Wasp
This is another trashy car like Possum (although not quite as bad). It's held junk car status for a long time. We won't be saving any body panels off this baby. It's a 78 Esprit. For some reason, all the interior plastic was replaced with good red stuff, even though the car is a total pile of junk. They even put up the red headliner, which was held up by a mosaic of thumb tacks. Why would anybody go to all that trouble? It has blue velour interior painted black. We've had several cars with black painted interior, but velour?
As you can see, it has achieved flight status as my lift test object. It weighs about 2500 pounds without its drive train, so it's a good light thing to practice on. You can check out my other garage pictures on Joe's garage page
The seller told us it had been a Chevy 305-powered car, and that's pretty typical for a 78 Esprit. The seller told us the previous owner just had to keep that 305,because he said it was a Canadian 305. So what? Maybe when you use it for a boat anchor it makes the lake taste like maple syrup. It's another life story car like Chester, totally full of trash. Check out the summary below.
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It's not unusual for use to find a cheap stereo in these cars. In fact we have a whole box of them. It's just that usually they're CAR stereos.
At least it's more interesting than the typewriter we found inside Chester (the car I mean). It has a class of '81 sticker on it, so it's at least 22 years old. It ought to be just the thing to play those old 45 rpm records. We're the kind of guys that just have to plug things up to see if they work, and it works fine. So I threw the typewriter away years ago, but I put this stereo in the garage and listen to it every day!
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As usual in these cases, we have to identify the owner by the mail in his car. In this case we have pay stubs, we'll just call him (drum roll) Chester. That's right, the same name as our first life story car. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Here's what Chester left for us in his car:
- one C and one D battery
- Overdue bills for somebody we'll call Debbie
- A pair of open-toed shoes (maybe belong to Debbie?)
- A bunch of nylon ropes (Debbie's too? Let's hope not.)
- Remote from a Daewoo CD player (I bet Chester wonders where that got to)
- Toby Keith "boomtown" tape
- 1999 Newspaper
- Pulltab collection (maybe following a fund raising chainletter?)
- 52 beer cans, bottles, and cases
- Form for Moms to volunteer to make Gingerbread men for 5th grade Christmas party. Didn't you guys know you were supposed to turn that in?
- 1997 Tennessee Tag
- Jesus air freshener
- New transmission gasket
- Blue industrial coveralls, size 38 extra wormy
- Red Atlanta Falcons jacket
- Empty STP smoke treatment bottle (further proof of the Chevy 305)
- Peter Pan glass from Burger King. Wonder what those are bringing at Sotheby's
- Handouts from self-esteem presentation at PTA
- Laundry Detergent
- Big ol' snake skin
- Pacifier
- keys
- WQUT (top 40 trash) "preferred listener" keychain.
- a home stereo in the back seat
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King of the Hill
Here's a neat find that one of my relatives had wasting away in his driveway: 1978 Regular Trans Am, black, black, T-tops, non-WS6. Like 90% of Black Trans Ams, it has been pinstriped like a special edition (quite well, too). The Lemans stripes, while imaginative, don't look quite so original.
Has a Cheby 350 in it that runs. I took a test ride in this car, and all I could think about was how rich my wife would be if she collected my life insurance.
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Unthinkable
As you can see from this picture, something Unthinkable occured. We bought a Camaro. It's not what you think, though. We're not about to try to feed the world's lust for Camaro parts. This car was only $100, and Joe couldn't pass it up. This car has a whole set of Camaro A/C hoses on it.
We have been wondering for years about which parts are the same on the two F-bodies, and now we're going to find out, which is well worth $100. We're working on another web page on that.
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The Big G
This 1979 Camaro was parked across the street from Joe's Sister's house. This picture is right out of her front door. It's just a stripped-out Camaro, but those t-tops look a little funny, don't they? Hmmmm.
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On closer inspection, it's clear that G has Cars and Concepts aftermarket t-tops. You could even call it a targa. The roof was cut all the way across when this was installed. We traded the 350 out of King of the Hill for this car, mainly to study the tops for our t-tops web page.
This is the lowest optioned car we've ever seen, bar none. It's an original six cylinder three speed car. No air conditioning. The interior is gone, but from the trim tag it had blue standard interior. We found a build sheet in G, but it's not for G. It's for a different car which actually had some options. |
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| We didn't get a title or any info on the previous owners, but as usual, they left plenty of evidence of their lifestyle in the car. Here are the folks that used to own this car. I'm not even going to comment on this. Well, yeah, I am. When you take a junk car apart you'll always find something with the owner's name on it. This is the first time we've read it off anybody's leg though.
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Miraculously it still has its conversion sticker on the glove box door. It shows that G had its roof cut off by "G Classics" January 30th 1979 (yes that's how I named it). The body build date was 12C (about December 20th) so the car was new. I don't know where G Classics was.
We have had several Bandit Trans Ams, and their Hurst stickers always seem to get destroyed. Look back at the picture as the car was found. Somehow, with the t-tops off and the glove box open, this sticker has survived. Isn't that odd?
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G has that rarest-of-the-rare lack of options, a single side mirror (right). This mirror is something I have only seen twice in my whole life. And, equally impressive, this car had manual brakes (lower right). The master cylinder is gone, but you can still see the outline of the master cylinder and a spacer that probably was under the proportioning valve. The brake pedal has a return spring on it. I've never seen that before.
G has console brackets, so it did have at least one option.
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| So, we bought 2 Camaros! Are we losing focus? I don't think so. In fact, our "Camaro vs. Firebird" page will be much better with two, because these two Camaros gave us a huge range of parts to look at. Unthinkable was a 1976 V-8 automatic with A/C, while G was a 1979 6 cylinder 3-speed with a heater. In addition to the mechanical differences, the cars had different body styles.
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Unforgivable
September 2003 was a month of firsts for Team Hoghead. We bought our first Camaro and our first restored car, a real tragedy case. You can see in this picture that the car is collapsed. The frame is bent and the roof has buckled. It's a nice car, much too nice to fall into our hands. It had a lot of new parts, but of course we're making sure they don't go to waste.
This car was one of the first 1980 Trans Ams built, and it had a very rare feature; In 1980, as in 1979, it was possible to delete the standard Trans Am engine and get one engine below that. This car was equipped that way. It was built with the 140 hp 301. I was not sure any were really made this way, but I am now. A lot of stuff was deleted from a Trans Am with this engine: Electronic spark control and dual cat-back exhaust were standard on the Trans Am, but were deleted with this option. According to the shop manual, the transmission and torque converter would have also been different. This car had a 2.41 axle (vs. a regular 1980 Trans Am's 3.08), but I don't know if that's original. There was no build sheet. 1979's with the standard Trans Am engine deleted are fairly common; see "Repo Man" for an example.
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Formula 409
We bought this 1978 Formula off ebay. This car has W50 Formula Appearance Package, and it's the first one we had. It has a nifty color scheme. Most of the cars had a black band around the bottom, but black and white cars had a gold band, gold hood scoops, and gold grilles borrowed from the Trans Am Special Edition. The tailpanel is also gold. This car has red interior, which gives it the Formula version of Dutch's oddball color scheme. If you're not tired of factoids yet, all 1978 Formulas had black taillights EXCEPT ones with this color scheme.
This was another abandoned storage car with no title, and it was a major rust bucket. The seller had already cleaned it out, which is a shame, since we would have given you a full report here about its contents. It also ran, which is pretty impressive. Nothing like a rare car that runs for $300.
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Old Yeller
This poor old thing was once a classic yellow Formula W50 with yellow wheels, just like in the 1976 Pontiac Ad. However, in this case the car was a 1977.
This car was so stripped it came straight to the killed Trans Am page without being in the Trans Am Parts Hopper. As always, there was still treasure. Check out that upper photo: they threw the nose under the hood and flopped the hood down on it. Perfect, uncracked grilles under there..
We got a full build sheet out of this car, and it turns out it had several rare otions. First, it had the rare Z45 Deluxe Black Spray Painted Lamps. Not only that, it had the even more rare W92 Flintstone Handling Package (no floors). When we got it home, there was a perfect, uncracked A/C plenum laying on the back of the trailer (pretty much the only one we ever saw). Makes you wonder what else may have spilled out.
This car was so rusty, you could park it in a dark garage, put a light bulb in the trunk, and make your own planetarium. Which obviously is going into "Hoghead's top 10 uses for a killed Trans Am" after we figure out how to photograph it.
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One for the weird file: The tail panel was nearly perfect?!?
How can a car with quarter panels like this
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Ain't SkeeredThis Blue 79 Trans Am should have been PLENTY skeered as it never got out of our junkyard alive. It was obviously in a barn somewhere for a while, because it was full of hay. About 80% of the stuff taken out while removing the engine (like radiator, accessory brackets, etc.) was in the back seat and trunk. We got half a new gasket set, a gallon of carb cleaner, all sorts of stuff. The interior of the car is totally trashed, and the engine compartment is pretty bad too. The body was pretty good except the left rear was rotten, and we wound up cutting it into patch panels.Aint Skeered had yet another Nova rally wheel, which gives us a total of 3. We just need one more to slap a whole set on ebay.....
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Goldilocks and the 3 BearsWe recently had to "buy out" long-time Trans Am parts predator Tim Hall. As you can guess from the title, there are 4 cars.
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| Papa Bear,right, was a 1976 Bonneville that he used as a yard barn. How do you like your Bonneville? We like ours 455 powered and crammed with Trans Am parts. Check out the pile-o-parts in Papa Bear's trunk! Baby Bear, below, has got to be the most pitiful sight we've ever seen. The sad thing was, this was Tim's car when he was a teenager. Imagine finding your car in this shape! It's pitiful.
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All the stuff pictured below came out of the Bonneville!
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| Here on Goldilocks we see why the 1970 Trans Am hood is so rarely seen on 1980 Trans Ams.... Goldilocks is a 1981 Gold WS6 Trans Am junker that belonged to another local. He told me he wouldn't sell it for less than $600, then turned around and traded it to Tim for a pistol. Note also the Gen-u-wine Y88 t-top roof. That's the roof off "Fool's Gold", finally reunited at Hoghead's secret storage location. Mama Bear was Tim's Daily driver, which was much too nice to part out.
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LuckyHere's an apparently nice car that was some Hot Rod Magazine subscriber's project. It's a 1978 WS6 with Hurst T-tops. We're not sure exactly what happened to it. The floors are pretty rusty, and apparently somebody separated it to "fix" the subframe mounts. Eventually some other dude got it for the engine. We got what was left, as usual. Looks like it was pretty nice until some hairy-legged teenager decided to "build" it. |  |
| Lucky gets its name from how it was unloaded. Like a classic science fair physics demonstration, they aimed it at Brian's brand new garage, put the floor jack under the nose, and turned it loose. Potential energy = height * mass * g |  |
| Here's Lucky after it came to rest. It swerved around the edge of the garage, jumped over the drain, off the driveway, and into the Emergency Junk Trans Am Escape Ramp, where it bogged down in the mud. It missed everything, a miracle. Kinetic energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity^2 Solution:
velocity = square root of (2* (1 meter)(9.8 meters/sec^2))
= 4.5 meters/sec. Pretty darn fast to steer a floor jack. |  |
Big BlueIn this case, IBM stands for "I've been mashed," as in "at the scrap yard." This poor 1977 Esprit was part of a package deal for Brian's 72 Formula. It was a nice car inside, but horribly rusty in the back. The seller pulled the engine and put it out to pasture after he saw how bad it was.Why would anybody bother pulling a 2-barrel 305? One unusual find on this car was the WS6 snowflakes. |  |
Pete and RepeatPete is a 1980 WS6 that Joe Dragged home from a business trip. It had a Buick 455 under the hood. Repeat is the 1978 T/A on the left in this picture. We called this car "Repeat" because it looked so much like our first car, "Chester". We bought it off ebay here in Tennessee. It was advertised as a solid car, but most everything but the body was too rough to part out. |  |
FloydI bought this 1973 Firebird on ebay during August of 2005. I hadn't looked at my junk car search for several weeks, and I just happened to look one day and spot it with only a day to go.
This poor car was killed by an option - it had a vinyl top. Based on looks, it would have been much too nice to destroy. But, under the top, it was speed-rotting itself to death. The owner realized it was too rusty to fix, and he cut the tail panel off and sold off the interior and some of the body. I got what was left. What I got was the engine compartment. |
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Ernie and BertThis 2-for-one deal shows just how desperate I am to get a parts car. They don't look like much. Ernie is a 78 with Hurst tops and a 455. Bert is a 79 Trans Am that was originally 301-powered, but came with a 400 under the hood. I learned my lesson with Bert. I had a chance to buy the whole car for $600, but by the miracle of procrastination, I wound up buying only half of it for just as much money. Stupid me.
Notice Bert has a really cool blob of bondo on the driver's side quarter panel, but nothing can match the quality of Ernie's stereo install.
No amount of workmanship is enough for some Trans Am owners. If you know wut I mean.
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LutherLuther was just a great parts car. It came from Baileyton, TN (we pronounce that "Belton") It's a 1981 Trans Am with a pretty good list of options. It had pieces of numerous cars, including pretty nice 1975 interior in two different colors and some remnants of an Olds 350 under the hood. The body is pretty beat up, but not very rusty. It does have a good Fisher t-top roof. I don't know what happened to it, but instead of the roof cracking, the floor cracked on the driveshaft hump. No doubt that relieved a lot of stress.
I often see creative ways of shaker attachment. In Luther's case, nothing sez quality like galvinized self-drilling screws, pointed up for aerodynamic effect.
Before you 77 T/A owners get excited about this uncut low shaker, I sold it already.
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RobertThis car turned up in the land o' goshen. It looks like the other side of Luther, but it's not (honest). Robert is somewhat of a structural curiosity. This car is incredibly rusty, and some former owner was pretty smart about that - he installed subframe connectors, the kind that include a mount for the rear spring. The rear frame rails, spring pocket, and floor under the rear seat were all cut away. The stiffener that connects the rocker panels laterallly to the frame is gone. As a result, the rocker panels are no longer a part of the structure. Which is good, because it ain't got any rocker panels.
This car had some good qualities. It was my third car in a row with power windows and door locks, it had 6x-4 heads on it, and it even had a B&M quicksilver shifter on it (still here!).
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