Lets start with how it all began. As one of the last gifts my grandmpa bought me I got a 1989 Maui Blue Pontiac Firebird when I was 15 years old. My grandpa unexpectedly passed away just a few months later, I hadn't even taken drivers ed yet. So this car meant the world to me, a last gift in which I planned to never part with. It was powered by a 305 small block, had the tbi fuel injection (which was basically a carburator with two fuel injectors on a pod above the throttle body), and a 5 speed transmission. So my first crack at driving was a V8 powered, manual, rear wheel drive car. It pretty much layed the groundwork for where I am today.I learned to wrench on cars with my first ride. The longer I had it, the more in depth the modifications became. During the 4 years I owned it I learned to change oil, tune it up, modified the injection system with aftermarket spacers, an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, MSD 6AL box, battery relocated to the rear where the spare tire used to reside, an open element air filter, omitted the air pump/emissions lines, added 3.73 gears, changed the valve seals out twice, added a 3 inch cat back system complete with 3 inch cat, 245/50 tires all around, a Hayes racing clutch, a kick ass 650 watt 8 speaker stereo system, and a few other mods I'm probably forgetting. It was just my stepping stone into the hobby.
I decided to leave the car at home when I went away to college. While home visiting over spring break my first year I had insurance put on it and got it out
of storage. About 1 hour later I collided with a woman who ran a stop sign, T-boning her ass at 55 mph. I didn't need an expert opinion, I knew right away the thing was total loss, as the whole drivetrain was pushed back a few inches from the impact and the frame rails were a mangled mess. You'd never guess from the picture that I walked away without a scratch.I didn't waste any time, I started looking for a replacement the very next day. I knew enough about cars now to get me in trouble, so I wanted something old, something vintage, something from the muscle car era. I wasn't sure what, so I asked my friend Mr Brown for some advice. Mr Brown was a big time gearhead as well. In fact, him and his 1969 Dodge pickup with a stroked 383 big block with tunnel ram was the first time I was bit by the horsepower bug. If not for
him I would have likely just got a car for transportation and thought nothing of it. Instead, thanks to him, I have 3 cars, two of which don't even run. Thanks Mr Brown. LOL Well, he happened to mention that he always thought 1969 Camaros were one of the more badass cars of the 1960's. So I looked around at various 1967-1969 Camaros before stumbling upon the one I bought. Looking back, I probably over paid for the car, but it was a fairly solid first muscle car.I ordered up parts almost immediately, nothing really that was really necessary, all just a bunch of go-fast goodies that I just had to have at the time. As years passed, I learned more and more about cars. The fact that I was an Industrial Technology major with an Automotive/Design concentration was a huge help. CMU had some performance equipment that most schools would only dream about. We had a crank balancer, vavle grinder, flowbench, and even and engine dyno cell. I was also fortunate enough to have a drag strip about 30 minutes away where I frequented all through college. I tried various setups through out school, even did an independent study I got college credit for that entailed testing and tuning at the track. During my college years I also took on a total restoration of the car from the ground up. Nearly every nut and bolt has been replaced, every suspension component new, in fact, there isn't much left aside from the body itself from 1969, and I even replaced some of that.
What started out as a small block car that ran a best of 13.1 @ 109 mph after a few rebuilds and different setups turned into a big block 454 that ran a best of 11.77 @ 116 mph in the 1/4 mile. I dyno'd the engine my last semester up there and it sang along to the tune of 513 hp and 496 ft/lbs of torque. The setup was nearly perfect, if I had got a set of slicks,
drag shocks and springs for the front I'm confident I would have had a low 11 second car. I will admit though, I hate to mess up the current menacing stance. As it is the front end is so low that I only have 1 3/4 inch clearance from the ground to the oil pan. I've scraped it more than a few times, almost out of flat edges on the drain plug! I wasn't aware when I bought the pan that it would hang below my cross member. As beat up as it got, it never sprang a leak. Needless to say, it will be replaced with a kickout style pan during this rebuild. Up there at CMU was the last time I made it to the track. I almost went a few times while living in Indy for a year, but was afraid if I broke something I didn't have the means to fix it living at an apartment with a 1 car garage. A couple years later I'd pull it off the road, gut it down to a rolling car, then have a 12 point roll cage installed. To this day, that is how it sits. If you look closely you can see the cage installed.
Here is one of that last smokey burnouts I ever did before parking her. This took place down in Dearborn at a Roush facility. The parking lot looked more like the starting line at a drag strip. Shortly before my burnout the company sent out a memo warning workers not to do burnouts in the parking lot or face the consequences, that memo was even published in Hot Rod magazine a few years back, circa 2001 or so. I didn't work for them, so I really didn't care. :)That last summer my Camaro was on the road I had moved up to Dearborn for a job at Ford in their engine design division. I lived in an apartment complex at the time. I couldn't believe what I saw when I looked at the apartment. There at
the far end of the parking lot sat a 1970 Challenger R/T. It was the dead of winter with snow on the ground, made me sick to see it just sitting there. While making my job transfer I was somewhat financially strapped at the time, as I was paying on two apartments due to a lease agreement I still had in Indy. I began eyeing that Challenger and noticed it never moved. As months went by I became more and more curious. As spring rolled around, I was crawling under the car 
checking it out top to bottom, I bought a Cuda/Challenger restoration book and began to decode the VIN and trim tag. This was a legit Challenger R/T that orginally came with a 383 big block and 4 speed pistol grip. It still had both, though neither was orginal. The engine came back as a high performance 1967 383. Didn't matter to me, I just had to rescue this baby. I started asking around in the leasing office and they gave me they guy's apartment number that owned the car.I had told my parents with every visit "See that car down there? It's gonna be mine." While they responded with "Don't even think about it!" Later even putting an ultimatum that if I got it, I wasn't storing my Camaro nor the Challenger at their garage. Now this put me in a bit of a situation, as I only had a one car garage at my complex and didn't really have the cash to pony up for a second, so I figured I'd simply play my hand and hope for the best. I knew they'd back down, as after I got it I took it down that last month or two before the winter and let them drive it around. Thats all it took, I had my space.
The original plan was that once I took my Camaro off the road, I'd have my Challenger to drive around for a few years while I built my Camaro into an insane speed machine capable of 9 second 150 mph blasts through the 1/4. Well, as you have probably guessed by now, I dig into shit way too deep. After the Camaro was off at the shop having its cage installed, I figured I'd do some much needed maintenance on the Challenger to get it up to snuff by the next summer. I had already replaced all the rubber lines before getting it on the road after I bought it and gave it a tune up. I spent probably $100 to get this car up and running, even though it had sat unmoved for 2 straight years! Never even fired up once during that time. I can say this though, just prior to pulling my Camaro apart, I had a Woodward Dream Cruise to remember. I went up there 8 straight days and had two cars to choose from. I'd take the Challenger one night, then head up with the Camaro the next. The actual date of the event, I had my parents come up so I could take both. I tell you what, there isn't a greater feeling in the world than having two driving muscle cars. It sure beats the hell outta two that don't even run now!
So anyways, I spent that winter digging in deeper and deeper with the Challenger. Once I tore the electrical all out I figured I might as well restore the interior. Once the interior was all removed I found a couple small spots of rust that I welded up with small patches. While stripping the underside....yeah, as I said I dig in way too deep. I stripped the inside and underside of this car to bare metal with an angle grinder and wire wheel. The whole back half is now fully restored and Por-15 undercoated. Anyways, while stripping the underside it become aparent that this car has had some major work done to it. It looked like it was in a bad wreck once had been backhalved with a new rear section. They seemed to have done a fairly good job, though they didn't finish off the welding. The frame rail on one side was spot welded in just a few spots. Thats the way it would have been from factory anyways, but lets just say that I'm a rookie welder and yet could see that many of the welds didn't even mesh the rail to the body. So I ran a solid bead down the rail, repaired a crack in the frame rail, and fabricated a portion of the shock mount brace that was missing all together.
The year following my Challenger purchase I had moved from Dearborn to downtown Detroit. I got a 9th floor condo on the river over looking Windsor, the river, and Detroit skyline. I loved it, this was the first time I had lived in a true big city and was smack dab in the middle of it all. I only had a parking garage, so the cars got somewhat pushed aside for the time being. I continued to make my 1.5 hour trips down to my parents to work on the Challenger during the winter though. I burned all my vacation for two years, taking a day here and there, heading down thursday evenings, but it still wasn't enough.
Summers have came and went and it still sits. I have actually managed to accomplish a great deal on it though. Currently, I have the interior mostly all in it. The back half of the car has been fully restored. The new wiring harness is in place and most everything wired up. The rear suspension has been replaced with 2 inch drop leaf springs and Koni shocks front and rear. I stripped the rearend bare, repainted it, and installed all new gaskets. I replaced the fuel system including tank, pickup, lines, and pump. I forked out the $700-$800 for the new dash pad (I gotta say, that is the most painful purchase I have ever made). I bought some Mopar valve covers and matching air cleaner as well as an aluminum intake and my Demon carb from my Camaro. New wires, cap, rotor, voltage regulator, and ignition box. I've probably dropped about $4,000 into it thus far.
My parents told me it was a waste of money, though I got it for $6,800. For those that follow muscle car values, this car fully restored is fetching $35,000+. I was damn close to getting the Challenger back on the road a year or so ago. Got the engine fired up only to find it had developed a rod knock about 30 minutes later. Who knows what caused it, could have been numerous things. Some claim "Oh, its because you didn't prime it first." I say bullshit, the thing sat for two full years before I bought it and had never been fired up, when it did, it ran fine for probably 2,000 miles before I parked it. Never primed it then, never even pumped the stale gas out or rebuilt the carb, I just drove it. I did have to pull the tank in the parking lot and replace the sock, as it kept sucking all that 2 years of shit up the fuel line and stalling it out. I flushed the tank at the car wash, then found myself soldering up all the pin holes I blew through the paper thin tank. Fixed it and it held until I parked it, when it didn't start leaking till a good year later. So who knows what caused the knock. I was looking forward to digging into a Mopar engine anyways, so its no biggie.
So, now we are full circle. If I had to rebuild an engine, I might as well do it on a car that was fully restored already. Though you can't tell from the picture, and the bright orange has something to do with it, the Challenger has a Maaco paint job at best. A Maaco paint job with one dusty ass paint booth I might add. Back to the Camaro, which is now my main focus. In the past year I have purchased a house, still living in Detroit close enough to walk to downtown. I have also built a 24x24 garage, as big as my parents detached garage and capable of squeezing three cars into, through I keep the Challenger at their place for now so I have room to work.
Now lets go full circle once again, all the way back to the beginning. While my daily driver had been plenty dependable, a hand-me-down 1990 Buick Regal with the tried and true 3800 from my parents, it was beginning to look rough around the edges and they were giving me shit 24/7 about needed to get a newer car, newer actually ended up being 1 year older. :) When it came time to replace it, I knew what I had to do. I had to rekindle that love I had when I was 15 years old. It was time to do a nationwide search for another Maui Blue Firebird. I had to take it a step further though, with GM you either had to have a 305 to get a 5 speed, or get stuck with an auto to get a 350. I wanted nothing to do with the underpowered weak
ass 305, so a 350 it was. I wanted the Formula model as well, it had the beefed up suspension, bigger rims/tires, and offered up the lightest fastest Firebird built. The Trans Ams never did it for me with their gaudy plastic ground effects, much like I'd take a late 80's early 90's Mustang LX over a boxy Mustang GT any day.My search came back with two finds, would you believe that one was just a few hours away in the thumb of Michigan? This baby was mint, never had seen snow or rain. The guy was so anal I couldn't drive it the first time I went because the roads were wet. I informed him of my other rides and made him think I was buying it as a collector car. It only had 71,000 miles on it, my first Firebird had 63,000 when it was smashed up. It was almost like it had been reincarnated into the Formula...yeah, ok, so that sounds a bit crazy. But seriously, this was perfect, exactly what I was looking for.
I have had the car 1.5 years now and wouldn't trade it for the world. The t-tops offer up fun in the sun and it has decent power and amazing handling. I have replaced all the rubber in the suspension, including two stabilizer links I snapped taking corners too hard. I also upgraded the front to Koni's, best $425 one could invest in their suspension. I plan on following suit with the rear shocks next summer along with lowering springs. I installed an MSD cap/rotor, 8mm Taylor wires, MSD coil, K&N filter, and just replaced the fuel pump a few weeks ago.
I've had a few problems, though nothing that was catastrophic. I noticed the oil pressure would drop to 0 psi during hard braking, the pickup had fell off the pump. I changed it out myself over at a friend's place who has a hoist. The second problem was a blown head gasket. This I had neither the time or patience to deal with at the time, as I didn't have a garage yet and had just got my house. So the same friend with the hoist pulled the heads, had them milled, and reinstalled them. He told me what a bitch it was, I knew damn well that these cars are a pain in the ass to work on, as I had one before. So even with the speed bumps I've had, I still have no regrets. For the $5,800 I paid there isn't a car out there that would give you more bang for the buck in terms of performance.
I will continue to do minor modifications to this car in addition to my Camaro. I plan on getting a spare engine block for it this winter and hopefully start on a rebuild by next winter so that I'll be able to just drop it in when the time comes. I'm still pondering what I want to build, though I have a parts list in my head that would be good for 425-450 hp naturally aspirated, create my own version of the "Blue Devil" to take on those pesky Mustangs. Just about the right amount of power for a daily driver. :)
Hope you enjoyed, and look for more updates through out the winter.
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