Faults:
When I bought the car it had the following problems...
Carburetor needed rebuild.
Muffler needed replacing.
Transmission needed servicing.
Idler arm and center link needed replacing.
Power steering hose needed to be replaced.
Battery was near dead.
A/C compressor didn't work.
Speakers were blown.
Steering wheel was a waste, it showed over 300k miles of use.
General Comments:
I am the third owner of this car. The original owner died last year at 93 years old. His surviving family sold it to his neighbor who never even registered it and threw Centerline wheels and BF Goodrich tires on it. There it sat in his driveway for about 9 months. I bought it from him in September 2005 for $3200. Right away I knew I was moving to from California to Georgia and where I was moving to I did not need to pass smog inspections, so I had the catalytic converter removed and the old muffler with holes in it replaced by a Flowmaster Cross flow. The car had a serious rough idle from an old uncared for carb. I had it replaced with an Edelbrock Performer 750cfm. But once we went to put it on the car we realized it would not fit the original intake, so I replaced that with an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold. All the other work mentioned above in the "Things that went wrong" area were also done along with a tune up. I gave it a GT Steering wheel and a new set of flea market special 6x9's that actually sounded great for only 40 bucks.
I love this car. The pros are...
1. It's extremely comfortable driving it across the country.
2. It's extremely reliable driving it across the country.
3. Handles corners like no other car I've ever driven.
4. Very fast and it has a certain growl to it when you floor it.
5. Got a 9.8 on the 1/8 mile track. Yeah I said 1/8 mile track, what do you expect out of a small hick town in Georgia? I would have gotten a better time if the Goodrich Radial TAs could grip better, I definitely won't use those tires again.
Cons...
1. Sucks down the gas.
2. Only likes premium gas, killed it a lot at stop lights when I used low grade low octane gas (Flying J)
But who cares about the cons, it's a performance car, they are meant to suck it down.
I love this car so much I bought another Formula, a 1990 this time, and it handles just as well.
21st Jun 2001, 17:31
Yeah.
I just got me a 1979 Firebird t/a and it was given to me.
The motor I am rebuilding and the body is in great shape, but the interior is totally shot. They say that it can take me about five years to get it on the road.
Anybody here who may know some pointers to help me, email me at foreverknight28@hotmail.com
This is my dream car and I don't want to have to get rid of it.