The Bird in 1992

Chandler off for a spin while in High School

The thing that makes this particular car interesting to us is that, believe it or not, Lylene and I, way back when, (40 years ago now) actually ordered this car from the factory. In 1969, there was a Pontiac dealership called Bud Meadows Pontiac in Seattle. We waltzed in there with big grins on our faces, not really knowing what in the world we were doing ,and ordered the darn thing. The fact is we didn’t even drive one first. We were a car dealer’s dream buyers I guess. Anyway, we have had the car ever since. It’s gone through a couple paint jobs, an engine overhaul and a couple new tops. I think the odometer broke in the mid 1970’s at 120,000 miles so by now it’s anybody’s guess as to the total number of miles logged on, it but it’s a bunch.  Both our boys drove it to high school. Between the 4 of us (Chandler, Graham, Lylene and myself ) we can all probably take some responsibility for a variety of dents, scrapes and adventures.

1969 Firebird Restoration

Unfortunately the car has not been garaged like it should have been and 25 years of its life was spentoutside in the salt air of Lummi Island.  To add insult to injury, it suffered from continuous exposure to salt water as it traveled on the Whatcom Chief  between Lummi Island and Gooseberry Point.  From a distance the car didn’t look too bad, but once you got up close and personal to it, it was a coin toss whether it was a candidate for Parberry’s compactor or a restoration.  Since there was a lot of our “Family Juice” wrapped up in this car, the restoration won out.  About this time last year Graham and I decided to put “Father-Son Bonding” to the supreme test and together started to dismantle the car.

There is a huge number of after market products available for cars like this.  In fact, if you wanted to build one from the ground up just from parts catalogs, you probably could.  At any rate, we have connected up with several companies and individuals throughout the US who are car enthusiasts for parts and advice.  There is an engineer in Texas who I have spent countless hours with on the phone, a guy in Arkansas whoknows everything there is to know about installing the LS series of Corvette engines in Firebirds and Camaros, a fellow in Kansas who is the goto guy for the repair of steering boxes & of course there is Red in LA who is “The” source for retrofitting transmission linkage.  We have met countless people who have taken interest in this car project. I can’t imagine what it will be like when we are finished.

So, as you might guess from the video, my youngest son and I have having a wonderful time.  Currently, the car is at the body shop under the watchful care of Lam, Fillipe and Yuri.  If you ever need any autobody work done, you’ll want to contact Affordable Autoworks.  I can personnally attest to the quality of work that they do.  These guys have taken a real interest in the car and are going way over and beyond to produce a masterpiece.  I was talking with Yuri the other day about the body work and told him that it looked “really nice”. Yuri looked at me and said,  “This does not look nice, it’s perfect”.  He went on to show me how the lines / fender / hood all match up flawlessly.

Admiring the New Baby

There are still countless decisions to be made.  We have had lively discussions about color, tire size and countless other things.  If you “Gear Heads” have any ideas that you’d like to share, let me know.  I’d be delighted to talk to you.

We’ll keep you posted as this develops.

For more information on Bellingham Real Estate or to search for homes in the Bellingham and Whatcom County area visit www.JohnsonTeamRealEstate.com, your one stop Bellingham real estate and community information resource!