1969 firebird "field find"
 

so last week, i was buying a TH350 from a guy for my '72 firebird formula so i could get it driveable before the end of the year, and after talking to the guy about his '72 lemans coupe and my '72 wagon, he mentioned that in the field behind his trailer, a firebird has been sitting since before he moved there. we went to take a look at it, and what did i see? my favorite year and model of car ever built, a '69 firebird coupe. i didn't say much to him about it so i wouldn't tip him off as to the value of the car, and left it at that.

fast forward to a week later, today, when my dad and i went to take a look at the car alone to try to get a VIN so i could track down the current owner and buy it off of him. i know, i should restore the 2 cars i have now before getting a 3rd, but what can i say? i'm an arrowhead addict. i jumped over the branches sitting in front of the car, and took a brief look around before opening the door. the hood is completely rusted from what i could see, but has a hole cut out for a factory hood tach. and so the fun begins... i looked at the license plate next, and it expired in 1981! so now i know it has been sitting for about 30 years, surrounded by a small patch of trees in the middle of a field. i decided to try opening the door, hoping that it was left unlocked. wouldn't you know it; it was! i heard a very brief sucking sound as i opened the door(probably because it had been sitting with the door shut for so long) and i laid my eyes on a gorgeous sight.

the very first thing i saw was a 4 speed shifter sticking out of the console with faux woodgrain. it has a blue deluxe interior with power windows, rally gauges, a clock, a grab handle, a fold down rear seat, original radio with kick panel speakers, and, get this, what looked like a ram air pull cable sitting next to the emergency brake handle! the hood was half covered with an old tarp, and i couldn't get it off without scissors or a knife, so i don't know what the hood looks like. i'm thinking of going back next weekend with some scissors and getting the tarp cut off so i can see what's under the hood. i tried to get the VIN, but i couldn't see it on the dash because the windows are all extremely dirty. i left a note on the door of the trailer i think the car may have belonged to, mentioning that i would like to buy the "old car" in the brush behind the trailer for cash. i actually doubt that the owner of the car is still around, but i figured it was worth a shot anyway. i'm definitely not giving up on this car. it WILL be mine. and now i'm sure you would all like to see some pictures.

Nice find. Hope it works out for you. Sure looks like a loaded with options Bird!

That looks like something you find on a carsinbarn website,but that's more like cars in a jungle. Nice find let's get it and back on the road. Let us know what under that hood!

See if you can get the VIN and check it out with PHS.

Doesn't appear to be a 400 car, it's missing the arrowhead on the bumper and doesn't have grille trim. The pull cable next to the emergency brake handle is not Ram Air, that's the pull cable for the air vent. There's one on the passenger side too.

Could be a cool car, and it would be interesting to see what other options it may have.

Dude, that car should be in your backyard by now, nobody owns it anymore. Tow it away before someone else does.

Power windows, pretty cool. Free role of insulation too (bonus).

I wonder what the story is behind the dog-tags.

...and AC too, pretty cool indeed.

i am surprised at the low budget steering wheel with the deluxe interior.

i dont know about that cable, but on my ram air birds, the pull cable for the scoops is on the other side of the steering column.

I'm sure there are no mice in there either! LOL

i actually am seriously considering it. i'm thinking that if it hasn't been registered since 1981, the car may be up for grabs for who ever wants it, since it's not on anyone's property. i'll be contacting the DMV asap to ask about it. and even though that's not a ram air pull cable, that doesn't diminish the value of the car in my eyes. i decided i wanted it once i saw it was a '69 and i saw how complete the interior is. and yes, there appears to be no rodents! there was a huge cobweb on the driver's door before i opened the door--it looked like the kinda thing you buy at a party store for fake cobwebs for halloween.

Well looks like somebodys house didnt get their insulation either!

so since i've got to replace the hood anyway when i get the car home(it's not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN--i am determined), does anyone know about the quality of the reproduction 400 hoods and the additional open hood scoops? i've only bought one piece of repro sheet metal before, which was the rear window filler panel for my '72 formula, and if i use that panel on the finished product, it will need a lot of work to get it to look show quality. i'm sure being made in taiwan has something to do with it, so i'm understandably wary of any other reproduction sheetmetal, especially when the hood is a couple hundred dollars and is vastly more important than a filler panel.

Nice find!!

Check with the DMV before getting it out of the bush... They sure have a title somewhere... License plate means nothing. You would be surprise how far some people go to keep a title..

I've seen cars sitting 20+ years, and the owner still registered it every single year. You take the car, go to the DMV, and then you get busted with stolen property.

Anyway, good luck! Hope you'll get it out of its misery..

oh yeah, i'll definitely make sure i'm the owner before i try to move it. that was one of my first thoughts after thinking about moving it, was that it might still be registered. either way, the DMV said they only have a 10-year retention period on all licenses and registrations, so the car does not exist in their system unless it's still registered. i'll have to go back and try to clean the windshield enough to see the VIN through it before i can continue with the pursuit.

You must be having a blast ;). Get that VIN. If its not registered, its yours I guess. For free. How cool is that!

right?! my favorite car ever produced by any country, by any company, so close i'm already starting to think about what i'll do to it, if anything. i've never been a fan of blue interiors, and i want my '72 formula to be lucerne blue, so i'm thinking i'll get this '69 redone in a maroon exterior with a parchment interior. no vinyl top, possibly a duck tail spoiler, and definitely ram air and hood tach. i'll leave the rally 2s if they're saveable, but either on redline radials or BF goodrich radial T/As. if it has a V8, i'll have it bored out to a 400 and make it a RAIII since my formula will be a 455 RAIV, so i should have one firebird that's actually street happy.

or who knows, maybe the car is something special and it'll be worth keeping the blue on blue look. i'm not gonna have another chance to get a look at the car until next sunday, so this is going to be the longest week since when the previous owner of my formula towed the car to my house and i had to wait a week to get the money to officially buy the title off of him so i could start working on it.

IIs the property abandoned? Does somebody live in the trailer its sitting behind?

it's kinda between 2 trailers, but about as far away as an 18 wheeler. one trailer is completely abandoned, or at least looks like it from the outside, and the other looks like it might belong to a real old, frail person based on what's on the outside porch. that was the one where i left the note, but since these are trailers, i have to wonder--do they actually own property? because if not, then the car is on city or state property since it's in a field. even if that person does own the property it might be so far back it's not on their property. this is why i have to get that VIN. the odd thing is, i heard it was supposed to be under the windshield on the driver's side, more or less in the same place as it is on my pair of '72's, but i couldn't see or feel anything from the inside of the car. i'll bring some windex next time to clean the windshield enough to try seeing it through there.