'74 Trans Am of Denise Belair

[firebirdclub]

My Dad was battling brain cancer and my Mom called to see if we knew of anyone who would want to buy her ‘74 Trans Am. I got excited and said that my Husband and I would like to look at it.
Now, I haven’t really looked at the car for quite a few years as it sat covered up in my parent’s garage. I had not seen them drive it in a long time either.
We set out to my parent’s house to take a look. I was excited because I can remember feeling like a "cool kid" when my Mom would pick me up from somewhere in that ear. It was really cool to be picked up from the movie theater after watching "Smokey And The Bandit" in a shiny red Trans Am! My Mom bought the car new from Thompson - Pontiac in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. I remember going with her to a Trans Am Club meeting at the car dealership. I even had a Trans Am Club tee shirt. I also passed my driving exam in that car.
We got to my parent’s and uncovered the car. I was sort of disappointed when I saw it. It had rust holes on the same place on each front lower quarter panel. It also had some rust at each rear lower quarter panel. The passenger side door had rust by the mirror. My Mom had always taken painstakingly good car of the car. The car never saw snow or salt and was always clean and waxed. Maybe my mom washed it too much or let it sit wet in the garage. None the less, it was still beautiful to me. "We can fix it", I said to my husband. He was not as enthused as me. "Body work can cost a lot of money" he said," And we are not sure of the engine". We got the keys and started it up. It started but the engine shook like it was going to jump out of the hood! It started to run a little better after awhile. My husband looked at me and knew I wanted that car. We bought it and even drove it all the way home with no problems. Since then, we had the body fixed and painted and new decals put on and it looks super! The interior was already perfect and needed no work. The radio works, but the old 8 track player is not working. My Mom gave me her old 8 tracks too, and it would be nice to cruise down the road listing to the old tunes. The engine is the original 400 4bbl automatic and now still runs good. The car has 95,000 miles on it now.
I had always wished when I was a kid that I could have a cool car like my Mom and now I do.