Part 2 - How Did I Miss That?

As my son and I drove the newly purchased 1978 Trans Am home on that cold December night I turned on the heater and the blower motor, nothing happened. We froze all the way home.

The next day I decided to check out why the heater and blower did not work. As I looked up under the dashboard to check fuses and look around, I noticed that ALL THE HEATER AND AIR CONDITIONING DUCTING WAS MISSING! How did I miss that? I'll tell you how, I was too busy walking down memory lane to pay close enough attention to the small details.

Upon further investigation in the service manual, I discovered that there were seven different pieces of ducting missing. It took me a month and several hundred dollars to find all the missing ducting on Ebay as well as a new blower motor and heater core.

My partially disassembled instrument panel revealing missing ductwork behind

I looked under the hood more carefully and noticed that THERE ARE NO HEATER HOSES! It needs a new heater core and hoses. If you look closely on the left side in the photo below, you can see one heater core tube exposed without a hose connected. I also noticed that the air conditioning compressor pulley bearing is very rough and needs to be replaced. The radiator is missing its overflow tank. Changing the heater core on this car was a nightmare and it took me two days to complete the job.

The "Before" photo of my engine compartment 

I manually connected power to the blower motor, IT DID NOT WORK! it needed a new blower motor.

The turn signals were not flashing at the correct frequency and then I noticed that one of the front turn signal lamps was missing. The wiring for the entire front light harness looked like a rats nest with cut and spliced wires, loose grounds, and wires that were too short to reach the light sockets they were connected to, it was a mess. There are four different brands of headlights on this car! Three are halogen and one is incandescent!

I took the Trans Am to a favorite local Muffler shop to have the exhaust leak fixed. It turned out to be warped exhaust manifolds and a broken off bolt in the cylinder head. The exhaust manifolds had to be removed, sent to a machine shop to be milled flat and then reinstalled. $630.00 later the exhaust leaks were silenced.

Next I was off to the DMV to license the car. As it turns out, the car is old enough (35 years old) to qualify for special Vintage Vehicle license plates. $700.00 later for sales tax and vehicle licensing, I had legal license plates and could drive it to my shop at work to put it on a hoist and see what else it needs to be restored back to like new.

My Vintage License Plate

After putting the car on the hoist, I discovered that it had been wrecked and repaired at one time on the left side. The left front fender used to be red, the driver's door did not shut properly, the left rear quarter panel had been replaced too. The rear bolt of the front sub frame was bent back on an angle like the sub frame had been pushed back about a half inch. the body to subframe alignment holes were not aligned.

I could see where there are dozens of missing bolts, screws, brackets, and small items under the hood, under the car, and in the interior; the front bumper was held on with ONE bolt. It will take a long time to try to find all the missing parts. Once again, I am glad for ebay and other online firebird parts suppliers because there is no way (with my muscle condition) that I can go to salvage yards any more to look for and pick the parts I need for my car. I have to pay a little more on ebay, but they come delivered right to my front door.

I also figured out how to read the cowl body identification tag. It turns out that the car is supposed to be painted black, but it is supposed to have a black interior, not tan. Upon further inspection, I could tell where someone has painted the black interior panels tan. The carpet, headliner, and seat covers have been replaced with tan parts.

My Fisher Body Cowl Tag

My Body by Fisher Cowl Tag:

78 2FS87 L 283105

19N1 A51W19LW19U

07C 8 3 - 147565

Body by Fisher Cowl Tag Interpretation:

78 = 1978 model year

2 = Pontiac

F = Firebird

S = Firebird or Trans Am

87 = Body Style

L = Van Nuys California Assembly Plant

283105 = Fisher Body Unit Number

19N1 = Interior Trim Code = Black Vinyl

A51 = Modular Seating (bucket Seats)

W19L = Lower body paint code "Starlight Black"

W19U = Upper body paint code  "Starlight Black"

07C = July 1978 third week build date July 19, 1978

8 = ?

3 = ?

147565 = Fisher body time/date code

The rest of the body was in beautiful shape with no signs of rust. The engine is the Oldsmobile 403 with the California Emissions package. 1978 was the second year of the phase out of the Pontiac motors because of the emissions laws and fuel economy laws enacted in the mid-1970s. The car seems to be all original and has not been modified for street rodding like so many of these cars ended up. So I guess that is good news