The Bomb was technically the first car i had ever purchased. The bomb was a 79 Formula Firebird (not the same car i reference the History Page). The Bomb had lived an exceedingly rough life. When i was still into the early stages of my interest in old cars, I had found this car listed as 'for parts' in the local craigslist for $100. When we had gotten there it looked worse then a $100 car. The drums were rusted tight, it had bullet holes in the trunk, something had died in the back of it, and it was missing a lot of parts. We jimmied it onto a trailer and got it home for the $100 they wanted for it. In retrospect the car had a lot of good parts on it, but was deafinately not salvagable. The leaf spring were clear through the floor of the car... a classic sign of no return for any F-Body.
If 'Could Have Been' had a way to communicate, it would have had some interesting stories. Could Have Been was a black 78 Trans Am (though not a bandit), with red interior and Fisher T-Tops. We found Could Have Been in an add and had rescued it from the back of somebodies barn. The best part of it's story was the conversation my dad and I were having with the original owner. While looking at the nice (rebuilt) Motor stuffed into the car the guy had let the word 'clutch' slipp out of his mouth and my Dad and i turned at each other and instantly got excited. The car in front of us had it's original Borg Warner super t-10 still in it and was our first ever(and still only) standard transmission F-body. Unfortunately she too was far gone in the floor board area over the leaf springs, there by earning her the name 'Could Have Been' as it could have been a gorgeous car.
Poor Old Rusty was just that. Old and Rusty. Old Rusty came in a package deal with 'Could Have Been' for the purpose of the original owner getting it out of his back yard. Old Rusty had sat outside in the swamp for a few years too many and it got to his quarter panels beyond recognition. The strangest thing about it though was that it's leave spring area was more intact than any other car we had ever owned. Old Rusty came as just a frame. No Fenders, Wheels, Doors. About as naked as it got. Another peculiar thing about this car was that it had after market T-tops. The first we had ever seen. Old Rusy was a 76 Trans Am that somebody had taken to American Hatches back in the day to cut apart the roof with a sawzawl and install aftermarket glass. Another reason Old Rusty was doomed to make it onto this page. Rubber seals were impossible to be found for these tops. I had taken Old Rusty for nothing more than it's Limited Slip Differential Axel before it made its way to the crusher. Old rusty is pictured on the left in the image below
