1968 Pontiac Firebird 400, 4 speed, posi rear, Restored!

I have up for sale my beautiful 1968 Pontiac Firebird. This car is a 400 CLONE. This is not an original 400 car.

This Firebird started life as a 6cyl. 2 speed powerglide car. The previous owner and his father owned a body shop together and they restored the car and cloned it into a Firebird 400. The story I received from the previous owner is as follows: An older woman originally owned this car. she scraped the passenger side 1/4 panel backing out of her garage and brought it into their body shop for an estimate on repairs. Since the car at the time was over 35 years old and still wearing it's original paint. the shop owner told her it would be very difficult to repair just the 1/4 panel and make the paint match. He suggested a total repaint. When the woman was quoted a price for a total repaint. she refused and decided to sell the car. The body shop owner purchased the car and decided to restore the car as a 400 clone.

This car underwent a 3-4 year restoration. The entire body was taken down to bare metal and completely redone. The driver's side floor was soft so a new floor pan was welded in. The passenger 1/4 panel was beyond repair so a new 1/4 panel skin was welded on. The good part of this is that it was just a skin. According to the shop owner he used a skin because he didn't trust a full aftermarket 1/4 to fit right and he didn't want the body lines messed up. I'm not a body guy so I don't know if this is correct or not. Since this car was to be a 400 clone. the original flat hood was replaced with a 400 style hood with the dual scoops. The hood is an aftermarket GoodMark since original Pontiac 400 hoods were difficult to find and very expensive. According to the previous owner. he did spend some time on the hood making sure that it fit properly as he was kind of anal about how the car would look. Once most of the original paint was removed and the rust repair was completed the car was re-painted it's original color of Verdoro green. The paint job is a basecoat/clearcoat which looks fantastic. It has a beautiful shine and along with the white vinyl top and parchment interior it looks killer. I take this car to a wide variety of cruise nights and car shows and it draws a lot of attention because Verdoro Green 68 Firebirds are just not all that common.

The white vinyl top was installed after the top of the car was also painted Verdoro Green. The previous owner stated that it's better to paint the car it's color and then apply the vinyl top over paint instead of primer because primer won't really protect the roof area from moisture like paint will. Again. I'm not sure if this is corect or not but I took him at his word. The top is in outstanding condition as it was installed and then the car was garage kept keeping the sun and weather from damaging the top. The only minor flaw in the entire body is at the very top of the passenger 1/4 where the quarter meets the vinyl top trim. It apppears that some moisture did sneak into the paint just below the chrome trim. There is a slight rust bubble forming about the size of a dime. It was there when I bought the car and it hasn't grown since. I take special care to protect that area and dry it completely when I wash the car to help that bubble from spreading. Other than that tiny spot. this car truly is rust free.

The drivetrain of the car was completely rebuilt. The previous owner wanted the car to be period correct so he sourced a 1968 400 motor. The motor he found is a 1968 YC coded 400 which I decoded to be a 68 400 out of a big car like a Bonneville or Gran Prix. The motor was originally rated at 290HP with a 2bbl carb. The previous owner had a stock rebuild done on the motor. It was bored . 030 over with new pistons. and rings. The crank was cut . 010 under and reassembled with new rods and mains. The heads are the correct for 1968 #15 heads which were treated to a valve job with new seals and springs. The cam for this motor was pretty tame. The previous owner wanted a cam that was slightly hotter than stock but not outrageous. He claimed that his research on cams led him to the 68 HO cam but he didn't remember a part number since it was sourced from an aftermarket company. My research shows that the 68 HO cam was the Pontiac 068 cam which is supposed to be a fantastic cam for mostly stock Pontiacs. I cannot guarantee that this is the cam he used but the motor runs strong and idles nicely. The original 2bbl carb was discarded and he sourced a completely rebuilt correct 68 Rochester quadrajet 4bbl and a correct 1968 Pontiac cast iron 4bbl intake. Again. everything he did was as close to stock as possible. Last year the original style radiator that the previous owner installed had developed a pinhole leak. Since the car was already not original. I replaced the original style radiator with an aluminum radiator along with an electirc fan. I installed the factory fan shroud to fit over the electric fan so it's extremely difficult to tell. The electirc fan came with an install kit and a sensor which turns on the fan at 200 degrees and turns it off at 185 degrees. I did save the original style clutch fan just in case I ever decided to convert the car back. The original clutch fan will obviously go with the car. The previous owner still wanted to stay as close to stock as possible so an original points style distributor was retained. but the points were removed and replaced with a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition system. It looks bone stock but there are no points to mess with. Last year I did a complete tune up using a new cap and rotor. AC Delco spark plugs and a set of performance plug wires. The exhaust system consists of a set of Hooker headers that run into a 2-1/2" Flowmaster system with 40 series mufflers. The car sounds great at idle and even better when winding out the gears.

Since we all know Musclecars are most fun when they have 4 speed transmissions. the previous owner converted this car from a 2 speed Powerglide to a 4 speed Muncie. He sourced a Muncie M-20 4 speed trans along with a Hurst Competition Plus shifter. The trans shifts great and makes the car a complete blast to drive. When I purchased the car it had a stock 8. 2" non posi 3:08 geared rear end. I searched far and wide for a correct 8. 2" 3:36 or 3:55 posi rear but they are extremely difficult to find and when you do find one you can expect to pay in excess of $1200. 00 for one. Since a rear like that was out of my budget. I went a different route. From a Pontiac forum I frequent. I sourced a 2nd Gen Trans Am 8. 5 posi rear. The rear had recently been rebuilt with a new Eaton Posi unit and a set of 3:73 gears. The spring perches were custom fit to correctly line up with the 1st Gen Firebird leaf springs and the install went flawlessly. The new posi rear with the 3:73 gears makes this car SO much more fun to drive. It is an absolute blast to run through the gears with this set up.

When the previous owner decided to convert the car to a 400 with a 4 speed. he also decided to beef up the suspension. He installed a brand new set of multi leaf rear springs. new front springs for a 400 car. nbsp;along with KYB shocks at all 4 corners. A new larger front sway bar was installed along with polyurethane bushings. The entire front end was rebuilt with new bushings in the control arms as well as new body mounts. Basically as I stated before he re-did the entire car. Because this car would be heavier and faster than before he decided to upgrade the brake system as well. The car was converted from manual drum brakes to power disc brakes. The entire front braking system was sourced from Master Power Brakes and the car was upgraded with a new master cylinder/power booster. new front disc brakes as well as new calipers' rotors. bearings. ect. This car stops on a dime. If you've ever driven a car with manual drum brakes you know just how much safer power disc brakes are. When I bought the car it had a set of 15" American Racing Torque Thrust rims along with a set of Goodyear 215/65/15 blackwall tires. I didn't like how the smaller tires didn't fill out the wheel well very much. and also how there was no raised white lettering so I removed them. I installed a set of Cooper Cobra 215/65/15's on the front and 255/60/15's on the rear with the white lettering out. These tires probably have 3-500 miles on them.

The interior is in very nice original condition. The interior is the parchment (like an off white) deluxe interior. The headliner. dash. door panels. ect are all in extremely nice condition. The only flaw in the entire interior is the fact that there is some slight seperating on one of the seams of the driver's bucket seat. It simply looks like the area where your bottom would sit just gave way over the years. I don't believe that the seat needs to be reupholstered. I am 95% sure that a good interior/upholstery guy could re-sew that seam from underneath for a lot less than  a pair of seat covers would cost. The carpet is black and in great condition. Everything works. heat. defrost. flashers. turn signals. ect. including the factory door buzzer when the key is installed! The radio that is in the dash is an aftermarket stereo that has the classic look. When the previous owner restored the car. he did away with the hole in the body for the factory antenna. I think that was kind of dumb but he clamied that he doesn't like the looks of antenna's. So I installed a factory style radio that has an Ipod hook up. I ran the cable into the glove box so I can play music through my Ipod while cruising and yet everything is hidden. It works great. Since this car was originally a 6cyl. it only had "idiot lights" to monitor the engine functions. I have since added a set of 2-5/8" Auto Meter oil pressure and water tem gauges as well as an aftermarket Auto Meter tachometer to monitor engine RPM's. I think they look nice as well as giving off a "day 2" look to the car. If a buyer really hated the aftermarket gauges they could all be removed on a Saturday afternoon.

The entire restoration of this car was about 5-6 years ago. Since then the car has been stored in a garage with only limited miles since. In the 2. 5 years that I've owned the car. it has seen maybe 500 miles per year going to local shows and cruise nights. It never sees rain and always stays stored in my garage. I would say that the entire restoration including the engine reubild has about 4-5000 miles on it. The car drives super tight. pulls strong. and always draws a lot of attention whenever I take it out. I did take a video of the car running because I think pictures can only tell so much. I am posting the video here for you to view.

http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=tzO0XNJLEBA

This is a nice clean 68 Firebird 400 clone. It runs and drives great and looks fantastic going donw the road. It is truly a turn key and roll type of car. I have priced the car fairly knowing that it is not a true Firebird 400. I would prefer to not disclose my reserve as I feel that it is not fair to the people who obey Ebay's auction type format.

The Firebird is located in Doylestown PA Zip code 18901 which is about an hour north of Philadelphia. I will do everything I can to assisit in showing the car to anyone who is interested. Please feel free to ask any additional questions or ask for pics of any specific area of the car. I do have a good friend who lives about 2-3 miles away who has a lift in his garage. I am more than willing to show the car and put it up on his lift to be viewed for any potential buyers.

The Firebird will NOT be released until it is paid for in full. That means if you prefer to pay by cashier's check. the car will NOT leave until that check clears in my bank. Shipping is the sole responsibility of the buyer. I will do whatever I can to work with your shipper in order to get the car to you as quickly as possible.

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