1974 Formula Firebird

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Clubin

Clubin

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Manitoba
1975 Formula Firebird

Well, here it is. 1975 Firebird Formula 400. 57,000 original miles 4 speed Borg & Werner with a Herst shifter, headers, edelbrock intake and Holley 750 4bbl carb, A/C, cruise, and some kind of a big tape player in the dash? Ah, it needs new tires now, they melted off. lol . This thing has scarry power. I love it. No rust anywhere! But it does need a paint job, that will be my winter project.
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Cool clubin..that tape player is no doubt a 4 track player..maybe a 8 track,,,
that was the thing back then.....Do you have a tape cartridge?If so on the bottom
will be a slot with a hole...A arm swung up with a wheel to play the tape.....
Looks good for the age of car....Slawhammer
 
slawhammer said:
Cool clubin..that tape player is no doubt a 4 track player..maybe a 8 track,,,
that was the thing back then.....Do you have a tape cartridge?If so on the bottom
will be a slot with a hole...A arm swung up with a wheel to play the tape.....
Looks good for the age of car....Slawhammer
Click to expand...
It is a 8track player, it works, but I can't seem to find any current music on them. lol Beatles, Joe Coker, Best of the 50's 60's and 70's. EEEEkkkkkkkk.
 
Clubin...that 8 track is vintage...they only had about 2 years of 50's music...
then things were cassete and then to cd.....You may choose to take the 8 track player out
and opt for the new cd....You may have to do a google search for any 8 track tapes.....
cheers my friend...Slawhammer
 
Thanks for the kind words guys, it is getting some needed TLC in the my shop, bearings seals, new pressureplate, and resurfaced flywheel. Nothing has been done to it for a long time. Factory Universals in it yet, stock clutch! Uncle must have babied this thing. I have perminent grease under my nails, and that'll be the way it is till I am done.
 
Another one of my notoriously long posts!


Cool car! I had 1 '74, 1 '75, 4 '77's and 3 '78's I think I had a '76 parts car in there too.

The coolest part is your car is a solid top and not T-tops! The car will most likely be alot more solid, which makes it more desirable! The T's usually leaked, which caused the floors and rear deck lid to rust out. Do you have the 160mph speedo and the 8 grand tach? I ask because those are getting very hard to find!

I have to ask you some questions...

Look at your cyl heads, (in between the 2nd and 3rd header tube) there will be a casting number on them (In large numerals) it will say 6x or 4x what do you have?

A little history...
Pontiac motors came from the factory with some cool tricks done to them.. Like ported and polished heads, 3 angle valve jobs, knurled valve guides, pushrod guides, torque to yield rocker nuts, dual valve springs and some of the BIGGEST intake valves ever to hit the market. 2.0625" or 2 1/16" The only motor I know of with bigger valves was the Hemi!

The PMD (Pontiac Motor Division) heads are notorious for cracking in between the valves on the second and third chambers. If you tear the motor down, have the heads Magnafluxed/crack checked. Out of the 15 or 18 400 Poncho's I have built or rebuilt I think I have only seen 2 or 3 sets in perfect condition. Cracked heads came about because PMD didn't use hardened valve seats, instead they lowered the compression (7.6:1) to compensate for the use of unleaded gas. It didn't work! PMD designers didn't really didn't worry about that, because they knew the Pontiac block was on the way out/discontinued. The 79 model year was the last year for the Pontiac based motor. Following year cars (80 and 81) had Oldsmobile 403's and Chevrolet motors. The 81 "Turbo" models were a pathetic 301 (design flop) with a single, small turbo mounted on the right hand bank that wiped out all the exhaust valves in about 20,000miles!

Just as a FYI, all Pontiac motors were the same block, there was no Big or Small block as I have so often heard. It was a difference of bore and stroke so a 455 is the same block as 301!

Dump in a bottle of "Lead Substitute" and keep the R's down around 5500 and she'll be OK for a few years!

If the heads are bad, go with a set of TrickFlow or Edelbrock (NOT RPM) heads.


Now is the time to start restoring these cars! They are pretty easy to find and are pretty cheap in price. They won't be in another 20 years though! When these cars were new, they were the fastest cars Detroit produced! Your 75 would smoke a 75-82 Corvette! "Rockford Files" and "Smokey and the Bandit" really put these cars on the map!

I am pretty familiar with these cars, so if you need some help shoot me a PM! I would love to see some interior pics!

This is a pic of one of my 78 "Bandit Edition" parts cars.
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The car was painted once about 25+ years ago, there isn't any rust on it. It needs to be painted though, the technology for paint that long ago had a bit to be desired.

The car is dusty, but the interrior is prefect, no cracks, no tears. There is a new rug for the car, but I am not going to install it, it doesn't need it.

I tood some more pictures of the interior for you. Showing the original miles.

6X is posted between the 2 centre cylinders. I am curious to hear what that means.
Rear seats
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If I was in winterpeg, you'd just have to supply the wobbly pops and I'd be there to help. man that thing is mint inside. air compressor will clean most of it out anyway
 
I love the groovy 8-track and the AM radio!

The reason for the question... Alot of people swapped out the 6X (400 heads) in favor of 4X (350 heads) to raise the compression significantly. (about 9.5:1 from 7.6:1 with the 6X) Big Jump!

The 4X heads don't flow nearly as well as the 6X but it raised the low end torque about 100 foot pounds! As most of the Firebirds came with really high 3.23:1 or 3.08:1 rear ends, the extra 100 foot pounds could really wake the car up! But it limited the top rpm to about 5,000 (the heads couldn't flow anymore air to get any higher) The old drag racers saying, "If it don't flow, it don't go"!

You have a very clean car! I would do a full restoration on it! Take your time choosing a painter. Go to local car shows and ask the guys "who painted your car"? Ask about the nice cars and the crappy cars too! Then you'll know who to avoid!

Or just leave it as is.

Does the clock work? On one of my 77's I had the analog clock like yours, but over next to the cigarette lighter there was a red LED clock (like an alarm clock) I was always amused they put in both :lol: Especially since they would never keep the correct time!

Now it's time to see some under-hood shots!
 
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