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76 to 70 front end conversion

13K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  chevyguyss350 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Forgive my ignorance of the 2nd gen F-body but believe it or not I am looking at my first one. I found a nice solid 76 esprit and want to convert the front over to a 70. Are the fenders the same? I was thinking that all I had to do was to swap the front facia but after doing a little reading on alignment issues I'm not so sure. What all do I need to make the swap? If it is too involved I might pass on this and wait but it is hard to fine a 70-73 in decent shape for the price i need it to be at, that is why I was looking at doing the conversion.

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
The fenders will work. There is a small bracket at the bottom you may need but its not a necessity. You need the core support front nose to frame brackets lower valance upper brackets rubber mounts etc. plus the nose with head light buckets turn signals and grills there are several other brackets you will need. It would be easer to find a 70-73 front clip and get all the parts, firebird central does stock several of the brackets in used condition.
 
#3 ·
The fenders will work. There is a small bracket at the bottom you may need but its not a necessity. You need the core support front nose to frame brackets lower valance upper brackets rubber mounts etc. plus the nose with head light buckets turn signals and grills there are several other brackets you will need. It would be easer to find a 70-73 front clip and get all the parts, firebird central does stock several of the brackets in used condition.
Thanks buddy, I think I'm going to pull the trigger on getting that 76 this week. Then I will get a parts list together for the front end conversion. Any big companies out there that I night be able to do some one stop shopping? I don't mind paying for new reproduction parts.
 
#4 ·
Ames Performance has a lot of parts and they will give you a side note on how well they fit ( pretty good info) Firebird central is another one. be careful of new after market parts, if given the choice I will spend twice the time restoring an original part I can find because it will always fit better then the new . good luck let us know what you do
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
Your best chance of finding a complete front end at one place would be a salvage yard that specializes in firebirds. Do a search for these yards.

Next would be craigslist. At least here in Florida, there are still some early 2nd gen parts available. With craigslis,t you need to search everyday as new listings come on all the time.

And expand your search out from your home town as far as your willing to drive to pick up parts.

Ten try this salvage yard search engine. It's a long shot but worth doing. Search whole country.http://www.car-part.com

I did a quick search on car-part.com, of complete front end. Only 1 result came up. It is in New York. But, you can search for individual front end parts and might get lucky.

Finally, ebay and amazon, as they have people selling 2nd gen parts on there.
 
#6 ·
Facebook has also become a large advertising place for people and vendors. There are a number of groups dedicated to Pontiac and Firebirds.
 
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