April 18, 2001 - My Grief Subsides
My grief has turned to joy. While I mourn the loss of my Bandit (not really a loss, I just can't go further without spending more money and time than I want to and dammit I want to drive this thing), a new addition is made. Enter Blue Bird (like Big Bird, but blue... get it?). There also exists White Bird, but White Bird has no engine or transmission and probably won't be restored as it was a free parts car (yay parts car!) and I don't have any pictures of it yet so just imagine a beat up 1979 white Trans Am with no tires and you have White Bird.
Blue Bird originally was a 1980 highly optioned (t-tops, power windows, power antenna, power trunk, AC, cruise, etc) black on blue (never seen that combo before) Turbo Trans Am. Along the way someone removed the majority of the neato options (power antenna, power trunk, AC, cruise, etc), the turbo motor (to be replaced with the BEST MOTOR IN THE WORLD, the SBC350), and painted it blue. They did a very convincing job of making it actually look originally blue, but the cowl tag tells all. We now have a Trans Am (or Z28) with a Chevy 350 in it. Camaros must be scarce because apparently someone wanted one bad but couldn't find one in 2 days of looking so they decided to do the next best thing and convert a Trans Am into one. Dig those turbine rims. Circa 1979 Z28 style.
Blue Bird comes with the obligatory kinked hood and butchered wiring (no 2nd generation TA is complete without). Along with the car is a bunch of junk, empty oil bottles, broken seats, and the most important piece of paper - the title. It is in my name now foos. Mine. All mine.
Some t-top area rust, but hosing it down with the t-tops on didn't cause a leak, so we are probably good for now.
Check that pre 79 bumper. Ever wonder why you can't (or shouldn't, since obviously someone proved that it can be done) interchange a pre 79 bumper with a 79 and up rear end? Well, where's that license plate going to go? Betcha a_previous_owner_001 didn't think about that. You can see his solution to the problem.
Hmm... decisions. Live with 350... impress car novices and wannabes who will bore me to death with stories of their "stroked big block 350 Camaro that would run 9's on pump gas and street tires (complete with nawssssss!)"? Put in Pontiac 455... make Pontiac fans jealous? I think the answer is obvious...
Last updated April 18th, 2001 at 10:30PM