1979 Trans Am - Cherry Preserved

Shortly thereafter, Superior Paint and Body, owned by Greg Arnett of Tipp City, Ohio-who had previously repainted his gold '79 Trans Am-found itself with another of Denny's low-mileage cars in its shop. He explained the reception he received, "Jim Emrick, who did the paintwork on my first '79, looked at it and told me, 'I want to do better than I did on the gold one.' I said, 'You're kidding me!'" He went on to say that, "there's a funny story about the gold one. A guy at a show was looking it over....up and down ...all over hard. He finally asked me who had painted it, and I told him. The guy replied, 'You mean you can get paint like that in OHIO?!' That's how good Jim's work was."

What Jim found after pulling the glass, disassembling the major components in order to conduct a proper full repaint, and sanding the paint down to bare metal was every body and paint man's dream. Or any '70s Firebird owner, for that matter. Nice, shiny, unscathed bare metal. No dents, dings, brazed holes, patches or rust. Four coats of R-M DT21 primer with red tint went on and were carefully blocked out, followed by another three coats tinted a slightly darker shade of red and another session of wet-sanding. Then came two more coats, again tinted just a bit darker and a final fine wet-sanding.

Observing the process along the way, Denny noted that he "was able to see the fine gradations in the primer layers as it was being sanded out because of the tinting." Three to four coats of R-M Diamont base custom-matched to the original Code 75 Mayan Red were followed by a further three coats of clear, a wet-sanding, another three coats of clear, more wet-sanding and a buffing. "It came out as flat as glass," Denny says.

Aside from the paint, the T/A's only other defect was its optional power antenna. New-for-'79 in the Firebird line, these telescopic, whirring, grinding protuberances did wonders for reception compared to the fine wires embedded in the windshield that previously acted as signal receptors. But all too often, they quickly ceased to operate, usually while half-deployed. Sure enough, with all of 3,000 miles, this one didn't work. Denny sourced it out to Bob's Power Antenna Service of Parma, Ohio, who restored the broken plastic extension cable back to working condition.

Denny is fortunate to have suitable storage for his collection in Tipp City, which isn't much of a drive from the T/A Nats, held in Dayton. That's also the reason he was able to recall the exact mileage on it now, given that he drove it to the show. His attraction to these cars and their potential accrual of value in the collector's market is only one aspect of his interest. "Part of it, to be honest, is preserving something you don't see that much of anymore. I get a lot of, 'Does this really have 2,900 miles on it?' Then there were the ticked off looks on the faces of those in my class when I pulled in; that's always a good sign," he chuckled. By the way, those "looks" were apparently warranted, as he took home the Best in Class and HPP Editor's Choice that day; the Bird's first show outing in his hands.

Is there a "next" Trans Am on his agenda? "Well, a friend of mine just completed a '69 Trans Am. It's a full rotisserie restoration and has to be worth at least $140,000. He wants me to buy it...we'll have to have a couple of good years at the business for that! Right now, I'm enjoying the heck out of these cars. Hopefully when they hit their peak-maybe in eight or nine years-I'll be able to recoup my money." Canny foresight or wishful thinking? Only time will tell.