just thought I would say HI

I have a 68 firebird and will be restoring it ( the best I can) I have two 2nd gens, one restored and the other being restored.
I dont know to much about the 1st gen cars, and I hopeful to get the info and help I need from you guys and gals.
I have always wanted a 1st gen, when I found this one I had to have it.



its a 350 car with a 2 speed column shift.
it was painted 23 years ago

Hi welcome to the site,you found the place to be while restoring a fgf. Is that an 350H.O car,as it has the high output stripes?

no I think it was added when painted. also it has the 400 grilles and emblem. she' in bad shape. but I like a challenge.
plus new and OEM parts came with it.

new doors, full quarters, both wheel house, trunk pan, full floor pan, tail panel and a new OEM GM fenders

doors in boxes

quarters

floor

tail panel

tag on the fenders

my wife helping out. she loves it as much as I do, maybe more.

Awesome...keep us posted! Welcome aboard...

Welcome! Can you please do me a favor and post the body tag info? I am trying to nail down production dates for round mirrors. Also a photo of the mirror with its base would be helpful.

Thanks!

great car, looks like a great wife too! nice color, you keeping the Verdoro green?

its a early build and has 67 date codes all over it. # 8169 of 50k built

no Lori wants it Aleutian blue. with a black top and interior



I think this is the car that was in the View of the week. last week.
we talked for a bit at the t/a nats last year.

the bad, but have new to replace it. I think it will be fun. most people I show it to say OMG the rust is bad.
I dont see it like that. I see it for what it could look like.

welcome and good luck!

You know thats something i would like to do or try, restore a car .the car i got now i did a lot of little things and changed my first motor but i had the body work done for me.i would like to give that a go some time! i'm kinda looking for project but the wife wants a mustang first and i don't have the space for one at the moment.i got plans for a nice shop in the next few years and it would give me something to do when i retire as i hate sitting around. Plus my daughters boyfriend is going through college for a bodyman .hmm it's good to dream!

dreams are free... it's reality that costs a fortune

The rust looks pretty extensive, but if you are willing to give it a go, good on ya!!!

This site has a lot of very knowledgeable people. Good luck!

thanks,

Thanks for the pics!

Welcome a board, and keep us posted on the progress!

the 350 tried to come to life see it here I put wd40 and oil in the cylinders and primed the oil system last weekend. turned it by hand because the starter wouldn't do it. the valves were stuck. once I turned it a few time I tried the starter.

Welcome and good luck! I can't imagine starting out like this, I give you LOTS of credit. We started with a complete car with ZERO rust and it still cost 20k to restore and we did all the work ourselves. I can't imagine, can't wait to see it when it's done.

holly crap 20K , how much was done out of house?

Reality check...when restoring, $20K can fly out the window if you are shooting for anything better than a driver quality car, even if you do most of the labor yourself.

Parts, new or used, aren't cheap when you take into account how many you need.

I'm talking over 10 years and that was without ever changing one piece of sheet metal and ZERO body work. The only thing we didn't do was the $2200 paint job that an Amish guy did in Lancaster, PA in 2001. And that same paint job was on the car when we parted it out this past Jan after it was rearended.

Keep in mind that in the 20k was TONS of rare parts/options that I rounded up over 10 year period. But my point was, I can't imagine what a complete resto like yours will take. I hope you can weld, do bodywork and paint or, better yet, have a money tree and pay someone else to do it. LOL

I agree. but, I restored a 79 trans am last year. won 2nd at the t/a nats and don't have close to that much in it.

and NO I didnt take any short cuts on it. it was done right.
the two other t/a's I have are in my other YouTube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LESTERDOUG

I agree on how fast 20K goes by. I did a ton of my own work and went well beyond that number.

I just dropped 10k on the new engine and tranny.

on a rebuild ? did he kiss you first? or was it a crate motor? I've seen some crate motors in 10k and higher

Doug, other than a few scarce original items, used parts for late 2nd gen and 3rd gen F bodies are plentiful and cheap compared to first gens and early 2nd gen.

Repro parts will be similar in price, but production volumes factor in too, there are a lot more 2nd gens remaining to restore than first gens, leading to smaller production runs of parts and higher prices on first gen stuff, particularly Pontiac-specific parts.

I'm not counting, but I have well over $20K in resto work on the '68 I am working on now, and it was much more solid at the onset but needed a complete interior and quite a bit of patchwork.

Nice find, glad to see someone like you restoring her, rather than letting her get crushed.....

As far as $$ into the restoration, I can say I kept every reciept for everything the first couple years.....then it got to the point I didn't want to know ;-)

What part of Ohio ya from? I grew up in Troy, just north of Dayton. Got here in Texas 'bout 30 years ago, haven't really looked back. Good luck with your project, Kel

Greenville, 30 years is a long time. you wouldn't recognize it any more. you probably remember it when it was mostly on the east side of I75

Let me tack onto Vikki's wake up.

I restored an AZ desert 1980 Turbo T/A in the mid-'90's. When done it was beautiful, but had set me back about $15K.

Today I have over $40K into my '67 and it's not even painted yet. And I started with a pretty darn rust free car from the Los Angeles area that had been in So Cal it's entire life. While I may have replaced a couple of sheetmetal panels, it was due to a lot of bent metal covered with bondo - nothing like the quarters in your photos.

I'm not saying that this build wont cost me over 20k. if it does it does. I have a friend that has a 69, and has over 60 in it. but he's a all restored out of house guy. turn key guy that like to talk about all the hard work that went into it

I dont plan on this car taking 10 years to do ether. it should be on the road buy next fall if not before.

I love working on them and have done quite a few. from just a paint job to a full off restore. but this is my first fgf.
and I dont do it for a living. I wish I did.

For the rebuild and installation.

The guys that rebuilt the tranny installed the motor. They had to take it out a couple of times due to leaky headers, which after the third time were sent back to Jegs and were replaced with the original manifolds.

Come on guys, stop scaring him about how much it will cost! Kudos for taking up this project and by the sound of it you will build one very nice Bird out of it!

Keep us posted on the progress!

Not trying to scare him at all.

I think it is very important for him to think about the budget early on carefully. If I had to do it again, I would of been much more cost conscious early on and probably could of shaved many thousands off of the final cost. I had to do several things more than once.

Just diving in is fun, but mistakes made early can cost in the end.

I think coming to this community will help him greatly. Many here have seen the pitfalls and hopefully we can help him avoid unnecessary costs depending on what he is looking for in the final product.

Dougs68, please don't take the comments as a scare tactic.

Definately not trying to scare anyone. I've just seen too many people jump in with "dreams" and less than half way through they bail etc. The guy who bought our Bird has already given up and bailed, on to the next guy now...

Even if it turns out to be more than expected at least you have tryed. Parts are expensive and used parts are usually not worth the hassle. Take your time is my best advice and don't get aggrevated. What are your plans exactly? Full frame off restore? Make it show worthy? Make it a 100% original restore?

jose, I think someone forgot to remind you, aggravation and classic cars are one in the same! However, they are also lots if fun... LOL

thanks guys. I really still dont think it will cost as much as my 2nd gen . but could be wrong.

any way its not the money , its the know how of being correct.like the other post, I asked what color is the primer that was used?
I'm restoring a 77 W72 t/a right now. I could probably tell you what every nut and bolt is for on the 2nd gen. and going to try to have them both done by mid summer, next year.

I do body work/paint. I'm a certified welder in mig,tig, stick.
18 year shop foreman in a fab shop. now have my own company of moving Industrial Machines. like CNC and stamping presses. you name it I move it.

Welcome aboard Doug!

Nice to see another anal (it's got to be right) kind of guy. I'm referring to myself of course.

Lokks like a nice project. My '67 was from Fremont, OH. Drove out there with a trailer and a bunch of boxes.

you could say anal,

But I love these car in any shape or form . just as long as there still on the road. right? CAN I GET A AMEN !!!