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Texas Trans Am Service & Restoration Newsletter
"Specializing in Service and Restoration of
Second Generation Pontiac Firebirds"
+ + www.TexasTransAms.com + +
"Now more than ever."
+ + Sponsor of www.TransAmTerritory.org + +
February 2003
In this Issue
1a. "Saturday morning"..
1b. "American Beauty" Firebird story
2. New Project Cars
3. New, re-pops, and discontinued parts
4. Show Room
5. Shipping, Credit Cards
6. Top 100 Muscle Car Site, e-mail and site-search
7. Tee Shirts and Bumper Stickers
8. What's new at the shop?
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1a. "Saturday morning Todd was at the shop waiting for me when I arrived about 7am.
We were huddled around the gas heater with all the shop doors closed, talking until a
little after 8:00 am we heard a tremendous BOOM, followed by a sustained rumble that
rattled the metal panels of the shop for a several seconds. We went outside to see what
had happened. (The shop is about a dozen miles south of Carswell Air Force Base, and It's
not unusual to see jet fighters overhead so)we saw the vapor trail and decided that it
must have been a plane. Then we opened up the bay doors and started to work. It wasn't
until almost 10:00 am when Mike came by that we learned what we heard was the Space
Shuttle." - David Mars - February 1, 2003
"The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we
mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can
pray that all are safely home. May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue
to bless America." - George H. W. Bush - February 1, 2003
1b. "American Beauty" Firebird Story
Your humble WebMechanic/Newsletter editor was recently corrected. On November 26, 2002,
Kevin W. wrote to us.
"I was looking at your web site, and getting ready to order a ' 74 lower front
valance. (THANKS SO MUCH FOR FINALLY DOING THIS ONE!!!) Anyway, your site lists the
American Beauty Firebird to be a '73 Ram-Air Formula. It is not. I bought this car in
03/97. It was a..."
Read the complete article here:
www.texastransams.com/images/abeauty25.htm
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2. "Membership has its' privileges"
Welcome back everyone, and a special greeting to "radmr2fan" who just became our
191st member.
Newsletter subscribers will get first notice on rare parts and new Project Cars.
- 1974 Buccaneer Red T/A 455. This survivor runs and drives. Straight body, very little
rust. Needs complete interior. Recently rebuilt Pontiac 455 features nasty cam, Holly 850
Carburetor, aluminum Edelbrock performer intake, 6x heads, aluminum high rise valve
covers, honeycomb wheels.
www.texastransams.com/projects/74buc455ta57.htm
- 1977 Firebird black with yellow flames and snorkel.
STILL AVAILABLE
It has a sunroof and good seats. Good body, needs engine. This car is desperately looking
for a "B" movie to star in. "Hooper 2003"? The snorkel and paint job
alone is worth an extra 100 HP, even without an engine.
www.texastransams.com/projects/77bla000fb58.htm
- 1978 Bandit Black & Gold SE.
NEW PICTURES - ADOPTION PENDING
Needs engine and transmission, rear floor pan needs to be patched, straight rear quarters,
true Special Edition Car.
www.texastransams.com/projects/78bla000seta50.htm
1981 Firebird V6 parts car. Perfect doors.
1979 White Firebird 301 partially disassembled. ADOPTED
If you are interested in one of these great project cars, call David at 817-563-2121
NEW PARTS CARS
'75 Buccaneer Red T/A, Great Hood, 400 block complete motor.
'76 Yellow T/A, 400 block complete motor.
'75 Burgundy T/A.
'80 White Turbo T/A, 301 Turbo with 4 wheel disk brakes, 308-positrac rear end with brake
booster, master cylinder and proportioning valve.
'66 Ford Pickup, reasonably straight, big block, with A/C.
Last month's newsletter can be found in the articles and news section, but only upon the
sporadic mailing of the following month. As a subscriber, you get the cars, parts and
"scoop" 4 weeks (approximately) before anyone else.
www.texastransams.com/articles/2003january_newsletter.htm
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3. PARTS
Texas Trans Ams is proud to announce that the fiberglass
reproduction front lower spoilers for the '74-'75 are in!
The mold for this second batch has been adjusted to improve the fitting to the spoiler for
the TA.
www.texastransams.com/parts/7475splashpan.htm
The fiberglass splash pan for '74-'75 is available for an introductory price of $225.
These work great with the turn signal for the '74 or the block-off on the '75.
www.texastransams.com/parts/7475splashpan.htm
Another Texas Trans Am exclusive, is the '77-'78 front center spoiler in fiberglass. They
are available for an introductory price of $145. We test fitted this spoiler on Todd's car
and it fits and looks great!
www.texastransams.com/parts/7778spoiler.htm
Also fiberglass "ram-air" hoods are available for most any American made car or
truck. Contact us with your wants and needs for fiberglass parts, if you don't see it on
the following page.
www.texastransams.com/parts/fiberglass.htm
1971 HO PARTS
We have for sale a pair of 455 HO round port heads from a '71 T/A, casting 197. Also we
have the '71 HO exhaust manifolds, HO carburetor (7041263) and '71 HO distributor. We have
a set of '71 Honeycomb wheels (15x7) with the original trim rings and center caps. These
are good original parts for correct 1971 455 HO Trans Am restoration. Call David for
pricing.
Pontiac Rally II wheels
15 x 7 set of 4 for $100. Not including trim rings or center caps.
Chrome plated center caps for the alloy wheels and what's left of a case of chrome 2 1/4
splitter tips ('76 - '81 style) are in the showroom.
When you turn on the lava-lamp and put on your Frampton Live album remember that we can
ship or install Auto Custom Carpet and Texas Trans Am Mufflers for your "old
dream". The Texas Trans Am Mufflers are produced with heavier gauge steel than other
popular dual chamber mufflers. This gives the Texas Trans Am muffler a deeper, more solid
sound, rather than the high-pitched "cow bell" sound.
www.texastransams.com/parts/txta_muffler.htm
Muffler quote from Ken H.
"I just wanted to let you know we received the (Texas Trans Am) mufflers and
installed them and they sound GREAT, even better than your website advertises."
Hypnotically Shiny parts
www.texastransams.com/images/parts/split_tailpipes.jpg
We were told that the shaker seals for '77-'81 have been discontinued from GM. We
understand that Soft Seal is working on a replacement, but no finished product yet.
Our supplier confirmed that the red Pontiac arrowhead crest for the '77-'81 nose had been
discontinued and is gone from the Pontiac parts department shelves. Additionally the
'79-'81 noses are almost all gone from the GM warehouses.
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4. Show Room
The Texas Trans Am Service and Restoration Show Room is progressing. We have shelves,
lights and a real bathroom door. When you drop by, you will see the Honeycomb, Turbo and
Snowflake wheels on display across from the new fiberglass reproduction splash pans,
spoilers and Texas Trans Ams Mufflers along with other shiny new parts. It's kind of like
opening the model car box and looking at all the optional wheels and hot rod parts. The
shipping and receiving wall and the back wall are insulated and finished with peg-board on
the top 1/2.
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5. In addition to accepting Visa, MasterCard and American Express, We can now accept
Discover Card. We are shipping parts nationally and to many other Countries around the
world.
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6. Top 100 Muscle Car Sites +++++
Just when we thought the wild ride was over. The Top 100 Muscle Car Sites gets an overhaul
and tune-up and seems to be running well again. We are pleasantly surprised to have been
ranked at #4 for about the last month. We understand that the site is/was for sale and
wish the creator the best of luck.
www.top100musclecarsites.com/scripts/arp/rankem.cgi?id=perform
David's e-mail
David gets HUNDREDS of e-mails each month and tries his best to respond in a timely
manner, but sometimes it takes a few days to research the answer (Do I have a rust free
tail light panel for a '79 Firebird?) and then find time to respond. Remember if all else
fails and it's an emergency give us a call at 817-563-2121. Due to the proliferation of
computer virus we don't open e-mail attachments, unless we are expecting it and know it's
purpose. If you feel you must send an attachment, please call us first so we can make room
on the server. The best way to share images with us would be to FTP them to your personal
web space and include the URL in the e-mail message. Like this:
www.texastransams.com/images/service/recent/70blue_raiii01.jpg
You may have noticed the "Search TexasTransAms.com for" box on the site. It
helps us to tune the site based on what you are looking for. Sorry, no swimsuit pictures.
The two-piece bikini doesn't fit like it did last summer. The following were the most
popular searches for the last 30 days:
# of requests / words searched / # of results
7 '403' 51
5 'weather stripping' 2
4 'headers' 2
4 '1975 trans am' 7
4 '1975' 7
4 'seats' 4
3 '1987Z28' 0
3 'sail panel' 1
3 'hood' 54
3 '1974 Trans Am' 8
3 'ttops' 52
3 'hoods' 2
3 'MUSTANG' 6
3 'black transams' 23
2 '1986 TRANS AM' 2
2 '1971 firebird' 1
2 't-top roof' 1
2 'can am' 0
2 'jeff b' 13
We also use it to learn popular new spellings. Sorry there were no results for
"Camero", "gasgets" or "picturs". The lesson we learned this
month is that this is TEXAS TRANS AM, not Texas Z28. (There goes Jeff B. showing off to
his friends again) Jeff, if you are reading this, you need to bring your '79 TA by the
shop so we can... adjust the muffler bearings or fluter valve, or some such. Heck, we'd
just like to see how the car is holding up after a 1 1/2 years on the road.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery..Chris A's "The unofficial Texas Trans Ams
Website"
www.badasspontiac.com/TTACorral.html
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7. Speaking of "picturs", Gary discovered that some of the original digital
pictures taken at shows and the shop were taking up too much space on his hard drive and
decided to archive them on CD-Rom. Hmmm.. High-resolution digital images of 2nd Gen.
Firebirds, too large to transmit by the Internet, now who would be interested in that? So
we are working on compiling a photomontage of cars, parts and service with full bandwidth
drag racing videos on CD-Rom.
Tee Shirts still coming soon.... and always will be. TexasTransAms.com bumper sticker
version 1.2 is available for $2.00 each, plus shipping and handling or FREE with orders
over $100.00. What's different from the 1.1 versions you ask? The new batch will include
the full white background but with the text "TexasTransAm" pulled together. Some
of the stickers will have a clear background for windows.
www.texastransams.com/images/banner-txta-1-2.gif
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8. At the shop recently...
We shipped 3 '74-'75 splash pans and a pair of '74-'75 spoilers, 2 '77-'78 front spoilers
and a '76 front header panel (upper 1 / 2 nose) and '76 front bumper. Also some seat
covers, front and rear wheel spoilers, some ACC Carpet, a center console and a dashboard
cover.
Todd's blue '78 T/A:: The passenger side quarter panel is finished and now we are working
on the driver's side lower quarter panel and the trunk drop off panel. The re-production
(over seas) drop off panel needed some serious modification to fit correctly but fits good
now.
www.texastransams.com/restoration/todd78ta01.htm
Larry A.'s TA:: The sub frame connectors are being installed now. Once the new bushings
are completed the roll cage will be installed.
Dano's TA:: PAINT! The body shell has been painted with 4 coats of PPG Urethane. In
preparation for the paint the body was primed with self etching primer, High build
Primer/Surfacer, block sanded then shot with "Primer Sealer" to seal the body
work, pores in the Primer/Surfacer. The sealer protects the new paint from reacting with
any previously painted or treated surface.
www.texastransams.com/restoration/dano_79_se_04.htm
The Blue '70 1/2 Ram Air III TA:: The tachometer and clock cluster have arrived from
repair at the original manufacturer.
Larry S.'s '81 TA:: David has now color sanded and buffed the roof and the rest of the
hood.
Black '65 Mustang:: underside has had seam sealer applied, weld-marks fixed and the inside
and underside coated with POR-15.
Your friends at Texas Trans Ams
817-563-2121
david@texastransams.com
transams@flash.net
webmechanic@texastransams.com
"Restoring Old Dreams"
http://www.texastransams.com
http://www.transamterritory.org
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