Hi,

I just bought a 69 Firebird 400 4 speed. Its a one owner with 26,000 miles and I'm not sure what I should do with it. It was hit in the side in 1972 and the quarter panel, door and rocker are damaged. I'm going to repair these but I'm not sure if its a good car to restore or make a daily driver. It doesn't have a lot of options, std interior, no AC, has power steering and brakes. Car is midnight green with gold interior.

If you don't want to restore it I bet a lot of other members here would like to. One member from Ottawa comes to mind...

Where in VA do you live?

Richmond area. The car was in Altavista. It was parked in 72 and has been there all these years.

What is the other sheet metal like? Very much rust?

Its pretty rust free. Floors and trunk are solid. I'm going to Carlisle this weekend to try and find a few panels for the other side to repair the quarter.

Have you looked underneath or pulled up the carpet to make sure the floor pan isn't buckled?

Restorations can get quite costly and the simple fact is it's like pissing money down a hole. On the other hand these are old cars now and using one as a daily driver is kind of an uphill battle because of the need for constant maintanence and alot of the things that they were made to use are not readily available anymore. Like they weren't made to run on the poor state of gas and oil these days. These and other things can be worked around but I'm not sure it would be easy or cheap to do on a constant basis.
I'm not trying to discourage you(even though it sounds like it). I own a 69 as well and love driving and puttsing around with it, but I would be hard pressed to use it as a daily driver.

I haven't shown you guys the bad side yet. The floor looks good, it only pushed in the outer rocker from what i can tell. I measured door gaps and both sides are dead on the same.




The body guy started the repair back in 72 and apparently liked body filler more than his hammer.

So... I'm going to start getting this car back on the road. The motor is locked up and I will be pulling it soon. What are the chances that I will be able to free up this motor or use it for a rebuild? I'd hate to loose the original motor. I'm having a hard time deciding whether to keep it all stock /restored or put some performance stuff on it.

I think if you can work with the engine and its repairable, then keep the car as stock as possible. If the block is toast, modify away!

That's been my take on it as well. It seems like 68's are the more desirable year for these cars so I'm not sure that the car will be worth much restored. I have a built 455 that would go in here but I'd really like to keep the original engine in it if possible.

Now THAT's funny! I've owned a dozen or more '68's now, and I'd say hands down that '69 model year is the most popular!

After all, did they model the 2010 'Maro after a '68? Nope!

STOCK and stock appearing cars will always be worth more in the long run than the overly modified chrome sporting showcases. Just look at what the '80's "cool" mods to cars get you today...

I guess that is based at looking at this forum. 68 seems to be the choice of most. It does have a much better looking front bumper / grill in my opinion. 69 Camaro I think is a different story.

I can tell you without a doubt a fully restored 69 will pull more dollars than an equal 67 or 68.

I'm having a hard time finding a set of correct date code rally ii wheels. It looks like this car would have had 14x7 wheels. I was digging through the parts that came with it and found the 4 PMD center caps and they look like new still.

Midnight green exterior and gold interior isn't my favorite combo but I'll stick with it after I check the engine out. Do I need to stick to a stock rebuild or is a different cam a foul on a restore?

You know, I spent a nice amount of time finding a numbers matching 400 Car. Now after owning it for a few months my I have been slowly going away from completely stock. I did brakes, and suspension. So I have been buying pieces to do a GM LS3 Crate Engine swap. My point is do what you want to do with it. Body and paint your prob gonna be in it for 15k. I almost think If I had to do it over again I would have paid a decent amount less and bought a 326/350 car. But I will still have the original engine and trans stored.

Being you don't have the original motor put that 455 in there....

Cool car. Hard to believe its only got 26K miles looking at it now.

I recall a poll maybe on the PY site on the most popular first gen and it was 67 by a long shot. It surprised me.

There a lot to ways to go on a project like this as your finding out. If you have a tendency to only own them for a short time then you have to consider things like resale. Keeping things the stock color and every thing else is the way to go. Cheaper in many cases too.

As far as what to do with it. My own views have evolved drastically after doing a ground up resto on my 68 bird and now owning a 64 tempest. Many times we don't really know what we want until after the fact. My 68 is really nice and I spent 10 year on it. My 64 is a "looks good from 10 ft away' and guess which one I drive all the time and which one is in the garage most of the time?

I suggest build the car so it fun to drive. onlyy you can determine what fun is. Lot of HP can be fun but a PITA with hard starts heat coming through the floor, load exhaust on going maint, broken part etc.... Cruising can be fun, car shows can be fun, drag racing can be fun, autocross, roadracing...

My 68 bird is a built 455. Loud as hell and I'm afraid to park it anywhere. My 64 is a well worn turd with a 326/2speed/256 gear. I can get the whole family in and cruise all day long.

Figure out what fun means to you and build the car in that direction IMO.

Doesn't surprise me at all. GM fanatics are very fond of the 67 year. First year Camaro, Firebird, last year of the old GTO style, last year of the C2, etc. Lots more than just FGFs on PY.

Its been sitting a long time and it was going in for a respray and body work from being side swiped in a drag race but the shop he had it in closed down and he had to pick up the car in this condition (I'm sure it was better in 72). I have the original title from the original owner. He liked his 69 ram air Firebird and his 69 Camaro more than this car I suspect. The quarter panel on the good side still has un-sanded paint on it and its shiny like new. The headliner is perfect also which is surprising.

I agree with 68tpls400, 69s seem to be what people are going for and sometime down the road the mods of today will be just as dated as the mods of the 80s. If you can loosen up that engine it may be worth rebuilding.

I really like to deviate from stock when its an improvement that doesn't take away from the classic look and makes the car more enjoyable to drive..

For my car I used the 11 bolt WP, Internally regulated alternator, small body HEI system, 15" ralley rims, 455 with Long branch manifolds, Guldstrand mod, eaton posi, damplifier pro on the floor. From an appearance standpoint it looks like a stock 400 car inside and out.

Like blue bird said mods will date the car but the factory look will never go out of style for the car and IMO will help hold the value.

You said the motor is locked up. Try pouring each cylinder with marvel mystery oil and let it sit a few days. Even if it does free up you still might be better off just rebuilding it with better modern parts.

If it were mine......I would......... drop a 428 crank in if the motor, cheap forged rods, Icon pistons, send the carb to cliff, have the heads ported and go with a 5 speed trans. Get the Long Branch manifolds and drive it like a rental car.

Since you have to replace the 1/4 and it sounds like it getting painted anyway I would just stick with the factory color unless you hate it. Its much cheaper not having to change the jamb colors and as I said above will help maintain the value if you ever where to sell it.

If the motor is out. Look over the sub frame and see how the bushing looks. It would be a good time to detail it. You can do this as cheap or expensive as you want. if you end up pulling the sub frame make sure you measure the heck out of it putting it back and look at the youtub on how to do it correctly. This is where scope creep can really start hitting hard.

I would replace the carpet, and spray dye the seats/door panels if they are still in good shape. You would be impress how well this works to revive an interior.

if the trunk and floor boards are all solid but just surface rust you could coat them with POR and be done with it. This is another area where you can spend as little or as much as you want.

Engine looks pretty clean for not budging. I guess I'll pull the heads in the morning, I'm sure its the bores.

Looks like it got quite a bit of water/rust in the intake ports. I'd say your rings are stuck in the cylinder bores. When you pull the heads soak the rings for a couple of days and then break it lose. Chances are good that you will have some pitting in the cylinder walls where the water sat on top of the pistons and ate away at the walls. More than likely a bore and total rebuild is in order.