Hand Painted Bird: 1980 Pontiac Trans Am

This 1980 Pontiac Trans Am is for sale in Colfax, Washington, a small town in the state’s southeastern wheat country, for $16,800. The owner posted the car here on Craigslist four days ago, describing a car that has stayed almost entirely original since new, except for the custom paint. The seller is the car’s second owner and says he originally bought it as a gift for his wife. Its most distinctive feature is a custom-painted eagle across the hood, an airbrushed piece rendered in blues and grays with the bird’s wings spreading down onto the front fenders. This is a hand-painted hood graphic. The car wears a blue stripe along its beltline, rolls on new aftermarket wheels and tires, and retains its T-tops, which the seller says have never leaked. The seller reports 44,000 miles on the odometer but says he doubts that number reflects the car’s true mileage. He still has the original owner’s manual along with every options booklet that came with it, and the car has a clean title. We appreciate Curvette for sending us this listing.

Pontiac built 107,340 Firebirds for 1980, with the Trans Am accounting for 50,896 of them. The bulk of that total, 39,018 cars, were standard-trim Trans Ams like this one rather than the black Special Edition, split between coupes and T-top cars. Buyers outside California chose between a standard 301 cubic inch V8 making 140 horsepower, an optional 301 rated at 155 horsepower, or the new turbocharged 301, which made 210 horsepower. California and high-altitude buyers instead received a Chevrolet-sourced 305-cubic-inch V8 rated at 150 horsepower. No engine callout is visible in the available photos, so this car’s specific engine isn’t confirmed.

Cameo White was a genuine factory color for the 1980 Trans Am, so this car’s exterior needs no correction, aside from the custom hood art added after the fact. The tan interior shown in the photos matches Pontiac’s factory Camel color, offered that year in cloth or vinyl. More pictures would help. The car does not have factory AC but does have tilt and it appears a hobnail custom interior.

1980 marked a turning point for the Firebird. Emissions and fuel-economy pressure had already forced Pontiac to drop the manual transmission entirely that year, and a new turbocharged engine arrived to offset shrinking displacement elsewhere in the lineup. It would also be the final model year before the second-generation Firebird’s long production run wound down toward a full redesign, making 1980 something of a last stand for the shape and graphics package that had defined the Trans Am since the mid-1970s. Does the custom hood artwork help or hurt this 1980 T-top Trans Am? It has a clean title and documented history, which could be a good entry point, but the low-horsepower engine isn’t very desirable.