1971 Firebird Build ("The Other Woman", a.k.a. Project "T.O.W.")

[carbuff]

I spent some time with Eric at his shop today. I had planned on doing some work myself, but I've returned from the holiday with a cold. I'll try again tomorrow.

We did talk about a few issues that Eric has run into, and some plans to move forward. And of course, some of the work that's been done so far. And yes, I took pictures this time!

First up, it looks like I need to make a call to DSE about the booster brackets on my master cylinder:



I'm guessing that angle is a little steep...

Here's a shot of the JRS Watt's link setup from the rear:



And a good side shot of the rear axle, coilover, and upper torque arm mounts:



The torque arm from the front. We don't have the 3rd member installed yet, but it has arrived:



Here is the JRS crossmember for the torque arm front mount. You can also get an idea of the clearance of the headers here to the floor:



A side shot of how the torque arm bushing and crossmember look assembled:



Eric and I had been discussing what to do about a transmission crossmember. He was planning to build one into the floor, but instead he came up with this solution. Since the torque arm crossmember was pretty close and would have to come out anyway for a transmission removal, he built a mount off of it:



Here's another shot:



In this shot you can get an idea of where the header collector is going to sit. It's not quite as high as I would like, but it wouldn't help to be lower since the lowest point is going to have to go under the torque arm crossmember cutouts:



That's a 3" collector with a clamp on it for perspective.

Unfortunately as we all know, these aftermarket parts don't always go together effortlessly. Here's one example of a problem:



That's the front caliper basically touching the rotor on the Baer Pro+ setup which I have. After a few phone calls between Baer and Jake, we discovered that there is a "spacer" which GM uses between the hub and the upright which is needed to push the hub and rotor out just enough to solve this problem. In case anyone ever reads this in the future and needs the parts, they are GM part numbers:

10263081
10263082

I have them on the way to me now, so we'll solve this next week.

Other minor issues... The Baer rotor hats won't quite fit over the Corvette hub, so a very small amount of sanding on the rotor hat is going to be needed. And I received the incorrect backing plates from Baer for the rear axle ends, so those are being cross-shipped to me so we can finish the rear axle mockup. We'll have to make some spacers for the Watt's link end attachment points to get the bars closer to parallel to the axle housing. Not a big deal, but little things take time...

After seeing the transmission in place with the floor cut, there is no way that thing would have gone in there without cutting the floor. Perhaps if we used a different set of motor mount plates and pushed the engine forward more, we would have cleared the firewall better. But we would have had to tilt the transmission way down to clear the floor, which would have caused issues with the header and driveshaft angles. On a positive note, we sat the console in place today, and the shifter is lining up pretty well with the opening for the boot, so that won't take much work.

Eric is also getting a little creative in how he's tying the subframe, SFC's, and torque arm crossmember together to allow me to be able to remove everything from the car if I need to. He should get that wrapped up this weekend, and I'll take some more pictures.

Hopefully I'll feel better and get myself there tomorrow to work on a few things. We want to reassemble the front end, so I'll work on that, to check clearances, and hopefully get some measurements for wheel/tire sizes. I also want to check out the fitment of the Vintage Air unit with the tunnel changes we are making and determine where to mount it and the bulkhead coming through the firewall.

It's great to see the progress!

[srh3trinity]

You may want to try the DSE brackets that they sale for 67-69 Camaros that they specify as "low angle" I believe. There are a couple of second gen builds that have used those and it will change the angle. I bought some, but I haven't gotten to that part yet. See the Second Chance Camaro build because he used them and that is where I got the idea from.

[WSSix]

Stephen beat me to it. Marty, already found this problem with his 2nd gen build. I want to say the solution was to use a first gen bracket as Stephen mentioned.

Glad to see the good work Eric is doing again. He's got some good ideas. I'm also curious to see how the JRS torque arm works for you. It's something I may be interested in as well.

[carbuff]

Thanx for the tips on the MC, I have read the issues that others have had in the past with this setup as well. I had a list of places to call about various 'little' things today, but I didn't get to DSE. That will happen on Wednesday, as I also need to order a couple of items from them.

I did manage to sell all of the drivetrain parts which Eric removed from the car, which helped recoup a little of the costs so far. It was great to find someone that wanted them all in one shot, and it cleaned out some space in Eric's shop for him.

Now I'm shopping for gauges, trying to decide which setup to use. I thought I had my mind made up on the Speedhuts, but the Racepak and Stack setups have caught my attention again...

[bigapple]

Bryan, I love reading about you build, I own 1970 Firebird that im doing a lite resto mod on. Your build is want I want and currently can't afford. Keep the pic's and info coming.
Rob
:thumbsup:

[carbuff]

Small update from this week, but a lot of work to get here...

Eric has almost finished the work on the trans tunnel (and probably has by now). He raised up the tunnel about 1.5" in total. The original cuts were only to the area in front of the 'hat channel'. Unfortunately that support also had to be cut and raised, so he had to do the extra work there. That's the shiny area further back.



The original shifter hole piece is going to be used to have a removable cover for the shifter so that I can service it as needed. It will screw on around the hole which you see above.

More of the firewall hole filling. It's mostly done.





And a shot of the engine, without the PS pump which is being exchanged with Wegner at the moment... That door behind it is from Eric's cool '50 Ford project that he's working on.



I spent the week making phone calls all over the place. Some of the issues I've had to resolve:

• Wrong PS pump, needed a low-volume pump to match the Ford rack
• Wrong MC brackets, still working with DSE on that
• The Edelbrock Victor Jr. fuel rail kit requires LS1 height injectors. Mine are L92's, which are an inch short. Ordered 1" tall adapters to fix.
• Decided to run a PS fluid cooler, ordered one from Jegs.

I've also been working on decisions involving wiring, headlights (still undecided), fuel pump shutoff (ordered), battery cable routing (ordered), wheels/tires (undecided), fuel and oil and PS line decisions, down-bar mounts from the firewall to the subframe (ordered), and I'm sure a few more that I've forgotten by now but have parts on the way for.

Now that we're getting over a few hurdles, this week should have some good progress.

[WSSix]

Originally Posted by bigapple

Bryan, I love reading about you build, I own 1970 Firebird that im doing a lite resto mod on. Your build is want I want and currently can't afford. Keep the pic's and info coming.
Rob

You should start a thread on your car or put one in the intro forum. It looks great in the avatar and we need more 2nd gens anyway Also, any car is good enough for a project thread. Welcome to the forum.

[WSSix]

That engine looks good! Good luck getting all the parts sorted out, Bryan

[carbuff]

Mid week update...

I stopped by the shop tonight to see how things were coming along and to discuss a few more little issues Eric has run into... Pictures will follow below...

So this week has revolved around gauges, wheels/tires, sound deadener, and exchanging a few items. After exploring what seems like every possible tire brand on the market, I've decided to run the Falken Azenis RT615-K's in 275 and 315 widths. I ordered those from Discount Tire Direct today, and they will be here by Tuesday. I'm closer to my wheel selection, but I'm going to be using a fitment tool in order to make certain that I have the tires exactly where I want them! And I've been emailing back and forth with Speedhut's support team with questions about the gauges I'm looking at.

For some reason my gas tank straps are about an inch too short. Eric has the tank hanging in place, and the straps will barely reach the bolts. A quick phone call to Rick's today and they are sending me a new set tomorrow which are cut a little longer, even though the length of mine is what they normally provide for a 2nd gen. I like that customer service!

Contrast that with DSE, whom I'm pretty frustrated with at the moment... I called them last Friday to discuss the brake booster / master cylinder angle as shown in the picture above. They seem to be aware of this 'potential issue', and have a replacement set of brackets to resolve the problem. But they want to charge me for the brackets instead of swapping them out. I sent them a picture of my MC, and the sales guy I spoke with agreed that it seems too steep. He was going to grab one of theirs and compare it to my angle and get back to me. That was last Friday. I'm still waiting... So I called back on Tuesday and spoke to a second person. After a lengthy discussion, he was going to talk to the first person and one of them would call me back. Well, 2 days later, nada... Oh, and they have an order in their system for another $500 worth of their goodies that I want for the car which is holding on resolving this stupid $20 bracket issue. Disappointing to me for all of the positive feedback that they normally get...

Anyway, enough of my rant, here's another positive customer service review. Wegner Automotive. Eric asked me the question about whether I had the correct PS pump to mate up to my Ford steering rack. A call to Casey revealed that I did not. I told him I purchased the kit about 18 months ago, and he said no problem, just send them my pump and he would send me the correct replacement. I'm very appreciative of good service like that!

As for Eric, it's more mockup. He stuck the fuel tank in place, made some new spacers for the rear suspension pieces to get everything lined up just right, and assembled the engine/clutch/transmission and installed it for more mockup. He also finished the shifter cover and is going to install the nutserts to bolts it down this week. Tomorrow he's going to work on a set of seat mounts so that we can test fit me on Saturday.

On Saturday I'm going to get dirty scraping and grinding on the inner floorpans to prep them for the Dynamat install. I bought 3 boxes of Extreme and 5 boxes of Dynaliner to seal up the interior. While I plan to do track days in the car, on the occasion when I make a road trip, I'd like to drown out some of that outside noise as best I can.

Ok, enough rambling, I know you all just want to see pictures. Here are a couple of the engine installed, the Mocal oil thermostat, and the shifter cover...

[Rick D]

Looks great Bryan, are you going to paint the outside of the car or is it good to go?