Fixing up an old Firebird

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We rescued this 1967 Pontiac Firebird from the woods in Talkeetna, Alaska, where it had been sitting for approximately 40 years. This is a first‑year Firebird with the iconic triangle vent windows, and despite its decades of abandonment, we were determined to get it back on the road. The car appeared complete, but getting it running proved to be more challenging than expected. After numerous attempts to free up the engine—including soaking the cylinders with penetrating oil and using pry bars and breaker bars to manually rotate it—we discovered the real problem: a thrown rod that had most likely hammered the oil pan from the inside out and was contacting the block. The period‑correct engine was junk (it wasn't original). Rather than source another period‑correct engine, we decided to do something different. We swapped in a modern turbocharged 2.0L LTG engine, essentially creating a modern‑day Sprint Six with significantly more power and reliability than the original. This required extensive hand fabrication, custom engine mounts, exhaust work, and countless hours of problem‑solving to make everything fit and function properly.