[1972GTO4speed]

I was in a salvage yard and found what appears to be a W72 SE car, it has a gold dash, gold spoke wheel, gold shifter bird, and 4 gold snow flakes, and t-tops, German decals and tons of pinstripe, the paint appears original, car is complete minus drivetrain, I know it is W72 because the emissions code is RU on the decal, and timing is 18 degrees at 700 RPM.

the t-tops are all black trim: Are they Hurst or Fisher?

Is this a rare vehicle worth saving?

Is it Y82 or Y84? build date 10A

[1972GTO4speed]

I was in a salvage yard and found what appears to be a W72 SE car, it has a gold dash, gold spoke wheel, gold shifter bird, and 4 gold snow flakes, and t-tops, German decals and tons of pinstripe, the paint appears original, car is complete minus drivetrain, I know it is W72 because the emissions code is RU on the decal, and timing is 18 degrees at 700 RPM.

the t-tops are all black trim: Are they Hurst or Fisher?

Is this a rare vehicle worth saving?

Is it Y82 or Y84? build date 10A

[henry203]

Well to answer your question if it is worth saving it really depends on how much you would like the car. To redo the car and to resell it would not be a great idea. It would be a really beautiful car. Maybe worth some big bucks in 10 years.

Hurst tops were much smaller, you can tell Fisher tops by the small 4" gaop between the window pieces.

Parting out the car would be investment but to part out such a limited edition might be murder to some.

If it were me and the car wasnt a total rust bucket I would restore and enjoy!

[John Witzke]

1972GTO4Speed, all 1978 black and gold special edition cars came with t-tops. All 1978 Y82 cars came with the smaller Hurst T-tops and were only produced at Norwood OH assembly plant, thus the 7th digit in the VIN will be the letter N. The Y84 cars will have the larger Fisher design T-Tops and were only produced at Van Nuys CA assembly plant, 7th digit will be the letter L. With a build date of 10A is would appear that it could be a Y82 cars since the Y84 was on hold status until Nov 29 1977. The final day orders were to be accepted for the Y82 & Y84 cars was Nov 30 1977. Both 1978 Y82 & Y84 cars were produced through the end of Jan 1978.

Indeed the emission label code RU is for a W72 automatic car.

While it sounds as if this could be one of the special edition cars, the only was to be 100 precent sure is the run the VIN through PHS.

As far as rarity, we know there were 21,384 1978 W72 Firebirds produced with the automatic transmission, it is however unknow just how many Y82 cars were produced with the W72 engine and automatic transmission. At this time it is impossible to break out the 1978 W72 automatic production figures from the base Trans Ams, Y82, Y84, Y88 as well as the Formulas. We do know there were 489 Y82 W72 4-speeds produced during the 1978 model year.

Hope this helps

John Witzke
POCI Tech Advisor
1977-79 W72 Performance Package
www.78ta.com/w72.htm

[1972GTO4speed]

Thanks for the help, it a Norwood car and the salvage yard wants $300.00 for it, I am going to go back to get it, will have to decide later on part or repair. Thanks.