The Truth Behind the Trans Am Restoration

1977 Pontiac Trans Am Restoration: Metal Repair

At first glance, this 1977 Trans Am looks solid. It's well cared for, driven frequently (only in the summer), and any minor body damage or mechanical repairs were always done promptly. But there was a dirty little secret hiding under the whopping 5 layers of Brentwood Brown paint(see the video tour of paint stripping on Facebook). Old repairs left the rear wheel housing, trunk extension and quarter panel with rust eating away at the sheet metal.

In the photos that follow, we show you the rusty consequences of incorrect metal repairs and how we fix it at Driven Restorations LLC, using fresh sheet metal on this 1977 Pontiac Trans Am.

The 1965 Ford Galaxie: parts and progress

     We are DONE with metal work on the Galaxie project. The 1965 car is being fully restored to better than new and we've gotten to the mud work in just over 7 weeks of work. The frame is done and is a roller, the metal work was extensive but now has the car free of rust, and the engine work is in progress. The products that we've used on this car to date are numerous but we did find a supplier that could meet most of our needs to date.

     Deerborn Classics has been our source for a number of items. The only body panels we bought were for the lower quarters. We discovered real quickly that to buy the quarter that is double the price of the cheaper version was well worth the money. It comes formed to the body lines and saves labor hours in forming the lines and contours around the wheel well(see picture below). For the rest of the patch panels we used plain old sheet metal from a local supplier (Al-Win) and shaped it to form. It's turned out beautifully so far and mud work is underway.

      The only thing that was difficult was the number of shipments we received from Deerborn. We ordered a large dollar amount of items and they arrived over a period of 3 weeks and ALL in separate boxes. There has got to be a better way to ship for their sake! Needless to say we weren't impressed with the scatterbrained method of delivery, however, most of the products have been up to par.