Hello:
I recently purchased a 1967 400, 4 speed Firebird which I will be restoring in the near future. The car is completely numbers matching (engine, transmission, differential) so I want to do it right. I have a couple of questions for the firebird community:
1) What book/s are good sources of information to help with the restoration?
2) The car originally had a Silverglaze exterior with a Blue (dark metallic) interior. The car now has a red interior and exterior. I was thinking of keeping the red interior and going with a Starlight black exterior. How much of an impact will the color change from original (even though both are 1967 colors) have on price?
3) Any advise on a good, reputable machine shop in houston that specializes in pontiac engines.

Thank you.

Houston? Boy are you in luck. Bjorn will set you up and introduce you to HALF, a Houston area 1st Gen Firebird club.

I'll send him a private message to get in touch with you.

Best bet for a great Poncho engine builder in Houston!! Lee Atkinson....a Pontiac lover and part of HALF , our "local" First Gen Firebird group.....did You by chance go by the Autorama this year ,we had 14 cars there...anyway adding a few pics so you`ll see...., easiest way to get hold of us is to email me and we can probably help you get set up...we are about 25 members...

email me at bsefeldt@mhinc.com

black with red interior sounds good...there is one or two like that in the group so you can check that combo out.

is your car driveable? if so you might want to join us on our 3rd annual New Years cruise , planned 1/1/08 (weather permitting...) starting out from Brookshire area from a members home, waffle breakfast then a +-100-200 mi country road cruise on west side of town....

thanks Mark!

I would go exactly stock or all out modified. The market is strong in these two areas. That is if you have 'investment' in mind. Otherwise, do it the way that looks good to you and fits your needs. If you are going to drive it you have some serious choices to make.

1) there are two books that are valuable for info, the GM body book and the GM repair manual...I have both , both bought on EBay , +_$25 ea...you can borrow these from me too
2)silverglaze sounds like an interesting color too, you could keep the red interior with it? Todd Will is a great painter, he`s on the NW side, you can see his work on a couple of our guys cars
3)machine shop or engine builder? Scroggins Machine shop downtown, plus others...Lee A for engine builder..plus a couple of HALF guys ...Drew has built a great 455 for his, and is helping Paul out with one now, we DO have "monster garages" sometimes to help ea other out too

whereabouts in Houston are you located?
and JLT, is it a vert or coupe? I`m assuming coupe since you didnt say specifically...
Kelly ,our Corpus member has a 68 coupe , black with red.
Todd , our Bellville member has a 68 black with black convertible

There are now 63 Members in HALF, Yes I am sure there are some doubles in there. To subscribe to this group, http://halftx.net/ scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up.

Merry Christmas

Kevin ,great 63..!? Wow!

but all not active, I`m usually counting the 'active' members...

and JLT , as you see , our group is "local",, from San Antonio, to Austin , and Ding Dong (Yes Ding Dong) and Corpus , and of course Houston....most of us are in Houston...but we are 'inclusive'....

some of our "members" are actually in Seattle, Norway ,Sweden too...lol

If I had a car with the pedigree that your's does, I would go all original including back to the original colors. The silver is a nice shade for today as it is the most popular car color after black.

As opposed to some of us that ended up with definite 60's era colors like Verdoro Green. Kind of like the equivilent to 70's era avocado green refrigerators.

The black ext-red int sounds good actually. Finish it with blood red-line original tires and she'd look pretty sweet.

Thank you for the responses and the information.

Bjorn: I will be in touch with you and I will take you up on the offer of borrowing the GM books.

Fbody69: Thanks for the advise. I agree, I have some difficult choices to make on the restoration.

JLT

Jose,
it was great talking to you....I`m sure you`ll find many of the HALFers very helpful....looking forward to have You in our group!

I`d just get the car running for now, take your time on the decisions...
I made a "running resto" on mine ,meaning I didnt lose much useage time, only a few weeks here and there...