A bit of an update...
Thanks for the production data, it was helpful and impossible for me to find. the pics from the transam site were great! I actually bought a 77 transam SE from them, and i love the car. As for the hood... I now have two, as i bought a ram air hood (needs a crack repaired but has never been mounted on a car, so its in excellent shape otherwise), and frankly they are vitually identical. The hood i bought separately has the wire mesh inserted/mounted in each of the snorkels, via a slot cut underneath each one and bolted in. The other hood has the same slots, just no wire meshes mounted. Other than the missing mesh I can not tell them apart at all, so I do think I ended up getting 2 ram hoods. Oddly, the hood that came with the car is not in any way attached to it, it is simply put in the proper position, presumably to cover the engine. From what i can tell, the drivers side fender (like the hood, properly positioned but unattached on any way) and the drivers door - an obvious replacement and with just enough bolts in the door hinges to hold it on- were later additions in an attempt to repair a possible accident. it leads me to think the hood is also not the original and was a replacement. Once i got into the trunk (locked, no keys, btw) i found some of the smaller replacement pieces as well that appear to be originals, if not necessarily from this particular car. All in all, I think this was someones accident/project from a long time ago, (last registration sticker on the plate is from 1981) which was simply never got onto.
As for the trunk.. a large rats nest (or squirrel..) really made a mess of things and there was a lot of moisture trapped in that trunk for a long time. the trunk pan is toast, which is a shame since it still had the original liner attached to the bottom of it. it also had a honeycomb spare in the trunk, giving me five of those rims, but the backside of that rim was so corroded i doubt i can save it. I also came across half a container of leaded gas additive... Like I said, it had been a really long time since that trunk had been opened! As a side note, you can remove the back seat of those FBs and with 2 20" extensions reach the trunk lock mounting bolts (7/16ths) via the holes through the back plate , unbolt them and viola, the mechanism will drop down and the trunk lid will open like magic...