When my son Cody asked if he could keep his 1971 Pontiac Firebird in my garage while he restored it, neither of us expected it to still be there nearly 10 years later. At the time he was a car-crazed teenager and while he is still is a fanatic for anything on wheels, now he has a family and home of his own.
He finally finished his big garage remodel and had the Firebird towed to his “Man Palace” (as my daughter-in-law calls his garage) today. Now it will live there alongside his bikes, motorcycles and tools.
Cody did an amazing job rebuilding the engine and replacing every single mechanical part with super high-tech, high-powered racing parts. The car is LOUD! It is FAST! But it needed a paint job. And not just any paint job would do for a valuable, classic “muscle car” like this.
So he took the body apart and stripped it down to bare metal and then began the body restoration project (covering everything in my garage in Bondo dust along the way). It’s mostly reassembled, but still waiting for that expensive paint job.
The next step is to get the rest of his equipment, car parts, fish tanks, tires, and junk out of my garage so I can begin my own garage remodel project!
Jana Bouc, Artist 
7 replies on “The End of an Era: Bye-Bye 1971 Firebird”
Gosh, are you going to turn your new space into an artist atalier? Something else?
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I already have my wonderful “artist atelier”–my house is actually a duplex I converted so that one unit is home and one unit is studio (Pictures here). The garage will be a secondary studio/storage space where I can do messy or smelly work and set up tables for doing production work like stretching and gessoing canvases or framing. Jana
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The end of an era signals the beginning of a new era! Will this be the Jana builds her dream studio era?!!
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Well the good news is I already have my dream studio. My house is actually a duplex I converted so that one unit is home and one unit is studio (Pictures here). But it has nice hardwood floors so the garage will be a secondary studio/storage space where I can do messy or smelly work and set up tables for doing production work like stretching and gessoing canvases or framing. Jana
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Have to love that extra space!!
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I love that you never stop being a Mum even when they have left home and got married! It sounds as if after all the upgrades, he has a completely new car! ‘Man palace’ is so funny!
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Hah! Well, it is a completely new car, but it’s still not driveable (legally) since he has the windshield and bumpers off until it gets painted and a paint job to suit that car is so expensive that it may take another 10 years to get that done. But yay! Not my problem anymore! Jana
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