Top video mate and a beautiful Pontiac! Also, I was impressed that you knew about the original Bandit T/A being a '76 with a '77 front end, most people don't know that and that you also know that '77 black and gold was the correct year of the Bandit special edition model as most think it was a '78. Just like most people don't know that the reason why so many T/A's in '79 had the Olds 403 is because Pontiac only had a limited supply of W72 400's left over from the '78 model year and were as they were forced to cease production of the W72 before the '79 model year!
I like your 79 a lot. I have a couple of them myself. The 403 old sender unit is originally installed on a metal tube extension similar to what you did. The tube was originally a little longer and the sender just screwed horizontally onto the end of it. The way you did it, installing it vertically, looks very neat though. In case you didn't know, your bent oil fill tube indicates a California built car, which would've had a smog pump originally. The L, for Los Angeles, on your Fisher body tag indicates this is so. 403's from the other states have a straight fill tube.
My friend did the same thing in a 78 TA, with the same awesome results 👏. She was a total sleeper. We even went to an all Cadillac show for a goof and they let us in after we popped the hood 😁
My brother bought a white with a gold bird 1979 trans am ws6 T/A6.6 400cu 4 speed brand new . He brought it to our mom and dad's house right after he picked it up at beamon Pontiac in Nashville, tn. I remember when he drove it up the driveway and opened the hood. You could smell the fresh baked paint on the engine. This was the last year of the 400cu big block Pontiac engines which could only be had with the 4 speed transmission. Automatic transmission in these cars would have 403cu small block Olds engines or 301cu Pontiac engines. Kinda strange they did it that way. I remember him saying he payed around $ 12000.00 for it new. Long story short he wrecked it on all four sides and it set for a long time . Under a carport and finally sold for parts. Sad but true.
Love what you did with your T/A! Beautiful! I just picked up a 78 Trans Am and I live in SLC area. I'm curious who you use for a mechanic. I just need someone to take a look over the car.
Thanks and congrats on the car! Haven't had the need to use a mechanic quote yet (been able to tackle everything myself so far). If you're in the South end of the valley, Performante Place on Redwood has always treated me well. Good, family run business. Hope it helps!
Great looking car and you are doing an awesome job on detailing and making everything nice on the car. Your shaker Hood scoop fitment issue may have come from that it has an aftermarket intake which put the Carb higher. Pro-touring F-Body I believe sells a drop base air cleaner setup. Actually the gold emblem on the nose is correct if you want to do a Special Edition clone? Yes most of the Trans am's had a red nose emblem. That is one of the quickest Identifiers for a true SE Trans Am. Enjoy your car.
Thanks so much for the feedback and yes, I did find and ordered one of the Pro-Touring bases and that did the trick! (made a little part 2 video on it last month). Cheers! 👍
Very beautiful Trans Am! Ever since I was five years old I wanted one after seeing Smokey and the Bandit for the first time and I promised myself that I would buy one like it. Fast forward to 2019 when I was 21 and an opportunity came along that would be life changing. My Grandparents' neighbor had a 79 Special Edition Bandit Trans Am outside for many years and I would go over to see it many times. Sadly the owner passed away and her son asked me to make him an offer since he knew how much I wanted a Trans Am. It was in need of a frame-off restoration and I offered $3,000 for it since it was a rare Y84 SE Bandit T/A. 1 of 1,107 made with the W72 Pontiac 400 and 4-speed transmission. He said that if I promised to show him the progress and let him see the car when its done, he would let me have it for $1,000 along with all of the parts for it. I am working hard to restore my dream car as I want to do it right and make like it was brand new, but better. I'm seriously considering in doing a TH-cam series on the car and restoration.
I’ve had my Solar Gold ‘79 T/A for 3 years now. I’m the second owner,and the car only has 85,000 miles on her. I was on the way back from buying it,and I saw a car show off the highway on the way home…soooo…I drove in,and ended up taking 3rd Place in my division…and I didn’t even have it washed!
Great looking car! Why does it have the Pontiac 400 shaker decal and not the 6.6 Litre decal for the 403/auto combo? That aside you have an amazing car!!!
Thanks kindly! Decal was on there prior to my ownership. It's confusing to many, including some decals shops that are listing them wrong from what I have found. Cheers!
When you buy the decal kit, it comes with the T/A 6.6 decal in the kit. If you want a 6.6 Litre decal for the 403, it is extra cost. So, some people just use the one for the 400 rather than pay the extra cost, or they don't know any better, or they just like the looks of the T/A 6.6 decal better.
The "W" on the cowl plate does not refer to whether the car is a TA or not. This "W" stands for Water-borne paint. The L in his body number indicates it was built at Van Nuys, LA, California, where they painted the cars with water-borne paint, so they indicate it with a "W" on the cowl tag. A TA built in Norwood Ohio has an "L" on the cowl tag because it's painted with Lacquer paint. The Norwood car normally has WS4 on the tag also, which indicates a Trans Am. The LA cars usually did not have the WS4 on the tag. I have 2 79 TA's from LA and neither has WS4 on the tag, but they have the "W" for the water-borne paint.
True, but it was the best they could do under the circumstances. The Pontiac 400 was being discontinued, with 79 being the last year. The last Pontiac 400's were built during the 78 model year in late 77, and stockpiled for use in 78 and 79. They sold more TA's in 78 than ever before, so there were only about 8500 400's left for the 79's. And they were selling even more 79's than they did 78's, so they decided to put those remaining 400's only in 4 speed cars until they ran out, which was around april or may of 79 I believe. In order to have a large cubic inch engine available for the rest of the TA's they used the 403's, which didn't have as much hp as the 400, but did have basically the same torque, so could still run pretty good, especially if you upgraded the rearend ratio from the standard 2.41's. If they hadn't have used the 403, about 100,000 79's would've been stuck with a 301...a much worse situation 🙂.
@@grand73am Great explanation. You sound like you know the Trans Am well. I loved all the 70's Trans Am's. Smokey and the Bandit really revived the Trans Am. It was a real bummer when they put the 100Mph speedometer in starting the 1975 model year along with the catalytic converter that smelled like rotten eggs. Government mandate is my understanding. My favorite body style was 77/78 model years. Would love to have a 74 with the SD455. The Pontiac V8 were all very strong and well built. I was not too crazy about the nose on the 79-81 years. Product quality starting lacking in 79 as I noticed most of the real spoilers never fit right with the trunk and rear quarter panels. Just the way the entire vehicle was assembled seemed sloppy and out of alignment both exterior body and interior. Nonetheless, if money was no object I would own every model year of the Trans Am 70-81. Thanks for sharing.
What a nice car! Fantastic 1979 Trans Am in black! ✨🖤✨ Many thanks for posting this one!
Top video mate and a beautiful Pontiac! Also, I was impressed that you knew about the original Bandit T/A being a '76 with a '77 front end, most people don't know that and that you also know that '77 black and gold was the correct year of the Bandit special edition model as most think it was a '78. Just like most people don't know that the reason why so many T/A's in '79 had the Olds 403 is because Pontiac only had a limited supply of W72 400's left over from the '78 model year and were as they were forced to cease production of the W72 before the '79 model year!
Thank you sir for yet another great episode of Johnny's Garage!!
Thanks buddy!
Nice work
Another awesome car out of the Johnny's garage.
Thanks Mason!
I like your 79 a lot. I have a couple of them myself. The 403 old sender unit is originally installed on a metal tube extension similar to what you did. The tube was originally a little longer and the sender just screwed horizontally onto the end of it. The way you did it, installing it vertically, looks very neat though. In case you didn't know, your bent oil fill tube indicates a California built car, which would've had a smog pump originally. The L, for Los Angeles, on your Fisher body tag indicates this is so. 403's from the other states have a straight fill tube.
that looks kick ass!
Very good video, of a great car. Starting to follow your channel! 😀
Awesome car, looks like you’re doing a great job tidying it up 👍
Thanks much! It's been great to play with so far, I've really enjoyed this one!
These old cars are never ending work! But it’s a blast! That’s a damn good looking machine.
Thanks!!👍🏼
I shoved a built 500 CID Cadillac under the hood of my 81 T/A.. it's a tire shredding neck snapping torque monster.
Amazing! I love it!! 👍🏼
My friend did the same thing in a 78 TA, with the same awesome results 👏. She was a total sleeper.
We even went to an all Cadillac show for a goof and they let us in after we popped the hood 😁
My brother bought a white with a gold bird 1979 trans am ws6 T/A6.6 400cu 4 speed brand new . He brought it to our mom and dad's house right after he picked it up at beamon Pontiac in Nashville, tn. I remember when he drove it up the driveway and opened the hood. You could smell the fresh baked paint on the engine. This was the last year of the 400cu big block Pontiac engines which could only be had with the 4 speed transmission. Automatic transmission in these cars would have 403cu small block Olds engines or 301cu Pontiac engines. Kinda strange they did it that way. I remember him saying he payed around $ 12000.00 for it new. Long story short he wrecked it on all four sides and it set for a long time . Under a carport and finally sold for parts. Sad but true.
Oh man, great story until the end! Thanks for sharing!
Love what you did with your T/A! Beautiful! I just picked up a 78 Trans Am and I live in SLC area. I'm curious who you use for a mechanic. I just need someone to take a look over the car.
Thanks and congrats on the car! Haven't had the need to use a mechanic quote yet (been able to tackle everything myself so far). If you're in the South end of the valley, Performante Place on Redwood has always treated me well. Good, family run business. Hope it helps!
Great looking car and you are doing an awesome job on detailing and making everything nice on the car. Your shaker Hood scoop fitment issue may have come from that it has an aftermarket intake which put the Carb higher. Pro-touring F-Body I believe sells a drop base air cleaner setup. Actually the gold emblem on the nose is correct if you want to do a Special Edition clone? Yes most of the Trans am's had a red nose emblem. That is one of the quickest Identifiers for a true SE Trans Am. Enjoy your car.
Thanks so much for the feedback and yes, I did find and ordered one of the Pro-Touring bases and that did the trick! (made a little part 2 video on it last month). Cheers! 👍
Very beautiful Trans Am! Ever since I was five years old I wanted one after seeing Smokey and the Bandit for the first time and I promised myself that I would buy one like it. Fast forward to 2019 when I was 21 and an opportunity came along that would be life changing. My Grandparents' neighbor had a 79 Special Edition Bandit Trans Am outside for many years and I would go over to see it many times. Sadly the owner passed away and her son asked me to make him an offer since he knew how much I wanted a Trans Am. It was in need of a frame-off restoration and I offered $3,000 for it since it was a rare Y84 SE Bandit T/A. 1 of 1,107 made with the W72 Pontiac 400 and 4-speed transmission. He said that if I promised to show him the progress and let him see the car when its done, he would let me have it for $1,000 along with all of the parts for it. I am working hard to restore my dream car as I want to do it right and make like it was brand new, but better. I'm seriously considering in doing a TH-cam series on the car and restoration.
This is great! (Except of course of the passing of the neighbor). Best wishes on the restoration! 👍
I heard if the shaker hood had 6.6 T/A it was a Pontiac V8 if it has 6.6 liter on it. It was an Oldsmobile engine.
Yes, you are correct. Previous owner got that wrong on my car and I have since corrected it! 👍
I found a 1/2 drink J D bottle under my back seat of my 79 black special gold strip t a when installing rear speakers a few days after I bought it new
Nice! 😀
I’ve had my Solar Gold ‘79 T/A for 3 years now. I’m the second owner,and the car only has 85,000 miles on her. I was on the way back from buying it,and I saw a car show off the highway on the way home…soooo…I drove in,and ended up taking 3rd Place in my division…and I didn’t even have it washed!
Nice!!!!👍🏼
Great looking car! Why does it have the Pontiac 400 shaker decal and not the 6.6 Litre decal for the 403/auto combo? That aside you have an amazing car!!!
Thanks kindly! Decal was on there prior to my ownership. It's confusing to many, including some decals shops that are listing them wrong from what I have found. Cheers!
When you buy the decal kit, it comes with the T/A 6.6 decal in the kit. If you want a 6.6 Litre decal for the 403, it is extra cost. So, some people just use the one for the 400 rather than pay the extra cost, or they don't know any better, or they just like the looks of the T/A 6.6 decal better.
Very true, false advertising but everybody uses the T/A 6.6 decal. No WS6 on this car either.
Love the car but in 79 Olds engine had a 6.6 Litre shaker decal not T/A 6.6
Thank you and you are indeed correct, a common mistake (done by a previous owner). Even some decal retailers have that wrong on their sites! ;-)
79 is the suave one of the bunch
How much all together did you spend where u get the interior from car looks sweet got a 79 same black and brown gold interior
'79 Trans Am 4SPD, HAS 400 Pontiac. 220net HP. A different car to drive.
Retromoding a black 1979 Rabbit hole, yup. Frame off and all. Nice ride. No AC huh ?
Congrats on finding this jewel. Getting tough out there to find a driver. But why do they always rip the A/C out of them ??? 😥 Great channel, btw!
Thank you!
Hold the record is that a marty mcfly truck WOW
you need this engine..
Johnny, did you have to remove the heater box to remove the passenger side kick panel?
No, not that I remember. I think it came out fine after unhooking the vent spring/wire thing.
How much did you pay for it
Is your car not a trans am? I only saw a W on your cowl plate.
True Trans Am with the WS6 package 👍🏼
The "W" on the cowl plate does not refer to whether the car is a TA or not. This "W" stands for Water-borne paint. The L in his body number indicates it was built at Van Nuys, LA, California, where they painted the cars with water-borne paint, so they indicate it with a "W" on the cowl tag. A TA built in Norwood Ohio has an "L" on the cowl tag because it's painted with Lacquer paint. The Norwood car normally has WS4 on the tag also, which indicates a Trans Am. The LA cars usually did not have the WS4 on the tag. I have 2 79 TA's from LA and neither has WS4 on the tag, but they have the "W" for the water-borne paint.
It's a shame Pontiac bastardized the Trans Am by installing the 403 Olds engine in it.
True, but it was the best they could do under the circumstances. The Pontiac 400 was being discontinued, with 79 being the last year. The last Pontiac 400's were built during the 78 model year in late 77, and stockpiled for use in 78 and 79. They sold more TA's in 78 than ever before, so there were only about 8500 400's left for the 79's. And they were selling even more 79's than they did 78's, so they decided to put those remaining 400's only in 4 speed cars until they ran out, which was around april or may of 79 I believe. In order to have a large cubic inch engine available for the rest of the TA's they used the 403's, which didn't have as much hp as the 400, but did have basically the same torque, so could still run pretty good, especially if you upgraded the rearend ratio from the standard 2.41's. If they hadn't have used the 403, about 100,000 79's would've been stuck with a 301...a much worse situation 🙂.
@@grand73am Great explanation. You sound like you know the Trans Am well. I loved all the 70's Trans Am's. Smokey and the Bandit really revived the Trans Am. It was a real bummer when they put the 100Mph speedometer in starting the 1975 model year along with the catalytic converter that smelled like rotten eggs. Government mandate is my understanding. My favorite body style was 77/78 model years. Would love to have a 74 with the SD455. The Pontiac V8 were all very strong and well built. I was not too crazy about the nose on the 79-81 years. Product quality starting lacking in 79 as I noticed most of the real spoilers never fit right with the trunk and rear quarter panels. Just the way the entire vehicle was assembled seemed sloppy and out of alignment both exterior body and interior. Nonetheless, if money was no object I would own every model year of the Trans Am 70-81. Thanks for sharing.