This 1989 Firebird is the first car I ever bought and I still have it 24 years later. This is not a restoration and not a low mileage puff ball. It is just a good old car that has recently developed a roaring attitude.

Basically you’re looking at a snapshot frozen in time. This is what I wanted the car to look like in 1999 when I pulled the 2.8L engine to do a V8 swap. Then the car just sat… and sat… and sat… until 2016 when I got it on the road again. These are the same ROH wheels I bought in 2000 for the project! Same goes with the rear axle and most the suspension. A lot of the “new” parts on this car aren’t even sold any more.

The body is original, and a fantastic 22 year old paint job still steals looks today. The only modification in the looks department is a set of wheels and some leather seats to class up the interior. Honestly, I don’t think this Pontiac needs much help beyond that. I still use the crank windows and the original cassette radio and I have no plans to do anything different.

Under the hood is a whole different story and I did not follow the original script from 2000. I traded in the silly supercharged big block for a rowdy 427 LS that thumps at idle and has a horsepower curve that is still climbing beyond 7000 rpm. Engine management is Holley HP EFI. This car is about racking up “smiles per mile”, not quarter mile, so the TH400 is gone and replaced by a T56 manual with RTrack dual disc clutch inside a Quicktime housing. Underneath is a fully adjustable suspension, Ground Control weight jacks, Hawks Sinister torque arm, C6 brakes, and many other modifications. The car was not built for drag racing but still joined the 11 second club with ease at 125 mph.

Pictures don’t do justice because the sound brings it all together to create a lovely kind of nasty. This is a cool old car! I attached a couple videos below. This Firebird brings back memories and I smile every time I drive it. Everything is familiar, I know the car in and out, and I’ve had it so long that it is uniquely mine.

The Back Story

Purchased as my first car in 1992, this Firebird served as my daily driver until 1999 when the head gasket failed on the original 2.8L. I was young and had a dream of doing a V8 swap and eagerly ripped out the engine. The project escalated from ZZ4 350 to a supercharged 468 BBC, and then it all came to a grinding halt when I moved across the country for a job, got married, and became a responsible man. The Firebird was not on the agenda any more. It would be a total of 17 years before the car would see the road again.

Fast forward to 2011. The car has been garaged the entire time but has years of dirt literally bonded to the paint, and the interior is full of mouse poo and urine with nests and dead bodies on the seats and in hidden places. My wife says, “Finish it or sell it!” I think she was surprised when I immediately began to clean it up and order parts!

In 2013 the car was nearly destroyed by a 200 mph tornado. My wife and I huddled in the basement as nearby houses were leveled. By the grace of God there was a shield of mercy over our heads and our property was untouched in the midst of the powerful chaos.

I finally got the car on the road this year (2016) and it has been a BLAST driving it again! I was okay with a basic engine swap but this project turned into a “big build” real quick; and I won’t lie, it was a struggle for me at times in terms of knowledge, skill, and motivation. Really happy now to be at the stage where it is a fun driver that I can do small projects as it suits me.

Here is hours of reading if you are further interested in the build. That thread is active and the car will continue to evolve in 2017. There is already a pile of parts waiting to go on the car this winter. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-l...-qwktrips.html (What ever happened to QwkTrip's car anyway?)