1975 grand AM 455 the pissed off GrandMA

i was talking to a friend about this we have traded cars back and forth for a wile his dad is a really big pontiac fan he basically has a Pontiac junk yard as his front back and side yard. he even had a 1979 regal drag car powered by a 455 poncho that ran 11's back int he early 90's. back in november he listed a bunch of cars for sale (including the regal and the grand am) at the time didnt have the funds to facilitate another project and just thought it was a 350 lemans.



i am not that bright of a man thinking this was a lemans

i mean really



he informed me it was a Grand Am. what a grand am? you mean the shitty GM FWD? actually no to my amazement the grand am was actually a respectable car. then he hit me

factory 455 car with factory 3.42 posi

then he said moonroof.


what?





but factory 455 surely that must be gone by now replaced with a chevy



oh well then



so i made an offer and now i am the proud owner 455 powered grand am. actually it;s kind of need original color of the car was a dark green with a white landua top with 2 tone black white interior. bakck dash carpet center console every thing else white.....


except some one in the past had the bright idea to "paint" the interior soooo now it's "back"







driver seat might give you a disease if you stare to long...

does have a nifty blue door and the nifty door has a blue panel



the rest of the exterior is not that bad



the majority of the car is there just..... some assembly is required

even has spares. extra tail lights









good news is rear window is leak free!!!!

same with the moon roof



now the specs on the 455 is 9.25:1 compression '68 intake manifold, ram air exhaust manifolds, 6X heads (these good? i do not know pontiac i am an olds guy) and a cran cams 270H and topped with a 850 Q-jet. has a 2400 stall converter and THM400



main goal is to get it running and driving then i will worry about the pretty.

Nice project...  You should run the numbers on the Q-jet. If it's a ram air carb they are worth a small fortune to the pontiac purists. A 75 carb would be hot air choke.

not sure what the carb is it was on the engine when the guy i am buying it form got it. he basically has a small pontiac junk yard as his front back and side yard

the car in front is a 66 cat 2+2 421 tri-power

i bought LS1 rear calipers and axle mounting brackets going to get a 79 corvette master and 80 F-body with 4 wheel disc prop valve.

also got spindles from a 78 b car (caprice with towing package had 12" rotors) and 1LE rotors. car already has new barings in the front so i will see if my barrings i have  will fit. i forget what the year change over was for the different outer barring


for less then $400 car should stop pretty decent (witch is better then the no stopping it does now)

Nice. Love the GA
Keep us posted.

That's going to be awesome.

will do

and a rare opera window GA at that..





this belongs to a friend of a friend.  6.0 LS swap with twin turbos...also a 455,opera window GA.

i did notice most came with the louvered quarter windows

some updates wheels!!!!!!




why the wheels? well needed 16" rims to clear the brakes i got for the rear so i got 17x8 silver soft 8's they where cheap and figure i could paint them back if i do not like the silver and still save $40

also the brakes

98-02 LS1 f-body rears. with e-brake cable

yay for getting parts off of texas cars


cool thing if i ever want or need to i have speed sensors on the backing plates. if i ever go EFI (want to but cost) these will be useful also for aftermarket electric speedo







they are ether new or came off a low miles car. even have the e-brake cables so i can hook those up

got the car after assessment better then i was expecting, more parts that are like gold are actually with the car
interior is just gone though all the plastic just crumbled when i tryied to take it out of it's stored areas
wiring is well..... it's there not sure if it would be easier to just get a whole new aftermarket wiring harness or try and peice this one together
couple little holes in the floor but rest of the car is solid
driver doors needs a lower skin
seats need to be recovered as all they are good for is the frames
all in all for what i paid not a bad car

cool added bonus came with a 2nd gen ws6 front sway bar

didn't have much time but did make some backwards progress.


the front sheet metal was held in primaily by zipties and a couple bolts and needs to be aligned so i started taking it all off. when i go to put it back on i will leave the inner fenders off for ease of running wire and brake lines

first thing i did was take out the booster and wiper motor (wiper motor was to get room to get to the last bolt on the booster)



when i found a cool but of history the bodies build date



then removed the front nose witch is a fiberglass remold of the original urethane enduro bumper



then i noticed this. not sure if i will try and fix the factory copper rad or just get a new aluminum rad. will proably just get an aluminum rad



tomorrow i plan on removing the hood and getting the rest of the front sheet metal off and then aligned and back on. going to pull the outer A/C box as i am going to get a delete cover

Way to get after it! You're an inspiration for some of us (or, am I the only one?) to get busy on our projects...lol!

Looks like a worthwhile project. There were not a whole lot of opera window 75 Grand Am's made, some, but not a lot. Here is my 75 opera coupe with 63,000 miles on it. There are a lot of factory markings and stampings on it. If you want to know more about them, let me know and I will post more, and there are some in the photo gallery here... Good luck with yours! Looks cool! " />

interesting so my car is pretty rare then

opera window, power moon roof, 455, radio delete

just got all this for $75 plus the parts i am getting from mcarlo77 most of the crumbled interior is replaced just need sail panels

That's an incredible deal! Congrats!

i thought so. i can even use the lower crank window panels for testing dye.

Neat car. If I get another a body other than another Monte I will get on of these.

That wheels choice is cool. If I decided to keep my malibu I may change out the ramblers for a set of those and go for a nascar/bank robber special look.

Check it out...another small window Grand Am ('74).

figured out what color i will be painting it once i get to that point. same color as my old 1997 grand Prix

did more backwards progress on the GA

got the nose and leaking rad and a/c box out



found the passenger door harness as well... well most of it



need to get a A/C delete cover as the fire wall is actually different between a A/C and non-A/C car sadly i need to pull the dash for the heater core i was hoping i could get it out with out doing so like on a G-body



ratnest

(literally) that is the driver side wiring

an update what is this????


first small thing noticed some one welded in the holes of the rear seat area. this is sort of common for handeling improvements as it reduces body flex here is a 75 GA normally





and then my car noticed the triangles are welded up and the white paint is different. in persona you can also see the weld bead



ok now on to the actual update i saw these for dirt cheap you all know what these are



to install them i might just use 3M tape. not sure how i feel about drilling holes but may just do that

i also ordered a A/C delete box. i wil be covering up the blower motor opening as i am completely removing the HVAC system

side chevelle window louvers came in sooo much better looking and now i do not need to weld on studs for the chrome trim (car was a vinyl top car)

get a picture of the mock up later

Any updates?