I've mentioned this car before:
A few years ago I bought a "winter beater" 1983 Firebird since my daily driver for that Summer was my 1968 Camaro.
I paid exactly $500 for it. It was towed and impounded twice before I finally registered it instead of just "transferring plates". I was taking this whole budget beater thing a little too seriously.
Anyway this is the story of this glorious machine:
The car was bought new for $12,XXX in 1982. It had a two tone white-over-black paint job like so many Firebirds & TAs from that era. T-tops, Stereo with cassette and automatic trans were the only options. Very spartan. It was probably bought by some Secretary. I can just imagine a 27 year old professional assistant with big hair buying this car when it was shinny and new. Going to the gym in it with pink & purple sweat bands on her head and arms... leg warmers & a Walkman the size of a Bible in her gym bag. He-he.
Anyway back to the car: In the early 90s it was left for dead in a Junkyard with about 130,000 miles when the engine (305) ceased to run. I wish I had the real details but I just have only bits and pieces of the car's tale.
Someone saved the car. (give them a medal!) And here's the best part... after they bought it off the junkyard with a salvage title (even though the car was never hit) they dropped a GM 350 truck cate engine into it. The passanger side exhaust was C-clamped to the manifold. No joke. The whole car was a loud, obnoxious exhaust leak.
When I bought it the car had some wiring issues and it got to the point that I could be driving down the street steering with one hand while replacing a 25 amp fuse with the other without ever taking my eyes off the road. I went through about 70 [25 amp] fuses before I found the short circuit in the tail lights.
I loved it though. '83 is the last year of emmissions exemption in Mass. That's all I cared about.
Since someone had "touched up" the paint with a can of cheap white spray paint and it had leaked all over the side of the car and down onto the balck it was NOT a cosmetically pleasing car. One day I did some stop-gap bodywork to it and just decided to buy 4 cans of "Canary Yellow" Spray paint at Wal*Mart. The results of that can be seen in the photo below. It's not like I have any dignity or self respect. :P
In the year and 14K miles I owned that Firebird there was only one time I opened the hood except to check/change the oil. I hit a speed bump at like 30mph and the cable fell off the battery. I replaced the cable, reprogramed my stations inot the radio and set the clock and that was all I ever did for maintenece.
I did open the hood here and there to show off the shinny almost new "Goodwrench 350" stickers on the valvacovers and the underhood documentation by a Chevy dealer that it was a fresh 350 crate motor.
Later in the spring when the car had 190+ thousand miles I painted it flat black. I took off the t-tops and drove it to the Worcester Summer Nationals Burnout Contest in 2003 and did a world class smokeshow. Thick, white, noxious smoke mixed with hot carbon monoxide and sticky chunks of tire rubber flying through the air. On the back of the car I wrote in glass chalk:
$700 o.b.o.
As I was removing the blown rear tires with a 4-way a kid even younger than me approached me and said he loved the burnout, he asked if I'd take $500. I ended up throwing in a set of 25th Anniversary seats and installed them in place of the worn ones that were all faded and under TWO sets of seat covers.
I hope that somewhere out there a flat black '83 Firebird is still driving around with 1992 Camaro seats (with Camaro stitching) and doing burnouts in Dunkin Donuts parking lots.
Balthazar: Love that double-bubble in your sig. :)