Sounds like a great plan! Take your time (don't rush it) and you'll get there.

Have you considered moving the engine back for better weight distribution?

Me too Ron, me too. :unibrow:

^ Aaron might be that buddy helping take it on! :yes: :yes:

I can't wait to see it either! But progress for the next 6 months is going to be slow... Should be in the new house in April. If we are successful in selling the current place or renting at a decent price, the budget may free back up a bit shortly after. Then I just need a stack of various size steel tubes and a better welder to start building up a chassis table and frame rails.

Ok, so almost 6 months later...

Just got into the new house about a month ago. Love the house, lots of space, builder was a schmuck, but all-in-all, I'm happy. Old place is up for sale and we're hoping for a quick sale since there are no other 3 bed units in the sub. That will help free up the budget again... we shall see.

Anyway, so I've started piecing together the rear suspension. Made some good progress in procuring parts over the last few weeks so perhaps its time to share. Don't mind the banged up dust shield or anything like that, this is still mock up time.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/IMG_6512.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/IMG_6518.JPG

Long way to go from here, because that is unfortunately not just going to bolt-in if you know what I mean..... to help progress my front sub is for sale if anyone is looking...

Well I'll be....thought this project was a gonner. Almost deleted my subscription :_paranoid

Looks pretty good. That should be a good challenge for you to stuff that under the firechicken. I'm visualizing some rocker arms to turn the shocks (coilovers later) 90deg to a lateral orientation in the trunk..:unibrow:

I've got beer in the fridge if you want to just come on down and knock that out....

Dude let's see pics of the new house!!

I don't have much at my fingertips, but here is one from before she was finished.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N...ngImageSrc.jpg

Took this looking into the backyard from the kitchen.....

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_6472.JPG

Nice!!

So when I was removing the drivers quarter I absolutely destroyed the brace that the door striker threads into. I will NEVER make that mistake again. First, because you can't just buy a new one. And second, because these things are a nightmare to extract from another car.....

I did eventually win though...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...0930-00242.jpg

I will hopefully be able to have the rear of the car welded back together by thanksgiving and start roughing in the rear suspension. The replacement panels aren't perfect, but the quarters don't seem too bad. The tail panel might be a different story, but we'll see as it is really only near the bottom. I'm less concerned there as I may do something unique back there anyway. Any 1st gen experts want to lend a hand? I pay in really good beer and food!

How about recessing the tail panel???

I like the way it looks, but also looks like lots of work!

I was starting to wonder if I'd ever be able to get this thing to start going back together - and finally it seems to be starting.... Pretty happy with the alignment so far. Still deciding if I want to play with it some more while I figure out everywhere that needs to be welded! The only area I'm currently concerned about is the sail panel area. It seems to be a bit wiggly near the bottom of the drip rail and I don't like the way it meets the roof panel. Outer wheelhouse is also mocked in and seems to be fitting ok. Still need to finalize the passenger side and then it's on to welding!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...0/IMG_6537.JPG

Now I just need to fab this in.... simple, right?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0/IMG_6541.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...0/IMG_6540.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...0/IMG_6542.JPG

What is that rear end/chassis part out of?

Looks to be GTO? or 5th gen Camaro.

scratch that its BMW..

Correct - E9x 3-series rear suspension. Very curious to see how difficult this is going to be to fab in....

Please post tons of pics. Subscribing with "instant notification by email". Good luck with it :thumbsup:

Brain just a thought here but are you using the front suspension from the BMW?? If you plan on using the whole setup I would find a donor car and cut out the whole floor and work back from there? Not sure if the wheel base or track width lines up? Even if the the firebird is wider it would be easier to split the BMW setup down the middle and build a tunnel for trans and drive shaft?? Just been thinking of some of the ways I would start.

This is what I want to do. The front suspension will be far more complex to integrate as it is a Mac Strut on the BMW. The line of what to steal from the BMW and what not is very fuzzy at this point. The track widths are actually within an acceptable variance that can be managed by wheel offsets. Plus I need to offload my JRS front suspension to move forward on the BMW front suspension.....

Is the E9X platform the M3 series? Or just any 3 series?

E9x is all encompassing (coupe, sedan, wagon, convertible) regular and M3 versions. Obviously all variants have their unique parts. Chassis is pretty common though except for M3 which has uinique subframe, control arms / toe link, and tunable parts.

:topic: :topic:

Finally starting to make progress again. Picked up the needed tools and steel to do what I want to do and started on the chassis table.

First thing I addresses was lighting. I typically only get to work in the garage after 8 or 8:30 at night, so the 3 standard bulbs weren't cutting it. I replaced 2 of the sockets with flush mount 2 bulb T5HO fixtures. Nice improvement.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E...800/image.jpeg

Then I had been looking at a Quincy 3.5 hp compressor for a long time. Finally bit the bullet. Should be plenty for me. Not wired up yet, but hope to have that wrapped up soon. Hoping it's quiet enough (rated at 76 db).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...800/image.jpeg

Then I pieced together the MIG / plasma / cart from Eastwood as they each went on sale. Boy, gas MIG is wayyyyyy better than flux core. Pretty much no spatter whatsoever. I have not tried the plasma yet as I need the compressor hooked up first and need to install a dryer.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...800/image.jpeg

Lastly I ordered about 750 lbs of steel to build a chassis table and frame rails. Chassis table is underway. With some helpful tips I'm pretty happy with the levelness / straightness so far. Just tacked together for now and moved out of the way until I get some more time to work on it.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L...800/image.jpeg

That 69 T/A hood motivates me every time I see it. Hoping to have the chassis table wrapped up in another week or two. Then I'm going to have a beer party to get the car on it! :G-Dub:

Just about finished with the chassis table. Need to weld on the supports for the leveling feet and 2 more casters. After a final level and flat check I will weld it all up, clean it up, and maybe paint it before putting it to use.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...s800/photo.JPG

Nice table, is it big enough to have the complete chassis on it at once or just the shell?

Thanks Rick. Should be big enough. 10' x 6'. Wheelbase is about 107 as I recall? Might need to extend a bit to do bumpers, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Digging the table.

Is that a 3 bay garage?

Yes. 3 bay - they call them 3.5 car garages here. But I can only manage 1.5!

Table looks great, nice work.

Nice work on the table. I would recommend one more pair of casters in the middle. It'll give you more support/ disperse the weight load better. Just a thought, hope it's helpful...

He's planning on two more and leveling feet also. He just needs to pick up the pace, so slow :action-smiley-027:

Dude I work like a mad man for an hour here and there. Just hard to fit in while solving all the worlds problems, hockey, and mowing the lawn.

All six casters are on and all the leveling feet are on. Welding skills are still sketchy him going to blame it on a couple things. Imperfect prep work (gaps and cleaning) and a crappy helmet! :welder: Need to stay between the lines. The lines are my friends. I promise the welding will get better. In the meantime I will accept all constructive criticism.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-x...s800/image.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3...s800/image.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2...s800/image.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...s800/image.jpg

harbor Freight has auto helmets for 60-70 bucks. Work well.

When I was in school I scribed lines to follow as I welded. Just a bit finer line to follow with your tip and then it will become second nature. But I think you are doing really well!!

Ah, I missed that. Too busy looking at the pics I suppose

One suggestion, and I'm no expert with the metal caulk gun, would be to clean the areas with a flap wheel first. Weld might be cleaner when done. Looks pretty good so far though :newbie:

Welds are good.clean metal better and if you don't like it, grind the lumps down a bit and run another pass.practice,practice practice

Looking good.

How do I keep missing these great builds?!
Another awesome Firebird and I'd love to see the grafting of a BMW M3 suspension to it!!!

Mocking up the new rear frame rails in wood first because it is way easier to cut quickly and throw in the garbage.... Getting pretty close on the angles / lengths. Will likely end up building this out of 2x3x11g tube. Here it is 1.75x1.75 pieces of wood.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0...no/photo+1.JPG

On other progress, the garage was taken over by a barrage of house projects. Garage door opener needed to be replaced already, a big cedar playscape needed to be refinished and installed in the back yard, a 10x14 rug is in a box and in the garage needs to be moved inside, and on and on and on. The garage had turned completely into a non-usable space. I've since fixed that by getting the playscape done, and getting some of those Monkey Bars shelves. They hold 1000lbs each and are a 2' x 4' shelf about 7ft above the floor and have hooks to also hang stuff up. Made a big difference.

The compressor is wired and running and a 3/4" Rapid Air kit brings the air to 3 outlets, 2 on the back wall of the garage (right on the below picture) and 1 between the 2 garage doors (left on below picture). Glad that's done.

The car is up on the chassis table, albeit not at ride height or in position. It's currently at a 3" ride height with no rake. Cool but not practical. Planning to move it up 2-2.5 inches and give it a bit of rake (0.5" - 1"). With that done, I built the support for the BMW subframe based off measurements I took on an actual car. That allowed me to move on to the mock up phase. Now ready to start making the steel pieces. Unfortunately, I think this is the easy part. Getting the car and subframe positioned precisely is my biggest concern. Even with the amount of adjustment built into these production suspensions, I want to get it as close as possible. Once I'm at that point, I need to check if my idea about tying into the existing body will work. The way I'm planning to do that would make it relatively easy and not very expensive.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-W...no/photo+2.JPG

And since this isn't a woodworking site and wood just won't work, I made one out of proper material!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e...s800/photo.JPG

Took 2 tries to get it right. First attempt was cutting with a plasma cutter. Second was with a cut off wheel on my grinder. Neither of these methods are perfect, but the cut off wheel worked out a bit better.

It looks good.