This 1969 Pontiac Firebird reminds me of the bombed-out, rusty shells from my woe-be-gone, misbegotten youth. Thing is, this Facebook find has an asking price of some $7,500; that's all the money in the world for something that "needs everything" and is not a Trans Am.
Junkers like this from back in the day had asking prices way more in line with the value of the dollar. If this came into my midst when I was 16 or 17 years old, I'd expect to pay around $1,000 for it. Maybe $1,500. Roughly $3,000 today give or take a five-hundred-bucks given the wonkiness of online, inflation calculators. Even so, back then it might have been money well spent since such a car would have punched my ticket to the "cool kids" table. Restore it? What?
From 1967 through 2002, the Pontiac Firebird was the badge-engineered clone of the Chevrolet Camaro. Sure, there were disparate differences between the two cars but for all intents and purposes, they were the same cars albeit marketed at somewhat different buyers.
Legend has it that in early 1966, GM wonks told then Pontiac General Manager John DeLoreon that he had little more than eighteen-months to cobble together a luxury-tinged Camaro akin to what Ford was doing with a Mustang for their Mercury division. Unlike what Mercury was able to do with the Mustang, suits didn't give John Z. and his team the lattitude to change the wheelbase or, save for front and rear facias, the body. Not that given such a short runway he would have been able to do much anyway.
What was to become the "Firebird", a name used on Motorama Turbine Pontiac's from the 1950's, would be all Camaro save for some suspension tuning and of course GM's then odd policy of divisional engine autonomy. Even then they clamped down on limiting engine displacement and tuning.
What scares me most about this car is not so much the beat up body and the lack of a top but the rusty frame. Frame repairs are tough because you have to find a welder willing to do the work and good ones you'll find will charge you an arm and leg. I'd figure at least $3,000 for frame work best done with the body off the car. You separating this fifty-three year old body and from it's frame yourself?
$12,000-$15,000 for bodywork done right and that includes paint. $2,500 for a new top, $3,500 for an interior. Suspension work, all in, if you have a shop do it, will run you the dark side of five-grand. You want "vintage" air-conditioning too? Be prepared to pony up, son. How's the rear axle on this thing? Best best it'll need to be rebuilt to the tune of around $1,500. Holy smokes, this is adding up.
Then of course there's the engine rebuild and transmission swap - this is an automatic car so out the factory door it came Oldsmobile's "Jetaway"\Buick "Super Turbine 300" two-speeder and not even a Chevrolet Powerglide. Perhaps a Turbo Hydramatic was installed years ago. Who knows.Throw that slushie in the dumpster along with the cheesy Mickey Thompson (M/T) engine dress up kit. You're looking at $6,000 all in to make this thing go fast. Or as fast as it looks.
Given the asking price is $7,500 your price of admission is already quite high an don't count on the seller willing to take much less for it. At least not right now. Give them six-to-eight months of no one calling on it. They said there'd be no math when I started this blog but putting pencil to paper, you're looking at pushing $40,000 all in for this when it's said and done.
There are first generation Camaro's and Firebird's out there in good shape with those kind of asking prices but if you're restoring this to flip it the margins dont make any sense. Ones that have been resto-modded, where more modern steering and suspension components have been used, will go for upwards of twice that. And they still ride like ox carts with square wheels.
Figure the better part of a year to get it all done too. That's with you chipping in and doing some of the work yourself. Pick and choose your projects. Results will vary. Void where prohibited.
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