Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

7 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

I had a couple of hours today so I borrowed my old wheels from my neighbor, Brett, to see how they would fit on my car. Well, they didn't. It's a good thing I am planning to use a different wheel. I was thinking about the American Racing 200s wheel (17x9.5 front) and (17x11 rear). I like the retro look, but I need to talk to someone who knows about these wheels. If they're crap or won't clear the brakes I want then I'll need to keep looking. But this was a good lesson to see and determine the sizes that will fit and what modifications I'll need to do to make these work. I knew that I would need to modify/ rebuild the inner fenders but it looks like I'll be notching the frame rails, too. Hope to get to that next weekend...

5-30-2011

This weekend I notched my frame to make room for the 17x9.5 rims to fit in the front and have a full range of steering. To keep my frame from becoming fragile, I reinforced the frame inside with 2 ribs on each side. I was able to recycle & re use my old corssmember plates I had cut from the frame when I modified it for the LS engine. I also added two tubes on the passenger side to provide additional support for the idler arm. I also feel good knowing that I've already reinforced the frame in this area in preparation for my engine mounts. With the tubular mounts installed they will box this area in so I think with all this in place the frame should be OK.

Here are some additional pics of the passenger side.

I also spent the day today applying the KBS coating to my axle and underside. I had previously purchased their 3 step kit. It looks like good stuff and they'll sell it to me here in CA. (Eastwood won't sell their rust encapsulator to CA residents anymore) It's a little glossier than I wanted, but, it's the bottom of the car and it'll eventually get dirty when I drive it.

7-5-2011

Thank you, Wayne! Wow, time does fly. I'm still alive. I had a last minute trip to Hong Kong and China for work for 2 weeks (3 weekends, though), and now it's a month later. I was lucky to get 3 days this weekend to work on the car. I took it off the rotisserie and put it back on the body dolly. I also set the engine back in and mocked up a little more accurate tube layout for the engine mounts, as well as roughed out my adaptor plates. I had bought some in a kit, but I'd like to take advantage of all the bolt holes on the block as I'm locating my engine farther back. I'll draw up a pattern in Illustrator and use it to trim out the plates to give them a little style. I have something in mind... I also bought some DOM tubing today and dropped it off at a local tube bending shop to have parts of it bent. I'll also need to purchase a tube cutting tool so I can make some clean cuts for welding.  

Since I'm on hold for that I started to mock up the rear inner wheel wells as I'll be making my own mini tubs. I have the driver side set up, now I just need to slice up a strip of metal and start fitting it in place. Fortunately for me since I'm going to flare out the quarter panels I'll need to modify the outer wheel wells too. This will allow me to correct any imperfections/ errors I might make on the inner wheels wells.

It might be a few weeks again before I get any time to work on this. I am booked this weekend, and the following will be my anniversary. Summers sure are busy...

somehow I missed posting pics of my pvc tubes mocked up...