I better chime in here with my part of the story and explain why Greg ended up with the car and why I would let go of a one-off 72 TA. I've received PMs and calls from a few folks, basically saying "I asked to know if you would ever sell the car". Well I didn't really want to sell it primarily because I wanted to do the car myself. I never had anyone say they would buy the car but let me restore it. I'll never say I restore perfect cars or even that they're better than anyone else does. I was just very concerned that if sold, a car that rare, may not receive the quality resto that it deserves. Suddenly here's Greg saying he wants the car AND I still get to do it the work at a level I want. The kicker though was that Greg sent pictures of a 69 427 4 spd Corvette that he's owned. What Greg had, while not the actual car, was a carbon copy of the first Corvette I ever owned in 74. The wheels were really turning then. Long story short, cars were juggled, some $ changed hands, Greg got his dream car and I now have a huge memory from my youth in the garage.
That being said, I do need to clarify that I'm not turning into a Vette guy. While I do have a couple and do enjoy and respect them, one can still tell from my own collection that I'm very much partial to Judges and TAs. And though my shop is extremely competent with C1, 2 and 3 Corvettes, there are still a few Pontiacs around. As of today we have a 69 TA and twelve 2nd gen Firebirds including an RA4, 2 HO TAs, 5 SDs, a TATA and even a Macho TA.
As for paint on the Adriatic car. The pictures Greg has are before some folks in the Houston area started "working" on it. I think at that time there was a lot of original paint left. The paint was pretty much gone when I got it and it was in hardware store prime. Fortunately they realized they were in over their head before they did too much. They were really heading in a bad direction. The front nose, mirrors and rear spoiler parts are still in original paint which is good enough that we can find a good area, polish a spot and color match for the exact shade of Adriatic blue. The rear spoiler still had the stripe in place too. And there are a couple small pieces of plastic valance still attached to the nose. Quite a few of the original blue and white interior parts came with it as well.
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