86WS6

iTrader: (1)

We call the car Amanda, in honor of her original owner, Amanda Crowe. Amanda grew up on the Qualla Boundary, more commonly referred to as the Cherokee Indian Reservation just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Amanda was full blooded Cherokee. Amanda was first and foremost an artist. As a young woman Amanda was earned an education in art in Chicago Ill. After completing her education she returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians were she primarily worked with wood. For over 40 years, she taught countless indian children native arts, a skill that had mostly disappeared in recent times. Amanda was the arts and crafts instructor at Cherokee High School, and is credited for the reintroduction of native crafts to the Cherokee Tribe. Amanda has works on display at the Smithsonian Museum in DC, and at the Museum of Natural History in NC. Her works are also a commercial success, with small pieces selling for several hundred dollars on E-Bay.

http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/tra...y/amanda-crowe

Amanda was also a car person. Her daily driver was a 1969 El Camino with a 383 stroker, 4 speed, and custom paint. Her tastes were eclectic, as she had a taste for Model T's, Corvettes, and 57 T-Birds. Amanda liked Trans AM's also. One Saturday morning while Amanda was shopping in Asheville, NC, she happened to drive past Harry's on the Hill, a long standing Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC dealership. The 86WS6 was sitting on the lot, and the bright blue paint caught her eye. From the build date, and the sale date the car was not there more than a day or two. Amanda bought the car that morning, paying cash for it on the spot. Her friend drove her other car the 80 or so miles back to Cherokee. The TA became her Sunday afternoon car, and was stored in her basement garage when not driven. The car was never dealer prepped, and still wears many of the factory decals and marks that the dealer removes when they prep a car. Amanda had a local mechanic perform all of her maintenance work. He would later install the air dam under the front of the car when Amanda became concerned that the car was running hotter than it should on the highway.

Amanda continued to drive her DD most of the time, but got the TA out enough so that the people of Cherokee were familiar with it. On the days when she drove the TA to Cherokee High School, the teenaged boys would gather around it on their breaks and drool over the car. In 1986 the casino did not exist, and the median income on the boundary was about $3500.00 for a family for a year. Amanda was a star in her world, and the 86 Trans AM was about the coolest thing that any tribal member owned.

Amanda and I met in 2003. She had talked extensively to me about her art and her interests in cars. The first time I seen the Trans AM, it looked pretty good. Amanda passed away after an extended illness at the age of 74 in 2004. it would take her family a couple of years to begin the process of selling her home, property, and cars. By 2006 the car was a mess. The OE Gatorbacks were rotten, and one had blown out the side wall. The AC compressor had locked up. The blue paint was the original water based clear coat used at the Van Nuys plant and it had yellowed and cracked. The t-tops had leaked and the floor boards were standing 2 inches deep in rain water. Someone had left a bag of candy inside of the car, and mice had moved in. The car only had 25K actual miles on it, and had been maintained up until Amanda's illness. By the time I rediscovered the car, it was on the verge of becoming junk.

The car was put up for sale in February 2006. I discovered it, and checked it out. It was a mess, but it spoke to me. My first thought was that the car was a piece of junk, but there was something about it that keep calling me back. My 50th birthday was coming up in March 2006. My first plan for the car was to make an autocross car out of it. When Betty asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her that I wanted Amanda's car. She gave the the money and drove over there. We negotiated the price a little, and I bought the car. It would not start, so I had never heard it run. A trip on a rollback, and a week at a local garage, and the owner called me. He said, Are you aware of how low mileage this car is? I answered yes, but the car is a mess. We talked a while, and he made the mechanical repairs to the car.

A couple of weeks later it was ready. Betty drove me over there and dropped me off. After some discussion about the car, and if it deserved to be restored, or stripped and raced, I paid the bill and drove it for the first time. The car ran and drove like a new car! it was so much fun, I drove it around for an hour before going home. Next I removed the interior so that it could be dried and cleaned. A friend of mine agreed to paint the car for $600.00 if I would strip it and sand it. Surprisingly there was no previous body work. He painted the blue, but the silver was still in good condition, so we left that original. After the paint work was completed, I bought a reproduction decal set from Phoenix Graphics, and installed them myself.

As for the interior everything was stripped to bare metal. I cleaned all of the parts, and sent the soft items to a professional restoration company. The insulation was thrown out and new reproduction insulation installed. The car was reassembled and surprisingly it all looked new, even the carpet. There was no signs of wear on anything. The odd thing is that the car no longer smelled like mouse pee. Betty checked it with her military grade nose, and said that she could not smell anything. At that moment, I knew that the car deserved to be saved. For a three years after getting it back together, I did not know what to do with the car. We drove it occasionally, and since the Tail of the Dragon, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the GSM National Park are all within a few miles of our home, we have plenty of nice places to cruise.







In 2009, we attended the F Body Gathering in Atlanta, an all generation F-Body event held each Memorial Weekend. The car won Class Winner for the 82-92 Stock Firebird Class. We were in total disbelief. In 2010 the car took Class Winner again, and was awarded Best Firebird by Scott Settlemire of General Motors. The car has earned Class Winner, 2011, 2012, and Runner Up in 2013. The car was entered at the Pontiacs in Pigeon Forge and earned First Place in the stock 82-92 Firebird class.

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

http://theonefeather.com/2011/06/amanda%E2%80%99s-car/

Above is the link for the article in the tribal newspaper, The Cherokee One Feather about the car after winning Class Winner and Best Firebird in 2010.

BlueZee28

iTrader: (30)

Do you have any photos of how it looked when you took ownership of it? I'd be interested in seeing how it progressed. It's a beautiful car.

86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the compliments. Sorry, no before pics. Camera was broke and in for repairs. Since my plan was to build an autocross racer, the thought never crossed my mind to document the restoration process. The first picture taken was just after the repaint before the new decals were installed.

LHernandezJr

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86WS6

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Luis! That means a lot coming from the owner of two seriously cool TA's.