It pains me greatly but its time to sell my first T/A... Life is changing and a few things gotta go like this beautiful 1978 Hurst top T/A with 455 and my '99 T/A. Here is the 1978. Mayan Red (repainted factory color in 2007) 455, bored .030 (Sorry, no detailed specs, shop neglected that when rebuilding) Block was rebuilt in late 2006, block cracked due to rod bolt splitting. Block was sleaved and engine runs flawlessly. Approximately 6k miles since rebuild. Previous owner claimed block was a Super Duty, however I have not run the numbers! BW ST10 4-speed, 4:11s out back, Transmission completely rebuilt in early 2006. Car had surface rust only at time of repaint, see pics. Things this car needs... Interior, I lost my job and ran out of the funds to finish this car. Most body and mechanical work has been done, over $18k invested! This is an excellent driver car and wouldn't take much to be a total show winner. Add an interior and you're all set! Car is currently in Louisiana (@SCC Garage) for interior. Call to set up a showing today! Price: $14,000.00, negotiable. Contact Joe S. @ 715-512-0286 - serious offers only please! This section is dedicated to my first Trans Am, Tracy. I first saw Smokey and The Bandit when I was 4 years old. I was too young to remember most of the film but two things always remained in my head. One, I wanted the car that was driven out of the semi trailer and two, I wanted the car that jumped the bridge. The spirit of my quest was rekindled when I next saw Smokey and The Bandit at age 13. As I watched the opening credits I had a vague feeling of déjà-vu…. once the Bandit started the car in the trailer though, I knew I had to have whatever he drove out…… I knew I had to have a Trans Am just like that. Imagine my disappoint to find they were priced around $30,000.00! My spirits were lifted though when I found a Special Edition T/A sitting in a yard about 20 odd miles south of where I lived. I was 16 when my father and I spoke with the owner who said he wanted to sell the car, just not yet. I would spend the next 6 years pestering him…. but that's another story for another car… on another page. I like to set goals for my life and one of my first was this; to have a Speacial Edition Trans Am by 24 or else. The else was that I wouldn't bother trying to buy any T/A after that as I'd be too busy with a wife and kids or something. Well, I got to 20 and realized that an SE was still out of reach, at least for now. So I amended my goal; now all I had to do was get ANY T/A before 24 or bust. So, one day as I walked out of the local grocery store a woman my mom knew at church approached me and asked if I was still looking for a Firebird. I said yes and she told me that her son had one that he wanted to sell. All she knew was that it was red and it was taking up space in her garage. I was still holding out for a black car but seeing as time was not on my side I gave him a call. Sure enough it was red and a '78 to boot. But it did have t-tops and a 4 speed…… I made arrangements to see the car that weekend. I had no idea what I was doing, much less the things this car would do to me... There she sat, in a garage that frankly, needed more things to fill it. The car was red, had t-tops and the aforementioned 4-speed…. but no one said anything about the engine. From my research I was expecting a 400 V8, maybe a W72 if I was lucky. Boy was I ever, for no 400 was beneath the hood….. instead, there lurcked a monstrous 455 Super Duty! At the time, I had no idea what it was aside from the fact that it was huge. Heck, you need to remove either the brake master sylinder assembly or the driver-side valve cover just to stick it in! The Interior was mostly black….. the ceiling was white as was the t-top trim which I thought was odd… The exterior had some surface rust and the bird was etched into the hood but there was no cancer the bottom was clean as a whistle. The spoilers were mostyl intact but those were pretty cheap anyway. The paint appeared to be the original coat and where it wasn't faded or rusted looked pretty decent for its age and the decals while faded were complete and correct as was the ornamentation. The interior was a different story altoghether. The front seats were black cloth and sourced from a 1984 Firbird; they were a little threadbare but usable. The back seat was vinyl and along with the assorted panels were sourced from a 1977 Firebird with a black standard interior. The t-top trim and headliner were white though….. Yep, it was built by a redneck. We took the car for a spin (Ididn't drive as I had yet to drive a stick and this was not a good place to start) during which I was dually impressed by the power of the enigine and the wondurous sound of the exhaust. We got back to Jason's (the owner) garage and parked the car. After giving it one final look over, I told him thanks, but no-thanks and went home. Now if you're asking yourself why I didn't buy it you need to understand something. First I wanted a real SE, and second, I was hoping for something a little more, I don't know, finished. Six months go by and I'm no closer to owning a Firebird than I was 16 years prior. Jason's was the best offer to come by in all my searching so I called him up, fully expecting to hear that he had sold the car. Apparently my ownership was meant to be as he had not sold the car. I told him I had reconsidered and that I would buy it. On Ocotber 21, 2005, I became the somewhat reluctant, but never the less proud owner of a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am, Mayan Red and sporting a 455 + 4-speed. During the previous six months I had learned to operate a stick in the nasty Ford pickup that my boss had (I was working on a farm then) so I was prepared to drive my new prize home. Unfortunately I had never driven anything approaching this kind of power in such a small package…… I did my first donut, on accident, at the first stop sign I came to. I wanted to go left and the car wanted to go round in circles……. (Billy Preston, anyone?) It was an interesting wake-up call to say the least. Well, now that I had the car it was time to go to work! Tracy, as she came to be called, spent the winter at home where I would go out almost every night stare at her. The following spring and most of the summer was spent at a local body shop. I visited her everyday after work (I had since been hired at the local computer shop) causing Tom (the body man) no end of grief I suppose. Finally, in August she was ready to hit the streets… minus the hood bird. While she had mainly surface rust with minor holes at the very bottom of the rear quarters, the hood proved to be another story. The original bird had etched itself over the years into the very metal of the hood. Although none of it made it all the way through, Tom really wanted me to find a new hood. I never did get a new hood and the original one turned out fine but it was kinda spooky for awhile. You see the bird remained visiable until the final coat ofprimer….. despite all attempts to buff, sand, fill, cover, or otherwise remove it. You can see most of the process in the pictures but seeing it in person was something else entirely. Now if you have had a Firebird of any vintage in the last 24 years or so you've probably heard of the Trans Am Nationals held in Dayton, OH each year. If not, shame on you and make plans to attend right now! This is THE place to be if you even remotely like these cars. Held the last weekend in August each year you can find everything from first year cars to the 2002 Collector Editions and everything in between. Stock, rare, modified 'til it's broke, they're all here! So anyway, Tracy is ready just in time to make it to the Nationals. I had no intention of entering the show, I just thought it would be awesome to be there with my first car! I had recently joined Trans Am Country and 78TA.com; both are online forums dedicated to the 2nd generation Trans Am and Firebirds in general. It was on TAC that I first learned of the Trans Am Nationals and the gang convinced me to attend. I in turn convinced my cousin Mike to come along. So off we went on a 1200 mile trip to Daaayton and back. It takes about 12 hours if you only stop for gas and the trip down was uneventful. This would not be the case on our return trip but I'm saving that for later….. Long story short, we made it without incident and on Friday afternoon we went to the airport (the show is held on the grounds of the Airport Hotel) just to get the lay of the land. It was there that I was convinced to register for the show. Friday night was the TAC Pool Party; I brought my laptop and 5.1 surround sound speakers (7.1 wasn't available yet) and someone else brought a projector. Can you guess what we watched? If you said The Fast and The Furious you'd be dead wrong and expelled from class. : Yep, Smokey and The Bandit on the BIG SCREEN! Ok, so it was onily a king size bedsheet hung on the railing, who CARES it was cool! Saturday starts the actual show and this is when you tend to see the most cars. As I've said before there are many, many, Firebirds to see so bring a really big media card to hold all the pics. I think it usually peaks around 400-600 cars at any given time. Remember, this is a Firebird only show; no GTOs, Chargers, Mustangs, etc. Whatever you do, don't bring a checkbook! The day was fantastic; I was in heaven! At least I was until I tried to go back to the hotel. Yes, tried. I left the show around 3 or so to grab lunch back the hotel and maybe catch some shut-eye (which I really needed) but fate was about to deal me a cruel blow. I noticed as I tried to merge with traffic that my car had very little power. Naturally I thought it was odd but assumed it had to be something simple. The problem only manifested itself when I pressed hard on the accelerator pedal, she just ran out of go….. I made it back to the hotel although I left the show doing 70mph I arrived at 40mph… I spent the night on the phone with various people troubleshooting the problem which turned out to be a bad fuel pump. Sunday was spent trying to fix said issue, as a result, my car missed judging as I couldn't even get her out of the hotel parking lot. Naturally most of the shops were closed or wouldn't touch the car. Finally I called AAA and had the car towed to a local Pepboys. Why didn't I do it myself? Well, you try to find a fuel pump for 1974 455! It ain't so easy when you're stuck 600 miles from home! Nobody has the part, it needs to be ordered, blah, blah, blah. Normally I'm pretty patient with this sorta thing but there was a complication. You see, I had enrolled in the Law Enforcement course at the tech college back home and classes started Monday….. and Mr. Nutter says the only reason for missing class is because you're either in an ambulance on the way to the hosiptal or you're already dead… wonderful man. Monday finally arrives, the part is miracuously available 2 days ahead of schedule and I'm at Pepboys at 7am. Despite the fact that I'm in a tremendous hurry they don't start working on the car until 9. I'm hovering over Tracy like an overprotective father which seemed to unnerve the bumblimg fools (excuse me, technicians). After 2 hours (yep, 2 hours to replace a mechanical fuel pump) they try to start the car. Car starts but does not run. Clearly there is something else wrong. What do they do? Tear the carberator apart, naturally! Three hours go by with no luck. Meanwhile I'm about ready to cry, shoot someone, and/or buy a new truck and trailer to bring my poor baby (and myself + Mike) home. Suddenly, I hear that distinctive rumble that only a Pontiac 455 can make and my heart soars! Have you figured out the cause of my problems yet? Well in case you haven't it was a pinched fuel line. Don't get me wrong, the fuel pump was indeed bad….. it was just that the subsequent problems were cause by a pinch in one of the rubber flex sections of the fuel line. And to think I was there until 7pm before they figured it out. I booked an additional night at the hotel and we headed out Tuesday morning. On the way back I managed to lock my keys in the trunk but that was the end of our misadventures for the trip back. 1 Year Later... Well here we are! 2006 and still no hood chicken! I won't bore you with the details and you can ask if you want but I might take a while to answer you….. Actually I do have one more story to tell you about this car. The Day: Labor Day 2006, The Time: 9:00pm CST, Location: State Hwy 73, 20 miles north of Ladysmith, WI (AKA, middle of no where). I'm cruising at 55mph, (I'm a responsible citizen)and everything is beautiful. All gauges in the green, no traffic, cool breeze blowing through open windows and t-tops, heaven on earth (nice girl beside me would have made it a tad better). BANG! Yes, BANG! Every guage except the speedo drops to zero (or whatever their bottom equvilant is) and I coast to a stop. I'm just coming to an intersection and as I pull off the road I notice a massive cloud of…. well something, smoke/vapor, whatever behind me. I come to a stop in an abandoned driveway and turn the key. The engine turns over once, twice, and with a mighty heave a third time before issuing a slighty lesser Bang before stopping entirely. Now that I've stopped I see much steam (it was white) coming up around the shaker. Naturally I pop the hood to see what was the matter. Everything looks good, temperature before the Big BANG had been in the green so where is all this steam coming from? That's funny, I didn't know engine coolant was filled via the oil filler cap… what will they think of next? Gas filled via the windshield washer fluid resevoir? I pulled the dipstick out…. Funny, I thought oil was amber colored…. or black after use. This stuff was black and… green? With funny sparkly things in it that cut me through the rag. Well, time for AAA again. The tow truck is supposed to be here (wherever here is, exactly) in an hour. Three hours later he shows up. Apparently the first company they (AAA) callled couldn't be reached so they went to Plan B. The driver from Plan B was an extra hour away from my undsiclosed (read undiscoverable) location (where I met Dick Cheany, jk). I had my laptop with me running a GPS program and I used the GPS coordinates to tell AA where I was. The driver from Plan B managed to get pulled over by a Wisconsin State Trooper on the way which accounted for the further delay. He also had to pickup his young niece (14) on the way; I never found out why... The bad news came in later that week. One of the rod bolts (ARP by the way) had failed (read Split in Flipping Half!) with one piece traveling up the cylinder wall and coming to rest in the cumbustion chamber and the other half falling into the bottom half of the engine. I feel I must point out that due to the drivetrain setup this engine was running at about 4,000RPM at time of the Big BANG. (And I wonder why I only get 10.76411mpg) If you don't believe me just look at the pictures. Time for some good news. Although the block was cracked (SD blocks are very hard to come by) it was sleaved and several thousand dollars later I was back on the road. Ahhh, 2008! Looking bright! I now have a second Trans Am (my dream car at last!), a raise, a newer Avalanche…… and still no hood bird! 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