THE SKID FACTORY - 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am [Build Review]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
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Today on The Skid Factory we checkout Tom's 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am which has been getting a makeover in The Skid Factory over the last couple of moths, Al has modernised the car with a GM LS3 motor and TR6060 transmission from a VE Commodore. Jump onboard and watch as Al explains the ins and outs of the build.
Like the shifter setup? Checkout MALEX here!
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Al and woody, can you guy's maybe make a video explaining compression? might be a good tech video.
If you have another funding method than Patreon I will sign up but I will not give a dime to Patreon.
i'll grab a skid factory hoody
9k Views and only 1k likes? Wtf is going on here????
Ill be a patreon if you use the money for aircon in the shed :)
Most viewers wouldn't care that they were seeing the same type of build over again. We'd watch and enjoy it no matter what is built.
i agree, there's different issues to work around, plus id like to see more of the work having never worked on a trans am myself
I think Turbo Yoda would mind talking about the same type of build twice in a row, it seems like he wants to have some variety..
I honestly would not have minded watching this build even if it might have been simular to the nova, but I obviously cannot speak for everyone...
Agreed
For sure I love all the builds, there is enough difference to have made good content, and I learn so much from them
+
I think this one would've been interesting even as a short side story because of the complexity involved in dumping stock elements in an old car. Not everyone wants screaming power, factory "newness" is enough. :)
I agree would love to have seen more details on this build even if similar to the nova
The 403 is a good engine, they made good power, ran all over the chevys of the time, and got very good mileage compared to the camaros of similar vintage. The Pontiac 400 is better for a number of reasons, and capable of lots more than the chevy 350 ever will be. The LS is a huge upgrade from a 350 chevy, even a 5.3 is. Going from a Pontiac 400 is more of a lateral move than a move up, but most people have no idea how to build a Pontiac, even if it is super easy to make 500ftlbs just above idle all the way to 6000rpm on pump gas with iron heads, they are still clueless. The hype about the chevy and the way you can find them in any taxi cab or fleet vehicle built since 1970 to 1998 is why they are popular to swap. It also means they are like cord wood, you can blow them up and go get another and you really aren't out much... because they are junk from the factory. Now the LS is easy to find and worth lots more than an orange lump sbc, with far more potential.
I have lots of fun with the Trans Ams and Formulas I own, with both 400s and 455s in them. 11s for less than $3k in the engine is very easy to do, as long as you don't do it like a chevy and think you need deep gears, a huge stall, and wind it to the moon. 3.08-3.42 gears, a 1900-2400 stall, headers, a mild 224/228 cam, and shift it at 5800 will equal low 12s with a 400 and 11s with a 455. Been there done that... for the last 30 years. 11 second daily drivers are fun.
I see a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, I hear Jerry Reed's "Eastbound and Down"..It's that simple.
same.. " we got a long way to go , and a short time to get there "
Totally! Those were the good `ol days.
I noticed the round dome light! In 77 they had round some lights but in 78 they were rectangular. Now this comes from m th experience in the U.S. My first car was a '77 firebird with a 301 hardtop and later I got a '78 Firebird T.A. I also noticed on mine the 77 had rounded edges on the side view mirror to door mounts where as they were rectangular on my '78. I'm sure nobody but myself cared but I figured I would bring it up! I love all 77-78 F bodies and yours looks really good! Enjoy!
Interesting. Well the dome light is definitely round. I'll check the mirrors tomorrow
So great to see Al getting more and more confident in front of the camera, you can tell you's love doing what you're doing. Absolutely loving this Chanel boys, keep up the great work!
I still like to watch "Smokey and the Bandit" a 1/2 dozen times a year. Classic movie, classic car.
last time I watched was last year when Burt died.. a group of us watched all 3 films in tribute ( the first one is by far the best imho )
Classic, the first one, watched maybe 100 times (had it on VHS as a kid)
Oh, that 8 Ball. It had been a little while.
I could listen to these guys talk about cars all day. They know their stuff.
I'm a doctor; I know a lot of things. But I'm consistently astonished by Al's depth and breadth of knowledge and skills. He knows more about cars than I know about the human body, and that's saying something. Al, you're a legend.
Troll level 1000
Talk yourself up yeah?
One of my favorite channels. No drama, very professional, and quality work.
Hi , Another Great Build !!!! Need To Add " Sub frame Connectors " to Tie the Front and Rear Sub Frames Together ! It Makes a BIG Difference In the Handling Department . +1
They're already lined up
The old radio antenna integrated into the windshield/screen. That brings back memories.
Always a pleasure listening to you, keep up the great work!
I had a '78 TA in high school (1993), only mine was white. The original 400 was shot when I got it, (a few of the rods had no bearings left at all) so we got a "good" 400 from the auto wreckers that turned out to be a 455 in need of a rebuild. I tore out the old engine, my dad rebuilt the 455, and I put it back in. Super fun car, lots of skids.
I still have and ride my 1978 trans am with 400 pontiac engine. Pleasant car , love it
this is my varourite US car of all time. Closest I've been to owning one, is having a mustashe.
Did anyone notice the interior lamp cover, pretty animated . Hopefully doesn't get lost, bit of super glue and be gold. Awesome content as usual guys!!!
yeah, it kinda looked like birds mouth asking for a feed :D
I noticed that too, I was like WTF is that?!
Haha yeah it has snapped. Replacement was still in the mail
That's rad...The hole in the can prank...😆😆😆...Its worked for me many times...🍻👌...
Love that car!
My uncle had one back in the 80's with an engine built by my uncle and Steinar Stolen (old norwegian drag racer). The engine put out around 700hp with supercharger and had a 150 shot of nos. Pretty wild for a street car back in the 80's.
i absolutely love the look of the TransAM
Interior light shaker scoop working hard there!
Keeps the light charged up for when you need it at night.
Beautiful Firebird. Used to have one just like it I dropped a 396 in. Sounded like a hellhound
I owned for around 12 months in 1996/97, a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am, fitted with the original Oldsmobile 403 cube (6.6 Liter) V8. It wasn't fast, and only capable of a 17 second quarter mile, but it was a cool car to own, and every time I see one, it brings back fond memories.
Great build, like the very honest self appraisal and modifications list.
Thanks for sharing and best regards from the UK.
You were close Al when you said 7:1. Compression ratio was 8.1:1 @ 220 BHP. The engine was 6.6L, 401 CID. The torque was 321, so they did have some grunt. One of my co-workers had a new one I got to drive back in the day. It was a fun car to drive.
Speeeeeewing you guys didn't do a series on this build! Looks schmick.
Just love the perception of power from this video... Exhaust note is just so gorgeous vs speed.
I have just been talking to my brother about getting one of these for my next project. Twin turbo ls trans am. Smokey and the bandit was my favourite movie as a kid. I always wanted one and they are reasonably affordable here. So I've been sneaky looking and keeping it quiet with the misses hahaha.
Good to see some Trans Ams down under! I had a few 2nd gen Trans Ams over the years myself. Love them! Love your Falcons and Holdens more!
This car is very loud, and hot. Cant wait for your next build - id have enjoyed seeing this one in more detail too!
Can't get enough of the insights from AL. My morning is only complete after watching a Skid Factory episode! Great content you two!
I can confirm your statement about the transmission. When I went to buy my 2013 Camaro 1LE, I had to order it from the factory because no dealers would stock a car with a manual transmission unless it was the Z28 or ZL1. Mine has the close ratio TR6060. Why people in the USA don't enjoy shifting sports cars I'll never know. I love it and I'll have it no other way.
Marty McFly Where’d you get that username, the toilet store? 😂
I didn’t know youtube allowed multiple users to have the same username? Or maybe this is a glitch in the matrix?
That there was a top review. Interesting, bit of fun and some other bloody thing. Woody pouring "squash" (or shandy?) down his shirt. lol.
when the owner does all of the suspension upgrades, be sure to add a set of subframe connectors too. its basically a must do for these cars making more than stock horsepower and really stiffens the chassis up. a couple hard shifts without them and the door gaps and function could get all messed up and this car is too nice for that to happen to. nice work boys
I have some lined up already!
nice nice @@bigcheese82
I was waiting to hear more about "bandit" Trans Am as i am big fan of Trans Am´s. I think you guys did make mistake not show this build. Maybe in Australia Trans Am is not big but US is big, especially Burt past away last year. My opinion, this was perfect build, combination Trans Am and HSV.
cool seeing your shed from the outside, As someone that has never left the States I enjoy seeing other countries building styles. Your channel shows me so much more than just awesome cars!
When i was in highschool we had one of the original trans am from smokey and the bandit sitting in our autoshop class, it was in pretty bad shape but i graduated before we got to work on it, my teacher had alot of connections so he was able to get one, they used 13 total trans ams in the movie, 10 were destroyed and we got one of the remaining 3, it was so cool!
I'dve loved to see this build over the Nova. That is one of my favorite cars ever built. You did it justice with a nice LS3 swap as well. Well done sir.
Very very cool old rig!!
I used to have 3 of these body style "birds" a 73 a 74 and an 80...One thing for sure to do is get the suspension upgraded, the stamped upper and lower control arms are ok with new bushings but if you go upper/lower tube arms its a whole new world and combo'd with a rear axle spring and traction kit it will handle like a monster :D
Hi Ron good advice. I'll have subframe adapters going on soon. Can you point me to a kit or suggest some parts?
Is the paint missing from the exhaust hoop over the rear axle ( 20:09 ) from it scrubbing on the axle? That could well be your crunch on some bumps.
Would have loved to watch this build! If you guys posted a video of an oil change on a subaru i’m sure someone would watch it
Awesome job filming under the car. Very careful and deliberate movement so it doesn't feel like someone is yanking your head around. Love ya work, Woody.
That Yandina to north arm stretch is hoon territory.
Love to have your knowledge. Respect!
I have always love the 78 TA. More so with a built motor other than the stock (slow) 6.6. I would want a T-TOP TA though.
That thing is fucking sick!! Coolest car Ive seen on this channel!
Would've waaaay rather watched this than the Nova
The hole in the lemon squash is classic.
Well played.
Thanks for the motivation guys. I have an 81 Camaro that I'm slowly trying to modernize.
Huge fan of these build reviews!
You guys need to make the shaker scoop functional, like I do on my 70 GTO with a LS3 swap.😀
That was the original plan, but whoever had the car before me had riveted the scoop to the hood because of the previous 350sbc swap. It came down to time and money as the whole hood would have needed a fair bit of work
You guys should do a Smokey and the Bandit scene with McM. 🤣😂
With the black and white HQ?
Love the second gen F Bodies. The bodies are like tin foil though. Need to put some frame connectors in before the paint starts cracking. Slide some 2x3 box tube into the end of the sub frame and attach to the rear 'frame rails'.
This was fantastic. I'm partial to the 80s Firebirds myself but they're all beautiful in that... macho loser type of way lol (thinking Billy Madison). Anybody want to see Al and Woody do some street / cruiser bikes? That would be Rad.
sick Nitro Circus hat Al!
This car is mint! So clean!
throw a quick dirt bike build in the mix please
Honda Z50 with a Barra engine 😂
@@BigDaddyGdog I was thinking a simple big bore upgrade but yeah the barra qualifies
@Hooha888 this is TH-cam, it's a whatever the hell they want show
boring
@Hooha888 its called the skid factory, if it'll do a skid im pretty sure it qualifies
The dribler trick Iconic 👍🏼🍺
Just donned my mullet for a trans-am vid 👌
Would have loved to see you do this build. I understand that it is similar to the Nova, but there are so many idea and problems you solved that are now lost for the rest of us. Maybe next time you can just make the video and sit on it for a while before you release it 😉. Anyway awesome work boys thanks for letting us look at it.
Trans Am's are cool as too
Thank you for your insight and video 🙂👍🎄
Al makes me smile, you can tell he could give A LOT more information but tries to resist the urge and every so often it gets a little weird because there is so much info in his head at the same time...
This is honestly one of my dream cars. My brother had a couple of these and I always loved them. He had one just like this in spec, but it had an original built 6.6L 400 with the emissions bullshit removed, aftermarket heads, higher compression pistons, and the bottom end was balanced. That son of a bitch would damn near pull wheelies off the line with a TH400 and 3.90 gears. He also had one that was gold with a black bird on the hood and that thing had a shoehorned high compression Caddy 502 in it with an old Roots style supercharger on top with two Holley 850 double pumpers sticking out of the hood with velocity stacks and it had a Muncie M-22 Rock Crusher behind it with 4:10 gears in the rear end. That thing was straight up scary. This was back in the late 80s, early 90s. You just don't see Firebirds or Trans Ams anymore, especially here in the northeast US. It's sad. I even had a 74 Camaro Z28 with a 600 whp 400 Chevy with that same Muncie M-22 with 4:10s and it was a fun car. My brother bought it, returned it to basically stock other than a 425HP 355. He still has it and he just tore it all down to restomod it.
Holy Crap! Thank you for that. It's awesome to read of someone's memories like that! ✌
I have three of them at my house at this time! One is my wife’s, and two are my two buddy’s cars I’m working on for them.
I’m a ford guy but I do love the ta and 70&1/2 to 73 camero
Magnificent car! So glad you finally brought it to the front. I had seen it hiding in background shots in other vids. Hope "Tom" plans on having you guys do a complete chassis / suspension upgrade as well.
Subframe adapters are being lined up, along with all new bushes, springs/leafs and shocks and probably a heavy duty sway bar
@@bigcheese82 Excellent, love these classics. Look forward to it.
Alan has always been amazing, but since he's become more comfortable in front of the camera he takes it up a few levels!
Drove this road with my old manual 1jz soarer
Had a good time
Nice to see the muscle cars running again. At 654 Sullivan Street in Elmira NY sits an abandoned 1991 Ford mustang the owner is in the military. The car hadn't run in over a year and a half the motor is seized up. The owner tried to remove the rear drive axle to unseize the motor thereby breaking the rear drive axle. My hope someone locates the owner buys it and fixes it up before it rots away and becomes scrap iron. That would be a shame they are highly sought after muscle cars. To let it sit and rot away and become scrap iron would be wrong. Fan of restoring old vehicles Robert Gildea
You have to love, and hate, how parts (front crash pack) that have a 30-40 year age difference fit into the same vehicle. Thanks GM parts bin!
Why hate? As an user of a 20 year old Merc I prefer my stuff downward compatible.
Sick build
Awesome car, super work on the new engine swap
Finally, the one we've been waiting for.
Would totally watch this build mate...
can't wait for the 4x4 build!
FUCKING AWESOME!!!!! spied this T/A a in the background a few episodes back ,haven't stopped drooling , been praying you'd do something on it , bought my 77 t/a L78/W72 4sp posi new in 77, i'm in the middle of restoring it ,bigger better faster stronger yyyyyeeeesssss.....😍😍😍😍😍👍👍👍
HAHA when phones attack...Woody gets ten in the sin bin for that one......! As always great work again boys, love the car love the build love the vid. Hey Al, the bottom line is the customer get what the customer wants and you cant help it if people just want the HP without the bells and whistles. And for what it is worth I would have still taken the time to view this build, similar is not the same, its still Skid Factory goodness!!
I'm always surprised when people say the US doesn't use many manuals... I grew up with them and it's what my family has always chosen. Most friends too. Maybe it's more of a mid-west thing?
It's a city thing. Drive too long daily in traffic and you'll sell organs for an auto.
Крутая тачка.Счастливый мужик.
I'd love to see a VR6 MR2!
Thanks Guys.👍
Love the hole in the can Al. Wicked.
Yeah a trans am -78 like me self 👴🏼😂 always like’d them! Movie ”Driver” Firebird 👍🏼
great build guys would have loved to see the vid on it
I’ve been waiting to hear about this gem.
The 403 olds engine was only on California cars in 78, otherwise the rest of the country got the Pontiac 400. Thinking you should complete the look with some 17" or bigger snowflake wheels and tires, then have the Fischer to tops added to it. Other than that you've got a pretty sweet car right there, job well done!
Random fact, this car is actually in the movie about "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson's youth. His manager drives it.
Time to "Lemon Squash Up" pure gold!
Dig the hat Al
God I would love if the boys got the chance to do an XA-C Falcon coupe build....
for sure!!
In my opinion any older car can benefit from an L.S. swap! Now mind you I had loads of fun in my older factory Pontiac set ups but yeah the L.S. is simply better!
“Eyes on the road Rhonda” classic reference lol
poor Al looked like he needed a lemon squash 2 minutes under the bonnet.
looks like woody needs a bib and straw for the beer... I mean lemon squash lol.
love the vids boys keep em coming and look forward to the next project..... oh and when's this call out race with nugget garage gunna happen ;p
Beautiful. Can't help feeling more than a LITTLE inspired. :D
woody needs a lemon squash in a baby bottle lol haha love u guys
beautiful car. I miss my 77 rusted beater.
slick move Al. hahahahaha he didn't even think to look at the can before he drank it
Haha i've copped the old nail hole in the beer can trick before
Love the Trans Am. Awesome engine/box swap.
Don't love this Sunny Coast weather either.
Nice work! Although it seriously needs those huge holes in the engine bay filled....one where ventilation unit used to sit and the wheel arches....
It was taken off for the swap - I didn't get Al to cover it because I have a Vintage Air A/C system lined up to go in. Engine bay dress up and suspension are on the cards now the swap is done
@@bigcheese82 Vintage air A/C system is a great idea, it will be a cool car :-)
USA here. We need more manuals