Goldie, My Y88
 

I bought her back in 1979, here a pic, I bought her 1 year old because all I could find had 403's in them, and I didn't care for the new front and rear design, Here I pulled her out one day in November. I still have it, now she has 46,000 miles on it.
The interior is orig, except a Headliner, Pkg tray, but I have a nOS one from Reaper to put in, and a Console lid, mine had a big Crack, so a nOS Black one was used.
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Nice car Burd! Love the Color keyed Rally 2's. BTW, do you still have the battery resto kits available?

Nice Roger...

Sweet car Burd. Thanks for sharing.

Here's MINE...we're "almost" twins.....

The pics on the lot were taken April 3/78....made the deal on Sat April 2....and picked it up on Monday the 4th.....IIRC...

My FIRST brand new car.

Still have it....mileage is about the same as yours...

I retired it in July of 1980....and it's had a "charmed life" since...

Thanks Guys, I found that pic cleaning out my Moms house when she passed away, you can see Firestone Tires on it, all these years I thought it had Goodyears on from the Factory, then I had to find a Firestone Warranty Card, lol, I didn't get any Glovebox paperwork from the Dealer, It took me 25 years from the swaps collecting nOS brochures, now, I sell new lit to help people find their paperwork. the blank Warranty cards turn up at the Swaps here in the Detroit area, I buy them when I run across any nOS lit. I found a Seatbelt function Sleeve at a swap, it came on the Visor of a new car, very hard to find.
I had to Detail the Engine, it started to rust after all these years. I still have the 7" flakes, swapped out to Rallys for a change. my dr side seat belt sleeve was cracked so I put a nOS one in there.

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Rite now i have some of Both Freedom Decals left, the caps went very fast, Im looking into doing some soon, I'll post here when I do.

I had these Custom, 2 1/2" Stainless Steel tips made for Goldie, I'll be putting on in the Spring.
heres one of My Freedom Cap Kits in my car, they really turned out nice, the Missing Detail, I also had the upper Rad hose Scanned and a Laser Decal made out of thin plastic to stencil the Factory Markings on, its on loan now up in Wisconsin, lol if anyone wants to use it post it here, just send it back when your done.

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Sweet T/A Burd.....I really like it!

Thanks, It's a Driver. Bob's would put her to shame. Lol I'm glad I still have her, who has their car they bought when they were 19, through 5 girlfriends and a wife, my Ex used to say, WHY DON'T YOU SELL THAT CAR? I miss the Ex sometimes :D
It has an Edelbrock intake on it now, the orig will go back on one day but for now it's ok. Only the real Pontiac guys know. I've been wanting to go up to the old Golling All Pontiac show here by me, see if anyone sees it.

I don't know Burd, that looks pretty sweet. What engine does your car have? W72 or standard?

I have to add this story, before they sold the Bennigans that was built on the old Ted's, sacred site at SQ Lake and Woodward, the famous 60's cruise in restaurant, they used to have Cruise'ins, some of the best cars including some sweet Pontiacs would show up there, well one day I parked Goldie next to my Buddy's 62 GP, and these to guys were under my hood for about 20 minutes, come to find out one was a Tech Guy at the Natz, they were looking at the Edelbrock intake with the logo filed off and painted, lol but they never noticed the HO exhaust manifolds, the give away is the missing Blue valve in the intake, thanks to BWB, ( Bentwheel bob) and his blue valve mock kits he made for us, it will be back in there. Check out the link on Ted's.

http://www.bhhs57.org/teds.html

Standard YU, Auto. No WS6 either, I found my Salesman a few years ago, he's at a Chrysler dealership. he sh#t when he saw the car, he told me it was
Prob one of the General Managers car, it was ordered into stock, they saw that on the PHS copy I took in. I bought it from JimCausley, Detroit.
I'm geeked, Reaper's in town next weekend, he's bringing me a orig mint trunk mat. ( Norwood, has not inspected it yet) lol a cheap black one the dealer put in was in there, actually all my stuff in the trunk was put in by the dealer in 79, so I have a blue jack. I'm glad I noticed, the trunk was empty. I didn't get the fisher t top bags either. But I did find a nOS set, lmao.

Very cool car - congratulations for holding on to it all these years! :thumbup:

I looked for a Jim Causley Chrome lic plate frame for 20 years at the swaps here! I found one a few years back, the dealer moved so it had to say Detroit, I bought it for $3 and it was well, I can't even say how much to re plate a throw away dealer frame. Lol I must have pitched the one that came on the car when I bought it.

I really need to paint the hinges again, I went black, but I think it's a gray? And the hood latch Nirwood already told me wasn't back from the factory either. When I painted the latch, I masked off the cad plated pcs inside, but it looks wrong in black, Bob what did you use on both?

Nice, I retired my car around the same time, I bought a used 1980 GP LJ, prob in 1983.

Sounds like same drivetrain in my 1st '78 TA WS6 YU Auto w 2:56 gear...Martini Blu, disco blue velour gut w pwr everything.

Man, oh man! what a highway hauling beast...100+mph all day long w the A/C blowing cold! ;) :thumbup:

I like the A/C. I have my own personal hole in the ozone layer, lol A few years during Dream Cruise is what hotter than a masconatta, Norwood says real muscle cars don't have A/C, but I saw him get out of his Car after a short ride, sweaty like a Gypsy with a mortgage. Vinyl and no Air is a nasty combo. Lol
Ya, I want to swap out the rear gears, I met the owner of The Ring & Pinion shop at a party, we talked gears.
Bob, I was lucky when the 4" ducts were still avail at GM, I ordered 4, one was hairy. I just put a shiny one on my car. The hairy one and two more just in a pile. Lol

HOARDER....:wife:

Surprising the different 3:42 v 3:23 gear effect on overall drivability... ;)

Burd - I used Martin Seymour Cast Gray spray paint on the hinges. I sprayed them very lightly with a dry mist to replicate a gray phosphate type finish. The finish on the hood latch is original.


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Thanks Bob, I sprayed my master raw steel too, I guess I'll leave it for now. my hood latch doesn't look rite black, you think the Eastwood bare steel or cast steel paint would look good? Do they make a flat gray phosphate paint that I could use?
I always thought the oil dip stick handle was painted engine color you. This has been a big debate over the years. Did you ever get the correct jack decal from Drake, he did a nice job correcting the 79 one for 78's.
For you guys getting the air cleaner decal from the vendors, the one being re popped is mine. Osborne reproduced my orig decal about 15-20 years ago, he never had a correct 78 400 to do. They were looking for the 350 and the 403 to do if they were different.
A buddy called me the other day, he thinks he found a few A 542 C air filters in the brown cardboard GM box. Bob, I'll let you know if I have an extra. The foam is prob in the bottom of the plastic bag these filters cam in, lol

There is a phosphate imitation paint, but the reviews I have read were not good. I prefer the Martin Seymour Cast paint to the Eastwood. The master cylinder should be black. I prefer to powder coat because it is guaranteed brake fluid resistant. Not sure about the dipstick debate. Think it looks better natural. The Gold Car has its original jack decal.

My master was black, but I remember spraying it back in the 80's, so I didn't know the correct finish, I sent my orig calipers and master out for a re- build, so they came back all nice and clean, freshly bead blaster then oiled. I used caliper raw steel paint and Dot 5 fluid. After bleeding everything with Reg brake fluid I could see all the painted things being nasty looking from the Reg type fluid. The booster I'll leave for the next time it's off but the hood latch bugs me. Lol thanks, I'll try to find that paint for the latch.

I saw this at a local swap, my car has a AM /FM 8 Track in it so I had to get it. It's dated 1978. I've seen a few more at the same swap since. Maybe their not that uncommon
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I'm going to freshen under the Bonnet a bit, lol here's some items I've been waiting to install, I just ordered the color vac lines from Ames, now I can put the blue Valve back on, I also ordered the seal and o ring from the dealer for the seep where it goes into the trans to hopefully stop the leak there, some custom stainless tips, BWB hooked me up with the tailored orig style plug wires, and the Blue Valve, and I found some nOS WS6 front link bushings. Also some insulation for the fuel line, my car didn't have it from the factory. A guy on UFB hooked me up with a set of WS6 stiffeners, I was just out in the garage, I'm putting the orig style fuel line clams on too, another missing detail, I just was out in the garage, it's 60°, love the heat here st the new place. I'll post the progress
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I forgot to mention, Mongo gave me a set of Window Blow Out clips, can I put those on without replacing the rubber seal? There pop riveted on at the factory?

They're riveted, but not pop-riveted. More of a brad style rivet, with a round top. Below are some pics of what it looks like.

I have what the factory called a blow-out clip "field fix package". It's for a 73-75 A-body, but they are similar to f-body as far as having frameless door glass and a blow-out clip. What they did was pull the weatherstrip to the side enough to be able to drill out the old clip rivets and remove the old clip. Then the kit includes 2 small screws to screw the new clip in place. The screws are #8 size, 1/4" long, with a 1/4" diameter pan head.

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I can't wait to replace these, ones missing and the other one is all rusty.

The repop clip looks different. Should I be surprised. Lol. Or is thevorig flattened out? The other side is missing
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I bought my 78 brand new as well. In my situation the original block grenaded. It's not numbers matching anymore...but I still have it. The car is in excellent shape other than the original paint is shot. My problem is trusting someone to paint it. But, its coming soon.

I only just saw the new version of your blow-out clip sitting on the roof, Burd. Toss it. See my post on UFB after yours showing the MCI version. Looks like your original is bent up too, window isn't going to be held up there, meant to angle down as per Steve's pic.
I pop-rivetted and then hammed flat, some also self tapper into roof through channel.

http://stillvisionstudios.com/Camaro...utClip_02a.jpg

Thanks guys, the set I have don't even look close to the original. I'll pick up the set your talking about. Who has them again?

Oh, just saw. Lol thanks.

I've seen 2 different styles of factory blow-out clips. The clip on the channel in my photos above is from a Camaro, maybe 80-81. I pulled them from a Camaro at the junkyard so don't remember exactly. But I have an 81 Firebird with the same ones. So, based on that observation, the factory may have come out with this style clip in 80-81. The black plastic on it is molded over the spring metal. The plastic is pretty thickly molded on there, so it seems to hold up much better than the other type.

The other type is what is on all 4 of my 79 TA's. Below are photos of one. Looks like spring metal that's been folded over itself a couple times, and dipped in black. But the black didn't hold up, so they rusted.

Interestingly, none of the clips in Ben's link to the clip pictures look like either of my original clips. I bought some of the "ebay clips" like in the link, from S&S classic on eBay I believe, but I haven't used them, since they look too different from original.

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That lower one is very flat and high up like Burd's. Is the glass anywhere near it? If not then you'd have to think the seal has been pushing it over for many years. I can't see how it would be functional like that. Not sure if being a t-top affects it, are the channels simply cut from hardtops? It even looks like the channel has flared out at that curved point allowing the clip to go with it.

I said MCI, mine are actually Classic Headquarters as per comparison link.

I found 2 nOS sail Birds at the swap a few weeks ago, PG, and I dealt with the owner, he sent me the smaller 1980 birds. Now I can swap them out, got them Both for $20. Gotta love it. The guy had a small stack of diff years, I was thinkin they may not stick so I didn't buy the whole lot. Plus I gotta stop buying parts that not for my car. I bought that 1977 dealer Album just because it is complete and clean. I have it up for sale.

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What's that folder?

Its a Pontiac dealer sales book. However my 78 book has a different cover. Where there a few styles?

That's what I was thinking. I have the 'vinyl' bound album with octagonal lucite emblem in the centre, but it appears a lot more involved than this one. Burd.. ?

Bait & switch
:D

Just dug mine out. 1977 is on the left, 78 on the right :)

Except my stupid iPhone always turns everything upside-down it seems....

Lmao. It's a 1977.

And small. Lmao.

Ignore the album, your supp to be looking at your he decals. The album mnwas do nice I had to buy it.

I noticed some of these books have more info in them than others. It would seem maybe it was up to the dealers to keep bulletins, etc in these books? Or some people pulled some pages out.

I sent the picture from my phone & clicked the small size option. I usually do medium or large for most stuff. I never realized the small option was a thumbnail. It it very small.

Burd, Did you add the 6.6 litre decal on the shaker? just curious. My L78 Y88 didn't have any decal & I recall somebody saying they only came on the W72 cars. I added the W72 callout on my L78 car about 15 years ago, but am thinking about taking it back off. I like the look, but It seems like every trans am is a T/A 6.6. I like the 6.6 LITRE decals more & more.

We just had the winter swap here, the 77 album was so complete I bought it to sell to,so one.
I bought my car a year old, it had 6.6 liter on the shaker, one of the general mgr's drove the car in 1978-fall 79, this historian guy goo on me on another forum which I left and said I was mistaken that it was on, rite ya jamoke. .

Last year I bought a binder that had all the sales bulletins on, there were too. Any to keep them in the same album. Same with the tech binders, last year I found one so complete I had to buy it. Ive seen the lit guys split up stuff to sell too. Funny, in the back of that 77 was an almost complete 1978 dealer album. Just a few pc's missing. If anyone have an empty 1978 binder I'm interested in one.

Was this a dealer manager. or GM manager? Just curious what your build & invoice dates are. One of my Y88's has a 4+ month gap between the two dates.

Still searching to figure out where the heck it was during that time.....