I was looking on eBay last week and came across an auction for a 91 Firebird with 1 day left, but there was no pic.

I wrote the guy and asked for some pics and he replied that he was trying to get them on the auction. So I wrote back and asked for an accurate description of the body and interior and he wrote back saying the pic was on the auction, the body had a couple of minor dents and needed a little body work, the interior was 'good'.

So I waited until the last couple seconds and bid $1207. I won it for $900.

eBay Motors: Pontiac : Firebird (item 260013030148 end time Aug-01-06 13:32:10 PDT)

I just bought a car and now you know everything I knew when I committed myself to pay $900 (plus $200 for my friend for pickup/ delivery). I wanted to know more, so I wrote him:

"I talked to Brandon and he said that you two worked out the arrangements for the pickup/ payment. Thank you. I understand that the car needs the alternator and belt. This car has the serpentine belt setup, correct? After this is installed will it be driveable? Is the rebuilt motor is the origional with the TPI setup and pretty much a stock rebuild? Does the car have 60,000 miles or the engine since it was rebuilt? Is the interior cloth or leather and any tears or cracks in the seats, dash, etc? What are some of the options that the car has (rear disc brakes, cruise, ac, power windows and locks, WS6 suspension, etc.)? You mentioned that it needed bodywork and that it has minor dents. Is there rust or faded/ flaky paint? If rust, about how much and where? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm going to be getting this car Friday night and don't really know that much about it. Don't feel rushed to answer if you're busy and don't worry about me backing out of the deal.

Thank you,
Josh"

He responded about 24 hours later:

"as far as i know it has the serpentine belt set up.it was previously driveable. as far as i know it is the original eng.{modified} the car has 60k+. the engine has very low mileage on it since modification. the interior is cloth and in good condition. pwr wndos.and lks.some rust lwr lt qtr pnl.hood needs to be refitted. i have a complete package of all the receipts and labor for all the new parts that were added to the engine and chassis that i will give to brandon. the total dollars spent was approx. $5,000 +.
larry"

Sounds good. I really liked the $5000 bit. The next day my friend calls me and says that he's looking at the car and he wanted to get with me and let me know a few things. First the bad: the little bit of rust was a whole that had been bondoed at one point but was opened back up to about the size of his fist plus the whole lip was bubbling on that side, part of the rear inner wheel well was rotted out, the hood looked f'd up, the nose was torn, the drivers door was rough, the car had 60k + 37k. Now the good (good enough to buy it anyway): it had a BBK throttle body, headers, matching wheels, interior was really clean, pbr disc rear, plus the guy had pics of the engine going in the car and it had blue annodized roller rocker arms. So he paid for it and loaded it up to head back.

I met him to look the car over and was very dissapointed in the body, so we started looking through the reciepts. Some of them that stood out were:

new crank, rods, pistons + balancing
30lb injectors
powercoil
1.5 roller rocker arms, unkown brand but $179.99 from Jeg's
58mm throttle body
3 piece billet alum. underdrive pulleys
adj. fuel press reg
air foil
block was bored 0.030", valves ground, and heads were milled 0.030 (kind of sad that the life was shortened on these, especially when you find out what they are)
Comp Cam, turned out to be this one - COMP Cams Xtreme Energy Camshafts: CCA-08-502-8 - summitracing.com
edelbrock headers
trans had been rebuild - vetted servo, hi stall (2000 it turns out), shift kit, prof. rebuild
pretty much everything in the engine had a receipt for it

Sounded like a good enough deal to me so far, so we poked around and my friend opened the center console to find a "for sale" sheet - $4800 obo, 1/4 mile - high 12's, low 13's. Nice! Looking a little further - Edelbrock alum. (angled plug) heads and 3.73 rear. Wow, I just bought some heads and got everything else with it.

Got the car home and put a battery in it but it wouldn't stay running, but it sounded mean enough to keep my friend me laughing. Double pedalled it up to the garage and noticed the 'service engine' light, so we pulled the code. Looked it up - ecm . I had one, but what are the odds? It was thrown in with some parts I bought. It was the right one . Plugged it in and vroom! Took it down the road and it was one of those childhood refreshers.

Sorry for bragging, but I had to get this one off of my chest.

 

You lucky son of a...

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that it's a Formula, factory 5.7L car with the WS6.

 

It seems that you made out pretty well.Must be nice,good luck with the car.

 

Like you said you just bought heads with alot of free stuff Nice snag man...