[keith k]

Back in the '80s, before I knew much about "de-coding" cars from VINs, codes, etc., I bought what was advertised to be a '72 Trans Am, with a non-original 455, out of West Virginia. Solid car, white with black interior, in good mechanical condition and looked nice. After a little while, I noticed some of the black interior color flaking away from the rear interior quarter trim, and white panels underneath. To get the panels out to address this, I had to pull the rear seat. And under the rear seat was a build sheet (sort of rare to find one in a Norwood Bird, I now know). Lo and behold, the car was originally a Lucerne Blue / White interior Formula 400. Loaded car, w/ 15" Honeycombs , sport suspension, rear spoiler, A/C, deluxe interior, rally gauges, etc. Made me wonder how/why/when that transformation happened on a car that was then only a bit more than 10 years old....