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#261
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Nothing like that around here. In NE Ohio they use so much salt the cars would rust out before they even made it to the barns....
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1978 Y84 4sp 1979 T/A 400 4sp Blue/Oyster (special order) 2000 T/A WS6 6sp Black/Black |
#262
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I've seen a lot of cars around here. There's also tons of farmland up here also. I'm sure there's gotta be a car in a barn somewhere for me to find.
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Think about this: The Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by professionals. |
#263
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Posted these elsewhere before I found this thread.... 71GTO Vert, non original 455. Had an auto trans in it but Theres a 4 speed gonna replace it... Been sitting for at least 25 years... bought it from an estate.
Restoration is going well... we're gonna plumb & bleed the new brakes tomorrow. Hopefully install engine & trans next weekend, then off to the body shop for a month. Heres pics & progress of the restoration... http://www.lazlographics.com/71GTO.html Last edited by lazlo; 01-25-2008 at 09:44 PM. |
#264
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These are sitting out in a family field. If I had somewhere to store them they'd be at the house. These pictures are 10 years old, but the cars look exactly the same today. No titles on them, so I don't know if I'll ever grab them or not. I am going to get the 400 out of the 1970 Catalina though.
Aaron |
#265
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Barn Fresh 1970 Cardinal Red 4 Speed Judge
Stored in a pole barn and never again titled since 1981. Original paint / decals with a few touch up spots. Interior is excellent excpet carpet; no dash pad cracks. Totally original number's matching car. The owner couldn't get the car started so he sold it. Once the car was at my shop, I checked timing and the distributor was 180 degrees off. I corrected that, repaired a cut coil wire, drained the old gas for the fresh, and she fired right up. A ton of rust flakes came blasting out of the exhaust pipes. A real nice survivor.
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#266
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Here's Mine
I think my car would be better off if it was found in a barn, maybee the guy I got it from would not have found it and put those side pipes on it. It sat in a garage from
the late 1980s untill I got it about 10 years ago. All it needs now is a real paint job.
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Jason Rackawack 1975 455 Trans Am - 1975 Firebird 400 |
#267
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Quote:
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Greg Reid Palmetto, Georgia |
#268
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Jason, those side pipes, tho not correct, don't look all that bad. Besides, it's cheaper to leave them for now then buy the original setup to replace them. Run em till they're no good then go to the orginal exhaust. Just my
Judges4u, looks like that was a lucky find.
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Gary Get in, ShuT Up, Hang On! Member of the Baltimore Built Brotherhood MY GTO built 4th Week of March 1966 "Crusin' Is Not A Crime" Keep yer stick on the ice. |
#269
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Long Gone
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Those pipes are long gone, my friend wanted them for his 65 Mustang I love 70's Customs in old Magazines but I dont want to own one. (My friend does though he cut perfect fenders to add fender flairs!) Those Pipes were hooked directly to the H-O racing Try Y headders by flexible exhaust pipe with no mufflers in them! I posted the whole story of how I got the car in the 74-76 Firebird Photos wanted thread, but I dont know how to link to that, search my other posts to find it if you want to see more.
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Jason Rackawack 1975 455 Trans Am - 1975 Firebird 400 |
#270
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1964 GTO First car AND a barn find
It was December 1977 and the blue '64 GTO had been in barn storage for seven years. I think it was comprised more chicken droppings and KY-winter rust than anything else! It had an automatic, a Carter AFB, a set of bald snow tires and 138,000 on the clock. BUT, it was a GTO and a convertible! It was given to me by my aunt and uncle as a Christmas present, but only if I could get it running during Christmas break. I was 14 at the time and in love with the possibility of owning my first car.
After a few hours of tinkering around on the engine, I decided to attempt a startup. While tinkering, I had not noticed that the throttle return spring was missing on the AFB. So, when the car started, the AFB backfired and a small engine fire started and immediately spread over the filthy engine. The engine was so dirty with oil and grease that none of the original parts appeared to be chromed (like the air cleaner and valve covers). I somehow put the fire out with my hands and a shop towel! However,I still did not notice the missing spring! So, I put more starting fluid to it and hit the key... In the next 5 seconds, I learned the following information about the car very, very quickly: The functioning exhaust system consisted of the exhaust manifolds plus about 15 inches of rusty pipe on both outlets; the oil rings were shot; the throttle-return spring was definitely missing and, most importantly, I learned the meaning of "wide-open" on a GTO! I didn't worry so much about the driverless car taking off down the road as much as I thought it might liftoff and achieve orbit any moment - if I didn't do something quick! It took about 15 more seconds to figure it out and idle the GTO's engine down. I was feeling like an adrenalin factory, but the car was running (which meant I got to keep it)! While relishing my accomplishment, my grandfather's barn was filled with and pouring out thick blue/black smoke in all directions. Three locals stopped along the country road to see if the barn was on fire and everyone from my grandparent's house abandoned their lunchtime feeding on holiday leftovers to sprint across the road and check out the revived beast, the smoke and the straight-pipe thunder! In a single day, word spread in the little town of 3,000 that the Kirkpatrick's GTO was back on the street. Limping badly, but back on the street, nonetheless! The next day, we installed a spring on the AFB and took the car into town to get a fill-up. Man, the looks we got in town from the noise and smoke of that 389! Anyway, we also bought some plastic sheeting from the local farm supply store to construct a semblance of a convertible top. That afternoon, we cleaned out about 3 gallons of chicken poop from the interior and later drove the car home to Georgia on New Year's Day. My dad and I restored the car (for a total cost of $3,700) over the next year. The best race I remember was beating a 74 454 Corvette on the Newnan Highway (at the encouragement of my dad who was riding shotgun at the time)!!! Sadly, within three years, the cost of gas was so high that I traded the GTO away in favor of more MPG and reliability. Yeah, I wish I had her back. I was told that a collector from the Carolinas purchased the car within 2 days of the trade-in. I never heard anything thereafter. I have always hoped the car went to a good home. The VIN # was 824P2244770. I still have some of the early documentation on the car, some photos and a bunch of great memories. I would later own and restore other GTOs, and I even found a 1 of 1 Dodge Daytona now owned by Tim Wellborn in Alabama, but the 64 GTO was (and will always be, to me) the best of my car stories.
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Just fire it up and drive the thing! |
#271
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Wow, great story! Can you post some pics?
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#272
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back in the mid 90s while dating my wife, i met her sister who lived in Tennessee. her live in boyfriend was into pontiacs, and she enjoyed showing me her photo album of his cars. they eventually married, but then he passed away (only 32, skin cancer). The estate was a mess thanks to in-laws fighting her claims to it. She said that 2 of the cars would be going through auction, one a "trans Am", the other a Buick GS Convert. neither ran, buick was in pieces undergoing restoration. Trans Am had a "blown" motor and was rusted out and both were advertised as such as required for the auction in the local county newspaper. Had someone bid on the Trans Am for me sight unseen after my wife's sister sent me the vin and block codes, the appraiser wanted the buick and an agreement was made that my party wouldn't bid on it and he wouldn't bid on the trans am. well, the SOB did bid on it, cost me a couple bucks more to win it, but was still a bargain for what it is. The garage door had a couple trees growing in front of it that had to be cut away, he'd had them inside non-running for nearly 10 years.
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#273
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x-bird2, is that a SD 455 TA?
How cool!
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John Wallace - johnta1 Pontiac Power RULES !!! www.wallaceracing.com Winner of Top Class at Pontiac Nationals, 2004 Cordova Winner of Quick 16 At Ames 2004 Pontiac Tripower Nats KRE's MR-1 - 1st 5 second Pontiac block ever! "Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts." "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." – Socrates |
#274
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no, better yet, it's a SD formula. the previous owner--the deceased one-- worked at a car dealership in the early 80s, rolled in as a trade in rough shape. he knew what it was (though i think even he thought it was a TA as it had all the flares and chin spoiler on it when he got it, and his wife always referred to it as The Trans AM) and bought it off the dealership that day. (the HPP tech story "mule" for many years lol) Still in primer.
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#275
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Quote:
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Just fire it up and drive the thing! |
#276
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my 1970 lemans was a parking garage find. 2 door ht, 350, 2spd auto(ugh) it was bought new by this lady who kept it even after she couldn't drive anymore. she passed away and the family needed to gt rid of the car. picked it up for $700. this was in 2000. it was ALL original, belts, plugs, wires, points, tires. didn't run so good and real dirty. lo and behold after a tune up and a major cleaning she runs like a top and the original paint was still shiny. did I mention 31 000 miles? anyway, I still have the car and probably always will. I'll try to get some pics. don't have any from where it was found tho....doh!!
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#277
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No new posts over the last ten ten years- does that make this thread a barn find?
Who has new pictures and stories?
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Mitch Kunath |
#278
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Here is one I found a few years ago in a storage unit. A friend in OH saw it on Facebook and told me about it. It was in the storage unit behind my kids school so it’s only about 2-3 miles from my house.
It’s a 68, the husband bought it used in 69 because his wife always wanted a yellow convertible. She drove it for years up until the 80’s when the daughter drove it to high school, then the son drove it to high school. The same high school it was found next to and the same high school that my kids will go to. After the husband passed away his wife had the car repainted and the seats recovered. Drove it for a while and then decided to move to Kentucky with her sister since the kids had all moved on. Fast forward to about 2012 and she passes away. The kids are going through her bills and see that she still has a storage unit in Houston. The check it out and the only thing in it was this 68 LeMans on 4 flat tires. They wanted GTO money for it and I told them I would pay a fair price but that it was a lot of risk on my part not knowing anything about the car- It didn’t even come with keys.... I made a reasonable offer with the agreement to clean out the dust/leaves that had gotten in the unit so they didn’t need to make a return trip to Houston. I soaked the cylinders with marvel mystery oil for a week and turned it over by hand. Changed the oil and cranked it with no plugs and no coil to get things moving again. Did this a few times. Took out the thermostat that was corroded shut, put in a spare gas tank I had and a rebuilt carb off of my 70 and it fired up. Smoked like crazy but fired up. I would run it for a min then check the oil. As soon as the oil got dark I would change it- probably changed it 5 times to the point where it didn’t immediately get dirty and the car didn’t smoke The car had so much dust on it the paint was like sand paper. I ended up washing it with a fine scotch brite pad and buffing the paint. It has a few dings left but it really is a nice survivor car. Here is how I found it: This is the same car about two weeks later: Here is a photo of the car at Galveston island when it was used daily: Here is some of the documentation I found in it: It’s cool because it definitely drives like the 60,000 mile car it is. Obviously it didn’t get used often but it’s a great family cruiser for the kids and I. |
#279
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Nice find! Looks like it cleaned up really nice
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#280
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http://www.byjanmarie.com/firebird/firebirdright.jpg
Here’s my one owner. Lots more pictures by clicking on the Firebird link in my signature.
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69 Z 302 M21 3.73 http://www.byjanmarie.com/camaro/Z28.html 69 FB 400 http://www.byjanmarie.com/firebird/69.html 69 Camaro 327 4sp. 4.10 http://www.byjanmarie.com/camaro/69camaro.html ( SOLD) 2002 Camaro LE/SLP-(sold) 1967 Nova SS-- 327, M20, 3.73, FRT Disc |
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