1977 Pontiac "Bandit" Trans Am

[BRZN]

I had the honor of working on a buddies 1977 Pontiac Trans Am SE yesterday, Yup, a real Bandit TA! I brought Kyle along with me. Several of you may recognize Kyle, he's been working for me at some of the Carlisle Events recently, and really knows how to run a polisher.

Mike had bought the car off eBay almost two years ago and after closely looking it over, decided it needed a bit of work.

 

A full Rotisserie Restoration ensued.

 

After 15 months it was out of paint, Cut and Buffed and back into Mike's garage.

Mike wanted to get the paint much closer to perfect before the yards of graphics are applied, and that's where Kyle and I stepped in. Mike owns a Porter cable, and has all the Adam's products to do the job, but was aware of the time it would take him to do the complete correction with the tools he had by himself. He cleaned and clayed the car prior to our arrival.

I loaded the Magnum up with about everything we'd need on Friday evening and picked up Kyle early Sayurday morning. We got to Mike's at 9:00am, unloaded the Magnum and looked over the TA.

The car looked really nice to start with and we were excited to get started.

First order of business was to start taping off places we didn't want to touch with a machine.

 

I placed Adam's Swirl Killer into Mike's hands and we worked a test area to figure what we were going to have to do to correct the paint to his satisfaction.

It took Heavy Correcting Compound on a Blue Foam Pad, followed by Paint Correcting Polish on an Orange Foam Pad, and finished off with Paint Finishing Polish on a White Foam Pad. In several areas we started with the Blue Microfiber Pad in Place of the Blue Foam.

The rear deck lid, spoiler and surrounding areas were in need of extra attention, so while Mike and I sorted out a plan, Kyle jumped right in. Here he is with the Rupes Mini. Kyle switched back and forth between the Rupes Mini and Adam's Swirl Killer Mini. Kyle noted a slight weight increase in the Swirl Killer Mini but found Adam's machine to not have quite as much vibration as the Rupes. He liked both equally.

Here he is with the Swirl Killer Mini on the rear bumper.

Mike stuck with the 15mm Long Throw Swirl Killer

Kyle used the 15mm Rupes Bigfoot Mark II and I with my 15mm Rupes Bigfoot LHR ES

The Rupes iBird Nano also came in handy inside the front fender vents and in the recessed area of the rear bumper at the license plate where even the Mini's were too big to reach completely.

 

A local fire company was holding a chicken bar-b-q not far from Mike's place, and while we worked Mike's wife went out and brought us each a half chicken dinner for lunch!

A Panel Kyle was working Before Heavy Correcting Compound

After Paint Correcting Polish

Same panel finished with Paint Finishing Polish

Another panel Kyle was working

Before

During

After

The white specks are dust and there's a slight bit of polish residue creating a haze at around 8:00 in this above pic, but believe me, the paint was like a mirror.

 

Here's a couple videos Kyle made of the front bumper while he was working it

We wrapped up around 5:00pm, eight hours work, with three guys, equals 24 man hours on this car. She came out looking sweet!

Edited May 7, 2017 by BRZN

[Chris@Adams]

Nice job guys!

[rkj4243]

​Car looks great Dave!

 

​And thanks for offering the comparisons of the machines used in the process as well!

[Sizzle Chest]

Nice work gentlemen!  Looks great!

[BrianT]

Dave, I like how you said he thought it needed a "bit of work" and the next picture you have is of the car with no front clip and no floor pans!!!

 

Car came out great!!

[pirahnah3]

wow, what a great car to get to work on, surprised how little work it really needed, I would have thought it would have needed a lot more. 

[falcaineer]

Nice work, Dave! Any finished pics of the whole car?

[Thorsager]

Nice work and write up!

[PacificNWBuckeye]

Sweet, nice work on one of my favorite vehicles.

 

Burt getting rubber shifting the auto after picking up Sally in the wedding dress is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

[BRZN]

Nice work, Dave! Any finished pics of the whole car?

No after pics, the garage space was a bit too tight for me to get the full car. By the time we were wrapping up polishing Kyle had already begun cleaning/packing everything up. We'd been there long enough, it was an hour drive back to home. Mike posts pics on Facebook on a regular basis, the next good ones he posts up I'll throw on this thread.. 

[BRZN]

Mike (car owner) just posted up a few pics of our finished work on his Facebook page.

 

Top of the Right Rear Quarter Panel

 

Hood

 

Right, Passenger's Side Door

 

Full Right Side Shot

[falcaineer]

^^^ Now we're talkin'!

[Draper]

Wow, this turned out great!