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71 t-37

3K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  Dylishious 
#1 ·
so a couple months back my dad bought a 71 Lemans and a 71 T-37 from up north, no motor/no trans and both are pretty rusty, i bought the T-37 from him and picked up a running pontiac 400 and m21 trans out of a 76 firebird (6x heads, rebuilt recently)

Im almost done doing the floors, and just waiting on some ball-joints and shocks from summit racing before i can finish doing brakes (i got a front disc brake kit, 11" rotors, 2 piston calipers, new spindles for a older nova, etc)

when i finish the floor and brakes i think im ready to start putting the engine in, right now my question is will the automatic trans cross-member that was originally in the car work with the m21? and will the engine mounts from the 76 firebird work in the T-37? or will i have to get different engine mounts

thanks
 
#2 · (Edited)
On 76 model 350 & 400 blocks, the changeover was during the model year from the 5 hole block to he 3 hole blocks like used in '77-81's. Ck the side of the 400 block, if there are 5 mounting bosses with drilled and tapped holes to accept either early or late style smotormounts, it will be a direct bolt-in into a V8 T-37. If that is the case, you will need a 55 3/8" long driveshaft (center to center on the ujoints) along with the med length T-400 yoke to mate up with the 2nd design T-10 that came with your engine. Thats if the rear is original Pontiac 8.2, or a 12 bolt. If someone has swapped an 8.5 A-body rear in he car, driveshaft will need to be 54.5" same dimension, and med length T400 yoke.

On the non boxed frame Pontiac A body frame, the automatic and the factory stick crossmember are basically the same. there is a different hole in each due to different guide for the emergency brake cable.

What color combo the T-37?
71 T-37 & GT-37 GT-37 owner here.
 
#3 ·
thanks! i thought you could get the 71's to come with the 8.5 from factory?

the T-37 was originally a 350-auto, i haven't checked the code but i believe it was orange from what was left on the car. eventually i will be going black with red stripes, and black interior
 

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#5 ·
The rear is a Pontiac 8.2, can tell bybshapeof rear center hsg.
8.5's didn't make it into Pontiac A-body's from the factory until '73 models, and the '73 style is a different style housing, that won't fit in '72 and earlier A body's

Your T-37 appears to be Canyon Copper with a ivory interior. beautiful combo when new. ck out the resto thread & pics of Mike Sparks '71 GT-37 on PY board, it's is same color combo. Canyon copper really looks sweet when fresh, owned a '71 GTO 455 HO that was canyon copper in the late 90's.
 
#7 ·
That's going to be a real looker when it's done. Agree with the others: the factory color combo is super sharp, and not common. I noticed that you were going with Nova spindles. Be very careful there.....they will change the alignment angles, and sometimes are not workable with A-bodies. BTDT on a '65, and we could not install the 2" of shims required to get it aligned without hitting the exhaust manifolds with the A-arms. Bad news.
 
#8 ·
thanks guys, i will definetly keep the factory color options in mind when it comes time to paint and interior. the picture below is what was left of the interior and floor when i got it, i picked up some bucket seats and a near perfect dash down near fargo a while back.

do you think the 8.2 would be worth building up? or should i go straight to finding a 12 bolt
 

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#9 · (Edited)
After viewing a better pic of the interior, the color of the dash tips it off, the interior is sandlewood, not ivory. Still a very nice contrasting color interior. The T-37 door panels and rear side panels are not reproduced, and if only damage to the door panels is rolled up lower edges from the vinyl coming loose from slightly warped hard backer board, it's not that expensive to have a local trim shop replace the backer boards. On the bucket seat addition, I went through that on the Engr car. Previously to my friend Bob, who bought the the T in '91, the previous body and paint guy started his idea of a quickee restoration. With the original interior not being avail in repro form, installed black 'vinyl 72 Chevelle pattern upholstery kit on the heavy Strato buckets. He also pulled the car's Coupe type rear seat and went back with the narrower 2 door hardtop rear seat. It looked decent, but anyone who knew a little about T-37s , knew it wasn't supposed to have the narrower rear seat with plastic rear lower armrest panels or the bucket seats. Within a few months of the restoration beginning, ended up stumbling onto a '72 Malibu customer, while building rearends. Ended up selling the reupholstered seats to to the Malibu guy. Last, Bob and I pulled a lightweight front and rear bench out of a '72 LeMans 2 door Coupe to have reupholstered, had hardly anything in the bench and then bought the original fabric and vinyl. Can share with you, it's a lot harder when don't have the optional all vinyl bench interior.

On choice of rearends, it just depends on how much torque you are going to throw at it and how it is torque loaded. Personally, I will not build the gray iron 8.2 rears up for A body's that see street/ strip action and have engines pushing 500ft lbs of torque with an auto trans. Just know the weak points of the 8.2's very well and even with a tough to find nodular 8.2 Pontiac rear and all the best parts, they have a limit in a heavy A body. The tapered bearing bolt in axle 8.5 A-body rears are very cost effective build, and have more pinion support than a 12 bolt, making for the basis of a very strong rearend. I usually build half a dozen 8.5 A bodys, to one 12 bolt and the 12 bolts typically are assembled for restorations that typically don't see the track, still nearly always upgrade the axles, side gears and spiders. In the end, it all comes down to cost analysis and what an owner is going to do with the car.
 
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