Sold off my Camaro project, and needed a daily driver, since I apparently refuse to drive anything but a third gen, I bought me an 83 Trans am. This is the exact year/make/model I was looking for. I saw this car parked at an auto parts store all the time but it was never for sale, one day it was brought to my attention that there was a "For Sale" sign on it. Anyway 2 days, and $1400 later she belongs to me! I am the third owner, and she was almost all original except for an intake/carb/distributor swap. The interior was filthy and I had the carpet and seats from my Camaro sitting around so I swapped them in. Some good things about this car are: Not many owners, practically original, even has the original exhaust and weird dual muffler setup, T-tops, working A/C, nice dash pad, the most rust-free and nice floorboards I've ever seen, and probably the best thing about this car is the paperwork I have for it. I have the original window stickers, build sheets, repair documents that go back to 1994, etc... I am happy with my purchase so far!

(I know.... It needs wheels, I'm working on that lol)



Here is a pic of the old interior after I removed the seat covers, 8 lighters, 7 hearing aid batteries, and 10 pounds of change:



And as of today, here is what it looks like:

 

Wow, the interior looks 10x better. Looks like a great project so far, and for the money it looks sweet. Is it pretty reliable? I would love to pick up a new DD thirdgen...

 

I love it.

I said to myself if I get a 3rd 3rd gen that its gonna be either a digital dash trans am 350 or early trans am. Love em.

 

I love it too!

As far as it being reliable I can't really say just yet, I haven't driven it very much since owning it, but I had my 84 T/A with the same motor/trans and it was very reliable, so I had to have another one. Its not really a project, I just want a nice daily driver. My only real plans for it are getting some new wheels/tires and a cheapo paint job and drive.

 

Looks good man! Cleaned up well. Lol, if your ever in the idea to ditch those louvers, let me know.

 

let me guess the exhaust splits into two pipes just before the axle, then goes to a double "t" fitting and then goes to two resonators (not mufflers) and finally two tips!

That is factory!!

Got the factory parts list for it, I think it was offered for about 6 months during production for 83-84 V8 models.

Looks good and it was a decent price.

Got some 15" pontiac alum. rims, if you want to keep it factory looking, although the corrrect rims for the 83 t/a are turbine type with the black plastic center cap.

 

Nice DD.

Those turbine wheels can get expensive (very desirable).

 

Yes thats the exhaust it has, its really neat, and not loud at all! This car originally came with the 14" Turbo-fin aluminum wheels (I got the window sticker ) but thats not whats going back on it. I am going to get some Cragar Soft 8 wheels 17x8 on the front and 17x9 on the back with 245/45's on the front and 275/40's out back. Should look real unique after that. It will be a couple weeks before they're on though.

Oh, and I got my first compliment on it yesterday, it was like an 80 year old woman told me it was nice... Not the type of person I thought would like it, but I always like it when people share interest in the same cars I do.

 

This is cool, there was as sticker on the rear bumper that said 'firebirdnation.com' so I went there and looked through the gallery and found pics of this car by the PO in virginia before moving down here to Florida. Back then it had the original wheels and looked pretty clean, lol.

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums...ey__*__st__240

 

Gotta love the guy in the background thinking "Damn thats a nice car!"

 

Which seats are those? I´m looking for new seats for my car as well, and those look as if they would fit in perfectly with the original interior.

 

lol yeah, it was nicer then.

The seats are from a 93 Z28, they match very well with the black/grey that the car allready is.

 

Brad, good to see ur in a thirdgen!!! Did u find that one in oldsmar??? Thought I saw one there for sale before i left florida....i have to admit the Z looked pretty good but im assuming you will do the same with this one ...BTW BIG IMPROVEMENT on just the interior

good luck!!!

 

my 82 trans am had that same exhaust, it sounded pretty good but was really quiet.

 

Thanks man. I found it on florida and yukon at that advance auto it was for sale. Why'd you leave Florida?

 

needed change of scenery .... looks like you should have some fun with the bird

 

I can understand that, definitely not many good things I can say about Tampa and its surrounding areas, lol. I will certainly have fun with the bird, its my favorite third gen 'body style'.

 

did u ever find a good paint shop??? i remember u had the same issue with the Z

 

very nice looking trans am and yea gotta love it when people admire/compliment the third gens

 

I think I am just going to go to a Maaco and cross my fingers. Its a daily driver, so it doesnt need to be show-quality.

 

Got some new shoes!







They're not everyone's style, but I sure do love them!

 

I love em! Fits the louvers well. What size are they? Look like 17s.

 

17x9 with 275/40/17 on the rear
17x8 with 245/45/17 on the front

They match my Trans Am very well.

 

They sure do. Another member on here had I think 16s with fatter tires and white letters on a camaro. Loved it as well.

 

wheels look mean!!!! i like em

 

hey awesome 83 trans am, where did you get the louvers from? how many kelvin are those HIDS adn were did you get them from?

 

Thanks man. I gotta clean/shine the tires, they're brand new but I guess that got dirty from being shipped/installed.

KITT1983-
The louvers and HID's were both on it when I bought it.

 

you lucky bastard

are the louvers metal or plastic?

 

My z had that same weird exhaust on it but I fixed it. Lol can you post some pics of those hids? Or do the t/a not have sealed beam headlights like the camaros?

 

But unfortunately, they're plastic.

Brennan-
What do you mean "fixed it"? It seems like a nice exhaust, and I like it for its "uncommon-ness" lol. If by sealed beam you mean that the whole housing IS the bulb, rather than there being a bulb in a plastic housing, than yes they're originally sealed beam headlights like camaros have. What kind of pics would you like?

 

By fixed it I mean recip saw, it looks like a very poor design to me and since I was doin an engine swap she got a whole new exhaust. Yes the sealed beam is the whole thing is the bulb. I wanna see how the swap was done because I wanna do it myself. I got 4300k high, low beam and fog lights in my dmax and it's hard to go back to regular headlights haha

 

I kinda like the design of it, but I have always liked things because most others don't.. if that makes sense, lol.

I don't know anything about these headlights, all the PO told me was that they were HID's... I do know that they look better than old yellow lights, haha.

 

This is interesting.. I have been compiling a list of everything I found in the car when I bought it, and I gotta say this one takes the prize of "Most crap I've ever found in a 3rd gen" lol....

Here is the list, which probably isn't complete, which scares me...

-$8.94 in change
-New Broken screw extractor set
-2 Red Dome light bulbs
-2 Blue Dome light bulbs
-2 Regular Dome light bulbs
-New 3/8" ***** punch
-Many Various Electrical connectors
-Almost complete Tap/Die set (Not in a case, just strewn about)
-10 Lighters (8 of them worked)
-8 Hearing aid batteries
-2 Taillight bulbs
-2 Misc bulbs (New)
-Ball joint Socket
-30min Road Flare
-Coil pack that goes to another car
-Vise Grip brand Channel Locks
-Needle-nosed Vise grips
-3 Misc screwdrivers
-7 New spark plugs
-New package of Fuel line disconnect tools
-HEI/Tach wiring connector (New)
-Almost new tube of Blue Sealant
-Half a tube of Black Sealant
-New 2 1/4 Exhaust Clamp
-27 Pouches of Dielectric Connector Protector Grease
-8 Pouches of Brake Lube
-15 Pouches of Bulb Grease
-1 13mm Stubby hand wrench
-1 15/16 Wrench
-3 Valve cover wing nut tops
-4 Ball-point Pens
-4 Medium Sized Hose clamps
-Many Various nuts and bolts
-Various lengths of fuel line and heater hose
-An Advanced-Auto Hat
-A fork
-Roll of electrical tape
-Lots of Advanced Auto paperwork
-3 Sheets of practice shooting targets

And I am sure I'm forgetting things..

 

Just ordered a new coolant jug and new washer fluid jug. I also ordered a throttle cable bracket so I can swap back to a rochester carb and stock distributor and stuff. My temp gauge is broken which is annoying me, so I ordered a cluster to replace the broken temp gauge with. I also took off the mechanical clutch fan and shrouds and put in an electric fan from a camaro, so now it looks almost like a stock electric fan.

Heres a pic of the engine bay pretty much when I first got it:



Annnnd, this is why you dont use that dumb triangle air cleaner!:



You can see that part of it got burned/melted and the engine probably sucked it up.

 

Here is what the engine bay looked like earlier today:
(I cleaned the filler panel area a couple days ago but it looks just as bad as the rest of the engine bay)





And now what it looks like:
(What you don't see is that I left the key on while cleaning, and the battery died, it was on its way out anyway, and I allready had a new one from my camaro, so I put it in)





Still waiting for my new wiper jug to come in the mail and I will install it, even though my windshield washer sprayers dont work, lol. I will fix them eventually, I haven't looked into what's wrong with em'.

 

Oh, and I installed a 'new' temperature gauge and now this car sets the record for me as it has the most working gauges I have ever had in a third gen! Only the speedometer doesnt work, I installed a new lower cable, but now I need a cruise control transducer because mine is shot. Its getting there!

 

love the wheels almost same style as mine.

 

Installed a B&M Hammer shifter, I had to be different and not get a console-mount megashifter. I cut the shift plate out of plexi-glass and painted the back of it with satin spray paint. I am going to get either "Pontiac" or "Trans Am" decals made and put them on the shift plate so it doesn't look so plain..

(Sorry for the dirty interior, I haven't vacuumed it in a little while)



The camera flash makes the plate look more out-of-place than it does IRL..

 

shiny....plexi looks good maybe u could wrap it in vinyl or cloth??? have u enjoyed the ttops yet??? little diff from ur vert lol

 

Yeah I don't like how shiny it is, but I couldnt find the material I was looking for locally, I am going to have to order an ABS sheet from ebay or something. I had a T-top Trans am before my vert, and I love taking the tops off and just cruising. I pull these off all the time, I love it!

 

great looking bird!

 

Got a decal made for the shift plate today, and also put a metal phoenix "badge" on the bottom.

 

Car's looking good! I actually thought about buying those wheels since they're dirt cheap and they look decent.

 

I love em'. They match really well with the over-all appearance of the T/A.

 

yo. where did u get those seat covers, and how did u get hid set ups in there?>

 

does that car have the functional cowl, or was that 82

 

The cowl was functional until the previous owner swapped out the top-end of the motor. 82-84 T/A's all had functional cowls.

Seat covers? They're 93 Camaro seats and they don't have covers on them. The HID's were in the car when I bought it.

 

WOW!!! that's a good looking ride!!

 

Did you try to fit one of the new rears on the front?

 

Where did you get the rims from & how much were they? Whats the backspacing?
I say keep the same color if you repaint her.