You guys....you guys..

I understand that everyone has their reasons...for buying a muscle car replete with all of its born with trimmings..albeit in pieces, covered in 30 years of weathered grime...to be born again with lots of TLC, money, time, cases of beer, expenditures beyond reason...then others do not mind overpaying for a base to build the ultimate Firebird...Which to me would be any Ram Air Firebird (sans Trans Am).

I thought about this awhile over the last few hours and would say the ONLY Firebird I would ever entertain building such as my friend is in process of restoring would be the 65 1967 Firebirds with the coveted 997 heads. In 2005 ish, at the Detroit Autorama, I spoke with Jim Mattison for awhile about one of the 65 he knew of and I was in serious talks about grabbing it. Though as described, and subsequently seen through pics, the condition of the body was frightening. Though the 67 was reported to have the original rear, that is all it had. Any other 400 Firebird in that condition would have fetched 5 to 6 times less for what it was.

Then came my reality...finding the 997 heads, block, manifolds, carb...within a specific date range..or at least find a correct cast block AND then find a set of 997 heads...close to that block date OR replicate a set of 670's (machining down pads for taller springs, grinding down the 6&0 and stamping the 99 or finding the holy grail, as-cast 997 heads) I have only come across 2 sets of early RA heads..one pair was a set of correct ground-restamp 670's and another was through Garlanka (Kris) here on the board. I believe those heads alone were $4500..

Would it have been fun? Absolutely?

Would this be a challenge, consuming hundreds of hours just to find the 997 heads, carb and block? Absolutely!

Would restoring a 1 of 65 make sense on a personal level restoring a 1 of 65 car for myself? You bet.

Would it have, on a financial level, been a wise choice? No! Unless building AND keeping such a car for myself, spending what I estimated roughly $25-30k just to correct the body, shell, restore the interior, trim, glass..using ONLY NOS parts...Then the additional expense of the engine and trans, not to mention, finding correct, used Ram Air pans... I would have been in the 100k neighborhood, no doubt.

I rant and expound...been there, done that...part of what makes restoring cars is experience, successes and failures. I myself like my money, work hard for it. However, if you have disposable income, go for it..