hi everybody this is my first post on here and i have lots of questions. I have a 1990 firebird v6 3.1L. it is 45 of 600 bandit II done bye chatanooga custom center. my first question is how rare is this car? second is does chatanooga custom center still exist third is i live in the adirondack mountains of new york and i would like to know a good place to take this car for body work. forth is i was thinking of makeing this car a bit of a sleeper. people would see the 3.1L on the shaker and think that they could smoke me but i was wondering if adding ; super charger, better exhaust system etc... would be harmful to the car since it is 17 years old and/or if that would lower the value of the car thanks

is it that nobody knows anything about this car or no body cares

I only just heard of those the other day on another thread...Smokey & the Bandit 3rd Gen. They might be around but most of those types of shops crapped out during the '89-'94 recession and more closed when the Fourth Gens died.
-
Do you have any pics of yours? If so post 'em I think a lot of other folks would love to see your car here.
-
This is the one from Smokey & the Bandit III

I remember this car. Like the Pro/Am and Pro/Am II, the Bandit II was just a conversion companies body kit. They also did Wildside S-10s, there is the RST by Regency on newer Silverados and even Zimmer did some Blazers/S10s back in the day. They are rare and IMO keepsakes. But they arent high watermark collector cars like a 89 Turbo TA or a 92 Firehawk. A lover of that particular car would give more interest in it than most everyone else. Its cool you have one. Good you know the number. They were called Choo Choo Customs from Chattanooga Tenn. I dont think they are still in business. The mostly did conversion vans. Here is some Camaro stuff they did http://www.chevyworld.net/choochoocustoms.htm Also was the 86 SS Elky by them. If they are still in business here is the only info I could find on them. No web site apparently . Choo Choo, Customs
7801 Lee Hwy.
Chattanooga, TN 37421
tel: (615) 899-5382
fax: (615) 899-5611

i do have photos of the car it deffinatley needs some work. what the damage to the paint job was caused by was the preivious owner didnt garage this car for the winter one year and the tarp he was useing to cover it froze to it and ripped off the paint.

im going to try to put some pics on in a minute but i dont know if u have to use photo bucket here

Looks pretty good to me.


Congrats!

why thank you

If you think that is bad paint, i'm glad you havn't seen my car!

I think it looks pretty cool to. cool mod's on it.

see those are the pics that the previous owner took for his add. the paint damage is in the back and it aint pretty
----------
it also needs a new screaming chicken

It looks pretty dang good. It started as a Base Firebird with the Y84 (I believe it was) appearance pkg. TransAm front and rear bumpers with the side GFX. They added the wheels stickers and scoop. Ive seen one but it was the older year model. The hood bird looks like just a 1980 or 1981 year style. PheonixGraphics reproduces them and is GM liscensed for authentic detail of the originals. The botton stripes look pretty basic 2 pinstripe design. The only thing that would ever be hard to find is the door decals and hood shaker decals. Wheels look like Western wheel brand they had back then. Hard to tell though. I like it myself

Wicked cool! Is that shaker real or is it a bolt on part? If it is real, I'd love to make a template of it for a future project. I've got my eye on a Black n Gold 1984 T/A, L69, 5spd, hardtop, w/3:73's, non-SE. It's got a nice body, bad paint, and a trashed interior. I'm thinkin I might be able to score it for under $500. That's an idea I toy'd with if I bought it. Thanks for the pics!

I believe the saker is real but since it a v6 it not being used, i will check as soon as it day light again. but back to my original four questions does anybody have a good body shop in the northern part of new york.

shakers fake
----------
does anyboady have any input on my other questions as too rarety and possible damage/lowering of the value from modifications

does anynody know where i can get to rims that are the same as the ones on the car. the two front rims holes have become oval so at about 50 the car vibrates.

I was thinking the same thing.....

rims anybody or rim repair

Tank: are they 15" or 16"? They look a little like the GTA rims, but obviously not. I've seen these at several swap meets but with a multi-lug pattern. If you can't find them, you should put 'em away, safe somewhere. Then spend the $200 - $300 bucks on a nice set of GTA rims which look similar, but much nicer!
-
Here's an idea! Pull off one of those rims and see if there's any manufacturer's name or info stamped into them. Usually it is somewhere. Then use that to source 'em if you can.
-
I don't know how much they charge for repairing them, but it might cost the same as the GTA's. Also, Making them round again might not be possible without weakening them. The metal can only get stressed so much. I once saw the end results of a Corvette rim that was "repaired". It broke up on the guy and the front pass side was a big mess, fiberglass all over the place! My cousin and I loaned him a spare tire. That was en-route to the Super Chevy Show @ New England Dragway about 7 years ago.
-
I'll print off a pic of your rims. If I run across them at a swap meet or boneyard, I'll buy 'em if I've got the $$ OR get the sellers info for you. I don't live that far from you so I could run 'em up to you and I'm not a money grubber, so you'll just have to pay what I paid.

sorry about the lagtime on replying but my computer works on its own terms if its works at all.

Brother AI: the rims are 15" theres no manufacture info on them. in an earlyer post i accidentaly ommited the word bolt so it is only the boltholes in the rims that have become oval. i found a place that does repair that but im going to get a estamte be for so i can see if it would just be better to get GTA's.

there is only on real difference between these rims and the GTA's and its kinda funny to describe but they're concave starting at the outside and dipping in to the middle. maybe choo choo custom was the only one to do that.

everybody: I still would be grateful for any other input or sugestion includeing (but not limmited to) the first four questions (make that three choo choo customs is almost positvely gone) I posted.

oh! and I found some more pictures of the car after banging my head off the computer screen during the time i wasnt on here.

any opions at all pertaining to the forth question

I think this discussion is better suited for the History/Restoration forum than Tech.

She is a beauty and congrats on her and welcome to TGO.

On the wheels the suggestion of storing the originals is a good one.You could upgrade to the GTA 16" wheels and keep similar appearance.Or since they are 15" you could use a set of 15X8 snowflakes used on the 2nd Gen black & Gold S/E.But the GTA rims would probably be less expensive.

Visually I would keep her as she is and if you do any modifications make sure to keep the old parts.And i wouldn't do anything that couldn't be easily undone.

One of the guys on my baseball teams dad has one of these his is red, as far as moding it lowering the value, do what you want, I personally would rather have fun with the car, I mean thats what their for right? now you have to define your idea of fun, whether thats restoring the car to factory and showing it, or modding it and going mustang hunting, its your choice, if the car is really nice under the hood (good paint and unbutchered) and has low miles then I would restore it to original, I dont see these cars as really valuable, but it would make an interesting (and rare) showpiece and would probably draw a crowd at shows

1 of 600 huh I wonder how many have been wrecked or parted out?

Have fun with the 'bird decal! I put an OEM on a buddies 2nd gen car years ago (vinyl graphics are nothing new to new), but halfway through, he remarks...."It cost me about $400.

"OK....Thanks!"

As if I didn't want it to be good to begin with....That comment really helped matters!

as far as modding the engine, the only way to real decline the value is to do things that u cant undo, such as throwing away factory peices(probably wouldnt hurts your but some older cars) if your going to modify just do things that u know can be undone or if u do take peices off , keep them. i know a guy that bought a factory x77 69 z28 (in 72)and sold the stock 2x4 manifold off because he wanted a 3x2 on it cause he liked the look, now those manifolds sell for more than he paid for the car.

That car looks nice from the pics you are showing. Can you post a pic of the rear of the car?

thats nice as hell but why did they only use a v6 and not v8?

i have no idea why they only put a v6 in this car when you open the hood there is plenty of room to have put a v8 there

and i dont have any pictures of the back

I would restore this car to original condition. I do not know any of these Bandit II editions in Europe. Seems you have a really nice and probably rare ride.

well i think im going to go down the restoration route. since there were only 600 of these babies to start out with that means there were more TTA's then there were bandit II's and after 17 years most of them are probalby gone anyway. its not that hard to pick up a third gen in good condition to have fun with. so resoring this one for a rainy day when IIIgen start to becom not so dime a dozen doesn't seem too bad to me

They made them in V8's as well. I have a red one with 40k on it. Yours also has a TA front bumper which is wrong they had their own front bumper. Altho the TA front bumper looks good as well. If I can dig up some pics I will post them.

also just noticed in the pics. Yours has standard TA GFX on it. They cane with a special GFX package different from the TA, but they are very brittle and probably the reason yours has been changed.

so since those bumpers and gfx were probably only made by choo choo I'm not going to be able to get replacements unless i find some thing cusotm?

Probably not. I wouldn't worry about it much tho it took me several times of looking at your pics before I noticed it. BTW what # is your car I can't make it out in the picture.

Hi. I just joined and saw this thread. Thought I'd revive it. Here is #85 of 600 1990 Bandit 2 T/A. This particular car has won 1st place at the T/A Nats and at the STARS shows. One-owner car used for show only. The couple that own this one and two more show T/A's ( an '02 SLP Firehawk and a '78 Marty blue) are getting older and asked me to get the word out that they want to retire from showing cars. So since they don't have computers they asked me to help out. Anyway here are some pics of #85 with 38xxx original miles on it, as well as some of its trophies.







The #85 of 600 plaque in the last pic didn't show up well, but that is it on the passenger side dash. This has got to be one of the nicest 3rd gen cars out there. Here's some of its hardware it has won.



I am actually a second gen T/A guy,but since I love birds (and have a computer) they asked me to get the word out. Any ideas as to how the best way is- other than eBay? This car has kinda given me the idea to find a 3rd gen for myself, a nice driver but not a show car.

Also try posting it on craigslist. Beautiful car by the way.

wow cool, I had a hot wheels car like that when I was a kid, always wondered if it was a real car.. had the shaker and the hood decal.. that red one is nice!

Thanks. It is a nice car. There can't be many this nice left. But I couldn't stand to drive it around after knowing my friends only drove it to local shows and events. They trailered it to all the big Pontiac shows. It has never seen rain, and all parts are GM OE stuff. I'll have to try to find me a good worn, driven car that I could drive and put miles on even if it came a rainstorm. Thsi one is just way too nice and way too pampered to be a cruiser. Plus, they would kill me if they saw any dirt on their old baby, so I better not buy this one!

I am really enjoying reading up on all the threads- lots of good info on here. Thanks for letting me in your site.

that certainly is a beautiful car. i have only herd/seen three of these bandit II's: mine, this red one, and 78TAhitman's one. i think his is number 143.

PS what engine deos this one have in it

Hey Tank you got a sweet ride their, fix her up & enjoy her. I've only seen 2 before, its pretty rare find I think. good luck with her.

My car is the exact same as that one with similar mileage and condition.

This is a Bandit 2 Trans Am- it has the 5.0 liter V8. I think maybe some of these cars were Firebirds with the V6. I am definitely not an expert on third gens, so that may be completely wrong.
----------
So is his $16,000 asking price in line or out of line for this car?

tank- your black one looks really good!

too bad they're all V6's

No idea what you mean. This is a one-owner with every paper from the day it was bought. It is a factory 5.0 liter (305) V8. I have the build sheet to prove it.

ooop my bad, I just made an assumption that they were all V6's.

Maybe some of the Bandit 2 cars were Firebirds and not Trans Ams?

Yep mines #18 of 600 and I'm the second owner, friend bought it new. Have all docs and window stickers, original v8 car as well. It just depended what the dealer sent to the custom shop for upfit.