I purchased this 80 TA in the summer of 1995 originally as a body donor to swap everything off of my 78 Trans Am running a 455 into due to the fact that my 78 was very rusty. I found the car on the back of a used car lot in my home town that was covered in black primer but had a rust free and wreck free body. As I started talking to the salesman, I could tell he thought this would be an easy sale just because I was a young kid in high school. (I was 17 at the time and graduated in 1996 from high school) As I was listening to him talk about how the tires can leave two black marks, I was looking hard at the body. Long story short,, after the test drive he realized that I knew a thing or two about these cars and actually more than himself. I bought the 80 TA for 600.00 cash with a "cracked block", "slipping transmision", and a rough interior, but a great body.

When I got the car home, the "cracked block" turned out to be a leaking heater core as we had expected due to the antifreeze in the floor. The "slipping transmision" was only a vacume hose that had come off of the modulator. I changed out the heater core and hooked up the vacume line and drove the car with no problems at all!! I also ran all of the numbers and sent off for a Pontiac Historic Services packet to find that my 600.00 car was a real 80 Turbo SE TA. the 301 turbo motor was long gone and the car had a 76 400 swapped in at some point.

During the winter of 95-96, I sold my 78 TA to my brother who was turning 16 in that Feb. of 96. I used the money to buy all kinds of new stuff for my 80 and since my dad has always been a brick mason.. I helped him do a little work for a house painter that painted cars of his own on the side. I tried to do some prep work on the body, and he in turn painted the car for free.. It came out very good considering it had been in primer and was basically a job done for an afternoon of physical labor. I did the headliner myself and dyed all of the plastic back to original camel tan, and ordered a hood bird and decal kit from year one. I also ordered a lot from classic industries and Ames. I stripped the interior to nothing and cleaned a completely rust free floor!! After cleaning the floor, I used rubbeized undercoating on all of the metal inside the car. It took a long time to dry but I felt it would help from any water or such, that made its way to the floor. I also had someone do my seats for me.

Once I got the car back from the painter, I installed new carpet, sill plates, headliner, refinished plastic trim, and lots of other new small items. I also installed all of my decals and pinstripped my car using rolls of pinstripe tape. I found some turbo wheels form 2 local salvage yards and refinished the wheels.

Basically this is how I owned the car ever since. After school, I got a job doing auto upholstery work at Turley Auto Upholstery. Starting in about 2001 I decided to start buying the needed items for a correct restoration. I have sincelocated and purchased the original Camel Tan Hobnail upholstery for the seats and also the Crushed Lombardy trim out. I also plan on doing a top to bottom paint job, and buy the correct hood bird. ( the style used is correct for 81 only. Mine for an 80 model should have multi colored gold wing tips) I am currently driving this car as a daily driver and am concentrating on my 77 as it is my favorite year.