First Wash in 27 Years: Pontiac Trans Am Buy-Detail-Flip for Profit. Will it Start?

Hi guys, I'm very excited. I just received an email two days ago from a gentleman named Kevin in Atlanta. It turns out that his grandfather, who is relatively close, maybe 10 miles from here, has a 1982 Trans Am that he is looking to sell or

detail

. I'm pretty sure, but it's been in his garage for over 30

years

and believe it or not, Devon showed up within a few minutes leaving the 964 turbo for some

detail

s and I said, "Hey, why don't you come take me for a ride?" and see if?" We can go talk to this guy and maybe we can take him home to give him a detail or maybe turn him around for that and much more in this episode of Drive and Protect with the Turbo now in the studio.

I agreed to meet the owner at his house to at least pick up the car for a detail or possibly purchase it if we can work out a deal, but either way it needs to be cleaned before we can sell it, so Deon came with me to the house to pick it up. I'm delighted to meet you, delighted to meet you, your grandson speaks very well, yes, well my grandson is a big fan of both of you. I appreciate you looking at this amazing thing, so it looks like he's been here for a while. What's the story on this it's been here since 95 uh we haven't used it uh and it's time to move to clean it up and move it out or clean it up and not move it how long has it been here since 95 doing quick? math here 26 27 28

years

something like that four speed has a 305 engine with a little four cylinder and uh, it's a Trans Am, it's the original kit car, so obviously you've been the

first

owner, the only owner since then, well It was a company car when I felt good about it, but when it came time to trade it in, I bought it because I liked driving it.

How many miles are there on this 147? Y'all Mak all Highway. I love the seats. They must have been amazing. 82 just kill it look at these soft things after a quick inspection the car seems to be in very good condition for being in it for so long now the paint is clearly scratched it's discolored it's dusty it's dirty Etc but it's the same inside it needs some adhesive of steam cloth for the seat back, but nothing major. The tires actually hold air again. It's very rare, but what I was most excited about is that Chuck still has the hubcaps.

I know it sounds silly, but they are incredibly hard to find. Nowadays, because the design was so flimsy that they would fall off when you were driving, so if you're driving down the road you have these fancy things that

will

fly away and you'll never be able to find them again, so having the originals would be incredibly valuable. If I can take it from a detail to a purchase, that's fine, then option one is to bring it back to the store, we clean it and then put it online and hopefully sell it, option two, if you're interested, I always like to say this there is a cash price right now, where would your head be if you wanted to sell this right now for cash? of math based on where it is I brought 4000 cash today okay hope we can make a deal I understand you have five where can we go with that?

Well, I promised my grandson a finder's fee and he doesn't know it. how much is it, but he was going to give you $500, okay, as a finder figure, and I know you worked hard to contact him, you did to set this whole thing up, that's where I'm at, so 500 extra, basically. We're splitting the difference between four and five. The answer is that I'm falling in love with this car, so I think we can do it safely. The only problem is that I literally brought $4,000, so I owe you $500. You'll come back, I promise, well I know where to find you, I sure do, you're on YouTube and if you don't come back with my $500, I'm sure you'll know, so with that I made the deal and Deon and I pushed. car with Chuck driving it to load it now I would have to come back later to bring him the extra $500 for his grandson but for now let's load it now with the car outside in the sun for the

first

time in 27 years ago it looked even sexier than in the garage .

Can you imagine a car like this in the early 80's. It must have been crazy to see it on the street. After a few quick measurements, we lined it up and pushed it up. in the trailer, it's a good thing he doesn't have any back problems as he is securely strapped in and in the back of the

trans

porter, Chuck and his wife say goodbye and we head to the studio, we left with my own crew from the Night Rider show the 80s. The kit was a 1982 Firebird TransAm, but on the show it was all blacked out and of course it had a few more gadgets inside, but in real life the stunt car was the same production car with a V8 5L that produced 150 horsepower later in the program. detail I found a bag full of paperwork and the sticker price on this particular car was $965 a28 in 1982, which was just terrifying once it was off the trailer and into the

wash

area.

The first step was to power

wash

the years of dust and cobwebs from the Then, on the car, I lathered the paint wheels and engine bay and let it soak. I wanted to remove the wheels first, but I couldn't actually find the key to the lug nut lock until I looked under the driver's side seat and found it randomly. That was fine so I lifted the car and removed the wheels to

start

cleaning the undercarriage and suspension, naturally all the wheels came loose easily except of course the last one. At that point I had to call in heavy reinforcements Steve from across the street, how? last time with a sledgehammer, I'm hitting with a sledgehammer, the guy puts the camera down and helps, he needs a young guy with some muscle to handle the steering wheel, so now I want you to take the hammer and give it a hit, just hit the tire, no Don't hit the steering wheel no, no, from the inside, you want to take it off, you don't want to put it on, no wonder you can't take it off, don't break my lift, okay, yeah, there you go, look at that.

It was like this? I managed it easily, no one

will

notice the difference. I did it all by myself. Thanks Steve, can you handle it from here? I think underneath it looks like what you'd expect after 27 years, so I needed to blow up the spider. cobwebs and dirt just to see what I was working with after a good soak. I'm using a dual density brush with stiffer red nylon bristles in the middle and softer hairs around the outside of the brush that carry the cleaner across the surface for your When scrubbing, consider all the products, all the tools I use and of course you can find free PDF downloads on cleansing on my website ammo N1 yc.com so check it out and support the channel during the final rinse below.

I hit a bag of dirt somewhere. It was completely unexpected and just blew up on my face and all over my shirt, but this is exactly why I should wear a full face shield in the future, but lesson was learned. Look, my face should have been wearing a mask. Look at my shirt. go ahead now I'm going to wear a full face shield this didn't look that dirty but clearly look at my floor look at my face look at my shirt and my pants look at this done In fact I probably shouldn't do it is There's going to be dust everywhere.

It's time to change after the landing gear. I like to clean the brake suspension and of course the wheel area with a couple different brushes before I

start

soaking the top again in fresh foam and then starting the washing process. with new blue microfiber wash towels and of course emblem brushes to reach all the hard places, just for the record, this is not exactly what I would call a beauty wash, it's more of a wash that focuses in removing years of caked on dirt and debris and that kind of scrubbing so my pad doesn't hit it later when I'm polishing and then cause wear and tear on the paint, okay, get in here, check this out, this is a telltale sign of poop and urine, so remove it, sure.

Enough, yes, with the car now clean and dry, I needed to measure the paint before thinking about polishing it, as it is a single stage and will probably be quite thin. Well, the paint is now clean and dry and, as you can see, it's in a pretty rough state. we have to polish it, the first thing you're going to do is take out the paint depth gauge and I put it on the paint and as you can see, it's a very low four, a high three, maybe a low three right there, so what you do? Do you get into the door jam?

Here's a general rule of thumb: you open the door jam and on most cars you're basically going to have 5 to 7 thousand and then maybe 2, three, 4 on the door jams in this case. 1.51 so let's say 1 and 1/2 versus three. I don't, again. I don't have much to work with here, so we'll probably have to do a one-step polish and the trick to use the door. The problem is they usually don't paint the door frames as much as they do the outside of the car, because it's not exposed to UV rays because the door is closed, that's a very general rule of thumb, but again we'll try again 1.65 and If I use the 2.81 paint, there is almost no room in this and obviously the top surfaces, the ones that receive the most UV rays, compared to the sides, will generally be a little thinner than the side, so keep all this in Remember that this is just a general rule.

Polished in one step. Hopefully we're going to bring this back to life without burning the paint off with my mask on a yellow pad and a yellow polish. I put in a quick 50/50 to see the before. and then during my initial polishing I noticed that my arm speed is faster than normal. Now this speed is used during a cutting technique because your goal is to simply pick up as much debris as possible quickly before blowing off the pad and polishing again, but this is much slower. I once repeated the same one-step process on the rest of the painting and observed the

trans

formation of the painting in a single step when properly polished.

It's amazing after about 2 hours of polishing the paint looks 100x better and the value of my purchase has only increased during the detail I stopped for a second and took a quick photo of the hood on Instagram during the 50/50 part and I published it in 20 minutes. I had five people applying to buy the Trans Am. Now watch to the end of the video to see it. Who shows up to buy the newly detailed car? It was amazing, oh man that was amazing. In the trunk were the original hubcaps that have clearly taken a beating over the years after coming off and rolling on the ground, so I decided to give them to them. a quick polish knowing that this wouldn't completely restore them, but enough to bring some life back into them without burning off the original paint which would be devastating to the potential buyer.

Now these are his words, not mine, apparently they are highly coveted from what I was told. If you're wondering why I didn't use the 3-inch it's because I had the 6-inch in my hand and it worked perfectly fine for my basic goals. If you wanted to go crazy here, you'd probably need to decrease the diameter. for the interior, I removed everything I could to inspect where the light mold might be coming from and in the process I found a super cool lockbox in the driver's side rear trunk area, if you remember, from the 280z Barn, there was fine details and cells. a smuggler's box on the floor behind the driver's seat that also reminded me of this, that's cool, anyway, the fabric on the back seats needs to be replaced, as we saw in Chuck's garage, the doors have a little mold and all sorts of things need to be scrubbed, so I removed the T-cap, which of course is a really fun feature and I imagine by today's standards it's wildly unsafe to have a T-cap in your car I guess than for structural concerns, but if you are Bert Reynolds and wear a cowboy hat while driving.

This is an essential option. Step one. I used foam and a dual density inner brush. Then, once the ammo vaporizer was removed, I used compressed air in the tight spots to dislodge any leftover cleaner before and after. It was great, so I repeated the same process all over the rear plastic parts of the car. In fact, you can see mouse droppings that needed to be removed in the T-top bag in the trunk. I used foam and an interior brush to remove the light. mold before jumping to the seats with lint and a carpet brush to apply the product first, then I use the steam to minimize excessive soaking of the material that is not actually in terrible condition.

I repeated the same steps on the carpet as well and the material was new again now look at this the waste tank on the steamer was absolutely disgusting now keep in mind each of these steps wash polish the interior steam etc. Waxing and such added value to this car how much I really don't know well. It just depends on dozens of variables with your particular car, but the point is that this weekend of detailing will bring a lot of value to your car, regardless of whether you choose to sell it. or keep it forever, it doesn't really matter.

It's still a smart thing to do anywayI'm third with steam backup. I wanted to draw your attention to both seat backs here, as you can see they look a little white and maybe they look dirty, it's not glue. and if I wipe it by hand it's just peeling off, so if I hit it with some moisture, some cleaner, some steam, that kind of thing, I won't be able to put this stuff back even a little bit, so once I wipe it let's do. I'm done with everything, I'm going to hit it with tablet, I'm going to use the vacuum cleaner, then I'm going to lightly spray some adhesive like you would use for a headliner and now I'm going to let it dry for a second and then I'm going to glue it on.

This thing is back there and will look new next time. I played with the wheels. The fronts weren't too bad, but I could use a bath with Brute and Plum, but the internal cylinders, on the other hand, clearly haven't been cleaned as the brake dust had nowhere to go for two reasons: one, the openings in the wheels are very small, so brake dust simply can't pass through them, two, those tiny little openings are actually covered with the hub cap, so this thing didn't have the possibility that it is only coated on the internal barrels. I did my best to freshen them up in the shortest time possible with the interior almost dry, now I concentrated on replacing the fabric on the back of the bucket seats to do this, first I did a quick vacuum to clean up the dried glue and crusty fabric , then I used fabric spray adhesive on both the material and the back of the seat in super thin coats just an FYI, make sure to use fabric adhesive;

Other spray adhesives can be too thick and actually seep through the material and look very bad adhesive. Once you've placed the decal, let it dry for about a minute, but read the back. from the bottle and then place it on the back of the area there and then stretch it and adjust it as you go, it will give you a little bit of wiggle room, maybe a minute or two, and then it will definitely stick on as the last step. the interior I disinfected the hard surfaces and disinfected and deodorized the soft surfaces like the seats and fabric, that kind of thing with ammo restoration that has an EPA registration number and is specifically designed not to bleach or damage the interior, since which kills bacteria throughout the vehicle, leave the product visible for approximately 2 minutes and then remove it with a microfiber towel.

Watch my instructional video on the ReStore in the inside section of my website for more information. Finally I reinstalled the interior parts and the T-top bag. the wheels and did the best I could with the hubcaps, which were incredibly complicated to install, so once again I called Steve from across the street to help me figure out the secret to installing hubcaps. What's going on? I hear you're having a fabulous day, how? put this otherwise these are putting frisbe on the other side of the straight here and it corresponds to that and now all the holes line up with nuts mhm honestly if anyone knows a better way than 100 trial and error method that you were using, please leave a comment. below, these are just out of control, ridiculously complicated to put on for whatever reason, thanks Steve anyway, after figuring out the hubcap Rubik's cube, I applied ammo coat to the single stage paint because it feels good on this one car, it's super strong, it's easy to use. easy, sometimes I forget how good sealants are because of all the fad for coatings etc, this just feels right, looks beautiful when I'm done and I couldn't have been happier as a last step before the potential buyer arrived at ECT the TA I.

I cleaned the windows, added a mud tire dressing of course to the tires and left the ozone machine on for a few hours before their arrival so I could clean any lingering odors when I was done, the interior and the outside looked and smelled amazing anywhere oh, bright and early the next morning, my first show came in their awesome TransAm, so obviously this is a single stage, you know, I polished it, it came out much, much better , but obviously the paint is super thin, its very old interior came out great, but look at this 1995 Windows wow it hasn't been inspected since 95 yes The interiors aren't bad for the car, it's always been yes, it's certainly not perfect, but in good condition oh overall it's in great condition we have all the little parts I know that you were asking about little B the shade yes I have the shade there the door is closed tight yes what else I have?

I have a couple of screws, like the locking bolts, oh, okay for the wheels, I have that and I pulled this out because I wanted to show you, uhh, this is the last thing I didn't clean, oh wow, a little home there, the mice They had fun in this car at some point, so yeah man it looks good, it was an adventure to put them on, yeah they were. pain, you have to do them right, yes, they got a fair click. I've had seven of these cars yeah okay thank God I have a neighbor who is familiar with this because he had no idea what it was being amazing um but yeah. man, snoop around, look around and do you have any questions so far?

No, it's really cool, how long has it been since it was run? As the gentleman told me. I think it's been about 5 years since it ran so I think I would go. in the garage, start the engine at night and then turn it off and never drive it or whatever, okay, never drove it right, well, it is what it is, you want to see if we can get it running. I mean, me. I have some friends who can help. They come? Yeah, okay, yeah, they should be here any minute. Okay, let's open the hood. Oh, look at this night rider.

Yes, it's the perfect time. Hello, you're outside, let's go. Let's try to get this going at a great time, yeah, come on, okay, let me go get these guys real quick. I'm Larry, I think that's your guy, that's how he goes. John John meets Larry, come on, so Matt and his mechanics played. with the engine, removing the air filter, checking the oil, antifreeze, etc., every uh, every 82 transmissions I've had and this is the seventh, possibly all of them had this mark on the hood where it goes down here and makes contact. that place, see that everyone has that part that makes contact with that cover, everything outside, the boys took their tools out of the truck to see if the car would turn over.

The first step was to replace the battery, check the voltage with the gauge and of course fill the tank with fresh fuel to give it a crank to see what happens if you're ready I'm ready I'm ready I'm ready for a sign of the cross for you friend a brick yes, that's something we don't have with us like a crossed cross F okay, mothers, we're okay, let's go to hell, yes, my God, how is that possible? Wow, that's the fastest car I've ever started. How is that? I'm not even kidding. How did that come about? it's all this all that bad gas this is all the bad gas it has gas we could put a little more in it you want me to put more in it it's working great this is the smoke okay he wants to get this out you have it there you have it Wow, are you kidding me?

Unbelievable, that's GM, that's unbelievable, dude, seriously, I have no idea that was going to start, you must have driven before, I mean, like you're under your own power, now you're under your own fuel, barely probably without fuel. Alright, where are you with this? I know I already have five or six offers on this with Instagram and all that other stuff. The highest I got, to be honest, is $11,000. I would love to be. somewhere around 11,000 dollars okay it works listen it does work M is saying M is saying my name you have to buy me you have to buy me for 11,000 what do you think?

I think 11,000 I think I brought I brought 105 with Me and I'll give you 105 right now cash cash you got a deal yeah buddy okay okay good job that's it. Now the big question is the money, well, we'll get the money man so he can give me the money. Let's go to 105, I love it, that's it, it's amazing, it will work. The air conditioning runs at pressures of about 300 PSI, so having some cold means it just doesn't leak or whatever, yeah it's just for that, it's awesome. I just said the air conditioning is working. You have to see the video.

It's crazy. I can't believe it worked. Yes, be careful. The smoke just came out. The tire is coming off the throttle. See you, oh man. That was incredible. I'm so excited for him to be the best Trans Am guy. He couldn't be happier as always, guys. If you have any questions, you know where to find me. Larry at ammo nc.com. I'll see you next week. Hey, like I promised, $500. Okay, there you go, you're safe on YouTube, thanks.