1968 Firebird Build. Project badbirdy

[68BadBird]

Here is some back story, I saw the car on c-list and fell in love with it. Its a 1968 Firebird 400. I didnt have any money to buy it out right and the guy wanted a bunch more than I could have raised. After looking at if for around 5 months, I finally contacted the owner. We ended up making a deal, my 1980 camaro daily driver for his completely disassembled 1968 firebird. Seemed like a wonderful idea at the time. I still love the car, and it is one of my dream cars. Only problem is, Im slightly over my head with this one. The car is on a rotisserie and its going to be a long process. The parts that are with the car are pretty awesome and I basically have the full car. Im hoping to get it driving some time soon because I miss having a car to cruise. Im going to need some help periodically, I have read through countless build threads, but some areas are still pretty foggy to me. There are a ton of things i still
The subframe is built, global west upper and lower control arms, hotchkis sway bar, qa1 coilovers, drilled disc brakes
for the rear end I have a disc rear out of a late 70's turbo trans am and a four link with qa1 coils, full painless wiring harness
Engine wise I have a 400 pontiac with ram air 2 heads, It needs a total rebuild, th400 trans. I plan to run e85 so i can keep the compression ratio.
Anything you are able to help me with would be extremely appreciated.

[BirdsThaWord]

Congrats on your very upward trade (in my opinion). Looks like a great car to start with. You saved a ton of money right off the bat by getting those great parts and a ton of time in disassembly. There's a wealth of information on this site and some great folks who love to help. I'm no fab or build guru, but you are more than welcome to shoot me any questions you have. If I can help I will. If all else fails, maybe I can point you into the right direction.

[68BadBird]

Than You. I agree, the trade was a very good one from my end seeing that my 80 was worth maybe 4 grand. I have been on here for a long time ust watching build threads and looking at what others have done. I know what i want my end product to look like in my head, the fun part will be getting it there.

[68400BIRD]

Feel free to ask as many questions as you want. I will help where I can as I would like to help out and not see you have some of the same problems as me. LOL We need more pictures to start off the thread correctly.

[68FirebirdBrian]

Nice car. Sounds like you got the better end of the deal. I'm new to the forum. I got my first bird back in 80' and now I'm working on a 68 400 HO vert. If you needs some help I will try to help you out. They are lots of fun to work on.

What's the head code on your 400 engine? Should be a 2 digit no. on the center exhaust port. Is it a numbers matching car?

Brian

[67rstbkt]

Awesome!!! Another Firebird. Same here, any questions, fire away. I'm looking forward to seeing more pics and progress

[68BadBird]

Alright so it been a long time since I last posted. Here are some updated pictures. I fabbed both tubs, installed the heidts 4 link, put the front subframe on, and smoothed the firewall. The iroc z steering box is installed, and the engine is built. I also undercoated it while it was on the rotisserie. I'm having a little bind when turning the wheels, dont know if its a problem with the steering box or just how I have the steering arms connected. Have to get that worked out. As you can probably see in the pictures, I didn't know how to put the coils together and used a rachet strap.

[68BadBird]

Here's a pic of the front subframe connected and the firewall smoothed before painted

[68BadBird]

Also, the engine on the build has changed. When I was researching the heads, I found that they probably weren't ramair 2s and I had a vortec headed 350 sbc outta a late model tahoe. So that's going in with an airgap intake and 650 carb and msd dist. just for now.

[68BadBird]

Havent posted in a while, my progress has been painfully slow between lack of funds and time. Car was almost sold until my cousin told me to sell my body before I sold my car. He got his point across. Things that have been done since last update. Front clip mocked up, got gaps close enough. engine and trans in, firewall, inner fenders, and front bumper support painted gloss black. seems like I'm forgetting some stuff. here are some pics

[68firebird]

Looks good. I like the rims!! I've wanted to sell my car sooooo many times, and believe it or not, my wife continues to talk me out of it, saying I will regret it. I've been at mine since 2002, still not even close to where I want it, but the funds just aren't there for the big stuff right now for me either. I REALLY need rims, the backspacing is wrong and the fronts are extremely close to the outer tie rods, but for now I have to live with it. keep on plugging bro.

[Roger Poirier]

So what, so its going to take some time. It took me 4 tries and thirty years to finally build my car correctly. Problems with builders, funds, etc. It is the end result that counts. Here is some motivation for you. I have owned this car since the age of 16. Now 40 years. It is going to be alright in the end!

[lucky13firebird]

so what are your heads then? D port or round port... depending on year and casting numbers, they may still be ram airs, just ram air III's or something... was reading back on you installing the coils and couldn't help but think that thats a darn good way to lose some fingers... next time just rent some strut coil comressors from autozone or something... looking back i wish i'd have tubbed my car like you did, but hey. things happen. just keep plugging away.

btw roger that is a crazy nice GTO...

[68BadBird]

Wow, sorry for never responding to your guys responses. Progress decent since the last update which was about 8 months ago now haha. The car could be fired if I ever get around to wiring the engine into the harness... have fuel lines run, literally everything to get this car going. Got the new aluminum radiator in, late 90s camaro e-fans with painless dual- fan controller. brake lines are all run, have all fluids for car just sitting there. The wheels and tires got put onto my Typhoon that I had for about a month before breaking a rim in Chicago so those are gone when i sold off my TY. When I was actively building the car I had far fewer expenses and was living at home, and was planning on being out of school in under a year and a half. I've since gone to a 4 year university and have rent which is higher than anyone would ever expect. Literally the worst point in my life to have a car to build... I would have started wiring it last weekend when I was home, but I've also been trying to sell it and don't want to shorten up all the wires and screw over the next owner who will probably want to put a 400 in it. And yes, that tie down strap thing was terrifying but it was the only way i could figure out to get the coilovers in at the time... I've since learned that you can put the compressors in between coils haha. live and learn I guess.

[68BadBird]

After trying for months to sell the bird, I came to the realization that if I didn't get to building it I would have to go another show season without a car that I'm proud to show. In the past 2 weeks the following has been done; wired the engine and charging circuit, put in distributor, plugs, wires, rebuilt the carburetor, installed e-fans, driver and passenger seats are in as well as the bench seat back, I began fabricating the exhaust and probably have about 5 more hours until it is complete. Because of the extremely tight budget that this build is now, my parts are almost all coming from the junkyard, but the car is actually coming together really well. I expect to have this car driving (without windows... as I haven't been able to get a windshield for financial reasons haha) within the next two weekends. Fun fact, Mazda 3 seats fit very well into first gen Firebirds with a bit of fabrication. I thought I had pictures, but I guess I don't, so those will come in next update.

[68BadBird]

Here's a cool little project I did this weekend on the bird. I had 6 broken old headlights and one headlight connector on the old harness (where the others went i have no clue.... sucks when you dont take the car apart yourself.) And three broken brake light bulb connectors with with no wires snubbing out so i could splice them into the painless harness. So I decided to do a little retro fit. Hit the junkyard with my old man (something that rarely happens because as a team were pretty dangerous around car parts). Found some projectors out of a early 2000s cts... cut them out of their enclosures and brought them home. Then came the task of cutting the backs out of glass sealed headlights to put newer style connectors and bulbs in. Steep learning curve there. But I'm pretty happy with the finished product. Which I would show you, but they've changed photobucket and I cant for the life of me figure it out... And ontop of that I cant get stuff to upload here so I'm done messing with it.

[68BadBird]

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ikf2htsk3...j9GqzXbXtR8Una

[68BadBird]

I hate not being able to just embed these pictures... I've tried for hours to get it to work right >:/

[68BadBird]