1969 Firebird TA clone track car build

[jlwdvm]

I have been getting a few things crossed off...but more gets added to the list all the time! I have everything off the motor and it is ready to come out so I can get the oil pan trap-door baffle installed to keep the motor safe in hard long turns. I did a lot of looking and found very little on getting the gas pedal mounted, but I think I got that figured out. I got the idea from a build on the DSE site. The 3/8" plate I fabbed up mounts to existing holes in the firewall and feels plenty stiff. More importantly, the pedal feels and measures out like it is in the right spot! Most of the wiring is done. After I get the fans, fuel pump, and dash kill switch wired up I will be very close to being able to firing up the motor!

[Motown 454]

It's coming out great! Nice work.

[jlwdvm]

well, I figured if I didn't pull the motor now I might have to pull it later after it blew up from oil starvation! I'm probably overthinking things, but there is a lot of talk about LS3's having oil starvation problems at the track. I installed some piece of mind that will work in conjunction with the 3qt Accusump. The pan baffle wasn't available for the Holley 302 pan when I first installed it.

[jlwdvm]

Motor is back on the sub frame and piece of mind is installed in the oil pan. While the sub is on the ground I filled some holes in the firewall and repainted it. I have some Duplicolor spray and roll-on bedliner for the bottom of the car. It is already in good shape and has black paint on it. I also dropped the rear to finish up the bracket welds, install the breather bung that will go to a catch can/breather in the trunk, and will get it painted. Going backwards to go forwards!

[jlwdvm]

Removed the Strange 9" to finish up the suspension bracket welds and install a 6AN breather bung in the housing that will go the the catch can/breather in the trunk. My make-shift paint booth worked well...the SPI black primer looks great and is a good match for semi gloss black.

[Motown 454]

It looks good.

[jlwdvm]

Got the rear end put back together. I noticed that the ARP wheel stud heads were contacting part of the park brake mechanism, so I did some grinding to clearance things. I also noticed that the stud head comes extremely close to the yellow park brake spring...hopefully this won't be a problem. I sprayed some Duplicolor bed liner on in the wheel wells and repainted the upper Ride Tech cradle. I'm waiting on a roll of copper nickel brake line, an Eastwood flarer, and a steel braided hose for the rear end. I think it will be as easy as it can get to bend the brake lines while the front sub and rear are off of the car.

[jlwdvm]

Bending brake lines with some home-made and purchased tools.

[rohrt]

Looks to nice to hang under the car.

[jlwdvm]

The Eastwood flaring tool works great. I have been cutting the tubing with a air grinder, but I am going to start using a tubing cutter to get a square cut since work-hardening isn't a problem with the copper-nickel tubing. I ordered another roll of tubing since most of my first run lines could use a little improving.... I will use them for templates. I decided to go with this tubing instead of the cheap Amazon stuff for the final lines: http://store.fedhillusa.com/ I figured an extra $25 for a roll was worth it for piece of mind when dealing with mu braking system! This tubing is made in the USA...not China.

[jlwdvm]

Started rebending lines with the Fed Hill tubing....actually Made in England I think. The wall thickness is visibly thicker, but still fairly easy to bend. I ran Right Stuff gravel guard over the lines as well.

[Motown 454]

Its looking good, nice job!

[jlwdvm]

Brake lines are officially done...unless I have any leaks! I was able to make a 1-piece line from the master to the right front caliper. I'm not sure how I got that done in 1 take, but it turned out well! Exhaust is close to being done. The rear hangers are tacked on and extensions are on the mufflers. I still have to fab up a pair of turn-downs. I welded in the dash pad holes and filled the front speaker area. Filler is waiting to be sanded flat. The next project is to get the driver's dash and Race Pak figured out. I noticed that after recentering the front sub frame and setting wheel base I have more front tire fender clearance. I will have minimal fender lip tweaking to do.

[icemanrd19]

Where and how are you mounting the ecu and fuse box? I've really been debating about putting it in the kick panel hole

[jlwdvm]

All of the wires run through the hole where the blower motor used to live. I made a shelf out of sheet metal that will bolt up the the same area on the front where the glove box hings does, and also bolts to the firewall. My Accusump is also bolted to the bottom of the shelf. All of my relays and extra fuse blocks will be bolted to the shelf as well. I thought I had pictures of it somewhere in here, but here is a recent one during some sheet metal work to the dash. The whole-car fuse box is in the original location. I used an AAW universal kit and fit it to the car since they don't make one for the 69 firebird.

[jlwdvm]

Cold air intake version 2.0 I replaced the rubber 90 with steel and moved the MAF to the straight section for better readings. The whole tube is wrapped with 2 layers of DEI...it took about 5 tries to get it right! Working on getting the RacePak dash mounted to the steering column now.

[jlwdvm]

Installed with clamps hidden.

[jlwdvm]

I made a steering column mount for the Racepak with some 16g sheet metal and a piece of 4" metal pipe left over from the air intake. It attaches with a wide t-bolt clamp. Now I can move on to fabbing up a sheet metal dash insert.

[1967marti]

I would worry about the accusump popping on you... I have seen many of them fail at random and shoot oil all over the floor. I'd think having one go off inside the cabin would be hell to clean up, Great work BTW!!

[rohrt]

Pretty sweet build.