Picked up an '87 Firebird Formula the other day to start as my first project car. Paid $2,000, was able to drive it home ~3 hours so it is in driving condition. 183k miles on it right now.
Only rust I have found was under the rear wheel wells, not too bad tho so some patching should fix it up fine.
First real problem I found was that it pulls hard right when you brake. The brake fluid was really low so going to bleed the lines and refill to see if it's just air in the brake lines. If that's not the problem, check the calipers and replace those if they are bad (even if only one is bad, I would do them both so I have even braking)
Second problem was the wiring; one of the previous owners switched to electric radiator fans (and they are nice fans at that), but the wiring was awful, so I redid all of that so it won't short out or melt fuses now.
Other than that, no major issues, so started with some other minor improvements; removal of air conditioning and cruise control - also made it a lot easier to work around the rest of the engine.

As of rights now, my priority upgrades are to get new shocks all the was around, since the stock ones are fairly worn (went for a 4 person "stress" test drive and it was pretty rough on the arse), and a fiberglass "Ram Air" hood that I'm going to convert to pin-on (weight reduction, cold air, mild forced induction)
After those are done, probably new heads/cams/headers, but that all depends on the financial situation by that point.

I thought you got one of these cars, I was gonna say..they are prolly top 5 one of the ugliest cars ever in the front lol.
Gz though on the 87 !

usually we at least get a pic of the car

yea

wall of text = boring

hey man, we dont put ram air on 3rd gens ok?

we put cowl style hoods

and just so you know if you go on thirdgen.org you will find out what to do/what not to do. these guys know their shit they have completely gutted and destroyed so many of these cars its not even funny

ram air is a nono

removing the A/C is easy as cake, what i did involved a sledge hammer, some sheet metal, and a rivet gun, tiny bit of of wrench action. how you do it is totally up to you

BBC and new shocks/struts are game changers for these cars.

i think the formula is the 350 tpi and kif it is, take all that shit off, throw a carb on, cam it out, like 488 kinda shit ya dig, get some alabama cylinder heads, some 220cc fuck your mother type heads, SHORTY STYLE HEADERS

SHORTY STYLE HEADERS\
SHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERS
SHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERSSHORTY STYLE HEADERS

seriously, if you dont read that and melt it into your head your life is gunna be shit because not a single other header will fit on that car with a 350sb in it.

you can read all the shit u want about OH THESE WILL FIT, but im telling you, listen to me real good boy

mother fucking shorty style headers



like these but find someone besides summit that makes them


also, becool radiator and a 190 thermostat has a deal with one of the 3rdgen forums and they sell the set for like $200, full manual aluminum radiator things are nice and direct fit changed one on the side of the road once.



another note on the headers, be sure the spark plugs look easy to get to before purchasing the header, cause the holly headers i got make changing spark plugs the same level of enjoyment as jacking off with broken glass


and after you mod it all out and make it all hot rodded n shit

ur gunna vapor lock your fuel lines, so buy alot of heat wrap until u can afford some manly fuel lines

This post was edited by t9x on May 27 2015 08:26am

Possibly the best write up in this forum to date.

Ty

i was impressed

it was almost like reading instructions to a bolt on parts goodies car

I thought shorty headers were pretty much useless?
I don't wanna fuck with installing long tubes and from what I've read on other sites they say short tubes are useless.

I was gonna buy short tube stainless steels and stainless steel ypipe and high flow cats.

I mean you can try fitting something else but you are going to have to relocate frame