Understandably SW,,, it's my favorite of the bunch too.... Just a killer looking car all in all.....

Nice. I have a gold one that would look good next to the rest of your birds.

I know, it's really nice but I'm not a T-Top guy..:)

I'll build you a pair out of aluminum! I love your red one.

SW does it again...sweet TA, very clean looking with the mods.

SW,

I had a red '74 455 T/A.

I liked it alot, but later I certainly wished it had been a red '73. :cool:

What makes this particular '73 your fav?

When I was 13, my neighbor's buddy had a red '73 Trans Am. He used to take me around the block everytime I saw him in it.. Ever since then, I always wanted one. In High School, I had a 2 '76's and a '79 TA 6.6, but they were not a red '73. In 2003 I found this one and spent 5-6 hours everyday after work and all weekends restoring this car, so it means alot to me. I am more careful driving the '73 than my Ferraris or Lambo, it just means much more to me than those cars..

When I was a kid (12) in the early 70's my dentist (and dads good friend) bought a '71 white w/blue 455 HO 4-speed TA. He had a cabin up the McKenzie River Valley 40 miles out of town........I'll never will forget the first ride up there with him. In high school one of my good buddies picked up a red and black '69 Z/28, he was a great driver and memories from those rides made it easy when my best friend in '89 found a Camaro for me, he died 7 years later and I won't sell it for his memory.

I understand your bond with the '73 SW. :thumbsup:

SW could ou please post pics of the whole collection ?

Great story, SW. I didn't realize you had done so much work to the 73 yourself. I've had my 79 for 13 years now. It's my 2nd TA and 3rd 79 firebird. Who knows what life has in store for me but I doubt I'll get rid of it. I figure I'll also have something I can do with it or something I can upgrade or change along the way.

Do you have any changes in store for the car or do you consider it done?

I hope not. I don't want to cry or drool at the computer for 3 hrs again. ;)

Changed rims
 

Trying out some different rims..
Old rims, 17x9 f&r 255/45/17 275/40/17
http://fototime.com/1138DA683D55C2B/xlarge.jpg

New rims 18x9.5f 18x11r. 275/35/18f 295/35/18r
http://fototime.com/499A428DD79DE13/xlarge.jpg
http://fototime.com/29A7A0F42315AFE/xlarge.jpg
http://fototime.com/4CB3E2CE17C868B/xlarge.jpg
http://fototime.com/FDC35A111C22BF1/xlarge.jpg

Those look good but I still like the OEM twist of the "originals."

I'm with Sieg on this one. I do like both sets of wheels, but like the old school wheels a bit more.

Yeah I gotta go with the 17's on that thing. :thumbsup:

http://fototime.com/1138DA683D55C2B/xlarge.jpg

FTW in a TKO (Texas Knock Out). :D

I think this looks awesome!!

^ +1. I like the 18s :welcome3:

Now if we could only get our good friends at the tire companies to consider the whitewall lettering packages again ;-)
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse71527b2.jpg

Are those Intros??? :lol:




Personally I like the original look 17's.... Somehow you know they don't look "stock" and that kinda makes me wanna look at them even more... It's like "this dude is pretty cool -- he had some wheels made...."


Not sure if these are readily available or not -- 'cause I'm not a Firebird guy.

Greg the original looking 17" wheel is sold by "Year One" as a cast one piece... Very affordable all in all and a job well done in the appearance arena...

I know some guys have played with modifying the wheel width and even in a couple of cases there are wheels out there in 18" version/s as three piece wheels.. Not nearly as affordable generally speaking,,, but definitively cool in my mind....
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps22c3a1a4.jpg

They just look "right" on these cars.



Good info Albert!

17s all the way SW. When can I come pick her up? :D

Now that would be really kool!

Thanks for the input guys, just screwing around with ideas...

Definitely 17s. That sidewall is getting too short on those 18s...



Jeff-

18's :trophy-1302:

SW, you really have a flair for making a car look wicked. Awesome T/A. I have to agree with you on one thing, the 73 is my favorite too.

I like the 17s but I think the 18s fit the well better. They come out further too and are more flush with the body. I would change to a taller side wall tire though. This was a problem I was concerned about with my TA when sizing tires. I wanted the bigger rim but wanted a meatier more muscular tire. So I went with 40 series tires. I have 245s front and 275s rear. Here's a picture of my car. It's not the best but hopefully it shows another option.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...d/PICT0306.jpg


http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...d/PICT0312.jpg

and my car looks like a 4x4 compared to SW's. Doh! The suspension has settled some since that picture was taken 3 years ago. I'll try to get a better one soon if anyone would care to see.

I would Trey! Wash it first and put a cheerio on top, lol!

lol, ok. I'll see what I can do. Give me a couple days.

We need a thread on that Underground Racing Ferrari.

I like those wheels, just needs to be a little lower:)

Thanks SW. The wheels look better on the car than I had hoped. One day I'm sure I'll change them but I'll minitub it first. How does your 76 ride lowered like it is? Have any ground clearance, bottoming out, or rubbing issues? I'm thinking I may go ahead and upgrade the stock suspension as best I can now to hold me over until I can afford to replace the rear with a different style.

Ok, without further ado, here are some better pictures. At least I hope they are better and can give a good example of a tire and rim size combination for these cars. As you can see, the suspension has settled some. The rims are 18x8 and 18x9.5. Tires are 245/40 front and 275/40 rear.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...psa200e126.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps536cfd9d.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...psc4dc9af4.jpg

And here you go, Ron. It's too windy for just a cheerio so how about a box of them instead?

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps63fbe9f4.jpg

Man Trey...I was getting ready to type until I saw that last pic.

Keep it real Bro :thumbsup: