[77 Canamman]

That poor thing has seen some sun.. Weird to see the 3 on the tree in an F body.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by eaglesan13

Here are some pictures of a car that belongs to a friend of mine. I call it the "ultimate strippo" because there is only one option on the PHS, and that is the EVAP system, which was required on cars sold new in California. My friend bought this car out of a tow yard years ago and it's in very original condition. This is a base model with a straight six (Chevrolet) engine and a three-on-the-tree. No gauges and no a/c, but it has a bird emblem on the dash. (Sorry for the crappy pictures, but they were all I had).

Eaglesan13,

Great shot of the dash (totally shot looking!), but very helpful and nice to see another similar bird emblem location. Thanks!

Formulajones's emblem is on the far right side of the insert like it seems for all Firebird dashes with gauges/without AC.

Dennis

[HWYSTR455]

Now I wonder what the different plants did, if that had an impact on the emblem location(s). I would guess it probably does.


.

[Norwood]

We have discussed the bezel bird in the past and here is what we decided. Early 70 non A/C cars had the bird toward the right side of the dash bezel. Late 70 and all later cars had the bird toward the left.

[unruhjonny]

@Norwood
Wasn't that just about the Trans Am?
I am unclear why the TA and lesser models would have the emblem placed in a different location, but that is what it looks like happened.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

@Norwood
Wasn't that just about the Trans Am?
I am unclear why the TA and lesser models would have the emblem placed in a different location, but that is what it looks like happened.

I thank everyone for their comments and input. We feel comfortable that the bird emblem is correct over the fan control switch for a non-TA/non-AC/non-Gauges Firebird. We'll find a nice 480442 bird emblem to install.

Dennis

[steve v]

Dennis, If you're looking for a nice/nos one here's an fyi on the dash bird emblem.
The door panel emblem (1700550) for power window equipped cars has the same bird emblem, it's just attached to a button part that covers the window crank hole in the door panel. I discovered this decades ago when I ordered some of the 1700550's for a 77 TA I had at the time. Just carefully remove the push on clip & you'll have a nice dash bird!

[steve v]

Here's a pic of the backside of some oem door emblems showing the clip to remove.

[SD455DJ]

Steve V, Thanks much for the info. and picture.

Dennis

[Formulajones]

Dennis, here's mine, with gauges and no AC.

It's a 5D build and from Van Nuys. I don't know what everyone's idea of early or late build is since 70 got a late start anyway, but this is how mine was done.

[SD455DJ]

Larry,

It seems to be a Norwood vs. Van Nuys thing, or the east cost vs. west coast suppliers possibly, but, at the end of the day, they both are correct. Thanks for posting a picture of your dash.

Dennis

[SD455DJ]

The Motor Wheel Spyders are 14x7's and all date coded 6-12-70. If they were on the car for the Radio giveaway, it would have been no sooner than late June of 1970, but more likely July sometime as an end of summer award...?

Interesting...

Dennis

[SD455DJ]

Were there any roads tests of new RAIII Formula 400's, or TA's back in the day? I can't recall any beyond the new car rollout where the TA tested was a RAIV and the Formula was a YS auto car (?).

Dennis

[unruhjonny]

yes there were;
I'd have to find them, I have nearly every road test - the most common Formula tested was absolutely one of a couple 'YS' cars that did their rounds...
IIRC there was only one of the RAIV TA, but I am willing to put my foot in my mouth at suggesting that a RA Formula was tested...

[Transamric]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Were there any roads tests of new RAIII Formula 400's, or TA's back in the day? I can't recall any beyond the new car rollout where the TA tested was a RAIV and the Formula was a YS auto car (?).

Dennis

One good one is the June '70 issue of Car Life magazine. 2 good articles. One being a std. engine Van Nuys built Formula A/T with quite a few options.
Other article is a 4-way comparison test including a RAIII Trans Am. Interesting note; the TA was claimed to have a 3.91 rear gear, an item not offered during production.

[unruhjonny]

I think all the cars in these tests were pre-production - which is how any RAIV Firebird was tested...

[eaglesan13]

Here are pictures of the hood hinges with the part numbers X'd out that I mentioned earlier in this thread.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by eaglesan13

Here are pictures of the hood hinges with the part numbers X'd out that I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Do you know what they came off of? Never seen the X'd out numbers before, but I never really paid attention to hood hinges that much.

Denns

[eaglesan13]

Dennis,

These hood hinges are currently listed for sale on Facebook, and the ad says they are for a 1970 Firebird, so that is where I got these pictures. I have seen hinges with the part numbers X'ed out once before, but it was a long time ago and I don't have pictures of them. I know they were on a 1970 Firebird, but don't remember anything else, such as build date of the car, assembly plant, etc....

Chris

[SD455DJ]

Thanks Chris. The next item on the list is to pull the TH400 to go through it to make sure it is in good health. The Saf-t-Track rear end is nice and tight and fluid looks good.

We'd like to replace the exhaust someday with a Pypes 2 1/2" mandrel bent system with the transverse Race-Pro muffler and add the proper tips. It's to bad the auto dealer put on a new (wrong) Magnaflow header-back dual exhaust with the Turbo style mufflers. The tail pipes dump further ahead than a normal Firebird, so it looks like we would have to adapt the later version longer tips (74-up) to make the outlet end under the valance panel.

Dennis