1971 Firebird build thread
 

Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself (officially), my name is Chris and I live in northern Ohio. I found this forum a while back but I have been trying to locate a car to start my build..... Well I found her! :)

Here's a couple pics from last weekend when we got her home.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0395.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0400.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0398.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0397.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0401.jpg

The rear tail pan needs some work.....

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0399.jpg

So the plan is:

LS power!
6l90e trans (paddle shifted hopefully!)
Custom IRS rear suspension
C6 Vette front suspension components (w/drop AM steering arms)
Subtle body mods, nothing too radical
18" Fordgeline Wheels (gotta start saving for those puppies!)
275 front tire 335 rear tire

This will be mostly a garage build except possibly for the chassis. I good friend of mine owns a Chassis shop over in Norton (Pro Street Chassis) and I may take the car over there to get the tubing work done...not sure yet though. Either way I will be doing most of the work myself.

Can't wait to start the project! I KNOW it is going to take 3-5 years to finish (I told my wife that it should be done JUST in time for my mid-life crisis :rofl: )but getting started soon will mean the completion date will get here sooner rather than later! :)

I look forward to being more active on this forum.

Chris

Looks like a good starting point for a project! Since that rear pan is rusted you better check the panel behind the fiberglass one between the tail lights they can be tough to find and no one repops them yet as far as I know. Save that Speedo!

What a beauty! And yup that rear panel is terrible and notorious for breaking

Nice!

Thanks guys!

I can't wait to be able to post progress pictures. Now that our deck project is complete (just finished it up Saturday late) I can start working on the car! :yes:

I have started to model it in AutoCAD to get the driveline figured out but beyond that I have not had time to do much else.


Thanks for the advice on the speedo! I need to go through everything and see exactly what I have. Anything of value I don't need will be heading to eBay to help pay for the chassis. There were some NIB parts that came with the car too like weather stripping, and window lift motors and things like that.

The price was right though.... All it cost me was the gas money from Ohio to St Louis and back...and some time. It was a nice little road trip for the wife and I. Oh, and about $21.50 to get the title changed into an Ohio title in my name.

Thanks again,

Chris

Does anyone know where I can get a stock '70-73 Nose assembly in the Ohio area?

Very cool, I love those cars.

Let me know if I can do anything to help. We are wrapping up a 71 bird and have learned the ins and outs of these cars.

Thanks for the offer Chad. I have looked over Ty's build thread MANY times! Great work.

Chris

Well, the wife and I spent the better part of the day at GG Columbus Saturday.... so much to see! Got some good pictures and ideas from the SMOY cars. It was cool to see a '72 Firebird in the ring there! :)

So now it is time to start tearing the car down for media blast. A good friend of the family has a Media blast room/equipment I can use all I need is the media. So I am knee deep in research about the different medias that are used. I think I am leaning toward Walnut shells or maybe corn cob media for most of the surface and StarBlast or Aluminum Oxide for the rust removal needs.

Oh, and we have decided the rear seat is pretty much pointless (I am 6'7" after all) so I am leaning toward a more "conventional" C5/C6 driveline. Going to go the 6 spd Puddle Shift automatic route....probably... :) After seeing the way they finished the rear interior area of Scar I have a new direction for that area (hence the C5/C6 driveline).

The fun should soon start!

Chris

Well couple quick updates....

First, I won a Corvette A6 trans off eBay for $500 shipped to my door!!!! Should be here late this week or early next.

Second is I started taking an inventory of of thins that came wit the car. I was pleasantly surprised to find the weather stripping is a complete set (Doors, Upper Rails, and Trunk) of Year One soft seals!

I also found front and rear TA wheel flairs...not in too bad of shape either. I also found the rear filler panel in the trunk so that was cool. Speaking of finding things the A-pillar covers for the interior were in there too.

I started stripping it today so we can media blast it. Not too much progress but a start none the less. Too bad I am going to be out of town most of the week....and then again over the weekend. That's gonna put a damper on the progress.

Chris

Nice project Chris. Great to see another Bird on this site. Any reason why you chose a '71 Bird?

Keep us posted with pics please.

Hi Ron,

Good question, I went with an early 70's Firebird for a couple reasons. When I first started looking for a project I was drawn to the 1969 Camaro but they are pretty popular here (everywhere I suppose) and the price is pretty much out of sight for the most part. So I started looking for a different car.

I have always liked Firebirds and Trans Ams (First car was a 1978 TA and I drag raced an 89 TA for twelve years) so I started comparing and contrasting the different years and trim packages and such and I decided I wanted to build something I did not already have at some point in my life so I decided on the early 70's Firebird. I really like the "all business" look of these cars! :)

I will post up some pics asap. I have not uploaded them to the PC yet and I am typing this from a hotel room in Cincinnati.

Chris

Progress pics....

I finally have time to post up some pics from the other day. Not much progress but time to work on her has been tough to come by lately.

Anyway,

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0741.jpg

After a couple minutes I had this:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0746.jpg

Which meant I found this (not unexpected):

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0747.jpg

And this:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0749.jpg

I knew about the door jambs and the tail panel is not quite as I thought it could have been.

New stuff
 

So I picked this bad bot up today....

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0754.jpg

Oh yeah!!!!!!

I also found this on craigslist:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0755.jpg


It's in great shape except one flaw:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0757.jpg

It had been stored standing on end so the endura plastic (rubber?) cracked from the weight. Shouldn't be too tough to fix (I hope). For $150 I thought it was worth a gamble.

Chris

The grills are 73 and if they fit that bumper correctly then the bumpers a 73. It can be used but there aren't any repro grills or chrome bezels available yet that I know of. The most noticable difference appearance wise is that the nose sticks out farther. I believe they changed it for 73 to meet new impact regulations. You can see the difference in the pic below of the white 73 and my 70 behind.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...A/Birds001.jpg

Thanks for the info guys (been a while since I could get online). I have not had time to look into what year nose it is for sure. I am sure the grills are 73's for sure based on the larger grid spacing. As for the nose I am not sure the "fit"....the shape of the grill does not really match up to the opening in the grill.

Thanks for the advice on the fiberglass. I was told that going that route was worse because the fiberglass noses are thin and crack prone. By prep work are you meaning adding material to the fiberglass to increase the thickness/strength? I might just go that route after all....those anvil carbon fiber noses sure are cool..... I guess I was hoping modern painting techniques could overcome the endura nose issues. Guess not though.

I will probably end up repairing the crack on selling it off to help offset the costs of a new nose.

Chris, Classic Industries carries many of the 70's Firebird parts. Look at Year One also.

Thanks for the pics. It's cool to see a Bird in progress.

Nice Bird John :thumbsup:

Thanks Ron....I wish I could spend more time on her! Slow and steady though I guess.

I have the classic industries Firebird catalog on my Laptop! I have looked at year one too. Classic seems to have the best parts coverage of the companies I have found so far. I'm going to go checkout Performance Years right now!

Chris

Thank you so much for posting that picture! I have been searching high and low to see the exact difference between the 70-72 and the 73, but all I could find was straight on shots. The pic you posted helped a ton.

So as you you mentioned the grills are for sure 1973 inserts....in a 70-72 nose. They are in there angled and the guy made some "custom" mounts for them.

So now I have to decide if I want to repair this nose and keep it (and risk paint issues). Or repair the damage and try to recover my costs or just try to sell it and recover my cost without repairing it.

Which of course brings up the next issue....VFN or Anvil? The anvil is big $$$ but REALLY nice (they had one in the booth at GG Columbus). I always liked the VFN doors and front clip I had on my race car but I would guess I will need to add some material to the nose to make it strong enough for street use.

Chris

Anvil
 

You already know what gets my vote my friend! Not only does Anvils stuff look incredible IT FITS!!! Fit and finish are amazing! FWIW We didn't even clear my tail panel... just put it on the car it was so nice right out of the box!

I don't doubt that! The stuff they had on display at the Columbus GG show was simply amazing. I think you might be a little biased though.... :P

Chris

Good stuff...

I have been keeping an eye on that one, glad to see he has been updating it again! I would love to actually have time to work on mine.... Hopefully I can bulk up the funds while I am buried at work so when I do have time to work on it I can actually afford too. :)

Chris

So I scored a Torque Tube out of an '09 vette off eBay I am going to pick it up Friday. Now all I need to find is a differential and I'll be able to start drawing the chassis!

Speaking of a Corvette rear end....do any of you guys happen to know the dimension from the mounting flange to the center of the rear axles? How about how far below the input centerline the rear axles are? Those dimensions would be most helpful!

I'll post up some pics when I get it all home.

I am currently trying to decide if I should invest in a new Compressor or continue to buy parts for the chassis/driveline. Right now I cannot do both. My though is if I get the compressor I can get that purchase out of the way early in the project then just go full steam ahead after that. I am looking at the Ingersol Rand SS5L5. The reviews all seem really good and it is probably all the compressor I will ever need. It is only single stage though... but 18.1 CFM @90 PSI is really good. Oh, it would be about $850 out the door. The 80 gallon 5 HP 2-Stage would be like $1075 out the door and it has slightly less CFM output that the other compressor.

What do you guys think?

Chris

Yeah that is a great point. We kind of started out that way and one thing lead to another and the next thing you know were are looking at spending $850 on a new compressor. For instance there is a used 5HP 60 GAL Speedaire compressor on CL for $600, the thing looks BRAND NEW so I was like well $600 is a little higher than I would like to spend but it seems like a great deal. So then we found the IR compressor at TSC for $799 that puts out 2 more CFM @ 90psi. So then we were like well for $200 more we get 2 more CFM and a new machine. So the snow ball is rolling at full force! :)

Thanks for the advice.

Chris

Ok, the snow ball has stopped..... for the compressor any way! :)

I scored a used Snap-On BRA-718v 10 minutes from my house! Best part was I was able to get it for less thatn the 2 Stage 15 CFM Ingersoll Rand unit at TSC. It puts out 23.9 CFM @175.

So what will the next snowball be?????

I forgot to mention the guy I bought the compressor from is a guy I used to do work for in the shop I worked at in town. He is a great guy and takes real good care his stuff.

Anyway, I have the garage re-arranged to fit the new toy and I actually had a chance to do a little work on my project tonight. I will post up some pics as soon as I get a chance. I did not get to use the new toy but I did get to use my Miller Diversion. Fun stuff! :)

Chris

Well.....

I promised pics so here is one of the new compressor. I have it all wired and plumbed up now. (Guess I need to take a couple more pics!).

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0791.jpg

I used it to do some rust repair (ie media blasting and grinding) on my daily driver and it worked SWEET!!!!! :)

More to come....

Ok so back to the project at hand...

I scored an A6 torque tube out of an '09 vette off eBay a while back. I asked the seller if he had they bell housing and he said he did have it but it was broken. I asked if he would send it along anyways and he said yes. Well he was correct it IS broken....

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0796.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0799.jpg

Luckily for me I have a Diversion at the house.

The prep:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0801.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0802.jpg

The weld (more like the beginning):

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0805.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...d/DSC_0809.jpg

I suppose I could pickup another bell housing but I have the time and it gives me a really good excuse to use the Diversion. :) I have to get some aluminum for the patches I need to make. Once I have that I will stop by the machine shop I used to work and and pick a block to bolt everything too to finish the repairs.

Chris

Well I finally had time to do some "real" work on her. Yesterday I spent the day stripping ALL the bolt on stuff off the body. All that is left is the front sub-frame and the rear suspension.

At this point I need to make a cradle/rotisserie to mount the body on while I do the paint stripping and metal work.

I would post pics but I am sure we have seen a car stripped down getting ready for metal work.

Stay tuned.

Chris

I can't believe I didn't eve get a "dude why the heck are you trying to salvage that bell housing" comment. :rofl:

That's cool....

I just thought for sure someone would chime in about the bell housing. I may not end up using it but it is good practice as I have been away from the TIG welder for a couple years now. The weld tuned out OK... I had some time the other day and I cleaned it up and ran a weave pass over it, looks better now but I am still out of practice.

I have been really happy with the compressor, I had to use it some Saturday while removing stuff from the car. It was great to be able to grab the die grander with the cutoff wheel and remove a stuck emergency brake cable for instance.

Chris

Man it's been a while since I have been able to post in here!

I am uploading some pics of the repaired bell housing as I type. I will post them up as soon as they finish uploading. I've been working on lining things up to start move work on the project. Hopefully this winter I will get to spend some time working on her.

Stay tuned.

Chris