The Hunt for the Roller Begins...

So we landed on restoring a car as our father-son project. That was the easy part. Next came the daunting double task of A) determining Ben's commitment level, and B) actually finding an affordable car that meets our criteria. Here is how I addressed "A." Ben and I had a discussion regarding "how" the car would get paid for, and "what" kind of work we wanted to do.

Regarding how the car would get paid for: We both agreed that a restoration project would be a little expensive. But, with the right car, and the right "updates" we could easily be able to get out of the car what we put into it (in the event we ever decided to sell it.) I didn't want to get into a project and Ben to lose interest, or for us to get in over our heads. We also needed to still determine "what" we wanted to do. Here is what we decided on:

We wanted a "roller" Trans Am. This is basically a complete car with no engine	We didn't want to purchase a short block or a log block - we wanted to build the motor from the ground up
We wanted to do some "minor" work on the body and interior - just for the experience - but spend most of our time in the engine bay	We wanted to use new technology in the vehicle where it made sense, while still maintaining the original look and feel - where the modifications wouldn't be noticeable
Any engine modifications we would make would be "era appropriate." This meant that we wouldn't be putting in an LS motor, a super charger, fuel injection, etc.	We needed a quality Pontiac block - specifically a 400. We didn't want a 350 or a 403 (we might have been good with a 455 ... lol)

So with these items in mind, we began the hunt. At first we started looking locally - locally as in the state of Texas. We figured there would be lots of these cars about considering that in 1978 alone they made 93,341. No dice. There were a lot of cars available, but none that met our price point, or were already restored, or on their way to being restored, or the wrong color, or the wrong style, or, really just pieces of garbage, etc. The fact that we were looking for a car that was 44 years old was becoming very apparent. As a total spur of the moment thing, we looked on Offer Up. Low and behold we got a hit. A beautiful 1978 Trans Am, Mayan red, in really good condition, for a respectable price had popped up. But it was in California. Ugh:

I was hoping to avoid having to drive a significant amount of distance to haul the car back. That went out the window. Long story short, after several conversations with the owner (great guy buy the way and a Pontiac enthusiast - shout out to Raven!), we purchased the car. Now to get the thing to Texas. After doing some calculations, we opted to have the car brought to us via a car transport service. For those of you that have never used this service before, well, lets just say its an eye opening experience and it involves a LOT of trust. I may in the future write a post about our experience (not bad, just different).

two and a half weeks after our purchase, the car was loaded up in Cali, and bound for Texas. We were told the trip would take about four days (your car shares a ride with other vehicles - kind of like ride-share - you have to wait your turn to get dropped off - in order).

Our car arrived January 20, 2021 at 2:55 in the afternoon. Ben could barely contain himself. His grin says it all:

Car being loaded in California

carbeing loaded in California

Car arrives in Texas

Ben watching them unload

Unloading on to our trailer

Ben and our new project

We spend the next few days going over the car, inside and out. Ben is super hyped, and I must admit, I'm pretty stoked myself. Now to find an engine!