Hello all!

my name is Jim. long time lurker now new member. I have always been a fan of f-bodies and corvettes as well as GM small block motors. I currently have a 2002 Trans am that I bought new 21 years ago. I came here looking for some help with the well known door panel cracks.

 

Welcome Jim. Nice to hear you have owned your T/A since new...very cool

 

Thanks jetech!

in the early 2000s I was kinda in between my job in the automotive industry and my current career. I saw the car in a dealer showroom. At the time (02) I was driving my worked 89 Camaro RS. Don’t laugh, I had a 305 in it bored 30 over with a 350 crank. The block was a marine block so it was a 4 bolt main and had a decent cam in it. Some flat top pistons and custom heads withe roller cams rounded it out among other things. It was a true Frankenstein build! But back to the story, since I saw the writing on the wall for the firebird and eventually Pontiac in general, I waltzed into the dealer with my 22 year old strut and wanted to buy the car. To my surprise I wasn’t taken seriously by any of the salespeople. So I left. Angrily.

I returned a week later with a brown paper bag filled with bank wrapped 100s. There was different sales person there who I would later become good friends with. I told him I want that car and I’m willing to pay X for it. My offer was around 10 lower than sticker. I’m gonna make this short but after some back and forth I said “look. I was here a week ago and ignored. I have a sack of cash to buy this car. If the other sales people made an attempt to even entertain me as an actual customer I’d be willing to pay more. I’m not here for friends I just want the damn car. Now if you won’t accept my offer I’ll leave but it will be for the last time. See, in a crazy attempt to make a profit, Pontiac made more than one car and more than one showroom. I’m willing to travel to get what I want. So what is gonna be?”

as we see now, my tactic worked. I was as amazed as you are. I’ve kept the car in absolute prestige condition to this day. She has 71,000 on the clock. Yesterday I had her outside yesterday and a guy offered to buy it. I asked how much he said 45k but I declined. I’d let it go but for much more than that. Not only am I the original owner, I am confirmed the only person to ever drive the car except for service techs at the dealer. I have the original build sheet, window sticker, dealer catalogue, first registration, every single service receipt and every single part the car has ever needed is either OEM or NOS down to the battery. having all that paperwork is a bit more impressive than it seems as my house was completely destroyed in hurricane sandy on 2012. While I am no stranger to hurricanes for some reason maybe Devine intervention I took all the records for the car and the car itself and drive it to an Ace hardware store on higher ground and parked it with the records in it. It would stay there for the next several months before I could find a place for it to live while I began the several year long process to rebuild.

sorry for the story but this actually IS the short version. Lol.

anyway glad I found this forum. Hopefully I can give and get a ton of information here!


Current pic 1/30/23

 

Beautiful!

 

Nice car. For $45k I'd have thrown in the boat? Jk
White looks good on the 4th gen Firebird. Combination of the chrome wheels and blacked out windows. Great look.

I thought 305's and 350's had the same cranks other than balancing.

 

thank you! I work hard to keep her in showroom condition. The windows aren’t blacked out though. NYS might not be too happy about that. But you bring a good pint it would look sick with some nice dark tints.

lol yeah I’m stubborn like that. If 45k and the boy would’ve gotten me somewhere I couldn’t get myself I’d have said yes. You know a 79’ trans am with 39 miles, yes 39, just sold at auction for get this $220,000 USD. That’s a lot of scratch. Not saying mine is or will be worth that. I’m my ownership of this car I’ve had a lot of false offers. People talk a good game but never come through soooooooo I’ll keep ‘em both!

as far as the crank goes, yes they are the same in terms of stroke however I have been lead to believe that the 350 crank (rods too) were more beefy. I was told it was built that way because the short block was from a marine application. I had intentions to squeeze as much torque from that motor as possible. That never happened but that’s what you do between 18-25 years old right? Before reality sets in.

 

Lol whoever offered 45k for that must be *#*#(@ well you know how the saying goes fool and his money…and unless say someone’s kid owned it, and sadly passed away or something, you’d be a nut not to take 45k, heck 25k is still high…but each to his own..sounds like a fish story..as I wouldn’t pay 25k as you can get one with much lower miles for that and a WS6 , it’s only greedy dealers, and ppl who don’t do their homework who get sadly screwed..but nice color, hope you have many more yrs with it.. welcome to the forum..

 

[QUOTE=Gnx1234;20516851]Lol whoever offered 45k for that must be *#*#(@ well you know how the saying goes fool and his money…QUOTE]

Art is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. This car is art. Anyway, it is a bargain compared with some old cars selling for millions of dollars. Like a rattle trap 67 Camaro SS/RS.
45K is something different to the buyer depending on his net worth. One with a couple tens of millions of $? Bargain.