1980 Trans Am

My wife wants me to fix up her 1980 Trans Am. She is the original owner. The car is white with a gold bird and trim. It has camel interior. The engine is a 305 but not the original engine. What do you think about changing the color to black and gold. And what should I do about the engine? It the value gone with this engine in it? will I hurt the value if I change the color? What do you guys think about white on a Trans Am? The engine that is in the car now run dose run good, just not a power house. Thank you Larry

The color is your call, what do you prefer, or more to the point what does she think? These cars look nice in black and decent in white so either works.

It's a small block car from 1980 so I don't see how an engine swap could hurt values. If it was a Turbo then maybe but since it isn't, use that as an excuse to do something nice like a 350 / Vortec swap, or if you want to put some real effort in an LS swap sounds nice too. Aside from carb or FI linkage issues the Vortec swap would be pretty easy to pull off, an LS swap wouldn't be that hard if you are okay with ordering parts to get the job done but costs will add up.

Personally I would keep it white. There are too many black/gold Trans Ams.

HappyJack wrote: Personally I would keep it white. There are too many black/gold Trans Ams.

X2

This LS7 would drop right in there. 505 hp would wake it up a bit.

For the engine, all of the 'modern' FI stuff sounds cool...and would be, but for the expense and work involved, a nice carbed coperate/chevy 350 with good heads and a mild cam, i ntake and headers would be plenty fun, and much less expensive. For a little more, a 'proper' Pontiac 400 or 350 (find one out of an old Bonnie or something...), or even a 455 would be kind of a neat way to resto-mod it too.

The car will never be worth a mountain of money, so do what she wants, tempered by what you want. I'd keep it white, and then the decision would be whether to go Pontiac V8, modern Chev V8 with EFI, or just build a traditional carbed smallblock that falls in the hole you already have.

Then add some of this:

Make it whatever color your wife wants. I'd agree that a nice carbed 350 can offer more than enough giddy up for that car.

even a cammed, intaked and carbed 305 can be fun in that car. did that in my 79 camaro.

Find a Pontiac 401. I had on in my 75 formula 400. What a motor!!!!

Gas millage.. . .. Not so much but hay the fun factor was great!!!

My first car was an 80 t/a. Had all kinds of fun in it, damned was sideways everywhere I went, even with the little 301. My advice? Sell it to me so I can relive my teenage years.

401???????????

is it a 4 speed car? if so, then find a 96-99 vortec 350 out of a truck. go to Jegs and order part number 12480002. pull the heads off and take them in for screw in studs, cut down the valve guides, open the spring pockets, and install the springs that come with the cam kit. put the cam in the block with a new GM timing chain set and install the heads back on the block with the thinnest shim head gaskets you can find. top it off with an Edelbrock vortec intake, add a set of headers, and have fun with a reliable 400hp motor that idles silky smooth at 800 rpm and gets close to 20 mpg if driven nice...

First off, the nose cone offa a '78, or even earlier. then a cheap 383 or 350. Keep it white for that special "pimpin" attitude. should be nice.

Keep it white!! Way too many black trans ams, and then people will be wondering if you two are Bandit and Frog. I'd say a decently built Poncho motor, probably a 400, edelbrock makes cams and intakes for it, and they make GOBS of torque.

But most importantly KEEP IT WHITE!!!

Keep it white. Too many black ones running around as it is.

Engine Swaps are more personal preference.

-sigh-

Late second gen cars are going up in value, they're worth hanging on to.

If it's a T/A from 1980 it should have a Pontiac 301 unless it's a California model.

The California cars got a Chebby 305 because of the emissions laws, there were only around 1600 305 T/A's in 1980 so an original 305 car is fairly rare.

There were no 4-speed cars in 1980 or 1981, the option wasn't available. Turbo 301s got a THM350, N/A 301 T/A's got a THM350C and all other engines got a Metric 200.

The suspension is cheap and easy to upgrade, there's a lot that can be done with the factory parts.

Your car -might- be a WS-6 car. if you can pull the back seat out or the passenger's seat, there might be a build sheet stuck in the springs under each one.

Cars built in Norwood Ohio got a build sheet behind the back seat, under the pass seat and a third on top of the gas tank. Van-Nuys built cars usually only get one on top of the tank.

If you want to know ayhting else about late-second-gen Trans-Ams, just PM me.

If you tell me the VIN, I can tell you what motor, axle and transission should be in that thing. I don't need the last 4 numbers.

Shawn

I would keep it white.

Small block chevy motors are the best budget, but a Pontiac motor of course is more "proper". No matter what engine you put in it, someone won't like it. Too bad for them. There will always be a critic. Go with what you would like and can spend

I have a soft spot for the Gold Edition 77 or 78 myself.

White or gold, I dont like black cars at all. They are pretty much gone in californa at least, either scrapped or turned into dirt track cars. I dont think chevy small blocks are worth the trouble to build anymore, a 6.0 would be much nicer.

Unless your wife wants it repainted in black, I'd keep it white for the simple reason that black will show up all the little dings, dents and other imperfections in the sheet metal that other colours won't so getting repainted properly in black will cost you a couple of bucks...

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Had they quit with the Olds 403 by that time?

Another vote for the white. Seems like everybody's got a black one (although the girl I dated in high school had the gold with black decals, and I liked that a lot). And another vote for the 77 front end..I still think that's one of the best looking American cars ever. Year One has reproductions:

http://www.yearone.com/pco/4_0407/full.asp?page=339

I forgot to look while I had that page open, but I think they have replacement decals too, if your girl's car is peeling.

Streetwiseguy wrote: In reply to Trans_Maro: Had they quit with the Olds 403 by that time?

Yep, the 301 was the only V8 you could get by 1980.

(Edited to add - excluding TransMaro's comments about the rare 305s.)

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: In reply to Trans_Maro: Had they quit with the Olds 403 by that time?

Yep, the 301 was the only V8 you could get by 1980.

I'm surprised at that. I checked your profile and see you are Canadian, too. I would have bet money you could get a Chev 350 up here, but I guess thats only Camaros.

Streetwiseguy wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: In reply to Trans_Maro: Had they quit with the Olds 403 by that time?

Yep, the 301 was the only V8 you could get by 1980.

I'm surprised at that. I checked your profile and see you are Canadian, too. I would have bet money you could get a Chev 350 up here, but I guess thats only Camaros.

I'm not sure about '80 Camaros, but in '81 Camaros, the 350 was available (in the US) with automatic only. The 4speeds had a 305. Canadian Camaros were available with the 350/4spd combination, though.