Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

6 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

Still slowly chipping away at this. I got the axle narrowed and back in, but the rear operating angle (aka "pinion angle") is too extreme (6º) so I will need to rotate my axle up to reduce it. Unfortunately my DSE arms are already maxed out in adjustment, so I'll need to do something more to rectify this. I underestimated this part of the build before (operating angles) and now it has caught up to me with a vengeance. Lesson learned. I spoke with Brett (Fab53) who has more experience with this kind of thing and he gave me some suggestions for relatively simple fixes. So my plan of attack is this- I will look at lowering my car 0.5- 1" all around to finesse the ride height and wheel opening gaps (which, btw, I realized my front end sheet metal is slightly off square so I need to adjust that, too), re measure the operating angles, and likely end up making a jig and new location holes for the upper control arms to clock the axle as needed. Then I can measure for a drive shaft and once installed, add some fluids, a battery and see what happens.

I finished the cold air intake assy, connecting my rad hoses, and RXS atch can. Only thing left in the engine bay is an IAT sensor. Rock auto is sending me one as I write this.

I bought one of those "Spoilers by Randy" and installed it. I like it. I wrapped it in black vinyl for now, as I opted for the brushed aluminum version and didn't want to paint over it at this time. I also had a glass shop come by the other weekend to install the front and rear glass in my car, only they brought a scratched windshield, so I sent it back and hopefully they will be back next weekend with a decent piece.

The saga continues...

5-3-2015

Well one issue you won't have with the cast versions is what I discovered last weekend- that the inner halves of my rims don't match! whoever built them mixed and matched both soft lip and traditional lip on the inner rears. So back they went. It was a 3 lb weight difference, too. grrr.

quick update- in addition to sending off my rears to be rebuilt I do have the glass in now, I got the brakes bleed after having to make a new flare. It just kept leaking hard and after dis assembly it was cracked. Then onto the clutch to bleed that and that too gave me fits. I replaced the slave cylinder and that at least allowed fluid to pump through but it was still a dead pedal despite continuous bleeding. The solve was using a Mighty Vac unit and sucking up air out through the top. Worked like a charm. I had this tool for over ten years and this was the first time it proved useful. yay.

Also welded in tabs for the seatbelts, installed them and the seats, too. I had to lower the driver side a bit as it was too tall and I was hitting my head on the roof just sitting in the car. Sometime later I'll do this for the passenger side. Maybe when I take the seats back out to add the 5th belt slot in the seat. I won't need this until a track day, which will still be a while from now. With the lowered seat brackets I needed to make a special wrench to access the bolts. I may think about a better way to mount these as this is a PITA as it is.

I have a driveshaft on order, and that will take 4 weeks. Opted for a carbon fiber one. In the meantime I'll test the electornics as I can't really start this without the shaft/ fluid in the trans. So close now.

5-26-2015

small updates... received my driveshaft which is quite pretty, imo, and a shame that it's buried underneath the car. I also hooked the battery up this weekend and started testing the wiring. I had a few bugs (to be expected) and got most of them fixed. The real bummer is the car wouldn't start. After getting a little help it turns out I plumbed the fuel lines/ regulator all wrong (resulting in way too much fuel pressure) and need to add a return line after all. So parts are ordered and I'll be doing some revisions over the next couple of weeks. Live n learn. Stay tuned.