[Judge273]

How about some pics of Those TA ric?

[Transamric]

Originally Posted by Judge273

How about some pics of Those TA ric?

Sorry, slow here today. Pics of........?

[Judge273]

Originally Posted by Transamric

Sorry, slow here today. Pics of........?

Some of your cars...

[Brewster]

Rats, I was hoping for the real TA

[bird72]

This picture is great / terrible on so many levels. The Apocalyptic End of It All, the honor / dishonor of a 70-73 bird in it, the horror of living with that view, the ying and yang of organic shack, trees, clothes on line versus industrial sterile Orwellianism, and the utter lack of hope of a doomed grey existence, coupled with "Hey maybe I put that new 400 in the red bird this weekend, Martha!"

If that is a pic of a members house and car, I was just jivvin'....... nice house, cool car! really!

[Gator67]

Originally Posted by bird72

This picture is great / terrible on so many levels. The Apocalyptic End of It All, the honor / dishonor of a 70-73 bird in it, the horror of living with that view, the ying and yang of organic shack, trees, clothes on line versus industrial sterile Orwellianism, and the utter lack of hope of a doomed grey existence, coupled with "Hey maybe I put that new 400 in the red bird this weekend, Martha!"

If that is a pic of a members house and car, I was just jivvin'....... nice house, cool car! really!

This is a great photo because of all the contrasts you mention…definitely stirs the mind

[Transamric]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Some of your cars...

Well, you asked for it!! The first pic is the '70 Van Nuys M21 right after I put Polyglas back on it. Pic 2 is the Van Nuys loaded '71 TA in the summer of '84 or '85 looking exactly as when I bought it. Massive positive offset 8" & 10" outrigger wheels & tires left lots of road rash behind each wheelwell, which resulted in pic #3, had it painted from the belt line down only. Pic 4 is a shot showing why it takes me forever to finish a project. Usually had 14 - 15 cars to work on/maintain. I'm down to 10 now (including daily drivers) & am looking forwards to getting back to work on the white '71. Have a '69 GTO to finish this spring and the white car is next. The Lucerne '71 M22 TA is the car in the background buried under boxes. That's a '72 Formula in the right rear corner & a '72 Esprit covered on the far left. My Red '73 is stored in the opposite end of the shop. So 7 Firebirds in all, including one First Gen.

[blue71ta]

Originally Posted by Transamric

Well, you asked for it!! The first pic is the '70 Van Nuys M21 right after I put Polyglas back on it. Pic 2 is the Van Nuys loaded '71 TA in the summer of '84 or '85 looking exactly as when I bought it. Massive positive offset 8" & 10" outrigger wheels & tires left lots of road rash behind each wheelwell, which resulted in pic #3, had it painted from the belt line down only. Pic 4 is a shot showing why it takes me forever to finish a project. Usually had 14 - 15 cars to work on/maintain. I'm down to 10 now (including daily drivers) & am looking forwards to getting back to work on the white '71. Have a '69 GTO to finish this spring and the white car is next. The Lucerne '71 M22 TA is the car in the background buried under boxes. That's a '72 Formula in the right rear corner & a '72 Esprit covered on the far left. My Red '73 is stored in the opposite end of the shop. So 7 Firebirds in all, including one First Gen.

Very nice. Especially like the blue '70 with Polyglas GTs.

[Judge273]

Agreed with James! Very nice!!

[Norwood]

can't wait to get the Poly-Glas on my 70.....Great Cars Ric

[keith k]

Originally Posted by bird72

This picture is great / terrible on so many levels. The Apocalyptic End of It All, the honor / dishonor of a 70-73 bird in it, the horror of living with that view, the ying and yang of organic shack, trees, clothes on line versus industrial sterile Orwellianism, and the utter lack of hope of a doomed grey existence, coupled with "Hey maybe I put that new 400 in the red bird this weekend, Martha!"

If that is a pic of a members house and car, I was just jivvin'....... nice house, cool car! really!

Made my day. Classic...!!!

[Transamric]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Once I get started on the white '71, thinking about starting a thread, but not sure there would be any interest in a driver quality refurbishment. The interior is perfect so needs nothing. But I want to refinish everything firewall forwards. The car has about 84K miles & I'd like to have it look like 84K very well cared for miles. But not sure that's a realistic goal. I remember reading that one of Scott Tiemanns prospective customers wanted him to restore a car so it looked like it had 20K miles on it. After some thought, Scott's reply was "restore to brand new and drive it 20,000 miles".

[AkCamaro]

I love the internet.
I was able (through social media) to track down the widow of the former owner of my 73 TA. I told her about how I was restoring it back to it's original glory, and did she have any old pictures of it, because as it sits now it's in pieces.
She DID have some pictures of her husband and the car (she referred to the car as his "first wife") and she was kind enough to forward them to me, even though she has moved from Alaska and now lives in Florida.
These are pictures of the car racing at Polar Raceway north of Anchorage Alaska. The car was sold at Alaska Sales and Service, so it's pretty cool it has never left Anchorage.

[AkCamaro]

more;
by the way, those are mountains covered in snow, not clouds, in the background.

[AkCamaro]

The original owner wanted a super duty, and somehow found an SD motor to drop in it at some point. So when it was sold at the estate sale in 2005, it was sold as a numbers 73 SD 455 TA. Also The original motor came with it, with a bunch of extra stuff, a lot of it NOS.
A body shop owner bought it at the estate sale, and it took me a good chunk of years to buy it off him, and by the time I finally did, he had sold SD. But he didn't realize he had the original numbers 455 the entire time, because he was convinced that the SD (that he sold out of it) was the original motor.
So in 2005, this car/project was sold at an estate sale as a #'s 73 SD/TA Buc Red 4 speed, for $850.
The price I paid for it when I bought it,(minus 455SD and the NOS stuff that was already sold off) was significantly more then $850.


[IMG]

[Brewster]

Awesome find, pictures, and story. Please post some more once you have the car back together for us all to enjoy.
Was that original valance still with the car??? Surprised how well it looked with the kind of action the car was subjected to.
Thanks for sharing!
Brew

[AkCamaro]

Originally Posted by Brewster

Awesome find, pictures, and story. Please post some more once you have the car back together for us all to enjoy.
Was that original valance still with the car??? Surprised how well it looked with the kind of action the car was subjected to.
Thanks for sharing!
Brew

Thanks!
Yes it still has the original valance. It has a couple cracks, but it's all there, I will have to do a bit of repair to it before it's painted.

I've got it in the garage completely striped right now, maybe I'm optimistic, but I'd like to be driving it by mid summer.

I need a really good 73 nose, a rear bumper, a black 4 speed console, and a passenger side black upper deluxe door panel if anybody's selling.

[The Boss]

Wow! Cool story on the 73 & great pictures!

Loaded up shop Ric - love the pics!

[Transamric]

Originally Posted by AkCamaro

[IMG]

Gotta love the auction house descriptions. "6.6 liter" & "455 cubic meter engine". Was there a French guy in the mix here?

Thanks for sharing a great story. Wonder where that SD is today?

[keith k]

Originally Posted by AkCamaro

The original owner wanted a super duty, and somehow found an SD motor to drop in it at some point. So when it was sold at the estate sale in 2005, it was sold as a numbers 73 SD 455 TA. Also The original motor came with it, with a bunch of extra stuff, a lot of it NOS.
A body shop owner bought it at the estate sale, and it took me a good chunk of years to buy it off him, and by the time I finally did, he had sold SD. But he didn't realize he had the original numbers 455 the entire time, because he was convinced that the SD (that he sold out of it) was the original motor.
So in 2005, this car/project was sold at an estate sale as a #'s 73 SD/TA Buc Red 4 speed, for $850.
The price I paid for it when I bought it,(minus 455SD and the NOS stuff that was already sold off) was significantly more then $850.

Cool story and pics, but ya got a wonder why the heck anyone would sell separately the SD motor they thought was original to the car they also had? This would have been a much sadder story if it really had been!