1974 Pontiac Trans Am - What's The Rush?

His search began through local classified ads. "I spotted a '74 455 T/A for sale and the asking price was only $800." Pontiac only built 4,648 250hp L75 455 D-Port T/As for '74, and all were paired with the Turbo 400 trans.

Ron and Beth took a short trip across town to take a look at it; both were surprised. It was in terrible shape-and Ron absolutely had to have it. Beth wasn't so hot on the idea and thought that it was a disaster. "She was right, but I couldn't leave without the car," he laments. "I offered the seller $750 and then actually drove the T/A home as it blew oil out of the exhaust and had barely enough brakes to stop."

Planning The Restoration
Once the Nixon-era F-body was home, Ron began devising a plan to restore it. "I realized there were certain parts of the car that I couldn't do and would need professional help on," he says. "Everything else I would do myself." His first task was to strip the car down to bare metal and see how much bodywork was needed. Using razor blades, strippers, sanders, and various other equipment, he finished the task. He learned that the doors, fenders, trunk lid, and rear quarters were full of Bondo and the roof was rusted.

With a list of goals established for the T/A, Ron ordered documentation from Pontiac Historic Services and catalogs to help him find the parts he needed. It turned out that his new Trans Am was ordered from Foster Pontiac in Memphis, Tennessee, and wore code-E Admiralty Blue paint with code-901 Custom Red interior. Yes, blue with red interior-not a common pairing by any means-definitely a factory freak.

Excited to restore it back to this rare combination, Ron determined what parts he would need. The poor condition of his T/A came back to bite him, as he calculated the cost. "I was discouraged at how expensive it was turning out to be," he says. "So I decided to limit myself to purchasing a few items a month to help control the cost of the project." He couldn't rush the project if he wanted to at this point.

He ordered parts from Ames, YearOne, Classic Industries, Performance Years, and eBay. This went on for years, and the parts were beginning to pile up. Ron moved the red-gutted Bird and his family to Windermere, Florida, and found a shop to complete the bodywork.

A big boost in motivation came when Ron was scouring a Car Store salvage yard in Clermont, Florida. "I came across another '74 Firebird that was pretty banged up," he says. It had been in an intense wreck that destroyed the front end, but left the roof and rear quarters in perfect condition. Ron had the car cut at the window posts back and trailered the chunk home.

Ron Digs In
Fred Nicholas of Harper's Paint and Body in Orlando, was chosen to put together Frankenstein's monster. The roof panel and quarter-panels of the wrecked Firebird were cut off and welded in place at the seams on the T/A, as if it was done on the assembly line. A new trunk lid, front fenders, passenger door, and driver-side door skin were installed, and Fred began to body work the remainder of the shell.