Hello All, I just replaced the 67 I had in high school with a 68 and have been looking at 1st Gen resources. I found the car on craig's list. The car had a 400 hood, 455 and 4speed. The seller is a Mopar man and didn't know if it was an original 400 or not; which didn't really matter to me because all I was looking for a driver with a manual.
When I went to look at the car it had the correct 400 badging, bumper, grill and hood. The interior is deluxe black with the split front bench seat (I had never seen this before with a manual.) The first thing I noticed was the hood scoops were open. When I popped the hood it had the ram air pan! Interesting I thought someone transplanted a hood. The engine had a cheap aftermarket chrome air cleaner on it. The seller says “there is part of the original air cleaner in the trunk.” Turns out it is the ram air carb base! Closer inspection of the 455 revealed it had long branch exhaust manifolds.
The body was in the condition the seller described on the phone so I paid him our agreed price and started the 300 mile drive home. Car ran beautifully, never missed a beat and everything worked on it except the heater and the stereo. I had a couple hours to think about my purchase and I decided someone threw a bunch of rare parts at a base Firebird. It did have a bench seat and 4 wheel drum brakes after all.
That was two weeks ago, today I got my PHS documentation…. Ram Air I. My wife couldn’t figure out why my jaw hit the floor. This blind squirrel just got his nut.
Plans for the car have definitely changed and I’m going to need all the help I can get. I’ll be posting up in the parts wanted section.
