Originally Posted by goatless (Post 5730669)

Congrats on the new purchase! That was a great deal- I was soooooo tempted myself, despite having no time or space for another project, to two.

Originally Posted by 72projectbird (Post 5730976)

Thank you! It's going to be a nice project.

It's been raining hard up here the last few days, and with work getting in the way progress has slowed down. Hopefully this weekend the 455 can be pulled, cleaned up and painted.

I have a couple of questions regarding certain features:

1. Muscle Collector mentioned Y88 wheels. I thought those were on the 78's, so I assumed they were wrong for this car. Looking at the original sticker in the door jamb and the PHS, the car was built in January. Could these wheels have been installed from the factory? I thought the 79's got fully machined wheels?

Those wheels are 78 WS6 wheels, so they could have been on any SE car not just the Y88. You can tell by the hard line on the outside of rim lip and smaller webbing on snowflake pattern. The later 79-81 up had a more rounded outside lip and thicker webbing on spokes. Is it possible they could have come from factory maybe but highly unlikely.

2. The car has a gold dash bezel, a gold bird in the shift knob, and a gold nose emblem. I've seen them with both black steering wheels, and gold ones. This one has a black wheel, and as far as I can tell, it original. What determined if it got a gold or black wheel?

A 79 car should have a gold steering wheel and 80-81 had black steering wheel even on a SE Trans Am.
3. The trim around the T tops is chrome, which I always thought was supposed to be black. Looking at them, they have the original striping still on them, without any real sign of black paint/anodizing. Should these be black or chrome?

[B]A lot of T-tops were painted flat black and chipped off or faded and so you would get gold anodized look or silver but everything I have read is they are supposed to be flat black. I think some Camaros did come with silver fisher T-tops. The only special edition T-tops are the Gold tinted Y-88 and the Silver tinted T-tops 80-81 Y-85.[/B]


Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by muscle_collector (Post 5730585)

looks like a nice set of Y88 wheels on the ta.

Originally Posted by 72projectbird (Post 5730976)

2. The car has a gold dash bezel, a gold bird in the shift knob, and a gold nose emblem. I've seen them with both black steering wheels, and gold ones. This one has a black wheel, and as far as I can tell, it original. What determined if it got a gold or black wheel?

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by ta6point6 (Post 5731010)

Looks like a real nice car good luck with project, help my info will help

Originally Posted by 74Grandville (Post 5731376)

One goof I made you may be able to fix. I replaced the windshield in the TA in 2003 with a non-antenna windshield. That was a mistake; I didn’t even know you could buy them both ways when I purchased it.
I replaced the windshield in the Firebird about 2 months ago as I got hit with a rock when I started driving it every day this year. I bought one with an antenna in it as it was the same price as with out.
Not sure you want to go through the trouble, but I figured I’d let you know. Both windshields should be in good shape.

Originally Posted by goatless (Post 5732665)

Wow! You're not wasting any time!
Damn, that body looks good!