1973 Pontiac Formula 400 frame off resto must see

First of all, thanks for clicking on my auction and taking a look at the car I am offering for your bidding consideration! Lets get to it then!

The car is in fact a 1973 Pontiac Firebird! The 73’s have a bit of a cult following as they were a bit lower in production with the auto worker strikes and they were unique in several ways! The 73 was given re-designed rear bumper brackets to move the bumper away from the body a tiny bit to protect the sheet metal in minor bumps, and the front bumper was a new and improved heavier design with a reinforced inner structure and more flexible “Endura” fascia. The 73 models also enjoyed a newly designed one year only set of grilles!

This car was purchased out of Fresno California in 2005 and was shipped to Grove City Ohio where it began to undergo a 2 year meticulous restoration! The car only had 42000 miles on it but was in such bad shape and neglect we decided to give her a total massage and bring her back to life!

My partner and I are auto body and refinish technicians in a large collision repair facility and have years and years of combined experience so the car was professionally handled in all aspects of its restoration! We work closely with professional mechanics also and they were involved as the project unfolded so no “weekend warrior” work was performed on this beauty!

The body is all original but had the usual dents and scrapes, showing its age so to speak! We worked the faded red paint baked by the California sun down to the bare metal and worked all the imperfections out. The body was given several coats of primer and hand block sanded to check our work. The car was refinished with PPG base coat and clear coat products back to the original color, “Florentine” red! All cars that were assembled in Norwood Ohio were coated on the bottom with red oxide so that is what we did underneath, the underside is finished in PPG red oxide #74, the bottom looks as good as the top!

The rear axle was removed and stripped, a new coat of paint was applied and the rear axle was overhauled with new seals and gaskets, everything was checked out and put back to original.

All the brakes are new, the master cylinder was replaced as well as the steel lines and supply hoses, all new wheel cylinders and calipers, all new lining and a new brake booster was installed as well!

The transmission was taken out and given to our tranny expert at our dealership, he went totally through it and said it was absolutely perfect inside! He went through it top to bottom and made sure it was all good to go and resealed it and again, put everything back to factory original specifications!

The engine was removed as well, I would surmise by now you have gathered that no bolt was left unturned in this restoration project? We eventually nicknamed the project “The everything Car”, because we decided to leave nothing to the imagination and just go all out! The engine was taken to Pontiac professionals. They took her all apart, went through her with a fine tooth comb, again the focus was back to original! No high lift camshafts or anything like that. We wanted that classic Pontiac rumble restored and that butter smooth idle while she was running! We have a spec sheet from their dyno that will be furnished with the car, it is original and runs very well.

Stating now and very importantly the items that were removed during the restoration process were not only mechanically restored but cosmetically as well! My partner on this venture is actually a Pontiac buff and recognized as a contributing resource on Pontiac Firebird history! The car looks just like it did in 1973 as she rolled of the assembly line except for the addition of body side moldings that were added to replicate the ones that were so popular and added at the dealer during the time frame! See the pictures for what I am referring to!

Even better was the fact we had a completely original survivor 1973 Firebird sitting right beside this one to refer to if we needed to check a color match or how something was routed or mounted, how it appeared on the dealer lot in 1973. This car is extremely close, a very passionate dedication was given to this project and it shows in the finished product!

The rims are original and were restored correctly and even the tires were ordered to match the factory originals delivered on the car new in “73”, “wide oval” tires in the correct size and finish!

The front and rear glass are new aftermarket units installed by a local glass expert and were sourced from Hugger, the side glass was ordered through classic industries and obviously new as well. The rocker moldings are brand new GM parts sourced from an ebay search, and the rest of the bright work on the car is all either classic industry new or GM originals sourced from our connections and Ebay. We focused on original OEM parts as much as possible and even got into arguments with some vendors as a result. One fellow in particular tried to convince us that a part doesn’t have to be genuine factory original sourced to be considered “oem”,, OEM of course means original equipment manufacturer, he lost that sale immediately.

The interior was obtained from classic and installed by a local upholstery shop we have dealt with for years and years. The gas tank is new, the suspension is all new, anything in question was replaced with tender loving care and attention to all details. Please note the level of difficulty one would have declaring and documenting everything we replaced and massaged as this restoration unfolded, way too much to list and itemize!

The car is simply stated,, beautiful! Is the car perfect?? No it isn’t. The car is a 43 year old car sold in a time frame when cars were expected to live 10 years or 100,000 miles. This car was also considered a high performance car in its day so a lot of them met their demise as a result of hot rod building and racing, given the lower production of 73 and this car is given a higher rarity right out of the gate makes me say this,,, “Go find me another one just like this one”!