1968 PONTIAC FIREBIRD- CUSTOM LS1- NEWLY RESTORED

1968 Pontiac Firebird Custom Description

1968 PONTIAC FIREBIRD- "OUTLAW"- FRESH RESTORATION- Built in the Van Nuys plant in 4th week of April 1968. This car started life as a rare original 400 4spd car, one of only 265 cars built out of the more than 110,000 Firebirds built in 68'. It even came as a radio delete. Original paint color and interior scheme was gold/ gold. Austin Powers original car perhaps...
(I have been told that No 1968 Firebirds came with a gold interior. I have spent at least 100 hours researching the data plate on the firewall, from every site I could find. The Trim code on this car is 257, and every site I have found it says it came w/ custom (deluxe) interior in gold. The paint code on the car is G-G. Upper and lower body painted in April Gold. The interior we ripped out of this car was originally at one time gold. It had later been dyed black. So either this car came w/ a gold interior, or this cars original interior was replaced w/ a gold interior and then dyed black. It is also possible that the car came w/ pink Yeti hair interior like Count Customs uses or maybe 257 means no interior, just a steering wheel and a milk crate. Maybe that's why someone put in the gold interior to match the exterior paint and have a place for the passengers to sit. Whatever the case may be, this car now has an interior and it is mostly in black. Glad we could clear all this up about an interior which now resides in a landfill east of town. One other thing, even though the California Title which we got with the car says 1968 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400, it is probably an error at the DMV or some other grand conspiracy. I apologize for any confusion or any other malfeasance which resulted from this grievous error.)
Spent 2 years taking this car just about down to its last nut and bolt. Not a rotisserie, but about as close as you can get. Found the car in the California desert where it had been for many years. Car was disassembled and sand blasted down to the metal. The interior floorpan was even scraped of all old sound deadening and then sand blasted. Replaced the left rear quarter but the rest of the car was quite clean with very little rust. Underbody was painted in matte black. Same with the interior and trunk. Interior, floor, doors, trunk, quarters, all covered in duramat. New pad in the entire interior. Brand new interior was installed. New carpet, new door sills, new door panels, new arm rests, new kick panels, new rear panels, new sails, new headliner, new complete trim and rubber molding package, new package tray, new dash pad, new rear seat covers, found tall buckets and had the seats custom done by TrimMaster Upholstery. New steering wheel, new knobs for windshield wiper, lights, blinkers, hazard, ebrake, lighter assembly, complete ignition switch. New instrument cluster bezel, new dash bezel, new rear view mirror, new visors w new complete assembly, new dome light, new ashtray, new pedal pads, new floormats, new seat belts, new windshield, new rear glass. As mentioned earlier the car came as radio delete, we have kept it that way but we did wire in speaker wire so that if anyone decided to add a stereo you wont have to rip the interior apart to run wires. The top of the dash, dash face, glove box, ash tray, rear seat wheel well covers and the package tray trim were all painted in the exterior black. The trunk is custom trimmed in black carpet and stitched black vinyl w/ matching chrome door panel trim piece accents. Real money put into just materials for the interior was near $6000, counting zero labor. Our goal was to keep the original classic look of the interior with only a few non original pieces. Gauge cluster, tach, steering wheel, B&M shifter and seats. Everything else is original, with the exception of no door handles, just a chrome button. To finish off the interior all of the lighting is done in red to match the stitching on the seats and the floor mats along w/ a few red accents around the car. The dash gauges, gauge cluster, kick panel lights and dome lights all glow in red.
POWERTRAIN- We obtained the motor and trans with the car as built. It is an LS1 6.0L w/ the "Hot cam package" and it is radical. It has a 750 Edelbrock Carb, MSD 6LS Electronic ignition controller, (have computer cable assembly to allow for tuning from your laptop), aluminum intake, aluminum heads, stainless 2" headers, into 3 5/8" collectors, psuedo mufflers... ahem...., with 3" pipes which dump in front of the rear axle. Make no mistake, this car is NASCAR loud at full bore. We will leave it to the new owner to quiet the ole girl down. We added platinum plugs, stainless lines, new air cleaner, new custom coil/ valve covers. We have never pulled the motor to have an autopsy done on it to determine lift, duration, cubes, etc. But I will say this, it utterly flies, as you must shift after going thru 2 lanes of an intersection when you have it cobbed. The engine revs like a sewing machine, it truly does. I have no doubt HP is well north of 400. It does all of this at 7000' of altitude so we ponder at what it would do at lower elevations. No smoke, not a drop of fluid leaks. Car pops off and idles cold, even w the high lift cam at 7k alt.
TRANSMISSION- GMs venerable 700R 4 speed auto w/ overdrive. We have had the transmission inspected, dropped the pan, changed filter, fluids. No issues found whatsoever. New chrome dust cover and pan installed as well. Trans is tight and w/ the excellent B&M shifter it shifts great.
REAR END- Brand new Moser Ford 9" in 3.55 Posi. Has Wilwood 4 Piston caliper, cross-drilled and slotted discs in black and calipers in red. Has custom lowering springs w/ ladder bars. New drive shaft. Under full acceleration, the car has zero axle movement and goes utterly straight, even when spinning the tires.
FRONT END- Brand new Wilwood 6 Piston caliper, cross-drilled and slotted discs w/ low profile red caliper. Brand new master cylinder/ brake booster, prop. valve. Brand new brake lines to all 4 corners. Brand new E-brake cable.
This car drives and brakes straight and true. Even the alignment shop commented on how straight this car is. The brakes are like dropping an anchor. They'll jerk your neck forward until you get used to them. No fade whatsoever. 50mph you can hit them good and have your hands off the wheel and it tracks dead straight. It is no doubt over braked but it stops as good as it goes.
SUSPENSION- Every piece that could be replaced was. Brand new steering box and all new bushings, tie-rod ends, pitman arm, idler arm, ball joints, shocks. The suspension is pretty much stock in the front except for new springs. Every piece that wasn't replaced was sand blasted and painted matte black. We considered going to rack and pinion and tubular upper & lower control arms and the rest but we have a pile of money in this car and that's something someone else can consider. It sure would look nice up front because you can see everything in these F Body cars.
UNDERBODY- Literally every piece that could be removed was sandblasted and painted. Every screw and washer and bolt and plate literally every piece was cleaned, sand blasted and painted. Recently had it on a lift and the mechanic asked if a rotisserie had been done on it. It's that clean. Brand new gas tank, filler neck and racing electric fuel pump installed as well.
BLACK MARBLE BODY- This car is a show stopper. I guarantee if you ride in this car, you will not go 1 mile without someone saying something or giving a thumbs up. From a hundred feet it looks like black liquid. We wanted a super clean exterior without going too far and stay true to John Deloreans original design when he was chief at Pontiac. Just the right bits of "jewelry". We started with the chrome trim. All 3 bands of chrome trim along the rockers and around the fender wells was removed and welded the holes. We removed all the side badging and emblems and welded the holes. The door handles and locks were shaved and welded the holes. We matte blacked all the chrome above window sills including the front and back windows as well as the wipers. We dumped the original mirrors and hand picked 85' Camaro mirrors that look like they came w/ the car. The slope of the mirrors match the A-pillar perfectly. Both bumpers are brand new and we ditched the original Firebird rear bumper and went with a Camaro bumper instead and ditched the "fangs". Much thinner and cleaner and just a whole lot better. Truly one of the nicest looking tails of anything from the 60s. Brand new grilles, front marker lights and lower front spoiler. Brand new "ruby red" Pontiac V side markers & bezels in the rear. Paying homage to the ole 400 we kept the hood emblems and added smoke down either side of the hood buldges. You can tell if you have shaved or not in the paint. It looks like a mirror. Precision Finish did the honors on the paint job.
WHEELS- Cragar 610C- 1 piece all aluminum. I challenge anyone to find better wheels for this car than these absolutely gorgeous SS's from Cragar. These are not the standard 2 piece steel/aluminum wheels from Cragar. Most people don't even know they exist and they just pop on this car. 17x7" front w/ 235 50 17s and 18x 9" rear w/ 255 45 18s. Tires are brand new.
ENGINE COMPARTMENT- Our main goal was to make it as clean as possible for a driver. Stainless braid and chrome bits and bolts, but not overwrought. Nice high intake aluminum air cleaner. New coil/ valve covers w/ emblems. Brand new 4 core aluminum radiator w/ 2 brand new 12" fans. Brand new water pump and custom water neck and radiator hose for a cleaner look. We even had a metal "box" fabricated to cover the wiring harness and relay connections.
DOORS- The car has small chrome buttons to pop the doors for driver and passenger. It has no interior or exterior door handles. It also has a secret button to get in the car if the remotes go dead or don't work.
MISC- The car has about 2500 miles on the motor. It has about 250 miles since the complete restoration. Clear title w/ zero miles on it. It is a Very clean driver. It is not a perfect show car, it is a Very clean driver. Why it was built, to enjoy. If you are looking for something that stands out in the crowd this car does it in spades. A little more fine tuning here and there and this car is damn close to perfect. Will discuss the few bits left to serious interested parties. We were planning to take this thing to the edge, but a 'Cuda fell into our lap and well nuff said about what that requires.
PICTURES- We fully documented the disassembly, body work, paint process and reassembly of the car, step by step. Unfortunately the hard drive of my laptop died a year ago and only a few of the pics were able to be recovered. It is what it is and I'll take off panels to prove what was done.
OUTLAW- One last thing. The reason we named this car "Outlaw" was that during the restoration we discovered this car had numerous bullet holes in it. They were obviously not from sitting in a field and taking target practice. It is seems that at some point in its life long ago when it was gold it probably ran (or attempted to more likely) a police roadblock. We found a total of 6 holes in the ole girl. So we did the seats for a lil tribute to the past.
EMAIL- Send an email if you want to talk about Black Beauty and Ill send a phone number and we can chat. Even start ole girl up so you can hear it. Serious inquiries only please. If you want to come out here and take a ride you are more than welcome to. If you buy this car well deduct the cost of your trip off the price and negotiate from there. Well work with you, enough said. Thank you for your time and consideration.
PAYMENT- A $500 non-refundable deposit is required if you decide to buy the car. Full payment for the car will be paid in certified funds or Franklins.
SHIPPING- Buyer is solely responsible for arranging shipping and payment of the shipping service.