Hi,
I have a 82 Trans am thats Black with the gold accent along the bottom. Its a 305 carb w/a 4 spd. It has T-Tops, Tan real leather interior (or so I was told by the previous owner) and full power. I was told by the previous owner that the car is somewhat rare due to some of the options it has. Also, in my searching i have found that the 4 speed seems to be pretty unsees as well. I read somewhere that 82 was the only 3rd gen to have the 4 speed, is this true? I am just curious about this cars rarity, it is a project car currently and I would just like to know what I have. TIA

 

82 was the only year for the 4 speed manual in a 3rd gen. 83 went to the 5 speed. I don't know how rare it is, though.

 

I wouldn't necessarily consider the car "rare", but it is pretty unique compared to many of the other F's on these boards. The Firehawk convertible can be considered "rare". Is the tan leather interior the "Recaro" style? If so, it may bag slighly more dollars in resale compared to the non-Recaro's. Sounds like a pretty nice car....send some pics & keep us updated.

 

so maybe we shouldnt have shoved that SBC 400 in that '82 4-speed saginaw firebird that we did two years ago ? been repainted as black and silver, dunno if was that originally or not, its a beater now,

hmmm..

 

Thanks for the replys guys. It's not a Recaro interior, its a tan Doe skin leather (what I was told). I don't have any pics right now, I want to get some "before" shots, its gonna be totally torn apart and restored.
83transzam: I know what your saying about the word "rare" I was almost not going to word it that way. Your right, maybe the word "Unique" is a bit more suiting. Thanks again. oh btw, this board is really great, I've been looking around it for a few months, lots of good info, you'll see me here a lot.

 

Sorry if I may have come off sounding like a pr!ck during my diatribe on the definition of "rare", I didn't mean to. I re-read my previous post and thought I could've proved my point in a better way. I guess the best way to look at things is that the number of people like us who are fortunate enough to own '82 to '84 birds are dwindling, so we should feel lucky & maybe one day they will be somewhat rare. Welcome to the boards & i'm sure we'll come across each other in the future. I'm anxious to see some pics...

 

Here's my advice: It's very rare. Keep it, restore it, keep it original, and don't use 85-92 interior parts because people do that all the time and it's just a pity to look at another lost 82 T/A. Forget about production numbers.. just think about how many you see on the road. None? 1 per year, if you're lucky? Same here. How many have you ever seen driving down the road with the original wheels? None, ever? Sounds about right. So they must be pretty rare, even though they made many of them. People just ended up junking many of them early on because here was a futuristic technological-looking car with ancient transmissions and very detuned engines, and no 5-sp manual option of 4-sp auto option. Then you have Knight Rider on top of that. Many of the cars are still falling victim to that damn TV show fantasy because people somehow think it has to be an '82, but they don't even know why, they just heard it somewhere and it stuck. Then you have the recaro edition, and people think a black & gold T/A is automatically a recaro edition, even though only 2000 of the 53000 actually were. Then there's smokey & the bandit, which used completely different era T/A's but to most people black and gold = "hey, there's the bandit car!". Then you have respectable companies like NADA claiming there is a "Night Rider Edition" (non-existent) which isn't even spelled right!?, and Phoenix Graphix claiming that the gold decals are only for "black recaro edition" (wrong *and* non-existent). Then you have so many cars that have been "restored" the wrong way and look like ******* hack jobs. then you have the awesome crossfire which nobody takes the time to understand and repair, they just junk it and go TPI. oh gawd, I'm getting a headache just thinking about all this. Basically there are NO originals left. To find one is to have a keeper, no questions asked. 1982 is a year that's very misunderstood, underappreciated, saturated with false info and B.S. myths. Nobody knows what the hell they're talking about with 1982 most of the time. Don't believe anything you hear unless you have 4 or 5 opinions all matching up.

Anyway, they only made about 7,000 Trans Am's with the T-10 which is the 4-speed manual. about 34,000 Z28's had the same T-10 which was identical so you can use those for parts, and many pre-82 GM cars had it too. Base camaros and firebirds had a different 4-speed so I'm not counting those. Of the 7000 T/A's, only about 2500 were black and gold, maybe less. Your car is a keeper.. many things are unique to 1982.. the seatbelts for example, transmissions, gauge cluster, auto shifter, wheels, seats, horn button (82 to mid 83), I could go on and on. restore it with as many correct parts as you can find in Classic Industries' catalog and junkyards, and only use 82-84 for cosmetics, preferably only 82 for those parts above. Be careful because even Classic Industries and most other parts places often make mistakes about 1982 as well. that's how bad the misinformation is.. that's my opinion. good luck

 

Kizz is always on top of the '82 stuff. Let me tweek your post a little however,

Some '82's (my belief is late run) have Saginaw's. Mine is one of them (8/9/82).

I was always under the impression there were some '83's with 4-speeds as well. Early run. If anyone can confirm one please post.

My '82 gets less original by the year. I keep all the parts, but after 14 years of looking at the rims, (N24's, very rare on an '82) i put a set of Rally II's on to give it more of a vintage look. And a notchback, and last week, i put in the leather interior out of my '83 (tan, split back) in place of the '82's "Knightrider" doeskin cloth (64). I'm going to meld the seats together eventually, the adjustability of the '83's, with the backs of the '82's (hole). In leather.

Mine is a black with gold wing (55M), with 4-speed (M67), doeskin cloth deluxe (B20), WS7, tilt (N33), drip moldings (BX5), no power anything, no air. It also has 3.23 posi, listed on the build sheet, but not listed as an option on the sticker. My '83 T/A must have a posi delete, but i can't figue out what code it is on the build sheet. The '83 (6/29/83) has, as far as i can tell, has every option (other than special editions) except posi, and it's an LG4. Too bad it's now my parts car. I'm swapping over the air, delay, PL, interior lighting, and some other odds and ends.

I'm one of the people Kizz speaks of. Mine is all black. I got sick of the gold on the bottom, but i put the gold "T/A" decals back on, no birds.

Kizz i'll have to send you my build sheet some time, it's a weird one.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! And thanks for all the great info. Kizz, you are right, in my life I've seen only several 82-84 TA/birds. They are quite unseen. I should tell the whole story of my car. It's kinda long so I'll try to be a brief as possible. My older brother bought the car from a used car dealer in 1983, it was totally stock at that point. For the remainder of the 80's he used it as a daily driver. Then around 1990 something must have short circuited in his brain and he decided to dissasemble the whole car and basically change it. He put 85 gfx on it, and painted it a horrible shade of Teal. Horrible and sad I know. We all asked him what the hell he was thinking, but at that point the car wasn't even 10 years old, so it wasn't *that* bad. Luckily he didn't touch the interior, so that is still real tan leather and all original. I will have to commend him on the engine work though, mostly Edelbrock stuff, it has a good amount of power. Anyway, I guess he had some forsight and he kept all the original 82 stuff, which I now have, along with the car (I bought it in 1999, its been mostly sitting since then cause it doens't pass NJ emmissions). Actually, Kizz, it was your website that really made up my mind as to what to do with the car. After seening what the TA should look like (I was just a little kid when he changed it, so I barely remember its "former" life) I knew I had to put it all back to stock. So, to recap, as it sits, it is teal w/85 gfx, stock interior and a highly modded engine. My thought for this car is to return the exterior and interior back to what it should be, and make those area's totally accurate to 82. since the engine has already been modified so much I will just modify it further and try to squeeze some more power out of it. The trans and rear end I want to keep the same, with the exception of putting disks in the back. Anyway, sorry to make this so long but I want to give everyone an accurate description of what I am getting myself into (a lot of work, but will be well worth it, as the early 3rd gens are the coolest). I'm open to any input about what i should do and not do with this car. Thanks again.

 

hey

when it comes to early third gen T/As and firebirds (82-84), I'm all about striving for total originality for 2 reasons, 1) those years are very neglected / overlooked / underappreciated, 2) I never see any and they're the best looking thirdgens so I 'miss 'em a lot. so that's my opinion on what you should do, but it's your car, your $$$.. as long as it's roadworthy, it's not in the crusher, so it's all good

82T/A: the saginaw is the "other" 4-speed I was talking about. As far as I know, any base bird or S/E that was a stick shift was a Saginaw, but I don't have hard proof. I didn't know if T/A's got them or not, but if yours did, others must've gotten them too. So your reverse gear is at the far top left, next to first gear, right? That's how a Saginaw should be. On T-10's, reverse was where it usually is: far bottom right, next to 4th gear.

Just to clarify "gold wing": That is the name of a color, and has nothing to do with the car spoiler or wing, whatever you'd like to call it. Actually the full name is "Gold Wing Metallic". The wing was mandatory flat black on all 82 T/A's, as were the mirrors. "Gold wing metallic" is just the name of the metallic gold paint used for the lower trim on the car, and it's code 55 as you rightly said. When I got my 82 T/A it came with 2 little plastic tubes of Gold Wing Metallic paint, which I found amazing, since I'd never seen any before. They're long since dried up but they are still a cool item to look at. The code on there is "#55L" and the GM part number is "1#1052700". No idea what the # sign is doing in there.. maybe a paint thing.

I've never seen a confirmed 82 with N24s. I'd love to see your build sheet.

GT

 

Accually, the original shift pattern has reverse at the bottom left, next to second. When the original shifter grenaded, it put a Hurst Comp. Plus in, and reverse is now at the top left next to first. The original shift pattern emblem still resides, and has reverse bottom left.

Gold Wing Acc 55M as it is printed on the build sheet. Accessory or accent, meaning the gold decals, bottom color, stripes, and gold rear tail light panel. Usually the M means mid color. L for lower, U for upper, I for interior color. The this case i think the M is refering to a package.

Ever notice the gold overspray on the bottom? My paint was original and the bottom (exaust, torque boxes ect.) is all gold and then blacked out......Slobs LOL.

 

This is all very encourageing. So kizz, there were only ~2500 black/gold TA's with the 4 speed? How many Recaros were manual? I didn't realize my car was that rare/unique. Anyway, what is the gold color called? I will have to get some in order to paint the stripe. Also, where can I get that gold stripe sticker that goes above the gold paint? Actaully, where is a good place to get the entire set of decals? since my car needs them all. Thanks. Oh and everyone who wants to see it despite the fugly green paint and 85 gfx I will try to get some pics this week sometime.

 

82 TA: brain fart.. bottom left R, yeah. I haven't noticed any overspray on my car. Although the driver's side rocker panel is a bit out of whack towards the rear side, it's slightly higher than it should be and doesn't match up with the wheel flare like it should, and there's a slightly different shade of gold there, obviously repainted. I looked for problems underneath but it all looks untouched. Looked for possible signs of a moron lifting the car with a jack in the wrong spot and damaging it, but I found nothing. It had to be either that, or a factory goofup like the body dropping on something after it was painted and then getting fixed, but I'm leaning towards a dumb owner that caused damage and then patched it up.

tiresmoker: Like I said the paint is called "Gold Wing Metallic". code 55 for 1982. Any local paint shop dealing with Dupont or PPG should have the ability to mix it.

Yeah only about 2500 black/gold 82 T/A's had a manual. The automatic was far more popular, so not many manuals were made.

I don't have hard numbers on Recaro production numbers but they made 2000, maybe less. From what I've seen, probably only about 400 were LG4/manual, the other 1600 were LU5/auto. There was no LG4/auto option on Recaros but that's a different issue, still unresolved.

You can get your decals from www.phoenixgraphix.com

hope this helps

gt

 

Thanks for the info. I shoulda asked before: Whats the code for the black? Thanks

 

 

Cool. Thanks.