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Finally getting around to making an official build thread. Me and this car spent a very long year together recently while her "daddy" was away fighting bad guys in the sandbox. We ended up calling this Project Welcome Home as it was intended to be a surprise for Lath's homecoming. To start out here's some back ground on this car and it's actual owner.

Red Blaze is the name of this Bright Rally Red 2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that was purchased in November of 2007 by my husband SSG Lath Warren after he came home from a 15 month tour in Iraq. His love of this car is a great as my love is for the Camaro. This car was his dream car. Black leather interior, LS1 V8, T-tops, and a six speed T56 transmission. All she was missing was the WS6 package. It has been his DD since the day he purchased it and has been from Fort Hood to Fort Huachuca to Fort Knox. Red Blaze carries a very special place in his heart, in fact he proclaimed he loved this Trans Am more than beer. :drinking:
In 2010 we came upon deployment orders. This time to Afghanistan. At the same time Blaze wasn't doing so well and I could see it breaking Lath's heart. The car eventually stopped running right before he left and with sadness and heartbreak in his eyes he talked to me for the first time about having to sell her. Being the softy I am I wasn't gonna let that happen. I gave up on my 1996 Z28 and concentrated all my effort, time, and extra money into this Trans Am. She is still a work in progress at the time Im creating this thread but in the year we spent alone together she has come quite a long way.
I unfortunately do not have any pictures documenting all the work that went into making her run again. Mechanically she was a bit of a mess and Im surprised the LS1 suffered no damage. The Manifold gaskets were leaking oil, the cooler the power steering lines and coolant lines run through side by side was also leaking, the starter was bad, the battery was bad, Power steering pump was bad, water pump was bad, and the power steering lines were bad. And to add insult to injury one of the headlight motors went out and left that popeye effect. All the leaks caused the power steering fluid, coolant, and oil to mix together and run through the vehicles systems like that. Two days were spent just flushing out the systems in an effort to clean out all the garbage and save the engine. The PS and Water pumps were replaced as well as the PS lines. The manifold was given a good cleaning and the gaskets were replaced. I myself replaced the starter and battery and while I was under there I installed a SLP Loudmouth Cat Back exhaust system. The headlight motor also was replaced that same night. :D
Afterwards I remember crawling out from under the car, getting in the driver seat and praying as I turned the key. :laugh: She fired right up. The LS1 survived! :headbang:
The next task was turning it into a WS6 and fixing alot of the cosmetic issues as well as customizing some of the cosmetics as well. This I have tons of pictures of!