I know this is an F body website....

[2001orangess]

I was looking at a thread on ls1tech.com and it got me thinking. how and why did you guys get F bodies. many of use are pretty young and many youngans have civics, integras and other imports. why didn't we fall into the fast and the furious crowd.

well, here's my story

My situation was a llittle different than most of you guys. I was never really a car guy and didn't give a ***** about what i drove. It was by weird circumstances that I got my 1st f body. When I turned 17, my parents gave me an explorer to drive around. about a year later, they turned it in back to the dealership to get an expedition (the explorer was on a lease). Anyway, college came around and i was driving over 60 miles every day to go to class and come back home.

at this time, my parents and I all switch cars. My mom got the expedition, my dad got a minivan and i got a camry. had the camry for about two years or so. than a bunch of my buddies got into cars and their interest rubbed off on me. it was soon after that i was looking to by either a celica or an eclipse (the 2000 model). I know haha. but at this time, i didn't know better. All i knew was imports. integras, civic, eclipses etc. the only domestic i was actually even remotely thinking of buying was a v6 mustang. at the time, i though that v8s were way too fast and that i couldn't handle them. so v6 or less was the way to go.

also , me and my close freinds were asian, so it was automatically given that i had to get an import.

i never even considered the camaro for one reason. I hate the lt1 front end. but by accident, i clicked on a link that had a 98 v6 camaro for sale. when i saw it, i knew i had to have it. about a month later, it was mine, 98 onyx black v6 camaro. many of my friends ask why i got a camaro. i said that i liked it and i didn't want a "me too car." they kind of blew me off little. had that car for a about another year or so than came the Ls1.

when i had the v6 camaro, i always wanted to make it just a little faster than another v6 camaro. oh btw, i never encountered a v8, so i never knew they were that fast. well at least to the v6.

well, i was in store for a rude awakening. i was in western pa with my ex girlfriend just driving on the backroads, when a blue lt1 came roaring by. he past me like i was going in reverse. when i press the gas in the car, it felt like i was going backwards and he was out. never saw him again. well that put me in my place real fast. i was throughly embarassed.

so i wanted to do a swap and was doing some research. than 9-11 came and soon after all those incentives were being offered. i found an ad in the paper that had a 2001 camaro for sale. it was brand new, and it said it was a v8. so i gave it a chance and took a look at it. what the ad didn't say was that it was a SOM SS. I instanly feel in love with the car. put a deposit on it and the rest is history.

being different lead me to the camaro and i never regret choosing the car. it;s funny cause all the import guys i 1st meet who gave me crap for buying a domestic will not race me. they ask how much hp i got and when i tell them, they are pretty much in awe. also when they see the turbo, they sit ask questions. many of them didn't know people actually turbo the Ls1s. all my close friends who have imports regard my car as a beast, even when it was stock. now they get all giddy when they get in the car. I'm the car that they want to beat.

oh btw, many people don't know that you can buy a used ls1 for pretty cheap. people buy 15,000 used rsx type s, but for that much you can buy a used ls1. hell, you can even buy some mods for it.

i think the ls1 has more "bang for the buck" than most cars. also we have such a great aftermarket. well maybe not as much as civics, but seriously, how many different intakes do you need.

[bad64chevelle]

Well, my Jeep was about to really go seeing I was putting over 3 quarts of oil in it a week, my moms van broke the spider gear at the same time. She went and got a new car and on the same lot was this what looked to me was a 6cylinder camaro. It was night, and as many of you have seen at the grease trucks you dont see the "Z28" emblems on my car. I got BSing with the salesman and I got in and the first thing i noticed was the 150 MPH speedo. My girlfriend was already falling in love with the car and I was getting into it but couldnt figure out what the deal was. I mean come on a 6 cylinder with a 150 MPH speedo?!?! The saleman actually didnt know about the car since it had JUST come in that afternoon all he knew was it only had 40,000 on the clock. I got the keys and started it and the only words that could come out of my mouth were "That aint no 6 banger!" I test drove it and was hooked. Ive been around fast cars my entire life pretty much and this one fit in perfectly, just never as a daily driver. That there posts a problem all in its own...

[Tsar]

Well i sold my car and just build a deck for my 'rents so i got a nice chunk of change. So i went on the net and started looking for cars. The conditions were it was to be a manual (i hate autos) be modable and look decent. So i found this thing '96 M6 TA, went to south jersey gave dude his money and drove it home.

[LS1Hawk]

I guess I never got into imports because the imports never seemed to have any style and definitely don't have the same mystique as American cars. Ever go to a car show and see a classic Honda? Honestly, nothing to dream about there. Up until I was 6 or so my mom use to drive me and my sis around in a '68 Mustang. Before I was born my dad had a '61 Impala, a '66 GTO, a '74 Vette, and now has a '78 Vette ... so I guess it's in my blood. How I got into Firebirds/Trans Ams I'm not exactly sure. I remember as a kid I always liked the late 2nd gens because of the wild graphics, and I loved Knight Rider. But I knew I had to absolutely have a Trans Am my soph/junior year in high school when they redesigned the 4th gen T/A in '98. I always liked the cars, but fell in love with it the minute I saw the first ad. From that point on I literally saved every dollar that came my way up through college for one. Once I graduated and started working, I finally had enough that I could put a nice downpayment down. Trust me, there were plenty of times when I got impatient and aggreviated thinking I'd never get one, but in the end it all paid off. It was really cool dreaming of one for so long and finally getting it. And that's what I think makes the difference, being able to dream of and own a car that's in a sense a piece of history.

[TheWraith]

a few months before I was turning 16, my dad and I were already starting to look at cars for me. Just by dumb luck someone my dad was working with was selling a camaro - 87 sport coupe, silver, v6, auto. My dad felt she was asking too much, but I did get to sit in it and go for a ride in it, and I felt like it fit me well. And I mean fit me in two ways. I liked the styling and being ~6'3"/6'4" borderline, and somewhere in the neighborhood of about 325 at that time I'd guess, I sat in a few other cars that I wasn't comfortable in. I actually could have had a free car from my uncle, but the leg room was an impossibility.

So I continued looking at cars, scouring the newspaper, and I started focusing on camaros and firebirds. I found one around 3 weeks before my 16th birthday - an 88 sport coupe, and I didn't know **** at that time, so I was really surprised that it had ground effects and the 15" z28 style wheels, so I was really liking the car. The price was really good too, so I bought it, with my dad's help considering I was 15 at the time.

I got my brother and my best friend into cars as well because of that car, and my best friend wound up with an 87 formula which wound up with a blown trans and he left it parked in a neighborhood so long someone torched it. So then he wound up with an 87 iroc, tpi 350 hardtop car.

After about 5 years with my sport coupe, I was getting sick of it and did everything I wanted to, and I started looking at tpi thirdgens. At the same time my friend with the iroc blew the trans and had a kid on the way, so he sold it to me really cheap.

The iroc is really what got me big into cars. I did work on my sport coupe - while i owned it both the engine and trans took a dump and I assisted in swapping in replacements. At the time I didn't know anything so I didn't really look into the feasibility of swapping in anything better. I also redid the interior - different seats, a stereo, and new carpet. And I did basic maintenence as needed as well.

But once I got the iroc, I really started playing with it. I kind of stuck with simpler stuff and what I already knew the first year, especially since it was my daily driver, and I did some cheap/freebie mods and a bunch of appearance type stuff, interior and a stereo. But once I had another vehicle as a daily driver, it wasn't long until I really tore into it. Paxton blower (and soon after another trans...lol), headers, suspension, T56 swap, more appearance stuff and several different sets of rims, and finally once I got my own garage to work in - my engine swap.

I have the iroc over 6 years now :shock:

[ar0ck]

My stories pretty simple. My former best friend was one of those Blue Oval Nuts, Ford this Ford that, Mustang reigns superme. Well this started my freshman year of high school way before I was able to get my permit. So I basically took the other stance and went with the Camaro & Trans Am. Ive known of them when I was little but never really got into it.

Originally my parents were going to buy me a car. They said they would pay for it if it was something they could choose. So naturally the Honda Civic came up, and this was about the time of Fast & The Furious... :lol: Well I started to see more & more of these "Rice Burners" And I was absoultely Discusted!!! When I was in HS a kid had a brand new LT1 Camaro, it was a Black Z28, with Chrome Y2K vette wheels, and an SS spoiler and a loud exhaust! I was hooked from that day on to the camaro, because they looked beautifull as is!

Only untill this one September Day, I came home from the City after going with some friends, and their was this Blue & Silver Trans Am sitting outside my house on the street with a big For Sale sign. I checked it out at night to see that the body was straight, paint was in good shape, and the interior wasnt destroyed. Later in the week I bugged my dad to call the owner and find out alittle bit more about it. Once we got the VIN# My dad & I started digging around the internet learning as much as we could about 3rd Gens. Finally a few weeks later I purchased my very first car.

I always liked 3rd gens from then on, untill the point where I was at with the Trans Am, that so much **** had to be upgraded to make it run effeciently, and have some decent creature comfurts. By the time I calculated the amount of money I would need for all brand new things, the price of an LT1/LS1 car was easily attainable. I originally started looking at LS1 Auto's, I drove this one LS1 Z28, and I immedietly fell in love! But Insurance brought my high down with a loud crash. I was pretty depressed about that for a while, untill i started hanging out at E-town more often with my friends, and just seeing the large amount of quick LT1 cars. And since I saw that one in HS I knew what I wanted.

One day I was browsing AutoTrader and came across this super clean low miled 95 Z28 out in Long Island. I emailed the owner got some nice pictures, and decided one weekend to go out to LI and see what it was al about. When I finally got to the guys house my dad couldnt believe how pretty it was! 2 weeks later it was MINE! :D

[j0n]

I used to spend every summer at my cousin's house when i was little, since both my parents worked during the day. My uncle was/is a total vette freak, and even owned an 88? anniversary corvette for around 10 years(the one that's alllllllll white). Besides the vette he loved nascar, and hated everything that wasnt chevrolet. So there i was at 6 years old cheering on the Intiminator(sp?) at every race. When i turned 15, i got the crazy notion that i could afford a corvette myself, and even found one that i COULD afford(thank god i didnt buy it...i know today it was a ****fire injection car) but my parents always said **** no. I kept looking online anyway and read about how the v8 in the corvette was actually put in another car...something called a camaro. I immediately shifted my focus to finding a third gen camaro and somehow had my parents backing immediately. one day at 16 yrs old my neighbor(neighborhood gearhead with a big block cutlass, 2 small block cutlasses, a big block buick, and a 5.0 notchback convertible) came by to show me and my parents an ad in the paper for an 89 firebird formula with 50k miles for 3250 neg. I knew that the firebird was also givin the camaro's v8 so i agreed to go check it out. Once i saw the offset cowl and the bright red color i instantly fell in love...put a down payment on it, and picked it up the next day. rest is history

[90FormulaWS6]

all my buddies in high school all had mustangs, so i loved v8s. I was originally going to buy a fox body stang as my first car, but My dad got a 91 trans am when i was 15 and i loved the way it looked and the way it sounded, i bought a firebird formula 305TPI/700r4 when i was 16 as my first car, which is a story that can be told another day. But i totalled it, and in a scramble for a car, i bought a bone stock 91RS w/ 135k 305/700r4 for $1000 that hardly ran, the rest is history, needless to say ive had more bad luck with this car than in my entire life but i sorta rebuilt the car so i cant get rid of it, plus its one of the most badass 305TBI's out there

[sikbyrd350]

I was always into cars, having grown up on Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Ryder, but never had a chance to be around them. I had always bought my cars from my parents from the time I was 17-21. Then, while I was working for Sam Goody(back in 1999), I got a promotion and transfer to a store 25 miles from my house. I started to look at GN and Monte Carlo SS's, but then my dad brought home an add for a 95 v6 bird w/ 40,000mi for $8K. I checked out the car and told the guy I'd take it. A week later I called him to confirm I was coming down the next day w/ cash in hand. He told me he couldn't bear to part with the car. I understood, but was dissapointed. BUT he did say he saw a 94 in the paper and mailed me the add.
Anyway, I went looking for cars the next day and found the 95 I had been looking at on a dealers lot and they were asking for $12K!!! I WAS UBER-PISSED!!!
I immediately had to have a Firebird. I checked out the add the guy sent me and it was a 94 v6 w/ 24,000 for $10K. I jumped all over that deal. I did a few mods(exhaust, intake, rims, underdrive, t-stat), but the a friend of mine took a real liking to my car, and after 2 years(01), I sold it to him for $7500 and bought my 94 Formula. Modded that a bit, but soon needed a reliable daily car. Unfortunately, I had to sell the Formy and got my EVO. I hope to have another F-body again once the EVO is paid off.

[Squirrel]

when i was 16 i didnt even think about getting a nice car, all i wanted was something that i could beat the **** out of, hence i bought a jetta...after seeing it in the driveway for a couple months i got bored of it and realized, when i got my liscense i didnt want to drive it....so at that point i started looking for a real car....ive always been a fan of fox body's, especially notches ::drool::...so the search for a 5.0 began, i soon came to realize the NE is one of the parts of the country where even ****** 5.0's can still fetch a pretty penny, unlike down south where you can buy a truckload of them for 3.50...so after a little discussion with the boys around here, i started looking for a f-body....but the thing is, i hate 3rd gens, so it was 4th gen or bust...i went to check out a few (all autos) and wasnt that impressed, until one day, me/matt/and bill went to check out a speed density M6, i fell in love, the next day, twas mine :D...its been great to me, no complaints whatsoever and pretty soon it will have a 13 second bone stock run under its belt 8)

[PBodyGT87]

I don't own and F-body. Probably never will either. But i started getting rides to school from my neighbor Caleb, in his 1990 Trans Am, cuz we went to the same highschool. I always thought it was a hot car. And pontiac will always hold a big place in my heart. Hence the 8 fiero's we own. That's another story... But while my dad was a british sports car kind of guy, as well as a motorcycle enthusiast, and phil has his trucks, i felt like i was missing out on some fun. Thats when Will, (who had a 77 stingray) introduced me to Justin, Tim, Craig, Scott, Matt, etc. and they got me into it. "The basement crew" as they were known in the early days. I then introduced them to Phil, and we all hang out now. And now i understand all the fun in beating the piss out of mustangs and rice with some GM performance, and especially when you can do it with 2 less cylinders than some of your opponents have. Good fun.

[Savage_Messiah]

It was in front of my house for sale... I saw it, test drove it, loved it... we bought it (I wanted a manual, but couldn't find any and was eager to gt a car when I got my license). Actually I came home from school a few days before my birthday, and it was sitting in the driveway... I ran up to my parents and they said "here, sign this, happy birthday" and handed me the title (and then started those little payments I'm still makign to my dad for the car, and to my mom for insurance :lol:)

Guess it's in my blood tho, my dad's first car was a 57 bel air, then a 69 camaro SS, an early 70's charger, some other GMs... then something bad happened and he got a LeCar, now he's on his 3rd or 4th (and final) hyundai. Looks like a GM something for the next car...

[qwikz28]

both my parents' first cars were f-bodies. my mom drove a brand new 76 Trans Am with a 4-speed back when she worked in Kuwait, and my dad bought a 74 camaro with a strait 6 for 100 bucks when he moved here in 81.

my father wanted me to get the camaro. i was driving around in my camry fine and dandy, but the tranny was slipping and it just wasnt worth fixing. with the money i was making in high school i could've afforded a nicer car. i test drove a BMW, a G35, and looked at a hooked up Impala SS, a WRX, and some other cars. but GM was offering 3k off and my dad sent me to go look at a Z28. i test drove it and fell in love. bought the car i have now the same day. drove it home 2 days later.

eventually, i will get around to restoring a 76 second gen close to the specs of my mothers car. it was a 76 Maroon hard top with a white vinyl top and white vinyl interior with a V8 and a 4-speed. i will make a 76 vert with the same color combo and a different engine because my mom doesnt know which motor she had

[j0n]

no such thing as a 76 vert :wink:

[unstable bob gable]

Well, I don't currently own an F bod, but I can give a rundown of what I had and why I had it...
I grew up in the 70's and 80's, and when I was about 10 a guy down the street from me had a red T/A with the big chicken and all the flash. To me it was like a huge Hot Wheels car! Then my downstairs neighbor bought a 77 Formula, and he let me go to the dealership with him to pick it up, and he listened to me when I told him he should have them put the big bird on da hood! 8) Then of course Smokey and da Bandit came out, and later Knight Rider, soooooo, this 'lil unstable car buff def had F bodies in his head. :) BUT, I also had Mustangs in my head...:) I didn't get a chance to really own nice cars until I joined the USAF in 1983, and then I wasn't able to find any Mustangs in my price range that I really liked. So, I bought a cherry 1963 Falcon, and within a few months it had a built 289 under {and through} the hood! But, this is an F bod story, soooooo, lets flash forward to the early 90's. This kid at my part time job had a 74 Formula w/ a swapped in 455. It was kinda a roach, but hey, it was a big block car, plus it had a really awesome hood; it was a twin scooped Formula hood, but it also had the shaker scoop. He decided to sell it so he could buy a T/A, so I got it off him for 500 bux. It had a 2.43 rear, and with that 455 it would REALLY go upstairs on the top end! I used it as a daily driver for a while, but then the engine started using oil, and I noticed the rear sub frame was rotted through. So, I parted it out and made a few more bux than I orig paid for it. :)
Then in 1996 I happened to stop in at Queen City Pontiac to poke around, and I saw a 1994 25Th Annv. T/A sitting on the lot. It was love @ first burnout, so I picked it up as a daily driver. It later got a Procharger and a bunch of other stuff, and it decided to give up the Opti in Sep 1998, a week before I was getting married! I worked on it and tried to convert it over to an Electromotive Opti Eliminator, but the car never really ran right, so it didn't get much use. In the mean time I picked up an 88 Formula that was kinda beat, so I put a Super Rammed 383 in it. It was a fun car, but I wasn't really into it because the body was beat, so I put it up for sale. A guy came to look at it, and it turned out the guy had a 79 T/A for sale. It was in decent condition, and the guy had swapped in a 455 Oldsmobile to take the place of the 403 Oldsmobile. Welllllllllll, I ended up trading him my 88 Formula for the 79 T/A. I used the T/A as a back up car, and at one point it was my daily driver for a spell. And why all this was going on, my AMX was re entering my life. I had sold it to a buddy of mine in 1997, and he was getting bored with it. He liked my 94 T/A, I missed my AMX, so another trade was made. This left me with the 79 T/A, and the 73 AMX. I also had my Dominion 32V engine in the works, so I decided to sell the AMX, and keep the T/A for my project. Welp, everybody low balled me on the AMX, so I said "F' It!" and decided to keep it. And in the meantime a guy had seen my 79 T/A around, and he expressed interest in buying it. So, I sold the 79 T/A, and now I am left with my 73 AMX and my Dominion engine project. :)
Oh yeah, there is also the 87 T-Type I bought last Jan, but we will take about that later. :)

And as far as Imports go...I hate 'em. My Old Man never owned an Import, and I won't either. I believe in the automobiles my country produces, and that is all I have to say about that

[bad64chevelle]

And as far as Imports go...I hate 'em. My Old Man never owned an Import, and I won't either. I believe in the automobiles my country produces, and that is all I have to say about that

Amen to that :bow:

oh and an 87 T-Type? :drool: I kick myself in the ass every morning when i wake up for not buying the 86 Regal with the swapped in and modded 87 GN motor.

[2001orangess]

don't you guys see a growing trend. many of us chose the car cause it was instilled in us the american cars were the way to go, or we had a childhood memory of someone elses f body.

oh btw, i don't think my parents will buy another amiercan car after they've seen mine. they always ask why my car is so loud, or why its always in the shop. they think that its always needs to be repaired. they even mentioned about trading it in. however, they don't have a problem buying an american suv or minivan

[unstable bob gable]

don't you guys see a growing trend. Â*many of us chose the car cause it was instilled in us the american cars were the way to go, or we had a childhood memory of someone elses f body.

oh btw, i don't think my parents will buy another amiercan car after they've seen mine. Â*they always ask why my car is so loud, or why its always in the shop. Â*they think that its always needs to be repaired. Â*they even mentioned about trading it in. Â*however, they don't have a problem buying an american suv or minivan


To further my cause;
I am coming from a different era then youse "young bucks." Â*
I'll be fo'tee years old next month, so I remember 442s, GSs, SS Chevelles, Road Runners, Mach 1 'Stangs, etc, being driven as daily drivers, 'cause that is what ya bought as a daily driver! I remember seeing a Dodge Hemi R/T sitting by the Rustic Mall in Manville. The body looked like a crushed beer can, but it was a daily driven Hemi car! This was about 1974...
Around 1977-78 I used to pass a bakery on the way home from school. One of the guys who worked in the bakery had a 73 or 74 AMX. It was black, jacked up in da azz, and had Cragar wheels on it. The rear spoiler had spider webs pinstriped on it, and the car was named "The Tarantula."
This car had such an effect on me that to this day I have owned 6 AMXs, including the one I own now. I'll prolly be buried in that car! My old man wasn't into performance cars, but he always had American cars. When I was born in '65, he was driving a Rambler. He wanted a bigger car, so he bought a Ford Galaxie. That was later traded in on a 72 Chevelle. That car lasted long enough for my older sister to inherit it, and total it during that "party period" we all seem to go through growing up. Then my Old man had a Ford truck, and since then he has owned a string of Buicks.
My first car was a 1971 Mercury Comet that I bought for 200 bucks. It wasn't much, but it was all mine, paid for by ME. No mommy or daddy hand outs. I earned the $ flipping burgers...no, actually it was more like earned the $ by cleaning out the grease traps and scrubbing the bathrooms. P/T jobs were hard to come by in 1981, so I did the jobs nobody else wanted. That car ended up getting totalled a month after I got my driver's lisc. And due to the above stated "no mommy or daddy hand outs," I rode crappy bicycles that I cobbled together until I graduated and hit the USAF in '83. Then I started on my road to ruin with the Hot Rods...:)
N' as far as my take on Imports...why were they allowed to flood the market in the first place? My Old Man dated a chick that had one of the first gen. Civics when it was new. I remember laffing at it...hee hee, what a funny little chit box! Next thing ya know, the Civic is the national insect poster car of the azzclown ricer set! WHA HAPPENED?????? So, call me a racist if ya want, but I call myself PRO-AMERICAN! People ask me what my nationality is, and I say "Native American." No, I'm not an "American Indian," and I'm not trying to take anything away from those people. But, I was born here in America. And I never met a relative of mine who wasn't born in America. So, I consider myself a NATIVE AMERICAN! I'm proud of my country, it's products, and the people who have served it. I've sat and drank with WW II vets, and heard all about the horrors of that war. I've read accounts and watched movies and documentories about the pussy attack Japan pulled on Pearl Harbor. I had a great uncle I never got to meet because he was killed when the ship he was on was torpedoed by the Japanese. And I'm supposed to jump behind the wheel of a Japanese car like it was "nothing?" Â*I have shook hands with concentration camp survivors, and saw the number tattooed on thier arms. The mother of a girl I dated in High School was lucky to get out of Germany before her family was caught for the "crime" of being Jewish. Everyone knows all about the atrocities perpatrated by Germany in that era and war. But, it is cool to make a few bux and buy that 'Bimmer or Benz, to show that you have "arrived?"
I'm supposed to look up to the butt munch Yuppie that just cut me off in his M5 because he is too important to just drive and not yakk on that idiot cell phone? Oh no, HELL NO, FOOK NO, NA-OH! I ain't gonna water down anything, and since cars are my passion, that is where I will make my statement. In this state alone, in recent times, GM has closed the Linden plant, and Ford has closed the Edison plant. Jobs lost, communities losing income, areas dying. But boy o' boy, it looks like par-tay time when ya groove over by the Honduh dealership! SO? WHY CARE? THE QUALITY OF AMERICAN CARS SUCKS! Oh yeah? Well, tell it to the 1998 Ford Ranger sitting in my driveway. That Ranger just happened to have been built at the Edision plant, and the friggin' thing is still on it's orig. spark plug wires! I changed the plugs, but they were even OK. Since I had the old ones out, I put new ones in! In fact, that truck is still on the orig. battery!!!!! And a few of yaz have gotten to meet my 1994 Buick Century. 175,000 miles, driven over 100 miles daily, and it runs like a top. So, forgive me if I can see the quality in American cars, but I happen to drive quality American cars every day. I can go on and on....and nobody is gonna make me see otherwise. Maybe I just should get a big American flag tattooed on my arse. Then I can tell people to "KISS IT," and really feel patriotic!

PS: I like some Imports...Canadian Beer and British Rock N' Roll is good!
Led Zep and Molson...Perfect together!

[unstable bob gable]

oh and an 87 T-Type? Â*:drool: Â*I kick myself in the ass every morning when i wake up for not buying the 86 Regal with the swapped in and modded 87 GN motor.

Yup, coming soon to a highway near you:

http://cjcfo.fbody.com/members/injuneerzz@aol.com/PhotosBob/DCP04152a.jpg

[bad64chevelle]

I am 100% with you Bob. BTW what color is that T-Type painted?

[unstable bob gable]

I am 100% with you Bob. BTW what color is that T-Type painted?

You are unstable bob's friend! You have good taste in cars, you are a burly dude, and you have a cool "jazz man" beard! unstable bob gives you 2 thumbs up, on one hand! :lol:

Dat color looks really purple-ish in da pict, but I believe it is called "rose wood" or sumpthin' like dat. I gotta find out fer sure, so I can get me some touch up paint! It is supposed to be the orig. color...

[Ian]

My story goes a little something like this. I can remember watchin knight rider, who doesnt, that show rocked ass! Anyway, I loved kitt, but I never realized that it was a firebird. fast forward a couple of years. my dad would buy all sorts of off the wall cars, like 70's bmw's and vw scirroco's. All huge piles of garbage, in fact I dont think more than two of them ever left the driveway under their own power :roll: . Now I'm in middle school and my friend curt will not shut up about camaro's and IROC's. I start to look at them and I realize they are pretty neat looking so I decided that I like camaro's. enter high school, gonna get my permit sophomore year so I better start looking for a car.Well, by now my dad had split so It looked like I was up ****s creekas far as automotive guidance. Enter my stepdad 8) . GM mechanic for years, owned his own shop, HUGE chevy nut. with his help I went and looked at an 85 camaro. when we got there and looked at it, it was a total pile! interior ripped apart, literally. the steering wheel was missing, it had 4 different rims on it and the hood was all ****ed up. It didnt even run. definitly not worth the $550 they wanted, so we walked away from that one. a few months went by and I was beginning to think that all the good cars were impossible to find. Curt already had his 86 IROC, but I was still car-less. one sunday morning I went out and got the paper (star ledger) and I opened it up to the automotive classified section, just like I had been for about a year. I looked under the antiques and classics section...nothing. time for the chevy section...BINGO! first listing, 1976 camaro: v8, auto, runs, needs work, $550. I called the guy immediatly and asked him a ton of questions about the car. It had been sitting for a year, but he kept it in running condition. I went to look at it two days later after school. I personally have never seen a car with so much rust on it :lol: . luckily, most of it was just surface rust, but the one rear quarter was gonna need to be replaced. the tranny had a leak too, but that was the least of my worries. I thought the car was a wreck, but my stepdad was really excited about the thing. we talked him down to $450 and I took it home three days later. Once the restoration began, I slowly began to see what was so special about these cars. I guess you get a better respect for them when you have them totally apart and sweat and bleed for the sake of saving one from the wrecker. It was my first car and I'll never forget all the great times I had with it. everyone in high school repected my car. they didnt just think it was neat looking or cool cause it was old, everyone had genuine respect for that car and for what I had to go through to get it like that. in a way, that camaro made me who I am today. before that car entered my life, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Now I'm a mechanic thanks to that life changing car. I had to sell it a few months ago. It was suprisingly hard on my. not so much right after it drove away, but a few days later it really set in that the car was gone. I was lucky enought to have sold it to tim who I know will take great care of it. It will also get raced regularly and I am more than fine with that! After that I got an 87 GTA which totally blew me away as far as overall performance. and soon I'll be the owner of a low mileage 84 HO Trans Am. I dont know what my plans are for that car yet, but rest assured, no one will be disappointed no matter wich direction I go. 8)

[coldkilla]

my life and attitude seems to mimic a cliched action movie character or some badass out of a story somewhere. i was a badass in the marines, i have a badass wife and i live a badass life. so naturally i had to keep with the image and drive a badass car. i always liked older muscle cars because i grew up with them. my dad always had one, from his 68 chevelle to his 96 SS impala, there was always some wrenching going on (he owns a 10sec 70 chevelle now with the front end apart being restored, with a 454 bored to 496 with two holley 950's on a huge tunnel ram!). i first had a 66 mustang daily driver in the marines until i flipped that through the air one night and was lucky to walk away. then i bought a sweet red 68 GTO that I used as a daily driver until i recently had to sell it to pay off some debt i built up. i saw my firebird in a car add two years ago for a good price and i snatched it up. why a firebird? i grew to love pontiacs while i owned the GTO, i was real involved, was a member of the delaware valley old goat club, read up on tons of info etc. i always loved the look of the ls1 birds but couldnt afford one since i just bought my wife a car so i got the lt1. my bird is fast, loud, rude, unforgiving, and looks pretty good for its age...just like me.

[Untamed]

Growing up I was the kid that went against the grain, doing the things others couldnt or wouldnt, wearing stuff that was never in style, and working or reading when others were on the beach or playing football (was a soccer and baseball guy, growing up in South Florida).

So when all my friends got Mustangs (the LX 5.0 because it was lighter), I decided I wanted to like something else. Fell in love with the looks of the late 80's Trans Ams, and of course, loved the Bandit style TAs. So even though my friends had the 'stangs, and my parents had a smattering of imports and domestics, the style of the third gen TA stuck with me.

So in 1992 when I joined the Army Reserve, going to college in Indiana, my hunt began for a TA - but ended up with an 85 Camaro. No firebirds or TAs to be found anywhere near Terre Haute, IN. Drove that for a year, then picked up the 90 Firebird the day I saw it. Just had to have my Pontiac!

Graduated college, got married, moved out to NJ with the 90 then traded that it for a 97 Firebird. Kids came along so dropped the Firebird for a family vehicle for a few years, then got my free 88TA from a Rabbi. I think God wanted me to have another f-body.

So even though I have the $#$#@! import for a daily driver, I have hope that I'll be back to driving an f-body full time very soon. I know where my roots are.

So despite friends and parents having other types of cars, I made my own decision and stuck with it for many years.

[qwikz28]

no such thing as a 76 vert Â*:wink:that sucks... they never made a second gen vert?

[Untamed]

Not in production. Several after market companies touted verts where they would buy the car brand new for you then mod it with the vert. So essentially you got a new car with a professional convertable system, but it wasn't factory installed.

[jola]

ummm, my dad worked for gm for like 30 years, so i naturally have a bias against anything not-gm (except mopar, cuz they're just awesome) let alone anything not-american (which is kind of ironic, since my car was assembled in canada). he owned a first gen and 2nd gen camaro, and an 85 TA, and he loved them. he sold the camaros before i was born, but i remember the TA quite well. i loved riding in that car, and that's also when i fell in love with t-tops. anyways, when it came time for me to buy a car to commute to school with, i wanted something enjoyable to drive and not too expensive, with decent gas mileage (which is why i bought the 6 instead of an 8, but i don't think it makes too much difference). originally i wanted to get a 3rd gen TA, or a 5.0 mustang, or a pickup, but i couldn't really find a good deal on my limited amount of time, so i went with a 95 firebird. 3.4 L isn't the fastest, but its a huge improvement over the bonneville that i was driving in high school.

my next car will be a hemi 'cuda.

[qwikz28]

Not in production. Â*Several after market companies touted verts where they would buy the car brand new for you then mod it with the vert. Â*So essentially you got a new car with a professional convertable system, but it wasn't factory installed.my buddy is a mechanic and he always tells me that unless you HAVE to have a numbers matching car, always buy a hardtop and convert it to vert. thats probably what i would do cause i would probably drive the car more then most drive theirs (ahem jon).

[bad64chevelle]

Not in production. Â*Several after market companies touted verts where they would buy the car brand new for you then mod it with the vert. Â*So essentially you got a new car with a professional convertable system, but it wasn't factory installed.my buddy is a mechanic and he always tells me that unless you HAVE to have a numbers matching car, always buy a hardtop and convert it to vert. thats probably what i would do cause i would probably drive the car more then most drive theirs (ahem jon).

ummm why the hell would you convert a HT into a Convertible? I have seen hundreds of hack jobs when people try to do that and they look like ****! Ever watch Boyd Coddington try to make the 37 ford into a convertible? yeah I have seen the car in person and it looks horrible! And I drive my car enough, trust me! I dont take it everywhere for a few reasons. A) There are too many ******** on the road and if they hit it, i will kill them. Dont bust my chops about driving my car though. That thing went to Hershey PA, West Chester PA, and a few places that are quite a distance away before the car had 200 miles on it! Four hour drives turning 4600 RPMs the whole way is always fun!

[bad64chevelle]

I am 100% with you Bob. BTW what color is that T-Type painted?

You are unstable bob's friend! You have good taste in cars, you are a burly dude, and you have a cool "jazz man" beard! unstable bob gives you 2 thumbs up, on one hand! Â*:lol:

Dat color looks really purple-ish in da pict, but I believe it is called "rose wood" or sumpthin' like dat. I gotta find out fer sure, so I can get me some touch up paint! It is supposed to be the orig. color...

Only reason I asked is because my buddy has a 87 Grand National painted "Blasberry" -one of those flip flop color changing paints- and it looks alot like that in the picture.

[Ian]

Ever watch Boyd Coddington try to make the 37 ford into a convertible? yeah I have seen the car in person and it looks horrible!

I hate boyd coddington :evil:

He is a crappy fabricator and I lost all respect for him when he lost the rights to his own name :roll:

[bad64chevelle]

I would agree.

[coldkilla]

wait, how the hell did he lose the rights to his own damn name?!

[2001orangess]

wait, how the hell did he lose the rights to his own damn name?!

kinda funny and distrubing at the same time :lol:

[Ian]

He is the crappiest buisness man of all time and a few years ago went bankrupt and had to sell the rights to his own name. He eventually bought the rights back, but come one, that guy has no place in the world of hot rodding

[jims69camaro]

when i was a kid of about 10, my next door neighbor's son (17 or 18, a real loser) got ahold of a '69 convertible pace car. it was his daily driver, and i witnessed the car's destruction one day... seems the car was finicky about starting. some days it would, some days it wouldn't. one day, i guess he was really frustrated about it not starting, so he beat the **** out of it with the jack. now, some of you know what an older bumper jack looks like, some don't. it's long, heavy, and swings like a sledge hammer if the jack is at the end of the rail. he had holes in the hood, ripped the top to **** and the car had to be towed away. i cried.

my grandfather was in WWII. he wasn't stationed in hawaii, thank the gods, but he had friends that were and after december 7 were no more. my father was born during the war and he always had a good relationship with my grandfather, so a lot of my grandfather's traits got passed on to him. one of them was a love for american iron. my dad owned several cars, including a white 396 chevelle. after i started living with him, i also began to appreciate cars that went fast. when my dad sold the '65 fairlane, i cried.

the first car i drove was the '72 gran ville. we swapped in a 455 from a trans am because my sister ran it out of oil. the transmission from the TA went into the gran ville, too. it was a sweet ride and it was my first transportation. so, given my appreciation for things fast and my love for american cars, naturally the first car i tried to buy was a camaro. my dad told me if i bought the car that i would have to sleep in it, so i held off on buying a car for a while. in the meantime, i drove his girlfriend's '77 cutlass. it was baby blue with a landau roof, but it moved pretty well. about a year later i did buy a car: an '86 fiero SE. it had a 6 cylinder motor, which was the largest motor you could get from the factory, and it moved pretty well. one day, lined up against a late '80s firebird, i was served. i don't think i ever felt as humiliated as i had on that day, because i thought my car was fast. i think i even cried.

the fiero developed a problem with the air sensor and the exhaust had become a little too loud, so i took it to the dealership because it was still under warranty. or so i thought. the car still had enough value to trade it in, though, and my salesman worked me. he sent me out on a test drive in a stock, v-6 firebird. when i came back, he laughed when i told him the car doesn't move very well (i think the fiero would take it, hands down, in a 1/4 mile). then he sent me out in a base model v-8 bird. i came back, pretty much certain that i would be driving my fiero home, because the 'birds he had sent me out in couldn't get out of their own way. then he sent me out in an '88 formula. now, this is what i call fast (for its time, it was). it had a limited slip rear, 305 efi, 5 speed manual, low profile tires, roll up windows and manual locks. talk about a throw-back to the days of hot rodding... when i signed the loan papers, i think people as far away as ten miles or so could see my smile. the woman i was with was a little older and a little more experienced than i was. when we split up, the formula stayed with her. i had put the car in her name for insurance purposes. i cried a lot.

fast forward a few years later. my mechanic was building an IROC. i liked to call them eye-rot, because everyone and their brother owned one, and they were definitely guido-mobiles (italian, mid-20s, wife beater with gold chains). he said he had a car that i could buy for $800. i looked it over, noticed it was a v-6 car with a 350 swapped into it, the hood didn't match the rest of the car (he bought that car for the hood, which was one of those ugly daytona jobbers), but it was fast. i paid him and took the '87 camaro home to my wife. it was for her, i said, so she could get back and forth to work, i said. she said she wasn't going to drive it because the hood didn't match the car, so i had a new toy. i was so happy, i cried.

a few years later, i was manager of a furniture store. one day i took a wrong turn on my daily trek to the bank. i passed a mechanic's shop that had two '69 camaros in front. one was a black SS, the other was an orange base model. i bought the orange one for cheap and began my long voyage to restoring it. i am not done yet, but i have a car that i have loved since i was 10 years old. about the only thing that would make me cry about this one would be losing it. i am hanging on very tightly. :)

i will not drive a japanese car. or, for that matter, any import. i see guys old enough to have served in WWII and the korean konflict and i wonder how they sleep at night knowing they are supporting those countries' economies. i will not allow anyone close to me drive a jap car. sometimes i win, sometimes i am not so successful (my step-sons). my wife tried to get me to buy her an isuzu or a toyota. i told her she could own one of those right after she divorced me. as long as it was my money, she was going to drive an american (or as close to american as i can get) car. that's why she is driving a Liberty and not a 4Runner or a Rodeo. i kid around sometimes, saying things like in 50 years people will be driving Afghani cars. i am only half-kidding, though, because i know it could happen. and people's memory about our country is oh-so-short. i, for one, will never forget Pearl Harbor or Korea or the World Trade Center. if i am the only one who remembers, then i will stay busy reminding other people about it.

[BigAls87Z28]

from 70 to 86 there was no factory vert Camaros.

[SteveR]

My story is short. Ever since I was a little kid I loved muscle cars. I had models, matchbox cars, etc. I wanted a car that would go fast and make little kids scared. My first car was a '70 Firebird Formula 400 Ram Air I got when I turned 17 from a guy that lived near me. I worked on it until I got my license and I've owned like five or six f-bodies since. I've always had 2nd gens. up until the Hawk which I got to use as a daily driver. I've owned other cars as well like a '66 GTO 389, '69 1/2 Road Runner 440, and a '71 Charger Super Bee 383. Through them all, I felt that the f-body community was always the coolest and least retarded.