[njsteve]

First one to guess what it is, with the least amount of clues provided wins a prize. (the prize being more photos)

:-)

[superdutybob]

73 Formula!

[njsteve]

You're half right.

[RicksGTO]

well, it's a '72 Formula built a week after your first T/A......so my guess is it's a special paint (Black?) with black deluxe interior ??

[njsteve]

We have a winner!



And here is the recent GM of Canada record. Compare them to the ones from 20 years ago that actually show the black paint as the paint color on the W51 line.





Here are the 1993 GM of Canada docs:

[RicksGTO]

wow, congrats Steve! Can't wait to hear more details, post some more pics when you can !! The option list on that car is staggering!

[njsteve]

Here's some of the good stuff:

[73brewstersd]

Very Nice! Congrats!

[njsteve]

Here’s the story on the car: Last summer, a new member, Grant, posted about finding and buying this car on the Yenko.net site. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...=464850&page=1

Grant told the story about how his brother was out giving an estimate for a new roof for a lady’s home in British Columbia, Canada. When she opened the garage, Grant’s brother saw the car for the first time. The Firebird belonged to her late husband who passed away several years earlier from cancer at a far too early age. The woman and her daughter were very attached to the car as it was a special project that the husband/father put back together shortly before he passed on. After he died, they kept the car in the garage and would start it once in a while, trying to maintain it.

Grant’s brother, who didn’t really know much about Firebirds took a few fuzzy cellphone snapshots of the car and forwarded the info to Grant, who eventually contacted the woman and was able to purchase the car. After getting all the boxes and stuff out from around the car and getting it out into the daylight for the first time in years, the car pretty much started right up after a new battery was installed.

The car has more than an inch of original documents with it, including every repair work order for anything ever done with it. It was originally leased from London Motor Products in Ontario, Canada (a big GM dealer), to a law firm from 1972 to 1975. In February, 1975, the lease ended and the lawyer, who leased it, bought the car (with a partial trade of a 72 Vega). The lawyer owned the car until 1985 when he sold it to a broker who put a quickie repaint on it and sold it to the husband in British Columbia. He and his family owned it until Grant bought it in the summer of 2011.

Here's the original sale document when the lease ended:

[thefirebirdm@n]

Very cool. Don't see many special paint code cars. Black is a lot harder to paint. I have a '71 Formula waiting in the queue that needs lots of help so will be watching this one with interest. Congrats!!!

[Lloyd-TX]

Wow Steve - just WOW!

34 options including CA prep!
That's gonna make a fantastic resto!

[Lloyd-TX]

Oops - forgot to mention an error on that 2011 GM of CA doc - no 95 amp alternators were used on '72s. That would be an 80 amp piece since it's an air car with electric RW defroster.

[njsteve]

Here's what it looked like in 1987:

[Lloyd-TX]

Pretty clean in 1987, but those whitewalls . . .

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

Oops - forgot to mention an error on that 2011 GM of CA doc - no 95 amp alternators were used on '72s. That would be an 80 amp piece since it's an air car with electric RW defroster.

Good eyes! It still has the original large, 80 amp alternator with the standard screaming idler pulley included at no extra charge.



Unfortunately, there is a hole sawed into the top of the original 1972 shroud. I'm glad I saved my old melted one from the other 72 so I have a donor plug to patch it with. The second owner put an electric fan in along with a fixed blade engine fan (I'll need a thermo clutch and fan, now...and a dual bleeder master cylinder)

[Brewster]

Congrats on the new ride Steve, Look forward in seeing it come together.

[njsteve]

Here's the car now. Looks like the second owner added the rear spoiler in the late 1980s.





And the interior. It has a perfect dash pad and steering wheel. When I arrived it still had the 1977 bucket seats that were installed in 1987 when the car was broken into and the seats stolen. Once I arrived from my 3000 mile flight, Grant and I spent an hour or so, installing the new seats that he had located over the past year.





Original mileage with every piece of paper to back it up.



Funny thing I found from reviewing all the dealership paperwork is that they seemed to have changed the starter every time they did an oil change. Looks like they tossed the heat shield during the first starter repair in the early 70's and from that point on they just kept cooking solenoids and never bothered to repair the problem, instead of chasing the symptom.

[The Boss]

WOW! Speachless!

Congratulations!

[njsteve]

Here's the original, fiberglass ram air hood with the screens still intact:

[njsteve]

And some more engine shots. The car had the unitized ignition originally (along with five years of dealer repair work orders attempting to fix the "no start" problem related to these units). An HEI was swapped in in the 1980s.



I have started gathering A/C parts but will need some of the small A/C line brackets, a correct POA valve and the correct housing to firewall bolts. At least the unique 455HO A/C brackets are still intact.