[68ragtop]

How late into 1978 where Hurst hatches installed by GM? Up until this morning, I always assumed that it was only in the early January/February cars.

I stumbled on this car on ebay, & while looking at the pictures I was surprised to see an April Built date with the WY9 Hurst hatches. How late where these cars assembled with hurst hatches? This is a new one to me.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332165771440?ul_noapp=true

[burd]

I have a bulletin on that, I'll have to pull it out.
Were there a lot of problems on the Hurst tops, I found a lot of service bulletins with extensive repairs for them.
That's crazy, my car is a April 14, with fishers. I'm glad I don't have the Hursts

[daw78_T/A]

I have a 78, April built, with Hurst hatches.

[68ragtop]

Interesting....

I have only looked at the tags on two Hurst hatch 78 cars in person & both were from January. Soooooo, seeing I knew Fisher tops came out in early 78, I made the "assumption" it was a one month transition. I was obviously quite wrong. One more thing I learned!

[Grand73Am]

I wonder if buyers were given a choice for a few months where the production of both tops overlapped?

[johnta1]

I believe the Hurst hatches were only on the Norwood built cars.
(which this is)

Surprised this doesn't have Y88 on sheet?
(looks like Gold SE)

[77 Canamman]

It is a Solar Gold Trans Am without the Y88 Special Edition package. It never had the stripes, or the gold grilles. It has the gold wheels because they were selected separately.

Neat car!

[68ragtop]

Where was it that I read that solar gold trans am's were only available near the end of the run of Y88 S/E's. Obviously that is not true either

So many made up "facts" about these cars.

I never read anything on the T-tops. That was just something I assumed over the years & didn't know any better.

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

It is a Solar Gold Trans Am without the Y88 Special Edition package. It never had the stripes, or the gold grilles. It has the gold wheels because they were selected separately.

Neat car!

I used to think that the price of the S/E was crazy money for the time, but then I looked at the cost of the snowflake wheels & t-tops & it really wasn't that terrible considering those options where included.

Still amazing how inexpensive the WS6(on the S/E) & W72 options were.

[Grand73Am]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Where was it that I read that solar gold trans am's were only available near the end of the run of Y88 S/E's. Obviously that is not true either

This page at 78ta.com says that Solar Gold started being used on regular TA's after the cancellation of the Y88. It also says that orders for Y88's were only available from Nov. 77 - Feb. 78. So, that timeline matches with this Solar Gold 78 being built in April.

http://78ta.com/Sliders/gold.htm

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by Grand73Am

This page at 78ta.com says that Solar Gold started being used on regular TA's after the cancellation of the Y88. It also says that orders for Y88's were only available from Nov. 77 - Feb. 78. So, that timeline matches with this Solar Gold 78 being built in April.

http://78ta.com/Sliders/gold.htm

Pretty Sure Y88's were available to order much later than February. I know the End of January (February) was the cutoff for the W72 Automatic transmission combo, so maybe that date started some confusion with the Y88?

IIRC, there are Y88s with build dates into late 1978. I know they started to fizzle after August, but I recall many mid & fairly late W72/4-speed & L78/Auto cars.

Did some of these orders take 6 months to build? I Guess that's possible, but seems a little unlikely.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

I used to think that the price of the S/E was crazy money for the time, but then I looked at the cost of the snowflake wheels & t-tops & it really wasn't that terrible considering those options where included.

Still amazing how inexpensive the WS6(on the S/E) & W72 options were.

I remember walking with my dad through a Pontiac dealership in '79. We had just found out that the 400's were gone, and were just curious if the local dealer had one stashed (they did not). We came across a 403 powered Special Edition, and I can still remember my dad looking at the window sticker, "TEN THOUSAND G%) D@m#ed DOLLARS FOR A FIREBIRD!! With an OLDS motor in it????" His face was red, and he bitched about that for weeks.

A few months later, some friends were selling their '79 S/E with 10,000 miles on it, for a LOT less money - dad bought it. One odd option on that car was deleted seatbelts. No seat belt law in Texas at the time, so it wasn't a problem. It had the housings for the upper retractors, but had neatly cut pieces of foam and nothing else in them. Several years later, we DID get seatbelt laws, and had to retrofit some belts.

Several years after that, dad bought a 400/4spd '79. Black with a light blue deluxe interior. I'm sure it had to be a retrofit, but it also had the Hurst T-tops. I was blown away at how much smaller they were than the Fishers, and didn't understand why anyone would even bother with them.

[MikeNoun]

There was a supply problem with the Fisher hatches due to overwhelming demand. An April 27th, 1978 bulletin was sent out stating:

1) Hurst Hatches were to be used on base Firebirds, Esprits, and Formulas.

2) Fisher Hatches were to be used on Gold Special Editions and Redbirds.

3) All other Trans Ams would be available with Fisher or Hurst hatches.

Mike

[burd]

There's bulletins on both.

[68ragtop]

I have the dealer books from 77,78,79,80. Some the owners of these book kept the bulletins in the binder, others not so much.. big difference in some of them, even though they share the same cover. Without all the manually installed bulletins they aren't all that exciting.....

[burd]

I was looking in the Tech binder, these were in the Dealer Album I bought.

[68ragtop]

Cool documents. I noticed the black marks that look like they where probably photocopied & sent to the dealers? Do you know if any of these are available in pdf form so I could ad them to my book? I'll look through it in a bit to see what I have, if anything. My 79 book has a lot more in it.

[burd]

I have 26 on the F body's, some have info on both sides, I don't have the complete Pontiac line, you got me thinking, most are from a guy that copied them from his Dealer Album and sent them to me. A lot of info, and there's a lot more in the Texh Binder.

[68ragtop]

Burd, I took some pictures of what my 78 book has. I could text them to you? One is a dealer selling price page. looks specific to this dealer as it is printed out. kinda interesting. the other pages are general multi page bulletins, but not much of the running changes/updates or other bulitins during the model year. What year books do you have?

[burd]

Cool, I had 77-81 Tech binders, but I only wanted 1978 , I had to buy all to get the 78, I gotta stop collecting stuff not for my car, lol. I sold all but 1978. The guys on my site snapped them all up. I couldn't believe how fast they went.