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| My Firebird in 1979 |
| This is my 1976 Firebird Formula. It was purchased from the dealership in my home town by my cousin and her husband in July of 1976. The original owner had traded it back in after only a few months. My cousin paid a little over $6000 for the car and was paying monthly notes of about $148. When she couldn't afford to pay for the car, my aunt took over the notes in late '76. It was driven as a daily driver until 1992 when my aunt got a new vehicle. My uncle convinced her to give it to me in November 1993. The car was special ordered from the factory with the two-tone green and yellow stripe, common to the Esprit model, and the spoiler as added options. It has the 400 cubic inch v8 engine and the Turbo 350 automatic transmission. The exterior color is Metalime Green, code 40. The interior is black custom deluxe and has the 8 track player in the dash. Rally II wheels where the orginal wheels but where later replaced with uni-lug wire basket wheels and the dual exhaust changed to the side-pipe exhaust seen above. After all, it was the 70's. |
| When I received the car the paint was worn and rust had started to eat away at the body. The 400 engine was tired with 132,000 miles on it. The transmission had been rebuilt in 1988. I had to replace the worn out wire basket wheels, what was left of them. I drove it as a daily driver for almost a year before I bought a 1979 Olds Cutlass. My exhusband backed in the rear quarter panel with his truck. Then I loaned it to a guy who needed transportation to work for a few days. I will NEVER do that again! He blew up the engine, probably racing it. My ex-finance helped me start restoring it then. It was 1995 when we had the engine rebuilt. The block was bored .003, new pistons, rings and a couple of rods were purchased as well as a new crank shaft and a cam. The cam is slightly over stock. It still has a smooth idle like the stock cam. The engine was balanced and put back into the car and then the transmission when out. We had a shift kit put in the transmission along with a higher stall torque converter. |
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| My Firebird in 1996 |
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| History of my Firebird |