OK, full disclosure, the Formula is home with Dan & I, and also in a state of discovery, inspection, and repair. It was delivered late last Saturday night and we’ve been looking it over very closely. I am happy to say that this car is not disappointing us at all and is in amazing survivor state. We were worried about not inspecting the car in person, but, we had to jump on the deal quick to secure the car…and then hope for the best. Fortunately, this Formula seems to have experienced minimal winter driving and was taken off the road in 1978 while in Michigan, where all the 47,000 (+) miles were driven…so, only 5900 miles a year, making us suspect that they were mostly fair weather miles. We have no complaints.
Like the dealer ad said, it is all numbers matching and still has the original hoses, belts, coil, radiator, lines (fuel line cut at the top), fuel pump, etc….it is a time capsule. As you can see, we did tear the front cover off wanting to see if the original nylon toothed aluminum timing gear set was still there (yes it was!!!) and still attached to the original ‘S’ 068) cam (another yes!!!). The engine has never been ap[art or rebuilt and the RA exhaust manifolds have their bolt locks still. I’ll gather casting dates for a later post, but they are all very close. Another good sign is the engine is spotless inside and under the valve covers.
The interior is still very nice and no rips in the seats or headliner. The plastic pieces are all in very noce shape. The console is cracked from the CB radio, or 8-track tape player, they mounted, but I have a nice console to replace it, along with the shifter bezel and escutcheon.
The body panels, floor, truck, rear window channel, wheel opening pinch welds, front fenders, hood, trunk drops, etc. are all beautiful. It does have one original CL 14x7 wheel (spare) with a F70-14 Firestone BW Wide Oval tire (lots of miles) in the trunk with the complete jack assembly in great shape. The wheel is painted Lucerne Blue, counter to the factory 70 Firebird wheel color chart of black. It appears to be old original paint and shows indication of having a hub cap installed.
The motor wheels appear to have been painted LB in the center a long time ago as they are faded and have marks from use. The tires have no wear on them and are P225R70 14’s Firestone 721 radials from 1978, or so? I can’t decipher the date code, so I’ll post that later to see if someone else can.
Dennis
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