The way that light plays off...
The way that light plays off of the candy Hellfire paint is a sight to behold in person. It almost appears as though the car was bathed in a thick layer of candy coating that entices you to take a bite.
The combination of LS power and perhaps the most aggressive styling in GM history made the late Fourth-Gen T/A a winner out of the gate. But 29-year-old Chris Kenney of Orlando, Florida, felt he owed it to his loyal driver to make a great machine even greater.
In 2001, Chris was looking to buy a Trans Am because, in his words, "It was the cool thing to do then." And why not? The LS1 responded well to almost anything thrown at it, and Chris, a college student at the time, felt it would be a great car to have as an escape from reality.
Scanning the cars-for-sale section of the paper and performing online searches, he discovered a black WS6 in Ft. Myers at a good price, so he decided to make the trip to check it out. "It was mechanically sound, but I noticed that it was poorly kept and dirty," he recalls. This didn't dissuade him, however, and the 20-year-old was soon the proud owner of this six-speed '98 WS6.
Underhood we find an engine...
Underhood we find an engine bay unlike most others. The stock LS1 was fitted with a bunch of go-fast bolt-ons and it was candied from top to bottom. Over 150 bolts were sent off to be chrome plated. While waiting on the bolts, a FAST 78mm intake was ported and smoothed, and painted graphite metallic to match the brakes and valve covers. The coils and fuel rails were painted Hellfire, and all bare aluminum parts were polished and Zoopsealed. Finally, the wiring harness was reworked to run through the fenderwells, and all sensors were relocated to give the engine bay a "super uncluttered appearance," according to customizer Chris "Whistler" Kirchner.
As Chris hit the books at the University of Central Florida, studying finance, he also made a few tweaks to his Bird. With his limited budget, he was restricted to simple mods like an after-cat exhaust and an intake-the bigger mods would come later. The black paint was polished to a mirror finish, the wheels were always dust-free, the tires were dressed, and the Dark Pewter interior was spotless. Chris took great pride in his Pontiac, and it showed.
Disaster Strikes
While some say Florida is famous for its sunshine, many natives would say it's equally infamous for its unpredictable weather and sporadic thunderstorms. In 2008, nature decided it was time to show Chris' WS6 a thing or two as tropical storm Fay blasted through Florida, leaving downed trees and a scarred landscape in its wake. A nearby apartment complex nearly disintegrated, as it shed its shingles trying to brave the storm. The shingles hurtled through the air at over 70 mph, some of them hitting Chris' Trans Am.
The next morning was nauseating for Chris when he discovered that his prized Pontiac was battered and beaten. Disheartened, he covered the wounded warrior and let it hibernate for nearly three years until he could afford to have it properly fixed.
The rear bumper is filled...
The rear bumper is filled out with a set of dual-dual tips from the Hooker exhaust system that Chris had ceramic-coated. Kirchner also smoothed down the Pontiac emblem on the headlight door and left off the side moldings and other emblems so that the whole car would look smooth. Meanwhile the taillights and side markers were sprayed with a 35-percent-tinted poly-plastic coating that's just as slick as the paint and gives the plastic pieces an almost stained-glass look.
In that time, Chris met two more local Orlando boys, Chris "Whistler" Kirchner, LS-car specialist extraordinaire and owner of the FX Shop, and Paul Romine, also of FX. Chris worked with the two men to come up with a set-to-kill paint color and a few tweaks here and there to make his Trans Am more enjoyable. "I felt like I owed the Firebird something because it was always there for me in college; it needed proper treatment," he says.
The black Bird was sent to FX, where Kirchner and Romine stripped it down to the bare unibody-doors, hatch, hood, fenders, bumpers, and all interior pieces were removed.
Outside, things began to take shape as the doors were blocked to show-car smooth. The color that was ultimately chosen would be found in little accents across the car, PPG candy Hellfire. This paint makes the T/A appear as though it has been dipped in a thick candy shell, like an apple at a fair.