Project Tomahawk: 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400

[atomicjoe23]

I got some more interior ideas ironed out and decided on. . .going to go with the Sparco Modena seats. . .I was looking at the new Dodge Demon concept the other day and I really liked the seats in it. . .the back shells were carbon fiber and I thought they would tie in really nice with my carbon fiber, brushed satin metal, and black interior and the carbon fiber headliner I want to use. . .turns out that Sparco has some exactly as I would want them so I lucked out there.

I also liked the Demon's notched bezels for the guages. . .so I'm gonna see if I can't incorporate that into the dash guages. . .they have a modern high-tech look to them, but the notches balance it out with a nice vintage feel that I think would be right at home in a muscle car interior. . .here's the best picture of the bezel rings that I could find on the web:

http://images.leftlanenews.com/conte...on-concept.jpg

and here's a picture of the Demon's center console which is pretty similar to what I've been working on for my center console as well:

http://images.leftlanenews.com/conte...on-concept.jpg

I've also finally decided on two exterior components that were giving me a lot of problems. . .the exterior mirrors and the door handles. Initially I was going to have the door handles shaved, but I found out that most tracks won't allow you to run with door poppers because of latching issues. . .so I decided I would go with some flush mounted door handles from a modern vehicle but I was having trouble finding some that I liked. . .I know a lot of people use the C5 Vette's but I don't like how they look on a muscle car. . .the round lines just aren't right. . .so I've decided to go with the C6 Vette handles. . .I will probably have to get some donor doors from a salvage yard and cut the whole area out and graft them onto the Tomahawk's doors (same for the striker and probably the whole area on the C6's B-pillar as well) to get them to work, but I like the C6 handles more than anything else I've looked at.

I was kinda in the same boat for the mirrors. . .see lots of them with the C5 Vette mirrors which look good but it just wasn't what I had in mind. . .I've been looking at mirrors on nearly every sports car I could think of and I had pretty much decided to just go with a bullet style mirror, but then I remembered a company I was referred to for mirrors for my sportbike. . .so I'm gonna use some high end sportbike mirrors from a company called Barrac. . .they supply the mirrors for the MV Augusta F4's. . .they have two models that I'm looking at. . .the MV Augusta F4 mirrors (I'm leaning more towards this mirror) or the B1 model (I think this one might be just a little too edgy) which is very similar to the F4 model but has a vent in it. . .both models come with integrated turn signals (the B1 model has LED lamps) which will also solve one of the other things I've been trying to figure out. . .what to do about front turn signals since I'm gonna fill the front valance panel in where the original '67 turn signals and fog lights are and be grafting in parts of a '69 Camaro front valnce panel and using the Marquez Design billet fog lights.

That's it for now. . .post more when I get it. . .getting closer to the time when I'll be shipping the 'Bird out here to SoCal every day. . .I can't wait!!!