Cool Original
 

Love this one.... save for the moldings.....


.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pontiac-Fire...US_Cars_Trucks

I like everything except the moldings.

The side pipes are cool.

very cool
 

wow, what a great bird! It's too bad the body side moldings were screwed on.
I'm usually not a fan of the sidepipes either (unless it's a mid '60s Vette), but in this case, they look good. Love the old bias ply tires too.

I'd take it with the sidepipes - even leave them on.

Those moldings are a deal breaker for me.

I don't like body side moldings or that color, but I would drive it as is and enjoy every minute of it. Great car! I love survivors,especially original owner survivors.

I didn't think it could be that bad until I saw the molding. besides that, neat car and story.

Definitely the side moldings are horrible :gag: Like blue71ta mentioned, screwed on, that really sucks.

If anyone is interested in it I can check it out.Tom

I might wonder if side moldings weren't STICK ON. They way they curved them! If so, hair dryer and OFF. It is hard to put a value on a car that clean and original. That only comes once. 15K is fair or maybe a bit more even on the bay. Pretty unique it appears to be a Formula wheel optioned Esprit.

caveat is IF moldings drilled, man around the wheels is mucho nasty holes. I bet stick on however. If drilled that bad, I wouldn't value more than 12K. **Investigation Needed**

Look like rivets in the pictures.

i think it looks like the worst of both worlds. they seem to be the stick on type and then were drilled and screwed/riveted on????? wonder what the thought process was on that. if only this car was just left alone, it would be a real good example of a true survivor car.....

Cool Car as is. Love the CB. Solid floors too!

BJ

Wonder if those were "dealer installed" moldings :p

Maybe they drilled and fastened them on so they would stick with the curvature.

It's unanimous, the side molding sucks. Talk about a hack job -- protect the car from dings, but drill holes in it.

I don't like side moldings on these cars and this one is as bad as I have ever seen. It has to be owner installed as no professional would do such a shoddy install. In my opinion the molding costs this car 4 to 5 thousand in value. Saved a chip or two but it has cost him in the end BIG TIME.

I totally agree.
Did anyone notice the Trim Tag build date code is 05E, but the Door Cert. label says June?

Trim Tag date is for the body build - on the Fisher side.
From time body has started to be welded together until finish paint can be 1 or 2 days.

Then it gets just about everything related to firewall back installed by Fisher after paint is baked.

Then it goes over to GM Assembly plant for everything else.

I'm not looking at a sticker to say positively - but pretty sure the MFG door sticker was applied by GM - on the GM side.

So if body build started on May 30 or May 31 - it might not hit GM side until after June has begun. Probably the scenario here.

Cool machine. Not sure how to best remove those moldings and repair what's underneath, but it needs to be done. Even if the paint ends up less than 100% original.

The side pipes gotta go, too. Car deserves to go back to original.

The brown interior is somewhat uncommon, although with that exterior color and V-Top, I think sandalwood would look better.

I remember that old cheap molding that was sold back when this car was new. All the auto parts stores sold that crap in the customizing section of the store isles. If I remember right, it was a two part kind of thing. First you applied the actual chrome that had a sticky backing on it. You pre-shaped it to fit and cut it to length before you peeled off the backing and installed it. Then you popped in the rubber insert after it was cut to length. It was sticky back also. Regrettably, after the inserts wouldn't stay inside the chrome any more, they used little screws to hold in in. I think that's what happened here. Hopefu;ly the screws were to short to touch the body.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but you can see the back of the pop rivet on the drivers side showing through the door skin. Looking at the quarter panel pictures through the trunk area, you can actually see the back of the pop rivets. Still a beautiful car.