Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

9 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

Got a little bit done this weekend- I ordered (and received within 2 days!) a radiator, so I started to figure out how I would mount this. Turns out I needed to flatten my core support more, and fill in more holes, as they didn't line up. From that I made some brackets to hold the electric fans & shroud. I suppose if I had machine shop equipment (handbrake, shear, press, dimple dies, etc) these could have been done in minutes, but I got my Amish on again and got the hand tools out and made my best at it. It's generally there, but I have some grind marks and general imperfections, so I'm gonna go back and primer/ sand and repaint these before I install them. Also been pecking away at the wiring...

7-20-2014

I got a little time in today (anniversary weekend- I had other priorities, ha ha) so I finished up the radiator installation and am recycling the washer fluid bottle as an overflow tank. I also spent some time sanding down my plastic grille pieces, but the painting was a disaster so I need to sand them down and try again.  

I've also been "sponsored", so to speak. My coworker gave me an exhaust cut out kit he bought for his 5th gen camaro and decided not to use. I'll make good use of it...

7-27-2014

So I snuck into the garage after work this past week and installed the front bumper. It still needs a tiny bit of adjustment for my bumper/ passender fender but I'll wait to do that until after I put the hood on. The bumper went on fine, but then, of course, the garage door wouldn't close, so I had to carefully use 2 floor jacks to lift the car and push it back. (still no wheels yet) I kept the jackstands near the frame rails to help keep it balanced. This weekend I installed more wiring...

8-4-2014

Yeah, silly things like that happen to me a lot, too. Much more often than I post, but I thought that pic was worth a laugh.

I can't wait to be driving it. It's been 4.5 years since I ripped it apart and that's a long time to go without a "fun" car. However, for me a car is never done until I sell it. My plan is to drive it in this "raw" level for a time, tuning it, enjoying it, etc, and when I have the itch (and $$$) to work on it again I can tear it back apart and have the bodywork done right/ painted, etc. Maybe.


This weekend I helped my coworker remove a 2 barrel 289 out of his '68 XR7 Cougar. The car started life with a 390 and a previous owner took that out for this mild v8. (apparently a trend in the 70's gas crunch era) He's returning the car to its former glory and then some by having another 390 built with aluminum heads and a T56 Magnum. I think he's going to have a traction problem if he doesn't add more meat in back- a good problem to have, imo.

8-17-2014

Yea, this is a clean one. He got lucky as it was local and reasonably priced, too. Very solid car, and it's an original 390 XR7 car.

I have been working on my car, but it's mostly been wiring. Nothing much to show yet. I got distracted this weekend with building my wagon- more on that here:

http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=47229

8-18-2014

Thanks, guys! Yeah, that wagon is definitely for the swap meets. I'm getting tired of grunting all my parts around the aisles at Pomona, and, as those who have been to it knows, it's a big show. I painted the chassis red today. It's rough up close, but that's OK. I don't want to over obsess on this thing.

8-24-2014

Still plugging away on my wiring, ha ha ha... So I'll share some pics of my progress. For the most part- under the dash is done. (still have a few lights to wire in) I mounted the computer underneath the pass side of the dash along with the fuel pump relay. One day, if and when I put a HVAC system in this will all need to change. I have the wiring for the cluster all set, but I can't put that in until my replacement light socket arrives. This one little socket is the only piece I can think of so far that I have lost during the entire build of this car, which, is pretty good, actually.  

In the engine bay I have the wiring harness mostly on the engine (minus the obvious not yet installed parts) and the wires mounted on the firewall. I also used an LT1 style junction block (in the far left corner, it's red, and barely in the pic). I really like these parts as they have a plastic cover helping to protect the metal and two posts for mounting wires. GM seemed to discontinue them on the LS cars. Not sure why... Still need to wire up the fans and lights. Speaking of which I picked up a set of tinted BMW style headlights. I'll have some fab work to do to get these to fit. I'm thinking I may need to pull the bumper back off to make this happen. These lights are deeper (especially the projectors). I'm hoping I can simply remove these and modify my firebird sockets/ plate and use this set up to mount the new lights. It would be best as this will locate them properly as opposed to trying to modify the BMW mounting assembly as that is way different and would take a lot of fab work to modify.

I also had some fun removing a plug on the passenger side head for installing a temp sender. Unfortunately, the plug was rounded so I ended up using these stripped bolt extractors I forgot I had. Worked awesome. I'm so glad I had them. I just tapped it on with a hammer and off it came. It wasn't even tapped on squarely... I'll recommend these from now on. I'm sold. Of course, once I did get this off the sender I have is the wrong size, so I'll need to get another one of these, ha ha.