Cascade Crew

Xophertony · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject: Guy with a fake GTA i met today

so i am on 185th BLVD today in hillsboro/beaverton, and i see what appears to be a 87-89 GTA. then i get a closer look.

the car is white. it has the full Aero package that all trans ams recieve. GFX/wrap around spoiler. it also has 16" gta/formula wheels. they are gold on the driver side and white on the passanger side. and it has FENDER VENTS Rolling Eyes

GTAs NEVER had fender vents.

the fender vents tell me one of two things.
1. this is a GTA that has recieved regular TA fenders for some reason.
2. this is a run of the mill TA that somone slapped GTA badges on. it ONLY has the "GTA" fender emblems. no sail pannel birds or nose emblem.

so i roll up next to the guy (who had a mullet BTW) and i asked him if he added the fender vents or the badging. he says "it came this way" and asks me what year mine is. i say 88 and he says "mine is an 86". for those who are unaware, 1987-1992 is the lifespan of the GTA. it was never offered before or since. there is no such thing as a 1986 GTA just like there is no such thing as a 1963 ford mustang or a 2004 camaro. it was just never made.

i inform him of this and the fender vent thing and he says "well it's a GTA...." i say " cool man, i must have my info mixed up, oh hey, there is a website you should check out, WWW.GTASOURCEPAGE.COM" he says "cool" and we part ways as the light finaly turns green.

and i am thinking "IDIOT".. as he is pulling away i notice that his bird on the back (where the key goes) is red, and not gold like on GTAs... and his Aero wing is black. GTAs are always monochromatic. another sucker. hopefully he will go to that link and become informed. but he probably won't.....

oh well, every idiot like him makes my car worth more Very Happy

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:15 pm Post subject:

not that much more with cavalier seats Razz

aaron_sK · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject:

Dewey316 · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:29 pm Post subject:

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:34 pm Post subject:

Cavalier seats are COMFY!!!!!!!!!

Had some in my old S10 with a bonda roof LOL

Xophertony · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject:

but....

screw you guys. it's still a GTA.. it's just "custom". Very Happy

fact is i have Y89 and WS6. he does not (ws6 perhaps).

also, john your car has bondo on it too. Wink

BigDaddyVu · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 6:36 pm Post subject:

you telling me i'm friends with a bunch of bondo bandits here???

Dewey316 · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 6:42 pm Post subject:

Xophertony · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 7:00 pm Post subject:

wait, so your car was rear ended and you are telling me there is NO body filler on it?

perhaps i am confused on what "bondo" is. to my understanding, when a cars metal body pannals are dented and repaired by a body shop, the shop pulls the dent to the best of there ability, or welds in a new pannal. in the former case you can almost never get it perfect, so you use a little body filler or "bondo" to fill in the remaining 1/8th of an inch of imperfection and smooth the pannal out.

am i wrong. is bondo a bad thing? i thought bondo was part of the correct repar process for a non removable unibody pannal. if you get a minor ding in your rear quarter they are not going to weald a new one on, they are going to fill it right?

with my car, when i pulled and recovered the headliner i noticed a few small (perrfectly semetrical Confused

) dents in the roof. i figured it must have been from hail, but i supose it could have been parked under a tall nut tree or been in a meteor shower or somthing Very Happy

since i could see them ( if they had been hammerd out i would not see a dent) i assume there is filler on the top.

heh... you know what i also noticed? a bunch of dried adheisive or somthing on the bottom of the roof. but here is the weird part..... it was done after the dents were made. it had run to the sides, and had dripped off of these dents, it almost looked like the dents were drops that had hardend.. so i figure some prior owner was having an issue with the headliner and sprayed some adheisive up there. weird huh,

83Z28BlackBetty · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 7:19 pm Post subject:

Xophertony · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 7:24 pm Post subject:

oh ok. thanks for clearing that up.

my cars nose is no longer original allong with most of it's GTA stuff being removed, and slowly re-added (restored Wink

) by me, yeah, a little filler on the roof is the least of my worrys. besides, many of your cars could have body filler and you might not know... if say... the entire drivers side had been repainted, or the hood swapped out. or massive repairs due to a large rear and collision that would have wrecked the car had it not been for SFCs *cough*dewy*cough* Wink

just sayin..... it could be there Razz

83Z28BlackBetty · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 12:21 am Post subject:

Glad to help USA

84transam383 · Banned Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 431 Location: bend, or

Xophertony · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 3:19 am Post subject:

the GTA sorce page makes no mention of formulas at all. it does however mention that the GOLD wheels were only avialable on GTAs whereas other colors such as black and white were available on TAs. this perticular "GTA" had one side white and one side gold.

however, http://www.3rdgenformula.com/ says that PW7 ("GTA" wheels) were available on the formula. however that websites RPO production figures are dificult to read, so i may be mistaken.

i will be th first to admit i know verry little about formies, but i do know they could be ordered with 16" tires, i assume therefore that they recieved the 16" diamond spoke wheels as well. were there any other wheels offered in 16" for firebirds?

i don't mean to be argumentative, but you have got my curiosity going. Surprised

84transam383 · Banned Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 431 Location: bend, or

formulas got the 16 inch wheel standard,as well as ws6 standard,allof em had this no matter which engine you had.

in in 87 they had the convex wheel
and 88+ they had the concave wheel

i personally have never seen a 3rd gen formula with the RPO for 16 inch gta/ ta diamand spoke wheels,although i have seen formulas with them,they were always added on by the owner.

iansane · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 7:59 am Post subject:

Xophertony · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 11:36 am Post subject:

so there were other 16" wheels that are not crosslace! are they different offsets like crosslace/iroc wheels?

chevymad · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject:

The wheels I just powder coated are 16" factory formula wheels. And yes they are different front and rear.

Xophertony · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 3:22 pm Post subject:

those look awsome BTW. Cool

Schultzy89GTA · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 8:06 pm Post subject:

Technically they are not 'GTA' wheels even though that has become a popular name. They are crosslace wheels. They were available in Black, Red, White and, only on the GTA, Gold. Not sure if grey was an option in later years or not but the list above is what was available when I factory ordered my 88 Trans Am.

FWIW.

-Schultzy