You are about to live my dream. Retire and wrench. Good luck and keep us posted. I love old Riviera's and Cutlass Supreme's.

Any interest in a 1968 firebird? Paint is in pretty good shape as is the interior but the motor needs to be pulled and gone through. Rear freeze plugs gave up the ghost last week.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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Any interest in a 1968 firebird? Paint is in pretty good shape as is the interior but the motor needs to be pulled and gone through. Rear freeze plugs gave up the ghost last week.

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Any pictures of that Firebird? How much do you want for it?

68 Firebird is definitely in the range of consideration.

400 engine I assume? Is it the original one? (As long as it's not a 500557 block, any 400 will work!)

Interested

Collectable-cars.com
He's shutting down the business. Might find a great deal!

Are you interested in doing body/paint work? Most of the older cars will need some love and attention and a LOT of it is going to be hidden. You may know any/all of the below but just adding for informational purposes.

Corvettes are a different beast all together and you WILL be working on them all the time - and they're not super mechanic friendly but they are fun once they work - for however long that is in between something needing adjusting/replaced.

The others you mentioned are all good cars - bigger ones will be easier to work on obviously and the older they are the less emissions/etc. you'll have to deal with.

Facebook groups can help lead to marketplace deals, craigslist isn't horrible but you'll have to keep your radar up for scams, BAT (Bring a Trailer) is probably one of the best ones and you can sign up for alerts.

The nice thing about chevys is that just about any SBC will bolt into about any other GM product (save some early Pontiacs). Fords and Mopars can be a pain just because they do have a lot of year or series specific parts that you'll have to hunt for but still enjoyable to work on.

You can also find make/model specific forums that usually have a 'for sale' section that is a lot more vetted and real, but you'll need to figure out what car(s) you want first.

I know you're not interested in early Mustangs but from a cost and schedule perspective, having a project where 100% of the parts are still in production makes things much simpler.

Copart

My sister still has the '38 Plymouth coupe left to her after my brother passed away. It's without engine or transmission, so a blank slate. Also has several SBCs you might want to look at. It's in the Victoria area.

It's just a 350, not a 400 or 350 HO. Automatic 2 speed transmission with 2.56 rear end. I added a posi trac but that's about all I've done to it.

Feel free to shoot me an email and I can send you photos

corps dot ag12 at gmail dot com

Ruhro said:

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Corps_Ag12 said:

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Any interest in a 1968 firebird? Paint is in pretty good shape as is the interior but the motor needs to be pulled and gone through. Rear freeze plugs gave up the ghost last week.

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Any pictures of that Firebird? How much do you want for it?

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Feel free to email me for more info

corps dot ag12 at gmail dot com

Personally I'd stay away from 70's model "muscle" cars. That's when mfg's started de tuning the engines and adding smog equipment to them. Lower comp ratios, larger cc heads, lower lift cams, exhaust changes. Of course you could rebuild one and eliminate and replace all the drive train with hi perf stuff especially if you like that particular body style

I know a guy with a one owner (him) 1972 red vette woth 50k miles garage kept from day one he is selling in DFW, it doesn't run, prolly needs a carb job and a few little things, any interest?

Thanks, but I think I'm going to look for my 1A desire first for a while (70-73).

If they're TOO hard to find I may wind up building an engine (400-455) first, then looking for a body to put it in. It's pretty easy to swap a front clip on any 70s model to give it a 70-73 look. Not so much with the rear end, but the 77-79 rear bumper/tail lights look pretty nice too, and those are easier to find (more recent, more made).

Good luck with the 68! Those are nice, too. I had a neighbor down the street when I was a kid who told longing stories of his old '69 Trans Am... that's a significant part of my car enthusiast origin story!

Good place to start perhaps:
https://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/second-generation-pontiac-firebird-1970-1981.76/

Also, these sites are pretty much the standard for parts (be sure to check rock auto as well)

https://www.firebirdcentral.com/
https://www.amesperf.com/
https://shop.classicindustries.com/lp/1967-2002_pontiac_firebird_and_trans_am_parts

Also, depending on how stock vs custom vs restomod vs. hotrod you want to go, there are plenty of aftermarket options for first and second generation firebirds.

As I mentioned previously there is an extremely high probability of rust on these cars, especially where the subframe and frame rails tie into the F-body chassis.

Check out Detroit Speed, RPUI (the Right Stuff Detailing), Vintage Air, etc. for great aftermarket options. If you're planning on boosting the performance of your car, be sure not to overlook things like addressing body twist with frame stiffeners and increasing the (anti) sway bars. Plenty of Firebirds have suffered from 'taco body' or body distortion from dynamically increasing the power to road.

Ruhro said:

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Corps_Ag12 said:

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Any interest in a 1968 firebird? Paint is in pretty good shape as is the interior but the motor needs to be pulled and gone through. Rear freeze plugs gave up the ghost last week.

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Any pictures of that Firebird? How much do you want for it?

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I'd love to see it as well!

That does sound interesting, although it's early for me to give up on a Pancho. Maybe you'll get some interest for him on here.

Thanks for the links and suggestions. I want a strong Pontiac engine, and want to do as much of the work as possible myself. I'd like to build a 450-500 HP naturally aspirated engine, but with a Pontiac, that's likely 550-600 ft-lb, so stiffening is certainly something I'll look at.

I don't want to go way overboard on aftermarket frame/suspension work, though, just from a cost perspective. I have no idea how powerful my old 400 was (wish I knew even approximately) but it was faster than anything else at my high school, except for the two "built" cars - the shop teacher's 69 Camaro and my buddy's Trans Am that his Dad put a Keith Black block 455 with a huge loping cam and 4.11 gears. Based on that, I think mine was pretty strong... and I never had any problem with my stock frame and suspension. I think modest stiffening should handle the power I'm looking for. I doubt I'll be racing it anyway, except maybe a few 1/4 mile runs at the track. Maybe a mild road course if that even exists anymore? (I won't have a roll cage in it.)

Just to whet the appetite. You can rent cars and drive on their track. Pretty cheap too.

https://braysmotor.com/museum/

92_Ag said:

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Also, depending on how stock vs custom vs restomod vs. hotrod you want to go, there are plenty of aftermarket options for first and second generation firebirds.

As I mentioned previously there is an extremely high probability of rust on these cars, especially where the subframe and frame rails tie into the F-body chassis.

Check out Detroit Speed, RPUI (the Right Stuff Detailing), Vintage Air, etc. for great aftermarket options. If you're planning on boosting the performance of your car, be sure not to overlook things like addressing body twist with frame stiffeners and increasing the (anti) sway bars. Plenty of Firebirds have suffered from 'taco body' or body distortion from dynamically increasing the power to road.

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If I were to keep the firebird I'd eventually want to re-power it with an LS engine (preferably out of a late model G8 or GTO just to say it came out of a Pontiac) and do a Roadster Shop SPEC chassis for this exact reason

Corps_Ag12 said:

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92_Ag said:

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Also, depending on how stock vs custom vs restomod vs. hotrod you want to go, there are plenty of aftermarket options for first and second generation firebirds.

As I mentioned previously there is an extremely high probability of rust on these cars, especially where the subframe and frame rails tie into the F-body chassis.

Check out Detroit Speed, RPUI (the Right Stuff Detailing), Vintage Air, etc. for great aftermarket options. If you're planning on boosting the performance of your car, be sure not to overlook things like addressing body twist with frame stiffeners and increasing the (anti) sway bars. Plenty of Firebirds have suffered from 'taco body' or body distortion from dynamically increasing the power to road.

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If I were to keep the firebird I'd eventually want to re-power it with an LS engine (preferably out of a late model G8 or GTO just to say it came out of a Pontiac) and do a Roadster Shop SPEC chassis for this exact reason

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Totally respect that and have had similar thoughts myself. You can still find LT1 and LS1 based firebirds in graveyards and junk yards but I'd always recommend a hands on inspection. Having some tools and a borescope is handy. Also getting good engine mount adapters (or better yet make your own) and centerlining it can be the only mildly tricky part.

big ben said:

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I know a guy with a one owner (him) 1972 red vette woth 50k miles garage kept from day one he is selling in DFW, it doesn't run, prolly needs a carb job and a few little things, any interest?

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Price & Pics?

aggieben08 "at" yahoo

Col. Steve Austin said:

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scd88 said:

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You are about to live my dream. Retire and wrench. Good luck and keep us posted. I love old Riviera's and Cutlass Supreme's.

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Here ya go, 1970 jewel I ran across on FB Marketplace. Located in Houston.

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The mid to late 60's version is the sweet spot but that is gorgeous. Underrated classic.

Thanks for sharing that.

A few years ago we visited the Wine Garage winery and classic car museum in Fredericksburg. They had a lot of great cars including pristine'65 Riviera, black on black. I think I have one or more pictures of it somewhere on the PC but couldn't find in a quick search. I found some pics on Yelp and in the process found that unfortunately, the Wine Garage is now permanently closed.

Wine Garage page on Yelp

Hope it looks like this when you're done.