84 Firebird

[Adam]

So I'm moving to Phoenix, AZ in a week, and my grand plan was to sell my Grand Marquis and just buy another car when I got there, avoiding having to transport a car. But I came across this Firebird so now am going to be hauling it in a trailer behind my moving van.

I bought it from the original owner with only 44k miles, no rust, original paint and interior in great condition. The original radio with cassette player was replaced with a later model radio with a CD, which I plan to switch back once I find an 80's Firebird radio with a cassette (I imagine the same radios were probably used in the Camaro too). It only has the V6, but it's got the 5-speed, and the optional heavy duty suspension. I'll post some pics later today once I find where I put my phone with the pics on it...

[Adam]

pic...

[init4fun]

Congratulations !!! I like your new Third Gen !!!

Now , a little history about Firebirds , our cars are the third generation of these cars , the third gen spans 10 years from 1982 through 1992 . Our car was the one made famous by David Hasselhoff in the 1980's TV series "Knight Rider" , and was just last week the subject of the History channel's "Battle of the 80s supercars" . If you want any info about every detail of our cars the website of choice is thirdgen.org , more a tech board than chat board and archived there is pretty much every bit of third gen Firebird/Camaro tech info .

A consideration when looking to replace the missing factory radio ; Our cars have the dashboard lit up orange (or at least the later ones do , my formerly owned 87 and presently owned 89 both have the orange lit dash) whereas all the other GM cars of the era had the dash lit up green . If you do have the orange lit dash as I suspect , you'll need a radio from a Firebird only (even our car's sister car , the Camaro , has the dash lit green) if having the correct color (radio matching the rest of the dash) is important to you .

PS , don't lament the six banger , it's only perhaps 20 or so less HP than the common 305 8 cylinder (350 was an option but far rarer than the 2.8 six or 305 eight) and is way lighter and set further back into the engine bay , with the result that the six banger will out corner any 8 cylinder version . Sure , raw acceleration is nice , but carving corners like a real sportscar can be just as much fun as burning rubber , at far less cost in tires & tickets

[Adam]

The dash that lights up orange with the full set of gauges is one of my favorite things about this car. Swapping the radio is probably going to be one of the first things I do after I move, not only because I want an original looking radio, but also because I have more cassettes than I do CDs. The new radio was put in in such a way that the dash wasn't cut, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

For now, I just want an interesting driver to cruise around the desert in, but if I keep it long enough, I'm eventually going to give some serious thought to putting a 350 in it. Overall, I'm more of a fan of the cars of the late-50s through mid-70s than the 80s, but I've always thought these 82-92 Firebirds and Trans Ams were just great looking cars (I like the Camaros too, but I think the flip-up headlights in the Pontiacs really improve the look of the car).

[init4fun]

Nowadays it seems the popular V8 swap into our cars is the Vortec swap and if your planning on keeping a standard shift the transmission of choice is the T56 . The T5 that comes with the 8 cylinder cars , even the so called "world class" T5 , is a weak spot that fails miserably with any kind of increase of the factory stock power level , you can read about all this and more at ThirdGen.Org under the subpage "Engine swaps" (the "power adders" section is kinda fun too , turbos , nitrous , ect) .

Fun Fact ; Look up the 1989 20th anniversary Turbo Trans Am (TTA) , the fastest American built car in 1989 . They built and sold around 1500 of them with the 3.8 Buick/Olds turbocharged V6 and had the Chevy execs crying foul (How could the lowly Firebird be allowed to be faster than their V8 Corvette ?) .

If you decide to stay with the V6 it's quite popular to take a later model 3.4 (RWD) engine , turbocharge it up to around 300 HP or so , and then have some power to go with your cornering

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Adam

So I'm moving to Phoenix, AZ in a week, and my grand plan was to sell my Grand Marquis and just buy another car when I got there, avoiding having to transport a car. But I came across this Firebird so now am going to be hauling it in a trailer behind my moving van.

I bought it from the original owner with only 44k miles, no rust, original paint and interior in great condition. The original radio with cassette player was replaced with a later model radio with a CD, which I plan to switch back once I find an 80's Firebird radio with a cassette (I imagine the same radios were probably used in the Camaro too). It only has the V6, but it's got the 5-speed, and the optional heavy duty suspension. I'll post some pics later today once I find where I put my phone with the pics on it...

Sweet Pontiac! Props for planning on going back to the factory radio.

I sent you a PM in case you want to do some last minute TV trading.

[Adam]

I already sold what I wanted to at the WARCI swap meet last weekend (and dropped off a bunch of stuff at a thrift store on the way home). Living next to that "Dig and Save" I picked up a huge VHS collection while I was here: I dropped off about 300 tapes last weekend and I'm still taking ~1100 with me.

I did some looking into the question of 80s Firebird radios: My car originally came with radio option UU7: AM/FM stereo with cassette, clock, and electronic tuning. There was a more deluxe radio offered, the UU6 which added an equalizer. But if I want a radio where the actual display itself lights up orange, the only option is a radio from the 1983 "Daytona 500" edition Trans Am. If I want an 8-Track instead of a cassette, the 8-track was offered in the '82 (and not after 82) Camaro. They're rare, and only came with manual tuning.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Adam

I already sold what I wanted to at the WARCI swap meet last weekend (and dropped off a bunch of stuff at a thrift store on the way home). Living next to that "Dig and Save" I picked up a huge VHS collection while I was here: I dropped off about 300 tapes last weekend and I'm still taking ~1100 with me.

I did some looking into the question of 80s Firebird radios: My car originally came with radio option UU7: AM/FM stereo with cassette, clock, and electronic tuning. There was a more deluxe radio offered, the UU6 which added an equalizer. But if I want a radio where the actual display itself lights up orange, the only option is a radio from the 1983 "Daytona 500" edition Trans Am. If I want an 8-Track instead of a cassette, the 8-track was offered in the '82 (and not after 82) Camaro. They're rare, and only came with manual tuning.

You are correct about the actual display , it was all the other backlighting that was orange and the display itself was green except for the 83 which had the orange display . My 89 has the green display with the orange backlighting .

[Electronic M]

Forgot about that meet...was up north the last week and weekends...

[jbattles]

good looking car. I had a 1986 firebird black with t tops. I was 16 bought it with the money I earned from my first job. I tell my grand son about he is 8 and wants one for his first car.

[azbigsam]

Welcome to Arizona!

[Adam]

Thanks! I don't know if I can pull it off, but I'd really like not to ever have to do another long-distance move again. In the past 10 years I've moved from Los Angeles CA, to Ann Arbor MI, to Memphis TN, to Kalamazoo MI, to Lansing MI, to Madison WI, and now to Phoenix AZ.