I could easily have titled this piece “In Praise of Folly,” after the titular character in Erasmus’ classic manifesto, “for I well know how disingenuously Folly is decried, even by those who are themselves the greatest fools.” Unfortunately, in case you were wondering, Erasmus has nothing to do with cars, but that doesn’t make him wrong. Most of my purchases have a sprinkling of folly involved; for example, I accidentally thought the other day about how much money I must have sunk into my worthless Corvair, and immediately ceased pursuing that train of thought in order to stave off some day-sadness. On the other hand, the Firebird’s ledger reads a comparatively reasonable six-thousand dollars, which is actually in the neighborhood of what it’s worth. That is a refreshing change of pace, although it’s silly to think it permanent.
Although I would almost always lose money on my vehicular flights of fancy, if I ever sold anything, I suppose it could be worse. I could be a perfectionist. I’ve always felt a little sorry for perfectionists, because my latent level of anxiety is usually inching toward “Code Red,” even though I tend to let a lot of things slide. Therefore, it’s only fitting that I have a spectacular collection of what some call “twenty-footers,” meaning they look great from twenty feet, but have a few issues upon close inspection, some more than others. That’s fine with me, however, because I like driving my junk and, in the words of some budding random internet Socrates, “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.” Well said, my friend. After all, a bad day in the garage is, well, you know the rest.
For those of you who have been following my not-that-interesting life, you may recall that I picked up the Firebird on eBay back in December, and it had been sitting for around 15 years. To get it on the road, I had to replace every single piece in the brake hydraulic system, and many of them had 42 years of rust buried deep in every thread, nook, and cranny. I’ve replaced the pads and shoes and u-joints, too, along with all belts and hoses and the fuel pump. More on that in a bit.
The interior was fetid and repulsive, so my mom spent a day deep cleaning years of yuckiness, and my wife bought a pair of original red “GM” floor mats. After a new set of tires, I was on the road. In fact, I’ve already driven the Firebird over 600 miles, which isn’t bad when considering my “beyond all rational reason” fleet of cars.
Those 600 miles have not, however, been without issue, as one might expect from a car that’s been sitting forever, although some problems were caused by newer parts. My new fuel pump sprinkled a trifling three pounds per square inch of fuel pressure to a carburetor expecting six, and the carbon canister was clogged, and both conspired to leave the Firebird chugging and gasping on the highway and under heavy throttle.
If it weren’t for my removing the fuel cap to test for tank venting, I may never have figured out the canister problem, and teeing in a fuel pressure gauge and taping it to the windshield told the whole story of a dropping pressure gauge under load. Therefore, I’m now on fuel pump number three, and I rebuilt the Rochester 2-barrel for good measure. The float bowl was filled with toxic sludge, so I dropped the tank to check the sock and general condition, and it was clean.
Funny thing: fuel pumps for non-air conditioned 1974 Pontiac 350s have been discontinued. I’m able to use the AC pump by blocking the return port, which sounds scary, but it’s been working out so far.
The interior hides an abnormality: the driver’s side kick panel is for an air conditioned car and the passenger one is not, and my car is not air conditioned. Bright red kick panels aren’t exactly available at the local NAPA, so this car was assembled by a confused line worker on a Monday morning or someone along the way didn’t like kick panel vents. The interior otherwise looks original. If anybody is sitting on a bright red non-air kick panel, please let me know.
All was not sunshine and rainbows on the exterior either. The rear bumper took a hit (as did the left quarter) at one time, and someone had spilled a caustic chemical onto the trunk lid and hood, lifting the paint. Therefore, I’ve done and had done a bit of paintwork, so all the paint on the car is Buccaneer Red, give or take a half-shade, which bugs me a little but not as much as painting the whole car. After all, I think my three hours wheeling out the paint worked wonders. Once again, from twenty feet (I exaggerate. It’s a five-footer.), it looks amazing.
Here’s what it looked like on the day I brought it home.
This is the peeling spoiler and trunklid.
This is after a bit of paintwork.
And here it is now, but I digress.
Unfortunately, 1974 models have a mess of rudimentary emissions equipment, including an EGR valve and a variety of vacuum and temperature switches to operate the vacuum advance when Mercury is in retrograde or a Strawberry Moon appears. I disabled all of that (Emissions testing in Michigan? Draconian!), but that leaves me using manifold vacuum advance rather than ported (there is no port for it). Some of my cars like that, but this one doesn’t, so I’m still juggling timing curves and vacuum advance diaphragms and rates to find the best combo.
On a related note, the previous owner installed an HEI distributor, which is fine. What isn’t fine is how he simply plugged in the resistor wire, leaving it to run on eight or nine volts to the coil, which does not make an HEI very happy. I resolved that situation by attaching a relay where an old emissions relay once hung out on the firewall, and by doing so, I get full battery power to the HEI at all times. Before you say anything: I don’t care if you think soldering connections is better and I know the wire that activates the relay is janky right now; it’s the resistor wire that was heretofore plugged into the distributor itself, so I’m not responsible for its appearance.
Here is my makeshift electrical hack schematic. I ended up running the hot wire straight from the battery, because the starter looks like it hasn’t been disturbed in quite some time, and I wasn’t in the mood for breaking any bolts or studs that day.
I’ve also spent some time with my rigged up wideband O2 sensor setup, getting to know that vagaries of emissions-era Rochester 2GC carburetors. It turns out that they’re exceptionally lean on the idle circuit, to…pass emissions. Said leanness also creates a light throttle miss, at least on my car. After hooking it up to the scope and finding no electrical faults, I removed the carburetor lid and venturi cluster, got out the pin drills, and started modifying the idle and transition circuits. Don’t try this at home unless you’re brave, stupid, or used to messing with old carburetors. I’m all three.
The 2GC is actually a very simple design, and most circuits are contained in the venturi cluster, shown above. I drilled the small tubes .005 inches larger, and the idle restrictors (hidden in the outer holes) .008 inches larger. This is all actually a big swing, but it now runs better, if not perfect. I did not have to rejet the main circuit, as the car cruises on the freeway at an AFR of 15:1, which is about perfect for many stock engines. At light throttle when I began, AFRs were approaching 16.5:1 at lower speeds, which is a pretty lean mix on today’s gasoline. I’ll trade a little fuel mileage for driveability. AFRs at slow cruise are now in the mid-14s to 15:1.
Enough pseudoscientific gobbledygook, let’s return to the basics. In my first article about the Firebird, I mentioned that I like the ’74 as much as I like the ’73. I’m not, however, sure that I like the extra front overhang that is only really visible from the side.
That’s really where the ’73 has it all over the ’74; well, that and the Super Duty 455 in this particular ’73, but the money tree doesn’t grow in my backyard. Come to think of it, I don’t have a tree in my backyard.
On the other hand, some like the 1975 model’s curved rear window, while I think the flat glass and its triangular pillar are one of the best parts of the whole car. I could look at this for hours.
Additionally, unlike some of my other old cars, like the Dart and the ’53 Special, the Firebird is right at home on the freeways of America, cruising effortlessly at any prudent speed, with less wind noise and a better ride than I’m used to from my ’50s and ’60s cars.
So there’s my update. If I’m lucky (I’m not always), I won’t have to write much about the Firebird in the future, because I like its level of nice-looking rough around the edginess. It’ll certainly break and otherwise give me fits, but they all do that.
And speaking of fun and folly, it’s now time to pull the Dart out of the storage barn, where it’s been for months, and do something about that noisy differential.
Further Firebird Reading:
Nice. Love that red interior. Your fleet must make you the coolest teacher at school. I imagine that pulling into the parking lot in this one is bound to incur the ire of your more conservative colleagues.
I’m about 10% weirder than the average employee, so I think they’re all used to my proclivities. 🙂
Old cars that run and drive are WAY more fun than ones that have been pulled off the road with dreams of grandeur and left to gather dust…nice job. The other up-side to a car like this is that you can get out an enjoy it without worry about a $10k paint job getting damaged.
On the vacuum issue–you are saying that the emissions-era carb doesn’t have a ported vacuum connection? Connecting the vacuum advance to the manifold vacuum may be worse than nothing since that advances the timing at idle and then pulls it back when you accelerate–opposite of what you want with timing… You might consider just going to full mechanical advance. Try light springs and limited overall advance with more initial in it, like 14 or 16 degrees.
GM used manifold vacuum advance on a lot of their ’60s cars; my ’65 Skylark also uses it from the factory. The Firebird has no port at all for it, but the advance only operated in high gear or when it was overheating through a variety of thermal and vacuum switches.
When cruising, manifold and ported vacuum are the same, because both vacuum ports are uncovered by the butterflies. When you accelerate, the accelerator pump and/or basic enrichment ensure you don’t need the extra advance for that split second before the advance comes back.
Either way, some cars like one, some the other. Some cars with big cams probably don’t like either, like you mentioned.
OK, makes more sense about the non ported vacuum now that you say that it had switches disabling it. You are right that ported does not help with steady state cruise timing. The enrichment circuit will richen it up during acceleration and can cover a hesitation associated with timing being pulled out, but you will need more throttle position (vs. a ported setup) in order to make up the timing deficit. This is why cars with a well tuned ported vacuum setup will generally get better mpg and feel stronger in around-town driving than one with no vacuum advance or manifold advance.
Anyway–really enjoy your articles and your car collection. I have always had a few oldies in my quivver—in fact my wife’s E46 BMW acted up and so my ride today is this…
Beautiful! There’s a car just like yours that runs at the Pure Stock Drags in Michigan. I believe it’s a PI 390, 330 horsepower, with a 4-speed.
For my young european eyes, the Firebird (and Camaro) of this generation is not linked to any boy racers. I just can t stop admiring it’s timeless perfect profile. Aaaand…. I am a sucker for that inverted U windshield.
I think I see James Garner smiling in the sky when he saw your Firebird with the Rockford Files theme playing.
I can’t lie…I own all six seasons on DVD and there’s a good chance that there’s a coincidence between that fact and the ownership of my red car. 🙂
I used to think it was so cool that Rockford had a telephone answering machine, which was heard in the opening of the show. Missed calls were the norm back then.
Phone Mate 800 ! .
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-Nate
And I remember one episode where he mentions making payments on said answering machine!
Actually a Dictaphone Ansafone 660. 🙂
Thanx Phil ;
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I was mentioning the machine I had back then .
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That thing was battery operated and had TAPE in it , at least it still worked whenever the power went out during the heat waves .
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-Nate
Dad had one of the original Ansafone’s around 1966 to use with our rotary dial phone. I believe in those days it was illegal to attach phone company wiring to anything other than the phone itself.
It had a mechanical arm with a solenoid that would lift the receiver a couple of inches off the phone, and then the reel to reel tape would blast out the leave a message recording though a loudspeaker. There was a little microphone/amplifier that you would clip to the part you held up to your ear that recorded the message. When the call was done the arm set the receiver back on the cradle. I think it was one of the very first home/business machines that were available.
Rockford’s cassette tape/push button phone set up was high tech compared to that old machine.
I remember that the 74 LeMans my mother owned was the second worst running car we ever owned (the Lean Burn 77 New Yorker was the champ), especially when cold. There was always a part throttle hesitation that nobody could fix.
Wow, that cowl vent kick panel issue is a really good one. Can you find one in another color and paint it? A summer with only half the ventilation system working would do me in.
That’s going to be the next step. The first problem with that is finding one, but there seems to be a guy about a half hour from me with a large Camaro/Firebird parts stash. The second is finding a decent paint match. This was apparently an uncommon interior choice in ’74 (go figure…it’s REALLY red).
As far as the running issue is concerned; I’m getting the idea through experience that 1974 model engines were just tuned badly from the factory (the Dart’s engine is a ’74, too). I just try to get them running the best I can, but modern gas isn’t helping much. It doesn’t seem to go well with carburetors.
Yes, that was my recall from living through that era – 1974 models were ones best avoided. 73s had less stringent standards to meet and most 75s got a catalytic converter which allowed manufacturers to meet the tougher standards without the Rube Goldberg-style systems on the 74 cars. Perhaps some models handled the 74 emissions things better than others – my stepmom’s 74 Cutlass 350 seemed OK. But I had a friend with a 74 Scamp that never ran nearly as well (or as strongly) as my 71 with the same slant six.
And as for that interior color, I do not ever remember seeing that one back when, and agree that it has to be rare as can be.
Errr… Dump the emission rubbish and get an Edelbrock manifold / carb instead?
Editing to add: I’m sure the thought has crossed your mind – any reason why not?
I’ve got tons of carbs lying around that would work, but I’d rather not change the manifold. Plus, I don’t really drive fast, so going to a 4-barrel wouldn’t really be worth it other than for driveability. Finally, I’d probably go to a Quadrajet if I were going with a 4-barrel. Come to think of it, I’ve got one of them lying around, too.
Not only does the missus seem on board, but you also had you mom cleaning out the interior! What’s your secret, because I am impressed? Lovely car, and a rare sight in original condition around these parts.
“What’s your secret?”
Charm.
Ha! Luck…..
You beat me to it about getting Mom to clean the interior!! Having wifey on board is one thing, but getting Mom involved…I salute you Sir!! LOL!! 🙂
BTW: NICE looking car…even @ five feet!! 🙂
If he involves his Mother-in-Law in any of his automotive endeavours, I might need a little lie down to absorb the idea!
P.S. This is my project of late. I wish that I was talented enough to take on some of the work described above.
Very lovely
You have the right attitude Aaron ;
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So few ‘ Auto Enthusiasts ‘ do .
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Nice to see there’s still a few of these cars left .
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-Nate
Aaron65, You do get into the nitty gritty of a car’s electrical and carburetor details. Those are admirable skills.
Plus painting.
Plus getting encouragement, help, and support from your family.
There seems to be no limit to your skills.
Thank you for keeping that beauty on the road.
Pretty awesome, Aaron. You’re an inspiration to us all.
+1.
Nice car, looking good! And keep us up to date on the Dart axle job.
Lovely bird, when I was a kid one of my first diecast model cars was a 73 in buccaneer red. I actually liked the 74 more than the 73 for a time simply because I liked the bumper symmetry, no more body color up front/chrome on black, and overhangs never bothered me – I think the ‘beak’ of the 73 protrudes equally outward, the 74 just brings more of the front end out with it, and gracefully too, especially for a 1974 car… Unlike say the Mustang II which has body colored battering rams. I’d easily say the Firebird was the best executed federalized bumper car on the market for 1974, with the Corvette being second(the firebird wins because I think the rear looks BETTER than the 73, not so for the 73-74 ‘vette)
Nice job on the wideband carburator tuning! I’ve tuned electronic fuel injection with it and a laptop, but despite the precision I am a mechanical tinkerer at heart, so the prospect of getting in the ballpark and getting to disassemble and whip out the special drill bit set just puts a big smile on my face. Born too late!
Looking good. Perfect balance between presentable where ever you go without being afraid to drive or park it without being paranoid. I would repaint both kick panels when you find the proper replacement and have the paint supplier match the originals as close as possible.
Nice to have a family that share your appreciation of the classics.
Having never had an old car with A/C, I’m dumb as to why the fuel pump would be different than for a non-AC car. Maybe you could enlighten me.
Just a guess but the A/C car would run hotter and be more prone to vapor lock, which a return line would help avoid by reducing suction vacuum in the fuel line. It’s a non-issue with tank-mounted fuel pumps.
I think this is the answer. As the fuel expands in the lines, especially after shut down, it gives the pressure somewhere to go other than through the needle and seat in the carburetor, heat soaking the engine. Apparently, it wasn’t an issue with non-AC cars.
Of course, hard hot starting is often an issue with old cars these days due to modern gas blends.
I wondered that myself. . . .
I am envious. Not of the car. I am envious of your skills and willingness to tackle whatever comes. My similar experiences were normally in cars that predated 1968. A simpler world then.
As a Ford guy, I must say that is one smooth ‘Bird you have there.
I love older cars – to me there is something about taking a vehicle that is a rolling dud and slowly bringing it back to life – the pride and satisfaction of bringing something back to life.
I love new cars but it is always and exercise of everything is a downhill experience – the depreciation, the first dent in the door from some idiot in a parking lot – the wonderfully clean wheel wells and underside soiled by dirt, salt, and life.
Kudos and thank you for your story.
This website is fast becoming one of my favorites!
Gorgeous car. I think that people that take the money and effort to keep cars like these on the roads are true heroes!
My brother had a 1974 SD Trans Am in Buccaneer Red – yes – it was a Super Duty. It was probably one of the only ones to be built with a vinyl top, black to be exact – and yes, it was a factory option. Only 212 of 943 SD Trans Ams had a manual tranny like his. It also had the same interior as your car Aaron, only black. That car was so fast it was ridiculous. I was only a little kid when he had it, but the memory of him giving me rides in it will stay with me forever. He kicks himself today for letting it go years ago.
BTW Your car looks great. Cool that it is an Esprit model, too. I can hear the 350 as you accelerate that red bird. Good job getting it back in running order!
That’s the same two barrel carb as my 77 Chevelle,’s 305. the Dist vacuum advance is the bottom port on the front left of the carb, if memory serves.
The carb when its right, its a sweet little carb, problem is most of them are ham-fisted and stripped the screws in the venturi cluster.
I wonder if the ’77 had the Dualjet, which was basically a two-barrel Quadrajet (I’ve never worked on one.).
This is a 2GC…
This is a Dualjet.
I know they were using the Dualjet by ’79. Both my Malibus were so equipped. Neither was a 305 though (267 and 229). But, given the commonality there, I’d expect the 305 to have been fitted with it as well.
nope, mines a 2-jet or 2GC. the big bore model that is about 400 cfm. This carb came out in 69 or 70. but its pretty much the same as a 1955 2G. just scaled up a bit.
the half-a-Quad came out in 78 on some engines and on the 305 in 79. Engine has never been apart, and it matches what my 76 Chevelle had as well.
Had a friend with a 78 Impala with the 2GC, but a friends 79 Malibu with a 200 V6 with the Dualjet.
Interesting…I guess they switched because of emissions, but I wasn’t sure when. The 2G doesn’t seem like a bad carb at all, just a little lean on the ’74, but I think all ’74s had really lean carburetion. If I could find one with a compatible choke and throttle linkage, it might be worth seeking out one from the ’60s for the Firebird someday.
Looking very, very nice. It really does seem like the perfect “fun” classic–not nice enough to induce driving anxiety, but so different and refreshing compared to anything modern. I enjoy hearing about the details of the work you’ve done also!
Nice car way better than a 20ft though and only worth 6K, hell mail it over here easy to get 30-40K for a tidy example.
Always amazes me how cheap so many cool cars are in America.
Yep, that’s a darn nice $6,000 car.
As always, thanks for all your positive comments about me and my cars. 🙂
I (usually) have a lot of fun working on them and writing about them.
Reading your posts is like looking over the shoulder of a favourite brother who shares our interest in cars and knows what he’s doing.
Nice work!
Do you kick your kick panels a lot? If not, and if it bothered me to that high a degree, I’d get any color non-air kick panel and just paint it that shade of red, on top of some really good primer. As long as you don’t kick it it’ll look right.