John O'Malley
My
story:
I was trying to buy back the 79 TA I had when I was a lot younger and had
located the car in the possession of a used car dealer in Texas. I went to look
at it and found it to be in terrible condition due to the lack of car the new
owner was giving it. To top it off he wanted $8,500 firm for a maybe $3,500 car.
I told him to pound sand, he was dreaming thinking he could get that much. Sooo,
I started a nationwide search for a similar optioned TA I could really fix up
nice in the affordable range 5-10K. I found two sweet deals that I missed
because I could not act fast enough. I then found this car online and it looked
like any old plain Jane hardtop TA. Red nose emblem and center caps, 403 auto,
no A/C, silver dash bezel. It sounded like it was is excellent shape and not
really needing any work. In the provided pictures, I did notice that it had a
gold steering wheel and the dash accessory cutout was gold and it got me
thinking. I know there are a lot of SE clones out there, especially w/o t-tops.
I asked the owner if he had the build sheet. He did, and lo and behold it is a
Y84. I confirmed this with PHS. I flew out to look at the car and unfortunately
it was not in nearly as good of shape as represented, but she has solid bones.
The price was high for what he thought it was. But as an uncommon hardtop SE, I
went ahead and bought it because you don't see many of these. So basically what
I have is a 1979 403 auto SE hardtop that one of the prior owners de-special
editioned when they painted and fixed it up a little. I am in the process of
coming up with a restoration plan to bring her back to full original glory, with
a little modification to the horsepower output.
John's beautiful 1979 Special Edition Trans Am.
