88' Formula Firebird

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" LINK="#FFFFFF" ALINK="#000400" VLINK="#FFFFFF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#CC3300" FACE="Arial" ><B>Ron H. </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFCC99" FACE="Arial" >   </FONT> |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ron H. "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="68 Camaro"><U>68' Camaro</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="68 Camaro RS"><U>68' Camaro RS</U></A>   |   <B>88' Formula Firebird</B>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Hobbies"><U>My Hobbies</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Misc."><U>Misc.</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="H.V.A.C."><U>H.V.A.C.</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Me"><U>Contact Me</U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="04658020.png" border=0 width="600" height="2" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> 88' Formula Firebird</div> <bR> <div> On this page is my 88' Bird.   I picked the car up locally for a fairly cheap price. </div> <bR> <div> The story goes...</div> <bR> <div> I was driving to work one day and I see a Firebird at a local auto body shop with a for sale sign on it.   I didn't think much of the car.</div> <div> The spoiler paint was flaking off of it and it pretty much looked like any other Bird out on the street.  The car sat around for about a </div> <div> month before I decided to stop on the way home and have a look at it.  I still didn't think much of the car at my first close up of it.  I </div> <div> saw the bad paint on the spoiler, one of the wheels had a small chunk taken out at the outer bead edge, it was in an assident at </div> <div> sometime in its past (some of the clear was delaminating).  Then I started looking under the car as much as possible.  There I found</div> <div> the 9 bolt rear complete with the rear disc set up, over sized front and rear sway bars that looked like they were original, all of the </div> <div> center caps were missing, 5 speed transmission, no power windows, and the performance suspension tag on the passenger side </div> <div> dash panel.  I got real interested at that point and took the vin # down.  I went home and did a little research on the internet.  I found </div> <div> out that the 5.0 L was the 220hp version which was the top motor for that year if you can call it a hot motor, ha ha.  I also found that it</div> <div> is a very capable handling car.   I talked with my wife about buying it but really wasn't interested enough if the cost was astronomical.</div> <div> My wife called the number and made an appointment to take the car for a test drive.  I went down and met the guy and started the car</div> <div> and took it for a test drive.  I beat the snot out of it, found out that the syncros were starting to go (oh well, it's a T-5 and that's normal) </div> <div> but it had good pick up and took hard right and left turns with ease.  I decided to see what the guy was asking for it and surprisingly </div> <div> he only wanted $1,500 for it.  It seems that he needed some cash to get his S.O. an engagement ring.  Hey, it was cool with me, </div> <div> sucker...  Anyway, there are pics and commentary below if you are interested.  Thanks for visiting...</div> <bR> <div>                                                               ...Ron</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="08fb8270.jpg" border=0 width="440" height="295" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="091be290.jpg" border=0 width="446" height="297" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> A very cool looking engine wouldn't you say?   I remember the first time I saw the TPI setup on a CamBird, I thought it was the coolest</div> <div> thing that had ever been put under a hood at that time.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="094b7490.jpg" border=0 width="439" height="329" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="096b6490.jpg" border=0 width="438" height="329" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> My replacement exhaust.  the one that came on the car was a 3" into a transverse mounted muffler and back out to 2 2-1/2" pipes.</div> <div> This one has jus one 3" from the 3" cat all the way through.  It wasn't as loud as the other exhaust until about q week after I installed it.</div> <div> I totally recommend welding the seems on any exhaust as it has less of a chance to vibrate and make noise after a period of time. </div> <div> Welders are cheap if you have a need of one more than once a year.  The flux core wire does a fine job on thinner materials like </div> <div> exhaust tubing and sheetmetal.  The exhaust above is a Flowmaster cat back kit.</div> <bR> <bR> </BODY>