under construction....... soon to have pics of my 77 resto. This page is owned and created by Michael Russell, and is part of the web site "1980 TURBO TRANS AM SE".

I purchased my 77 TA in 1997 from a freind of the family that had drove the car to the ground.. Once a nice driver, it started knocking and the owner decided to take off the valve cover to check things out and it remained that way untill I bought it. The problem with this kind of work was that it sat outside and every time it rained it ran water off of the shacker scoop and directly into the left cylinder head. When I pulled the original motor out, I drained 4 gallons of water and about a gallon of oil that filled my five gallon bucket!!

Once the car was parked it just got worse,, although the TA was outside, it was about 3 feet off of the ground on blocks with a decent body. That all changed when the owner's son was using the side door windows for B.B. gun practice... He said it was an accident (yeah right). Now that would not be too bad a deal if a new door glass had been installed but instead, it braved the elements for too many years untill the floor just gave up the fight. You can basically cal the old 77 a Flinstone car now because 3 out of 4 floor boards are rotted to the point of non existing.

The 1977 TA is still special to me though I guess because it is my favorite year and since I want to do the car the way I want it... I dont mind having to change out everything anyway. The 77 is all original as of current times. It came new as a factory 4-speed car with the 400 engine and no T-tops. The original color is brown with a deluxe saddle interior and no powere windows or locks. It does have A/C and power steering and brakes, but that is about it.

My plan for this car is a custom yet still original look to the untrained eyes. Basically the car will be painted Goldenrod Yellow with Special Editionj stripes in either gold or more than likely, black. The hood bird will be the SE style from 76-78 and TA callouts will be probably not be German style but will still be SE gold,,, such as 79 style. The interior will be black with very little accents. The seats are allready done and are the 77 deluxe style horsecollor seats. They are black vinyl with yellow stitching. The headliner is also custom and black with a bird inset into the headliner board. Did I mention I do Auto Upholstery for a living??:)

I will post some pics as time allows.