My high school was like any late-70’s high school, full of students driving muscle cars that were “just cars” back then and usually sporting all sorts of nifty (at the time) Day Two modifications.
It was love at first sight. Back in ‘69, Pontiac built what I consider to be one of the most beautiful cars of the era – the Trans Am. With only 697 built, 689 coupes and 8 convertibles, and only available in Cameo White with Tyrol Blue stripes… wow, just wow. Oddly enough, in little ol’ Selah, two brothers owned a couple of the coupes, and I fell in love with those cars.
Many years later, retired and with too much time to fiddle around on the internet, I ran across a convertible clone at a consignment dealership in New Braunfels, TX. There it was, that beautiful TA I’d been dreaming about for years, but with a price tag well below the $ million + the real deal cars were going for (incredibly enough, all 8 original convertibles have been found and restored – and 4 of them are in the Brothers Collection in Salem, OR!). So, what to do but head to New Braunfels and have a look!
This being my first time to look at a muscle car in about 40 years, I really wasn’t sure what to even look for, other than the fact that it looked like a ‘69 TA and, according to the description, it had a WS coded 400 RAIII out of a ‘69 GTO. Nice gnarly sound with the Flowmaster 40’s, too!
As mentioned in the “Little Red Corvette” section, I had my then girlfriend, now wife with me, who pointed out a red 427 Tri-Power ‘68 Corvette convertible. I liked them both, made an offer for both, offer accepted and I’m the proud owner of not one, but two dream cars. Some dreams, however, are nightmares…
Armed with a Harbor Freight tool kit and some supplies from Walmart, my buddy and I started the long trek from Texas back to Washington – the attention these two cars grabbed both on the road and when parked was monumental, and the ‘bird was stealing the show, even over that shiny red ‘vette. However, early on we noticed a huge speedometer discrepancy – I was showing 70 but only going about 55, and trying to cross Texas at highway speeds it was one stop after another for overheating. And then there was the oil burn… well, after struggling to get to Phoenix we left the car there to be shipped back and continued on with the ‘vette.
What a learning experience the School of Hard Knocks gives to the new student. I knew very little about cars at the time and didn’t have a shop/tools to mess with it, anyway, so I took it to a mechanic who determined it had been set up for drag racing (rear suspension mods) and had 4.33 gears as opposed to the factory 3.55’s – now the speedo being way off made sense. The engine was roasted, with signs of serious overheating to the block and heads, oil pickup plugged off with metal shavings, etc. A total disaster and I was advised that it wasn’t worth rebuilding. Later I found out it probably was, but live and learn. Anyway, I paid a bunch of money for a 400 “rebuilt to RAIII specs”, but of course later upon studying up on it, it’s nowhere near RAIII specs. I had to do a bunch of work on it, from cosmetics to make the cloning correct to the engine swap, change out the rear end gears, return the rear suspension geometry to stock, etc. Unfortunately, the rebuilt engine seems to be still so tight that it wants to overheat at highway speeds (friction, I’m guessing, as it’s fine at low speeds or standing still and I’ve gone through the entire circulating system). Anyway, it’s a pretty edition to the garage but doesn’t get driven much, but I sure learned a lot!
