Hello TGO,

As this is my first post here I hope I'm doing it right. Please point me in the right direction if I'm wrong.

Just this Friday I purchased my first project car, the 1991 Pontiac Firebird Formula. Problem is, I actually need a daily driver so until I pick up a cheap car for me to run into the ground, the Pontiac will have to do, but I digress. I want to do great things with this vehicle and it would be just too easy to poor every dime I make for the next 5 years into this car but, that I must limit myself. The owners before me didn't love the car the way they should have. There is a lot of work that was just half *** done and I'm just picking up someone else's project. I bought this car for the body, it's "almost" flawless and that's what I want, I hate body work.

I'm mostly interested in ideas for where to go with this car as far as upgrades. I would ultimately like to put it on the track so performance is key but for now, interior is priority. As you can see in the pictures linked below, it's seen better days and I want to restore it to it's fullest potential so any help and ideas I can get will be greatly appreciated!

(I should probably mention that before interior work, I have to ensure that the car won't poop out on my before I can get an actual daily-driver)

http://s473.photobucket.com/user/cor...?sort=3&page=1

I'm editing this because I don't feel like anyone understands what I'm asking for. I guess considering the interior how should I go about the restoration? are there any things that I should start with first? things that I should look out for? I'm no mechanic and I will be learning EVERYTHING as I do the work so advice beforehand would be a huge help!

 

If you want to fix the headlight motors topdownsolutions.com has all the parts you need

 

Thank you, I will definitely be checking them out!

 

Looks like you got a fun car, Its has a 5speed, SLP runners, SLP headers and a SLP catback. Start searching around and you'll find everything you need. Try the board sponsors -----------> --------------> ------------------>

 

Wow. How do you know all that just by looking at the pictures? I will definitely be looking at the board sponsors. Is there any type or order I should go as far as upgrading the interior that will make the overall process easier?

 

I'm old and I have been around these cars and the parts since they were new.

 

lol. this is my first encounter with these beautiful vehicles so my knowledge is very limited XD

 

First thing I noticed is that the spoiler on the rear is incorrect for a formula. That spoiler was available on base firebirds and 82-84 trans am's. starting in 85 the trans am got a wrap around unit. If I remember right the first year of the 3rd gen formula was 87. Before that they hAd firebird se's. something to that nature. All formulas should have a wrap around spoiler as well. They had big problems with these cracking. They were a urethane type materal and as they aged they tended to split all over the bases by the mounting points. It's real common for people to remove the spoiler or install the one that is on your car on to it. There is a fiberglass replacent from hawks. I just got one for my cat it's currently being fitted and painted so I can't comment directly on fit yet. It looks to be of nice quality though.

As for the interior. There is a nice how to in the tech articles section on restoring the door panels. I noticed that they have the typical fabric delamination going on. It's a nice fairly easy way to make the panels look good again.

Dash pad is cracked I'm not surprised they almost all are it seems. When I was looking for my 88 every one I found was cracked. My 88 had no crack but the drivers corner was slightly chunked. I scored a clean one off Craigslist. They are rough to find in the junk yard and it's a easy swap. One way to nicen it up is pull put some thin foam in the cracked areas just to even the top out and get some black vinyl from a fabric store and wrap the pad with it unil you can find a clean one.

The seats are rough on it. Another common third gen thing. Most of seats seem to be beat. An easy way to fix that is swap in some fourth gen seats. They go in pretty easy and you can upgrade to leather as well if you want. 4th gen seats are plentiful as they were made up until 02 so there are still a good deal floating around. You could also change your dash to a 4th gen dash but its a ton of work.

Good luck with it!

 

wow thanks Flying. sorry it took me so long to respond, been pretty busy with work.

I would really like to know how things go with that spoiler if you run into any unexpected issues or anything crazy happens.

I will definitely be looking up those how to articles, honestly anything I can find to make this job just a tiny bit easier will make my day.

I'm pretty confused on the dash. are you saying with a third gen dash it's an easy swap but with a 4th gen it's really difficult? is there a particular reason for this? and what about options as far as resurfacing my seats? do you think it would look doctored by doing that?

 

Well the third gen is easy because your just swapping the top of the dash. It's held in by 4 or 5 screws in the defroster vent area and a bunch of 7mm headed screws on the underside lip near the gauges running the length of the dash pad. Pulling the top takes maybe 10mins to do. Pulling the remainder of the dash is a very big job on a 3rd or 4th gen.

When I mentioned swapping a 4th gen dash being difficult its because it was never meant to be in a 3rd gen. Because of that there are mounting differences wiring differences and so on. People have done it its just a lot of work.

If all your gauges function just try and find a dash top. Hawks seems to make a reproduction for a 130 and classic industries make a repro dash top for 430. I have no expirence with any of classic's 3rd gen stuff. But From other stuff I've seen from classic it is identical to factory fit and quality. Their 70's mopar muscle car stuff is amazing. It's just pricey. The hawks one is nicely priced but I can't comment on fitment as I've never installed or seen one. I found 2 mint ones on Craigslist for $150. So I have a back up in case I need to swap out again. The sad part about my orginal dash top was it had no cracks. It was in really nice shape other then the corner at the drivers side was chunked staring you in the face. It bugged me. I had planed to have it fixed but then I came across the deal in Craigslist. I still have the orginal pad in storage.

 

nice. I suppose I'll do some shopping on craigslist to see if I can find it. dash isn't my number 1 priority but having that fixed makes the first glance of the car much nicer. thanks for your input, I'll also be checking out the classics and hawks for their reproduction dash for comparison. you've really been a great help.

 

for me the dash is like the first thing I need to do. the cracks annoy the hell out of me. its just the pad on top and makes the interior look 100 times better. Unlike you I got lucky with my interior and the only piece that need to be swapped was the dash pad. my interior is near mint.

 

I'm pretty jealous then! I think the first interior thing I'll do is fix the roof. pretty annoying driving and having that fabric rubbing across your head lol. has anyone had any complaints about the stock transmissions that come on these?

 

the t-5 is known for being notoriously weak when matched up to a 350 or a built 305. this is why GM never offered a 3rd gen 350 car that had a stick. I decided to swap up to a t-56 out of a LT1 4th gen. its basically a bolt in and the extra gear is nice to have plus I know it can handle almost anything I plan to throw at it in the future including a mild 350 or 355 build down the line

 

what do you mean by weak?

 

as in one of the known reasons GM never paired the t-5 with the 350 is that when driven aggressively it cannot handle the torque out put of a stock TPI 350. That being said you can build one to get the strength out of it that you may need. On a 305 it will last just fine. even on a full bolt on 305

 

It'll break from the additional torque.

 

ahh, makes sense.

you guys can beat me for this question later but should the stick move when I start moving? sometimes the stick will shift up and down when in first gear and only when starting. is that to be expected? and I've driven manual transmissions before, never have I had such a long travel distance between gears as I've experienced in this car, normal for these cars?

 

you need a trans mount they are like 4 bucks on rockauto.com. and yes the shift travel is long on the t-5. not so much on a t-56, especially with a short throw


EDIT: here is more info on the t-5 https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...ything-we.html

 

thanks for all that information, afraid I don't understand most of it, but I'm slowly learning.

when I bought the car, the owner said that the owner before him put 24 lb fuel injectors in and so the car ran rich. could this damage the engine at all or should it have any real affect in the long run? 8 fuel injectors aren't cheap so trying to figure out if they need to be changed and if so, to what?

 

You can go two routes here. Change the injectors or have the PROM re programmed. If you decide to have the PROM reprogrammed contact user tunedperfermance via PM. The car will run rich resulting in failed emissions and decrease in performance as well as bad fuel economy if the ecu calibration isn't changed. Stock 305 injectors are 19lbs, stock 350 are 22lbs

 

Thank you, I'll be sending him a PM now. living in California means that this thing HAS to pass smog. lol

 

The spoiler looks great. Fitment was good too. Where it clips to the glass sits a touch higher then the stock one did but you would be hard pressed to notice unless you really new what to look for. Overall I'm happy with it. The one thing I have noticed is the new spoiler weighs like 20lbs were as the orginal one probably weighed around 60-70lbs. Because of that weight difference my gas shocks for the hatch are to powerful and my hatch opens with a fury now. There are some other options when ordering hatch shocks so possibly without a spoiler or the base firebird/early trans am spoiler shocks might be a better option.