1969 Trans Am

[Supercar_Kid]

There was a barn find RAIV '69 T/A pulled out by a guy near Pittsburgh. I bought a 12 bolt rear off of him for my 70 Chevelle and we got to talking and showed me these pics of a 69 T/A. He was real hush hush about it and claimed he found it when he went to take the rear out of an elCamino. He asked the owner, who was apparently a farmer, if he happened to have anything else around that would have a good rear in it, he mentioned the Trans Am. Sure enough, there it was an original paint numbers matching RAIV Trans Am. I don't know much about 69 T/As but he showed me snapshots of a 69 T/A with some sort of special hood on it. It was still sitting in the barn covered in pig sh*t. The one side was badly pitted from the slop spashing out of the pig pen and onto the one side of the car. Been sitting since the erly 70's. He said he didn't want to sell it because he had no idea what it might be worth. I'm sure you'll see this car surface someday when he decides he needs the $$$ it'll bring. Cool that stuff is still out there to stumble on, just never seems to be me who finds it.

[StealthBird]

Hard to say what it's worth. It's like asking how much an LS6 Chevelle is worth. Depends on what parts are there, missing, etc.

The 69 Trans Am only had two engines available: the RAIII was standard, the RAIV was optional. No exterior color choices (there were all white w/blue stripes), while the interior colors varied. Most interiors were black or blue. That being said, ALL 69 Trans Am's had a Ram Air system. If the car you're looking at is missing the Ram Air system, or any part of the system is fiberglass (upper/lower pan), then they're reproduction pieces. Most of these parts are now reproduced in steel, but the 69 Firebird/Trans Am Ram Air system was very complex, and had over a dozen special pieces. It's expensive to replace it all. This Ram Air system was a one year only application. The 67/68 Firebirds used a much simpler system, and the 70-up Firebirds had a totally different configuration. Note: the 1969 RAIII baseplate pan is reproduced in steel, but not the 1969 RAIV.

RAIV cars were NOT available with a/c, and the standard gear ratio was 3.90 posi (used a 4-pinion HD rear end). The 69 Trans Am hood was steel, and if it's missing, or is made of fiberglass, they are VERY expensive to replace. A few have sold on E-bay recently for over $10K.

The rear wing should be a 3-piece construction. Look under the wing at the pedestal mounts. If there's a division line there, it's a real 69 Trans Am wing. If it's one piece molded, it's a repro. The cowl tag should have a D80 designation for the Trans Am rear wing. The body color must be 50/50 (white/white). Any other combo and it's a fake. Lots of other small items to look for, but a check with PHS will let you know if it's a real Trans Am or not.

Typically, a 69 Trans Am will bring 25K-35K restored, and a RAIV car will bring 30K and up. If it's a real RAIV car, they're pretty rare.

RAIV - Turbo 400 : 9
RAIV - Manual trans: 46

[Supercar_Kid]

Mike...was there any sort of *special* hood on the RAIV T/A cars? I could have sworn the pics showed something other than the standard 69 T/A hood...and I even remember the gentleman mentioning someone had offered him some insane $$$ just for the hood alone, but I guess if a standard 69 T/A hood is bringing in the neighborhood of 10 large that's pretty insane, and this was a few years back.

[Astock]

Did anyone from here buy the '69 T/A from Z & Z Camaro in '99 or 2000?

[yellowjudge]

Z&Z had a RAIII auto a/c car. My friend bought & sold it.

[StealthBird]

No, there was no difference between the regular 69 Trans Am hood and a 69 Trans Am RAIV hood. Of course, there was a big difference between the long twin scoops of a Trans Am hood verses the smaller "traditional" scoops of a 67-69 Firebird 400! The 69 Trans Am hood was a one year only item, and only used on the Trans Am.

Not sure what you may have seen, but it may have just been the fact that the guy had a steel T/A hood. There's lots of clones running around with the fiberglass hood.

The only factory installed fiberglass hood was on the prototype car, which oddly enough was Palladium Silver (not white with blue stripes), and was road tested by Hot Rod. This one off fiberglass hood had a slightly different scoop shape, but looked like the 69 Trans Am production version.

[yellowjudge]

HI Mike, I believe the silver prototype had scoops molded in hood.

[StealthBird]

Yes, the silver prototype had the scoops molded in, very similar to the way the reproduction fiberglass hood was (is), but the silver prototype had a slightly different shape to the scoops, more squared off. Pontiac molded that hood for the prototype, but decided to go with a steel version when it proved to be cheaper to stamp, they could maintain better quality control, and get a better fit and finish. The scoops on the 69 Trans Am steel hood were removeable.

In 1970, Pontiac ended up using a fiberglass hood on the Formula because those two long, tunnel style scoops could not easily be stamped in steel.

As a sidenote, the 69 Ram Air setup I was referring to above was cumbersome, contained many pieces, and was a one year only item. It used a small 9" diameter x 2" high filter retained in the hood, and a screen mesh strainer over the carb for catching large debris, similar to an L88 Corvette. When Royal Pontiac prepped a 69 Firebird 400 for a magazine test, they discarded the whole 69 setup, and used a 68 Firebird Ram Air setup, which used the standard 14 x 3 inch filter mounted on a Ram Air tub base. Easy to remove, provided much more air, and arguably looked better.

[yellowjudge]

HI Mike, yes the bird RA system very complex & hard to find. The upper pan is same for RAIII & IV, but the bird slightly differs from TA. The lower /RAIII/RAIV pans are the same. There is no lower now made in steel, but I've seen a RAIII modified to a RAIV. No one does the raiv exh. manifold shield.
There are no more repros being stamped out, so now even the copies are hard to get. I'm having the RAIV exh. manifold shroud done exactly if anyone needs one. I'm pretty lucky my TA had all orig. RAIV parts, & I have all parts for my raiv convert.