Just a young man seeing if he can find any info on his dad's old project.
 

Hello, my name is Joe. I'm 20 years old and live in the metro Detroit area. Around the time I was born, my dad owned 1973 Esprit that he was attempting to restore. Originally yellow with black interior, and powered by a 350 w/ TH350, he paid $500 for it. Yeah, them days is gone.

Anyway, his daily driver S10 had an electrical fire at one point, so he traded it for engine work on the 400 he put in it. He shot a coat of primer on it, got it driving, and unfortunately had to sell it, due to the financial responsibility of two kids.

Even though we could never afford to buy it back, I'd love to know where it ended up.

Some of the key identifiers:
-Barebones wiring (Dad hated wiring, still does. He described the wiring as "hacked up" by himself when I was chatting with him earlier.)
-Rotted rear rails (Shocking, right? At least given what I've read.)
-Fiberglassed floor pans (Poor, and inexperienced. Working with what he had.)

Here are some pictures of it as he sold it.
If you bought a car like this out of Southeast MI around 2000, that very well could be it.
https://i.imgur.com/w41FlXv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/S7iIvOa.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vTzabcv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/S5UWYUe.jpg
(Incidentally, last summer I found out a gentleman down the street from us has a '73 Formula in his garage in pieces.)

Probably soup cans by now.

But you never know. Some people have tracked theirs down.
Good luck!

There is a reason that they call our part of the Country the "Rust Belt". It was not uncommon for the sheet metal to be perforated on these cars in 4-5 years.
Most died only to be re incarnated in the smelters., though a great many parts live on at a car show or race track near you.
Welcome to the Forums & stick around, you will be educated & entertained.
Cheers!

Thanks fellas! My hope is that by 2000 or so, it'd be enough of a special car to be worthy of someone restoring it the rest of the way (Hell, that's what Dad was doing), plus with a freshly rebuilt 400, solid interior, and quite a few of the popular performance parts of the day (the MSD) stuff, that whoever bought it finished fixing it up, and is on the Net somewhere. I forgot to mention, I don't have the VIN

Good Luck!

I hope someone saved it too. Let's see if he's a member here. Good luck!

It could be around. If someone of the caliber of many members here got it, it looks a few patch panels away from alive again. Pray a talented welder bought it. It could be a stunner Formy clone by now.

Or it could be metal in a Tesla, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)

I bet it is still around, since it sold after 2000.

I don't have a scanner at the house, but I figured I'd post some pictures of it when it was the factory Sunlight yellow. And one more in its' primer grey form because the Formula hood is badass.
https://i.imgur.com/LGTmcKZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DdRMQVF.jpg
That plate is the closest thing I have to documentation/paperwork sadly.
https://i.imgur.com/mo0Mjxd.jpg
The original Poncho 350. Gotta remember, this was the late 90s and it was "just" an Esprit. At least he didn't put a small block Chevy in it!
https://i.imgur.com/cC9GVzq.jpg
I'm sure there was no reason to, but I blocked out my sister's face just because it gives me peace of mind to not put it out there.
https://i.imgur.com/GtOBxUS.jpg
When dad got it, the original hood had a hole whacked in it for a bug catcher. He had no plans (or money) to run anything requiring one anyway, and well, like I said, and most can agree, the Formula hood is a fantastic choice.

I mentioned he got it for $500. Well, the neighbor was so happy to see it go he let them use his jumpbox to charge the battery to see if they could get it to run. It did, and he drove it on the trailer. Two blocks from home, he says to his buddies, "Hey, pull over, maybe if I drive it up, Julie (his wife and my wonderful mom) won't hate it as much!"

Something tells me it didn't help much. Mom eventually grew to like it, but she says she didn't appreciate him and his buddies running it and revving it at close to midnight with a newborn in the house (me). Ah, when you're fairly young (29) and with your friends, you tend not to think as right.

He also had a friend's neighbor threaten to smash the window out after one too many peelouts. I mean, I understand the neighbor's view, but that's a bit much. (One of my closest friends got a '72 Ranchero this year, and he did a brakestand out front of the house. It was cool for five minutes until we both felt bad about it for the neighbors' sake. Thankfully, they didn't complain and we both agreed no more fooling around at my house.)

I think every time I see a '73 at shows next summer, I'll inquire about it.

Should I post this in the Missing Pontiacs section? I don't want to ruffle feathers if that's not allowed since I posted it in my introduction, but I feel like it'd be better there. Maybe a mod/admin can move the thread?

Thread moved as requested. :)

Thank you!

I wish you success and hope that you find it. Based on pictures, my concern would be the amount of lower body rust present 20 years ago and the odds of it being a survivor today.

It's definitely a concern. My hope is that whoever Dad sold it to saw all of the new stuff he put in and saw potential in it. It'd be so much easier if Dad kept any paperwork, but hey, how was he to know, right? Lol. This isn't the first time I've hit a roadblock searching for an old car of his. Tried to find an '84 Bronco he had when I was a young kid (long story as to why and how, but the gist is I saw it on craigslist 5 years after he sold it and that led to me daydreaming about it), and it ended up scrapped. That one I wanted to buy, but expected that, seeing as it was just an old truck to most. This one I just want to reconnect with, hence why I'm not really going all out on it, but I feel even with its' issues it's more likely to have survived being that it was a modified classic car even by 2000, albeit not to the levels the first gens were, I'd assume.

I see in one of the pictures you can clearly see the rear plate. Have you tried the motor vehicles agency and see if they can give you a VIN associated with the license plate. Doing a search with a VIN might help find out where its at.

I did try something similar a few years back when I wanted to find his old Bronco, due to the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, they won't give it out without a damned good reason, and "I wanna find Dad's old car" isn't good enough in my experience.

It's helpful to have a Cop friend. They used to do VIN checks for a friend of mine.

Worth a shot, but see if you can find one of the old insurance papers on it. I myself found old insurance papers on a 1972 gran Toronto sport I used to own, and back in the day they had the vin, ( actually I think even today the vin is on insurance forms). Not sure what your situation is but see if you can find the vin that way and start searching with that.