Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

6 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

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)

3-9-2014

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.

a couple more pics...

3-17-2014

I welded up my frame areas this weekend making sure I still have clearance for the bar and bolt head. I also ordered some heim joints and other little parts to help finish this one.

3-30-2014

This weekend I painted my frame again. I'm a bit bummed because I wanted satin black, the can of KBS paint I bought said satin black, but it came out glossy. Grrr. Oh well, I want to drive this thing so the shiny paint can stay for now. I'm not trying to build a show car.. I spent the rest of the weekend putting parts back on.