As a teenager, it sure was hell getting paid to take a test drive in the Buick GSX ram-airs, GTO's and Firebirds when they were new.
Not to mention the pick-ups, vans and those battleship sized Electra 225's......
Boy, I can't imagine the horror...the horror.
The total fright of having driven a significant part of American made history, brand spanking new.
I'm just not old enough to ever know what that must be like; I feel like even a full stock resto, or one that sat preserved, or built ground up from new old parts wouldn't drive precisely like back then. All my cars are older than me...
Edit: here's what I got, it's a long way from pretty--
This shot of the firewall plug alarms me because it looks totally barbecued. I'm not sure if it's fried or if there's some sort of goo covering it, but the circuitry sort of works... My temp and oil pressure work, ignition switch works. Totally looks like it shouldn't.
Besides that, there's no internal handles on the doors save the sliding door (I accidentally trapped myself yesterday, had to reach through the shotgun window and get the door from the outside
)
I'm not sure if Chevy has internal handles on the back doors normally, but I would assume those being absent is normal.
Technically, the slider handles is gone too, but some engineering genius PO slid a rotisserie spit through the mechanism's 1/4" drive and doglegged it. It functions as a handle just fine on both sides of the door, but I'll have to get the bolt cutters out to put real handles in.
Healthy amount of cancer for something 35 years old, but I've seen worse. Back bumper's been hooked on something and bent, but bigger problems are afoot... Fortunately, other than needing a good cleaning and some new valve cover gaskets, the engine doesn't look or sound like it's about to self-destructive even though I know this thing has toured the US a few times now.
I'm not 100% I know what 'm looking at here, but most of this tangle under the doghouse appears to be cruise control? And smog related stuff, to be sure... GM makes some gigantic distributor caps.
What's the carb on these? Or the tranny? I think it's a 305 motor, but I don't know anything about GM. Peeking past the hoses and looking at the carb, looks like a 4 barrel.