Barn Find Horde of Dusty Vintage Pontiac Firebirds Is Going to Auction
Coming across an honest-to-God barn find is one of the most exciting things that can happen to a vintage car nerd. As cool as finding one forgotten vintage car is something, but what about a garage full of 20 vintage Pontiac muscle cars? This collection mainly consists of enough vintage Pontiac Firebirds to make Burt Reynolds come back for a ride from Texarkana to Atlanta.
Barn find Pontiac Firebird horde is what muscle car dreams are made of
According to CarScoops, a U.S. Navy vet had spent the last who knows collecting vintage Pontiacs. More specifically, the collection seems to be mostly dusty ol’ birds of the “screamin’ chicken” variety.
Bernie Larson was a man who clearly had a strong love of all things vintage Pontiac Firebirds, in particular. At the time of Larson’s death, his collection had nearly 20 vintage Pontiacs and mountains of parts. The family has now decided to dig out the dusty old birds and bring these barn find Pontiacs out into the light and on to the auction block.
The collection of Firebirds are currently being prepared to be sold by VanDerBrink Auction. VA is cataloging, researching, and cleaning the dust off these barn-find beauties and ready to move these vintage muscle cars to the next Pontiac/Trans Am lover.
What exactly is in this giant barn find?
VanDerBrink says that after his military time, Larson worked at the postal service for many years. After his retirement, Larson spent many weekends combing the wares at local swap meets and car shows. People close to him say that he was always looking for a new car or parts to add to the collection.
The years of swap meets and car shows earned Larson quite the impressive collection of vintage Pontiacs. CarScoops says some of the collection consists of:
1971 Pontiac Firebird a 400 V8
1973 Pontiac Firebird 350 V8
1973 Pontiac Firebird 455 V8
1974 Pontiac Trans Am x2
1975 Pontiac Trans Am
1977 Pontiac Trans Am
1978 Pontiac Trans Am x4
1979 Pontiac Trans AM x4
1981 Pontiac Trans AM turbocharged 301 V8
Most of these amazing barn finds need a good deal of work to get back to their prime as the beer-running, law-evading Firebirds they once were. The beauty of this collection is that, unlike other barn finds, these have a ton of parts to choose from as well.
The cars are listed on VanDerBrink Auctions’ website. The parts will be to buy in person on June 12th. Among the extensive parts, the collection includes classic Pontiac engines, intakes, carburetors, various body panels, including bumpers, and more.
These old Pontiacs are more than just cars
Like many collectible cars, these Pontiacs (and the firebirds, particularly) are valuable for more than just what they are as a car. These cars from this era will forever be associated with a certain sect of muscle car lovers.
The Smokey and the Bandit movie made the Firebird an icon. It doesn’t matter what year, color, style, or configuration; the Pontiac Firebird will conjure links to that film in people’s minds.
The Pontiac Firebird is more than just a collection of parts; it’s a symbol to folks who want to skirt authority and the main road.
