May 10, 2018  •  Uncategorized  •  10 Comments

Bring A Big Bin: 1969 Pontiac Firebird

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How about a rust free 1969 Firebird with a 455 for $3,000? What’s the catch? First, I don’t believe the first generation Firebird had a 455 engine option. Next, you’ll have to clean out the seller’s garage. You get to keep the 4 new wheel dollies. It will be awhile before they are needed, though. You’ll find all this listed on craigslist in Stockton, California. There’s no VIN provided so there is no way to verify how this car was equipped when built.

Here’s the floor, or at least the driver’s side. It looks solid and bare. There’s definitely going to be lots of work to be done here, but at least you won’t have to cut and weld.

Here’s the engine, or at least the block. On the bright side, we can see it isn’t stuck or much else, actually. Can anyone tell from here whether it might be a 400?

Here’s the subframe. The creeper is also included but, of course, it will be awhile before you’ll have anything to crawl under. Do you think there is any chance the seller has all the parts? There are no pictures of any carefully bagged and labeled parts, just buckets with bits in the bottom. Could this Firebird be anything more than a parts car? Perhaps the remains could be used to rebuild a rusty or bent Firebird. The first step would be to verify the VIN. There should be one on the cowl and one under the dash where the fan would be. The block number provided doesn’t tell you much, except perhaps the “Y” indicates an automatic. On some GM cars, the last six numbers of the VIN might be there, but on Pontiacs, I think the number is on the front of the block near the bottom. If the VIN doesn’t come back as stolen, the metal work on the body is OK and you have deep enough pockets this Firebird would be rebuilt. There are, of course, many sources for parts, including hardware kits. It will be interesting to see if any of our readers have any ideas (besides “walk away”).

Comments

  1. Steve R
    May 10, 2018 at 3:18pm

    Unfortunately the ad has been deleted by its author.

    You are correct, the 455 wasn’t available in the 1969 Firebird. It was introduced by Pontiac in 1970 and wasn’t available in Firebirds until 1971.

    Steve R

    Like 3
  2. redwagon
    May 10, 2018 at 5:02pm

    could still be a numbers matching motor if it was bored out to 455. unlike the chevy small block and big block motors all pontiac v8 motors like 326 and up to 455 are the same block.

    so, possible it’s the original 350 or 400 bored to 455 but would need verification.

    as it sits this is a huge project.

    Like 1
    • CCFisher
      May 11, 2018 at 9:55am

      Pontiac blocks are the same when viewed from the outside. Internally, there are differences. The smaller engines cannot be bored to 455 cid. Cylinder wall thickness is not sufficient.

      Like 2
      • George
        May 12, 2018 at 1:30pm

        you can bore a 400 block to 455 bore size and use a custom ground crank and it would work. Pontiac cast the CID right into the block so there is no guesswork either.

        Like 0
  3. Firehawk
    May 10, 2018 at 6:31pm

    Actually 69 was the debut for the 455 not 70

    Like 1
  4. jw454
    May 10, 2018 at 8:29pm

    A lot of enthusiasm and no determination got them here.

    Like 3
  5. 8banger Dave MikaMember
    May 11, 2018 at 9:35am

    Love the “Garage in a Box”!

    Like 1
  6. FrankG
    May 11, 2018 at 12:00pm

    The block pictured is a 1966 or older 326,389 or 421. The 1967 and newer blocks have 3 freeze plugs per side.

    Like 2
  7. Wayne
    May 11, 2018 at 6:22pm

    Yes the ad is gone. A non-rusty body is worth the asking price. The rest is just icing on the cake. This would not scare me. I was in Richmond California today with my trailer. If I had known about this I would have made the loop down to see/buy it today.
    Oh, well. too much in the hoper right now anyway.

    Like 0
  8. George
    May 12, 2018 at 1:31pm

    I’d do that in a second if I was closer!

    Like 0

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