Hey everybody, I'm the proud owner of a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. I bought the car about two years ago and I have been restoring/modifying it ever since. This car is my pride and joy and damn can it run.
Instead of showing a whole bunch of pictures of an ugly car I decided I should show a picture of what it looks like today. This is pretty much what it looks like at the moment (Gold Hood Scoop is for Cold Air induction w/ hole cut out of the back of it).

This is a picture of it the day I brought it home. I bought this car for $200 from a junkyard. It took most of the day to un-bury it from underneath all of the air conditioners and refridgerators. I trailered it home, not knowing whether or not it ran.

After trying to manually turn over the Pontiac 301 that came with the car only to break the crank pulley bolt and pulling the spark plugs to find them covered in rust did I decide to trash the underpowered piece of junk 4.9 liter engine. I wanted to find something bigger and older, with plenty of torque to move the almost 4000lb beast. I went back to the junkyard that I bought the car from and asked if he had any engines, he replied that all he had was a 75' Olds 350 and TH350 Trans still bolted up. Another $200 later I had an engine with 70,000 miles on it, but still ran strong.
Here is a pick of the Olds 350, its actually running in this picture!

Here is a picture of the piece of junk, and the engine bay, pretty shot as the battery tray was rotted through, all of the brake lines were corroded and there was plenty of rust.

Due to the lack of asthetic qualities of the "new" Olds 350, I stripped it down, pulled the pan, checked the bearings, put in a Melling High Volume, High Pressure Oil Pump, and a new timing chain (Cloyes Double Roller HD) and stock water pump. I painted it Oldsmobile Gold, the company color in the early 1970's since the corporate blue didn't give the engine an identity as far as make goes. It got it's nickname as "The Solid Gold Motor".

I took the time while the engine was out to use a rust-inhibiting paint (POR-15) to repaint the engine compartment. Since the core support was badly bent and rusted through in many spots I also went junkyard hunting for a new one. I replaced it and painted it with all the rest of the engine bay. I pulled the control arms and replaced the bushings and ball joints with new stock type from Federal Mogul. I bought a new pitman arm, as the other on was worn out beyond reuse. Here is a picture of a freshly painted engine bay, in a low gloss black.

Now is the time to install the "new" engine. The first thing I found out was that the Oldsmobile engines have a different bolt pattern for engine to chassis mounting than the Pontiac engines. I had to buy a new set of Olds mounts for the frame and then fabricate the mounts that bolt to the engine. After working out all the bugs I have an Olds 350 with its accompanying TH350 Trans installed in my car. Here is a picture of the engine and trans sitting in the chassis, while up on stands.

Here is a picture of the hood, off to the side while we were installing the engine. The classic Phoenix or Firebird is still in fairly good condition with minor staining and wearing through. A true shaker car, it has the hole for the shaker scoop, which is to be added later.

Now that the engine is in the car I concentrated on the interior. The seats were in fair condition, faded vinyl, the carpet was trash and there were a few parts missing. The console was gone as was the piece under the rear window. There was no radio either. I stripped the interior down to bare sheet metal and began POR-15ing it to prevent future rust, then I bought sound dampener and new carpet. I re-dyed the seats and bought a new sound system which includes a JVC Head unit and 12 disc CD changer (trunk mounted) and 2 Jensen 6x9's and 2 Jensen 6" rounds for the doors (custom). I repainted all of the plastic kick panels and bought a console from a junkyard and repainted it to match. Here is a shot of the semi-stripped interior.