Been looking for a long time, finally bought one today (6/26/12). Here she is:

General overview pix attached;

(it's a 1988, one owner Texas car, 117,782 miles when I picked it up)

 

Congrats and you don't see many stock looking Formulas anymore. Enjoy!

 

Uglier bits;

 

Beautiful...what are your plans for it? If I was you I'd drive it sparingly and keep it in a garage for nice days.

Enjoy it.

 

Interior, good and bad;

 

Misc.;

 

Nice man. Beautiful find.

 

Very nice find. Stuff you pointed out thats bad, looks to me like normal wear and tear. Overall its in great shape. Enjoy your new ride.

 

Great pickup, appears to be original paint?

 

It looks like a nice, solid car. It just needs a little love in a few spots. I love that color. Good luck with it.

 

im guessing its a 89?

 

The seats don't really look worn to me, but I think the fabric is starting to dry rot. Worn seats usually have badly ripped bolsters.

 

great car! Needs very little.

Can't wait to see it in person, I hope you can bring it to the roundup in 2013

 

Yep, it's the original 24 year old paint. Far from perfect, but a lot better than most of the 3rd gens that I've been looking at for sale.

 

It's a 1988, 1 owner, 117,782miles when I picked it up. Sorry I didn't mention that, I was very tired last night from drive back and hectic goings on at work after I got back from SA. I just edited in my original post with the info.

 

Looks good. A little TLC will go a long ways on that one.

 

Nice looking car and besides the paint your spoiler is in alot better shape than mine and I have alot less miles. some TLC and she will be a killer lookng car.

 

Thats a great find! I am glad you saved her.

 

She is a beauty! Congrats on the great find!

 

Very nice find! An 88 Forumla 350 in Medium Orange Metallic. You may not realize it but that is a rare combo. You would be hard pressed to find another car in the country with that color and combo.

 

Good going! Be on the lookout for driver seat lower foam. It's not made by anyone anymore but you can find pax side from another car. You can get the fabric easy enough.

 

Took a few shots in bright sunlight with my phone when I went home for lunch. It's the first time I've seen it in bright sun with most of the dirt washed off. It's hard to get a shot that shows the color the way it looks to the eye, these are as close as I've got so far, but still looks more "Coppertone" in real life. It must have looked quite spectacular in the sun when it was new and really shinny.

 

Do you have a garage to keep it in? The paint nor the dash pad will last very long in the sun. The sun ruins the top of the back seat too, mine was in shreds when I got it.

 

I use a dashmat, windshield sunscreen, and keep the back seat folded down. Mine are still in great shape. That and I park it in the shade whenever possible.

 

Congratulations! Nice Score!!! That color combination is kick-***!

 

Looks great

 

I know I'm jumping the gun here, but you make sure you PM me when you wanna sell it

My father has a 2002 Formula in the same color with 9,000 miles on it. Either he or I would LOVE this car...

 

I was getting an erratic SES light, mainly when starting the engine cold. I did a code read this evening, got code 34, MAF issue, will run the MAF diagnostics later to see if it needs replacing. I was also noticing a rattle when I got off the interstate on the trip back yesterday. Sounded like a loose shock or sway bar on the rear axle. I crawled around under it this evening and sure enough, the drivers side sway bar link was loose, lost it's top nut completely. The right side one is also loose but the nut is still there. I checked the front sway bar too, and it is also loose as I suspected from the rattle in the front I noted on the original test drive. I went and bought new end links and bushings tonight. it will be this weekend before I can work on it, but I'm going to check the tie rod ends, ball joints, control arm bushings and other underbody stuff while I'm at it. Can't believe it drives as well as it does with all that stuff loose, can't wait to see how it handles when I get the all fixed. A bit of good news is that a lot of the small whitish spots on the lower fenders that I thought was stone chip damage is actually some sort of deposit on top of the paint. It's fairly hard, you can almost scrape it off with a fingernail. Could be he ran through some wet concrete? Pavement marking paint? I don't know, but if I can get most of it off without damaging the paint, it will look a lot better up close.

 

The missing nut on the end link is the same as not having a sway bar at all. You will notice a huge difference after repair, the WS6 suspension includes a 36mm bar. Good thing you are checking all the other steering and suspension joints while you are under there, these cars handle great when everything is tight.

 

Never even seen one in person. That's gotta be the best stock color out there. Besides black of course.

 

Sry to double post, but hit those spots with a clay bar. I just got a bunch of crap off of my truck that I was almost sure was going to require compound and a buffer. Nice, safe for the paint and good results.

 

man this formula is so beutiful i cant wait till i get mine i love these cars so much i currently own my 5th fbody and my next one i want is a formula 350 with ttops

85 firebird 5speed v6 hard top

85 MR MSE trans am ttop

90 camaro v6 hard top

92 firebird convertible v6

and now currently a 85 z28 ttop 5.o TPI///also for sale or trade for a formula 87-92

 

Yeah, when I under there looking at the front bar, I was surprised at how thick it was. If you know for sure that it's 36mm, that will help me because when I was at the parts place they where asking me what size the sway bars are because they were showing 3 or 4 different sizes. I said I'd have to measure them and come back later to get them. Do you know what size the rear bar is? That would save me from having to worm back under there with calipers to measure it.

 

Some pics of the engine...

 

I'll post some this weekend after I get the hood struts replaced and clean up the engine bay a bit. Nothing unusual there, straight stock.

 

Also make sure you put the poly swaybar endlinks back in the car. They are a yellow poly from the factory. If they are as beatup as your saying I'm guessing your struts and shocks are worn also. The more I look at your car the more I want it! nice find

 

The top post says 177k...is that a typo? I thought you said it had 118k...

 

Yep, it's was a typo, I just fixed it in the first post, 117,XXX is correct.

 

Just an fyi on the code 34. More then likely it is not the MAF itself. I have actually never had a code 34 turnout to be the MAF itself. I went through this with my 88 and my friends 87 and another friends 89. Each time it turned out to be caused by bad fuel injectors.

Pick up a test fuel pressure gauge and screw it into the test port on the fuel rail. It your fuel pressure bleeds down to zero right after shutting off the car the nozzles on the injectors are leaking. Also, check the injector coils with an ohm meter.

This is the #1 cause of a code 34. Not the MAF or circuit itself.

 

I am not 100% certain that the bar is 36mm. It's best to measure to be sure.

 

Great looking car. I'm a bigger Camaro fan, but I really, really like the clean lines of 87 - 90 Formulas -- before they got the Batmobile nose treatment.

 

WS6 with 16" wheels=36mm swaybar. Before I go to a junkyard I take a piece of plastic I cut a 36mm slot into. Then if I see a thirdgen that looks like it's a real iroc or ws6 car I slide my homemade plastic gauge over the swaybar. If it's snug, it's what you want.

 

Thanks, I'll do that. I've been reading up on old postings about code 34 and downloaded a copy of the GM TPI service manual. Looks like a number of things can generate the code 34, I'll just have work through it. The engine is running fine, get a slight miss or uneven idle sometimes especially when it's cold. One thing I did notice, last evening I pulled the intake hoses off to look at the MAF, there was the distinct smell of gas fumes coming from the intake manafold even though the car had not been started since the day before. Is that normal or could that indicate leaky injectors?

 

If you have the right size open end wrench, you can you can use that to size the sway bars too. I researched it and the rear one is supposed to be 24MM and the front is 36MM. I've got a 24MM open end but not a 36MM, I'll just use my calipers to measure it. I ordered the Energy urethane end links for the front and back bars, they should come in today. I'm still looking for the front bar bushings, I found 1-5/16", 34MM, 1-3/8", 1-7/16", but no 36MM which is very close to 1-13/16"

 

Wow, I just discovered that I have the power antenna option from the RPO tag. Of course, it doesn't work. The low segment has a little kink in it and it jammed up. I just thought it was a manual antenna that was bent and wouldn't retract. I think the motor is probably fried too.

 

Not normal. You should not have a fuel smell in the upper intake. Could be the injectors. Also, their is a vaccum line from the fuel pressure regulator going to the upper intake. Pull that off and make sure the regulator is not letting raw fuel into the upper intake via the vaccum line. If it is replace the regulator. Inspect the line at both ends for fuel.

Ask for help if you need it.

 

Do you check that vacuum line with the engine off or running?

 

With it running, if fuel comes dribbling out you have a leaky diaphragm.

 

The plastic cable is likely broke. Check all of the connections in the passenger side of the dash, many people disconnect them because when that cable breaks it causes the motor to run continuously. Someone actually cut the wires to mine.

 

Correct, with it running. However, it is really leaky then sometimes the fuel will still be present even with the car off.