This artice goes with that photo, it is from my newsletter #8;
Debbie Doody’s 14,000 mile T/A
So, like I mentioned above. I had been wanting to see Debbie’s car for quite a while. If you happened to notice me disappear from the restaurant in a hurry, it is because I noticed that Debbie and her husband Wayne had left the restaurant. I wanted to make sure I got to see the car in case they were leaving, so I beat feet for the parking lot, and thankfully they were still there. Before I go any further, I guess I should tell you more about this car. It is a fairly rare color combination for a T/A, EW1 white with the H6B5 blue interior, it also has a four speed, light package and the factory rear window louvers. She has owned the car for about seventeen years now. Due to the low miles, and rare color combination, this car is a real joy to look at, and it is very striking with the white and blue color scheme.
So, I was taking pictures of the car, and more people were starting to trickle out of the restaurant as they finished their dinners. Debbie told me I could crawl all over the car in and out, and to take pictures of anything I wanted. That is when a little light bulb went off in my head! As most of you know, ( I ask everyone this, ) , I asked Debbie if she had ever searched it for broadcast sheets, and she replied that her brother had started too years ago, but that he could not figure out how to remove the back seat. So here we had a low mileage T/A that had never actually been searched! I asked if she would mind if I searched it and she said not at all, go ahead! By this time almost everyone form the dinner had gathered around the car, and the word traveled quick, I had brought my lucky screw drivers with me, I like to be prepared!
I started with the drivers side bucket seat, mostly because it was closest to where Debbie and I were standing. One of our registry members checked the back of the glove box liner while I was doing this, no luck there! I looked under the drivers side seat bottom in the springs and carefully felt the areas I could not see. Nothing. I then removed the drivers side seat back, and there was a sheet! I carefully unfolded it, and checked the number, and… it was for a T/A, but it did not match! It was for a T/A Scheduled to be built a day later and serial numbered 1926 cars AFTER Debbie’s!
We checked my list real quick, and it was for a T/A that I did not have listed previously, JH23J0B296403, it is B5 blue with a painted top, blue interior, four speed. Debbie was nice enough to give me the original sheet, so I have it available if the car is ever registered. (an interesting note, the T/A serial numbered right after this sheet was at the show, it appears to be an identical twin, both the VIN and VON were just one digit off from the sheet we found)
By this time, I think everyone from the dinner was outside watching our little show, there was more than a little tension in the air, as everyone was hoping we would find a sheet that matched Debbie’s car. I checked out the passenger side bucket seat next, nothing in the base or back. Time for the back seat! Frank Puricelli volunteered to help me, as the rear seat bottoms can be a bear to get out sometimes. One of the bystanders ran to his car to get a nut driver so we could remove the seat back while Frank and I removed the base. We got it out, and no sheet! Just then our pal with the nut driver showed up, so I removed the two screws that hold the back seat in. I carefully lifted up on the seat, looked behind it and there was another sheet! We took the seat out and laid it on the pavement. We knew the sheet was for a T/A because it said TRANS AM across the bottom, but due to the sheets location we could not read the VIN number just yet. We also confirmed that the car had a mouse living in it for a short while, it had started to build a nest in the seat, and it actually covered part of the sheet. Debbie confirmed that the mouse was long gone, they managed to get rid of it before it did any real damage. We removed the nest and took a close look at the way the sheet was stuck in there, it overlapped the bottom seat frame and the material was stretched over it very tightly, we were going to have to be very careful to get it out without ripping it! It took four of us, pulling springs and vinyl this way and that, but we were successful!
I carefully pulled the sheet out, looked at the number and confirmed it, it was a match for Debbie’s car! Jon Bach took some pictures of our little show and they can be seen with the other dinner pictures on Jeff’s site. You can see a great shot of the sheet, mouse nest and all still in the seat. Thanks for the pictures Jon! I looked under the rear carpet while we had the seat out, and I removed the sill plates and front kick panels to look under the front carpet. No more sheets were found, (it is still possible that there could be one under there, but we did not want to take the seats out to check the carpet under them) but we did find the contact papers with the part numbers from the Scat Bees, evidently the assembly line crew applied the stickers then just dropped the backing papers on the floor of the car, I have found a few sets of these in T/As now.
All in all, I think everyone enjoyed the dinner and getting to know other T/A and AAR owners, and I know everyone enjoyed the impromptu entertainment! Thanks to Debbie for bringing her car and letting us search it, nothing like a good treasure hunt! Thanks also to everyone who helped with the dinner, Ken Bowser, Jeff Bangert and Frank Puricelli all listed the invitations on their sites, the staff at Rod’s Roadhouse were awesome and very accommodating. Special thanks to Ann Seip also for volunteering to be the contact person for everyone and keeping in contact with the manager at Rod’s, she did an awesome job!
Who is this guy, and why is he smiling? The sheet for JH23J0B296403 can be seen on top of the car, and the matching sheet for Debbie’s car as found in the seat with the mouse nest. Jon Bach photo.
