After years of waiting for the right combo of time, money and storage space I finally pulled the trigger on a project car. Or rather, three project cars. Sort-of.
While doing my daily fb marketplace binge I found 3 firebirds for sale as a package deal about an hour from my house and about 30 min from where my BIL lives. While visiting him on sunday we decided to go check out the cars and see what the deal is. For a total of 3K there is a grey 81 firebird that has been swapped to a chevy 350/th400 combo. Unsure what has been done to the motor but it has headers, recent dual exhaust and intake/carb. It is in mostly finished condition and appears to need a battery and minor fixups. Then there are two 81 Trans Am WS6s, both in mild disassembly. One has papers, the other does not. The better of the two has a 403/auto with matching shaker hood, as well as some aftermarket parts (MSD 6 box at least). There is also a variety of parts, including an extra front bumper. Neither is in drivable condition, missing various bits of the ignition column and so on. But between the two is the better part of a solid trans am. All three cars are T tops and have minor visible rust.
Not having space for 3 cars in my garage, we decided to put the two trans ams in storage and get the firebird shipped to my house. The firebird and parts car will be mine, while my BIL will restore the other trans am at some point. The plan so far is to get the firebird up and running and then fix whatever it needs over the winter so I can drive it in the summer. I may end up taking the WS6 suspension bits off of the parts car to put in the firebird. The parts car will at some point be taken apart to fix the other trans am and then sell off the remaining bits (extra shaker hood etc) to recoup some money. I think if we are patient we could come close to breaking even, as some of the parts are hard to find and worth a decent chunk these days.
I have been a long time lurker and reader of car stuff but I've never had an actual project car of my own to work on. I don't plan to get too crazy with it, although an eventual (years from now) budget LS swap would be cool. My DD is a G35 and I live in Canada so this will be a summer fun car, not something I need to rely on.
I have already signed up for a few f-body and firebird specific forums in preparation, but I do have a few things I am wondering at this point.
Does anyone know if the trans am spoilers and ground effects can be removed and bolted onto a non-TA? I know you can buy the parts separately so I would think that it must be possible.
Is it worth transferring the WS6 suspension over or am I better off selling it and putting the money towards some aftermarket sway bars and springs?
Besides whatever it needs to get up and running are there any suggestions of minor mods or projects to do with it over the winter? I was thinking maybe swapping interior bulbs for LEDs and updating the stereo.
I'll add pics once it gets delivered.