"I'm basically in tears. There she is, man. I haven't seen her for years and years," said Joe Gransden in a recent VINWiki video, thinking back to the time he finally found his long-lost '79 Trans Am. He originally bought the car in high school after working and pinching pennies, but was eventually forced to sell it to buy a boring and economical commuter vehicle. Regret set in soon after, and he spent decades trying to find it again. Thankfully, this story had a happy ending.
The Lost 1979 Trans Am
YouTube channel VINWiki recently spoke to Gransden and let him tell the story of this special Trans Am. He first bought the car around age 17 after working odd jobs for two years and saving every cent he could. It had everything he wanted — black paint and gold accents like the car in Smokey and the Bandit, a 400ci V8, and a manual transmission. He was in love.
During his college years, Gransden's father was transferred to Georgia, leading to a costly move, longer commute, and more tuition expenses. In 1993, he made the sensible but painful decision to sell his beloved Trans Am and buy a fuel-efficient Corolla. "I missed [the Trans Am] all the time, constantly," he recalled.
Looking to fill the void, Gransden eventually bought a new fully-loaded fourth-gen Trans Am. "It was cool... but it never really brought me back to that feeling I had with the other car." He even bought another black 1980 Trans Am, but realized he didn't have the same "emotional connection" to it.
This led to a multi-decade search for the original '79 Trans Am he had sold. He spoke to some of the nation's leading Trans Am experts — Tod and Scott Warmack of Trans Am Depot in Florida, as well as Rick Deiters from Trans Am Specialties — and eventually got a lead that showed the car was last registered in Alabama in 2002.
Showing his extreme dedication to finding his car, Gransden hired a private investigator in to scour Alabama and find the Trans Am. After five months, the mission was successful. The car was found rotting away in a yard without its original engine. After extensive back-and-forth negotiations, Gransden was able to buy it.
"I looked at it for a few days and cried, told stories, and took pictures and sent it to all my friends back home in Buffalo. Nobody could believe it!" He eventually decided to send the car to Trans Am Specialties for a full restoration, as well as a new LS2 engine and six-speed manual transmission.
In July of 2024, the car finally arrived at Gransden's house. He said "I'm just as excited now as I was as a 17-year-old kid... Now I have it back, and it'll stay in my family forever. My son will get it."
Check out the full video from VINWiki to hear the whole story and see more photos of this resurrected Trans Am:
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