RLuzum

iTrader: (1)

First off, I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this.
I've been lurking on here for a while and wanted to share my vision/plan and get some feedback and suggestion from some people who probably know a lot more than myself.

But first some background. I've always loved the Trans Am for as long as I can remember. When I was about 17, the transmission went out in my 1994 Saturn SC2. Luckily for me, my parents were willing to help me out by letting me borrow about $3000 from them for my next car. I ended up coming across a red 89 Trans Am GTA with a recently rebuilt engine and transmission. Big V8, T-tops, headers, bucket seats, pop-up headlights... my dream car! I ended up taking it for a drive with my dad and, long story short, whether my dad didn't trust the quality of the car, or 17 year old me (probably both) he ended up vetoing it. It wasn't my money so I didn't have much of say in it.

Fast forward 14 years and I'm at a fortunate place in life where I have an extra stall in the garage, a decent job, and most importantly, a green light from my wife. I never forgot about that red GTA. It's the one that got away.

So now I've started looking again. Ideally I'd want to find either an 88 or 89 GTA 350 TPI. Near stock in decent condition. My plan is to have it be my long term project car that I can work on with my son over the years and eventually pass it down to him (if he wants it and if I can part with it). My vision is to keep most things stock, polish it up and make it look clean and well taken care of. I'm ok with a few performance upgrades, but the idea is not to take this to the track. I definitely want to upgrade a few things (lighting and audio connectivity) to bring it into the modern age while maintaining an overall classic / stock look. (I've also always loved lights and tech.)

Some things that I've imagined:

Upgraded headlights and taillights to be on par with the visibility of modern cars. I'm thinking something similar to this for the headlights: https://www.oraclelights.com/collections/led-replacement-headlights/products/oracle-4-x6-40w-replacement-led-headlight
And something similar to this for the tailights (I know this is the wrong year, but you get the idea): https://youtu.be/vkAXr5J_2ic

I'd also want to incorporate a modern touchscreen head unit with wireless Android Auto / Apple Car Play and a stealthy / hidden wireless phone charger. I haven't looked into specifics of this yet, but the goal is to make it not stick out like a sore thumb.

My biggest concern is trying to avoid making it look cheap or tacky. I feel like a lot of times when you try adding modern things to something classic, it can look bad. So I think striking a balance between modern and updated while maintaining its overall classic look and feel will be the biggest challenge.

I'd love to hear everybody's ideas, feedback, suggestions, and questions. Feel free to tell me I'm crazy too! Lol

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

Welcome aboard RLuzum.

Congrats on the green light. Your plan does not sound crazy at all. Lots of members here who have upgraded lighting one way or another, and the same with the stereo. I look for to seeing what you find, and what you do with it.

Neil350

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the forun. I have an 89 Trans Am GTA, my first car was a 93 Trans Am. At 16 the head lights didn't bother me at all, in my mid 30s, I can't see crap with them. Good luck on your search, with the renewed popularity, cars are coming out of the wood works so there is a supply of them out there. The prices aren't what they were 5 years ago, finding lower mile cars that are all original for under $10K is becoming more difficult. Expect to search nation wide, but I tend to find a lot of really nice third gens are in the mid west that were summer only hobby cars. Ideally an original car is what you want, a lot of these cars got hacked up, so fixing some ones screw ups isn't exactly fun. Even a low mile car though is going to need the same things, hatch pull down motors, body seals, maintenance items, etc. On the GTAs the seats and steering wheels didn't hold up well, so expect even low mile cars to need upholstery work. Also the seats covers arent cheap items, so be aware

RLuzum

iTrader: (1)

I appreciate all those tips! I definitely don't mind putting in some work to get the results I'm looking for, but completely agree that I'd rather not fix somebody else's hack job. I've been browsing this website and YouTube to try to get a feel for common issues and maintenance and even started trying to find good suppliers. I have a feeling Hawks will become a frequent website.

Hopefully with me living in the Kansas City area I'll be able to find a decently cared for original. We'll see. Waiting for one to pop up is the hardest part for me.

Big&BadGTA

iTrader: (1)

WTH is this "green light" stuff? Guess I got lucky, I don't need permission. Good luck w/ the GTA though.