My new old car

[Rob in NH]

I bought this a couple years ago and thought I'd show you guys. Its a 69 Pontiac firebird .

[Eugene]

Neat car.

How old is the house pictured behind the car? 1700 - 1800s.

[Rob in NH]

We had it built in 1990, the inside was sheet rocked and I did the finish work.

[ricky racer]

Cool car!! My sister had a 69 GTO when we were kids. It was fast.

[indy61]

Very nice! What engine and trans does it have?
I had a 68 back in high school (late 70's) that had a Tri-Power and Powerglide trans. Never knew what the engine was from or how the car was originally equipped.

[Gary Dotson]

A small correction, Indy, if your car had a Pontiac engine, your 2 speed automatic trans. was actually a Turbo 250 rather than the Chevy only Powerglide. It was an entirely different unit, with more in common with the Turbo 350 than with the Powerglide. With that trans. the car was probably originally a 326 eng. car.

[indy61]

I think the 326 was only available in 67 for the Firebird. In 68 the smallest v8 was the Pontiac 350.
The Super Turbine 300 was the 2 speed automatic trans used in Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac at the time.

[tst]

Nice Rob

[Rob in NH]

It has a 350 with a 3 speed manual transmission.

[BullDAWG]

Wow, seeing this post brings some bad memories. Nice car btw. But here's why I said BAD memories. Back in late 88-89 I found a 69 Firebird that hadn't ran in 20 years as owner died in military and family just couldn't get rid of it for personal reasons. But after that long they didn't mind me asking about it n by then it was the brother's car as mom n dad both joined their son in heaven. The brother was a racer but was a Ford guy so he never touched the ole bird. I traded him a set of Micky Thomas slicks and a Holly carb I both got for $120. That fall I started college so I didn't do much to her but cleaned it up and except for a crack in the dash both the paint (gold) and interior (black w/wood trim) we're in excellent shape. It only had 10,000 miles on her. It had a 2 barrel carb, and according to AutoZone only the Pontiac 350 had a 2 barrel carburetor. But it had a Ram Air hood. I figured I'd have to do a ton to get her running and was starting college that fall so I was broke n lived w/ parents at the time. I gave a friend the vin & went to college. My mom though informed me I needed to sell it so I let them. Not 1 week after my mom told me she sold it, my friend called n said my 350 was actually a 455 Ram Air IV. It also had the Turbo Hydromatic 400 tranny and AC. Both were super rare on Ram Air's. It was 1 of only 15 made n they didn't list colors so it might have been the ONLY Gold one. Even back then it would have been worth $30,000+ now probably over 100k. I called the guy mom sold it to n offered 2x what he paid. He said ok n he had it running. All it needed was a battery & he put in a carburetor kit. I was elated. Till he said I needed to haul it off and get all the pieces.... PIECES??? WTH(eck). He said that he ripped out the interior, welded in a roll cage and raced it in a dirt track race. Then he said "that's the most powerful 350 he ever saw as it went to the front of the pack" but "was so fast he ended up flying out of the curve and ROLLING it 3 times.

Yea, I love your car but seeing a 69 Bird still makes me sad...

[Jeff Silvey]

My 1966 GTO had a 389 with a 2 speed power glide.

[BullDAWG]

My 1966 GTO had a 389 with a 2 speed power glide.

As was stated earlier, Pontiac's had 250 Turbo Hydromatic tranny's from the factory. If it had a power glide then it was missing 2 bolts in bellhousing as Chevies have a different bolt pattern than BOP (GM) (BOP=Buick Oldsmobile Pontiac). 389 engine's we're made by Pontiac so that tranny had either an adapter on it (unlikely why not put a bigger big block in it like a Cadillac 500, Pontiac Ram Air 455, Olds 455 etc.) If you're going through all the trouble of putting in that tranny for drag racing why not also go with a bigger engine? Or more likely someone missinformed you as to the actual identification of the tranny (well Bubba they both are 2 speed automatic tranny's made by GM they must be the same) (but they ain't). I will say that there were some 350 and 400 Turbo Hydromatics that we're made with universal bellhousings but most had either BOP or Chevy pattern, I've never heard of a power glide having a universal bellhousings. I have seen adapters but they ain't cheep as they also need custom spacers on the flexplate to torque converter and if doing all this why not go bigger? In 66 the 389 w/ a 6 pack was great but you had to tune those 3 carburetors almost daily to get good performance. While a 400 or 455 Pontiac w/ a huge single Holly carb or dual Holly's made way more power and we're way more easily tuned than the manually 3 (2 barrel) carbs GM used vs. say Mopars 6 pack that had 1 manually adjusted and 2 vacuum secondary carbs.

[indy61]

The two-speed automatic transmission used in Pontiacs from 1964-1969 was the Super Turbine 300 (ST-300)
The Turbo-Hydramatic 250 (THM250) didn't come out till 1974.

[BullDAWG]

TY Indy, I owned a automotive machine shop, so tranny's weren't my specialty, I over the years built some for special customers or for my own 4x4 or hot rods but only knew a limited amount on them. I've only worked on 350&400 turbos and 727 torque flights. The 727 was easy as no where as many inside or outside c-snap rings. Just unbolt the pump housing and all the guts come out together on the input shaft.

[Gary Dotson]

Indy, you are correct. I worked on Buicks with the Super Turbine 300 but the later turbo 250 clouded my memory. In Buicks, the 300 used a “switch pitch” torque converter that improved acceleration, also used on Buick Turbo 400. It almost gave you another gear.