I have always had a soft spot for Spark Yellow 79s, given that the current one I am going through will be nowhere near stock I have kept an eye out for another to get and keep original.

I found one and stopped by tonight to look at it. Paint is very faded, but the car is 100% bone stock with a phone book thick stack of service records going back to almost new. (the earliest saw I found at quick glance was 1981) There is not a dent on it and ZERO rust <-- I checked the usual places. Even has the stock radio.
I purchased it and will be driving it home tomorrow. The owner sold due to a surgery that has made getting in and out too much of a challenge.

The only drawback, at least in my eyes is that it is an auto.

This is pretty early production, but I would like to still do a tranny swap. I would enjoy it more with a 5sp, but for a clean unmolested original I am uncertain. This is a low Vin as well which makes it a tougher decision.

between the two it looks to be an SA summer.

 

'grats!! Also a fav of mine too. Hope the NV sun wasn't too brutal - might be worth taking a good polisher to it to see what comes up. As to the tranny - if you can scare up a manual SA, it should be a straight swap out of components, tho the pedals will mean gutting the dash to get out. All the fitment bits for either tranny should be in place. Don't forget the engine harness uses a couple of emissions relays for the auto box so you might want to have the manual engine harness too, if emissions are an issue in NV.
post some pics!
Stu Aull
80GS (Sunrise Red - my OTHER fav color)
Alaska