Hey guys, ive got the best of both worlds, i do custom paint for a living, and my dad has been building cars for about 40 years, so he designs and engineers 85% of the mods when somethings modified, thanks dad! long story short i ended up buying a 96 ws6 6spd formula in may, and it needed a little bit of work. The car was all there, and all stock besides a hypertech programmer. I think its pretty rare, as its a loaded formula, it has leather, and ttops, but no traction control. Well i first started by reloacting the optima battery in the trunk, instead of the conventional way of wiring it by using a stereo system junction block, i opted to use a ford solinod, and eliminate one of the connectors, as it only had one wire going through it. I then re wrapped my harnesses and ran my bat cable up from the back, insulated in heater hose for extra saftey ( thats alot of current to have rub on something) When i do a custom paint job next winter im going to hide all the wires and weld up all the holes in the engine bay, along with spaying it body color, thats the only reason they arent tucked now. The car cranks and charges ten times better then stock thanks to much better grounds, and a high torque gear reduction starter.

Dad ( the wiring guru) soldering my wiring the right way



Heres the battery mock up



With the carpet in, i have my subs in that space now



Anyway, while i had everything apart to change my ps pump, i decided to clean and paint my brackets, pullies, ect ect. Being in the custom paint business, i hate spray paint, and it simply doesnt give me the finish i want. So i cleaned them all up, and since i primarlily work on porsches i shot it with some seal grey i had laying around, and i painted the black with straight black with flattened clear. The car also had spray painted black rims, so i stripped those, and shot them in gm weathered steal gray ( we have a paint system at my shop)
Here are the brackets, and an alt for my 5.0



wheels



On the car, but have ls1 brakes and nittos now

 

Anyway, Heres a pic of the interior, after taking out everything, cleaning, and removing alot of extra stereo wire, i rewired everything, installed a hurst short throw, and pioneer premier 8500mp, i also added white gauge faces i need to take pics of. The visors and headliner are currently getting done in suede like the porsches im used to.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/100_4166.jpg

Heres a pic of the race pacesettrers, and ory going in, also notice the sophn uppers.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0549.jpg

And the beast itself http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/100_4219.jpg

So far ive added the ls1 brakes, driveshaft, delteq, headers, hurst, and madz tune, adj phr. after i wrap up with my other project this summer im gonna start building my 383 afr 210 headed stroker and a 9inch

 

Here are a few cars ive painted

680+ awhp http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0524.jpg

V.i.p porsche cup http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0301.jpg

gt3 about the 100th one ive worked on out of 300 total U.S
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/100_3836.jpg

993 conversion http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/100_3838.jpg

650rwhp- http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0526.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0531.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...100_3754-1.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...100_3766-1.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0065.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0059.jpg

600rwhp http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...r/000_0080.jpg

Ferrari and gt40 recently in car and driver

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...er/Image16.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...100_3769-1.jpg

 

thanks man, how am i putting them on wrong?

 

Nice work man. All of it .

 

Looks good, y'all have some really nice cars around the shop

 

That's awesome. I can't wait to see how it turns out. A professional painter should be able to make a really amazing car. What color are you planning on painting it? The purple from 1998 has always been my favorite choice for Firebirds.

 

Ah yes, bright purple metallic. About as rare as a color gets on F-bodies and it looks great too. I'm a huge fan of that color.

 

What is this weathered gray steal paint and where can I find it?

I like the look a lot.

 

its off a buick used as a lower cladding two tone, we have the spies paint system so i can mix, make anything. Its funny i sprayed the rims and im in the booth thinking, man this is way too dark, i bolted them on and i get compliments on them everywhere, hopefully i wont have a problem selling them when i buy my chrome zr1s


Thanks for the comments guys, im really torn right now as i have all the parts to make it a trans am, but the formula is just so rare.. idk i might just give it a quick respray in the stock red with a pinch of mettalic for next year, and then next winter blow it all apart for a complete paint job, im really leaning towards porsche seal gray, or schwartz which is another dark grey. I was set on sunset orange metallic, but i once had my turbo 93 civic coupe the later 99-00 Si electron blue pearl, and i hated how everybody thought it was a stock color. Plus my im shooting my honda in acura blaze orange met this winter ( dont worry im sellin it to make cash for my stroker/ f.i setup for the bird) so now im pretty set on a gray. Id love to do deep black but theres just too many black firebirds/trans ams

This winter im going to do a full tube suspension up front, and most likely ported afr 210s and lt4 intake, then next winter do a big stroker/ f.i setup. Im lucky, my dads built and documented about 400 high perf engines, and he had a small block street car running 10's in 1971 ( time slips to prove it) So my car never leaves me for anything, unless of course some interior work i cant handle.

 

oops second thought the paint is called Tarinished gray met. its a 01-05 2 tone body clad color if memory serves

 

WOW, you have a lot of plans. I would skip the stroker if the Firebird will be your daily driver though. You're probably only making 16 mpg as is, and with the stroker, you'd be lucky to be making 10 in the city! Just a bit of advice!

 

Shes not my daily, i got mustangs for that, I never build my cars for mpg, and i love forced induction and big cubes, shes gonna be my Connecticut street terrorist

 

You're in CT, eh? So if I ever need you for any paint jobs you could hook a brother up? Whereabouts are you?

 

im in the danbury area, u?