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   Texas Trans Am Service & Restoration Newsletter
     "Specializing in Service and Restoration of
         Second Generation Pontiac Firebirds"
             + + www.TexasTransAms.com + +
             + + www.TexasTAMuffler.com + +
          "Not the guy that married Brittney"
    + + Proud Sponsor of www.PontiacChick.com + +
+ + Reluctant Sponsor of www.TransAmTerritory.org  + +
               Episode 15 - February 2004
 
In this Issue
1a. e-mail from Michael C.
1b. Visiting our friends at the Dallas Autorama
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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Correction from January newsletter, that was our 14th semi monthly newsletter, not our 13th.
 
1a. We worked hard for weeks to write an amusing, entertaining and informative article for this edition, but we liked Michael's email better.
 
"Mr. David Mars,
  You're reconditioning some of the most awesome cars ever made, and your workmanship looks completely incredible.  The black 1979 T/A is the finest example that I have ever seen of one of my top five favorite cars, and I never realized how excellent the curvier '76 would look painted silver. (far beyond wicked, man)  To have these displayed on one of the most nicely-executed of websites is more than one could hope for.
Good luck with your business.  I hope that what only appears to be unbridled skill and relentless devotion is rewarded with continued success.  I strongly look forward to ... do business with you in the future, for sub-assemblies, parts, and guidance if not for a complete, nicer-than-new Trans Am. 
Thank You, Michael C."
 
1b. Recently David and I (newsletter editor/webmechanic) took a field trip to the Dallas Autorama.  We saw our friend and parts customer Lee Green showing his beautifully restored Dark Brown Metallic 1979 Trans Am.  Even though H.P.P. magazine listed this Trans Am preservationist as Lee "Brown", we've known him and his Olds powered 14 second street driver for years.  We also saw the 2002 Convertible Trans Am WS6 that belongs to our "Pontiac Chick" friend Harmony.
It makes us proud to see friends showing off their Pontiacs.
 
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2. "The Privileges of Membership"
Welcome to new members firebird32507, leede3, bballeric who joined on the same day #421, 422 and 423, the 25 new members from Jan and the 18 new members that have joined so far this month.
 
Newsletter subscribers get first notice on rare parts and new project cars.
 
- NEW OFFERING :: 1980 Formula originally White.  Straight body, no visible rust, amateur restoration started Needs engine and transmission.
 
- NEW OFFERING :: 1981 Trans Am originally Silver, in primer now. 301 T/A 4.9 (non turbo) Car is intact, including overflow bottle, brackets etc..
 
- NEW OFFERING :: 1983 Black Trans Am Ref.# 83bla305ta68 - T-top car.  Engine missing some parts (push rods).
 
- NEW OFFERING :: 1984 'Brown Trans Am  Ref # 84brn305ta67 - New motor and transmission.  True air-induction.  T-top car.  Wiring harness problem, causes it not to run.  Replacement wiring harness included.
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/84brn305ta67.htm
 
- NEW OFFERING :: 1979 White 403 Trans Am with gold decals and Camel interior.  Great dash board, no visible rust!  Power windows and door locks.  Strong Olds 403 with headers and dual exhaust.  Runs and drives!  Transmission was serviced recently and carries a service warranty.  Call David about adoption.  79white403ta80
 
-  1979 Y84 Black Special Edition runs and drives, 403 automatic.
Canadian car: Speedometer reads Kilometers Per Hour and no Air Conditioning.  79bla403ta015
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/79bla403ta015.htm
 
- 1980 Brown Formula Runs and drives great, Fisher T-Tops, 15 x 7 Snowflake wheels.  Pontiac 301 engine with 4-barrel carburetor, Under 100,000 original miles, Paint and decals available
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/80pr301fo10.htm
 
- 1979 Black Trans Am with a '78 nose.  403 Automatic.
It has some rust spots in floor, decent quarter panels.
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/79bla403ta013.htm
 
- 1979 Blue Trans Am with Hurst T-Tops - No Engine
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/79blu000ta014.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.  "Two Lane Blacktop 2004"?  The snorkel and paint job alone is worth an extra 100 HP, even without an engine. 
http://www.texastransams.com/projects/77bla000fb58.htm
 
If you are interested in one of these great project cars, call David at 817-563-2121
 
NEW PARTS CARS
'79 black Trans Am runs and drives (in reverse only) parts or project, ripped quarter panel. Offering all or part.
'77 red T/A parts car 400, automatic transmission, all but carburetor and hood shaker.
'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.
 
The previous newsletter can be found in the articles and news section, but only upon the sporadic mailing of the following edition.  As a subscriber, you get the cars, parts and "scoop" 4 weeks (approximately) before anyone else.
http://www.texastransams.com/articles/2004january_newsletter.htm
 
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3. New, re-production, and discontinued parts
 
Headliner Material. 
David is working with a local textile supply manufacturer to reproduce the correct shade of perforated vinyl foam backed headliner material for the camel interior.  We are using an original headliner from a 44,000 mile original Y88 as the pattern for the color, gain pattern.  We currently have an accurate black reproduction perforated vinyl foam backed headliner material.  We can also provide a reproduction red (for the Carmine interior), medium dark blue, medium dark brown and white.
 
New case of repro Exhaust tips just arrived.  2 1/4 pipe.
 
2 NOS Honeycomb Wheels
 
We told you about our growing relationship with Ram Air Restoration Enterprises, Inc. the makers of the Ram Air style factory headers.  Well, they already sold out of our first big shipment and have ordered a pallet load of Texas T/A Mufflers.
Our plan is to cross sell and cross promote our TexasTAMufflers with their reproduction exhaust manifolds, X-Pipe and full mandrel bend pipe system for second generation Firebirds.
 
Muffler Quote (posted on another vendor's site)
"Hello, I own a set of the Texas TA brand on my 79 TA. They are fantastic. Very low profile, a thicker gauge steel, and have a great older sound to them. Here's the link:
bandit_fred from: Horsham, PA 
 
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4. Show Room
Insulation and the bathroom vanity are being installed and working on the "Firebird Betty" break-room
Directions and map to the Texas Trans Am shop / showroom available here:
 
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5. Secure on-line ordering: 
http://www.TexasTAMufflers.com
http://www.PontiacChick.com
More secure ordering coming soon on the Parts and Stuff page.
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"
Still tied for #1.
 
David's e-mail:
We fired AOL, so please address emails to david@texastransams.com.
David gets several requests a month like this one.
"Can you recommend a restoration shop near where I live?"
Answer: Yes, Texas Trans Am Service and Restoration.  You see there is a house for sale in Fort Worth, and if you move in to it then you can come visit us during your car's restoration.  But come to think of it Alex from Ohio, Dano from South Carolina and Tom from Colorado and soon Brian from Arizona and Roger
from SC felt we were near enough to restore their cars. 
 
Site Search from "WhatUSeek.com". 
What are visitors searching for on TexasTransAms.com?  Site Search helps us to tune the site based on what you are looking for.  The following were the most popular searches for the last 30 days:
 
Count, Search Phrase, # Results
 8 'mustang' 15
 6 'fenders' 19
 6 'Body parts' 107
 5 'motors' 17
 4 '1977 pictures' 10
 4 'trans am' 134
 4 'wheels' 100
 4 'hood' 104
 4 '1974' 15
 4 'air cleaner snorkel' 3
 4 '85 trans am' 6
 4 '1979 hoods' 43
 4 'camaros' 2
 4 'firebird' 46
 3 'floor pans' 17
 3 '1970 trans am' 12
 3 '1978 cars' 29
 3 '78 trans am' 24
 3 'camaro' 12
 
We also use Site Search results to learn popular new spellings like 'engins' or 'poniac' (engines, Pontiac?  Paul, is that you?).  Sorry there were no results for '1984ta' but we do have a Brown 1984 Trans Am (in primer)  84brn305ta67,  and a Black 1983 Trans Am  83bla305ta68 see projects above. 
Also no results for 'steering colum', '1976 air cleaner housing', 'windowchaneling' or 'tach' all of which we can help you get for your 1970 through 1981 Firebird.  e-mail us at david@texastransams.com or call us at 817-563-2121. 
 
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7. Shirts and Stuff
Coming soon Black T-shirs:
 
Baseball Caps available
http://www.texastransams.com/images/stuff/txta_se_cap.jpg
 
PontiacChick.com tank tops with the firebird logo. 
We have one Child's Large (Women's Xtra Small) left.
New heather gray PontiacChick spaghetti strap t-shirt with red piping, coming soon a Baby Doll T with red cap sleeves.
 
Attention - CAR WOMEN
We would love to have more articles from our female readers about why the love their Pontiacs old and new, even restoration, modification and racing stories.  Please post related notes in the Message/Forum section of PontiacChick.com:
http://www.pontiacchick.com
Send picture attachments to webmaster@pontiacchick.com
 
TexasTransAms.com bumper sticker version 1.3 is in stock and available for $2.00 each, plus shipping and handling.  They will be available with full white background.
http://www.texastransams.com/images/banner-txta-1-2.gif
Also available TexasTAMufflers.com sticker version 1.
 
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8. At the Shop Recently ...
 
Shipped Recently: several t-shirts, headlight bezels, exhaust tips, cowl, dash cover, radiator support braces for '73, windshield a-pillars, '76 shaker scoop, power steering pump, 7 inch and 8 inch refinished snowflake wheels.
Installed the Gold decals on a '79 Metalic Blue T/A.  This combination with the Camel interior looks killer.  Working on installing the aluminum channel side molding on it. 
 
We enjoyed our recent visits with Erle H. from Bozeman, Montana and Matt H. from St. Joseph, Missouri.  Matt drove over 600 miles to get some parts for his '75 Formula, and Erle drove 1,577 miles to get parts for his 1981 Trans Am.  That's the kink of enthusiasm we love to see!
 
'67 Camaro Un-Tubbed - Almost finished. 
The rear floor pans, which were removed for the previous tubs have been replaced and the axle is bolted up under the car.  We measured from the front of the brake drum to the inner fender well and both sides came out to 10 inches.  The weld seams of the floor pan have been ground flush and painted with primer.
 
Dano's '79 T/A Special Edition TA - Progress is about to start back up, now that Larry's car is delivered.
 
Alex M's 1979 Formula 400/4 Speed - In the shop!  The dash has been removed to begin the body work. First the body shell will be soda blasted to remove the paint and expose any yet unseen rust.   We understand that Alex is on his way down in "Ruby the Deer Slayer" loaded with parts.
 
 
Thanks for reading!