Hey guys,
I picked up an 86 TA in the 90's when I was 16 up in PA.. and after some questionable teenage decisions, the car was .. well.. taken away.
25 years later I'm down here in Florida and have a 1998 Z28 that has been with me since around 2003, and undergone several stages of modification, and is currently in need of some head gaskets and being stored until I have the time to get that figured out.
Even though I have my Camaro I have always longed for another Trans am.., When it came time to find one, I started looking at low mileage 86 cars that looked just like the one I had (maroon, gold wheels, grey interior) but was finding that the prices were pretty high for a clean car. I figured that if I was spending 15-20k on a clean run of the mill low mileage TA that I might as well start looking at TTA's and spend some more $$ for a better investment long term.
After looking at a few options I picked up a 9700 mile 1 owner TTA that spent its life up in Chicago before the owner passed and a dealership in Ocala took it in. The car came with more documentation than I could have imagined, appears to be mostly stock / original and is an absolute blast to drive. Digging into the receipts and documentation, I found that the original owner installed a ram air kit, a pitbull chip, a polished intake tube, polished turbo shield, and ordered a catalytic test pipe for the car (but it doesn't appear to be installed). I'd like to go through the car and make sure that its safe to drive and nothing is going to get hurt when I get into the throttle.
After doing some reading about the pitbull chip (and confirming that it is is installed) I know that needs to be changed out for something safer. I don't have the stock chip and haven't found it anywhere in the car, but have read that the turbotweak chip along with a scanmaster is the way to go. I am concerned with the interior appearing stock, where do those of you using scanmasters place them? The new guage style looks like it would be the nicest to me.
The car came with a complete owners kit, including the TTA fender badges new in plastic, was it common for these to come uninstalled? The car also included lots of literature, new in box t top shades (foam seems to be out of elasticity and as soon as I touched them it left indentations).
The car also has almost perfect acryclic t tops on it.. which I'd love to store and replace with some glass tops.. but I am finding that glass tops in similar condition to the car are pretty tough to come by, but I am going to try and hunt some down.
The only notable issues that I have found are that the power antenna is either disconnected, or does not work at all, no sound, no movement, the drivers side t top is slightly bowed and makes a pretty bad wind noise above 50mph, and the drivers door regulator has some issues (clunking inside the door when operating What else do I need to dig into on this car?
Thanks in advance for any info, advice, and help!
Ian
I picked up an 86 TA in the 90's when I was 16 up in PA.. and after some questionable teenage decisions, the car was .. well.. taken away.
25 years later I'm down here in Florida and have a 1998 Z28 that has been with me since around 2003, and undergone several stages of modification, and is currently in need of some head gaskets and being stored until I have the time to get that figured out.
Even though I have my Camaro I have always longed for another Trans am.., When it came time to find one, I started looking at low mileage 86 cars that looked just like the one I had (maroon, gold wheels, grey interior) but was finding that the prices were pretty high for a clean car. I figured that if I was spending 15-20k on a clean run of the mill low mileage TA that I might as well start looking at TTA's and spend some more $$ for a better investment long term.
After looking at a few options I picked up a 9700 mile 1 owner TTA that spent its life up in Chicago before the owner passed and a dealership in Ocala took it in. The car came with more documentation than I could have imagined, appears to be mostly stock / original and is an absolute blast to drive. Digging into the receipts and documentation, I found that the original owner installed a ram air kit, a pitbull chip, a polished intake tube, polished turbo shield, and ordered a catalytic test pipe for the car (but it doesn't appear to be installed). I'd like to go through the car and make sure that its safe to drive and nothing is going to get hurt when I get into the throttle.
After doing some reading about the pitbull chip (and confirming that it is is installed) I know that needs to be changed out for something safer. I don't have the stock chip and haven't found it anywhere in the car, but have read that the turbotweak chip along with a scanmaster is the way to go. I am concerned with the interior appearing stock, where do those of you using scanmasters place them? The new guage style looks like it would be the nicest to me.
The car came with a complete owners kit, including the TTA fender badges new in plastic, was it common for these to come uninstalled? The car also included lots of literature, new in box t top shades (foam seems to be out of elasticity and as soon as I touched them it left indentations).
The car also has almost perfect acryclic t tops on it.. which I'd love to store and replace with some glass tops.. but I am finding that glass tops in similar condition to the car are pretty tough to come by, but I am going to try and hunt some down.
The only notable issues that I have found are that the power antenna is either disconnected, or does not work at all, no sound, no movement, the drivers side t top is slightly bowed and makes a pretty bad wind noise above 50mph, and the drivers door regulator has some issues (clunking inside the door when operating What else do I need to dig into on this car?
Thanks in advance for any info, advice, and help!
Ian
