Hello there!

New member here from Connecticut! I just picked up an 86 Trans Am WS6 and I'm excited to be a part of this community! This car was for sale right up the road for me and I drove past it for a couple weeks before finally stopping to look at it. I was very happy with what I saw and I couldnt pass up this opportunity.

A little about the car... It has 110k original miles, everything on the car is original and It only had one owner!! I have the original purchase order from 1987!! looks like the car sold for $15,117.25. I also have their original official registration certificate as well. One owner only before me. I would post pictures of that but i'm not sure If I should due to their privacy haha
The car has a 305 tpi in it 700R4, recaro seats, ws6 rims 4 disc brakes, I dont know what gears it has or if it's posi. Not really familiar with these cars as I had 2 camaros in the past. pretty sure everything is stock and un-molested.

The car wont start, but it cranks. I believe because it sat for so long it could be the fuel filter, or fuel pressure regulator. The fuel pump was just replaced. Also, once I got it home I noticed a strong gas smell so I looked under the car and I noticed the fuel filter leaking, so I put a cup under there to collect it until I fix it tomorrow morning. Typical dash cracks, the carpet is in really good condition! The t-tops have great seals after I took them off. Both front fenders are dented in, the drivers side looks like I can pop it out fine, the passengers side not so much... May need new front ground effects as well.. Also missing the wing. I need a new lock set for the doors and trunk with matching keys as well.. Fuel Pump Access Panel was cut and the trunk carpet is missing. Thats all I know of so far! Thanks for reading!!

Here are some pictures of it today.







After a quick spray down. ( paint is in bad shape )













This gas leaking from the fuel filter is very black, how come?



Other than that, I think I picked myself up a nice project car and I'm real excited!!

 

Nice job, sweet find!

 

Thank you man! Do you know what gears come in these?

 

not sure about the fuel filter but it does look like a solid start for a project.. not a hard project either I dont think. Lucky. Love the seats and I am sure you can get the centers reupholstered by a good shop. Love the WS6 rims. nice touch. it would do well if you got the gold tape that ran along the top of the ground effects to go back to a stock look. also since its an 86 (I owned one...miss it) the wing is not the painted type and would be hard to find perfect. I dont think they make any replicas of that years wing. You also have the UT4 stereo in it with the subs. I am betting the subs dont work and are non-replaceable at this point. the UT4 is a pretty rare option I know as my 86 was like the only 86 I saw on lots with it. I had ordered mine from the factory so I knew what it was but dealers didnt order it much for cars on the lot. maybe they thought it was too tempting to be stolen? I dont know. Great base to start with. very nice!

 

I had no idea!! Thank you for that! Do you know where I can look these codes up?

 

Google. The gears are a G code. G80= govlock posi. Gh3= 2.77

 

Best and easiest way to upgrade is a 4th gen rear. Or go junkyard hunting.

 

Thanks Brutal T/A. I thought the gears would be 373s is that because it's auto or a 305tpi?

 

Just how it was ordered. 3.73 was a "rare" 1 yr option in early 80's if I remember correctly. Other than that 3.42 10bolt or 3.45 9bolt was the highest common options. Bang for the buck, swapping for a disc 3.42 rear will net you best improvement. Then swap plastic speedo gear for right calibration. If you search CL, you should find one cheap! I had a 3.42 G80 from a lt1 I used on my car just to roll it around, and I could barely give it a way! But Houston is a whole different market. What are your plans for the car?

 

You can look at http://www.gtasourcepage.com/88RPOFigures.html
some codes will match others not so much but a good starting point even though the year dont match.

 

I'll have to look into some gears for the future!

As for plans for the car, I'm not sure if I want to keep the original 305 tpi and go for something bigger, but I think I will keep the 305 in it. I wanted to have around 300whp and I think that would be pushing it with a 305 no?

I do like the gold ws6 rims, I also like weld RTS' a lot! I would like to do a T5 or T-56, and re-paint it black ( I had a black camaro before and it was a lot of work haha ) or go Red.

maybe an exhaust

and just restore it with nice newer parts!

I'm in a funny place because It's already all original with 1 owner before me and I don't know if I should do anything at all?

 

Thank you, this is great!

 

Enjoy!
http://www.marshu.com/images-website...-car-codes.pdf

 

WOW, haha this is intense. Thank you!

 

I'd keep the wheels! Not many left like them. If anything just do basic mods that won't deteriorate its originality flip it for some coin. They're growing in price, especially original ones. If you want a fast street car, I would find another car to "butcher" up to your taste, better yet find one someone's already began or completed. I see LS swapped 3rd gens in $6-$7K for really nice examples!

 

This might be easier thou. http://www.rpocodes.com

 

Yea, I agree. I'm not really looking for anything crazy. Just bolt-ons and keep the original parts. I was hoping for 250-300hp and also wanting a manual swap. Ultimately I just want to manual swap it. I can even pass on the bolt ons haha

 

Oh my God. You found one. I have been looking for that exact car for like 5 years. I don't know the rpo codes for overhead console, or power seat. But it has the best radio/speaker/suspension package,engine, and seat package. If I wasn't trapped in a squad Bay deep in the depths of California right now I would offer you a whole bunch more then you paid lol.

 

Congrats! You are officially the first person to offer to buy my car in less than 7 hours

I didn't know how special this car was! How many like this were made??

Thanks !

 

The fuel filter is leaking pretty bad and it smells pretty strong. What's confusing it looks jet black like old oil but smells like gas? it drips from the engines side. Maybe this is why the car won't start and I thought it was the fuel pressure regulator

 

I accidentally deleted the whole paragraph I just wrote. If you want to know everything about that car text me tomorrow at 331-205-9916. I will call you when I get released for liberty. But if you didn't read what I wrote. It's very rare.

 

Is my fuel pump relay burned/melted??

 

Great find...congratulations on your purchase!
And, Welcome aboard.

 

It looks kinda beat to me. I would just clean up the connector, and buy a good new relay and go from there. I would also replace the fuel filter because it's probably very clogged up. As for my comments last night. The car is very rare. Only options it doesn't have is the the beyond rare 86 digital dash with its rare tachometer,and the power rails for the recaros. I'd restore it to its original condition and would not mess with it too much. I don't want to say it's a unicorn car because of the dash and non power seat. But it's a perfect example of what a 86 firebird is in all its glory. Everything on that car is very rare, and a collectors wet dream.

 

I think it's the connector protector goop that's all in there. I'm cleaning them out now.
Cars up on a jack now and I'm doing the filter as we speak. I got a new battery and I'm gonna look in the fuel tank and see how bad the gas is



( you can see the terrible paint job here haha )

 

Damnit, I just lost everything I typed. Keep it auto, disconnect fuel filter let as much fuel drain out as possible. Clean it up really good and give it a proper detail and preserve it, or flip it on here for big bucks! I just spent 5mins on CT craigslist and found numerous 3rd gen firebirds worthy of modding cheap, even some nicely modded examples for great prices! I'm so jealous of the selection of cars up there! In Houston you can get a rusted, leaking t-top, 220k mile car, needing everything for $2K. YOU HAVE SOME OPTIONS SIR!

 

It's out! About a cup of gas came out and it was yellow

 

I just changed the fuel filter and all the lines look good, still won't start though
So I pushed the Schrader valve and gas squirted out and it was pretty pressurized so I guess it made it past the fuel regulator. I'm heading to get fresh gas now and see what happens !

 

Noticed another thing... when I turned on my headlights there was a light smoke coming out from behind the buttons on the dash. Anyone know why??


( hood is opened because the latch is finicky to open sometimes. )

 

Where in CT are you - I'm in Newtown.

Quite a few 3rd gen owners in the area so lots of help around. If I were you, I would drop the tank, clean it out, make sure the sender & pump were working nice then put it back in. You will likely need injectors too. I would echo the other opinions, don't mod the car, there are lots of others around you could do that to.

 

Mice!

You have some work ahead of you!

 

Waterbury area in a small neighboring town.

After 9 hours I have to call it quits tonight. Kinda bummed it didn't start and now I found electrical issues once I plugged in the battery. It did Sputter a little bit and I heard a few thuds in the rear, wasn't sure if it was some backfire or the fuel pump but nothing started. After several tries I started to smell a burning smell that didn't really smell like old gas but kind of an electrical smell of that nature.

If the fuel is making it from the pump, through the fuel filter,past the fuel pressure regulator, and into the fuel rails ...next thing to look at would be injectors right?

 

Took a picture of my fuse box. Am I missing some?

 

I cant help with the tech side but again, keep that baby stock a very well optioned car and is desirable. I wont do black and gold again else I would buy it from you if you brought it back to the living

 

Black is beautiful and also the hardest to keep clean! I had a black LT1 camaro for a while around 7 years ago or so .

Before I had any clue what this trans am was worth I was planning to do red! Haha

 

LOL nice. I think the black color makes the car with those rare gold WS6 rims. They also made an all gold one with those rims that was pretty cool

Here are some examples of your rims on other cars and a car just like yours to give you some inspiration!
Note the Racaros

 

Those look really good. I can't wait until I can get this all finished and re-paint it. I needs a lot of body work. Both fenders are bent in pretty good, the drivers side might be able to fix... the ground effects on the passenger side are bad. I need new lock cylinders for the door and trunk, the door jams need new weather stripping bad! And I need to find a wing. And I can think of anything else at the moment, but when it's fixed it's paint job time !!

PS: those rear louvers look awesome! Do they make any for 86 with the third brake light?

 

If you need somebody to do the body & paint, my buddy Pete is in Woodbury and has worked on several of my cars. Very fair and does clean work - you won't be disappointed.

 

Ok, I'll keep that in mind!

 

So forum member Hellhound told me why my headlight buttons were smoking yesterday while I was testing the the head light motors... He said

"The head light switch I would suspect. These are old cars and if it sits the connectors get corrosion on them. Also there is a paste inside of the switch. I would pull it out and clean it. There is also a link inside of the switch so if it has a hardcore load put on it it will fry. You could have been flipping the switch too fast and put a load on it, and smoked a bit of the paste.
The link is the silver part in this photo. "

He sent me this picture...


and KentuckyKITT said "If you have smoke coming from your headlight switch, you should get that out and check things, at the very least replace the switch. These switches do go bad and usually in my experience having owned 7 thirdgen Pontiacs, when the switch goes bad, it will not close the headlights unless you hold it or have to press firmly. When it starts to do this, I usually replace it. I've never had one smoke though."

you can find that thread here
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...l-tonight.html

And here is the replacement I can get for around $15 at a parts store, Hellhound sent me this picture...





This is great news because I thought I had a mice issue.. which I still can once I pull the dash ..

by the way... does anyone have a video or write up how I can replace this? or pull it from the dash?

 

Nice find,if you are serious about restoring your new car I would invest in 1986 Firebird Service manual for the 86 only.It is loaded with tons of info for your specific year Bird.
They should be available from Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-PONTIAC...lWhxzF&vxp=mtr

 

Im also from Connecticut and also own an 86 trans am ws6 lol. seems like you got a good car, enjoy

 

Nice man! We should meet up sometime once I get it running.

Well no luck today... I worked on it for around 4 hours today... tried starting it after the fresh gas sat it in all night and got nothin.
I tried turning the distributor in a few places and it did sound like it wanted to start but no luck...

On to the next thing! Process of elimination

 

I have an 1988 PDF of the service manual if you want it. PM me your email and I will send it to you. the 88s are not too different really and can save ya 100$

 

That was the expensive one I posted, they do have them for like $39.and up.

 

Sure man! I'll pm you my email.


And should I pick up the Haynes manual?

 

This is what is happening as of yesterday.

Any clues?

 

If you are talking about the hood struts they are like $20 at auto zone. Just don't let the hood fall and break your hand like I did lol.

 

haha sorry to hear that man! That picture I posted was actually a broken link to a video.

Edited, and posted video!