Progress Pictures - 08/13/2006

Well, I need to get this car verified and my chances of NOT getting it verified are increased if the thing looks like a pile o'turd, so I asked Steve to give me a hand cleaning and sorting out the car to see what we have here and how much of our work is cut out for us.



Sheera hangs out while we prepare to pull the car from the spot it's been sitting at forever. The bees are out in full force and we don't want to work out here while they are in our hair.



Dirty.



Got a rust spot. Not through, but several are surface rust that may be slightly pitted (won't know until we take the crap paint off).



Slightly beat.



Hood is removed.



Yup, dirty.



Yeah it's pretty dirty in here.



This hinge was left on, the spring was in the trunk. It's a fun experience putting those guys back on.



Not much here.



This really is nasty.



The car is on the lift! The brakes are still present albeit probably need attention. The emergency brake still worked too. It was funny watching Steve "drive" the car down the hill and into the garage without hitting anything and without an engine.



Driver's frame rail. No rust.



Passenger frame rail, still no rust.



The floors are spotless. No rust even forming in the usual suspect places.



Original transverse muffler setup.



Original pellet style converter.



Subframe in good shape.



More subframe. Nice and clean. Still has good rubber in all of the steering components, so someone obviously cared for this car at one time.



Vintage 70's alarm system (or what's left of it).



Got a little rot here in the fender, not completely unusual.



Yeah, dented too.



The car takes to the air!



Power washing!



More power washing.



If there was an engine, it would look like a fire.



Rear end tag can be read now. Someone has changed it since it is on backwards...



Power washing the top half.



Power washing the engine compartment.



The sheer amount of mud that came out of this car was insane. No grease, no oil, just mud. Amazing it isn't badly rusted. 5 dead widows. All still alive and kicking until the boot got 'em.



Cleaner side. A little rot in the door and quarter area.



This side is a little better.



The interior is pretty nasty.



More nastiness. A pile of junk and parts.



Overspray EVERYWHERE. Was bright red at one time.



Yup. All the AC stuff still hooked up. Not sure if it's holding a charge, compressor clutch still spins freely.



New power steering pump and steering box apparently.



Cleaning out the trash in the interior.



Rear seat is removed and cleaned.



Floor mat is found, new plastic cheapo battery tray included. Lots of mouse poop in this car, but they didn't trash the interior out making their nests for some reason.



Lots of junk included (rusty Lady Bic, hard to find unbroken AC duct, 10 cups of Del Monte fruit cups, various bank slips never processed from Bank of America, 5 empty Corona bottles, 2 empty Coors light cans). The Arizona sun was MEAN to the hush panel.



More seat removal and cleaning.



Trash, broken domelight, and more bank slips. Passenger door pull present (one less piece to track down).



Engine compartment. Notice the sunlight has baked half the AC box, half the harness, and the windshield wiper motor from shining in through the shaker hole. The harness is actually uncut in almost every single place.



The interior is actually cleaner than it was.



Seats are cleaned and ready for re-installation.



Interior quarter panel is beat the hell up by the sun.



Seats installed.



Hooking up a battery reveals that the back lights work like they should!



Parking lights come on too! Headlights don't come on though, probably a bad headlight dimmer switch. The AC blower motor works on 3 out of 4 speeds too! It is dried out though and should probably be replaced (lots of squealing). The high speed relay clicks but it doesn't come on, so the 12V feed is probably missing somewhere.



Best definition of irony I've ever found using a Trans Am.



Definitely doesn't look like a beat up piece of junk anymore. Real progress has been made.

Hopefully the inspector will be satisfied. Still need to locate a emissions decal... apparently no one makes one for a '75 Trans Am. A 1975 B-body is made though, it's probably good enough...

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Last updated August 13th, 2006