Author Topic: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction  (Read 11289 times)

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Online Wingnut

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #50 on: January 18, 2019, 01:35:36 am »
Any company that allows a horn like this cannot be trusted to not bleep up the more important things.


Sorry...

All right you stepped over the line on that one....  The RR was a balls out runner.   That Charger Bigun talks about was a dog.  So take it back.
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #51 on: January 18, 2019, 01:37:06 am »
All right you stepped over the line on that one....  The RR was a balls out runner.   That Charger Bigun talks about was a dog.  So take it back.

I will not!  Meep meep, indeed.

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #52 on: January 18, 2019, 01:38:34 am »
I will not!  Meep meep, indeed.

Oh it is on now.   
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #53 on: January 18, 2019, 01:40:18 am »

Online Wingnut

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #54 on: January 18, 2019, 01:45:36 am »
Bring it, old man.

You better git your mothers garters on. 
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #55 on: January 18, 2019, 01:49:17 am »
You better git your mothers garters on.

Bitch please.


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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #56 on: January 18, 2019, 01:53:37 am »
Bitch please.



Frank...you need to take over for a while.   I am going to be otherwise occupied..
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #57 on: January 18, 2019, 01:55:15 am »
Frank...you need to take over for a while.   I am going to be otherwise occupied..

LOL   888high58888

Offline Hoodat

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #58 on: January 18, 2019, 02:37:23 am »
Oh my.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

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Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #59 on: January 18, 2019, 03:31:03 am »
Frank...you need to take over for a while.   I am going to be otherwise occupied..

No problem. What the hell type of serious speed freak would drive around in a car with child's cartoon character stickers all over it?


Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #60 on: January 18, 2019, 03:32:13 am »
Bitch please.



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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #61 on: January 18, 2019, 05:30:41 am »
No problem. What the hell type of serious speed freak would drive around in a car with child's cartoon character stickers all over it?


I don't know Frank, my brothers '70 Road Runner was a screamin machine, up until the right rear brake locked up on him on PCH back in '72, never good at 140 mph. You know what I actually think my brother may have been doing the screaming as the spun into a culvert :pondering:

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #62 on: January 18, 2019, 05:32:00 am »
No problem. What the hell type of serious speed freak would drive around in a car with child's cartoon character stickers all over it?



Me. :seeya:

BTW.  That must be a restro.  The fit and finish on those sucked out of the factory.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 05:33:26 am by The Ghost »
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Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #63 on: January 18, 2019, 05:44:21 am »
I don't know Frank, my brothers '70 Road Runner was a screamin machine, up until the right rear brake locked up on him on PCH back in '72, never good at 140 mph. You know what I actually think my brother may have been doing the screaming as the spun into a culvert :pondering:

Thanks for proving my point. Chrysler = Death Trap

Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #64 on: January 18, 2019, 06:16:24 am »
Fun story about how Jack Smith a Chrysler Plymouth came up with the Road Runner.



Jack Smith, father of the Plymouth Road Runner, dies at age 94

Quote
“Nobody but nobody will ever put a cartoon bird on one of my cars.” The threat from Dick Macadam was real enough that he poked an executive vice president of Chrysler in the chest to hammer his point home. And in that moment, in that hallway in Highland Park, the Plymouth Road Runner nearly died before it was born. It took the persistence and vision of John L. “Jack” Smith — who died last week at the age of 94 — to make sure that the cartoon bird would become the most beloved Looney Tunes member among the muscle car crowd.

Smith, at the time a manager for product planning for the Belvedere, never took credit for actually coming up with the idea. Rather, he always attributed that to his “ace assistant,” Gordon Cherry. Still, the Road Runner wouldn’t have happened without Smith.

As he related in an interview with Hemmings Muscle Machines for its January 2009 issue, Bob Anderson, then the new executive vice president of sales and marketing for Chrysler and Plymouth (and the guy who stylist Macadam poked in the chest), wanted to do something to capture the burgeoning youth market that Lee Iaccoca and his cohorts so accurately targeted with the Mustang.

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #65 on: January 18, 2019, 06:21:34 am »
Fun story about how Jack Smith a Chrysler Plymouth came up with the Road Runner.



Jack Smith, father of the Plymouth Road Runner, dies at age 94

In those days Chrysler was "Plum Crazy"
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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #66 on: January 18, 2019, 06:26:14 am »
Thanks for proving my point. Chrysler = Death Trap
Now, now Frank, my brother didn't die, wasn't even hospitalized even though he did fracture two cervical vertebrae. There is something to be said for big steel cars even if they were Chryslers.

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #67 on: January 18, 2019, 06:31:05 am »
Now, now Frank, my brother didn't die, wasn't even hospitalized even though he did fracture two cervical vertebrae. There is something to be said for big steel cars even if they were Chryslers.

One day at band camp we took my G/F's fathers 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A.   At 140 the car was unmanageable.  The sex was good.  The car scared me more than her father.

« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 06:34:59 am by The Ghost »
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Offline Frank Cannon

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #68 on: January 18, 2019, 06:32:28 am »
Now, now Frank, my brother didn't die, wasn't even hospitalized even though he did fracture two cervical vertebrae. There is something to be said for big steel cars even if they were Chryslers.

Up until the Baby Boomer started retiring a decade ago and going senile dropping $100K plus for Super Birds no one wanted those Mopar muscle cars. People laughed at folks tooling around in a Dodge E Body because they couldn't afford a Camaro.

Offline sneakypete

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #69 on: January 18, 2019, 11:43:49 am »
Up until the Baby Boomer started retiring a decade ago and going senile dropping $100K plus for Super Birds no one wanted those Mopar muscle cars. People laughed at folks tooling around in a Dodge E Body because they couldn't afford a Camaro.

@Amb. Frank Cannon

Frank,you need to switch drugs because the ones you are using now are making you simple. GM had nothing that would run with my 1971 340 Duster. They even whined to the NHRA about it having too much horsepower for it's class when the 350 GM cars kept blowing motors trying to keep them in sight.
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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #70 on: January 18, 2019, 02:45:45 pm »
@Amb. Frank Cannon

Frank,you need to switch drugs because the ones you are using now are making you simple. GM had nothing that would run with my 1971 340 Duster. They even whined to the NHRA about it having too much horsepower for it's class when the 350 GM cars kept blowing motors trying to keep them in sight.

@sneakypete

It's really something how these guys keep trying to blow smoke up the tailpipes of those of us who were actually there and have first hand knowledge that their BS is just BS!

There might have been some guy somewhere with a 68 Charger RT that got waxed buy some GM junk but I never saw it and, at the time, I was pretty involved.
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"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline sneakypete

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #71 on: January 18, 2019, 03:31:21 pm »
@sneakypete

It's really something how these guys keep trying to blow smoke up the tailpipes of those of us who were actually there and have first hand knowledge that their BS is just BS!

There might have been some guy somewhere with a 68 Charger RT that got waxed buy some GM junk but I never saw it and, at the time, I was pretty involved.


@Bigun

If it happened,it happened because the Charger had a 318 and the yahoo owner put R/T badges on it.

Never mind this,though. Remember how GM got all the other manufacturers to sign an agreement to quit building and selling race cars around 1957 because they had nothing that could run with either the Y-Block Fords or the hemi Mopars,and then started selling race car parts and stripped cars through their dealerships? GM pulled off a slick one with that little act. I remember seeing GM stationwagons showing up at the drag strip with 283's or 327's with multiple carbs or FI,and 4 speed transmissions,and running as stock cars. The NHRA has ALWAYS kissed GM ass.

Remember the GM tears when Mother Mopar started pumping out taxicab bodies with Max-Wedge 413's and 727's in them in 61-62,and beating them like rented mules? I have often wondered how many 409's were turned into bombs as a way of trying to keep up?
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Offline Bigun

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #72 on: January 18, 2019, 03:38:23 pm »


@Bigun

If it happened,it happened because the Charger had a 318 and the yahoo owner put R/T badges on it.

Never mind this,though. Remember how GM got all the other manufacturers to sign an agreement to quit building and selling race cars around 1957 because they had nothing that could run with either the Y-Block Fords or the hemi Mopars,and then started selling race car parts and stripped cars through their dealerships? GM pulled off a slick one with that little act. I remember seeing GM stationwagons showing up at the drag strip with 283's or 327's with multiple carbs or FI,and 4 speed transmissions,and running as stock cars. The NHRA has ALWAYS kissed GM ass.

Remember the GM tears when Mother Mopar started pumping out taxicab bodies with Max-Wedge 413's and 727's in them in 61-62,and beating them like rented mules? I have often wondered how many 409's were turned into bombs as a way of trying to keep up?

Yeah and IIRC that's about the time restricter plates and all that garbage began to appear on the scene.

I always laugh out loud when I hear someone expounding on the virtues of 396's and 409s as race engines!  Those thing began life as TRUCK engines.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline sneakypete

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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #73 on: January 18, 2019, 04:25:19 pm »
Yeah and IIRC that's about the time restricter plates and all that garbage began to appear on the scene.

I always laugh out loud when I hear someone expounding on the virtues of 396's and 409s as race engines!  Those thing began life as TRUCK engines.

@Bigun

Ironically enough,I own a 409 Chevy engine. Was driving my old (62) Ford wrecker back home one day and had plenty of time,so I decided to stop by a garage owned by a guy I knew to see what he was doing. He was a big GM guy,and asked me if I knew anybody interested in buying a 409 Chevrolet engine that ran good. He bought it to put in his rollback,but then found a 454 and wanted to sell it.

I told him "I'm no fan of GM engines,but tell me how much you want for it,and I will spread the word around for you and try to help you find a buyer.

He says "$100".

I say "Wait a minute while I back my wrecker up to it. Here's 100 bucks."  Damn thing was complete right down to the breather and fan belt,and when I pulled the heads I discovered  a stock bore with no ridges..

I have a old late-40's-early 50's "East Coast Style" 32 Ford 5 window coupe that is channeled and has a wheelbase extended to 122 inches with a suicide front end with a genuine Dago dropped axle up front. I bought it to get it running,drive it around one summer,and then sell it. I was going to drop a 350/350 in it,but now I am thinking about adding a dual quad intake to the 409,and bolting up a Powerglide to it. I'm betting that 409 with the finned aluminum "Weiand" scroll valve covers I found for it will raise the selling price by 3 grand.

Here is a photo of the 32 I took the day I bought it. The chassis was bent,twisted,and "boxed" using sheet metal and body plastic. One side was 3/8th of an inch higher than the other,and the shocks were bolted to the radius rods,so they didn't work at all.  I ended up cutting it off and sliding a new chassis stub made from boxed plate over the stub


The other two photos are of it as it sits in my shop today. The engine in it is a junker 283 I pulled out of the weeds to use to make motor mounts,trans mount,headers,and radiator mounts. I had the 6x2 intake laying around the shop,so I just sit in on top of the engine to freak out people who have never seen one

I think if I paint this one baby blue with red flames and put some slot mags or 5 spoke Cragers on it,I can get some pretty good money for it at one of the big swap meets.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 04:31:21 pm by sneakypete »
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Re: James Garner's personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird heads to auction
« Reply #74 on: January 18, 2019, 05:19:22 pm »
@sneakypete

Very nice project you have going there and I'll bet you do well financially with it when you get done as well!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien