Lateral-g Forums - Project Tomahawk: 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400

Hi all. . .thought I would introduce myself and my car (again). . .I've been visiting the website for a while now (just reading never posting) and have only made two post so far (one asking for people's opinions of the truckarm style rear suspension the other trying to introduce my project but I messed it up so here's the real deal this time).

I'm in San Diego, CA and I will be getting out of the military late this summer so I will finally be able to start work on my own Pro-Touring project. . .a 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400. I've owned the car for 7 years now and I haven't been able to do anything with it in that time because I've been Hawaii for the last 5 years (was in school in South Carolina for the two years previous HI) and the car has been in my dad's garage in Illinois. Now that I'm getting out and I have a good job that pays well lined up I will finally have the time and finances to start work on the car.

Problem Child Kustoms is currently working on a front and rear 3/4 views drawing of the car as it should look when completed. . .the car is going to be a modern pro-touring vehicle but it's going to place a lot of emphasis on the vintage SCCA TransAm racing cars of the late '60's and early '70's as well. . .here are my plans:

Color: Black (possibly graphite or charcoal instead though) is going to be the main color with some graphics reminiscent of the old shcool musclecar graphics. . .I haven't decided on the secondary color yet but Brian's going to be helping me out with that. . .possibly red or silver. . .and possibly the use of matte-finished black-out areas on the hood

Body Mods: stock Firebird 400 hood with scoops, SCCA TransAm racing style front air dam, '69 Firebird TA decklid spoiler, possibility of rear window louvers, and side exit exhaust just in front of either rear wheel (exit through the rear rockers/quarters not below the rocker panels), relocated gas fill neck to a racing style quick fill gas cap ala the Dodge Chargers, shaved door handles and drip rails and flush mounted glass, there will be different mirrors on the car also but I don't know what style as of yet. The front and rear wheel wells will have accentuated (exaggerated) flares also. The chrome will be sent out to be black chromed so that it will still be shiny like most chrome you see but it will have a smoked out appearance along with a blacked out grille. I wanted to use the Hella Black Magic lights as headlights, but they aren't the right size. . .I'm going to be looking to see if I can find a way to have the headlights blacked out though. I will also be using the Modo Innovations remote trunk release and the billet hood hinges and hood pins from Ring Brothers.

Interior: Gonna be mostly black and pretty much all custom. No rear seat. . .a race style spare wheel/tire carrier will be in it's place and there will be a 8-10 pt. rollcage installed as well (the door bars will be bent in such a way as to not interfere with getting into or out of the car and the roll cage will tie into the front subframe through the firewall as well). Racing harness with re-covered aftermarket seats will be installed. I will have a custom made pistol grip shifter for the T-56 as well. Custom center console with a center storage unit will hold the power window and power door lock controls as well as the A/C controls more than likely; the A-pillar will hold a couple of gauges(coolant temperature, oil pressure) and I will have a central dash gauge pod (for monitoring the forced induction whenever I get the twin-turbos installed. . .fuel pressure, boost psi, and EGT) as well. Autometer gauges (speedometer, tachometer, fuel level guage, and volt/ammeter in the guage cluster) all the way around in the custom dash. . .I'm thinking a symetrical "double hump" style dash vs. the stock assymetrical dash with only a hump where the stock gauge cluster is and a Vintage Air Gen II A/C. The radio will be hidden (probably in the center console) and all the control knobs will be billet. I'm going to have a dash mounted engine "Start" button (red) and a dash mounted hazard light button as well. . .dash will also probably house a GPS unit since the radio will be in the center console and the steering wheel will be a three arm with flared holes in the arms.

Wheels: PS Engineering 5-spoke wheels (as seen on the Edelbrock-Yunick '68 "Best Damn Camaro in Town" TransAm racer; I'm thinking 17's all the way around and using mini-tubs in the rear to facilitate some really wide meats in back although I may go with Vintage Wheel Works or E Wheels of the same style due to immediate availability of the wheels vs. waiting for the PSE's to get handmade (maybe get the PSE's down the line).

Front Suspension: Campbell Auto Restoration front subframe/suspension set-up

Rear Suspension: Still undecided at this point in time. . .I'm really wrestling with this. It's between DSE Quadra-Link, Lateral Dynamics 3-Link and Watt's Linkage, 21st Century Street Machines Corvette IRS, or a truckarm set-up.

Chassis: DSE weld-in integral subframe connectors and the aforementioned 8-10 pt. roll cage which will tie into the front subframe throught the firewall.

Engine/Drivetrain: Sticking with traditional Pontiac power here. . .will start out with re-building the stock 400 punched out to 467 using a Butler Performance rotating assembly (internally balanced 4.25" forged crankshaft w/3.00" mains motivating SCAT or Eagle 6.800" forged 4340 con-rods and 4.181" forged aluminum Ross pistons w/Total Seal gapless piston rings. . .only change could be an upgrade to forged Oliver con-rods but I'm thinking not since I will be upgrading to a larger bore aluminum block built for twin-turbos as soon as I can get it built. . .$$$ will be the limiting factor the twin-turbo package) and aluminum Edelbrock Performer cylinder heads (unless the heads on the block now are worth using for a while to save myself some money and get the car up and running more quickly) with a Kinsler EFI intake (will look similar to Mark Steilow's original Mule set-up with the individual intake trumpets) if I can afford it or with an Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum intake manifold and Holley DP carb if I can't initially afford the EFI set-up. The engine will initially be backed by a 4-speed to save money and get the car on the road that much faster initially, but I'll be upgrading both the engine and the tranny while I'm still driving with the punched out 400 and Muncie. I'll be looking to put 400+ horsepower/lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels with the 467. Future engine will remain a Pontiac block but will use one of the new aluminum aftermarket blocks of fairly large displacement. . .initally will be running with the same Kinsler fuel injection set-up and heads as with the 467 but backed by a T56 6-speed (500+), but I won't be happy until I have a set of twin-turbo's pressurizing a custom intake manifold (who knows how much power this will put out. . .depends on how much psi I end up running but it will still have to be pump gas friendly and have acceptable street driving manners. . .acceptable to me at least.).

Fuel System: Will use a custom made Rick's Hot Rod shop fuel cell and the fuel delivery will be all be from Aeromotive built to support the twin turbos from the very beginning.

Brakes: Gonna be Baer brakes all the way around. . .the biggest that I can fit inside the wheels and will probably end up using the Hydraboost along with an in-cab adjustable proportioning valve to make sure they always feel just right.

There's a lot of stuff that I still haven't decided on but I've got the basics decided and Brian's drawing is going to help make sure that I've got a very clear picture of where I want to end up. Since the car is in Illinois right now I don't have any pictures of the car to post right now. . .I will post one as soon as I can find the couple of pictures that I do have buried away somwhere and when I get the completed drawing from Problem Child Customs I will add it to the post as well. Will probably take me a couple of years to finish this one off but I don't ever plan on getting rid of this car (my first muscle car and the first car I ever bought and paid for on my own) so I'll be patient and do it the way I want it done the first time.

Any of you out there with any suggestions (especially those of you with first gen F-birds) feel free to send the suggestions my way. . .any and all input would be appreciated.