Slim
This 1978 Firebird was listed on ebay a couple of times, and nobody bought it. If you have a junk Firebird search set up you may recognize it. We had it transported from Fort Smith Arkansas the weekend of the Trans Am nationals. It has about 3 options, and 2 of them were free. They conserved half the normal amount of ink when they printed the build sheet, which would have fit on a cocktail napkin.It's the same color as Possum, but with a quality that Possum can never have again: for some weird reason it's not rusty. We will be restoring it as something wonderful to be sure. We don't know what's in the trunk yet. There's no key, and of course our whole reason for having it is to get a solid car. We're not supposed to damage it ourselves, so we won't be torching or beating on the tail panel. We don't know what to do.
I (Joe) have already damaged the rust-free driver's door. When I unloaded it, I got in, set it in motion, and then reached for the door pull. There wasn't one. It rolled off the trailer, with me groping helplessly for anything that would pull the door closed before it hit the fenders of the trailer. It has brakes, but apparently I need 5 or 10 minutes to think of that sort of thing.
The interior was a big disappointment. It looked black on eBay, which usually means it's good stuff, but it's actually trash white plastic painted black. The front seats appear to be pink, but I haven't as yet figured out how that could be possible.
Rudolph
We brought this Firebird home Christmas Eve 2002 to make our holidays even more merry. We don't usually buy Firebirds, but Rudolph has a very solid body and in fact it's a pretty nice car. Somebody block sanded it as you can see in the photo. The folks who had it bought it without title, and were not able to get their paperwork straightened out to register it.Rudolph was originally a white V6 base Firebird with two-tone red and white interior. I guess it was probably a lady's car when it was new. We will be restoring it in some form. It's a good redbird parts car (if I only had a redbird.) Check out those Keystone Classics!
Formula 409
We bought this 1978 Formula off ebay. This car has W50 Formula Appearance Package, and it's the first one we've ever had. It has a nifty and rarely seen W50 color scheme. Most of the cars had a black band around the bottom, but black and white cars had a gold band, gold hood scoops, and gold grilles borrowed from the Trans Am Special Edition. The tailpanel is also gold. With gold snowflakes, it would have been an impressive package. This car has red interior, which gives it the Formula version of Dutch's oddball color scheme. If you're not tired of factoids yet, all 1978 Formulas had black taillights EXCEPT ones with this color scheme.This is another abandoned storage car that has no title, and it's a major rust bucket. The seller had already cleaned it out, which is a shame, since we would have given you a full report here about its contents. It also runs, but very rich. Apparently the carburetor float is submarined.
Buford
Here's another strange item. This 1980 V-6 Firebird with only 82,000 miles on the clock showed up on Ebay in mid-October 2003. It was 10 miles from Joe's house. We were really surprised! It's a low option car with black interior. It has the best interior of any car we've bought, and the lowest mileage. It seems that if Unforgivable and Buford were to somehow, ahem, merge, the result would be a low-mileage restored 1980 Trans Am.
Pete
We've been busy again.... Pete is a 1980 WS6 that Joe dragged home on a business trip. Wheels anyone? It's pretty well trashed inside, and has a non-running Buick 455 under the hood. At least Pete was a high option car originally.
Patty
We were singing "Goodbye, ol' paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne" as we pulled this 1972 Esprit 350 out of a cow pasture where it had been moldering for 10 years. This car appears to have the rare Oldsmobile 442 lookalike option, as well as the vinyl tops in stereo. It also had the Flintstone Performance Package like Old Yeller.This car is very rusty in the back, but the front clip is nice. It's very complete, including the whole a/c system, so we're going to try to get some good and rare parts off it.
Secret Formula
J.R. Butler listed this item on ebay, and while it didn't clear reserve, we decided to make a deal on it. It's a 1978 W50 Formula with no rust. Not long ago, it had a good engine and good interior. One person got the engine, and another got the interior, and it was left like this. It is nearly identical to Formula 409, which is still a running, driving car.Now you might ask, why would anybody part out a car with a good engine, good body, and good interior? We're not sure. Currently we plan to put an engine and interior back in it. It's a very nice body.
Luther
Luther is just a great parts car. It's a 1981 Trans Am with a pretty good list of options. It has pieces of numerous cars, including pretty nice 1975 interior in two different colors and some remnants of an Olds 350 under the hood. The body is pretty beat up, but it's not very rusty. It does have a good Fisher t-top roof. Look for lots of stuff of this car on ebay.
Muff, the Tragic Wagon
Remember the song about Muff? Well, here it is. Muff the tragic wagon lived on the street. It had a series of ignition problems, and got parked. Somewhere along the way, the fuel pump went bad and filled the crankcase with gasoline. The engine may be ruined. Easy decision, right?Here's the dilemma. The engine is a 1977 400, and I just assumed I'd pull the engine and crush the rest. The car is straight, has no rust, and the interior's not even bad! It would truly be a shame to crush it, and I think it looks kind of snazzy with the Rally II's. If I can get it running properly I may try to save it. I have to admit, though, that it's really nice under the hood. Some of the stuff would make great Trans Am parts.
Ernie and Bert
This 2-for-one deal shows just how desperate I am to get a parts car. They don't look like much. Ernie is a 78 with Hurst tops and a 455. Bert is a 79 Trans Am that was originally 301-powered, but came with a 400 under the hood. I learned my lesson with Bert. I had a chance to buy the whole car for $600, but by the miracle of procrastination, I wound up buying only half of it for just as much money. Stupid me.Notice Bert has a really cool blob of bondo on the driver's side quarter panel.
