1967 Firebird Convertible - Project "LEGACY"

[Firebird-Geek]

Here is my helping crew...
My son... and stepdaughters...

[Firebird-Geek]

Tear down begins... have been working the last few months on getting it down to the skeleton. Mostly new parts going back on... so most of these will never see the car again!


Tired old 350 getting ready to be pulled out...



This old subframe will not be coming back... decided on a Speedtech complete replacement... Roger and the crew over at Speedtech have been WONDERFUL to work with. They take the time to actually help you decide on what you need and offer tips and advice were they can. Customer service is #1!!!

subframe is in bare steel... so I just rattle canned it silver to see what it would look like until I get it powder coated.

It is amazing to see the welding and fabrication difference between the stock subframe and the Speedtech... WOW.

[69MyWay]

Awesome project!

Having just come out on the otherside of that tunnel with our 68 Bird build....(okay - not quite there yet)...

I can tell you that there is plenty of fun in store.

Let me suggest you look into the Dakota Digital VHX gauge cluster. That has to be the single coolest addition to our 68.

Good luck and keep the updates coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Firebird-Geek]

So off comes the subframe... but I wanted a way to still be able to move the car around without re-attaching it... so I build this caster system that bolts up to the subframe mounts... out of 2" square tubing and some casters I had.



Works great!!

[70rs]

Looks great! The shop, lift, crew, car and new parts. It's good to see the kids involved.
What are your plans for the drivetrain?

[Firebird-Geek]

Originally Posted by 70rs

Looks great! The shop, lift, crew, car and new parts. It's good to see the kids involved.
What are your plans for the drivetrain?

I work for a GM dealership... so I plan on using a LS3 "Hot cam" crate engine... and we have a great trans guy that builds killer 700R4 transmissions. I know it isn't a manual... but with 2 stepdaughters and a wife that do want to drive the car... it has to be an automatic.

[Firebird-Geek]

So I was looking into bracing the car...

Car has SOLID:
-rockers (both inner and outer are very good)
-rear frame rails look to be in very good shape

Jig?:
I know many on this and other sites build a body jig to hold the car to factory specs while building. (I was hoping to avoid this for I don’t need to do some of the structural changes they needed, Plus… time (with a wife and kids) is hard to come by, and the jig would take more of it. That and the fact that with the cost of all the steel, I can buy more parts for the car. (Unfortunately I am under a budget)

2-post lift:
I do happen to have a 2-post lift and would like to utilize it for the replacement…figuring I could get underneath easier to do the welding and adding the convertible braces back on the complete floor.

PLAN: Weld 2” square tubing down the side of the rocker panels… (this way when I pick up the car with the lift it is spreading the pressure along the entire rocker, not just front and back)… then weld 1” tubing across (from the 2” tubing) to locate and lock into place the rear frame rails. Plus, possibly do the same to locate the subframe nuts so as to have a reference when the new panel is in place. (kind of a welded in place jig)

Example photo:


Here it is:




There is a little bump at the rear of the rockers that would not let the 2" tubing sit flat against the rockers and still sit straight on the car... solution was to weld some flat iron spacers on the rockers then mount to the 2" tubing. This way everything is level.



I used some tubing and a flat washer and centered the subframe bolts into the existing floor location then welded 1" tubing to attach these to the 2" side tubing... this way I should be able to lay the new floor in and if I can thread the bolts... I should be in the exact same location as the old floor.



Next welded 1" tubing to the frame rails to keep them in place during the floor removal and replacement.


In the rear I bolted on some casters that allow me to still move the car... plus, I added some tubing up to the rear frame rails just to make sure they don't move during the trunk floor removal.

[Firebird-Geek]

It has been awhile... figured I would get my thread a bit more up to date...

Well with everything braced up... it was time to start cutting things off...

I originally didn't think I would be cutting that much off the car... but it seems the more I tried to remove rust from here and there, the more panels started to come off.

I knew I wanted to go with a complete floor pan, but figured I would only use a partial trunk pan. But the more I looked at the back seat brace in the car... the more I feared how much rust was sitting underneath that thing... if you look at the photos... it didn't look that bad... but wait until later... there was some seriously hidden "rot"



Doesn't look like anything bad... but wait until later, and see what was under this section...

[Firebird-Geek]

Out comes the plasma cutter... I am sure there may be better ways to get this rear seat brace out... but this is what I did.

I drilled out all the spot weld I could find that held the brace to the floor the the car....

The car had lots of undercoating in the wheelhouses... I heated and scrapped as much as I could out... I know I would not be using the inner housings, for I am going with DSE minitubs. With all the gunk in the wheelhouse, I could hardly find the spot welds... so I figured I would just plasma it out of there...




Then used a air hammer to remove the leftover wheel house skin.



Well after all that the rear seat brace was still fighting me... so I decided to remove the rear part of the brace, so as to only have to deal with on panel at a time.



Finally it was out...



Remember what I said about hidden rot... look what was hiding behind that brace. Looks like it going to be a Full Trunk pan now! (see the list keeps growing!)

[AtomicFirebird]

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