'73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Well, due to an incident with the oil gauge line in my Firebird I have been neglecting the 68 stepper build. So I decided I should start a build thread for the Firebird. It's not so much a build thread as it is an exercise in knocking the ugly off of a fair car to start with.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

The Trans Am thing started for me in high school. I was one of the lucky few who was in high school in the late 70's. My first car was a '72 Plymouth Duster. I drove the wheels off of it and then this happens.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

So I bought a '79 Trans Am (yeah, a 403 car, but most all of them were). Nice car but nothing special.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

After high school I joined the Navy and during my first cruise I saved up enough money to buy a (used) car. It was a '77 Z-28, again a nice car but nothing special.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

As I was visiting a friend I would drive past a black Firebird sitting in the trailer court he and his wife lived in. After never seeing it move for over a month I stopped and asked about it. Well, I ended up buying it. It turned out to be a Trans Am that someone had painted black in the early eighties. It had a 455 four speed and was ridiculously fast. No, I don't know if it was a super duty, back then I never cared about those things, I just wanted a cool car. I drove it for about 6 months and, to my everlasting shame, ended up trading it for a '40 Plymouth coupe ( in my defense the TA ended up blowing up on the freeway and got towed to impound never to be seen again, I hope someone bought it and put it back on the road...) No pics of this one that I can find.

So a few years ago I got the itch for another 70-73 Trans Am. The one's I wanted I couldn't afford. The one's I could afford I didn't want!

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

I was about to give up the search when I ran across a thread on Performance Years forums making fun of this car ad on Racingjunk for this '73 Firebird. It wasn't a Trans Am but it was kinda close...

Yes, the previous owner had made some dubious decisions, but something kept drawing me back so a conversation with the owner turned into a deal being reached.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

First thing I did was get rid of the cheap chrome wheels that were on it. Nothing makes a car look like crap more than this style of wheel. If you have a set of these SELL them to someone else! Life is too short for ugly wheels.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Some 15" rally's fit the car much better. I'm a no trim ring kinda guy.

You'll notice a hole in the hood, more on that later.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

What in the Kid Rock ,mullet tugging, dope smoking haze had inspired the previous owner to do this??? I like to think it was a late night drinking Jim Beam, but, it had to go.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

So I took the sawzall to it.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

A few Coors and late nights later and I had a poorly patched hood back in place. I also added a few decals, I've liked stickers ever since I was a kid.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

I have been gathering parts and pieces I need to clone a Trans Am. I know, people hate clones, but it's not like I'm trying to misrepresent the car, I'm trying to build it into something I want. So I have gathered up a few Trans Am items that one day may or may not be installed.

One of the things was a 1974 Trans Am gauge package because my car has idiot lights and some poorly hacked in aftermarket gauges for water temp and oil pressure.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Well, a couple of weeks ago I was driving to the gas station to add gas to the Firebird and the plastic line going to the aftermarket oil gauge split. Car pumped about 3 quarts of oil into the interior before I got to a place I could stop. Luckily I was close to a friends house who has 3 second gen Camaros. He happened to have a plastic line kit in his garage and gave it to me. I got the line replaced in about 30 minutes and got the car back to the shop.

Pulled out the seats, carpet, dashpanels, gauges, radio and front wiring harness to try to get all of the oil out of the car. Not many pics because I was kinda busy.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Radio, wiring harness, and ashtray were full of oil. The harness was a huge mess and I untaped it, cleaned it with acetone, and retaped it up.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Nice work on this car, and I like the upgrades you are doing.

Keep it going, and thanks for saving this car

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Thanks, I appreciate it! It really wasn't a bad car to start with, just not my idea of what it should be.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

When you change from idiot lights to full guages on a Firebird (or any car or truck) it's never a plug and play, there's always a few wires that need to be rerouted. On the Firebirds it's really not too hard if you go step by step.

I started with the tach wiring which will be new wiring as it is a separate harness from the main harness. It's just 3 wires- a 12v that is live at key on and start (IGN), a ground (actually the ground doesn't have a wire, it goes to a nut that grounds to the circuit card on back of the cluster), and a TACH signal from your distributor. I used pink for the 12v and white for the TACH signal (These colors match the factory colors). Sorry, I didn't take pictures of these before I got it all together.

You can order these harnesses on the internets but I have lots or wire (and a bunch of old harnesses I stripped out of parts cars).

I need to add, I bench tested all my gauges before I installed them. There's tons of info on doing this on the web but if anyone is interested in my method let me know.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Next I worked on the wiring for the fuel gauge and the voltmeter. I used oem Trans Am gauges for this. You can use just about any year of the second generation gauges (70-81) if you aren't concerned with originality. I'm pretty sure mine came from a '79 but I swapped the fuel gauge with the one that was in the Firebird cluster so it would read Fuel and not Unleaded Fuel Only.

For the fuel gauge you need a 12v IGN (pink) and a wire that runs back to the fuel level sensor on the gas tank (tan). I used the tan wire that ran to the cluster plug by pulling it out and splicing in a wire to go to the new (old) fuel gauge.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Now, just a brief primer on pulling pins from the gauge cluster.

Since the pins on the gauge cluster will have to be repositioned you will need to pull the pins out. I use a small flat screwdriver and insert it on the inside part of the pin where the locking tab is located.

Push the wire into the plug, use the screwdriver to push against the locking tab, then pull the wire back out of the plug. Once it is out make sure to gently bend the locking tab back out so it will engage when it is reinserted to it's new position.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

I too had a 1973 Firebird Formula. It was a 455 with a column shifted TH400. It had sat in a garage since 1987, and I picked it up in 2019, then sold it in late 2020.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Pic of my 73 TA clone I did many years ago. 455/400 turbo combo. Was a subframe off resto. Was a great project.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Nice! was it Admiralty blue?

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

That car looks very familiar... Did you post it on any of the Firebird sites? It looks great to me, and sometimes the clones are more fun because you don't worry so much about keeping them original!

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

For the voltmeter I ran an orange wire for the 12v and a black for ground. Not rocket surgery...

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Next on to the cluster connector. The 70-71 cars have 12 pin connectors and the 72 up have 16 pin connectors. One of the best resources I found for Firebird wiring was American Autowire's website. They have tons of information for almost every car or truck.

In particular I downloaded their gauge kit installation instructions doc#510079. this has great info for all of the second gen Firebirds.

Using the information in the instructions I repinned the connector to look like this

Pin 1 - Gray - Dash lights
Pin 2 - Black - Seat belt light ground
Pin 3 - Yellow - Seat belt light (not shown in pic)
Pin 4 - Tan - Brake warning light
Pin 5 - Pink - 12 volt keyed
Pin 6 - Dark Blue - Right turn signal
Pin 7 - Green - Hi Beam indicator
Pin 8 - Dark Blue - Oil pressure gauge

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Pin 9 - Black - Cluster ground
Pin 10 - blank
Pin 11 - blank
Pin 12 - blank
Pin 13 - Dark Green - Coolant sensor
Pin 14 - Light Blue - Left turn signal
Pin 15 - Orange w/black - clock
Pin 16 - blank

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

The temperature gauge and the oil pressure gauge required new sensors as the car I had was using aftermarket gauges. I'll post the part numbers for those later, boxes are in the garage.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Yes it was.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

One of my favorite colors, very close to Nocturne blue on the later cars. The Formulas always had a broad base of colors to choose from but the early TA's were limited. If I had my choice I'd have my car painted Admirality blue with the blue hood bird.

I know where a 73 blue Formula is with a 400 auto but the guy isn't ready to sell. It's a low mileage car and numbers matching so I keep an eye on it.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

So I finally got the cluster and dash bezel back in. Randy Combs did a great job restoring an original 1973 dash bezel.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

One thing I forgot to do was cut the green wire going back to the ignition switch from the cluster plug. This keeps the temp gauge from pegging out when you start the car. So I climbed back under the dash and cut that green wire.

It was originally on the idiot light cars to light up the temp light when the car was started to let you know the bulb was good. I don't need that now.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Great timing for your thread as I am starting to bring a 72 back from the dead myself. Looking forward to more of your information packed posts! :metal::metal::metal:

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Nice. Keep in mind the 72 has a different cluster plug. If you have any questions on anything feel free to ask. I don't know much, but what I do know is how to find information!

Good luck with the 72. I'm assuming it is a 455?

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

It's a base model Firebird. I bought it with a 350 which had a PB4 and a Holley double pumper on it and possibly a cam as it ran pretty hard. Especially after I replaced the intake with a factory 4 barrel and a Qjet. Later on the engine was pulled and installed in a 68 Lemans I had bought with cracked block.

I've got a newly machined short block and the heads are at the machine shop now. It's kinda a long story but I'm building a 303 and throwing a lot of PTFB parts at the suspension hoping to make a nice little toy.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

In regards to my 73 it was featured in Car Craft Dec 2000. Sold it 2002. I think it stayed around the MPLS area.
The only Fbody web site I frequent is NastyZ28.com.
Hard to believe it was almost 24 years ago.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

A real Pontiac 303? Kinda rare ain't it? I kinda like the freedom to change things that a base bird gives you.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

I may have seen it after it was sold. It's a great looking car.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Oh no, not a real 303! Its a 70 350 block bored .030 with a custom crank and KRE's. Kind of like the car the engine isn't something that anyone will give me a hard time about modifying.

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

Sounds cool though! You need to start a build thread on it!

Re: '73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly
 

You right. I have discovered with my WMB thread that posting things keeps my memory honest :lol: as well motivating me.

Since the PY board doesn't have build section (Which is really odd) doing it here makes sense.