I figured getting the spark plugs from america would be pretty easy, but I was shocked at how good RockAuto were. The website is great, using a Java based catalog to narrow down the products to the exact ones that match your vehicle and although postage and packing was expensive, I ordered the parts on Monday morning and they arrived Wednesday morning. I think that’s pretty good service and the even better thing is I got the spark plugs I wanted, not just some compatible ones. Seeing as I was paying for the postage and packing anyway, I also got an oil filter and an air filter.
Had no luck sourcing any spark plugs locally, or in the UK. The local shops tried their suppliers with no joy and http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk had some compatible ones in their catolog, but none in stock. So this left me with no option but to get the trans am towed. I called two local companies, didn’t even get an answer before ringing M & J Autos. We had a chat, he said he could shift it for £30 and explained that he’d recently bought himself a 1972 Ford Mercury! He guessed rightly that the car would be a similar length to his, about 16'-17' and said we’d need a low lifter with the car weighing about 1.7 tonnes. He ended up being a little late, but that wasn’t a problem because he was a great guy and went out of his way to drop the trans am right on my friends drive to save us pushing it.
Seems like I’ve neglected this blog a little bit, just like I have the car. The plan was to spend my spare time in April getting the Trans Am ready for it’s MOT and some leisure time during the summer, but I’ve been unexpectedly asked to leave the garage where I’m keeping it as soon as possible, which has lead to me trying to get it running this week. Picked up a new battery, but the terminals are the opposite way around to the current battery and the connector leads aren’t long enough for the new one. Will try and change it tomorrow. We got it connected up just to try it out though and the starter turned but the engine didn’t fire. Started getting the plugins out to clean them and inspect them, but one of them broke in my hand, so will have to get new ones now. Hopefully will be able to pick some up after work tomorrow and have another pop at getting it going.
TransformationRestorations is run by Jason Daugherty in Port Allegany, PA. They specialize in restoring old cars and in particular muscle cars like Trans Ams, they built one of the Fire Ams mentioned previously. By the looks of their website they are very dedicated towards involving the customer to the maximum and appear very flexible on the acquisition of parts and the involvement of other third parties. I’d recommend having a quick browse around their website and check out this 4 min slideshow.
I know I’m a little late with the news but one of the original 1982 Pontiac Trans Ams from the hit television show Knight Rider is up for sale. A snip if you’ve got $150,000, available at Kassabian Motors. Apparently one of the other 3 surviving T-Top cars used on the show is on display here in England, might have to check it out one day.
After a long while, the trans am is finally tucked up in it’s own little garage. A good friend is letting me use a garage of his to store it before he starts a masterplan to transform the land it is on.
The garage itself is an old style garage, wide enough to easily walk down both sides and long enough for the bandit with about 15 inches to spare. It’s alarmed, secure and the yard itself has a barrier on it. Basically it’s going to be ideal for keeping it away from the elements and for working on it as needs be, it even has a pit!
Manuals arrived safe and sound today, both in nice enough condition. Had a quick glance through the Haynes one and it’s seems thorough enough, what I’ve come to expect from Haynes really.
The bandit has been starting reasonably well this week, but I still want to get a look at the starter and check it out.
Anybody reading this should check out this sweet video of a restored 1977 Trans Ams first test drive. A little short, but the sound of the engine, the background music and the drivers facial hair and ponytail make it essential viewing.
The bandit wouldn’t start yesterday, I’d just spent a couple of hours cleaning and polishing her with the new cleaning stuff I purchased, tried to fire her up and just got a clicking noise.
The previous owner mentioned he’d had a problem the day I picked it up, it hadn’t been started for four weeks and there was a problem with the starter motor. So, I had a quick browse around on the internet learning what I could about starter motors and what to do when they’re not working. In the end I simply rocked the front end of the car quite heavily hoping to unstick the drive gears, after that it cranked on the third try, fired on the fouth. Obviously it’s not a long term fix, but I’m learning along the way.
On a good note, I landed a couple of manuals on ebay, costing me £26.11 in total, a little cheaper than I would have had to pay on Amazon.
Update:I won another Haynes Manual on eBay, totally forgot about it to be honest, this one costing only £5.99 including postage. It’s well used, but that’s the way the should be. If it’s not used beyond the capacity for decent use, I’ll sell the as good as new one on.
I’d looked around on the internet for car covers and found The Cover Company, who looked to provide quality products, but with prices upwards of £150, I decided to make do with a cheap one for now. They had two brands of cover at Halfords, but their own line only went up to Large, which wasn’t going to be big enough, thankfully the other line went up to XXL, which fits the length of the bandit neatly, but is a little slack on top. This cover cost me £64.99. I think eventually I’ll invest in a decent one, should keep it better in the long run.
We’ve got a bunch of car cleaning products in our garage, but I thought while I was there the bandit deserved new, so I got an Autoglym gift set, which came with shampoo, polish, glass cleaner, wheel cleaner, sponge and polishing cloth, all for £19.99. I also picked up a chamois leather cloth for £8.99.