We hope that Pontiac was sufficiently grateful to the producers of the hit 1977 movie, Smokey and the Bandit. It helped make a star out of the flick’s 1977 Pontiac Trans Am (a ’76 model with a ’77 front clip) as sales soared for years after the release of the original movie and Bandit 2 in 1980. The seller has a 1979 Trans Am, which is a running work-in-process. More is needed, but a great head start seems to have been made. Located in Havertown, Pennsylvania, this Bandit wannabe is available here on eBay, where the opening bid of $9,500 remains elusive.
If you’ve never heard of Smokey and the Bandit, you need to circulate a lot more. It was the most attended movie of 1977 except for a little film called Star Wars that came out at the same time. Burt Reynolds drove a shiny black Trans Am that everyone seemed to want a copy of in the immediate years that followed. In 1976, Pontiac built 46,700 Trans Ams, but that grew to 68,700 in 1977, 93,300 in 1978, 117,100 in 1979, then back down to 50,900 in 1980. The public finally tired of that generation of the Trans Am, as just 33,500 of them moved in 1981 before a complete redesign in 1982.
This ’79 Trans Am looks like it wears tired black paint. But the seller has been working on it both cosmetically and mechanically. The floor pans are new, as well as the black interior, and some parts are still due to come in that help support the cause. We don’t know the condition of the body from the photos, and the seller doesn’t mention any other problem areas in that regard. A 403 Pontiac V8 sits under the hood.
The Pontiac does run and drive and has a new exhaust, fuel pump, shock absorbers, and will need a new brake line kit installed once it arrives. Also, the belt is off of the A/C compressor, so is a fix needed there, too? Perhaps it’s only good for a few laps around the block for now. The odometer reads 47,000 miles, but the seller suspects it’s been around full circle at least once. If you don’t mind finishing someone else’s work, would you opt for a Bandit tribute?
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