68 firebird- Hodgepodge

[socoken]

I have decided to start a small build thread for the 68 firebird I have been working on. I used the name "hodgepodge" in the thread title because there is very little coherence as far as brands in the car. All of the parts I have assembled on the car came from second hand deals, on ebay or on this site's classifieds.

This car started life in Santa Ana, CA, where its original owners traded in a Catalina convertible for a Verdoro Green Firebird. Its options list included a 350 2bbl V8, pg, power steering, power brakes, rally wheels, deluxe ivy gold interior with console, and HO air cleaner. The car was repainted blue sometime before the second owner bought it, whom I got the car from on my 16th birthday. He kept it in his garage for a decade and a half without really doing anything with it. I drove the car through high school without changing it much. I put a 4bbl intake and quad on it from a late 60's GTO, some loud glasspack exhaust, new goodyear tires, all new brakes (drums) and some seat covers on it, and drove the hell out of it.

The car then went into storage for nearly a decade while I spent time first in the Marines, then in college. Over the last two years, I have been collecting parts and putting them on the car VERY SLOWLY. I love this car, and I very much look forward to driving it again, but budget and time constraints severely limit my progress. Part of it is just priorities, too. I have a few motorcycles that require maintenance and attention, and I ride when I can, so that dips into time I could spend getting work done.

So, today I am going to put up a few pictures of my progress and experiences so far, but dont hold your breath on updates. Also, anyone looking for paint and body or fancy interior stuff is going to be disappointed. Second place title for this build was "Butterface" as my entire focus on this car is go, and very, very little show.

Ken

Here are some pics of how the car started out.

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[socoken]

The trouble that started all of this was an engine. I had a friend who needed to sell a hot rod SBC, and so I traded a used pickup and some cash for it.
The engine is a 406 sbc in a 509 block with splayed main caps.
trick flow 195 heads
Comp Cams XR286 solid roller - .576/.582 and 248/254 with 110 LSA
Edelbrock RPM air gap intake
Edelbrock 750 cfm carb
MSD 6AL ignition
Roller Rockers
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Which replaced the tired 350 pontiac that leaked EVERYWHERE. The 350 2v was originally rated at 265hp. I still have the poncho engine, but I have no plans to rebuild it anytime soon

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[socoken]

From there, everything got really expensive really fast. After removing the old poncho, I cleaned and painted the subframe in the engine bay. I didnt do the fenderwells or core support, but my mindset in all of this was to clean and paint to protect any area I could get to in the process of removing and replacing parts. To protect the engine, I bought a Wizard Cooling radiator and fan setup on ebay. This is a primo setup, and looks just gorgeous.
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Then I began the suspension tear out. The front was disassembled and subframe was cleaned and painted.
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[socoken]

The front suspension stayed pretty basic. I had the control arms powdercoated and I replaced all the bushings and ball joints, including a 0.90 taller upper bj. All of the new components were proforged. I used a shop press to remove the old bushing sleeves and install the new poly bushings. All in all, it went pretty smoothly. I cleaned and painted the factory spindles. The new springs are Hotchkis 3'' lowering coils and the Hotchkis Bilstein shocks to match. Also new in the front was a Hotchkis 1 1/8" sway bar, tie rods, adjuster sleeves, and end links The only concern that I have is that the adjuster sleeves are too long. I have them adjusted all the way in, and they still seem a bit long. The aluminum sleeves were also very tough to thread the new rod ends into, as any slight ding in the threads of the steel would dig in and gouge the threads in the sleeves. I spent a fair bit of time with a file cleaning the threads on the rod ends to get them to turn in smoothly.

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[geberhard]

Very cool and love the Butterface approach :) I think total sleeper look, killer stance and performance will set it apart form the crowd :)

[socoken]

For the front brakes, I found an ebay deal that I fell in love with. It was a set of Baer Extreme+ 6s 14" brakes. They were bought from a shop that had them for a customers car and didnt use them, and I paid less than half of what Baer sells them for. These brakes are unbelievably impressive, and the kit bolted on perfectly. I also have a new set of front brake lines prebent in stainless to install yet.

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[socoken]

For the rear, I scrapped the 8.2" ten bolt BOP for a ford 9'' with a nodular center section, 3.89 gears, and a trutrac with 31 spline axles.

I bought a set of DSE 3" drop springs and Delrin Bushings from the classifieds here. It just so happened the seller was local, so it worked out well for both of us. I replaces my factory gas tank with a repop stainless tank, so while that was out, I pressed in the upper rear bushings with a C-clamp. I used the Delrins in all six locations, and had the front spring pockets powdercoated. I had to call DSE a couple times because I was not reading the instructions properly, and customer service there was incredible.

I cleaned and painted the back half of the underside of the car when it was bare. I used matching Hotchkis shocks for the rear, and a wilwood dynalite 4 piston, 12" rear brake system with internal parking brake.

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Then I installed BMR bolt-in subframe connectors. The finish of these is great, and they fit with a bit of massaging. I had to gently (read: 2 lb hammer) the ends of my subframe in to get the connectors to slide over them. Another bit of trouble with these is that the rear brake and fuel lines must be relocated, or smashed.

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[socoken]

Next on my list of things to do is to have the 4L80E (seen in the background of my last subframe connectors picture) rebuilt and put that in. I also have a lot of plumbing and wiring to finish. Here is a bunch of pictures of the car in its current state.

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This picture sort of shows my front seats. I bought a set of leather Recaros out of a mid nineties porsche 911. I have my carpet and console out of the car, and I need to make brackets for the seats and dynomat the floor. Does anyone have any advice on how to power the seats? Can I just run a lead out of the fuse block to power them, or do I need some porsche relays?

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[socoken]

Very cool and love the Butterface approach :) I think total sleeper look, killer stance and performance will set it apart form the crowd :)

Thanks! This hippie 70's style/mystery machine paint on the decklid is staying on for the time being. There was an even bigger one on the hood, but I plan on replacing that with a 69 TA style hood.

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[rickpaw]

Nice score on the Baer brakes.

you may want to put on a little anti seize on the tie rods sleeves, especially if they're aluminum. Mine have seized solid after 3 years.

[socoken]

I rented a wheel fit tool and found out that my original subframe was tweaked, the wheels sat drastically different in the fenders from one side to the other. It looked like the car was in an accident once upon a time, so I decided to get a different one and powdercoat it. I also decided to try some shorter engine mounts (subframe brackets) from a 69 z28 to try to get a little more space between my distributor and the firewall. The engine mounts I had wouldnt fit over them, so I had to clearance them a little. Then, lowering the engine meant I had to clearance my headers around the steering box. Its one step forward, two steps back. While I had the subframe out, I scuffed, cleaned, and painted the underside of the body. I also had to do some denting of the tunnel to make more space for the transmission line fittings on the 4l80e. This car is spotless underneath. I also added DSE UCA's and their ceramic coated steering box.




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[AtomicFirebird]

Sweet Ride! I like to see the ideas and skills of everyone. Keep it coming.

[rohrt]

Pretty cool

[socoken]

Some long overdue progress made, but not by me. I broke down and took it to a local shop. The rate is really reasonable and the work is of absolutely exceptional quality. Basically, I had the parts there and mostly mocked up, but it needed a final assembly with plumbing and wiring. Its really eye opening how much of a difference it makes when a pro does things. Everything is so clean and well thought out. As previously stated, the plan is to make the car a driver, so the paint and body and interior wont be getting much attention. My hope is that the car is a solid and bulletproof cruiser that I can auto-x and track for fun.

I still need to figure out seat belts. The Porsche seats have the buckle still attached but I am not having much luck tracking down the belts, and I am not sure they will fit even if I do. I still need a TCU for the 4l80e, so I am open to opinions on those. Ive done a bunch of research but most of the threads are older and do not include some of the newer models. If anyone has a box they really love, or really hate, Id love to hear about it.

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[socoken]

The car finally saw the road. Its loud and its fast.

First impressions:

The car cruises at about 2700rpm @70mph with the 3.89 rear and the 4l80e. The FAST TCU works pretty well on the basic tune, but I need to mess with it a little. Driving nicely produces clean, smooth shifts and TC lockup happens right about where you would think it should. However, it doesnt always do what I think it would do when I jump on the gas.

Ive got a mild whine from the 9in rear on decel. Im hoping it mellows out a little with a break-in.

My external electric fuel pump is LOUD.

The Wizard cooling radiator is fantastic, my temp never breaks 190.

The choke-less Holley DP is a little cold blooded, but not as bad as I thought. It warms up quick and runs nicely, albeit with a pretty significant lope, especially in gear/not moving.

I very rarely get any tire-rubbing, and I have only noticed it in the rear when angling over a steep approach. I think the rear flexes up just enough to rub on the inner fender well.

The Morris 3pt belts look and feel good. They do lock pretty easily so it takes some patience to put them on, but it feels way safer than just lap belts.

So far, I have averaged about 12-13 mpg, which gives me a range of about 150 miles before I need gas. As a motorcyclist, its not a big deal.

I dont have carpet or sound-deadening in the car, so I know that will help some of noise issues. Even my parcel tray is open to the truck, so I get ALL of the noise.

I went a little big with my manual master cylinder, so my braking force is rather weak. I really need to stomp on the brakes to get any sort of whoa sensation, but they are safe. I need to add a hydro boost, change the MC, or get some really aggressive pads to do any hard-driving.

The car handles fantastically compared to what it used to. Flat and tight, no drama, very smooth. I knew all my old corner speeds from the driving the car as original, and cornering at those bench mark speeds felt like slow-motion.




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My big issue is the exhaust-ground clearance, specifically on the drivers side. The Passenger side has ~1 inch more clearance and never touches, the drivers side touches at about any bump mid-RH-corner or abrupt pavement bump, typically at bridges or RR tracks. The drivers side header seems to be the issue, it angles downward more than the passenger side and the flange on the drivers side is rotated down to where a bolt is at 6 o'clock. I knew when I got it that I should have returned it, but never got around to it and now its too late. Im open to suggestions, but I want to take it to an exhaust shop to see if there is any fabrication that can be done without removing the header, specifically if there is an oval collector that can be welded in gain that inch back.

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Can anyone tell me how to stop the upload manager from rotating my last photo? I cant find anything in the code that jumps out at me, and Ive tried re-naming, pre-rotating, and refreshing to no avail.