How long have you owned your Firebird?

Are you the original owner? Did you buy the car used?
Did you restore the car?

Are you the original owner? NO
Did you buy the car used? YES
Did you restore the car? Still working on that.

Had her going on 23 years and only can guess how much I have spent on her. 10K - 15K I'm sure. Not counting orignal cost.

Rick H

I'm the original owner. Ordered my car in Oct 1980 and took delivery on 2/26/81.

It's been a FAST 29 years.

Ol Blue is not restored. Except for normal maintenance, tires, shocks, water pump, headliner, ac compressor, my car is original.

39,000 miles on the clock. Would like to drive her more but the rest of my life gets in the way.

which one?????

Are you the original owner? NO
Did you buy the car used? YES
Did you restore the car? In progress

I bought mine in 2006 and actually got took on the deal . I found the car from a car dealer in MO. I hired a third party inspection company to go look at the car and they gave it a good rating and said the car was worth the money. HA! It was so bad I hired a lawyer to look into the situation. In the end, it wasn't worth the money as my chances of winning were 50/50. So, I chalked it up to experience and started working on the car. This is just a small taste ... The car showed up on a Thursday night. It wouldn't start so we had to push it off the trailer and into my driveway . The next day I opened the hood and started looking around. Now, keep in mind, I've never really worked on cars, ever. I figured the problem was the battery, cables, starter, or a combination. After inspecting those things it looked like the battery and the cables so I bought new cables and a battery and she started right up. Ran a bit rough but sounded good. My dad came over and he and I took it for a drive around the block. It ran OK but the front end was making banging noises. I pulled it back in the garage and didn't worry too much as the car was going to the shop the next day to get a new muffler system. the only thing that I knew it needed. Well, I went out to start the car and it wouldn't start , I had to call a tow truck to tow it to the garage. Long story short, no front end bushings, a broken spring, shocks were the original, floor boards rotted, broken rear spring, burnt coil, bad plugs, bad plug wires, wires under the hood were hacked up, hoses cut, shall I go on ? It took a considerable amount of money to get it running and to pass inspection.

Anyway, water under the bridge . Today she's sporting a rebuilt 400, .040 over, forged rods, pistons, roller tip rockers, RAM Air III Manifolds, true duals, rebuilt TH350 w/shift kit, new Pontiac 3:23 posi-trac, a Pro-touring suspension minus the rear springs which are new but stock springs, new steering components, new body and suspension bushings, sub-frame connectors, drop springs in the front.

I still have a ton of stuff to do but she's at least fun to drive now! That's my story and I'm not proud of it

Overall things to do, strip the paint and see what is under that shiny stuff, fix or replace and repaint, gut and replace the interior. When I do those things I'm going to find a 1975 400 engine and rebuild it to push about 500 horse and torque. The engine right now is about 380 horse and 450 torque. Lots of fun to drive but I want a bit more

Rich when you start your project I hope you will take pictures and start a Topic in our Project Forum. So we can all follow along with your progress and learn with you.

Rick h

I have owned my 1969 Firebird convertible about 8 years now, but it took me almost 2 years to find one.

My 1970 Trans Am, owned used since 1989.
My 1974 Trans Am, owned used since 1976.
My 1979 Trans Am convertible, owned used since 1987.
My 1981 Turbo Trans Am, owned new since 1981.
My 1989 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am owned new since 1989.

George

My 87 T/A I bought used from the 2nd owner in 2005.

My 67 I bought last October after saving for 2 years and shopping for almost as long.

I have done some work to both but did not have to "restore" either one...yet.