Tribute Trans Am Custom Roll Bar

Today on muscle car, Rick lives up to his nickname, the arsonist

showing us how to make a custom roll bar. The Trans Am get some retro rims and take a ride in a classic split window bed.

Hey guys, welcome to muscle car. And we got a lot of projects in the shop right now. We got the 64 comma drag car that's coming along pretty good. We got the sheet metal work about halfway done.

Brent's over here working on her 61 Impala A K A red sled and he's gonna get the sheet metal work finished up on that so we can get back on the body work. Now, today I'm gonna be working on a year one tribute trans Am car putting together a custom roll bar.

Last time we got the rear end assembled and rear suspension in,

stabbed in the LS seven A tranny and installed the dry

scent oil system.

Now, this roll bar is going to be strictly for looks and it's not intended to add any structural rigidity to the vehicle and that means I don't have to worry about tying it into the frame rails right now. I'm gonna use some of the tips and tricks that Ian showed me when we built the roll cage on the comet to design this one. And I set the top in place to make sure we've got clearance for the bars and to make sure my contour is going to be just right

to duplicate the roll bar. In our rendering. I'll use a double width of tubing welded in behind the B pillar,

cover it in sheet metal and upholster it to match the interior.

I'm using this copper tube as a template because it's easy to bend. After marking the center for reference, I'm pulling it against the top frame to give it a nice center arch. I'm referencing where the bends will go at each end by using a scrap piece of tubing that matches the radius I need

and just a few turns, the pipe cutter trims the ends to the right length

before I pull it out and start bending the ends. I'm marking the top so I don't get it turned around.

The copper tubing is actually serving two different purposes here. Not only is it giving me my contour, but since my inch and a half tubing is gonna be on the inside of it, it's given me a built in space to my top and to any other attachment points.

After forming the first half, I trace the outline out of the plywood that will eventually become the mold and I'm using a hammer to gradually coax the other half to match.

This looks like it'll clear all the moving parts so I can move on. They're beautiful.

I bet.

Next, I'm tracing the contour on the three quarter inch plywood. Now, this will be the inner shape of the bar

with the shade cut out. I'll check the fit before moving on.

I need a thickness of at least two inches. So I'll stack three layers to make my jig.

I need an anchor point to begin the bends. So I'm screwing down a piece of wood to hold the tubing in place.

Ok. Now, here's where it's gonna start to get interesting.

I can't use the tube shark like I used on the comet because I'm after a nice gradual curve, not just a bend. And since this tube in here is so thick, it's gonna take a lot of heat and a lot of pressure to bend it.

Now, my steel table, I've got it anchor down against a rack. So it ain't going anywhere. My wood contraption over here. Well, it's gotta stay put also. So that means I need to drop some holes through it, bolt it down.

I'm going through four sheets of three quarter inch plywood and a half inch thick piece of steel. But these can cut drill bits will handle this job with no problem.

In fact, this is what they were designed for

with the jig bolted down. We can finally get to bending. Since Brent's deep into red sled. Chris from extreme came down to be the torch, man.

The plan is to heat the tubing up within a settling torch. Then drop it in the jig and pull it to shape.

One obvious problem. A wood jig plus red hot metal equals fire. Now, they don't call me the arsonist for nothing.

Of course, we do have a fire extinguisher on hand just in case

this is gonna take longer than I thought I

think.

Yeah. Hopefully my, uh,

my jig

stands up long enough to build two of these.

All. You spin it all the way

you watching that mark right there.

I have been something yet.

Sure been something.

Ha ha. Fire fire.

That's about us.

Want it to have a real smooth bend.

Yeah, exactly. I just wanted a nice, nice, smooth to kind of match the contour of the, of the headliner.

Am I still tight

all the way across?

Yep.

You're gonna smell like

slow bacon

Megan

bacon.

That's good.

We'll have to let it cool, turn the end, set it in place and see if it fits.

Ok.

And go like that.

I let the bar cool down. Got the ends trimmed to fit.

Yeah, we're looking good. Sometimes I amaze even myself. Now for the hard part, I have to make a second tube to match the first.

I'm gonna get busy on that.

You guys stick around. So we got a lot more coming up after the break.

Next on muscle car, the Ls seven gets wired.

Hey, guys, welcome back. I got the second two bent, got it both welded in and now I'm just working on filling the center with sheet metal. I don't really have to worry about getting it all smooth and perfect. It's all gonna get upholstered with the interior. What I am looking for is a nice gradual arc across the top and make sure that everything is centered side to side.

Now I've been doing this, Brent's been patching the rest of the rust on a red sled. So I think he's ready to keep rolling on the body work.

The seams where lead filler was removed will need to be filled back in

after cleaning him up a bit, he's putting on metal reinforced filler. It's stronger than plastic filler and works well for seams because it won't crack under stress.

The drawbacks are that it's expensive. I mean, like 4 to 7 times the cost of plastic filler, plus it's harder to sand. So to get a perfect, we'll come back over it later with plastic filler.

Once it hardens, it's roughed in with 40 grid. The lead we removed actually formed the body line that went around the trim and we'll need that trim back in place before we can finish this area.

It's still at the plater having 40 years of neglect polished off. So we won't be finished in this corner until later,

we'll get it as close as we can for now. And that means a second coat and more sandy

is you?

Meanwhile, I'm still going strong on the roll bar now, one big advantage to welding sheet metal under roll bar tubing.

You don't have to worry about warping it.

You can just tack it in place and go for it.

I've got 10 different pieces to create this metal sculpture and this is number eight.

I've got almost three days into this already, but it'll all be worth it to add a unique touch to this one of a kind ride.

Hey, got wheels right on. Hey, look like the old honeycomb style. Oh, yeah. Oh,

cool. Well, hey, I'm just about done with the roll by here. We'll get them mounted. Let's do it

now that we have our actual wheels for the car, we need to get the brakes mocked up just to make sure everything's gonna clear.

Oh, man.

Hey, Rick.

All

right. So what do we got,

uh, the calpers hitting the pen

or bracket right there? Got you.

What will mount up here in the front?

No,

no, it's

not clear there either. Is it?

All right. Well, let me give be

call. I heard the six piston caliper actually has an internal uh

bracket on there. So let me give him a call.

Oh, this is a perfect example of why mock up is so important when you're dealing with a car as modified as this one,

you're gonna run into problems like this. But hey, that's why the manufacturers have tech lines.

Sometimes hot rods make you cry

and sometimes, well, they're easy as pie. Our front brakes went on with no problems.

The next step in our mock up is cram and all these wires here under the hood. Now, our engine harness actually uses two units. The first one is this fuse box and the second one is the actual control module. Now, inside the car, we also need to mount our drive by wire, accelerator pedal and our transmission control unit. Now, all this stuff needs to go in. Now, that way we can build any brackets and drill any necessary holes. Now, like I've said before, the more mock up you do now the fewer surprises you'll have down the road

GM made this as close to plug and play as possible, but that doesn't mean you can turn your brain off while you're installing it.

Everything's nicely labeled,

oo

for sure. But we need to pay special attention to the routing to keep everything away from heat sources.

We're mounting our serpentine pulley system from March before we go any further because we're going to have to work around these to get some other things installed.

The kit not only includes an ac compressor, an alternator, it also has detailed diagrams on how to install the system.

Just take it step by step and before, you know, it,

you're done.

You know, it's amazing how fast you run out of room when you're mocking up a car like this. Now, there's some things that have to go in certain places like the radiator, the pulleys and the air conditioning. But there's other things that you just have to find a new home for like the fuse box and the control module and we'd love to hide these things down somewhere where you can't really see them, but we're just running out of room. So I'm gonna have to build a bracket and they're gonna get mounted right here in the fender. Well, so stick around. There's more muscle car after the break

coming up the car that kicked off a new era for Corvettes.

Today's flashback, a 1963 Corvette Stingray,

the 1963 Corvette Stingray Coup has been deemed one of the most widely recognized classic Corvettes

split window coups were only made for one year under the direction of Bill Mitchell VP. And head of design at GM

Mitchell wanted to create a masterpiece and it's rumored the designer hit him on a fishing trip to the Caribbean.

However, head engineer Zora Dunt

Top took issue with a rear window spine claiming it would impair rear visibility for drivers. Mitchell fired back and said, if you take that off, you might as well forget the whole thing.

45 years later, we know who won that fight.

It took a lot more than an 18 inch strip of fiberglass in the rear view to make this car famous.

This was the first year of the Stingray body style. The lines on these cars are anything but shy and are touched off with just a hint of chrome wrap over limo style doors, a lot easier entry and exit of the vet,

not to mention, hey, they're just sexy

but looks well, they're only half the story.

Dun

and his band of engineers redesigned these vets from the chassis up

the X frame from previous models was scrapped to make room for a new ladder style frame, lowering the center of gravity a little over two inches.

Next GM shortened the wheelbase and sped up the steering ratio by taking half a turn out of the wheel locked a lot.

Finally, they slipped in the first independent rear suspension and powered the whole thing with 327 cubic inches

available in four different power options.

Three and four speed manual gearboxes or power glide automatic, kept the ponies in check.

The whole package sits on a set of 15 inch wheels capped off with three blade spinners,

a sporty interior with an oversized Speedo intact. Scream for the driver to lean on that skinny pedal. Just a little harder like a Go Kart with a big engine. I mean, you push that gas and that

300 horsepower and and away you go and you go into a curve and it feels like you just,

it fits you like a glue

with only a little over 10,000 coups made. These cars are hard to find. And Dale Nunnery of classic cars Southeast has been dreaming of owning a 63 since high school. But in 1963 when you're 17 years old, you know, that's a lot of money. So I just had to dream about it

and this is one dream, Dale turned into a reality. Now, phone in 163 isn't cool enough to check this out. Dale had to split window fly in his museum. But this rare vet, hey, this is only for display.

There were only a little over 1700 of them actually built and sold.

The 63 vet was the culmination of modern style and engineering led by two forward thinking minds at GM.

While these cars aren't known for shredding tires off the line,

their agility handling and maneuverability are sure to sting any big block cruiser and a set of twisties

stick around more muscle car after the break

up. Next, Brent puts the pedal to the metal.

Hey, we're back. I got my mounting panel ready to get welded in. But at this point, I do not want to cover the engine compartment with welding spatter. So we got a little tip for you, welding paper.

It's sticky back paper that's been treated with a flame retardant coating.

You can stick it over glass body panels or anything else you don't want to burn.

That's kind of expensive, but it's cheaper than fixing all the damage it could cause if you don't use it.

The LS seven uses a drive by wire gas pedal and that means no cable or rod like a traditional set up. That also means we need to build a custom mount.

The pedal doesn't have a lot of travel. So the bracket also has to be designed for proper location.

Brent's come up with a two piece design. The larger piece will bolt to the pedal and the smaller piece that's going to attach to the firewall.

Now, this is why we never throw out small pieces of metal. This scrap of eight inch plate left over from the impala frame is now becoming part of the train

vein

after buzzing off the E coat and finding some bare metal, the gas pedal finds its permanent home.

Hey, right on. It's got a gas pedal is we can take it off for a cruise.

No, we probably have to put some training controls in it first.

Uh That's cool. I got that right here. Actually, I think it'll fit right up in front of the console

right

there.

Yeah, perfect. That'll work. And we still got the air conditioning unit and all the duct work and stuff that has to go into there too.

Yeah,

probably I get rolling on that. Yeah, that's cool. Well, hey, that's all we got time for today, but we're gonna keep cramming stuff under the dash. So, until next week we're out of here.