Tu, thanks!!

Love the pic with the little one, my girls love to "work" on the cars, I just keep hammers away from them :)

Gui

Oh come on Gui....hammer fixes everything! :D

Jason, I hear ya :) The girls loved "helping" on the Jeep since little, but stoked all of our little ones are interested in cars.

Tu, do you have more full side shots of the bird with the new shoes? Did you end up adding spacers?

thanks!

Great build thread! I completely identified with so many aspects of the build. Looking good and keep up the work. I am subscribed. BTW, what rotors did you use with your 4th gen firebird brakes? I might need a set coming up soon. I just received my hardlines from Tobin. Once I finish up some metal work in the trunk I'm moving on to running hardlines. Great work!

Tu, just read your entire thread. Purchasing a car in this condition (top pic) and restoring it to it's current condition (bottom pic) pretty much all on your own is an amazing accomplishment, absolutely outstanding. Beautiful car, glad you made the switch from imports. You know if you still lived in the great NW you'd put fewer miles on your car :lol: well done :cheers:
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...9_23_08002.jpg


http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps92b3846e.jpg

I used SSBC rotors.

Hi Lenie. Thanks for the compliments. I sure miss the NW, but won't miss the rain. I'm sure you can relate. But as Greg Weld can attest, it sure rains hard down in Texas.

Your Firebird is awesome. Wish I can look at it in person.

Some updates
 

I got several Summit gift cards during father's day weekend, just enough to place an order for a DSE roll bar.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps0ef351dd.jpg

Removed the dynamat and welded on the floor plates.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps12d098a5.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psca037f8b.jpg

Main hoop tacked in place.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps6c4b8ee7.jpg

Main hoop and down bars tacked welded, removed as one unit, and fully welded. As usual, my prettier welds won't be seen.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps5d79d128.jpg

Mocked up and welded on the harness bar.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psa67bf442.jpg

With the package tray opened up for the down bars, it was flexing a little, so I tied the package tray to the down bars.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps554a112a.jpg

I also made an amp tray that mounts to the down bars in the trunk, similar to several builds on here.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psfc03d20b.jpg

Not as pretty as some builds going on here, but the amps are off the trunk floor.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps0ddade2c.jpg

With the seats out, I decided to lower the SCATS seat mount adapters. I cut off the old mounting ears and welded on some flat 3/16" steel. Not the best looking, but the mod lowers the seats by 1".

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf3a34878.jpg

That's it for now. I picked up a gen5 camaro console from the junkyard, and will be working on mounting it in the car in place of the original console. Will start on that later when the weather cools down. I got tired in working in 90 degrees plus heat in the garage.

Very nice work, thinking of something like this for my car as well. You were able to slide the whole thing in place as one unit? That is good to know...Nice to be able to do the majority of the welding outside the car.

Yes, I was able to slide the whole thing in and out as one unit. In fact, the DSE instruction mentioned it. It was tight though. There maybe 1/8" of clearance at the window opening, and I had to jack the car up so I can maneuver the main hoop down on the ground.

Tu, came out great! Can you shoot a close up pic of the disconnect you used for the B pillar bar, looks removable? Thanks! Gui

Yes the harness bar is removable. The quick connects were part of the roll bar kit. You can see a picture of it on DSE web site.

I'll see if I can get a close up picture tonight.

gui,

Here's a close up of the harness bar. The main hoop has a matching slot that the bar bolts to.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps5b10a82b.jpg

Tu, thank for the pic!

Gui

I never liked the layout of the center dash on 67-68 F-body so I decided to make some changes.

Bought a blank dash insert from Classic Industries, and cut out the openings for the AC vents, VA controller, and a single DIN stereo. The cut outs made the panel looked like a smiley face. :)

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps83a32e08.jpg

Got a stereo insert for a Volvo, and epoxied it in the panel.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps176fde38.jpg

I was having reservation about cutting up a perfect dash, for just a second. One minute later with a body saw, I had this.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps4d87e7ff.jpg

Vents/ac controls mocked up.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps902b8fef.jpg

And installed.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps242f56f6.jpg

Now just had to charge my Optima red top. It's completely dead. Put it on a charger, and it shut off after 6 mins, with a voltage of only 6V. I put in on battery tender to see if it's holding a charge overnight. It's a tad over 4 years old so maybe it's time for a new battery. :G-Dub:

I didn't even know one could buy a blank panel.... sure would have saved me some time, ha ha

Looks cool!

The blank panel is made from thin gauge aluminum, so it's quite soft. I bought this long time ago, so I had to use it. Otherwise I'd make up some blank inserts from steel, similar to what you did.

Some minor updates on my Firebird. Took advantage of last year's sale on Speedtech's AFX spindles and order a set thru Ron Sutton.

AFX spindle next to the stock spindle with Kore3 hubs/bracket. The old spindle weighed 13.6# vs 8.5# for the AFX spindle, according to my bath room scale.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps5247ed25.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psc0a0910b.jpg

Between working on my friend's 65 Fastback, I managed to install the new spindles.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps18ad9147.jpg

Also installed 1" lowering blocks on the rear. Do I need to add something to take up the space between the spring perch and shock plate?

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psaf343f61.jpg

New Formula 43 wheels arrived, ordered thru Ron Sutton as well. Can't speak enough of his excellent customer service. Will definitely order thru him again on future stuff.

Formula 43 Rad S6 wheels, with laguna grey coated centers. 18x8.5 front and 18x9 back.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps9f3964d6.jpg

Now just have to get the tires switched over to the new wheels. Have to find a different tire shop, as I'm done with Discount Tires.

People that have NOT ordered or worked with him....have no idea what they're missing out on!!

Car is looking great as usual Tu. Looking forward to seeing some tires on the new rims.

looking good, I always have a soft spot for a 67-68 firebird :)

looks great
 

Hello my friend looks great allot of time and elbow grease went into your build i see. This is what i like to see a fellow car guy do things himself great job love the bird!!!!:popcorn2:

Greg, you're 100% correct. Ron actually following up after the sale to make sure everything was correct, unlike typical salesmen that disappear after the sale.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Also installed 1" lowering blocks on the rear. Do I need to add something to take up the space between the spring perch and shock plate?

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psaf343f61.jpg[/QUOTE]

Yes, you are missing the leaf spring pad:
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/oer-rl8e

Why are you changing the wheels? And nice work on rescuing the Firebird from slowly rusting away!

Tu slightly off topic but how do you like the ridetech HQ's? Also what leafs are you running out back?

I was referring to the spots where the U-bolts are. I have leaf spring pads between the springs and axle perches. The original mono leaf had a pad between it and axle perch, but not on the shock plate.

The Budnik wheels were nice, but it has the valve stems behind the spokes. I had to use flush mount stem to clear the calipers, and them flush mount stems are quite a pain. There are times when I checked the tire pressure and found out the stems are behind the calipers.

Post up pics of the car with the new rims. They look awesome!

I like them a lot. Had KYB shocks before and the ride was quite harsh. The Ridetech shocks made a huge improvement. The springs are Hotchkis 1.5" drop springs.

Thanks Jason. As soon as we have decent weather I'll get some decent shots. As you know we have been having crappy weather.

Tu

With Jason's help (n77nxc), I found a place in SW Houston that has a touchless tire machine. Brought the new Formula 43 wheels down to them, and had the tires mounted. Last weekend, the weather was nice enough so I rolled the car out of the garage, and snapped a couple of pictures with the new wheels.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psnkqfvkbc.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psl1inlww2.jpg

Since I signed up for USCA event in Texas, a helmet was needed. My 6 year old daughter couldn't wait to try it on, right out of the box. G-force carbon helmet.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...pszzryy1yt.jpg

Now I just have to get the car aligned, nut/bolt check then I should be ready to go.

The car looks great with the wheels.

Awesome Tu....I'm hoping to have your old wheels to that same shop in the next week or two.

Awesome update Tu!

Thanks for the tip on the shop Jason. They did a great job on the wheels/tires. Make sure to post some pictures.

Thanks for the compliment Kevin.

Spent about 90 minutes yesterday to go over the front end alignment.

Adjusting the toe.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psy7pjkfjy.jpg

Checking camber/caster.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psmvm8evsr.jpg

I went with -0.5 degree camber, 0 toe, and pos 5 degrees caster.

Tu did you end up going with the short or tall versions of the ATS spindles? Car looks great with the new wheels BTW!

Tall spindle. Got them from Ron Sutton.

Thanks.

Nice job, car looks great. I'm a member of the home built crew too. Saw some pics of your car at the USCA Texas event, Good luck today! I'll be in the Charlotte event.

Appreciate the info, how do you like them? Noticeable seat of the pants improvement? Did the spindle swap necessitate the wheel change? The kore 3 brakes transfer over without issue? Also did you pick up your DBA rotors thru Kore3 or another source? Sorry for all the questions but appreciate the info in advance..... have a very similar set of plans currently in the works for my car. One of these days would like to see the car in person, I believe Niftee Fiftees starts up again next Saturday and I hope to head out there with a few friends.

Thanks. I've been keeping up with your build thread as well. Wonder where you saw the pics of my car? USCA website?

So far I like the spindles. Be honest with you I did not notice any improvement. But I did see noticable camber gain when working the suspensions with the shocks removed.

I changed the wheels because I wanted to take the advantage of the Thanksgiving sale Ron Sutton was having, not because of the spindle swap. The spindles did not change the track width at all. In fact, my old wheels mounted up just fine.

The Kore3 stuff transferred over just fine. The parts that were not used were the brackets/hubs. The spindles were designed to use Corvette brakes, so stock GM or aftermarket brakes will work. In fact, I'm about to change the calipers out to Wilwood's Aero6 calipers.

I bought the rotors thru Autoanything. They were having a sale on DBA rotors, and at the time had the lowest prices compared to anyone else.

Hope that helps.

Tu

Attended USCA Texas event at Texas Motor Speedway this last weekend for the first time, and had a blast. Got to meet fellow lateral-g members (carbuff, gerno, grabbergt, chichirone), and checked out some really cool cars.

Some pictures at the event. I'm still looking for some action shots of the car.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...pss8yrorst.jpg

Lining up for tech/check in.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...pscovrnepg.jpg

All stickered up and ready to go.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...pswihrfe2e.jpg

Got to park next to 2 really cool cars (carbuf's Firebird and gerno's Camaro) in the hotel parking lot, at the early morning hour.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psvq22andn.jpg

Mechanically, the car did great. I knew the car is low in power, compared to the rest of the cars at the event, and this showed in the road course. The stock transmission would up shift half way thru the apex, and that killed the acceleration. My current seats sucked, and those will be changed out before I do another track event.

For those who's been contemplating about attending this event, do it. It's well run, and the instructors provided by Jet Hot were invaluable.

Overall I finished 13th out of 19 entries in my class (vintage-GTV) which was surprising. Guess I did not do too bad for a complete newbie who has never done a track day before.

Hope Optima brings back the event to Texas next year.

Tu