going to take this whole thing apart, take a look at the fuel, glad to see what our mystery engine is, then we can throw in a bucket of lightning here and just test the whole electrical system, make sure the ignition works, the starter is actually connected and doing cranking things and stuff like that, it looks like everything is connected pretty well on the casting number here on the block 396021f, the networks tell us it's a 455 engine from 68 to 72 and they had a lot of horsepower but that's actually pretty unique and cool because this thing should have a lot of torque why they changed it here.

I have no idea, but it's great news. Actually, I put the sad cable in nothing bright yet. fast and belted, light and compact turns, she has a Gallop, although I hear that the compression of one cylinder is not like the other, we can probably fix it with a couple dozen burns, let them get rings, none of the gauges work. The fuel gauge says 48 gallons full, so that's what you want on a long road trip. Perfect, now I even know what Ro turns on. That's great news, but I'm going to check all the fluids in this thing before I try to start it up just to make sure we have. all the juices in it, oh yeah, it's actually full, not bad, we can use it for a while anyway, it has a lot of gas in it, so at the end we want to leave it to make sure we have some in the blood bar . oh yeah, two things, I need a sinus pill and it doesn't smell that bad.

There's something in there, so we won't burn the bomb anyway, so I'm going to throw some spruce into the Yap, some gasoline to see. If this thing at least makes some noise, bring on the Thunders, it shot, there it goes, oil pressure still nothing on the gauge, but I think the gauge is broken, it's running, the engine mounts are shot, It's been a long time since anything actually worked as advertised. I'll tell you it's a little foggy, but it could be a timing, it could be spark gliders, okay, we get it, I have things to do, okay, I'm just going to turn it off because it definitely works well, that's fantastic.

Now I'm going to put oil in this bad boy and change it quick. I think we could check out the Ice Cube juice and the water heater in the front. It probably doesn't have brakes because the rear parts are completely disconnected. We're actually on top of a mountain right now and the first thing we do when we turn left is drop like 74 million feet high right into a little town with a red light flashing in four directions, so I'd like to have brakes for once, that would be nice, so a guy slid his retina under the front of the car here and unfortunately the cross member completely broke, split, broke and luckily someone welded it with his eyes closed and it seems to have repaired, no and there is still a crack at the top which means the lower control arm on the drinker side of this vehicle is about to come off and nothing is straight or correct about any of the steering door alignments but As it's a tribute replica of the BT car, it means we can Jump now too, we don't have to feel bad about it.

I'm going to test the

trans

mission, make sure we actually have gear and then I'll hit the old ground hammer on the brake pedal and see if it's really going to work. stop, all good, reverse, there it becomes neutral. Drive some timing. I could hear it was loose so I used the ear meter there, turned this air filter back on and we got 150 Mi back to the grip. Garage on the pull. The bar car runs halfway decent, I put some timing on it, I moved it closer to the fuel pump area there, I put a battery in it, I changed the oil, I put some juice in the shifter and it didn't even work.

I'm not even going to look at the rest. jump in and just hit the road and see what happens, okay, keep your foot firmly on the pedal, never mind the brakes, well that's a start. I had never driven a TransAm from the back seat before. It's a very different experience, for sure. Oh boy. These brakes need a lot of work at least we're not going down 78 billion feet. Well, the GU posted behind a parts store here is a pretty good place. I have to say, now that we're in the alley, it's not very good. I have some things.

I need to address it before I hit the road B, that tire in need of repair number four is already overheating and I'm not getting fuel from the fuel tank, it will be a pickup screen that is clogged, the pickup screen or tube is just rotten or missing, I just don't have time right now, so I'm going to do the right thing, just put a hose over here, throw it on the passenger seat, put it in a fuel jug, pick up some excess for this, you could pick up a bottle. of head gaskets and a can, just in case, we put some used rubber on it and then we will hit the road again, at least that's what I say, the plan is like this, if you remember that a GU had problems with the supply of fuel, not only with the pump do you have problems in the front, but something is happening in the tank and the Lions in the front, and that is very common when cars sit for so long at rest, the grilles of the truck become They clog, rust, and rot, so we're just going to replace the entire tank, sending unit, and however much line we need so we can get fuel to the front, we're going to need that constant pressure if we're going to apply 100 nitrous shots into this thing, so I have the fuel sending unit from the fuel tank and fuel line.

I'm passing the crossbar here. This front subframe is shot, not only is it twisted and bent, but as you can see, it was expertly repaired. We found out before we left Alabama When we got back to the shop this morning I noticed that this weld had actually separated the C's it was about an E8 in the gap and then we have a new crack here too so what I did was jack the car up with the center. The point here is that the weight of the ARS, the springs, tires and wheels essentially sunk in and that all came together.

Now I have the job of trying to get all that snot out of there, clean it up and then I'm going to put new solders back in, but maybe this time both sides will touch. It's about 40 seconds until you get cut off and that's how we're going to add horsepower. We have a fuel solenoid up here. I have a nitrous solenoid here with the quadr jet inside this Street Series fighter. This is a 650 CFM vacuum secondary electric choke unit and this is an NS power firing system so basically we're going to push a button that comes preset at 125 horsepower, that's a lot of nitrous for this engine but It's what we have and it will be very, very fun.

I just had a tie, fuel here, we need to run the nitrous oxide line back to the trunk. We're going to mount the tank back there, we already have that fold, there are brackets that come in the kit and everything and then we just need to connect these solenoids so they both fire at the same time. when you press the blue button we're going to take it out to our professional paint and bake booth, put in some paint and of course by professional paint booth I mean this pop up garage thing that's going to work well and block a fan. on one side, one on the other here and start to fog this up, but instead of making it a shiny black we want to hide all the holes, the rust, the rot, the dents, the dings, Bondo and the bent things, and I've always wanted to make a satin black with shiny decals and that's exactly what we're going to do.

This will look amazing. We are going to apply four coats of satin black as soon as the new decals dry, although this is not the case. a real paint job, it's good to follow the steps and do that practice or that muscle memory, so we wash this with soap and water, after we tape it down, we go ahead and clean it again with the paint prep or you. You can use Earth ghost juice or whatever you want to use after that, at this point we're just going to use a cheap $35 HBP gun, we have another brand of paint, we have to hurry, we're outdoors, a storm is blowing. hitting our doors and the humidity is going to get fierce.

Let's start with the bare metal. I want to increase that since there are so many different layers of paint and primer here. We're going to do the bare metal first and then. I'll come in and apply two or three medium coats and then a thick coat, hopefully good with a little bit of effort and time. The

budget

Bandit is all black. This should dry to a nice satin or matte finish here overnight and then we'll see. how this thing goes with the legendary

bandit

, let's slide it and I guarantee I'm going to use all that nitrous, see you tomorrow, let's see what this bird has got, yeah, third gear, more night travel, yeah. yes, it was necessary, it is still working, that means we have to do it more.

I think it's true, I wanted 100 shots, but we got 125 and it was worth it. Good lord it was supposedly going really fast but there you go science ozel 455 will actually take 125. nitrous bone intake with exhaust and a holly carburetor which is pretty awesome what a nice car.