I'm looking at buying a 96 Trans Am for about $5000. I plan on rebuilding the transmission and rebuilding/stroking the engine to a 383. I would also like to add a strange 12-bolt rear. I plan on trying to keep the total amount for this project below $9000 including the price of the car. Is this a realistic goal or am I being too cheap? Sorry if this is a bit of a Noob question but i'm a little new to the land of the LT-1. Thanks for any help.

 

It depends on if you are doing all the work or if you will pay someone. If you are doing everything (except machine work on block) then I would say $5000 minimum for a cheap set of non-forged internals, which is already over your budget.

A good rule of thumb is to take the est. part+labor costs and multiply it by 2.0 - 2.5 to arrive at a more realistic value.

Since you are looking at a 96, you may have to change out a lot of parts, that by themselves may not be that expensive, but once added up will suprise you and your wallet.

A 12-bolt rear will cost near $2000 for a new one, slightly less for used just by itself. If you want to rebuild the tranny, the syncros, etc. will also be costing you money.

If this was me, I would budjet $10K on top of the $5K car to be on the safe side.

Good luck!

 

Hey thanks for your oppinion since you've already done this. Yeah I'm definitely doing all the work myself. I thought my goal seemed a little unrealistic. I'd really like to stroke it but maybe I'll just go with a 350 bored .030 over, stock crank, new pistons, GM 847 cam, and a good set of heads. I think I can get the rear-end pretty cheap off of someone I know so thats a plus. Thanks again.