MarkB

just out of curiosity..about how "rare" valuable are these cars..say with..factory black/goldpaint..full power..L69 HO 305 with ram air induction..factory gold transam wheels..and the g92 3.73 rearend ratio option..it also has 4wheel disc brakes and posi with say around 89k miles on it?

TAdan

Total TransAm production for 1984 was: 55,374. L69: 25,088. The only "special edition" Black and Gold T/A for 1984 was the Recaro TransAm. It only came in black and gold and featured Recaro seats. About 2000 recaro's were made (could be wrong)

Many (thousands) of 84's came with the black and gold combo and were not recaro's.

So no, not really rare at all, just sounds like a nice 84 T/A. The mileage sounds good too. I am a huge 84 T/A fan.

GM did not keep records of option breakdowns (AC with auto trans, with t-tops, etc)

Hope that answered your Q

84 15thAnn TA

Of the 1984 TAs, 1321 were the Y84 Recaro option.

83firebirdS/E

But these 84's are getting really hard to find in nice shape. I mean when was the last time you saw a nice 84 T/A (besides your own). I've seen a lot of total wrecks driving around and on eBay!

TAdan

83FirebirdS/E You are right. Considering the number of T/A's produced that year it is pretty rare when you see a clean one. I have only seen a handful of them in person.

Although I think it is nice that I regularly see some pretty impressive (low mileage, clean) 84's on ebay.

IROCZTWENTYGR8

iTrader: (1)

I am definetly a Camaro/IROC-Z28 dude and always will be, but I think 84 TA's are pretty cool. (some Formulas too) Fining 1 like that isn't easy either.

Chevrolet

kizz

iTrader: (1)

The production numbers seem pretty high don't they? In fact 1984 was the #1 selling 3rd gen year for pontiac, but think about it a second.. the car described, 84 black & gold, gold wheels, ground effects.. you probably haven't seen one like that for a couple of years. They made a lot but they disappeared quickly.. I wish I knew why. 84 T/A w/ GFX is my favorite year after 82 T/A. Nobody makes interior cosmetic parts for these year ranges, nobody makes the ground effects, the taillights, the cowl induction accessories.. it's sad. You always see early 3rd gen T/A's "restored" with all the wrong parts 98% of the time, and that's no exaggeration, or they just get junked, robbed of the power bulge hood and other in-demand goodys. I saw an 84 Recaro on the road a few months ago and I was so flabbergasted I turned around and chased it doing like 85 in a 50 mph zone, but it was gone..... I wish Classic industries (or anyone else, anyone) would step up to the plate for 82-84, once and for all. At least taillights, wheels, and Ram-Air parts.. *sigh*

TAdan

Kizz you are absolutely right! I love the 82-84 body style (especially the 84 aeropackage cars). It is a real PITA to find parts for my car.

Example I recently installed new ACC carpet, I wanted an OEM correct repro carpet, what I got was a generic carpet for 82-92's (the area under the floor mat and the foot rest areas are different) So I guess I will just have to find an NOS carpet one of these days!

Just the fact that 82-84's have so many unique features makes it very difficult finding parts. I was lucky enough to acquire a new 84 center console knee pad in perfect condition. A friend of mine found it in california, im in NJ! I could go on and on...

91Zman

Probably getting rarer as far as the nicer ones go.My brother has an '84 T/A 305 LG4 with the aero package,T-tops and the 14" turbo fin wheels.It is a total pos but he is slowly fixing it up.He put a 350 a year and a half ago and recently got a set of the stock 16" wheels off a junker that was in better condition than his.Next he is going to fix the ragged out interior,which needs just about everything.

84 15thAnn TA

I've seached high and low to find pics of what the original stripes looked like on the 84 Recaro. (Mine had been repainted when I purchased it.) So far I've found only 2 semi-legible pics. You just don't see them around or even on 3rd Gen websites. Stencils and Stripes tried to sell me the regular gold stripes for the 84 TAs--they don't understand that the Recaros had a unique stripe. The GM parts book confirms this.
However, I just purchased a 15th Ann. so my Recaro (which needs some TLC bodywise) is going bye-bye. I just don't have the time to bring it back to the condition it deserves.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

84RecaroTA: I have a few legitimate pics. The stripes are an *almost* identical negative of the 84 15th. *almost* but not quite. the rear license plate area is different. you can see the stripes are joined by a tiny vertical segment, and I'm not sure what else is different but it looks identical to the 15th. There are no sail panel decals, as the 83-84 Recaro had the tiny 3D sail panel eagle later used on GTA's. Phoenix Graphix showed a total dis-interest in me sending them these pics even when I explained to them that the layout is 99% the same as an 84 15th which is much more common, they still didn't show any care. They did say they needed an original un-applied set of decals and that was the only way they could reproduce it. I have about 3 pics I know to be the original layout.. I'll post them for you below.

84 Recaro center caps look to be totally unique (first pic) but I've never seen a close-up so 1) I cannot confirm that, and 2) I don't know what is on them.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

hmm.. I don't know how to delete screwed up messages. 2 more pics to follow.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

actually 3 more pics

kizz

iTrader: (1)

.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

All the pics I posted are of STOCK looking 84 Recaros, except the last 2, I don't know if those "common" center caps are valid, because the other pics above show a unique golden style.

GT

kizz

iTrader: (1)

it wiped out my first 3 pics.. here they are again...

kizz

iTrader: (1)

this board is really acting strange now, posting my messages all out of sequence.. deleting half the others.. I dunno what's up, but all these pics are good references.

84 15thAnn TA

Thanks KIZZ. That's really helpful.
I pulled off the nose on my Recaro the other week, and sure enough, the remnants of the original 3 small stripes were wrapped around the front of the fender. Obviously the decals were added at the factory prior to final assembly. I also found just a bit of the same stripes behind the front license plate bracket. When the car was repainted these parts were untouched.
You are correct that the stripes are very much like the 15th Ann. The one difference is that the 15th has 4 stripes rather than the 3 on the Recaro.
My center caps are black with a gold emblem. As far as I know they are original.
If you look closely at the pics you sent it is interesting to note that the emblems on the sail panels are not all in the same place. One of them seems to be higher.
Here's a question... My car has a gold RECARO T/A decal on both front fenders in the same place where the cars in your pics have TRANS AM. My GM parts book does not list this decal but I checked with my local dealership and they did find a part no. for it -- 10023741. Of course it is no longer available. Have you ever seen this? Do you know what years used it? Maybe it is correct for the 83 but not 84 cars? The guy who owned my car before me painted the car and replaced all the decals (minus the lower stripes) but maybe this name decal is incorrect for 84.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

Maybe if my friend 82 RECARO TA is watching he would be able to answer that.. you there 82?
I really don't know about the "RECARO T/A" fender logo. I've heard about it from at least one other person. I don't think I've ever seen a pic.. u got one? I know that all 82 Recaros had the "normal" decals used on all other T/As of 1982. then on 83 Recaro they removed the sail panel decal and added the tiny 3D eagle instead and the rest of the decals were "normal". In 84 the tiny 3D eagle stayed and the decals were allt he custom ones you see in the pics above.
I can tell you they the Recaro door handles are part number 10023740, which is just ONE digit below the part number your dealer gave you for the fender decal. Maybe the other side door handle is 10023741 and someone used the gold lettering in it on the fenders? That might explain the part #s being so close. I don't know but if you have any pics, please post them so i can see what you have.
GT

kizz

iTrader: (1)

As far as the 3D sail panel eagles being at different heights, the same phenomenon used to happen with the decal on the sail panel too. I wouldn't be too concerned, except that being too high or too far back just looks awkward. I have a feeling they're applied by robots or something because they are *always* symmetric.. when one is out of whack, the one on the other side of the car is out of whack exactly the same amount. The eagle's head should be approximately 3 inches back from the door weatherstrip, and about 2 or 3 inches up from the sail panel ridge. I didn't measure it, but I'm basing that on the cars I've seen. about 80% of them are correct, and the rest have really high-up logos.. I don't know why.

84 15thAnn TA

I'll post a pic of the RECARO T/A fender decal as soon as I can. My new 15th Ann. acquisition has kind of consumed my attention as of late!!! Then I'm gone on vacation next week. I'll also see if I can scrounge up an older parts catalogue from 1984 or 85. Mine is the 82-88 edition (PO65), and by that time they had already dropped the decal from the catalogue. If I can find a catalogue with the part number still in it it should indicate what years it was applicable to.

BTW, just so you don't lose track of me ... I'll likely be changing my user name in the near future, since my new wheels will be my primary interest. In any case, there aren't many of us from Calgary, Alberta on this site.

kizz

iTrader: (1)

good eye on the 3 stripe / 4 stripe thing I haven't seen either car in real life so it's hard to see details like that. except one 84 Recaro zooming by me at light speed and one other 84 Recaro in really horrible shape with no stripes at all. cool to hear you found an 84 15th. Those are some awesome cars and getting to be pretty rare too. Hey, you ever notice that black & gold and white & blue are negatives of each other?

ta84-355

I got a Trans Am -84 with the Black-Gold package. The car has like 6 stripes above the golden aero-package. I don't have any good pictures on it, but a few weeks ago I was able to buy an original car magazine add with the exact same stripes as I got (thank's to ebay).

I do however miss the bulge hood eagle and only has like a sail panel eagle at the very front of the hood. I'm about to give this car a paint job and was first thinking of changing to another color but after finding this add I WILL paint it black and get a new set of stripes - it just looks soo good.

Though I have a 355 in it now and a 4th gen rearend (which is broken at the moment) and 4th gen silver rims, I have all the original parts left in the garage and I can swap it back to it's stock look any day if I want to.

About the silver rims, they doesn't look good on a car with the black/gold package so I'm thinking of repainting them with a gold look or perhaps a black/gold look, don't know yet.

/Anders

TAdan

Well ive got to jump in about the White/Blue and Black/Gold thing.

My dad has a 94 25th T/A hardtop (white/blue) My sister has a 94 T/A GT Hardtop (black). So we have added gold 10th hawk wheels, gold door emblems and will be adding shortly a gold 25th T/A style stripe. So we will have basically a black and gold "inverse" of the 25th .

ta84-355 It sounds like you have a "regular" W62 (aeropackage) 84 T/A. My 84 is blue and silver with the same stripes you described. The RPO for the large hood bird is DX1, the small bird was optional
Good luck w/ the paintjob!

84 15thAnn TA

KIZZ -- cool idea on the negative image thing. I'll have to shoot both card in my driveway with my video camera, once in normal mode and once in negative. Seeing the pic of the 15th you posted raises some questions about the trim on these cars, but I'll start another thread for that.

TA84-355--I'm with TADan on your car. The "regular" black and gold TAs had the lower fade-away gold stripes and matching gold aero package. The Recaro Tas (RPO Y84) had three small gold pinstripes with a black aero package. My advice--keep the original color. For one thing, it's just plain sharp looking. But even more important, I've never met anyone who was happy with a color change unless they were doing a complete body-off resto. Otherwise it's such a pain to change colors of the door jambs, engine compartment wheelhousings, etc. etc. On the other hand, if you just want something that looks OK from 500 ft, well by all means paint it. Several places carry the full 84 gold stripe/decal package -- Phoenix Graphix, Classic Industries, and Stencils and Stripes, just to name three, so shop around. (Most have websites you can check out.)

Ron84TA

I have an 84 Ta auto fully stock 32000 miles garaged kept never out in rain and literature from the eighties .Im happyto see people are still interested in it and have changed my mind on selling it .

83tranzam

Nice to see so many people appreciating the '82 - '84 'Birds. I rarely EVER see any on the road where I live, so it's cool to see pictures on the boards. I wish some company would step up to the plate and offer some decent parts for our cars....we seem to get swept under the rug in favor of the later years. I've had a helluva time finding a replacement dash pad. Keep up the good work guys!

84 15thAnn TA

How right you are 83tranzam!! When you check the catalogues of most of the major suppliers there are tons of available parts up until 1981 and then its as if a whole decade was wiped off the map. If you have been following the earlier posts in this thread we talked about the unavailability of the "correct" 84 Recaro stripes. Several graphic companies don't even seem to know that this exists including one (not to be named) that advertises "Any year, any graphic, any decal."

One of these days, once parts for our cars from GM and from wreckers and swap meets start drying up I think we'll see a whole new interest from suppliers. There are still tons of nice 3rd gens around (although the really cherry ones are starting to become more rare) and eventually many owners will be wanting to restore and rebuild these.

So, keep the faith.

Randy82WS7

interesting discussion, am learning some ore info

im gonna interject a little info for the heck of it for no apparent reason.

ive got a replacement dash pad ive been trying to sell forever now, theres too many of these 82-84 around sitting in junk shape, rusted out beaters, parts are plentiful as far as interior and mechanical stuff but not metal parts, always ate out holey crap metal. not worh buying junkers for parts when no one is interested in these parts ever no matter how cheap you advertise them, are just plain too common. i let a whole 84 s/e runnign and driving go for junk as is, i tried to get interest in parts of it or the whole car, and it just had a one quarter size hole in driver door, no hinge wear or anything and interior was completely mint and intact., i did keep dashpad and rear folding buckets, maybe some decade they will sell or trade i guess,.., maybe,
i passed up an 82-84 firebird this morning for 150, passed up an 84 camaro few weeks back for 100 iwth pretty good body and excellent interior, are just to damned common, and ppl are really pulling engines out of thewm and junking thewm left and right now all of a sudden. wont be many left ina year i bet. i cant do much about it though, i try to save some parts from going to yards, but is no good trying if no ne wants them, can find better deal elsewhere. may get a 82-84 berlinetta i know of thats super clean and nice silver color and digital dash thats needing just a new waterpump, for 300 bucks, i may do that maybe, or just let it go to waste too, i dunno,.. dont have a use for more cars or any parts, i owuld only get it to help out other owners with parts or car they may need, but no one seems to need anything yet, is way too soon yet apprarently. no one shopuld be complaining aobut not beintg able to get parts other than metal parts for 82-84 because 82-84 are dime a dozen and not worth the trouble to scratch up. good to have one or two to mess with and thats about it,. even though are rusted out.
this info didnt belong in here lol but i typed it anyways, hmm., one of those freak things i suppose heh, just am venting off is all,.

good luck!

8d4ta

I also have an 84 T/A with the black and gold pkg. Autografics is the cheapest place to get decal sets for these. The full set, minus the 6 stripe lower body set is only $49.95. My car came with a Delco CB radio, factory subs, and rear wiper. It has the J65 4 whl disc option, but not the G80 posi option. I would also like to know what WS3 is. My car has this. I know WS4 is Trans Am option, but nobody knows what WS3 stands for.

I bought this car 3 years ago as a basket case(complete, but still a basket case). It only had 82,439 miles on it. It's about 80% complete now. The paint is done and it looks awesome.($1600) Can't wait to post pics.

WS3?

Thanks
Dan

8d4ta

I also have an 84 T/A with the black and gold pkg. Autografics is the cheapest place to get decal sets for these. The full set, minus the 6 stripe lower body set is only $49.95. My car came with a Delco CB radio, factory subs, and rear wiper. It has the J65 4 whl disc option, but not the G80 posi option. I would also like to know what WS3 is. My car has this. I know WS4 is Trans Am option, but nobody knows what WS3 stands for.

I bought this car 3 years ago as a basket case(complete, but still a basket case). It only had 82,439 miles on it. It's about 80% complete now. The paint is done and it looks awesome.($1600) Can't wait to post pics.

WS3?

Thanks
Dan

kizz

iTrader: (1)

Ron, that is an awesome looking car you have there. I'm glad you're deciging to keep it. If you ever sell it make sure it goes into adult hands
I've only seen a couple of other 84 T/A's in that color, it's a pretty rare color. Nice..
If u got more pics post them
TTYL GT

CHVYPWR

I see one like that everyday! The kid next door to me has one. '84, black and gold T/A w/ gold wheels, T-top, bulge hood, them weird leather seats (recaro?), 5.0 H.O, 5-spd. It even has the rear wiper option! Nice car, came from AZ. so it has no rust, but the interior is kinda sunbeat. The only thing thats been taken from it is the original air cleaner assbly. that connects to the hood bulge.

transam84

I really love my 84 Trans Am. when I first bought it it had a 305 h.o. in it and I found the it really seamed to run hot b/c the front air dam was missing so I bought one and put it on and it made a pretty big diff in engine temp. I had the Trans Am grills on it originally (the smooth flat grills) but I changed them out for the Firebird grills and it made an even bigger diff in engine temp. any of you guys ever have a temp prob and try this as a fix?? also anyone have a rear drivers side ground effect for sale, mine looks a little rough in one spot. a friend of mine had after market ground effects on his car when he bought it and they looked like total crap, real cheasy looking. needless to say he took them off. nothing looks better than the factory aero package!!! they really complete the shape of the body. in a way it would be nice to see more 82-84 T/A's on the road but then again the less you see them the more you appreciate them. I see so many 3rd gen Camaro's on the road, I wouldn't buy one b/c you just would not have a very original car, everyone seems to have one.

transam84

l

my1st66mustang

iTrader: (-1)

I have a 1984 Trans Am that has the Recardo package that is not black and gold and is instead white with gold. It also has the aero package as well as all-wheel discs, rear louver, gas lid lock, rear windshield wiper, and power windows. I wonder how rare that is, it also only has 60,000 original miles on it as well.

84TAguy

Do you have Y84 on the engine cowl plate and on the SPID sticker under the console lid? And do those (cowl plate and sticker) match the VIN of the vehicle? If so, you have a true Recaro Special Edition. I've never seen or heard of any being white. I've owned three 84 Recaros.

JT

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if the car is original.

Because if it has Y84 option, it's supposed to be black with gold accents. Not only does Y84 in 1984 from Pontiac's book specify that, but so does the 1982 bulletin introducing the Recaro Special Edition Trans Am. Black exterior was required.

So the car is either not original or is not Y84 equipped.

Let's see some pictures of the car as well as a picture of the SPID and cowl tag.