1970 Formula
 

Anyone know anything about this Formula? It's right down the road from me.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/a...029159480.html

Wow
Wow again
Looks like a real honest car with no excuses .
And VERY Well Kept for a Northern Car.

Invoice has both a Credit Memo and a Debit Memo, that's a wild scenario.

A little surprised at first by all the Promo Lingo written on the Invoice.
Evidently Pontiac was also involved with that contest, since it was in Detroit area.
A new car is a helluva prize for just a radio station contest alone.

The handwriting matches the Memo's , and the Memo's match other examples of same type CMD's from various other invoices.

Bonafide

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1575161767

Never seen or heard of it before....

Agreed looks to be a very correct and original car. Still has the open face alternator, even.
I'm a fan of Motor Wheel Spyders..., but they look a little lame with the centers painted blue. And those look like 14 x 6's ... a bit on the small/skinny side. I wonder if they've been on the car since its days as a contest prize? There's no wheel option on the PHS, so it would have had caps off the line.

A few nits:
There appears to be a hole in the top of the RH quarter panel...? (a CB antenna there, once, maybe?)
Tailpipes are wrong (as are the mufflers under the rear seat... whole exhaust system basically -- but it probably sounds good)
Interior door release handles are missing the black trim, and the drivers armrest vinyl is starting to delaminate
It's been enthusiastically Ziebarted (all the yellow plugs along the rocker), which may be why there's none of the original red oxide e-coat visible on the bottom, either
Front of console once had something drilled/mounted into it
Orange air cleaner...?

Asking price seems very reasonable if everything works and it drives fine.

oh my!!!!
me likey, me likely a lot.

Very nice. If your going to re paint it, why didn’t they plug the hole!

It sold right away on Saturday.

Not only was the air cleaner orange, but it looked like the flappers appeared to be MIA (may have been a repop). You also missed the missing lighter.

I noticed all the stuff you guys mentioned except for the hole in the quarter panel.
:o that was very unexpected - abnormal

Was also missing interior door handle latch escutcheons on both sides.

A really really great car overall - no doubt. And wasn't majorly overpriced.
Best dealer offering/ad/pics/disclosure i have seen in a while too.

Hope someone comes up with more of its early history.
Was "New Market" the ad agency that came on board after Wangers company ?

"key market" would probably be a marketing term and not related to a name. Probably saw a lull in the sales of the new Firebird.

that's great this it sold so quick!

it's kinda funny to me;
thst the car has so many options, yet no gauges!?

I have seen a lot of Formulas with no gauges.
(mine has no gauges also)


Always wondered if people thought that the gauges were included?
About like the console on automatics.


:confused:

I think that's what Keith meant in his post of "Interior door release handles are missing the black trim".

I'm almost expecting this car to pop up on eBay within the next couple of weeks by Restore A Muscle Car.

Heard the Formula is in very good hands.

I would have liked to have it in my “good “ hands.

Great price and cool car too.

The Detroit radio promo probably originated with the format from Boss Radio in Los Angeles which had relationships with other RKO radio stations across the country, possibly including Detroit. Car had a bunch of coins put in the trunk and you had to guess the weight. I have a friend who is a whiz at combing old Newspapers online - he found these ads:

A Boston station gave away a '70 Formula as well - same format, guess the weight.

Thanks for posting that. Great pics of a bygone era.
Only too bad they had to jump up on the hood. ARRRRGGG!

Headed back to MI, from what I hear. Don't know who's hands got it.

Cool on the promo pics. Didn't even think to look at other states. It would be interesting to see the invoices on the others and how many were giveaways.

That was amazing to find that stuff !

It looks like this Formula was shipped out April 24 ... best i can tell.
That falls in line with some other VIN's close to that VIN also.

The promo picture car has wheel opening moldings and R2 wheels with trim rings. fwiw

Very cool Formula! Weird that it has no gauges & tach...but a lot of the good stuff!

Dennis

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

CL Wheel
 

Is the date Oct 4, 1969? There are other stampings in the center, but not sure what they mean, or are they the date stamp? Anyone decipher the tire date?

Thanks! Dennis

Year - Month - Day
Left to Right
0 - 4 - 9

1970 April 9
Yep, i'd call Bingo on that

Wow Dennis - Big Time Congrats to you guys on getting the PromoPrize RA Formula !
Glad its checking out so well , and that a PY member has it so we can read all about it.
Keep the good news coming !

Has the car been repainted ?

5 mins from my house. Just saying...

Tire date 15th week and 6th year of the decade, presumably 1976.

Thanks for the date code clarification BVZ! Yes, unfortunately it was repainted this past fall by the dealer we bought it from, after he got the car delivered back to MN from the estate sale he bought from in San Diego, CA. Unfortunately, the history of the car is very vague and we are still digging into it. The dealer (Druk) told us it had a power antenna installed and forgot to include it with the car. Not sure if it was aftermarket, or a dealer installed accessory.

The VIN tag on the door is one of the nicest originals we've ever seen.

Dennis

Sorry Mike. We jumped on it the minute we found out about it.

Dennis

K1 to the left of valve stem is a Mfg Stamp
Same as the K1 in the center hub section

So its
K1
0
4
9
by the valve stem, for full clarification

The trim tag looks pretty too.
Don't know if its the lighting or real - but the blue seems to be popping through the black on the raised characters just the perfect amount.
Like some custom 2-tone work practically - its so even. :cool:

Thanks 77Canamman! I was wondering if they were replacement tires since it seems all '70 Formulas & TA's were shod with Goodyear Polyglas GT's. I've never seen any '70 Birds with anything but Goodyears in 70 and 60 series tires..78 series, yes. But, never say never.

Dennis

BVZ, yeah, that's the overspray from the repaint, but it does set it off nicely. The trim tag is so nice and smooth. The car was kept in a walkout level car port with an open end where the nose was, but seemed to escape sun and salt damage.

Dennis

From Paul?

Yes...Dennis

Would try to get that power antenna from the dealer.
It might have been on the car for the Promo Radio Station Contest.
May have been the Debit Memo for Additional Equipment

PMD charged a debit for something additional - and i don't think they would have supplied the spyder wheels or a CB radio.

The wheels and/or possible CB were potential prospects for the Credit Memo / Expenses.

CB's didn't go BOOM amongst passenger vehicles in my area until about 1974 after the Convoy Song and Movie. My uncle quit his Insurance job with the 3rd generation family agency - to open a CB sales outlet. The market was so hot.
My other uncles put them in their cars, and my Grandfather put one in both of his vehicles.

JMO but i don't think a CB would have been a perk in a car in 1970.
As far as that goes

Would have been nice if the dealer had the hole repaired before repaint and we would have never known about the mystery hole in quarter panel. lol

Just throwing it all out there for the time being :)

BVZ, We are going to try to get the antenna from Druk. I think you are right about the CB idea. They didn't become big until later and weren't a thing in 1970. We hypothesized about the Credit/Debit Memo's possibly being for a dealer installed power antenna. The wheels would have been more expensive, unless Motor Wheel was a sponsor??? We'd love to find out who won this car and if it was the same owner until this summer.

Interesting how your uncle got into the CB market craze!

Dennis

Congratulations Dennis!

It seems (to me at least) as though you and your brother are currently cornering the market on cool Pontiacs (that are NOT Judge's or Trans Am's).

Jonny, Thanks! We certainly have been lucky to find interesting Pontiacs lately, with the help of some good friends. I attached the pictures of original '70 glove box tire inflation decal, the original 424 coil, and the original jack base and handle paint colors. Notice the handle is dark blue...

77Canamman, can you decipher this old Firestone 721 radial?

Thanks, Dennis

Here are the carb, distributor, and alternator.

Dennis

19th week of the 4th year of the decade. So realistically, it could be 1974, or 1984. The coding changed after 2000, and there was a triangle after the last three numbers during the decade of the 1990's.

Congrats Dennis, I’m jealous on this one. Looking forward to seeing it.

I don't know how much a set of those wheels would have been in 1970 .
But - to join in on the hypothesis / speculations ...

The 2 credit (C) figures added together in left corner might could have been PMD's way of absorbing a percentage of
(1) the wheels
(2) the color-key paintwork on the wheels

Any combination of the dealer / radio station / wheel vendor - absorbing the balances.

Dennis,

Nice score on the Formula 400. Here's a picture of the spare tire and rim from my old 1970 Formula 400, and I'm pretty sure it was the original to the car. I think the Goodyear Polyglas tires were for the 15 inch wheels and the Firestones were for the 14 inch wheels.

Dennis,
It's actually been my observation that in '70, Pontiac seemed to have sourced the 15" white lettered tires from Goodyear (i.e. all TAs had the Polyglas GTs), but at least some (I'm inclined to say all based on what I've seen over the years... but never say never) of the 14" RWL tires from Firestone. My '70 Formula had one original tire still with it when I bought it (14" Rally Wheel car), and it was a Firestone Wide Oval.

BTW, congrats to you guys - that is a very cool car!

Thanks Craig! Dan actually owns the car with me, but we are now esteemed members of the Lucy Blue club.

Eaglesan13 & Keith K, thanks for the clarification on the Firestone vs. Goodyear tires. I now recall seeing the '70 TA in Rocky's book on display with F70 - 14's when PMD considered making that the standard tire on the TA.

Canamman77, thanks for the date deciphering for the 721 radials. Funny that they were installed and never driven on. They still have the nubs sticking out of the tread.

Dennis

Here is the original 50 year old nylon/aluminum gear and chain that is wearing quite well considering.

Dennis

Firestone BW F70-14 Spare on CL Wheel
 

Maybe it is one of the original tires to the car...?

Dennis

Dennis are you putting it back together with the nylon gear ?

Craig, Nope, it has a bunch of hairline cracks in the nylon teeth and looks like it wasn't long for this world, so we caught it in time. The new gears and chain were installed yesterday by Dan. The old one in now garage wall art!

Dennis

Dennis, just wondering. What timing set are you using?

Rocky, From Carquest it is a Cloyes std. duty timing chain and gears, installed straight up.

Dennis

Cloyes C-3007K...that is. Picture didn't post...darn phone.

Dennis