Oddball Update

I heard from my dad this morning about the ‘79 Trans Am, which was sent off on an excursion to a performance car shop a couple of days ago. So far, the shop owner has gotten the car up on stands and removed the wheels, drained the oil out of the crankcase and transmission, and inspected a few other things. The left front caliper needs replacing since its bleeder screw got broken off at some point in the past. Other than that nothing catastrophically out-of-place has been found as yet.

The maintenance plan looks pretty complete—he’s going to replace the engine oil and filter, brake fluid, power steering fluid, transmission oil, rear differential oil, fuel filter and steel lines, spark plugs, thermostat, engine coolant and front grease seals. He’s also intending to drain the fuel tank, repack the wheel bearings, and remove the valve covers to check the valvetrain and gaskets (one of which was leaking a little the last time the car was run). At this point it sounds like everything is on track, and the only real worry I have is that the tires will have flat spots or other deformities after sitting for several years which will result in the car not being drivable until new rubber is procured. Fortunately, with this size of wheel, you can get new BFG white-letter Radial T/As for about 60 bucks a pop.

My dad snapped a couple of pictures with his camera phone of the tow truck carting off the Trans Am—check ‘em out to the right. (You can click on them to enlarge them.)

Categorized as Cars