An OHC addition to the Breakaway Squad
 

Just bought a 1969 Firebird ragtop. It’s a base engine OHC6 (1bbl), power glide (column shift) combo. Nice rust free survivor car and all original except for one nice repaint, some detailing, an aftermarket 8 track and rally 2 wheels. Relatively well optioned for such a basic powertrain car. PHS has over 20 options. Steering and brakes (drums), decor, whitewalls, wire wheel covers, power trunk etc.

One odd option is deluxe belts with shoulder straps, pretty rare for a ragtop. Car was with its original western Ohio-Kentucky owner till 2008. Two owners since. Mileage isn’t low (a bit over 100k) but obviously lived a sheltered life.

Plans are to sort out the mechanicals, get it back to black wheels and wire wheel covers and upgrade it with a stereo and factory 8 track that I have on the shelf.

That's a beautiful car. Really rare option for the harness belts. Can you publish the part number on those shoulder belts?

I’m on the hunt for a nice clean set of four stock wheels. Being a base OHC it would have been the exception to the 7” wheel, so I’m looking for for 14x6. I’m not a code guy so just want some correct offset era correct GM rims. 67-68 Firebird rims, 68-72 A body all are functionally the same. I could buy them or trade some spare 14x7 rally 2 wheels.

The color combo on the car is Limelight Green, Green basic interior and the top (power) is Ivory. Carpet must of been changed, looks more like the 68 green than the correct 69 green which was quite dark.

This car is the quintessential example of the car you’d buy for a teenage daughter or your wife, pretty but not enough power to get into a wreck ;-)

The option code for deluxe belts with front shoulder straps is WS1 (431). They were a common option on Firebirds (10-15%) but records don’t segregate between convertible and hardtop.

Most convertible buyers who wanted deluxe belts would order A39 (434) which was about $10 instead of $37 but didn’t include shoulder belts. About 10-15% of convertibles had this option (it was only offered on convertibles)

An inverse of this was option AS1 (438), also convertible only, which was shoulder straps but without having deluxe belts. It was about $23 and an indication of how rare the deluxe shoulder belts were on convertibles is that they were only installed on 49 cars.

Lastly, you could order deluxe belts with front and rear shoulder straps WS2 (432). This option was offered on
hardtops and convertibles but cost about double on convertibles (hardtops already had front shoulder straps as standard equipment). The convertible price was about $64 and total installations (ragtops and coupes) was 233. Rear shoulder belts were only available this way, no equivalent standard belt option for them was offered.

This car has the WS1 belts. It includes stowage clips on the front of the rear armrests. Strangely if you ordered the front and rear shoulder straps there was no stowage system for the rears (I guess you were just supposed to leave them in the top well?

I’ve never driven a 1bbl OHC, so not sure what to expect, you’d think with over 20 options ordered they’d have scared up the extra $20 odd bucks to get a Hydramatic 3 speed automatic instead of the powerglide 2 speed. But a glance at production records indicates that most people thought like him; with the base engine the powerglide outsold the TH350 two and a half to one. Interestingly when the 350 2bbl was specified the TH350 was installed three times more than the powerglide (the powerglide wasn’t offered on any other engines in 69).

The standard axle is a 3.23 so hopefully that will be enough to get relatively decent pep from the six (the 350 2bbl with automatic had a 2.56).

Will also be nice to lose the flexy rad hoses ASAP!

Nice find. I like the color with Ivory top.

Thanks for this. When you get time, can you grab a picture of the part number tags on the shoulder belts? Again, really awesome car. With power FDB I'll bet it rides nice.

Good question, I don’t know much about 2 speed automatics. I just called it a powerglide because that’s the name that comes to mind.

Given that it’s a six, which I understand to be heavily based on the Chevy six I’d guess it’s a Chevy transmission rather than the BOP version.

If the tags are still on the belts I’ll post a pic. But I won’t get the car for a few weeks.

I think it would have the Super Turbine 300, used on Pontiac Buick and Oldsmobile base model cars.
If you were so inclined you could easily upgrade to the T350.

I’ll look at the shop manual to see what trans they actually used. While a TH350 would surely perk her up I’ll leave it stock, with the base 6 it will be a slug regardless, it’s part of the charm of the car ;-)

OHC’s have the BOP bell housing. I picked up a 68 LeMans 1bbl OHC 2 speed auto and am really surprised with how peppy it is. Great car, North!

Thanks for the clarification on the bellhousing! I'm figuring the 3.23 gears will keep the car zippy feeling in town compared to long legged 2bbl cars but I suspect it best to stay out of hill country! The closest I can remember is a friend had a nova with a straight 6 and the glide, we drove it through Vermont and New Hampshire White and Green mountains, it didn't like those long interstate hills one bit! The trick was to floor it on the downhills so that you'd hit 100 at the bottom and thereby hopefully not drop below 60 by the next crest. My first new car was an 86 6000 with the 2.5 four, same thing, zippy in town but wheezy with hills.

Sweet '69 FB Cammer.
 

Glad it found a good home.
I posted it on our Forum a few weeks back.
And I hope the seller was flexible on the asking price.

Very cool Firebird, north.

Re: ST300 transmission... I believe the 64-65 Buick Skylark and Olds Cutlass would have the switch-pitch torque converter. For a neat “hidden” mod, you could retrofit that with a little engine tuning to wake up the car just a bit.

I got a decent amount off the asking price but I'm sure I overpaid in the sense that if I had to sell it I'd get clocked hard. I've tired to add a nice 1bbl OHC6 to the collection for years. I actually didn't care if it was a Tempest or a bird, even a 4 door would have been fine but man there aren't many unmolested, rust free survivors left out there. Even though this was much more expensive than say a Tempest sedan or coupe it at least would be easier to sell if I had to. The hardest part of the collection to fill are those bottom feeder cars, they were used up and weren't the type of cars people would save and cherish.

The remaining elements I'd like to see in the collection are a Tempest and a Custom S since I have none, it would be nice if I could check some other boxes with them too, like a 3 on the tree, 2 and 4 door sedan bodies, and of course a mid size wagon, ideally a LeMans to get some wood grain into the collection. Some blue would be nice, 20 cars and the closest thing I have to blue are the stripes on the TA!

Congratulation are in order. :)

So, how many of your 21 vehicle Breakaway Squad are green? :)