Now that title has transferred into my name I can post about the new (old) car I bought last Friday. I now own a 1988 Firebird Formula 5.0. The car has high mileage (292K) but is in good shape in many respects. I suspect that the engine isn't the original and may have been swapped for a 5.7. I'll know more when I get it up on a lift.
Starting with the good: The engine has been dressed up with braided ss covers over several hoses and a polished plenum. The engine runs pretty strong which is another reason why I think it isn't a 5.0 any longer. The dash pad has a dash cover on it so the dash pad is in perfect condition! The steering is nice and tight and has no flop to it that so many develope with age. The auto tranny shifts fine, but has a slight delay getting into reverse. Surprisingly, the a/c blows cool and is still the original R12. The cruise control and power windows also work fine. Hood struts and hatch struts both work. It has the aluminum rim to the spare tire which looks unused. A whistler radar detector was velcored to the rearview mirror that appears to work.
Now the bad: The front bumper cover, hood and left fender all have accident damage and need to be replaced. The drivers side headlight bucket and actuation motor were replaced with an early style one (1982-86). Both headlights were stuck up when I got the car. I've repaired both using one of my headlight repair kits and swapped a correct 1987-92 headlight actuation unit.
The motor housing of the hatch pull-down unit was held to the frame with baling wire. I rebuilt it with new guides and a TDS new-style motor with reinforced motor housing. The aftermarket radio is missing the faceplate, so I'm humming tunes to myself for the time being. The chassis has a lot of rattles and squeaks over juttery road surfaces. A set of Alston SFC's will be going on soon (I wonder if I can get a set for cheap, lol).
When I filled the car with gas it was dumping gas out the back. I suspect a cracked filer neck. The car has a 3.23 drum brake rear end. I'll swap that for a 3.45 9-bolt that is currently in my RS. I have a spare good 3.27 9-bolt for the RS. The gas tank will be repaired or replaced when I do the rear end swap. The front and rear seats are in bad shape. I've already cleaned up my old seats from my RS and swapped them into the car temporarily until I can get some gray cloth Corbeau Targa RS seats.
The rear hatch window is covered with tint. I've never been a fan of aftermarket tinted windows and am even less of one now. I spent about 4 hrs trying to remove the tint Sunday and got 60% of the top two layer off. Three layers of tint, what a pain! The carpet should be replaced. The center console and auto shift plate need to be replaced. I put a bulb in the console light but it seems to be wired backward. The light comes on when the button is depressed rather than when it is released. That would put the light on when the armrest is closed. The armrest also is trash. The t-tops have leaked and have been sealed with black silicone. It also looks like the front t-bar weld is bad since it has raised a bit. I'll know more when I finally get the t-tops off. All bushings will need to be replaced along with a complete suspension rebuild I suspect.
That's about it, definitely a work in progress. Attached are pictures the previous owner took. Oh I forgot to mention I paid $600 for it (less the .28 I found under the front seat).
Lon,
I removed tint from my back window on a hot day with 409 full strength. I put a cheap plastic tarp from Home Depot over the interior under the hatch, then I sprayed the 409 on full strength and let it set. It was fun watching the tint break loose from the glass and slide down!
I've actually been considering getting a Firebird for quite a while now. I just can't afford the model I want yet. The trigger for this purchase was price. I 've never paid so little for a running car. I really like that it is a Formula, (no GFX) so it will be a little lighter from the start compared to a TA or GTA. I like that the car is bone stock with the exception of some dress-up items on the engine compartment. The car must have been well maintained for so much (a/c, cc, pw, hatch & hood struts, etc.) to still be working after so many years and miles. It was also a good candidate for many of the items I sell such as the hatch pull-down repair kit, headlight repair kit, door hinge repair kit and SFC's. You know you have problems with a car when you find bandaid repairs done to it such as wiring the fans to come on with the ignition rather than correcting the problem. Thankfully there are no examples of bandaid repairs on this car with the exception of baling wire epoxy & wood screws to hold the hatch pull-down motor housing together. But that was a simple fix.
Actually I'm just returning to the Pontiac brand after many years absence. My first car was a white Pontiac Tempest station wagon that I talked my Dad out of selling. It was Motor Trends "Car of the Year" that year. Manual steering and drum brakes on all four corners, those were the days! Restoring the dash meant sanding down the metal and re-spraying it with a rattle can.
It's funny that some engineers at GM were unaware that they had built a car before the C5 'Vette with the transmission attached to the rear end.
Nice Formula! Jeez, you make it sound like the GFX are made of solid lead or something. One good thing on the Formulas though is the greatly reduced step over distance above the rocker panel. You don't have a big GFX panel to scrape your feet on when you get in and out of the car.
Wasn't that particular Tempest model only offered for one or two model years or something? It had a fully independent rear suspension with a transaxle. Right?
Too bad GM didn't let Pontiac have their own 2-seater Banshee (sp?) sportscar back in the 60's. I guess Chevy didn't want anything to compete with the Corvette back then. Then again. If we got the Banshee 2-seater, the Firebird name probably would've been used for it.
Pontiac was somewhat of an innovator back in the '60's weren't they? They had OHC engines, endura front bumpers, real wide-track suspensions, and what about those cool little "tiger" tails that they put on the gas filler caps on some of the early GTO's. I wonder if that was a John Z. DeLorean idea? LOL!
Congrats!
One good thing on the Formulas though is the greatly reduced step over distance above the rocker panel. You don't have a big GFX panel to scrape your feet on when you get in and out of the car.
