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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States

      1968 Firebird project

      After years of searching, looking and dreaming about owning a 67 or 68 Firebird I finally got my chance to fulfill a childhood dream of mine. In the spring of 1983 my dad brought home a Champagne 326 H.O. 1967 Firebird. As I walked home from school that day, I saw the surface rusted, jacked up rear axle, stars and bars draped across the package tray atrocity and my first grade self thought, "Why did he bring home this piece of junk?"


      My younger brother was always hanging around that car.


      Pics circa 1983 (rear shackle extenders were removed at this point.)








      My mom, who has passed, restored all of the emblems and reupholstered the interior. My uncle helped my dad rebuild the engine and put it all back together. (He later bought it off of my dad in 1987, selling it to a collector in 1988 and bought a new black 5.0 5 speed Mustang GT.) My dad had his friend paint it Guard's Red. When I saw it after all the work they did it left a lasting impression on me. I was enchanted by it. It was and has remained my dream car.


      Pics circa 1986













      Last summer my girlfriend's Uncle came across a first gen in Ohio. He asked what I was looking for and I told him a 67 or 68. Turns out a friend of a friend of his had passed and was beginning a full restoration of his 1968 Firebird. His son sold it to me cheap and I flew up to Ohio, rented a UHaul and towed it back to Florida. The firewall, cowl and rear seat bracket were the only original metal left.




      In my girlfriend's dad's garage in Ohio














      Loaded up on the UHaul





      900 miles later










    2. #2
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      I've got a ton of pics to load with motor and suspension progress, but for now I'll post up what I got done today.

      Hopefully I'm done with the grind wheels for a while. Stripped the interior and finished coating the floorboard, inner firewall, back seat brace and package tray.

      Remembered to take before during and after pics.












    3. #3
      Join Date
      Apr 2004
      Location
      Cedar Rapids, IA
      Posts
      999
      Very Nice.
      Some times I'm fast sometimes I'm half-fast

    4. #4
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      I picked up a 400 block that was bored .30 over and had a turned crank and rebuilt 6X-4 heads from a speed shop in Gainesville.











      Parts delivery including the XE268 cam.





      Adjusting the Harland Sharp rockers:





      Decided to go with the '68 metallic blue







      Picked up a locking converter 2004-R dirt cheap in Tampa:


    5. #5
      Join Date
      Oct 2009
      Location
      Amherst, OH
      Posts
      524
      Country Flag: United States
      Subbin to follow along!
      Josh

      1968 Firebird project thread - https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...41#post1180941

    6. #6
      Join Date
      Nov 2016
      Posts
      157
      Great story! Nice car too

    7. #7
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by rohrt View Post
      Very Nice.
      Thank you, trying to take my time to build a reliable semi-daily driver.

      Quote Originally Posted by Josue View Post
      Subbin to follow along!
      Awesome! I've read through your thread a while back and got plenty of great ideas from your car so I thank you for that. Funny, I stumbled on your photobucket while deciding on my wheels. Small world.

      Ben

    8. #8
      Join Date
      Oct 2013
      Location
      H-Town, TX
      Posts
      356
      Country Flag: United States
      Looks like a solid start- what did you use to paint/ coat it? It looks good.

    9. #9
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Thanks Shawn!

      I brushed on POR-15 and plan on hitting the trunk, inner panels, wheel wells and underside with truck bed liner. Probably will get Upol's Raptor liner.

      My plan for the car is restomod, I plan on going with a FiTech fuel injection on the 400 backed by a lock up converter 2004-R. (The missus wants to drive it so auto it is, and my need to row through gears is satiated by my '87 S10 I built with a '95 LT4/T56 combo.)

      Went disc brakes all around, will post pics and process. Rear is a 3.55 lsd Pontiac 8.2". The axle housing # came back as 4.11 so at some point the rear was rebuilt. From what I can tell it was a 350/350 car. I'll have to send the VIN to PHS since the build tag was removed.

      Already installed 2" drop coils and looking at 3" drop leafs for the rear. I retire in a little over 10 years and have plans of going all out by then and dropping in a new 650 hp LT4 4L70E combo with a C5 based subframe and IRS... Until then going budget minded and building a reliable cruiser.

    10. #10
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      Great progress, so nice starting with a car that is so solid.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    11. #11
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Photobucket is on the fritz but I'll try my best to post...

      The car was hit on the passenger front and the upper control arm was bent along with both tie rods. Frame measured true and was untouched so I started out with a pair of '68 Camaro upper and lower control arms off of a car my girlfriend Kristin's cousin was working on. My car shell came with a red Prothane bushing and mount kit. Prepped and painted the UCA's and LCA's with POR-15 and pressed in the bushings.








    12. #12
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      The untouched, never been removed (not since the seventies anyways) front drum assembly:



      Dismantling, old girl did not want to give up the nearly 50 year old parts.










    13. #13
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Picked up some "LS1" brakes and had drum hubs turned down to fit the 2002 F-body rotors. Brake lines clipped into the '68 bracket with minor modification. No issues lock to lock.

      BMR brackets and spacers:



      Mocked up:



      Prettied up:








    14. #14
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      14" mags had to go with the new brakes so I went with US Mag "Bandits" that reminded me of my Dad's Rally II's. 17x8 235/45 front, 17x9 275/40 rear.







      Old and busted:



      New hotness (my son approves):


    15. #15
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      I saw a '68 Camaro build on another thread that utilized '98-'05 S10 Blazer rear brakes. They allow for a stock style parking brake cable that engages a shoe, have aluminum calipers and allow for a 15" rim (in case I ever get the urge to run a race slick...) The most important factor was the ability to use a 4WD mount on the driver side (caliper forward) and a 2WD on the passenger (caliper rear) allowing the stock staggered shock mounting position.

      Start:







      Same bolt pattern with GM for 50+ years:


    16. #16
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Removal of the rear axle and old drum assembly went very easily much to my surprise after working on the front end. Realized I didn't have a '68 Camaro rear end but have a BOP rear that does not have c-clips and uses pressed axle bearings and an outside bracket to bolt the axles in place.

      I was fully aware of this but did not realize the axle stop bracket will have to mount behind the Blazer caliper mounting bracket. Rather than press off the bearing and try to slide the Blazer mount behind the axle bracket I cut the retaining bracket so it slipped over the axle and was placed in its new correct position for the disc brake configuration.

      My dilemma- The holding bracket needs to go behind the caliper mounting bracket. Holding bracket is slid on before bearing and axle spacer are pressed on:



      The caliper mount leaves a huge gap between the holding plate and bearing. Solution:



      I cut the holding bracket just wide enough to slide off of the axle with my Dremel tool. There is a drain area already on the bracket at the bottom so I cut there. I lost minimal bearing contact area. (Also used the axle flange bolts from the Blazer.)



      Rather than buy a spacer, I figured I wasn't going to use the drum backer plate and cut out and fabricated my own:


    17. #17
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States








      Staggered positioning:




    18. #18
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      A tidy laboratory is the sign of a lazy chemist.









      Lots of work ahead. I'll try to post my subframe refurbishment pics tomorrow.

    19. #19
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Tearing down the front and subframe removal:







      Prepped underside:



      Paint (she's seen a lot in her years)












    20. #20
      Join Date
      Feb 2010
      Location
      New Smyrna Beach, FL
      Posts
      116
      Country Flag: United States
      Dropped in motor and bolted in transmission. (Waiting for 2004-R crossmember to arrive in mail)















      And that's about everything to date. Hoping to at least have the motor fired by the end of next month. Until then lots of paint prep and primer in my future.

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