Topic: 78 TA required options

[78ta]

I have a 78ta that does not have the hood bird. I am thinking of adding it so I've been looking around trying to find out what it should look like for a Chesterfield Brown car.(Colors etc) I came across this auction for a brown 78 trans am.  I'm a little confused about a few things after looking at this car.
1. Is the hood bird correct? I thought the bird was supposed to face the driver's side in 78. Plus, I don't think the whole design of the bird is correct. Looks like a 79 to me.
2. No wheel flares? Are wheels flares an option on every car or should they be on every TA?
3. This one has a decal Bird on the exterior sail panel. Mine is a standard TA and has the small metal bird there. I thought only SE's got the decal.
4. Tail light trim is painted brown. Not correct. Right? Mine are black and believed to be original.
5. Interior has the hand grab on the dash and appears to have deluxe cloth interior. I suppose you could order deluxe int on any car?
I'm not bashing this car. Just trying to figure out what mine should have. Again, mainly trying to figure out what the hood bird should look like for my 78 Chesterfield Brown TA.
Any input is very much appreciated.
Here's the link. Sorry, I forgort to paste this in originally.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1978-Pontiac-Trans-Am_W0QQitemZ280215912196QQcmdZViewItem
Thanks,
Randy

[brian c]

Umm link to the auction you're looking at??

[Joker (§ir£Ðragon)]

You are right about most of that. Is it a gold bird? He might have the decals like the Solar Gold cars had in '78 which were the same style that carried over to all '79s. That would also explain the sail panel birds. I believe the most common color decals used on brown cars were the ones like mine had. And yes, it should have flairs and black tail light bezels.

As for the interior, any Trans Am could be ordered with the Deluxe interior.

[Hitman]

I think the auction you are talking about is this one: 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Pontiac-Trans-Am-1978-Pontiac-Trans-Am_W0QQitemZ280215912196QQihZ018QQcategoryZ6427QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

1. Yes, he has a 1979 hood bird on there which is not right
2. Yes, wheel flares were standard equipment on all Trans Ams
3. Yes, in 1978 only the SE Trans Ams got the decal, but in 1979 and later, they all got decals (6" birds for SE TA's and 3" birds for non-SE) so this 78 should have the emblems.  But since he has the 79 bird on there, he put the 79 sail panel birds on as well which is not correct.
4. Yes, early on in 1978 they started painting the tail light lenses black.  For 1977 and very early 1978, they were painted the body color.
5. Yes, you could get deluxe interior not only on any Trans Am, but also any Formula, Esprit, or Firebird.

Now, for non-Black cars in 1978, you should use the black/gold/clear hood bird.  The outside of the wings should be clear to allow the brown color of the car to show through.  Kinda like this red one:



I can get a better photo if you need it.

[78ta]

Yeah, Sorry about not pasting the link in. I added it to the oringal post.
Yes Brett, that's the one. Thanks for the info. Wow, 5 yesses. I feel like I just passed my first TA101 midterm test.
I'm curious Brett, the pic of the bird on the red car shows red through the decal in the centers of the outer feathers where the same area on the decal SIRDRAGON posted is black. Which is correct for a Brown 78 TA?

[Hitman]

Well, the ones with the black in the wings like shown on the brown car is usually only used on black cars.  The one above showed on the red car should be the one used on your brown car.  I can look through my photos to find it if you need me to.

[78ta]

Ok, I'm looking at a Year One catalog and they're saying that the colors in the bird are orange, gold, clear with clear outline for red, yellow and brown cars. I can't tell if the bird on the red car above has orange. Of coarse, the picture they have in the YO catalog (Yellow spined 1st edition 2006) under "1978 Models" on page 352 looks like a 79 hood bird.   
Wait a miinute, I just looked up at the top right corner of my computer screen and saw Brian's (Gold78Spc's) featured car and it has the same bird YO shows for 78. That is a completely different style bird than the hood bird on the red car above in this thread. Is the bird that much different for a standard TA and an SE TA in 78? The pic in the YO catalog is of a gold car so it could be an SE.
If anyone has a pic of a 78 brown TA with the known correct hood bird, I would really appreciate it if you could post a pic of the bird. That may save a lot of time over trying to describe it with words. Given they're cost, I'd like to make sure I'm ordering the right one.

 

[Joker (§ir£Ðragon)]

I did some searching in pictures I have collected over the years and found this one.



Now the thing about the one I posted earlier is that that was my old car and as far as I ever knew it was the original paint and everything. (Showed all the signs of it's age and wasn't even that old yet.) But this one is the same bird as the red one Brett posted.   The main outline of the wings is of course the gold color and then the line around the clear cutouts is the orange that you see listed at Year One.

The other (newer) style you are seeing pics of on the gold cars was used only for the gold cars in '78. That became the style used on all Trans Ams the following year.

[78ta]

Thank you very much Sir,
I restored a 70 442 in 98-2001 and even though I have only been into the collector car hobby since 98, I've learned not to dismiss out of hand as correct or incorrect something that someone said came from the factory a certain way. I know silly things went on back then. Probably not a lot different on the factory lines today. My neighbor works at F*&d and he said that they supposedly loose $7,000 per minute when the line stops. So they do whatever they have to do to keep it moving. I'm sure, back in the day, that could have meant slapping a slightly different decal on if they were out of the right one. It could have also been built on a Monday.....

I did notice that the head of the bird on the first brown car you posted was a lot higher or closer to the shaker than either the one on the red car or the second brown car you posted. 
I'm just wondering if there's a spec for how far the tail feathers are supposed to be from the front edge of the hood. I think I've seen specs for other decals/lettering on the TA's.

[Joker (§ir£Ðragon)]

There actually is a spec sheet. Brett has it here on the site. (You'll need Adobe reader to view it.) http://www.78ta.com/HTMLobj-16387/DecalPlacement7378.pdf

I never noticed that about my old hood bird. Good eye. My stepson mentioned last night that maybe the car was a hood bird delete and had that one added early in it's life. Or maybe it was added at the dealer for a customer who liked the car but wanted a bird and they used whatever they had that looked good. Either would explain it. Not sure really. I bought the car for a few hundred buck when I was younger than he was (teens) and lost it over a decade ago. So a lot was overlooked back then due to ignorance and more has been lost to age.

[Rick]

So a lot was overlooked back then due to ignorance and more has been lost to age.

Ewwww, Larry -- let's not bring your personal health into this...

[Sir english firebird]

The mind boggles...........

do you have any pictures?........ 

[78ta]

Thanks for the link to the specs. I thought I'd been all over this site. Guess not.
I don't think you can spend all the time and energy it takes to restore a car and not sweat the details. But picking out little details like the placement of that bird can be a curse too. It's not that it is that big a deal. 99% of people would never notice it. I'm just a black and white kind of person. If it's not right, it's wrong. Right?  My wife calls me a prefectionist and says that sometimes I just need to let some things go. I'm trying......
Thanks again,

[Rick]

My wife calls me a prefectionist and says that sometimes I just need to let some things go. I'm trying......

Mine calls me OCD.  I tell her it takes one to know one.  Seriously, there's a fine line between sweating the details and becoming obsessed -- good luck!  Resistance is futile...