Unfortunately there is no way to know for sure how many were made with those combinations. Pontiac had a hard enough time keeping track of what engines and transmissions they put in the cars let alone what colors and other options they had. So there is no way to know for sure how many were exactly made with your combinations. If anyone ever tells you a number.... ask them to prove it or show it to you in writing.. I bet they can't.
Sorry to say that the build sheet is a one of a kind item. The only build sheet(s) were left inside the car or a second one on top of the gas tank of the car. Once that build sheet is gone, it is gone. There is no getting a replacement or copy of it. You can contact PHS (Pontiac Historical Services www.phs-online.com) and they can get you a copy of the original dealer invoice for the car. It can tell you how the car was ordered. It is not nearly as complete as a build sheet is, but it is the next best thing.
There is no way to really track down your old car. You can try contacting the DMV, but they can only locate cars within their own States. So you would have to go to all 50 states and contact each DMV in that state to try and track down your VIN number and car. The bad thing is, that if the car is sitting in some junk yard or if the car is in some guys garage and he hasn't registered the car in 7 years, then it would not show up in the DMV database. The only other way you could do it is if you had a friend in a police department look up in their LEEDS database to try and track down the VIN number that way. Not too many police officers are willing to do that though because of something happens to the car and they are the last ones to do a search in the database, then they could be in trouble. But again, if the car is in some guys garage waiting to be restored and has not been registered, then they will not find it either. You could try posting in the forums and maybe get lucky to find that someone still owns your car and is active in the forums, but that is a long shot. There are forums like mine, Trans Am Country, National Firebird and Trans Am Club and a few others just to name a few. Good luck in your search and sorry I didn't have any good news for you in an easy way to find your car.
The short answer is numbers matching means the VIN number of the car matches what is located on the dash, on the firewall, on the engine, and on the transmission. It also means that the cowl tag numbers match the colors and options of the car. Check out this page for more detailed information: Matching Numbers
The quick answer is that there is no such thing as a "Bandit Edition" (at least from the factory). Most people see a Black and Gold Trans Am and just call it a Bandit car when what they really mean is that the car is possibly a "Special Edition". Special Edition cars are usually marked on the cowl tag with a "Y" code such as Y81, Y82, Y84, or Y88 that denotes the car is a Special Edition from the Factory. The only 3 ways to know for sure that the car is a Special Edition or not is by having "Y" code in one of the following places: on the cowl tag, on the original build sheet, or on the PHS Documentation with the car. Check these pages out for more information:
Quick answeer is... It is worth whatever the next guy is willing to pay for it. There is no easy answer to this question. It all depends on what year, what kind of car, what options it has, and what kind of shape it is in as to what the value of the car is going to be. It could be a 1973 455 Super Duty fully restored, it could be a 1978 Special Edition with only 1,000 miles on it, or it could just be a nicely maintained runn of the mill 1976 Trans Am. I can give you a round about number on what your car might sell for in the open market, but it is by no means a science or exact number. You may have put over $50,000 into your car over the last few years restoring it,but that does not mean the car is wirth that to the next buyer. Also, do not go by what a car sold for on Barrett Jackson last week... that show is for people with more money than brains.
The "FS" designated what car model was rolling off the Fisher Body Plant assembly line. This information did not always match what the VIN number stated. In the early years from 1967 to about 1973, they were pretty consitiant with following the VIN number. Meaning, if the VIN number stated a "2287" for Trans Am, then the cowl tag usually followed suit with a "228" on the cowl tag. When you get up into the later years around 1976 and later, the VIN number stated a "2W87" for Trans Am, but the cowl usually read "2FS87" for Firebird. Not to worry about this when you are decoding your cowl tag. Pontiac and GM were rolling these cars off the assembly line pretty fast, so they mostly left the Fisher Body Plant as Firebird bodies and were made into Trans Ams at the GM Plant.
My answer is alway "It is YOUR car, do whatever YOU want to do with it with YOUR money. Don't let anyone ever tell you what to do with your car. If you want to paint the car a different color, go for it. If you want to change the interior to racing seats, do it. If you want to swap out the engine and put a crate motor in it, DO IT. The cars value will go up and down depending on what you do, but that is always YOUR call to make. The only suggestion I have is that when you do make a change like the engine or transmission or things similar to that, just keep the original so that way if someday you ever want to put the car back to original you can. Or if you sell the car, then the next buyer has the original equipment to put the car back to original if HE wants to restore it. Paint can always be changed back so can interior, but if you get rid of the original engine and transmission, the car can never be original again. So when you do make changes, just try to keep the original parts just in case one day someone wants to change it back.
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