Based on the faded shoe polish on the windows, this 1973 Pontiac Firebird has been for sale for a while. The seller claims to have lost warehouse storage and therefore the sale is required. It had some rare options originally, and still has half of them. More about that later. The car has moved north to Monroe, North Carolina and is being sold here on eBay, where bidding is starting at $2,500.
Unfortunately, the rest of the pictures of this car are more craigslist quality than the first one, but bear with me here, because the seller made a big deal about the options on this car. As it turns out, the L78 400 cubic inch V8 engine was an upgrade over the standard inline six, the L30 350 cubic inch V8 and the L65 400, as it was rated at 230 horsepower. While not up to the top of the line 455, that was still a pretty decent punch, especially in the dark early days of emissions-strangled Detroit engines. We see in this shot that at some point in time, the car was painted red (it was originally blue) and was fitted with a rear spoiler.
The Endura (I remembered this time…) nose has a lot of cracks in it. There’s a worthwhile short article on Endura noses here. Do any of you remember John DeLorean hitting the front end of a 1968 GTO with a baseball bat in a TV ad? I’m not old enough to remember that one, but I did find this ad where folks were hitting the nose with a crowbar. Thankfully, there are flexible fillers now that you can use to make it look as good as new again, as long as you are willing to take the time.
Firebird interiors were always pretty sporty looking, and this one isn’t an exception. One odd thing is that the floor appears to be maroon in this shot, where I would expect it to be blue (I don’t think there’s any carpet left). I’m wondering if the hood is just from another car? Regardless, things look largely workable in here, at least for a driver level car. The seller reports that the floors are “mostly solid” although the rear quarter panels and rear of the rocker panels will need rust repair. The most alarming problem here to me is that the original four speed transmission is nowhere to be found.
And here’s that L78, which the seller claims is original from carburetor to oil pan. The ad also states that there’s an automatic in the car at the moment, but I see no signs of it in the interior, so I wouldn’t count on it. Overall, I find myself thinking the price is a bit high–what do you readers think?
my first question would be “is it a Formula”? cause I am not sure you could get a 400 unless it is a T/A or a Formula? does look like it was fairly well optioned with the factory 8 track. this is the last year that fire birds looked really good, though they still looked ok with the big bumpers. could have been optioned with a SD but I think they had mandatory shaker hood.
I remember my father ordering his 71 firebird with the formula engine and trans am suspension so maybe you still had choices in 73. Not like todays pick a package and live with it
I love this generation of the F-car. Very smooth lines especially with that duck-tail spoiler. And those Formula scoops – awesome. Maybe someone doused it with salt under the hood every fall. I dig the hole for the hood-mounted tach. Too bad the trans is missing – but then one could fit a 6-speed… Hmmm. Too rough for me I think.
IMHO it’s already at it’s peak as far as price, too far gone for what it would take to restore it.
i dont think its a formula the hoods blue an if you look close at the back of the quarter panel between the dent an tail light theres a spot where the red primer peeled off an underneath is red like floor boards. blue door panels an seats came from same car hood did probably but t’was not this one
This will become someone’s T/A clone, no value otherwise. I wouldn’t pay much more than $3k on it though.
Why yes……..LS is the answer.
confusing for sure. He lost his storage, what after 6 months and it sat outside for hmmmm…..30 years before that? Sliced and diced. Need some PHS docs to tell us what it really was at birth. I am an expert on 67-69 firebirds. Love the 70 formulas but never had one. I am 99.9% sure you could NOT option a factory Hood mounted Tachometer after 69 on a Firebird. Correct me if I am wrong.
The red floor is the red oxide colored primer they used.
my green ’73 had a green floor underneath the carpet
Tom is correct. Only the in dash tachometer was factory optional in 70 and up Firebirds.
Since the Formula hood was made of fiberglass thru 1975, it would be easy to cut the hole to mount a hood tach if you wanted.
fyi that is not a front end from a ’73 bird. not a ’72 either. ’70 or ’71.
i like this bodystyle, love the formula hood but i’m not certain about this particular car.
Let’s be honest you can find a totally different car in the 4000.00 range and have the making of a real car. I would have to just call this a parts car.
Well dang, I am only 2 and 1/2 hours down the road from that car and driving that direction anyway today. I even have the money to buy it. 30 minutes north of that car is the NPD store where I could buy most of the parts to fix that car up. To bad I have 8 cars already and no room for anymore in my driveway. LOL. I agree that this car is at least two cars combined into one with different colors. That ad is sort of sketchy with it’s description. Someone has sure enough started trying to fix on it at some point. By the time you go through all the trouble to restore it your gonna have more in it than it is worth even if you do it all yourself. This would be an ok car to fix up as a period driver with modern updates such as the 6 speed tranny mentioned earlier. It would be fun as all get out to drive though once all that was done. I do like that front end though. Tempting.