At least its still around!!:3gears:

Yes it is. It's not like I was going back to the 60's as it was only 1980's. Still it's actually a long time. AND it might make it's way back to me as I will be in the market in the next 12+ months. Will offer to buy it, or a real numbers GTX rag top.

I'm quite a bit younger than most of the folks here, so my first truck was a 1996 Dakota. I sold it to a buddy, and he blew it up. I miss it a lot.

However...

Before that, when I was 9, my father bought a 1995 F-150 XL. This was 2008. In 2011, he bought a 2005 Ranger FX4, which actually ended up inspiring me to buy one a few months before I sold the Dakota. But I loved that F-150, and so he was going to keep it for me initially, but I let him sell it.


Fast forward to 2017, I'm a senior in high school, and I found out a classmate's mom ended up buying it from the man my dad sold it to. I immediately begged my dad to let me buy it, but seeing the rust, and knowing I had my Dakota but not a job, he said no way.

Then this spring, another friend tells me the classmate is wanting to sell the truck, do I still want it?

Well, dad's gonna kick my ass if I do this, so let's see if Darren wants it (he's the one I sold the Dakota too). He and his fiancée bought it, and had it for a couple months.

Then it happened. The trans started acting up.

At this point, it got away when I was 12, it got away in High school, and it kept popping up. It was fate. I was not letting it get away again.

I've got a long way to go, but ten years later, it's back home.

So, the first that wasn't actually the first because I never got to drive it*? I don't miss it because it's sitting right outside!

*Except for one time, when I was 9 or 10, dad let me wheel it around in an empty parking lot so it's actually the first car/truck I ever drove)

The trans? I've dropped the pan, popped a new filter in, and filled it and added Lucas Trans Fix. The only issue seems to be a rough 1-2 shift, and I think it's a sensor and I have a specific one in mind. Other than that and the rust it's every bit as good as it was when dad had it.

(long winded but I like to tell a story- sue me! :grin:)

Fortunate to still have mine as well.

Great story. Thank you for sharing it, and also Thank You for your service.

Looks like it's registered in Massachusetts.

Me too. Mom got it in September of '73, but I've had it since '78.

Dated my wife in my first car. I still have both.

K

What part of mi did you grow up? I was from Warren and wondering if I saw you cruising Gratiot back in the day?!

Flint area (Davison).

K

This picture is from Checkpoints Magazine which is published by the Association of Graduates for the US Air Force Academy. Latest edition March 2023 that a classmate sent me today. The picture is for the class of 1977 so I think those are '76 Trans Am's etc. as you always got your car in May in the year before you graduated. I was the class of 1980 hence we got 79's which I believe was the highest year production numbers for Trans Am's. We had a catered lunch in the Pontiac building and then, at the end, given a map to locate our car in the formation. None of us could eat as we were pretty excited, we slowly walked out to our cars and then ran to them! My own pictures are stored away but you get the idea. I think the class of '79 had a similar picture on the front page of the Denver Post or the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper back then. Lots of Pontiac press every year we did this. The buses in the background were used when they picked us up at the airport and took us to the corporate HQ for lunch. We had a full-on police escort out of the city like a parade with lights and sirens.