A Newer Project!

[njsteve]

Well, as you may have noticed from my want ad, me and my son were looking for a modern project car: a 1998 to 2002 Trans Am WS6 (because he likes how the hood scoops look - hey, he's 13 he doesn't need a real reason).

We found one today and picked it up.

Amazing to say the least - After searching through weeks of Craigslist and ebay ads I narrowed it down to half a dozen cars. It was really difficult to find an unaltered original car in the Northeast, all the stock ones seemed to be out west.

The <span style="text-decoration: underline">really</span> weird thing was that there seemed to be two specific types of people that were selling these.

1) Young men who's wives just told them they were having a baby, and that they needed a larger car.
2) Older women who were the original owners of the cars.

It was three of each situation. Very strange to say the least.

Well, I found a car listed on Craigslist here in NJ that belonged to the latter group. She was an older woman (a former over-the-road truck driver) who bought the car new in 2001. Wonderful lady to say the least. The ad had no pictures and very limited description. So, after a few days of texting and photos being sent, me and the boy went down to Southern Jersey and picked it up today.

The lady was fanatical about maintenance. She has over an inch thick stack of invoices for oil changes every four months. Sadly it seems that the GM dealers were taking advantage of her and doing every crazy fluid flush and cleanse just about every time the car showed up in there service lane. They would perform the $169 &quot;6,000 mile service&quot; every 2,000 miles. The car only has 61,000 miles on it.

The absolutely amazing thing is that she bought three extended warranties over the past 13 years! The car's mechanicals are still covered until late 2016! In fact the GM dealer just rebuilt the noisy rear differential in late 2013 and she only paid a $50 deductible for a $2,200 repair.

So here are some photos:

The window sticker: Bought from Triboro Pontiac in Cinaminson, NJ. Came with the optional Hurst Shifter for the 6-speed, and the rare traction control option.



Here's the pile of paperwork, and the inch thick stack of invoices from March 2001 to a early 2014. She paid full sticker for the car when new, plus the GM Mastercare extended warranty plus another aftermarket 60 month warranty when the GM one was about to expire in 2011.





And the door tag with the WS6 Ram Air option prominently listed:

[njsteve]

The owner was such a fun person to deal with. I had to talk her into letting me test drive it after she drove us around the block. It seems that no one had ever driven her car but here. Even her husband who was standing there nodded his head in agreement. She never let him drive it (he doesn't know how to drive a stick shift anyway). So after I passed the interview she let me test drive it with her in the passenger seat and my son in the back.

The car just purred and tracked and stopped perfectly straight. Ran like it should. (And after perusing the stack of receipts I saw that she would get the car aligned every six months and the wheels rebalanced at the same time.

[njsteve]

The reason she was selling the car was that she and her husband moved to a large property out in the country on the end of a long dirt and gravel road and she hadn't driven the car in months because she hated seeing it get dirty. The car had never been driven in snow and very rarely in rain.

Here's the ebony leather interior. The seats are very nice but the car does need a new carpet set because she was a former smoker and the carpet has really absorbed that tobacco smell. There is a cracked outer plastic molding on the driver's seat where the power adjustment switches are.





And the obligatory cracked door panel that these cars are renowned for. She didn't realize that this could have been covered under the GM warranties had she only asked at the time they were in effect.



The passenger door panel is perfect:

[njsteve]

The engine compartment. All the factory ram air components are intact. Most original purchasers tossed those air cleaner box resonators the first day they had the car. Original drivetrain of course. Even the original clutch, too. As an over-the-road trucker she knew how to shift and transmission properly. That tranny doesn't make a sound! All the synchros are still intact.

[njsteve]

And now the bad parts:

Like 90% of the 1998 to 2002 F-bodies, there is a factory defect that was covered under a Technical Service Bulletin (03-08-98-001 Feb 2003) but not a recall. If you didn't push the issue with your dealer back in the day, they didn't voluntarily fix it. - And it was an expensive job - around $1,500 to $2,000. Had she known that it was something she would have gotten repaired under warranty, she would have definitely done it. You'da thought that since the dealer was charging her for every new fluid flush and refill process under the sun, they could have at least offered to do the roof repair at the same time since she was at the dealership every six to eight weeks for 13 years.

The assembly line used an inferior adhesive to bond the sail panel/roof panel to the steel roof frame of the car, starting in late 1998. It was too chemically aggressive/reactive for the plastic roof panel material. After several years the adhesive wicks its way through the molded plastic roof panel and bubbles the paint. No matter what paint repair is attempted, the bubbles will return. The only fix was to remove the roof panel and install a new one (while the panels were still available from GM - they haven't been available for years now). The red outlined areas are hard to see in the photo but there is a distinct line of blisters going all along the glue route.



Unrelated to the roof defect is paint flaking off the front tips of the rear wing.

[njsteve]

If anyone happens to have an original black Firebird logo insert that goes in place of the front licence plate, give me a PM. The seller's husband said he had it hanging in the garage for years but couldn't find it when he recently looked for it again.

[jannes_z-28]

Great find for you and your son. Looking forward to a long thread :-)

You sure know how to find them.

[KevinW]

Steve Congrats! I was recently looking at a 93 Camaro for my kid and saw the roof paint issues, did not know it was related to the glue! Too bad the Camaro did not fit her, in order for her to reach the pedals the seat was too far forward and she was too close to the airbag. Good luck on the new father/son project! Not that there is too much to do on this [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[iluv69s]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">If anyone happens to have an original black Firebird logo insert that goes in place of the front licence plate, give me a PM. The seller's husband said he had it hanging in the garage for years but couldn't find it when he recently looked for it again.





</div></div>

I believe (99%) that I still have the one form my ex's car...she replaced hers with a purple bird....Im in brazil at the World Cup..but I will search for it when I return to the states next week..assuming you havent already found one.

Congrats on your purchase...sounds like a great car !!!

[napa68]

The 4th Gen cars are great driving cars. I miss the 02 Berger car I had. LS power, 6 speed, Black, you and your son are going to have a good time reconditioning what few shortcomings this car has. This thing says WIN all over it!

Enjoy!

Tim