Tenth Anniversary Trans Am

I first heard about this car while on vacation in Maine in the summer of 1999. It had been in storage in a barn close to the Vermont/New Hampshire border since 1994 and the owner was considering selling it as she had moved to Arizona. I stopped in to see it on my way home and found it sitting under a thick layer of dust, a bit bruised up but still a very solid car. It's 1 of 1817 Tenth Anniversary TAs built with the 400 motor and 4 speed transmission in 1979.

I struck a deal with Monica, the owner of the TATA since March of 1986, shown here with the car shortly after she bought it. She kept it out of the snow and rain but had a "little incident" with the parking brake not holding one morning resulting in a bruised tree in her driveway, and the TATA getting an all silver paint job when the nose and hood were repaired.

In October of 1999 I returned with a new battery and some fresh gas, it started right away and I was able to drive it onto my trailer. Saw some great fall colors and joined the other tourists on a bumpy ride across Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York.

At home - with the dust washed off - it actually cleaned up pretty good! Bonus, the car came with it's original paperwork right back to the day it was sold new to Terry A. Pierce of Wenham New Hampshire on June 22, 1979 by Marshall Pontiac on Rte 1 in Saugus MA

In February 2003 another project came along that I just couldn't pass up, a low mileage 1966 Corvair Corsa turbo-charged 4 speed from Texas.

I decided to sell the TATA to a friend in Georgia who had been looking for a car like this to restore, so it left the snow belt for a new home in the deep south.

Once in Georgia, David started on the restoration right away removing all of the front end sheet metal and the power train

2008 Update

Unfortunately not long after that activity ground to a halt due to other priorities and in 2008 I had the opportunity to re-purchase the car - still in many pieces. In early August 08 David moved it back into brother Phil Boylan's shop, cleaned all of the surface rust off the front frame rails, coated them with Zero Rust and then started on the reinstallation of the power train.

On August 20 I headed to GA with a friend John Oostyen and my trailer in tow. When we arrived mid morning of the 21st we had less than a day to do as much work as we could before turning around and heading north with the car. David had rounded up all the parts for me in advance, all new brakes were installed front and back, a new battery acquired and some rear end repairs were made by David (broken lock bolt in pinion cross shaft replaced, plus new axle seal). We attempted to prime the oiling system of the motor but ran into a bit of a problem, after almost an hour of spinning the oil pump with a drill there was still no oil getting to the top end. We pulled the oil filter and no oil getting to it either. We unbolted the motor and raised it high enough to get the oil pan off, removed the oil pump and tested it in a pan full of oil, it produced a geyser when spun. We suspected a blocked oil passage in the motor and John started probing them with a drill bit, sure enough a a Georgia red clay mud dauber had built a dam in the passage way, a few twists of the drill bit and a shot of compressed air and it was gone. We probably lost about three hours by the time we got the motor back in and primed. At this point all of the loose front end parts were loaded into my trailer, along with the car, and David, John and I headed for the Trans Am Nationals in Dayton Ohio - sort of!

For the past 25 years the Trans Am Nationals event has been held annually in Dayton OH. In 1999 John & Tracy Hugentober, Pontiac buffs who live just outside Lebanon and not far from Dayton, invited any Pontiac e-mail list members attending the Nats for a cook out and camp over at their place. It became an annual event with larger crowds every year, and along the way some annual auto related projects were scheduled. For 2008 what better project for the 10th anniversary of H-fest than the re-assembly of a Tenth Anniversary Trans Am! So here's how it went down.....

The car was unloaded, all the parts strewn out on the ground and various people started cleaning up parts or re-assembling the car. These pictures were taken by some of the attendees.

First up was new frame to body bushings, then the rad support and nose piece were installed. Tri-Power Lenny was seen cleaning up the inner fenders before they are re-installed, Dave Sharp in the red t shirt and blue jeans wins the long distance assembler award!!

In John's shop some others were unpacking the new 3" oval exhaust system from Ram Air Restorations. Greg from Dallas, Ken from Waco, Rob from D.C. and Tri-Power Lenny from Cleveland discuss the installation and modify some parts

Gotta throw a big plug in here for Ron Hoffman of Clearcreek Custom and Classic Restorations www.clearcreekrestorations.com John invited Ron to the Pontiac gathering and cook out on Friday night and he was looking the TATA over. Seeing both front fenders were a bit bent up from some off road excursions by the previous owner, he said, "Want me to straighten those up for you and throw a bit of paint on them, I can have them ready for you tomorrow morning?" ..... and he did!!

Saturday morning the car is up on John's hoist for the exhaust installation. Rob Deker was the man on the torch.

Exhaust is finished in about 3 hours and attention goes back to firing the motor for the first time in 5 years. John Oostyen from ON is adding water and then manning the timing light

The motor starts right up, is run and tuned for a bit and then it's back to installing the body panels, it's now about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, the goal was to make the Tipp City cruise which starts at 6:00.......missed it by that much.....but we still celebrated :)

Sunday morning and it's time to load up for the trip back to Ontario - what a crazy 4 days!!! A big thanks to all who dug in and assisted, including Dave Sharp, a Trans Am lover from the United Kingdom who was over with his wife Clare doing the tourist thing, but just couldn't refrain from helping out and getting his hands a little dirty.

A couple of days later it's back home, unloaded and washed up, almost like it never left.

It's now been 15 years since it was last on the road - restoration pictures to follow.

The Restoration Starts

The seats were removed and taken to a local upholstery shop to see about some repairs, the driver seat bottom had come apart at the seams and some of the others were showing signs of wear. It was determined the original leather was getting pretty brittle and would start cracking and tearing with use so new TATA upholstery has been ordered for front and back.

Next up was to remove the original carpet which was pretty badly worn and dirty. Out of the car the bottom of the carpet didn't look too bad, but the underlay was hiding the bad news, and over two dollars in loose change.

The drivers side floor had rusted out from the inside, most likely from moisture under the carpet, the passenger side also had some small rust holes. A trip was in order to Kerr Auto Body in Orillia Ontario, Guy Kerr soon had the rusty parts removed and new floors installed, sealed and covered with epoxy primer. Next up was to wire brush the entire bottom of the car clean and coat the frame rails and suspension with Zero Rust