to challenge or not

i have been putting a challenge car together, well 2 one is a mustang which has been taken over by the team and my input is less and less which is fine with me and the members that have seen it in person are blown away. the other is a rust free BMW 633 that i bought off a member here. i have been putting parts together for it but the more i look at car i can use it sheetmetal for a donor for the callaway 633.

yesterday i bought a 1976 Firebird with the intention of it becoming my challenge car. i paid $1,500.00 for it and i figure i could sell off interior and other parts to cover getting the car to look nice. except for drivers side top of quarter panel there is no rust, floor pans, trunk pan, rockers and doors are clean and rot free. the interior is really nice ecept for front seat bottoms that are split at seams. it has a 400 with auto.

my problem is should i make a race car out of her or sale it...for someone to enjoy as project driver

here are a few pics

here is the rust now rear quarter can be bought for $139.00 to $300.00

I have a soft spot for those cars and the are getting harder and harder to find. First off is it the olds 403 or the pontiac 401? If it is the pontiac motor I would definitly restore it. I had a 79 Z28 and a 75 Formula 400. Both were great cars that I still regret getting rid of..

In reply to dean1484:

In '76 it would be a Pontiac engine. The picture certainly shows a Poncho engine, but no way to tell from it what size it is. Mark, how are the rear sub-frame rails and spring mounts? Those, and the trunk floor are real weak points on these.

Challenge!!

It's an auto. . CHALLENGE!!!!!

In reply to bravenrace:

it is a pont 400 and the trunk and rear sub frames are really really nice. i bought the car in lower va. the dash and headliner are really nice also. i have no intention of restoring it i have too many projects in that reguard. hopefully my friend can pick it up next week and get it to Pittsburgh where we can really look at it. right now i am leaning towards selling it

Go for it!

Challenge, then sell for someone to enjoy as a project driver.

That was easy.

Sure looks like it could be cleaned up fairly easily and sold on for some nice profit.

cutter67 wrote: should i make a race car out of her

Yes. Always yes.

it's a white firebird, which means it's a blue stripe away from being an old-school Trans Am clone. bonus points for finding a spare hood to hack a shaker into.

there's no rule that says challenge cars have to be gutted / caged / etc. get it running, stop the leaks, make up a cool story to go with the rusty quarter panel (don't even bother fixing it), buy some sticky tires and some junkyard swaybars, and take it to Gainesville!

In reply to AngryCorvair:

after the challenge, you reverse the bolt-on changes and sell it.

Angry's exercising his split personality for us!

AngryCorvair wrote: it's a white firebird, which means it's a blue stripe away from being an old-school Trans Am clone. bonus points for finding a spare hood to hack a shaker into. there's no rule that says challenge cars have to be gutted / caged / etc. get it running, stop the leaks, make up a cool story to go with the rusty quarter panel (don't even bother fixing it), buy some sticky tires and some junkyard swaybars, and take it to Gainesville!

Agreed, I'd keep the interior in it for sure. And I would start looking for pictures of the Fire-AM the C&D guy used in the last cannonball. That'd be a neat way to screw with people.

In reply to SVreX:

no i'm not!

In reply to SVreX:

berkeleyin' ay right i am!

or you could find a formula hood and combine the first- and second-gen TA themes:

but as a muscle pontiac, it's gotta have a hood tach!

Fire-Am liveries.

Challenge it.

Can you get some casting numbers off of that block and heads? The head codes are right above the middle exhaust ports. Remember, Pontiac V8's all look the same. 326-455 V8's have identical external dimensions. That car's original engine, assuming that it's a 1976 Firebird Esprit, is most likely the smog-tastic Pontiac 350. You can wake them up with the right set of heads and a different intake, cam, etc.

Getting Trans Am-style fenders, flares, etc. will cost as much as the car if not more, so find yourself a Formula hood and make a Formula clone. Parts for these cars can be very expensive.

'76 was the single headlight version, right?

I always thought those were much sexier than the Burt Reynolds supah chickens.

Must do vintage Trans Am race car theme.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Yes, it was the last year for them.

A little 2nd gen Firebird/Trans Am model history, mainly sticking to appearance:

70-73 had the same nose. 70-72 only came in white with a blue center stripe or blue with with a white center stripe. Colors and the "Screaming Chicken" came first on 1973 models.

74-75 were similar. Both had a new nose, although grilles were different and the parking lights moved into the grilles on the 75's. 75's also were the first to have the wrap-around rear window which lasted until 1981.

1976 was a stand-alone year, but looked similar to the 1974-75. They had special one year only hoods on the Formula models too. The black and gold Special Edition cars started with the 1976 50th Anniversary models commemorating the 50th anniversary of Pontiac. These were based on a 1973-74 show car that swiped the John Player Special livery because it was awesome looking.

77-78 are very similar. They introduced the quad rectangular headlamps and new hoods and shakers. The 1977's had the old-style "Screaming Chicken", while the 78's had a new design that carried over until 1980. The interiors and grilles were slightly different, and you could get a Disco-Tastic Solar Gold Special Edition as well as the black and gold ones, made famous in that movie with Burt Reynolds.

1979-81 are similar. They have an all-new nose, rear end with full-width blacked out tail lights, and new spoilers. The "Screaming Chicken" was the same on 79-80 models unless you got the Turbo 4.9 motor, and then the bird puked fire all over the turbo bump. 1981 had one-year only graphics. You could get a whole ton of different special performance and appearance packages.