The bird has landed...

[Garyhw48]

It took some time to find but it looks like the Bird was painted with DuPont Lucite acrylic lacquer.

Color Code 99

I'm with you Mike, if this info is right your in for a real good time buffing out the Bird. Single stage lacquer is in a whole category of it's own. Hope there's enough paint left on it to work with.

[jem7sk]

Maybe I missed the story from you on this Mike but I heard Burt was selling a lot of stuff including this car... Does it still belong to Burt or did someone just buy it? I'm assuming someone just bought it.

[mcate]

I'm an old Pontiac guy from that "era". Used to own a '71 Formula 400. It's funny how those cars from the 1st few years of the unleaded gas era are considered classics now, & they were absolute dogs back then. I think the '78 6.6 (400 ci) only made something like 200 hp. Back then we thought high horsepower & torque were things of the past.

[MarkD51]

Did you folks buy Burt's car? LOL

I had one of those nightmares, with the Eagle on the hood of a Jeep Chair-Oak-Kee.

They nicknamed me "The Hawk" after I went through 4 years of that AMC 1980 nightmare.

I threw more wax on it, than what it was worth. It rusted from the inside out.

Amazing what manufacturers will sell you.

[cardaddy]

That would ruin the originality of this car and be the exact polar opposite of the owner's wishes.


That's called normal wear-n-tear for a car that's 37 year old. Probably older than some reading this thread. Some would also call it patina, that is the the normal appearance of a survivor car.

.....The value in this car is in its originality. Replacing the graphics would be a mistake. Especially since I have a couple tricks for working on antique graphics.

I agree, the "originality" would be affected.
That wasn't stated, or clear however from your original post.
If the idea was to make it look like new, then (at least some of) the decals would be first on the list.

Wasn't thinking of it as a "survivor" in the sense of keeping it all original and perfect.... just based on how rough it's been treated. Then again.... if indeed this was one of "Burt's" cars then I'd absolutely make sure everything was left alone.

Although there is a thing called "sympathetic restoration" that would use only OEM parts, not being frame off, and could actually include a new paint job, which would increase the overall value. Although the real "value" would be in keeping the original paint FOR SURE.

Still not sure though of any real, 'value' as I agree with some others, all the mid 70's to mid 80's cars were pretty much dogs. I'm still in awe at the prices of Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth products of old, having owned and driven them during their 'prime' they were surely rust buckets, terrible handling, and far from fine pieces of well assembled, and perfectly fitting (body panels) perfection.

Now take my wife's first Pontiac, a 67 GTO that she had when we were dating and that's another story. (Still didn't handle worth a darned, but a true 60's classic.) I later had a 73 GTO, nice riding car, decent enough power (for a floating boat) but FAR from a performance car. As for the 'screamin' chicken's' I've gone through, or driven pretty much all of them from the early 'big ol' round headlight models to the quad rectangles. Not at the top of the list performance wise.

Interesting though to see the 70's & 80's cars come into (at least some level of)collectability. Maybe a bargain now, (providing you hold on to them for another 40 years).

[boatmangc]

Mike, when it's done you have to wear something like this for the reveal LOL


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[Mike Phillips]

Mike, when it's done you have to wear something like this for the reveal LOL

Um..... I don't think so...

[Mike Phillips]

I'm excited to see how she looks after I remove the wax....

[pikiki]

So will be done today?

[JamRWS6]

I'm excited to see how she looks after I remove the wax....

Nice little teaser there Mike. Hope you have a lot more pictures of the entire process you can show us While these cars don't compare to the vehicles available to us today they are truly timeless classics