Hello all,
Some background about me - I fell in love with cars probably when I was about 14/15 years old. I loved in a REALLY small town then and remember seeing a 1970 Pontiac LeMans Sport Convertible for sale. For whatever reason it spoke to me, and I started doing my first research online about cars. I never did buy that particular car, but the first car I ever purchased myself was a 1969 Pontiac LeMans that was a GTO clone and haven't looked back since. In the roughly 18 years since, I've taken a class in autobody restoration and owned or driven my grandfather's 1976 Ford Pinto Wagon, the '69 Lemans GTO clone, an 85 Buick GN, a 66 Mustang I completely restored, a 1976 Ford Pinto Hatchback (still owned and finished restoration), and I'm currently working on a 1980 Firebird Yellowbird. The Yellowbird I purchased I bought from a guy in TN and was told it was his father's car and he had passed and it had been sitting for about 7 years. It's a rust free car that lived most of it's life in TX. I don't know if he was being dishonest, or he just didn't know since it was his father's car, but I was told everything works on this car. Well long story short, it was a complete basket case inside. I did know the interior (carpet and seatcovers) needed to be replaced, but I mean every part of the interior was ruined. Things I was told that worked don't - heat and A/C (the coolant hose is looped around so it doesn't go into the heater core, possibly because of a leak), the lights and switches on the dash don't work, the wipers don't work, the brakes need redone (power booster is shot), etc. I plan on continuing to work on it but I don't know how long it will take. My original plan was to fuel inject it with an overdrive trans and make more of a pro touring car out of it. With winter coming I won't be able to do much, but it also got me thinking. I have been looking around and found what appears to be a nice original 88 Olds Cutlass with the 307. Unfortunately it is not local and I am once again led to believe that everything works. This time I will see if someone can check it out personally. Anyway, I'm just wondering what can be told to me about these cars. Where are places to look for rust? It does have the vinyl top over the back. What I'd probably do is keep the 307 (I just want a real nice cruiser) with the overdrive trans and use the fuel injection kit I have for my firebird on it. I see I can get an EFI tank for the turbo buicks that is the same size and shape of the olds gas tank. What other mods might be worth doing to squeeze out some power? Is a cam swap worth it if I want low end power or should I leave well enough alone with the stock one? I'd most likely be looking to do a dual exhaust and open air cleaner, and I've seen where people recommend a rear gear swap. What are other areas of weakness in these engines, transmissions, or body/interior that are common problems? Is there a resource on what options were available on these cars for certain years? Thank you for reading the long post, and any help or info would be appreciated. Thanks!
Some background about me - I fell in love with cars probably when I was about 14/15 years old. I loved in a REALLY small town then and remember seeing a 1970 Pontiac LeMans Sport Convertible for sale. For whatever reason it spoke to me, and I started doing my first research online about cars. I never did buy that particular car, but the first car I ever purchased myself was a 1969 Pontiac LeMans that was a GTO clone and haven't looked back since. In the roughly 18 years since, I've taken a class in autobody restoration and owned or driven my grandfather's 1976 Ford Pinto Wagon, the '69 Lemans GTO clone, an 85 Buick GN, a 66 Mustang I completely restored, a 1976 Ford Pinto Hatchback (still owned and finished restoration), and I'm currently working on a 1980 Firebird Yellowbird. The Yellowbird I purchased I bought from a guy in TN and was told it was his father's car and he had passed and it had been sitting for about 7 years. It's a rust free car that lived most of it's life in TX. I don't know if he was being dishonest, or he just didn't know since it was his father's car, but I was told everything works on this car. Well long story short, it was a complete basket case inside. I did know the interior (carpet and seatcovers) needed to be replaced, but I mean every part of the interior was ruined. Things I was told that worked don't - heat and A/C (the coolant hose is looped around so it doesn't go into the heater core, possibly because of a leak), the lights and switches on the dash don't work, the wipers don't work, the brakes need redone (power booster is shot), etc. I plan on continuing to work on it but I don't know how long it will take. My original plan was to fuel inject it with an overdrive trans and make more of a pro touring car out of it. With winter coming I won't be able to do much, but it also got me thinking. I have been looking around and found what appears to be a nice original 88 Olds Cutlass with the 307. Unfortunately it is not local and I am once again led to believe that everything works. This time I will see if someone can check it out personally. Anyway, I'm just wondering what can be told to me about these cars. Where are places to look for rust? It does have the vinyl top over the back. What I'd probably do is keep the 307 (I just want a real nice cruiser) with the overdrive trans and use the fuel injection kit I have for my firebird on it. I see I can get an EFI tank for the turbo buicks that is the same size and shape of the olds gas tank. What other mods might be worth doing to squeeze out some power? Is a cam swap worth it if I want low end power or should I leave well enough alone with the stock one? I'd most likely be looking to do a dual exhaust and open air cleaner, and I've seen where people recommend a rear gear swap. What are other areas of weakness in these engines, transmissions, or body/interior that are common problems? Is there a resource on what options were available on these cars for certain years? Thank you for reading the long post, and any help or info would be appreciated. Thanks!
