1970 Firebird gets prepped for Stone Soup Project raffle

Detroit classic-rock station 94.7 WCSX started this year's Stone Soup Project for charity last month, and things with the 1970 Pontiac Firebird are going swimmingly. When finished, the car will be raffled off for HolyCross Children's Services, a charity dedicated to providing social services to kids in Michigan. Last year, the Stone Soup Project took on a classic 1969 Mustang Boss.

The Stone Soup name comes from the old fable where everyone in a village throws something into the pot to make a great meal. Ingredients in this particular “soup” include a donor car, engine and parts.

For this year's project, WCSX put the call out to its listeners for a classic car that someone was willing to donate to the cause. Its first option was a 1968 Chevy Corvette that looked fairly clean. The fans eventually voted against it and instead for a 1970 Pontiac Firebird.

It was sitting in a garage in Livonia, Mich., with no engine and random body panels stacked on the roof. Gilbert Bunch, a fan of past Stone Soup Projects who even bought a few raffle tickets, was the car's owner. Bunch passed away late last year, which led his family to donate the car to the project.

Currently, work is well underway at Ice Nine Group in Clinton Township., Mich., with help from fans who donated a Pontiac 400 engine and other parts. The project is still accepting donations of time, parts and funds.

The fans voted that the color should be blue, with black trim, which won out over white with black and red.

WCSX posted a list of parts it needs on its Stone Soup blog, including an intake manifold, oil-pan kit, valve-cover kit, header flange, ignition control and a handful of others.

Check out the project blog here, and if you want a chance to win the car, go to the raffle page and buy some tickets.

By Jake Lingeman