If you’re a purist, this car isn’t for you. I’ve always loved 3rd gen Firebird’s, and when I started looking for my own there were some things I really wanted; T-tops, L98, digital dash, and flame red metallic paint just to name a few. Unfortunately, these aren’t common because the digital dash was only available in 87/88 and the 5.7 with T-tops was only available after ’89 (this is according to the GTA source page – except for export, so you could find this in Canada). Either way, it would be a tough find, but I did stumble across one with an intriguing story….The previous owner to this car had a flame metallic red ‘87 GTA with 58K miles and totaled it in the early 90’s, but purchased it back from insurance hoping to repair it. After tearing into it, he saw that the body was too far gone, so he started searching for another car. He came across a theft recovered ‘89 gunmetal gray GTA, with 52K miles in New Jersey. The car was fine, but NJ law required it to have a reconstructed title, even though there was no damage. He checked it out and agreed to make the purchase. However, between the time he saw it and when he picked it up, someone stole the engine. He negotiated a new price with the insurance company and took it home.

He then decided to install the engine from his ’87 into the ’89 and while he was at it, also swapped the interior. He liked the Flame red metallic so much, that he repainted the 89 in this color (you can still see the gray behind the door panels). There were only 644 GTA’s in ’89 that were painted gunmetal gray. Keep in mind this was the mid 90’s and nobody had a clue what these cars would be worth, and nobody cared about the build numbers at this point. So, over the course of 4 years, he swapped the engine, interior, and painted the car in his spare time. When he finally finished it in the late 90’s, he had lost interest and put it in storage.

20 years later, he pulled it out of storage and decided to sell it. We made a deal and I brought it home and began a month’s long cleanup process. The first stop was to my local mechanic, who couldn’t believe the detail the guy went through on the engine swap. He said there are things that the previous owner kept and installed that most guys would not have reinstalled. He did a full service on the car, gutted the cats and installed frame connectors. Next, it was detailed with a ceramic coating and tuned with a new PROM. Then I spent months working on the odometer and DIC trying to correct the displays while not driving it to preserve the mileage until it was corrected.

It’s probably a one-of-a-kind bird. Like I said, not a number matching pure car, but I feel one with some of the best options. It has about 55K miles (engine has about 4KBen Schwandt more), runs great and is a blast to drive! Thanks for checking it out!

Josh Weaver, Strasburg, Pennsylvania

’99 Trans Am of Ben Schwandt
Greetings! I recently sold my 2000 T-top WS-6 Trans Am and decided I needed another to replace it! I found this beauty advertised for sale in your Eagle publication, spoke with the seller and the rest is history!

I had it shipped from New Jersey to my home in Minnesota sight unseen. It’s a beautiful car with only 21,000 miles on it. It is 1 of only 48 red WS-6 Trans Ams with a 6 speed. This Trans Am is a great addition to my black 1983 Trans am and my 2002 Collector edition convertible.

Ben Schwandt, Moorhead, Minnesota Editor’s Note: Photos of his 1983 and 2002 Trans Ams have appeared in the August 2022 issue of the Eagle.

A National Firebird and Trans Am Club featured car is the ‘88 Trans Am GTA of Dave and Jodi Przybysz of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Here is their story:

My wife, Jodi, and I have wanted our own collector car for years. Financially, it just never seemed to be the right time so we lived vicariously through my father, going to shows and car cruises in one of his classic or antique cars that he had restored.

Then one day, in the middle of a substantial home remodeling project, our contractor told us about this 1988 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am GTA.

He said it’s been in his buddy’s garage for years and he believed he would sell the car. We thought…”Wow! A true barn find!” Not really being in the position to purchase, we made arrangements to go see the car anyways.

It was gorgeous and with only 12k miles on the odometer, it was something we knew we just couldn’t pass up! The car was stored for 17 years, in a clean climate controlled garage (not really a barn find). It was sitting sideways in the back of the garage on wheel dollies. The owner just simply stopped driving it one day and began driving a different vehicle in their collection and so there it sat.

The stickers on the windshield indicated that the last time the car went through a Pennsylvania state inspection was 2003! A price was negotiated and arrangements were made to have a flat bed pick it up. We bought it without even knowing if it would run!

Thanks to our good friend, who is also a mechanic, all the proper maintenance and repairs were preformed to get her running again! We flushed the fuel and brake systems, replaced the fuel pump and injectors and all four tires were replaced. The air conditioning compressor was bad so we replaced it and upgraded the refrigerant. Finally we rebuilt the power antenna motor and then we fired her up. After 17 years she roared back to life!

The history of the car is kind of interesting. As I understand it, the car was purchased new in the Philadelphia area. At some point the car was stolen. It was eventually recovered although, I do not know in what time frame that this occurred. The GTA had sadly been partially disassembled. The radio and taillights were missing, there was a scratch down the passenger side, the windshield was missing and the VIN tag had been removed.

The second owner had purchased the car at an insurance auction.

Oddly enough, because the major components of the car were still intact, the car retains a clean title with a reissued VIN. The taillights and radio were replaced, as were the windshield and the paint was repaired.

Today she sits in our garage. It goes out on nice days to car cruises or for drives in the country, sometimes just to go get ice cream and occasionally to work. Since we’ve owned it, it’s never even seen the rain.

Now, she’s not perfect. There are small details and imperfections that we will enjoy detailing as time goes by but, she is better than anything we ever dreamed that we would own!

Recent events in our lives have proved to us that there is never a right time and that life is too short. The timing, financially, was definitely not right for us to purchase this car but, it is a dream come true and a continuation of a family tradition…in fact…our Trans Am bares the Pennsylvania Antique license plate that was originally registered to my father’s first antique car…a 1930 Chevy.