$300 ’67 Firebird - The Continuous Build

[waynieZ]

Agreed!

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site. Great story about the car. Glad to know you're planning to revive it and drive the snot out of it. Good luck!

[SlowProgress]

Cool story looks like you have great history with the car in the past. Keep nudging it back to life and keep the photos flowing !!

[im4u2nvss]

Like others have said, this is a great story! Congrats to you for keeping it. Along with getting it running, it may be a good time to freshen up your brake system. Keep it up!

[PonchoJohn]

I love the final turn on the first video- excellent "drifting" skills
Can't wait to see more of this car!

[CanyonRider]

Originally Posted by Che70velle

Excited for you, as most people sell off their cars as "life happens" and time goes by. The hand painted pin striping is epic, and brings back a lot of memories for me. Keep us updated, and oh yeah, welcome to Lateral-G!

Thanks! It was done as a favor shortly after I painted it. Sadly, you don't see much pinstriping any more.

Originally Posted by WSSix

Welcome to the site. Great story about the car. Glad to know you're planning to revive it and drive the snot out of it. Good luck!

Thanks! And yes, I plan to flog it.

Originally Posted by PonchoJohn

I love the final turn on the first video- excellent "drifting" skills
Can't wait to see more of this car!

Thanks! You can see from recent in-car footage, my technique has not improved after all these years.

http://youtu.be/lXKuar8a8Io

http://youtu.be/7nLEKvN_cRs

CR

[CanyonRider]

I've been puttering in the evenings - mostly accessing the situation. Spoiler alert: It ain't good.

Pulled the motor:



Got it on the stand:



Stripped enough covers off to get a look inside. I put fresh oil in it and primed it with an electric drill, put a little oil in the spark plug holes and turned it over several times. Then performed a leak-down test. Sorry for the flash, but as you can see, the needles are pointed at each other - 20over80! For those that don't know, that's really, really bad. And that is one of the better cylinders.



I wouldn't expect 10% leakdown like a fresh motor at operating temperature, but I pretty bummed about 80% leakdown. It appears the rings are just as stuck as the valves were.

I'll need some time to regroup and figure out my next move.

CR

[Tuske427]

+ another one for the great story, I look forward to the updates!

[gordonr1973]

Looking forward to where you go with this! Looking great so far