1970 - 1972

From 1970 to 1972, the paint schemes and decals were pretty simple. The decals consisted of a small hood bird on the nose and a wide stripe running down the length of the car. They also had the "Trans Am" names on the fenders and rear spoiler. On white cars, they were blue decals, and on blue cars, they were white decals..... pretty simple huh?

For the shaker designations, they used designations such as "455", "455 HO", or even "Ram Air".

1973 - 1978

1973 marked the first year for the large hood bird. This would become iconic for the Trans Am to make it stand out from the crowd. When you see the big bird on the hood.... you know what car you are looking at. From 1973 to mid production year 1978, Pontiac used the "Looping" style hood bird and names. The decals came in a variety of colors such as Green, Orange, Blue, Charcoal/Red, Gold/Clear, and Gold/Black. The Trans Ams came with the hood bird, the "Trans Am" names on the fender and rear spoiler plus also a front bumper name located above the front drivers headlight (1976 & 1977).

	"Looping" style hood bird and names
	For the shaker designations prior to 1977, they used designations such as "455", "SD455", or "400".
	In 1977, they changed to the "Metric" listings of the engine sizes such as "T/A 6.6", "T/A 4.9", and "6.6 Liter".
Also, on the sail panel was an emblem, not a decal.

1978

As I have mentioned on quite a few other pages, 1978 was the worst year for Pontiac and making mid-year changes. Changes such as Hurst T-tops to Fisher T-tops, going from a Black Special Edition to a Gold Special Edition and then back to a Black Special Edition again..... The list goes on and on and the decals for 1978 are no different. Sometime mid-production year of 1978, they decided to change the decals. When exactly it happened, we don't really know for sure, but they changed from the "Looping" style lettering to the "Formula" or "Block" style lettering that was continued in use until 1981. They kept the looping style hood bird, but changed the style of the names.

Changed from the "Looping" style	to the "Formula" or "Block" style

Another few things to note for 1978.... They got rid of the "Trans Am" name above the drivers side headlight for this year. Here is a good illustration of that below. This photo was taken at the Trans Am Nationals with two almost identical cars sitting next to each other. One was a 1977 (left) and one was a 1978 (right). Notice how the nose decal is missing on the 1978.

If you had the L78 Pontiac 400 or the Olds 403, then you got no shaker designation decals. If you had the W72 Pontiac 400, then you got the "T/A 6.6" shaker decals. Now this was only for non-Special Edition cars. The Special Edition cars did get shaker decals no matter what engine.

 

One other change was the introduction of the new style 5-color hood bird. It first showed up on the 1978 Y88 Gold Special Edition Trans Am, but was then also used on any gold Trans Am in 1978. The Blue cars in late 1978 also got the newly designed 5-color hood bird as well.

 

1979 - 1980

In 1979, they kept the same 5 color hood bird and the "Formula" or "Block" lettering found in late 1978. The color choices were blue, red, orange, gold, silver, and they also added burgundy, bronze, and dark gold in 1980. The design also changed because the head of the bird now faced the passenger's side of the car. The "Trans Am" name on the front nose made it return in 1979 and was now located under the front drivers side headlight. The shaker decals once again came back for all engines. And the sail panel emblem was replaced with a smaller 3" sail panel decal.

	5-Color hood bird and the front nose decal returns under the front headlight.
	"Formula" or "Block" lettering and the 3" sail panel decal

 

 

1981

1981 was the final year for the Second Generation Trans Am. GM produced a different decal kit exclusively for the 1981 vehicles. The bird is 1" wider and ½" taller than the 1979-80 style and dropped from a 5 color design to a 2 color design. There were also small varioations in the color of the hood bird. For the first 2 months of production, the hood bird was a lighter shade of gold. After that, the Gold Version 2 came out which had slightly darker shades of gold. The front nose "Trans Am" name was also again removed as well as the "Unleaded Fuel Only" decal from the rear bumper.

The rear spoiler decal was also reduced in size to about the size of the fender decals (much like the 10th Anniversary in 1979)

 

1980 - 1981 Turbo Hood Birds

The Turbo cars in 1980 and 1981 recieved a different style hood bird alltogether. They were much larger in size than the normal style hood bird and also the head of the bird faced the driver's side of the car like the earlier birds of 1973 - 1978.

Much like the decals of the regular Trans Am in 1981, they were changed to a two-color hood bird.