by cammerjeff » Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:46 pm
Well this is the long story of how I got involved with H-bodies, I was always a Pontiac GTO and Firebird guy, my only experiance with H-bodies were my Older Sisters 71 Vega, that wan well enough, but rusted out within its 12 month warranty and had the front fenders replaced and a repaint at the dealer. And a friend in high school that delivered papers and found that a $50.00 Vega wagon was the perfect car for his rought (after it had his modified 225 Jeep odd fire V-6 in it of course.) I helped him swap that engine into at least 3 Vega Wagons.
I had never given Astre's much thought, and in 1999 I started looking for a 1979 Yellow Firebird Formula to replace my HS/Collage car I remembered fondly. I looked for a couple of years letting all the car guys I knew to be on the look out for one, when in 2002 a Pilot I knew (I worked for Northworst Airlines as a Jetmech at the time) said he had recently seen one in a towing yard near DFW Airport. He gave me an aprox. location, but I had to track down someone willing to look for it for me, Well a friend of a friend of a friend agreed to look for it in his spare time, and found it in an impound yard near the airport, and sent pic's of it to me from about 50' away, you could clearly see the blacked out tail light panel , spoiler, yellow color, but from the tail lights I could tell it was not a F-body but a Yellow Astre Formula!!! Well Alittle disappointed at 1st, I thought that at least it would make a good 1/4 mile car being 500-800lbs lighter than a Firebird to start out, so I had the guy from Dallas try to see if the car was for sale, and its condition.
Well it took him over a year to find someone actually at the yard it was at, the gate was always locked, and there was no phone number posted anywere, when he did finally find the yards owner, he was allowed inspect the car, was told that it had been there for at least 5 years, that it had been stolen and recovered without its engine/trans, the insurance totaled it, and he was supposed to crush it but had never gotten around to it, as he liked the car. He did not have a title for the car, but he said he would get a salvage title for it. Well after seeing the pic's I was definatly interested now as it was a solid car, and I found out from the then head of Pontiac Motor Sports Fred Simmonds (he is the man that actually saved all the billing documents that the owner of Pontiac Historical serviced now owns, he used to look up the records of you car for you if you asked nice enough, and I could pic up copies of the records at his home. Great Guy!!!!) That they made less than 350 77 Astre Formula's and that it would be a very rare car, as the only color combo's they even had pic's of were White or Silver cars. So I now had the paper work on this car, but still no asking price. It took the owner of the yard well over a year to actually get a title for it, but getting ahold of him was nearly impossible, he would never return calls, and never seemed to be in his office.
Well it is now Aug of 2005 I was on Strike never to return to NWA (thank God for that!!!!! I should have bailed on that company as soon as they bought Republic Airlines were I then Worked!!!!) I got a call from the guy in Dallas that he now owned the car and I could come and get it for $1800.00. While I though that was reasonable for all the leg work he had done, I could not justify buying it when I did not know were the next mortgage payment was coming from, so I had to pass. A few months later I saw the car sell on E-bay for around $2200-2400 and never though I would see the car again. Then in 2008 I got a call from a guy looking for 77 Astre parts, I sold him a few parts over the course of a year or so before I finally asked him to e-mail me a pic of his car, he did and it was a Yellow Astre Formula, and when I saw the VIN I realised it was the car from Dallas, and it was now 65 miles from my house, go figure. Then this spring the owner offered the car and all the parts he had gathered for $2400.00 I could not pass it up, but didn't have the $$$ and he agreed to hold the car until the end of Aug 2010 for me. I picked up the car in Mid Aug thinking we were destined to be together. Here are some pic's I took of the car in Flint Michigan in as bought Condition.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by
cammerjeff on Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jeff R
1971 Catalina Freeway Enforcer
77 Astre Formula, some day soon powered by a 215 Buick V-8
1973 4-speed Lemans Safari STOCK!!!!! 1978 Catalina Safari
2006 Mallet Solstice, 6.0 LS2, 6-speed manual
2009 Solstice Coupe, 2.4, 5-speed Manual