AFTER 52 YEARS I FINALLY OWN IT
 

very long story:
i was 10 years old and back in 1971 a guy who lived down the street from one of my best friends came home with his new 71 blue trans am. my friend told me about it and in the next few days i was over at his house and saw the guy washing the car. so we rode our bikes to his house and i started talking to him telling him how much i loved his car and that was my favorite car in the whole world. he was very proud of it and was very nice and let me look it all over. very soon after buying it he put 5 spoke mags on it with the big 60 series back tires and 70 series front tires on it. it was my absolute dream looking car. (on another visit he let me sit in the front seat of it. i can get chills thinking back about how that felt). i always told him when i get old enough to drive or if he ever sells it i want to buy it. but he always said "ill keep it until i die". when i was 15 and was really serious about getting a car i was begging him to sell it to me and he was about to get married and said bring your dad over and we will talk about it. so my dad and i went over drove it. it was just like brand new, he had taken immaculent care of it. i still have it written down in my note book i had back then, but we made an offer of either $2650 or $2750 and the car had either 26k or 27k miles on it (i cant remember which number was which off the top of my head now). he said let me think about it. i was having extreme anxiety about possibly getting this car, but he called and said he just cant sell it but if he ever does he will let me know but dont get my hopes up because he is going to keep it until he dies and then he wants to be buried in it. over the many years i always kept in touch with him, would stop by and talk to him and remind him that i wanted the car. about 15 years ago the car had 55k miles on it and still looked like new. he had an accident and tweaked the front bumper and bent the fender. it absolutely killed him that it happened and then the car sat outside with a tarp on it. i begged him to put it inside and even offered to let him keep it in my one of my buildings for free if he would make sure his family sells it to me when he dies and if something happened to me, my family would let him get it out and not owe anything for storage. that didnt work and so it sat and sat. fast forward to last sunday i am going to the airport to pick up my wife and daughter and am running about an hour early and i thought i havent driven by his house in probably over a year now and need to. so i drove by (he lived in a very small neighborhood and at the end of a deadend street) and took these two pictures. i didnt stop because i knew i didnt have time to talk. crazy thing but later in the week i get a call and find out he had passed away and his family was willing to sell me the car. i picked it up yesterday and now am the owner of the car i dreamed about owning a little over 52 years ago. his wife told me that he really wanted to be buried inside the car but the city would not ok it. sadly sitting outside under the tarp has done a number on it. what is left of it is the original paint. the interior is really dirty and unfortunately not in good shape. the engine compartment is still very original including the original carb and hood scoop solenoid system. the alternator and master cylinder have been replaced. (reciept for having it done was in the glove box). has 55k original miles and still has the dealership nameplate on the rear. ernie miller pontiac has been in tulsa since the late 60's. he was a friend of my dads and i have bought a few trans ams from them. his son is a friend of mine and now owns the dealership which is a buick / gmc now and is named marc miller. still at the same location they have been at since 1971. even though i have owned countless 70-72 trans ams and still own numerous ones, this particular car ranks up with a few of my others i own that i have known since they were new. enjoy the pictures and i know it is sad to see it in this shape.

more pics

Certainly not the best way for it to come to you, but incredible after all these years that it has. What are you plans for it?

Congrats!
I fell in love with a 71 blue formula firebird in the 80's that a guy in the next neighborhood over had. I rode past in on my bicycle for years before I became friends with him. Same story that he'd never sell it. Another friend that still lives nearby says that the car is still sitting in the garage after all these years. There's always hope.

Congrats on finally getting the car! Now you can work towards getting it back to the way you remember it. Great story!

One of my 70 TAs was in our family since 1972 and then it got away from me in the 90's. I regretted that from then on. I would google the VIN every now and then and a few years ago it hit on a for sale add and I got the car back!
Not going to lose it again!

I look forward to hearing more about your TA as you move forward!

John

I have a similar story, but with a much darker outcome.

When I was around 14-15, I lived in a medium sized town with not a lot for a young person to do. There was a place with pool tables, pinball, and foosball beside of a small drive in with car hops. Street racing was big in the early 1970s, and the place was on the main drag through town. Cars would circle the drivein, line up a race, then race from the turn-around to a tire shop that was right at 1/8 mile from the turnaround. I was playing foosball with my buddies when I heard it come through. It was a blue 71 Trans Am, automatic with a/c, even had blue interior. The owner had put headers on it, a hotter cam, and changed the gears. The tweaks were done by a well known speed shop. The first time I saw it in action, he raced a guy with a built Nova and destroyed him. I talked to him once, he was probably in his mid-20s at the time.

Fast forward about 15 years. I was junk yarding and went by a guy who I knew that bought junk cars. He had hauled in a Firebird painted in this shade of dark blue with a purple tint to it, complete with a L88 hood. Upon further inspection, I quickly determined it was a 1971 Trans Am. The guy said the tranny was shot, and he was going to put the motor in his truck. I ended up buying the complete car, or what was left of it. The original front end had been damaged and the front sheet metal had been replaced at some point. It was full of bondo, where there wasn't bondo there were a bunch of small dents. Even the rough and trunk had dents, it must have been in a hail storm. When I saw the name and address on the title, I knew it was the car that I had seen cruising town in the early 1970s.

I knew the block code was wrong, but the rest of the engine was correct. It had a 2x4 on it at the time, but the original intake was in the trunk. The tranny wasn't the original, nor was the rear end. I thought about fixing it, in the end I put in in Hemmings (around 1984 or so). Ed Waller out of GA bought the car. I don't know whatever happened to it after Ed got it. I heard he let a lot of his stuff sit near an airport and the jet fuel caused severe rust. Then somebody in upper mid-west bought Ed out. Anyway, if that car is still out there, I had the protect-o-plate at one time.

Congrats ... there is nothing like working on a car with a personal connection or history. That emotional connection that spans the years makes all the difference in the world. The way I look at it ... that car was yours the first day you saw it, it just had to live its first life before it came to you for a second life.

Congrats on getting your childhood crush Gary .
Sentimental equity is unique.

My first crush was at 6 years old - a Black 69 Camaro SS that a cop bought new in our neighborhood.
I'd gaze at it every morning when we passed his house on the school bus.

The second owner lived a couple neighborhoods over and was 5 or 6 years older than me.

In spring of 1982 i was a senior in high school and one night he came to a spot where we hung out (drinking beer and etc..) .
Says - heard you were looking for an early Firebird
I got excited and said yes , you know about one ?!
No , but I got a 69 Camaro SS with no motor or trans you can have for $375 (the cops car)

I bought it early the next morning.

It still had the 3:73 12bolt , in dash tach with factory console gauges , decent body and interior.
Bell housing and driveshaft.
He already sold the cowl hood and breather too.
Still felt like I had practically stolen the car though.
Dragged it home about 2 miles with a chain behind my Vega and a buddy inside working the wheel and brakes.
We didn't even check if the brakes still worked - but luckily they did

In 1984 it was burned beyond imagination in my mothers carport when she had a house fire on that end of her house.
Never seen a car get so fk'd up in my life.
Never got to drive it , but had sat in it right much day dreaming.

:-ohwell:

What a great story!

Lots of potential there and good luck with her.

Cool that you finally got the car but sad and weird that the guy who supposedly loved the car so much that he'd rather let it rot then give it a good home.

That always amazes me. I've GIVEN things away that deserved a better life than I was giving them. Never understood not giving away or at least selling something you think is valuable but that you don't take care of, or don't have the time or resources to take care of. My basic rule is that if I care enough about something to keep it, I should care enough about it to take care of it.

Congratulations on your purchase! Patience paid off, can't wait to see your story from here!

Jim

Great story! Glad you finally got it.

That is terrif! 52 years!! Most marriages don't last that long.
Keep us posted with your plans for it.

That car is in rough shape for only 55k miles.

Sent from my SM-A125U using Tapatalk

i thought this post was going To be about a house. after financing..

Amazing story! Are you going to restore it? I wish you the best of luck!!

Great it finally worked out for you to get it!

I bet they didn't charge extra for the dirt dobbers under the hood.

Great story! I think most of us have a story about a car that we wish we had.

Years ago I sold a blue 1971 T/A that I should never have let go. That car was my dream car. I bought it in 1990 from the second owner. The original owner was this guy's best friend in high school. His parents had bought him the car when he was a senior in high school. Him and his buddy (the original owner) would cruise around in it picking up girls. Somehow, he bought the car from this friend years later. He was selling because his wife had a medical condition that required expensive medicine to treat. I found the car for sale on Sunday evening in one of those Auto Trader magazines. The magazine had just come out that day so I was one of the first people to call on the car. Set up and appointment to look at it right away and bought it.

This car was a completely loaded 1971 Trans Am. Lucerne blue with blue deluxe interior and 4-speed. It had factory A/C, PW, PL, power trunk release, tilt steering, front and rear consoles, AM/FM eight track, Rally II's with trim rings, courtesy lighting, underhood light and almost every other option you could order in 1971. It was a completely numbers matching car with only 37k miles on it. I foolishly sold it almost 30 years ago and the guy who bought it has never restored it or done much with it. I have tried to get the car back, but he won't sell. I am still hoping to get it back before too many more years pass.