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6.6 liter vs 6.6 t/a
flashno1:
I quoted John wrong, he said there was no part number for the 6.6 liter decal, not the TA 6.6 decal which I assume could be ordered. The reason I said that it had be added by the first owner of my TA or by the dealer or by the factory, is that it shows as much wear as the original gold chicken on the hood. I don't know how Norwood or Van Nuys handled their decals. But I know how PMD assembly in Pontiac handled it. The last thing installed on the car was the decals. The car was transferred from Plant 8, the assembly plant to Plant 16, the finishing plant to have the decals installed. It made me sick one day when I saw them dump a load of Trans Am decals in the dumpster when they were cleaning out Plant 12, the maintenance/repair plant. Things happen, guys.
Burd Turd:
I bought my Y88 in November of 1979, it has the L-78 motor, and had the 6.6 liter decal, I have 2 pics of the car when I got it but the angle of the shot, you can't see the shaker. when did that decal come out, 1979? There was nothing in the trunk, (spare, jack, inflator) so I find it hard to believe they stuck a decal on it to sell, when there was stuff missing, You know these dealers, they don't spend a dime until you make them, I remember the 8 track had to be fixed too. Thats one reason I dont do those types of shows anymore, some guy set up in some parking lot and thinks he's at Pebble Beach telling me my car is not correct. ::)
dblhh:
Back in July of 1978 I bought a new Martinique blue 78 T/A with t-tops that had just arrived at the dealership. I did not know anything at the time about there being two different Pontiac engines. My T/A did not have any decals on the shaker and the engine had blue painted valve covers. About the same time, another guy in town bought a new Martinique blue 78 T/A with t-tops and his shaker had the T/A 6.6 decals. I never saw under his hood but I do know his T/A had more power than mine. Several years later I discovered there were two Pontiac engines and my T/A had the L78 and his had the W72.
flashno1:
I would be interested Dblhh, where was your bird assembled back in 1978? And was there a Firebird Decal on your hood? Many owners of original TA L78's report that they had the TA 6.6 on their shaker when they bought the car. My thought is that one plant may have put those decals on both L78s and W78s. The build sheet has no info about decals on the shaker, but the hood emblem and SE codes are listed on the build sheet. The shaker code is WX3 for all Trans Ams, and the FB HOOD EMBLEM is build code WW7 and the SE codes are Y88, Y84, and Y82. Actually W72 was listed as an Performance Package not an engine code. L78 was the engine code for all Pontiac 400 cubic inch engines. L80 for the 403 Olds engine. It makes sense to me that the shaker was not shipped with the engines from Plant 9 in Pontiac, MI. I never saw any 400s shipped that way. Besides how did we know at Pontiac what color car they would be installed in. The assembly plant had to keep track and figure that out. They used the build sheet to assemble the car, but no info that I can see would help out the poor line worker that installed the decal on the shaker. From my many years working the factory floor, there were large turnovers of workers on the final assembly line. I worked the assembly line for a day and did a fine job until my hand got banged hard on an engine head, and after that I didn't do so good on that line. I hope they caught all my mistakes until I could be relieved to go to first aid. This little scenario has played out many times over the years by many workers. Was the TA 6.6 shaker decal simply a assembly line worker mistake or a corporate intention? I think both would be valid to the final owner in determining originality.
John Witzke:
My intention was never to tell anyone off. I was simply stating the correct application for shaker decals. I am sure there were new 1974 Trans Am with the 400 cid engine get SD-455 decals in place of the 400 decal and vice-versa.
But you do bring up a very interesting point. With all of these assembly line mistakes and the apparent poor quality control standards, it is no wonder that that foreign cars have dominated sales in many US markets. And that two of the big three nearly went broke.
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