Brendon's '67 Firebird thread

[68400BIRD]

Originally Posted by Tuske427

Pics are restored if you wish to re-review...

Thanks, up to page 20 now. I sure wish I had some motor heads in my neighborhood. Its nice bouncing ideas off of other people.

Just finished the whole build thread. Wow what a creative build. You have some great FAB skills.

When is the fire up date?

Better be a video of it firing up and driving past the curb.

[Tuske427]

Originally Posted by 68400BIRD

Thanks, up to page 20 now. I sure wish I had some motor heads in my neighborhood. Its nice bouncing ideas off of other people.

Just finished the whole build thread. Wow what a creative build. You have some great FAB skills.

When is the fire up date?

Better be a video of it firing up and driving past the curb.

Cool, glad you enjoyed. Thank you for the kind words. I'm still new at this. I only learned how to weld by doing this project. I still have a long way to go...

It's difficult to say when the fire up date will be because I'm on the "I buy parts as I can afford them" plan. I have a goal of having the car driving by summertime, but time will only tell. I still have a lot of parts to buy.

Yes, I will most definitely take videos of when I go to start it up, and take the first drive.

[Tuske427]

This was one of those weekends where I did many little projects. I dropped my headers off for ceramic coating, installed two grounds to the engine block (with the frame ties welded into the car body, there is little point to grounding the body to sub frame), cleaned up and painted the galvanized metal panels that run alongside the rocker panels (then remembered that, oh yeah, I should have test fit these. oops...) mounted the fuse box on my trans tunnel (absolutely no room on the firewall). I did insulate the back side w/ header wrap so the fuse panel doesn't soak up the heat from the engine/ trans. I'll need to build a box now to help hide this. I also laid out my battery cables and started to mount those in place. The ground wire is just long enough. I don't think I'll be trimming that one at all. I drilled some holes and installed grommets anywhere they passed through metal, and I insulated the positive side with that plastic loom for extra protection. I'll get some heat insulation for the engine compartment to help fight against voltage drop.

[Tuske427]

I spent most of this weekend working on a friend's '66 El Camino, and in between I was able to put a little time in on my spoiler. I wasn't happy with how it was sitting- there was a lot of gap between it and the car. To fix it I could either lower it, or add to it. First I looked at reducing material on the vertical supports, but I didn't want to compromise the strength of them, as the amount needed to be removed would go past the top section and reduce the surface area of where the wing would rest upon it. So I added some material to the bottom of the wing. I used .120" styrene and heated it up to the contour of the wing. Then I both epoxied it and added some screws to it for a permanent connection. There is still a little gap which I want- and will add some foam to the bottom to reduce any issues of the wind vibrating the wing and it smacking the car (or when I close the trunk)

[MX145]

Spoiler looks really good!

[Black93GT]

I'm going to repaint my LS from chevy orange (was for my '67 Camaro) to the Pontiac light blue metalic for the firebird. I wasn't going to paint my accessory brackets and water pump.... but I think you just convinced me otherwise. I'm thinking I'll even go a step further and hit the heads as well.

I like what you're doing. Keep it up.

[Tuske427]

Thanks, guys!

This weekend I'll sum up as a lot of lessons learned.

Lesson#1- metal still moves even after significant tack welding. Got my headers back from them being coated. and the driver side no longer fit. It fit beforehand. I thought I checked, thought I had pics, etc. I guess not. There are no other variables. It's either that, or the laws of physics are different in my garage. so I had to mod the header more and now I need to get it re coated. Money and time wasted


Lesson #2- Install the sway bar(s) before painting. I thought this would be a simple job I could quickly do later on. I was wrong. As seen in the pics this has turned into a bigger job. I also turned to help from Brett and Jeffrey over at Fab53 to help me with bending my sway bar arms. I don't have the equipment for heating up these big blocks of metal. I built a template and we used this to follow for bending the first arm, then bent the second arm to match the first. The results are really good, too. Thanks, guys! Now I just need to clean them up, make my end links, paint and I'm g2g. I spent the rest of this weekend building the perches for the sway bar pillow blocks. Next will be making the end links.

[Tuske427]

a couple more pics...

[frojoe]

Your sway bar end plate pics are exactly what I've been looking for now that I'm contemplating making my own setup.. keep up the great work!

[MX145]

Looking good Brendon! That's a lot going on there to factor in for your mounts and arms. Great job!