Nice Fab work! It looks like you going to have to fab the headers for the car also!

Thank you!

Fortunately, the headers, hopefully, won't be too bad. I have a set of the Edelbrock LS1 headers, and the driver side will need two of the tubes rebuilt. the passenger side still fits with clearance to spare. The engine mount tubes were built around the headers in place.

Engine bolts in!
 

I had some time today to work on the car (I have to go in to work tomorrow and won't have a chance to work on it, so I'm posting my weekly progress tonight) but I was able to finally bolt the engine in today. After getting the tubing mounts ready I made the engine bolt tubes out of some chrome moly tubing my neighbor Brett (67Zo6camaro) hooked me up with. He also helped to tig weld them in as I don't know if my equipment is set up to weld chrome moly. I filled in the ends and bolted the engine in. Now I'm in the process of building the trans cross member and mount.

I'll be using the original trans mount and modifying it to fit. I'm working on "scalping" the top so it can sit higher (more exhaust clearance) and building some brackets to weld to the inner frame rails so I can bolt this new cross member where it needs to go. I should get this part finished up and installed next weekend.

I have been on this site and Pro-touring for months now reading and watching people build their projects... but this build has to be one of my favorites!! :thumbsup:

It is AMAZING to see the thought and effort you are putting in to the tweaks that add improved functionality and uniqueness to the car. They are also ones that don't break the bank like some of the custom garage builds (I know I can't afford a CNC machine :eek: ).

As a fellow Firebird owner, you are making one of the coolest firebirds I have seen. I cannot wait to see what you do next... (especially when it comes time to fitting the front bumper better than the factory did with their 3/4 inch gap.) Keep it up... If I could I would buy you a beer just to ask you a TON of questions and advice on my build!!:cheers:

Thank you! You're too kind. I'd be happy to talk Firebirds and advise in any way I can. I can't take all the credit, as I've referenced other car builds and taken advise and help from others myself. It does help having built some cars before, but each time I take a project on, it's more involved than the last. (makes me wonder what I'll do on the next car)

I too wish I had a CNC machine and was versed in Pro E. :)

Engine is in
 

I had some time after work on Friday to finish up my trans crossmember. I was able to weld the brackets on and attach it. Nothing is torqued down, of course, but the bolts line up and the car is holding the engine.

Next weekend we'll be busy, so it'll be another couple of weeks before I can resume again.

It looks good in there.

Brendon, loving the the progress man, keep it coming!!

Thank you, will do my best to!

I had to work this weekend, so I took on a small project with the spare time I had- I modified the rear seat brace. Since I'm not going to have a back seat in this, I'd like to have a flat panel in its place. The OEM design is angled, so I trimmed it back to mount higher up/ be in line with the axle tunnel, pie cut it and put it back together. This way when (one day) I put an interior in this I can make a flat panel and use some removable attachments for it. It'll likely be covered in either the floor carpet or whatever I used for the package shelf. Not sure yet..

These pics came out blurrier than usual so it's not anyone else's eyes (just mine). I also got distracted with a side project. I was given a prototype (sales model) of an old Tomy "Monster Machines" truck the other week. It's a hand built sample (cast resin, hand painted, etc) and too cool to just let sit and rot in my attic so I built a little shelf for it in my garage along with some other toys I have on display.

I really need so start spending some money. It's high time I get the brakes and wheel rims so I can start some other projects like my inner fender mods, reinstalling the quarter panels, outer inner fenders, remainder truck extensions, etc. Oh, I also need to get hold of a tubing bender so I can build that cage I was thinking about.

Love all the fab work you putting into the car. It looks great. I read how you centered your rear axle within a 1/16th of an inch. Im trying to do that right now do you have any pointers that could help me out? I tried looking but couldnt find much

Thank you! I must admit I had some help. Brett over at www.fab53.com gave me a hand with it. With the car level we used long square tubing to extend outward over each axle and made sure each were perpendicular to the car. we checked against reference points on the body that had not been removed. from that we were able to measure the bars front to back, then side to side and diagonally across. We also used "plumb bobs" (a string with a weight) to measure against. be sure they aren't swinging!

It was a lot of measuring, re measuring, then measuring again later. The numbers were consistent. (unless we were consistently wrong??) The nice thing about the DSE rear is I can still make adjustments to the axle location by adjusting the thread depth on the tubular links. I hope this is helpful.

-Brendon

I got a day or so in on my car last Labor Day weekend- most of it was spent painting the trim on my house.

My project was to add the DSE brake bracket to my car. I thought it would be easy, but I had issue after issue adding it. We all have those days, I suppose. I did fill in the old holes to help smooth out the firewall. I eventually got it attached, and added some metal underneath it, too.

Then I went to mock up my Hydratech brake unit, which for some reason doesn't align with the bolt holes. So I'm working with the folks at Hydratech and it's looking like I'll need to modify the DSE braket to make it fit.

On another note I did order my brakes through Kore 3 and I'm looking forward for those to arrive.

This weekend I made a little progress. Following up from last weekend I got that DSE plate welded in, only to realize two things: 1- my Hydratech brake unit wasn't fitting, and 2- I didn't like the angle the clutch hydraulic cylinder was at. There's an old saying about measuring twice, cut once. I need to learn that.

I had a little guidance from the folks at Hydratech, so that is all taken care of. Good customer service there, btw. As for the clutch cylinder, I cut back out the metal I put in and made a groove in the bracket so I could bend it to the angle I wanted. I located a hole on the clutch pedal 3" down from the pivot point to reduce the pedal travel and help firm up the clutch feel a little. I also welded the foot plates onto the levers better. I didn't like how little the factory attached them.

After being temporarily side tracked with putting the column and wheel in, I also wanted to add a clutch pedal stopper as I don't want to bottom out the hydraulic cylinder. Raiding my scrap metal bucket I pirated a piece of scrap 2" square tubing and welded it onto the side of the pedal bracket. I originally was thinking about installing a rubber plug on the end of it, but then changed my mind to make an adjustable stopper. So I welded on a nut, and have a bolt with a second jam nut on there for adjustment.

I ran out of time today so it'll have to be assembled next weekend. I also shortened the pushrod extension so that is aligned to fit. Next weekend I'll also replace the metal on the firewall I had removed.

As usual Brendon, you have done an excellent job getting it done. Thanks for the plug.

Thanks, Brett!

I put in some time this weekend on my front fenders. Well, one of them, and only half of it. And I started it last weekend. I'm rebuilding them to accommodate the larger wheels I plan to use. I really had to get old school on these as I don't have an english wheel, a shrinker/ stretcher, or a gas welder. I don't even have a pellet bag. So I wrapped up an old bed sheet and got the hammers out. I started to build it in one piece, but that wasn't working so I cut it into sections and was able to rebuild the inner half. I may have to notch it to make more room for my master cylinder, but I'll deal with that when I have to. I'm now starting to build the outer half. I've made a template and cut the metal, but will have to wait until next weekend to fab that, and the fender itself. My plan is to relocate the fender attachments upwards so this will still connect to one another.

I also recessed an area in the bottom corner to make room for the hoop supports that will eventually find its way in the car.

Brendon! Wow, very nicelly done!!

Gui

Damm that looks good! Nice work, its going to be Sweet when its all painted.

Thanks, guys!

This weekend I was able to finish up the driver's side front wheel well. I built the outer half, as well as made the fender modifications to attach it. I removed most of the original mounting flange, added a double wall along the outside edge to restore strength, then made a new flange welded to the inside of the fender in a higher location.

Next I added some material to reduce the large opening the oem design had. I left some room in case I use the other DSE supplied bushings for the upper control arms.

Now the real trick will be to make the passenger side look the same. I'll do my best to follow my method of building the driver side to come up with an approximate close shape. I've just started to rough out the middle shape.

I won't be working on this next weekend so it'll be a couple of weeks before I get back to this.

Dam that looks good! Nice work.

Thank you, Wayne. It sure takes a long time, though...

very nice work on those fenders :cheers:

Thank you!

Quick progress update- still building the passenger inner fender. Making it symmetrical, by hand, is time consuming. It's still not symmetrical. I can see major differences. The only comforting fact is that these parts were never truly symmetrical from the factory. Since I'll have things like the master cylinder and steering components on one side it'll help hide this. I still have a lot of work to do....

Wow, nice detail work. I would have never thought about doing that with the fenderwells. :hail:

They look very asymetrical, completely distorted will make your car run slower and spend more gas with all the extra weight and bigger tires that will fit. I think you need to ship them to Northern Cal :D JK killer work!!

Cool, thanks!

I got a day in this weekend to work on refining the inner half of my passenger wheel well. It took some pounding, some slicing, more pounding, etc. I also made the recessed area in front for the hoop supports. It's starting to look reasonably close. I'll be in Vegas next week/ weekend for SEMA so this will get a little break. Then I'll get back to building the outer half.

Its looking good!

Thanks again, Wayne!

Wow, finally got back into the garage this weekend, even though it was only a few hours. Last weekend I stayed the weekend in Vegas after SEMA as my folks flew into town to visit...

This weekend I was able to cut the flange off the passenger fender and weld up the inner wall, as well as cut out a new flange and get that tacked into place. I made a template off the driver side so I could reasonably match it up. I'll then build the outer half of the inner fender to match it.

Got a little more done this weekend- finished up the inner passenger fender.
I also started on those inner fender brackets. Fortunately, those don't need a lot of fabricating. I'll be removing the pressed in nuts on the brackets and relocating them to the flange on the firewall as the bracket will be located on the inner side of that now. Also, only 2 of the bolt holes line up now so I'll turn it into an opportunity to trim them down.

Some weekends even though I spend full two days in the garage it still doesn't seem like I accomplished much. I finished up the inner fender brackets, sand blasted them (as well as a few other parts) and painted them, installed my doors, added more braces up front to the chassis (something I was thinking about that I should have done sooner) I like the result of adding these as it'll help support the lower control arm, but, as my neighbor pointed out this is smack dab in the way of where my anti sway bar will go. I'll have to ditch the one from my DSE kit and go with a different style that locates lower. I also spent some time thinking about my cage and exhaust and made a couple of rough sketches. Too rough to post, so I'll make new (presentable) ones and post them later.

A while back I bought the Eastwood tube bender so I could fabricate my cage. I'm finally to a point to start using it. The instructions say to mount it down for safe operation. Since I'm working out of my garage I don't have the space to permanently locate it so I thought I'd build a base for it on casters so I could move it around when needed and easily store it. I used leftover square tubing I had and cobbled something together. Pics are attached.

Today I decided to try it out and build something simple like the hoop support tubes for the front end. First tube bent no problem. On the second tube- snap- was the sound of the die splitting in two. @#$%^!! And this was before 11am. Way too early to call it a day.

My first Macguyver attempt to keep it going involved some vise grips on the die in an attempt to keep it together. This didn't work as the force of bending the tube exceeded the strength of the grips. The flattened tube was the result and is now scrap.

The second Macguyver attempt involved drilling some holes and bolting the die back together. This seemed to work. I was able to make my second tube and resume working.

I also made some plates to level out the area on the frame where I'll be welding them in, as well as on the firewall. They're welded in, but I need to clean these up then I can trim the tubes down and weld them in. I'll have to buy more tubing to make the rest of the cage- which will be some time next year as the remainder of my weekends this year are booked for the holidays.

As for the tube bender- hopefully I can get a replacement, and then I'll see about buying some steel dies...

more pics from this weekend...

ouch on the die...bythe way how were you bending it without securing the bender to the floor?

It's quite possible I'm doing it wrong, but so far (other than the die snapping) it seems to be working.

The base that I made is sturdy with the strongest rated wheels I could buy. My thinking was that engine cherry pickers are on casters and they work fine, so why couldn't this. I intentionally located the bender forward on my cart to allow more leverage for the back half as this is where I'm pushing down on the jack handle. It has more than enough sturdiness and length to not tip over. The tubing is clamped down inside the unit so that isn't going anywhere, either. Also, since I'm pushing down on the jack handle slowly, it's not out of control trying to roll away on me.

Then again, I've only built the hoop supports. If it proves to be problematic, I can always remove the casters and attach it to my garage floor.

Hoop- there it is
 

Happy 2012!

After a 3 week trip in Taiwan, I'm back now and put a little time in on the car today. I located and welded in the hoop supports as well as cut holes in my inner fenders for clearance. I've roughly shaped patch pieces for the fenders, and will weld them in as soon as I get the chance.

Happy New Year right back at ya. Its looking good.

Happy new year! Great job on the inner fenders!

Love your Sunday night updates Brendan! Looks great Sir...:thumbsup:

Thank you, everyone! Finally, I was able to get a full weekend in on my car. It's the first one of the year, and the first one within the past 2 months. I was having withdrawls...

Anyways, On Fri I was able to patch the holes I made on my inner fenders and spent yesterday and today by starting to mock up the cage in my car. Since this car will see the street I don't want the cage too close to my head, nor do I want to always wear a helmet while I drive. I know this won't pass NHRA tech because of that, and that's OK. The purpose is to provide more rigidity and a bit of safety than Pontiac provided in 1967.

My plan is to build a "6 point" style cage. I'm making my own so I can fit it where I want and how I want. I'm going to have this fit up as close as possible to the body so I can attach it to the body in various locations for additional strength.

I made some rough estimates as to where I'll be sitting and how much room I need (hence why I put the wheel and pedals back in) and determined that the main hoop can be exactly where the ashtrays used to reside on the rear seat armrests. This is cool as I can reuse the original vinyl from them. Of course, the arm rests had to be trimmed down to clear the inner wheel tubs.

I made two versions of the rear down tubes and decided on the "version 2" as it is a less severe bend and should be a little stronger for that. I'll also add gussets in critical areas as well as plates on the rockers for strength.

It seems like I don't have much to show for a full weekend's worth of work, however, one benefit to this is it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to cut and grind plastic than it is DOM steel. Plus, I can see it, and change it if I don't like it. Next weekend I'll work on the bars that run along the doors. They'll fit nicely underneath the "deluxe" armrests on the '67 Firebird.

Looks good.