'73 Firebird - Knocking off the ugly

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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!

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

So I took the sawzall to it.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.

[raggedjim]

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.