Amazing what is still out there. Way too much $$$ to get a quick sale but so cool to see.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/22734083282...temCondition=4

 

29 people are watching it. I bet it will sell for that price.

 

$49k? Not even if it was the NBM WS6 Jay Leno owns. I'd rather own "John" Voight's Lebaron. Even burned up that's got panache!

 

Nice car, but it's not assembly line stock - which might hurt it depending on the type of collectors who are bidding. The exhaust looks really nice, but it's not original. Here's the full dealer ad with a TON more pics:

https://www.diamondmotorworks.com/20...am-ws6-c-5146/

Looks like the exhaust was cut at the axle and someone installed a Flowmaster with aftermarket tips. Again, looks really nice and sounds better than stock for sure, but on a 3k mile "collector" car it's not a positive thing. The rear axle has also been painted which, again, is nice but not original. I can see several areas of trim (T-top center bar, window sweeps, wiper arm & cowl plastic to name a few) that need some refreshing/restoration to look the way they should on a 3k mile example. One of the "Ram Air" hood decals is also damaged. And how did the second set of factory keys and fob get lost for such a low mile collector example? Only two long term owners according to the Carfax provided.

Beautiful car, the issues could be resolved and it's certainly desirable, not sure about ~$50k though. I'm thinking they are at least $5-10k too high on price, or maybe more.

 

RPMs got a much sharper eye than .......... I.......... agree that the exhaust mod is a detriment to its ultimate potential value. But the thing that jumps out at me is that, either they have strange lighting that makes that NBM look WAY brighter / lighter than is should be, or that's not factory NBM paint (which would be hard to believe on a 3K example). Other things that look strange is that I think the seat backs are missing the "cargo neting" that my car has (was that a feature that was discontinued between '98 and '02?), and what's up with the stripes in the carpet? That just looks bizzare. Also agree that only one key fob on a "3K survivor" is inexcusable. I still have both of mine.

 

Johnny, the deal with the seats is a strange one. They are actually the base seat offering, meaning the AR9 seats without the inflatable lumbar support. You don't usually see them in Trans Ams (it's what you would normally see in a Formula) but it IS a correct factory seat and could be ordered on a T/A too. But what is REALLY strange is that the SPID sticker shows AQ9, which is, in fact, the articulating inflatable lumbar seats which also include the plastic seat back and cargo netting (like yours). Additionally, the interior seat surface code shows 522 - and that last digit should only be a "2" if the seats are the AQ9 lumbar seats, otherwise that last digit should be a "3".

So, what is actually in this car are the AR9 seats with a 523 trim code, but the SPID calls for the AQ9 seats with a 522 trim code. Weird. Unless somehow the RPOs all changed for the 2002 MY, because everything I wrote above is from my documents related to my 2000 Trans Am.

As for the carpet, I think those lines are just from a type of steam cleaner vacuum that was used. I've seen this before, they can be agitated away with a soft brush. The paint color looks "normal" on my screen, so it's probably just the lighting.

 

Thanks for the clarification on the seats, having owned only one LS1 Firebird for the last 27+ years (?!?!) blurs my memory of other configurations. But it is strange that the SPID is not consistent w/ the actual build WRT seats & interior codes (I'm not aware of any shuffling / flipping of RPO definitions in the waning years of the F-bod........I can't imagine why GM would do that either).

WRT the paint, I do believe my monitor (32" LG 4K) is brightening the NBM a bit, as I searched for other pics of NBM Firebirds and some of those also look lighter than my (now ex) co-worker's '99 NBM WS6 that I've been looking at for over 20 years........sometimes in bright sunlight. NBM is one of those colors whose appearance is very dependant on lighting. Nowhere in the pics of the subject WS6 does the quality of the paint hint at it not being original.

 

RPM WS6 Thanks for that better link.My ebay link wasn't nearly as good. Good eyes on the non-stock items. I would have been fooled but the exhaust note would have alerted me if in person.
I enjoyed looking at all the new photos. I've seen those carpet stripes on other cars too in the past. It is definitely the vacuum or cleaning tool, no big deal.
This car strikes me as a 'double your money' endeavor. Most likely bought in the low $20's and asking double.

 

I think this is the car that the owner was trying to sell for 75K. Finding an OE exhaust is gonna be fairly tough now. The original paint on my NBM TA had a noticable purple shift to it. Others are more blue.

 

^ $75k!? Wow. Someone would really have to be out of touch with reality to even post an ad with that kind of price for this car (haha...even the current dealership trying to sell it knows better than to get THAT crazy! ). ~$40k is probably the ceiling for something like this, but it would have to be one of those "I just gotta have it!" buyers. Otherwise I think somewhere in the $30's is probably what would get it sold.

Funny thing about the stock exhaust...I still have the original catback for my '00 WS6 that I removed when that car had only about 300 miles on it. It's still in storage, but I did cut the I-pipe over the axle to remove it. Maybe one day that system will find its way onto an otherwise original car like this one.

 

Yeah, the guy was pimping the car on facebook.

 

Are the Gold Nylock Nuts correct on the front struts? or does that indicate replacement?

Also what about the center console lid and the shifter ****?

I see some other minor things but with out being able to inspect it in person its' hard to tell if I am seeing what I am seeing or if there is an optical illusion.

I am not a collector and not pretending I even know the first thing about what is correct or not on these cars but I don't like when stuff gets passed off just to make a buck.

There is alot of little things that don't add up for me. I feel like the car has more miles than is let on and I believe it was cleaned up. I am sure the first owner really cared for it but at some point I think it was owner maintained so nothing was ever reported and I wouldnt be surprised if the seats were swapped out at some point for some reason. Like they were worn and these were cleaner and they figured no one would know the difference any way.

 

The zinc plated shock nuts are assembly line correct; in fact, the OE/dealer replacements were silver with a shorter nut head (I only know this because I needed to buy a set from the dealer around ~2005 or so), so what you see there was only available on the assembly line. The center console lid is also factory correct for a 2000-02 model. The Hurst shifter (and ****) was actually a factory option under RPO "BBS", which this car correctly shows on it's SPID sticker.

The seat situation is definitely strange, I have no explanation for how that happened. But that's really the only discrepancy that I can find, everything else appears to be in order for the mileage and correct for the visible documentation. Some things to support it's condition/mileage as being "original":

- Those tires (Goodyear Eagle F1 GS) are the correct assembly line equipment for this car (RPO "QFK"). The date code (which can be seen in at least one of the pictures) appears to be the 30th week of 2001 (end of July), which would be very consistent with the door jamb build date sticker showing a production date of 08/01 for the car. And the remaining tread depth is consistent with a very low mileage car as these tires didn't wear particularly well as a general rule. I'd say it's a near certainty that they are original to this specific car.

- Those wiper blades appear to be the assembly line original Bosch pieces. Their condition is consistent with a car that hasn't seen any sort of significant weathering.

- The undercarriage condition is very consistent with a super low mile original car. The brake rotor hats and caliper brackets are the only things that look more deteriorated than they should be, but that could simply be from frequent water-based washing and/or harsh tire cleaning products.

- Going back to the build date of 08/01, this is important to consider as it's an early 2002 car. A little known fact is that GM changed the design of the markings on the windshield washer fluid bottle cap and the brake fluid reservoir cap mid model year in 2002, so only the early '02 cars still have those older versions (which this car correctly has). The service replacements were also updated at the same time, so you can't easily source those items if you wanted to correctly restore an engine bay for an early '02 car (therefore, again, I'm quite certain those caps are original and their condition would also suggest very low mileage).

- Another item that tends to show wear quickly is the top of the rear seat backs. The perforated leather areas tend to shrink/sink on top, causing the vinyl center section to appear taller. The only way to prevent this is to either keep the car out of sunlight or religiously treat the leather areas with conditioner to prevent the shrink. This one is perfect in this area, which is very consistent with a super low mile car that hasn't been outside much (of course, the rear seats could have been swapped along with the fronts, since there is some really weird discrepancy with those front seats).

- The tail light center panel is also another telling area. Those tend to fade pretty quickly if the car was ever neglected or spent a lot of time outside. You can't really just clean that area up, you'd have to buff off the original markings and then apply a reproduction decal to the panel to make it nice again. But, from what I can see in those pics, this center piece appears to be original.

- [Lack of] wear on the pedals, steering wheel, and other controls appears to be correct for a super low mile example. None of those surfaces look to be replacements or restorations from what I can tell.

Ultimately, the only thing that doesn't add up here is the strangeness with the front seats. I can't wrap my head around that, other than to think that whomever decided to paint the rear axle and change the exhaust system maybe also didn't like the inflatable lumbar support seats (perhaps because of the hard plastic panel on the rear of the seat back???), so they found the correct color originals without the lumbar option and swapped them over. The seats currently in the car are actually more rare, so they would have been very hard to find in that sort of condition unless it was done very early in the car's life. One thing I can say about the aftermarket muffler is that it's probably not that old as Flowmaster didn't start painting their mufflers black until more recent years. Back when this car was built, all of their mufflers were still painted silver.

 

I've seen TA's with the non adjustable bolsters. It might have just been a case of someone grabbing the wrong seats.

 

The AQ9 lumbar seats were an extra cost option and would have been charged to the total on the window sticker. If it was a dealer stock order, the dealer should have noticed the missing equipment upon delivery. If it was a customer special order, the customer certainly should have noticed upon delivery since they would've needed to check off that box on the order sheet and pay extra for it.

The only time I've ever seen an SPID sticker be wrong on a car of this era is if the VIN on that sticker doesn't match the car (meaning wrong sticker applied on the assembly line). That actually happened on my 2000 Trans Am; the VIN # on the sticker was for a different car (sequence number was one digit off). This was an actual assembly line mistake because I bought that car brand new with 3 miles on it, and that's how it was delivered.

 

@RPM WS6 Thanks for the education on the little details.

 

Glad you found it interesting!

I like sometimes digging pretty deep with the analysis of these cars because it keeps all the details fresh in my mind. NC01TA has a knack for finding interesting examples for sale, and they often turn into really good discussions like this one.