Good from far, but far from good!

[RyanM326]

Well, I'm glad I found this site, I could use the help! My father found a 73 firebird a long time ago, sitting under a tree behind some guys house. Totally tore it apart and rebuilt it. Well, after my first tour in Iraq he decided I was old enough to take on the car at the age of 19...after it had been sitting for 12 years. So I got the car running after changing out some fluids, battery, dry rotted hoses and what not. Took it home and started to study as much as I could about restoration. Then decided I would rather go with a pro touring instead of original. I tinkered a little bit with it but Uncle Sam's call of duty kept nipping at my heals and I've been back and forth to the sand box multiple times for a year at a time and have had no time to do the work. So using my poor mother as the middle man, I kept studying my parts and stories of other car projects and had her take it to a mechanic to get the rusty pontiac 350 tuned up and the intake, carb, cap, rotor, wires, and plugs replaced. The mechanic got it running great and I was pleased at the time. Of course being over here i can't enjoy the sound or feel of it. Had the interior parts, center counsel, carpet, front seats, door panels and other parts sent to my mothers house to be stored away to be installed another day.

I know I wasn't going to get any satisfaction out of having someone else work on the body but I know I had no choice cause i won't be home for long before I have to come back to the hell hole mid east. And my past home comings were just a lonely walk through an empty air port listening to tree hugging hippies call me a baby killer and all that great stuff. So this time I wanted to come home to a better home coming present. A nice 73 bird sitting in the parking lot waiting for me to drive away.
The body looked great so of course I thought I could get it painted with little body work.(never got far enough to really look) Boy was I wrong...my drunk ass dad decided to make the floor panels out of bondo along with most of the rear and front quarter panels, roof, and under the rear bumper. At least the guy was honest with me about it, and didn't just throw the paint on. But the congress man sitting in office w/ a $15k pension, doesn't pay us that much to fight his war, so I need to find a site that has cheap (not poorly made) quarter panels and other body parts.
Sadly enough there will be no firebird in the parking lot for me this time and my motivation came to a halt. Now at the age of 24 I have to start some where or soon. So in the end, that's my story and what I have on my hands with this car. I would just like a list of good retailers and I'll start trying to knock this bad boy out over the years of hopping the pond and back. Thank you for any ideas.

[BlkBird]

Well first thanks for your service to the country. Im by far not for the war in Iraq, but I believe the men and women serving there should get the best of everything until we bring them home. And hopefully the "congressman sitting in office" will do that soon enough, sooner then what would've before, that much is for sure anyway. We gotta step back and see what the Iraqi's really want to do with their country eventually anyway and personally I think we could do much better to force issues in Afghanistan before the Taliban gets any MORE of a stronghold there, and lets not even talk about North Korea...anyway, enough politics. Trust me, theres no such thing as "cheap, quality" sheetmetal. Being a second gen f-body there are TONS of sheetmetal pieces made for them but a LOT are junk panels that dont line up worth crap, have the holes stamped improperly or even in the wrong place (just read a thread at transamcountry about that). Not to mention how alot are really thin guage metal that are going to warp like hell when heat is applied to weld them. Patch panels can be made for the flooring, and rockers but the quarters are going to be seen and they are some of the sexiest lines on a second gen. You only have 2 quarters, I would'nt skimp on them. Even though you eventually want to create a G-Machine out of the car for this particular question I would hit up some of the resto sites as they can answer this SPECIFIC question about this SPECIFIC car. I would suggest www.allgentransams.com (mainly because Im an admin there, lol) www.transamcountry.com or www.performanceyears.com.
(not trying to step on any lateral-g toes here, I know Im new to this forum but Im not new to F-bodies and Im just trying to help the best way I know how. If there are sponsors here that carry quality sheetmetal please feel free to correct me)

[RyanM326]

Yeah I hate politics too, and it's really not our fault..I work with the IA troops on the ground and they are the laziest people I've ever met. They want us to stay so they don't have to fight. So they have failed them self's. Anyway thank you for throwing in the fact that it's an F-body. I never got a chance to google the types now that I think about it. Plus fairly new to the muscle car world even tho i've owned one for 5 years but have only seen it for maybe 6 months. Living in NY doesn't offer much nice weather to break them out. One of the reasons i want to get this project on the road, not many of them around and lots of little rice burners with their fart cans on the back. I took auto-body for a couple years in HS but not nearly enough to be detailed and do a good job especially the welding. So thank you and I'll check out those sites.

[BlkBird]

That's discouraging to hear. Here's my idea for Iraq, pull out, see what happens, if they become an allie, sweet. If they fall back into the hands of the Taliban, keep all our boys (and girls) at home, and NUKE THE HELL OUT OF THEM and be done with it. Atleast if we go back and rebuild them into a society again (ie Japan) mud and straw should'nt cost too much. Who know's what a nice nuke would do in all that sand anyway, could turn the entire place into glass, lol.

Yeah, they're F-bodies from 67-02 but the second gens only ran '70-'81 alot of stuff interchanges depending on how "correct" you want things when you get done, Im not big on "correct" so I really dont care. Your biggest opportunity for donors will fall in the '70-'73 territory (they are by far the best years btw (lets see if that stirs up anything, lmao)). I know what you mean about not seeing many around, living in Missouri (the rust belt) not many are surviving around here either. Its nice to "represent" the Pontiac Power when given the chance. And I will say, give the car a chance when you get it, Im sure being young alot of your friends are going to say "pull that POS Pontiac motor out and put in a small block chevy!", I WHOLE HEARTEDLY DISAGREE. PLEASE give it a chance and if you dont like the 350 consider upgrading to a larger CID Pontiac motor. Chevy motors are great, in Chevy's, we have enough Camaro's around without another one wearing a Pontiac badge.

[RyanM326]

No I agree, with both paragraphs. I've heard little bad stuff about the pontiac 350 and what bad stuff i did hear were from chevy lovers(I like them too, just not as much). And of course cause everyone has one. My friends (5 of us being in our early 20's) all have muscle cars and 4 of them have late 70 T/A's. Mines behind on the power curve of being built cause I wear combat boots for a living. I'm the odd ball I guess but in the end I don't have to worry about the heckling. But I do have the smallest engine. If I heard right, correct me if I'm wrong, that the pontiac 350 is one of the better 350's made, almost compatible to the 400 besides bore size? And great lbs per ft for torque? I was thinking about upgrades to the cam (comp cam thumper maybe) but I read some where that the "poncho" 350 wasn't made to be upgraded like that. I already had a mechanic put on an edelbrock intake, holly 4 barrel, and of course new air filter mostly because it needed a new carb bad (needs a lot of new things bad). Oh...and one more thing, did the 70's take leaded fuel because i have to add substitute to mine, my father told me i would need to, so I'm thinking he changed up the valve's? I guess i shouldn't be worrying about the power plant yet, but i got my hands on an old summit mag. and i'm like a little kid with a jcpenny catalog at Christmas time with a pen and nothing but dreams. And of course it's my motivation while in the box. Someday I'll be able to get more hands on with it..and i can't wait.

[BlkBird]

Pontiac's are known for torque. I wont sit here and try and tell you that 350 is the baddest thing around. I have one and I would'nt mind swapping it out but the damn thing runs too good and is too reliable to make it worth pulling. Up 'til recently it always seemed common logic to pull the Pontiac 350's in favor of building the bigger cube motors (and while if you can, that's still probably the best option), but within the last couple years people have been getting creative with these motors and pulling down respectable numbers. I would see if you can find the tech articles on High Performance Pontiac's website or maybe see about back issues of that magazine because they've done some extensive articles on the 350's lately. Like any motor, its all about the combination, so dont just randomly start ordering "cool" stuff, if you're on a budget you want to run something that someone else has worked all the bugs out of! Oh yeah, leaded gas....Im not sure in '73, I believe that was right on the borderline. If you're planning on rebuilding the motor or doing some head work anyway I would'nt really worry about it, its mainly just your valve guides your going to kill. If the motor was ever rebuilt (or had head work) it almost definately was upgraded to bronze valve guides though, that's if it was ever worked on. Im not positive mine was (I think it was though) but I dont run any additives in mine...Im not even sure you can find the additives anymore....I suppose you can, but IMO it would be a PITA to carry around one of those additive bottles with you everytime you put gas in the car.

[RyanM326]

Oh I agree, like is said I like looking, and there was an article i noticed about someone who hit the magic 500hp with the 350(W/O nitrous). I'll have to see if I can find it again. I'm not to worried about dropping more CI under the hood yet. All I can do now is use my time home wisely and strip her down and work one piece at a time...I bet the frame is pretty rough now that i think about it. I've got 14 years until i can retire from the army so I'll probably get 4-6 months at a time with it. I have to tell my dad I'm taking over his garage then Judo chop him in the eyeball for messing up the body that bad the first time he did the work. I get motivated by peoples stories of their projects so It's going to get done, I just wish i didn't get sent over here as much.

[BlkBird]

It will get done in time. I know patients is sometimes hard to come by....boy do I know that one, lol. And yeah, I wish you guys did'nt get sent over there so often either. Im new here but there are tons of beautiful cars to draw inspiration from (sadly not mine yet, lol).

[70rs]

Hello and welcome to the site! I want to say thanks to you for your service too. Please be safe and come home soon.
I am also a second gen owner (but it's a Camaro) and there are a ton of great parts out there for our cars. Good luck with it!