[Last4004spdTA]

I just joined the forum today and a big enthuiast on 79 TAs and being young find the stories of these cars when new fasnating, just looking to see if any one would like to share or pics, i own a 79 SE 400 4spd car, built at Norwood 5-29-79 and is the last 400 4spd car built, has 36k miles and under going a partial frame on restoration

[mikeb]

I have a couple of stories.

My parents traded in a perfectly good 78 trans am with 400/auto for a 79 trans am that they custom ordered. That one did not come thru with tilt wheel as ordered, and it became my daily driver since I was in high school. Mom got another 79 off the lot that was loaded, and she still has it today.

My car went thru several transformations and got into rather shabby shape. Along the way the original 403 went to the dump and a progression of pontiac engines found their way under the hood, ending with the current 455. Then I got married and it sat for about 15 years. After 15 years it still started. It is a full on race car now, there is no going back. It has a 10 point rollcage, race buckets, harness, etc. It still needs paint and some interior pieces.

I found another 79 10th anniversary on ebay. Original 400/4 speed car. It was in rather poor shape. I have a daughter that just turned 16 and she is going to need a car. Sensing an opportunity I made her an offer to help rebuild that car if she would also apply some elbow grease and help me. We've been working on it as time permits for almost a year now. She has turned into quite the pontiac buff. Here is the project page:

http://462transam.bravehost.com/tarebuild.html

The next step is to start the engine. we would have started it last weekend, but I found a valvetrain issue that requires adjustable rocker studs to fix, and those are on order at the moment.

[69 DAYTONA]

...my only 79 T/A story, and it's a true story

...one arrived new at my local dealership and I decided to stop and look it over...pulled in the lot and was met at the door by the owner of the dealership, "Big Bob"...

...him, "hello son, let me sell you this car" and he pointed to a crappy little square pea green foreign car in the showroom....I said, "no thanks, I stopped to see the T/A"....he wanted to know why I didn't want to buy the green foreign car and I said, "it's foreign and it's ugly"...he went into a very loud rant about my car being ugly too and how I had no idea what a good looking car was....long story short, I never got in to see the T/A and never went back

...a few months later, maybe a year or so, I saw ole "Big Bob" on the local TV news....he had went to his wifes place of employment (a bank) and killed her, took hostages and finally killed himself....sorry, but I NEVER see a T/A from that era without thinking about "Big Bob" and that ugly little green car he tried to MAKE me purchase...probably lucky I got away from there that day, he might have snapped then and there

[2manyT/A'S]

Was driving my black 78 WS6 4-speed through a larger Pontiac dealer in my area in the late spring of 79 & noticed several NEW undelivered 10th Anniversary T/A's in the pre-delivery area.

There was at least 4 or 5 of them & they still had the plastic on the seats.

Unfortunately,they were all K-cars,so there was little temptation to trade in my 400 4-speed.

I think I took some pics & will post if I can find them.

[R68GTO]

Several years ago a friend of mine purchased a 79 Silver Anniv. T/A from a Pontiac dealer's son after the dealership went out of business. This car had never been titled, had a little over 1,100 miles, and was completely original....claimed original oil? It still had the dealer prep/install items in the trunk. Anyway, this car came into the dealership in '79 and was in terrible shape, several dings in the door, trim falling off, pinstriping falling off, etc. The owner of the dealership stuck the car back in the corner until he could get it fixed. Almost a year passed before he got the paint touched up, door, rear quarter, spoiler. By then it was a used car so he just let his son drive the car back and forth between the house and the dealership where he worked...about 1.5 miles. He did this for about 1 year and then parked it with plastic over it until my buddy bought it in 2002. What was amazing to me is how poorly this particular vehicle was assembled. Body gaps way off, pinstriping misaligned, etc. It was neat to see though with all the paper tags intact and legible on the suspension and engine compartment. I wish I had taken more photos of it before he sold it.

[2manyT/A'S]

Originally Posted by R68GTO

Several years ago a friend of mine purchased a 79 Silver Anniv. T/A from a Pontiac dealer's son after the dealership went out of business. This car had never been titled, had a little over 1,100 miles, and was completely original....claimed original oil? It still had the dealer prep/install items in the trunk. Anyway, this car came into the dealership in '79 and was in terrible shape, several dings in the door, trim falling off, pinstriping falling off, etc. The owner of the dealership stuck the car back in the corner until he could get it fixed. Almost a year passed before he got the paint touched up, door, rear quarter, spoiler. By then it was a used car so he just let his son drive the car back and forth between the house and the dealership where he worked...about 1.5 miles. He did this for about 1 year and then parked it with plastic over it until my buddy bought it in 2002. What was amazing to me is how poorly this particular vehicle was assembled. Body gaps way off, pinstriping misaligned, etc. It was neat to see though with all the paper tags intact and legible on the suspension and engine compartment. I wish I had taken more photos of it before he sold it.

Actually that is really typical of most T/A's of that era.
They were really sloppily built.

That's one of the reasons why you don't see hardly ANY "survivor cars" with factory paint.

Sloppy assembly & poor quality paint (and NOT MUCH of it) promped MOST owners to repaint after a few years.

[Last4004spdTA]

Hey mikeb that is a good story, i am very glad to see a young person working on a 79 TA and happy about it, even more that its a girl, i think she found a everlasting hobby that she can love for ever

[Barrier Blue]

Back in about 1984 one of my co-workers bought a low-mileage '79 10th. anniversary TA, and he paid 5 grand for it. A week or so later he totalled it by broadsiding a freight train.
His insurance company only gave him a thousand dollars for it.
I thought I'd like to have the trans. and rear disc brakes for my GTO, so I contacted his insurance company in an effort to buy the wreck. They wanted a grand for it, and said I'd have to have a salvage license to buy it.

[MikeNoun]

Just got some pics scanned in of my brothers 79 S/E WS6 400 4-speed he special ordered and received in Dec 78. This is a Day 1 pic before the plates came in. Had a crooked left rear wingtip, and the grilles had a slight wave at the tops.

[muscle_collector]

back in 78 i had a 76 t/a i had bought new and started seeing pics of the 79 cars. i really loved them but had not seen one in person. it was on a saturday afternoon i was going to lunch and stopped at the intersection and a transport truck pulled up with the top front car being a yellow with red decal 79 t/a. i had a couple of friends with me and we agreed to blow off lunch and go to the dealer (which is where hoog works and where i had bought my 76) and check out the t/a. i drooled all over that car and said i have to have one. which i did buy a new black one. i have owned every kind of t/a made and when asked what is the best one made, i always say a 79 4 speed car, even though the interiors were really cheap made, they have the best handling and the engine can be made to run with a 70 t/a with a few mods. i have owned countless 79 t/a's and still drool when i see a nice one.

[Last4004spdTA]

thanks for that pic and the story on the new trans ams on the carrier, must have been a hell of a sight to see, also i own a 79 Y84 W72 and as well have pics of this car when new and WOW it just takes my breath away seeing them as they were 3 decades ago,

[MikeNoun]

Couple more shots. You can see the crooked rear wing tip, and the wavy grille. At that time, we thought his car was pretty darn flawless compared to others we saw. At least his shaker decals were straight!

My brother drove the car hard, but didn't drive it "stupid", like bouncing off curbs or anything like that. He used that WS6 suspension to its fullest. He loved entrance and exit ramps on highways. He went through the original Goodyear tires in 10,000 miles from cornering. One day he was on a very long exit ramp, and when he straightened out, the engine was knocking and he had zero oil pressure. Still within the 12,000 mile warranty, he was just under at 11,9XX (I think he actually had the speedo disconnected for the last few hundred miles!), and it ended up back at the dealer. Pontiac wanted to replace the engine with a 403 Olds, but my brother refused. My father (GM executive) then got involved, made some phone calls, cut through the red tape, and my brother received another Pontiac 400 under warranty.

[Last4004spdTA]

cool story thanks alot

[hillpc]

My wife had a 79 black Special Edition with the 403, WS6 package, auto, 4 wheel discs, T-tops, etc. Myself having had only 60's GTO's and Firebirds before that, I just assumed that the (to me) sluggish pickup off the line was due to the late 70's smog motor in it. We had the gorgeous car for about 4 years. She called me one day after work, stranded. I towed it home, and then went through it for its many problems, all due to my laziness, but all of them easily repairable. I was forced to admit to her that I had been derelict in maintaining her car; she got her first new car (a LeBaron convertible) out of that episode. I fixed the T/A up and we put it up for sale. When one of the prospects took it for a drive, he said to me, "feels like the vacuum advance isn't working." I dug into this and found that the water temp-activated vacuum switch that locks out the advance till the car was warmed up was never kicking in, and it was in fact without vacuum advance, all the time. I fixed this, took it for a test drive, and smoked the tires all the way down the block! Damn, 4 years long what I was missing. Sold the car the next day, for more than the asking price, in a bidding war between 2 guys. What a beautiful vehicle that was. Like they all say, "never should have sold it."

[W72-Bandit]

Great pics of your brothers car Mike! I've got one just like it with black int.
Anyway, here is a pic of my first 79 T/A. This is sr. prom '82. My uncle was a silent partner in a Pontiac dealership and took this one as partial buy out of his interest in the dealership. I bought it from him in Mar. of '82, with about 2000 original miles on it. Fairly well optioned, 403/auto. Sold it in '85 for a new Monte Carlo SS (POS).

[MikeNoun]

This is another great photo my brother sent me. This is from 1980, after my brother decided to yank that warrantied, nearly brand new 400, and build it with #48 heads, Torker intake, headers, Holley 800 spreadbore, and a Comp Cams 292, which really sounded wicked in a 400. Out back he installed (with a friend) a set of 4.10 gears, and he still used the factory 4-speed. The car sounded really wicked at idle. He kept it on the factory 8" snowflakes and splitters out the back. It was quite a thing to see (and hear) back in 1980. No one expected one of these new "smog" Trans Am's to sound like an old RAIV car. His headers went into duals and he used the factory resonators, nothing else! It really sounded nasty.

This 1980 photo shows his 79 Trans Am is in our driveway, with the engine pulled, and parked next to it is my other brothers 68 GTO (owned since 1977), awaiting a 455. The wire basket wheels on the 68 GTO were short-lived, he later had street slicks on Rally II's.

[Last4004spdTA]

cool pics was quite the pontiac house 30 years ago

[Warren Seale]

I'm the original owner of my 79. I had ordered it from a dealer outside of Philly in August 78. I ordered every option along with the 400, 4 spd. This dealer gave the best price out of like 8 in the area. I knew that the 400, 4 spd was a limited production option and was preparing to wait to get it. After waiting until Feb 79 the dealer tells me that they can no longer get the 400, 4 spd and I have to switch over to the 403. Given no choice in the matter I agreed and told them to add the cruise control that wasn't allowed with the 4 spd trans. I could never figure out why this happened given that I put my order in very early. I know people that ordered theirs after I did and they got it. I figure that either the dealer sold mine out from under me to someone that paid a higher price or they were not given an allocation for one. I am leaning toward my first guess.

The car was delivered at the end of Mar 79 and had everything in it as ordered. I saw it the day after it came in. It had not been prepped for delivery yet. However, it was missing the drivers side fender TRANS AM decal. I found out why this had happened later while washing and waxing. The rear edge of the fender down near the bottom where it turns into the wheel opening had lead filler with file marks. It wasn't even properly sanded out. Over the years I found out that the fender edge was cracked when the fender was being formed so they filled it with lead most likely at the end of the production line. They had to remove the decal to spot paint that area after the repair.

In addition, the roof and rear quarter panels had a dusting of black overspray that probably came from another car they were repairing nearby.

Besides this the body side molding was crooked and had to be removed and reset. One of the snowflake wheels had crazing in the clear coating. There were nuts and bolts missing all over the place. This was most mostly in the front end where there is a lot of body parts bolted together.

Today the car still has about 70% of the paint still original. Other than headers and true dual exhaust, it is all original.




Warren

[Last4004spdTA]

Cool story warren, my buddy down here in cincinnati, ohio ordered a 79 400 4spd T/A in 10/78 and waited untill 3/79 and the dealer finnaly called him and said his car come in and when he went to look at it , it was a 403 A/T They could not get any more 400 4spds, so he waited a few days as at first he did not want it, finnaly days latter he deciced to buy it drove it home and drove it for a few months untill winter of 79 and has not drove it much since then today it has 4252 miles. Fast foward 30 years latter we found a 79 TATA 400 4spd car with 825 miles and the kicker of the whole thing is that it was sold new at the same dealer MARSH PONTIAC in 4/79

[sd455hota]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Just got some pics scanned in of my brothers 79 S/E WS6 400 4-speed he special ordered and received in Dec 78. This is a Day 1 pic before the plates came in. Had a crooked left rear wingtip, and the grilles had a slight wave at the tops.

I ordered a new 400 4 spd SE car in late sept of 78 and it was delivered in late december. Build date was probably close to your brothers. Good memories, thanks for the story.