The guy who owns acts like it walks on water next to my 1990 Formula TBI with a stock mid 80's cold air intake from the hood.






Tell me as much as you can on this car. Did this aero package actually exist? How much has been changed and is it a 1982 T/A?

 

sorry I can not tell much but it is a legitimate convertible from one of the conversion companies. I can not remember which. There was one for sale near me like that one but I could not afford what they were asking for it when it was not running and needed lots of work.

 

He says Auto Forms created the rear aero package or the convertible part itself (not really sure haha), making it not factory and me correct. BTW he says it is an 83 and I really think it is an 82.


BTW: According to Pontiac's own records (Standard Catalog of Firebird) every single Firebird/Formula/Trans-Am From the factory (including Recaro and Daytona 500 editions) were all 4 person vehicles in 1983


Here is the owner for you, haha:


In 1983-86 Pontiac sent cars to Auto Forms in Elkhardt Indiana, to turn into 2 seat convertibles, and then sent directly to the dealer. There were damn near none made because of the ridiculous price. In inflation adjusted dollars they sold for about $65000-70000. I saw one brand new white with gray one at Bush Pontiac in Lenoir, sitting on the showroom floor for $26000 in summer 1984. I loved it, but not enough drop that kind of cash. There are no official records , but I would guess there are fewer than a 100 still left in existence based on my difficulty in finding them. Barrett Jackson listed them as fewer than 250 ever produced when they sold one in worse shape than mine for 20000 a few years ago. They have only sold 2 in the history of the auction. The other was for 17. By 1986, Pontiac had had enough of this and made their own. These looked way worse, but were massively less expensive and so the story goes. My first car was a 1978 T/A which I drove from 15-25 and only when Ford put out a way better product did I start driving Mustangs in the late 80s. I know as much about T/As of that era as Mustang Fox bodies. In both cases it was the right choice, the T/As were the car of the late 70s and the 5.0s the car of the late 80s. My next purchase, in the next year or so, is likely to be an 11 GT for Jamen. I have 2 1984s red/gray which I do not drive at all. I also have a black 85 that is rougher that I do drive. It has about 80000 miles. I have never seen one at shows or anywhere in person, other than these three. One came from Maryland, one Pennsylvania, and one Florida.

 

Again the PROUD owner!

Now he is saying the car is a 1984

 

I figured someone would know this car because the owner is calling it all factory. Seems like if that was the case someone on here would know the info.

 

Factory modified cars sold thru dealers..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_convertible


Pontiac Firebird (3rd Gen) National Coach Engineering (1982), Steas Industries (1982), R. Straman Company (1982–1990), Autodyne Corp (1982), Auto Form Corp. (2-seater, 1982–1986), Matrix3 (1984-1985), International Coach (1982–1984), Convertible Concepts Ltd. (by Straman on West Coast or Auto Sunroof Inc on East Coast 1982-1987), John Greenwood (by others,1983–1986), Choo Choo Customs (by others, 1985-1986), Hi-Line Customs (1983–1986), ASC Inc (1986–1989, approx.610 built), Coach Builders Ltd (1982-1983), A.H.A. Manufacturing (1983), California Convertible Co (1984–1989), Coach Conversions (1983-1985), Auto Sunroof Inc, (1983), Griffith (1982-1983), Note: Factory convertibles were built by ASC starting in the 1991 model year and no 1990 ASC convertibles are known to exist

 

Its a Conversion by "Autoform" for sure.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...y-3rd-gen.html

No verts were "Factory Authorized" prior to 1987. In 1987 GM started shipping T-Top cars to ASC for convertible conversion. These cars are identified in the VIN as "Convertibles"

The owner is mistaken. the car is not worth anywhere near 20k, let alone 60k.

 

The year is 84 and it is an Auto Form conversion. They were very expensive in the 80 and did cross the $20k mark depending on other options ordered. Sounds like the guy does have some knowledge of his car

 

20k conversion? seems a bit excessive to me.. Even so.. there was no way to push a Firebird in the 45-50k base range.

the dealer would of have to have been insane to put enough dealer installed options on a car to get the sticker to 65k+

 

key word in his discription was "inflation adjusted dollars." it may have been 20k back in the 80s but that doesnt mean its worth 65k now, even with it "adjusted" for inflation.

 

Guys thanks so much for the info

 

I didn't say the car had a $20k conversion. I said the converted car did cost over $20k depending on the other options the car had. I saw a conversion sticker once and I don't remember the conversion price, but it was like $7500 or $8500. If you add that to a loaded '84 at $15k, you're at $22,500 - $23,500. That was a lot of cash in 1984. When the average car price was around $11,500, this was double the average car price. Using that same math, in today's money, I would speculate closer to $45k-$50k. It's not worth that, but just comparing 1984 dollars to 2011 dollars, it gives an idea of how much the car impacted the wallet back then.

 

Haha after I posted up the info yall gave me this was his response (keep in mind all I ever said about the car was the aero package was for sure not factory and I questioned if the convertible itself was factory based on the Standard Catalog of Firebird):


I for one have watched a lot of Barrett-Jackson on HDNet and I've seen maybe two total Third Gen cars go for sale on TV. One was a sub 20k mile GTA. Does anyone believe this $22.5k for a car "worse" than the one pictured in the OP?

 

Just because you've watched BJ, doesn't mean you've seen all cars that have crossed the block. In 2008, a white, 1985 Trans Am with 43k miles crossed the block n Scottsdale for $22k. It was an Auto Form conversion. The Barrett-Jackson lot number was 109.

Not sure why you're ******* the owner so much. It is legit and he seems to have most of his information in order. You might want to stop hassling him, because he's winning this battle.

 

Found this one that sold in 2007 for 18,700
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appli...&aid=222&pop=0

Looks to be completely Mint.....

Edit:

Ah, the other was listed under Trans Am instead of Firebird.... yup, 22k sale... Interesting.

 

I'm not ******* the owner, he was my drivers ed teacher 9 years ago in HS and he constantly talked about his Fox Box Mustang 5.0. He told us how he runs no air cleaner, but instead sprays WD40 in to catch the dirt

Quotes like this made him famous around our town and he was eventually fired as the drivers ed teacher because of telling students driving 5mph over was the speed limit basically, haha.


After going back and forth with him about Fox Boxes vs Third Gens for about 5 years he suddenly is a huge fanatic over this specific type of Firebird which looked odd to me. That is all I said, this doesn't look factory made and I was right. There is no battle to win, he said "Pontiac made the car and aero package" and they did not make anything having to do with the what is behind the two seats.


I didn't just watch Barrett-Jackson, I searched online and one I found is a 1984 T/A 15th Anniv 5 speed edition with 5.0 HO 1 of 500 documented by the Pontiac Historical Services with factory Recaro interior in awesome shape.

only sold for $9,900 : http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appli...&aid=343&pop=1

That being said I doubted an elaborate aesthetic change on a T/A would bring much more than this.


I didn't mean this to come off as me trying to battle someone, I just wanted correct info which I knew you guys would give for sure. I have been coming here for years to get help from you guys and I have met some of you in person. It is really more of a joke than it seems in how he is wording what I'm quoting, so don't take it the wrong way. We debate over everything from cars to sports.



If you want to see a real gem on there check out this 1990 7,800 Mile GTA Trans Am:

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appli...&aid=304&pop=0

Sold for $21,450

 

$70,000 today was $30,818.19 in 1984

John

 

It's def a 1984 Trans am since it has the W62 aero ground efx and IMO the most COMMON of the 82-84 Firebird verts.In my 10 years of dealing with 82-84 birds I have seen 3-4 1982 Firebird/ta verts,3-5 1983's,10 or so 1984's.


Dave

 

The "aero package" refers to the "ground effects", which are a stock option for 1984. so he is correct when he says the aero package is Pontiac made. It was RPO W62. You are incorrectly using the term "aero package" to refer to the convertible conversion done by Autoform. There were no factory authorized convertibles until 1987 when GM and ASC entered into an agreement. Autoform was one of many companies that did conversions at the request of dealers before the sale or customers after the sale before ASC became the "official" convertible conversion provider.

Maybe the owner of that car was a real jerk to you when you took his class, but he's coming off as much more knowledgable and likable than you are in this thread.

 

He wasn't a jerk and we get along fine. It was he himself who called it an "aero package" while talking to me, saying it was all factory. The fact is that it isn't factory and I wish I had taken the bet.

People that don't talk do come off as much more likable vs those who refute something. I don't see where I tried to come in as knowledgeable on the subject of pre 87 verts, that is why I made the thread...

However the little I did know about verts told me that was not a factory convertible.

 

In post 13, you said "keep in mind all I ever said about the car was the aero package was for sure not factory and I questioned if the convertible itself was factory ". You're referring to the aero package and the convertible itself as two different things and saying the aero package isn't factory.

Post # 13 by you really said it all for me. That owner's response that you quoted shows that he knows what his car is and doesn't feel the need to prove it to you. It also made me believe even more that you're just bothering the guy and trying to find something wrong with his car or what he thinks of his car. It's a very nice 84 Autoform and he's happy with it.

You're at best confusing and at worst incorrect in many of your statements. Leave the guy alone and rest assured that he knows more about his car than you do.

 

Yes, inflation is the key.

Inflation adjusted dollars my $23,000 GTA in 1989 = over $40,000 in todays cash. I'm not saying my GTA would sell for $40k now. Just that if it were a brand new factory fresh car in todays money, thats what the expected price would be. I'd be bouncing off the walls if I could get $8k for it. Realistically I think my car would be in the 3500-4500range.

There are inflation estimators everywhere, most of them ballpark roughly the same figures.

 

I called it what he called it, get over it. If I thought I knew more about his car then why the hell did I make this thread asking for info? I simply told him I did not think it looked factory, especially the aero package behind the headrests. He said it was factory made like that from Pontiac, the truth is that it wasn't. Simple, done. He knows more about his car now that I asked what it was on here. Do you go after everyone that makes a grammatical error in your book?

I don't know what your goal is in here, you aren't adding anything to the discussion and it seems you are simply trying to pick fights. This thread was never a battle of wits between me and anyone, I simply thought the car looked odd compared to every Firebird in the Standard Catalog of Firebirds.



Not to mention I haven't talked to him about the car since we established that it was in fact a T-Top car sent to ASC, he accepted the truth and we didn't discuss it. I'm glad you are here to defend his honor though, he says he owns a McLaren because of a body kit on a Mustang he owns!

 

My opinion, regardless, all TA's are nice to some extent, but that one is stupid nice. I would love to have it. He thinks it "walks on water" compared to yours simply because... ITS HIS. Everyone thinks their car is better than everyone elses. I personally would absolutely love to have that car. $20,000??? ummmm NO. But still a badass car. I am sure anyone on this forum would love to have it.
Just my 2 cents.

 

I live in Arkansas and I remember an early Z28 that looked like that trans am with the two protrusions following the headrest. I only remember seeing one in Hot Springs and it was red. Later the ASC cars came out and they looked very different. I don't have any idea about cost but the guy who owned the one here was middle aged and very wealthy.