Sometimes, it’s the part you thought would be easiest to find that turns out to be the hardest to find. If you can find it, at all. And – sometimes – the reason why only becomes obvious once you discover that you can’t find what you’re looking for.

I had no trouble at all locating all the parts – including the small parts – I needed to complete the conversion of my ’76 Pontiac Trans-Am from factory automatic to manual. I even found a correct (original, new old stock) Hurst shifter, including the chrome-plated Hurst shifter rod and the “Pontiac” gear shift knob that would have been exactly what my car would have left the Norwood, Ohio assembly line with back in ’76 if it had been built as a factory four-speed car.

I found the Z bar and the brackets for the clutch linkage. I found a set of brand-new pedals, exact duplicates of the originals. I even found the correct chrome trim for the pedal rubber. There was no problem finding the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. I didn’t even have to scour the boneyards for a bellhousing – the aluminum casting that fits over the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate and bolts to the back of the engine – even though the engine in my Trans Am hasn’t been made in 50 years. (Unlike say the Chevy small block V8, which you can still buy new from GM.)

I bought a rebuilt Borg Warner Super T10 four speed transmission – identical to the one my car would have come with if it had come with a manual from the factory.

Everything mechanical is now as it would have been. The result being what I had wanted, that being to replicate what my car would have been if it had been me who ordered it back in ’76. Because an automatic Trans-Am is something not quite right.

But one thing’s still missing – and may be, for some time to come.

It’s not mechanical. It’s cosmetic. Aye, there’s the rub!

I never gave much thought to the center console that sits between the front seats. My car originally came with one, as did most second generation Trans-Ams, because the TA was more loaded with extras than the Formula Firebird, which people who just wanted the TA’s drivetrain – for the performance – bought. The TA was the fanciest Firebird and most came pretty loaded with extras. Power windows, for instance.

If you wanted the optional power windows – which my car has – then your car came with a console, which was mandatory with the power windows. And – of course – if your car was equipped with an automatic, then you got the console – because the automatic came with a floor-mounted gear selector.

Manual-equipped cars could be ordered with a console, but some were not. The more relevant thing is most Trans-Ams – especially after 1974 – were automatic cars. Put another way, the manual console is rare because manual transmission Trans-Ams are rare. That alone means finding an original manual console that’s still in showroom-new or very close to that condition (as the rest of my car’s interior is) is much harder than finding a similar condition automatic console. GM made hundreds of thousands of them – for the Firebird and the same-era Camaro – but far fewer of the manual console, which has a different opening up front for the Hurst four speed shift lever.

Without a center console, a TA’s interior looks like there’s something missing – and now mine looks like that, too. The power window switch (and wiring harness) flops around on the driveshaft tunnel and you can see where I cut the carpet to cut the hole for the shifter. I had assumed I’d have a new reproduction manual console installed by now because I had briefly checked around before starting the project and saw they were available.

They are available.

The problem is they are not the same. They look the same – until you look closely. They are the same shape, for the most part. But they are hard painted plastic. The originals were covered in something that’s not quite leather – it’s closer to vinyl – but gives the impression it might be. It’s softer than hard plastic and the point is you can tell the difference. This matters a lot to people for whom originality matters, which it does to me. The rest of my TA’s interior is original and in extremely nice condition. Installing a cheesy-looking aftermarket reproduction console would stand out like wearings sneakers with a tux.

I want the real deal.

The trouble is the  real deal’s proving very difficult to find – and the available repros are cheesy.

But, why are they cheesy?

I think I know why. Certain original cosmetic parts for classic cars were made using specific processes that cannot be easily or economically replicated today, by aftermarket suppliers. It is one thing to remake a hard plastic trim plate – as for instance the trim plate surrounding the TA’s original AM/FM Delco stereo, which I recently put back in the car. It is another thing to reproduce the soft/textured feel of an original GM center console from the ’70s. I think the situation is analogous to the Honeycomb wheels that Pontiac offered back when my TA was new (1976 was the last year for these wheels). Many people do not realize these wheels aren’t aluminum – because they look like they are. In fact, they are steel. Pontiac developed a process called Polycasting to create these wheels. The cool-looking Honeycomb centers are actually made of a urethane composite material and serve no structural purpose.

No one reproduces these wheels.

You can get reproduction alloy wheels that sort of look like them, but which aren’t them. The difference is immediately obvious.If you need a set of correct Honeycomb wheels, you’ll have to find a set of original ones, which is not easy since they haven’t been made for 50 years. Either good used ones that can be refurbished or New Old Stock (NOS) which means an original, unused replacement part that has been sitting on a shelf somewhere for all these years.

It’s a similar scene with my console – the one I don’t have yet. I’ll be visiting eBay daily and hoping that one day, one will pop up for sale. I found an NOS Hurst shifter for my car that someone had that had been sitting in its box for the past 50 years – so maybe lightning will strike again. There’s also the Trans Am Nationals – and the big parts swap meet up in Carlisle, PA. Somewhere, my eventual manual console waits for me to find it.

Meanwhile, console myself with the sounds of the Super T10’s gear whine!

 . . .

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