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

[carbuff]

No painting on this one, which is one of the reasons I switched to this car from the original red one. While it's not perfect on the outside, it's good enough for me. It actually is in pretty good shape, and it's a nice "10-footer".

We will be painting the firewall and inner fenders black rather than the current blue. But that's the extent my the plans for paint.

[carbuff]

Weekend update...

I spent yesterday working inside the car scraping the original asphalt goop off the rear floor and trunk firewall areas. That stuff is a freaking mess! Took me a couple of hours to get it pretty clean. This week Eric is going to prime the front half of the floor area where various metalwork has been done, and hopefully next weekend I'll get to start the Dynamat process.

My front tires showed up on Friday, so we spent a little time trial fitting them in the wheel well. The pictures below are the 275/35, which is just about 1/2" shorter than the 315/30 will be, so it gives me a good idea of the fitment in terms of diameter:



Here's what I'm looking at for the outer edge:



Unfortunately on the JRS setup, as with most setups which use the front spring pocket for a trailing link, the link itself is the limiting factor on the inside:



I couldn't get a good picture, but that shot shows a little over 2" from the tire to the link. Starting with a 275, that would let me get to a 325 with almost no clearance. And I'm not completely sold on my outside position, so that's pushing it.

You might also notice that we replaced the rear bushing with a heim join to see if we could gain a little room. We get about 1/2" on the rear, so maybe 1/4" where I took the measurement. Without cutting the frame rail, there just isn't much else you can do there... When I get the 315 on Tuesday, I'll do some more detailed measuring. I have a wheel fitment tool that I'll be using to be more confident also.

Eric is also making mounts for the Sparco seats. I knew these were going to be a tough fit (just about any aftermarket seat is) due to the height, and the fact that I'm 6'2. He's got it almost as low as it can sit without cutting the floor, and we have resolved that the floor is going to have to be cut at least some. I like his seat protection method here (garbage bags )





I'm going to need a much shorter shifter rod than the one I have, it's way to long/tall. Add that to my shopping list.

We did a few other small things yesterday. Hopefully we've decided on a mounting spot for the II Much fuel and axle vents. We removed the factory canister that was behind the seat, and there's a flat spot there which we are going to try and use. Eric will make a platform that we can remove, but the opening is in just the right spot to snake the lines around the axle, exhaust, and Watt's link there.

We also looking into all of the plumbing we need to do. The rear brake lines are going to be tricky, again due mostly to the exhaust. I have 4 pages of notes of the AN and brake fittings we are going to need to plumb the fuel lines, oil lines, PS lines, vent lines, and LS steam vents. Can't wait to place that order...

And finally we stared at the shaker setup for a while. If the measurements are correct, the top of my 4b throttle body is about 1 3/8" higher than the Quadrajet which came off the car. I have a 1" spacer on there which we can remove, but that still leaves me 3/8" or so too high, as it was also sitting a tough higher than I wanted. So I will probably purchase one of the aftermarket filter bases which are made for shakers, but then we'll probably have to cut it up to make it fit. We can't lower it much though due to the fuel rails. Tight fit in this area, so we have some work to do here...

[carbuff]

Update time. It's been a couple of weeks...

I've worked the last couple of Saturdays at the shop, and Eric's been hard at it. The progress has been slow because of the PITA nature of what we're doing.

First, he's cut out a space to mount the II-Much vents where the original canister was behind the rear seat. He also made a shelf to mount them which we can unbolt to remove. It's going to work perfectly in that space!

Then he's had to cut out some space for the JRS torque arm uprights to clear the floor. Space is tight back there, and as we approached compression on the rear end, the uprights were hitting the floor. So Eric cut out some of the rear seat belt mount plates, and took a BFH to the corner of the floor. He tried not to cave it in too much, and then some cleanup effort.

Also, the rear firewall was loose in several areas. So he made some new upper corners where it will attach to the DSE tubs, and some welding and cleanup from where the previous owner had cut it for a cage. It was also rattling from some loose spot welds, so those are fixed too.

I worked to assemble the rear axle and 3rd member, install the axles, and the Baer backplates. That turned into a bit of a challenge, as the tapered bearings have an outer seal which reduces the clearance for the backplate to slide over the axle. A little massaging with a grinder opened up opened up the edge just enough to clear, so the backplates are no.

Eric talked me into using bumpstops on the Bilsteins, so I ordered up a set from Speedway. Unfortunately that means disassembling the end of the coilover to insert them on the shaft. Thankfully he's done this before on others, so he knew what we were getting into. I have a few pictures of that process below.

Eric also has been making brackets to attach the front coolers. Radiator, condensor, oil cooler, and PS cooler. We've spent a lot of time considering options here and line routing. We've settled on the layout you see below, and we decided to make hardlines from the coolers to bulkheads on the core support. Then I'll run AN lines from the other side of the bulkheads to their respective spots on the engine.

I have a wheel fitment tool on loan at the moment to determine the size and backspacing I want to use on the wheels. So this past Saturday we stuck the rear axle back in place to get some measurements. This caused more frustration for me. After the last round of trimming and beating on the floor, the uprights mostly clear now. However, when we stuck the wheel/tire on and compressed the rear end, the car is still sitting way higher than I want. We have one more step down on the axle housing mounts, so I can get about 1 more inch there. But, in this position it currently is in, we are bottoming out on the floor at the axle housing upright mounts on the top. So we're going to have to do more cutting of the floor to open up space to allow those to move up higher. In the tire picture below, that is full compressed right now. I want that to be RIDE HEIGHT! That's never going to happen though and have any compression left in the coilovers. It will be interesting to see where we end up...

Anyway, I measured the wheel BS for the rears. It looks like I'll be around 7.75" with an 11.5" wheel. I'm running a 315 tire. We are going to roll the lip more than it current is, and that leaves me about 1/4" or so to the lower trailing links. You can see in the picture below that Eric made a spacer for the bushings to push the link in as far as we can.

I've spent a LOT of time lately trying to pull together an order for the AN fittings and line which we are going to need. Damn that is going to be an expensive order! We're running PTFE line and fittings for the fuel and vent lines. Eric will bend a hardline from the rear to the front, and soft line to finish the attachments.

I'll be running oil cooler lines (-10) and PS lines (-6), and then I'm going to make a set of steam return lines from -4. That may be overkill, but it seems like the cleanest way to do it. See the following:



I also need to get my gauge order in. Those will take a couple of weeks to make, so that's on my list for this week also. My list seems to get longer instead of shorter.

Ok, that's about it for now. Pictures below. First, Eric's rescue German Shepherd Sophie:

[carbuff]

[WSSix]

Looking good. Stay with it and you'll get it all figured out. You're definitely doing it right by finding these problems before you say it's done and drive the car.

[OLDFLM]

Please paint the valve covers Pontiac baby blue! Please?

[carbuff]

Hee hee... That's not actually my engine, just a picture which I snagged from another site. My covers will stay bare aluminum, assuming that's the material which they are made of anyway.

[carbuff]

I stopped by the shop tonight for a mid-week update and to measure for the wheels. I snapped a few more pictures also.

Eric is working on mounting the engine compartment downbars to the front subframe. He's making plates to mount to the firewall along with the collars. I didn't get pictures of those yet since they aren't mounted, but will this weekend.

I also snapped a couple of pictures of the mounting plate he's made for the II-Much vent cans which will go behind the rear seat.

As to the wheels, after a lot of futzing with the MountMate fitment tool and measuring to ensure we had everything right, we settled in on the fronts at 18x10 with 6.5" of bs, and the rear at 18x11.5 with 7.5" of BS. Now I just have to decide on a wheel style and colors!

Not much else to say, so here are the pictures:

[carbuff]

Dynamat day. I hate laying Dynamat. Enough said...

Eric primed the floor this week before I put the Dynamat down. I forgot to take a picture before starting, but the solid black floor looks good. If anyone ever pulls all that Dynamat out, the floor should be in good shape.







Did I mention that I hate laying Dynamat? My back and finger tips are hating me today! And I'm about 1/4 of the way finished, although those should have been the worst areas. I don't expected the firewall to be as bad...

[carbuff]

Meanwhile, Eric has been fabricating away. The firewall downbars have taken more time than we planned, but they appear to be about done. Everything is tacked up now and ready for welding tomorrow... We used the B&B Classics firewall and subframe flanges, and they worked out very nicely. In order to maximize the MC booster clearance, Eric trimmed the drivers side cup a little, and then did the same on the passenger side to match the positioning. I wanted a crossbar for strength, but also wanted it removable, so we got a set of the Ballistic Fabrication tube clamps. Unfortunately those are only available in 1.5" or 1.75", while the flanges were 1.625". So we stepped up to 1.75" tubing, and Eric opened up the flanges a little to accept the oversized tube. Now he just has to be very precise when welding it all together.

Pictures:





Note the welds...