Birdman98
07-13-2021, 05:42 AM
So the name is starting to be a bit of a misnomer. When we bought it, it was extremely filthy and disgusting and honestly didn't expect it to clean up so nice. But that's what we called it on our YouTube channel so that's what we're stuck with. :lmao: It is a basic 1992 base model Firebird with a 355 and an automatic. Nothing special.
Backstory on the car. I bought this car back in 2001, drove it for a few years and then sold it to buy a truck when I was starting a business. My wife and I left our wedding in this car, lots of good memories in this thing. Well, my parents bought it from me to give to my brother for his first car. In the mean time my dad let it run in the garage to warm it up and it overheated and blew a head gasket. I lived out of town and was in an apartment so we took it to a former friend who was going to build a new 350 for it and get it running for us. He was going to swap it to TPI, etc. Well, he built the engine and then hacked the crap out of the car and really messed it up. Car was mint when we gave it to him, but when we got it back the underhood wiring was hacked to ****, there were two dash harnesses hacked together, the car ran terrible and there was a power draw somewhere in the car we couldn't track down. My parents took it to a few different shops to try and get it running right, but no one could ever do it. Finally we sold it and washed our hands of it. I kept in touch with the guy I sold it to and we became friends. He worked on the car, pulled the TPI off and threw a big carb on it and had another guy come and redo the wiring so it wasn't totally haxored. It is still haxored, but the guy did good work with what he had to work with. The car still ran decent but not great and my buddy liked the car. I bothered him to sell it to me every now and then, mostly kind of joking because I didn't have any room for more cars. Well, my wife and I were talking one day because I have a terrible habit of buying cars and starting a project and then losing interest. She asked me what cars would make me want to keep them and not bail. I told her my 98 Trans Am (still have), my 92 Firebird (which I now own) and my 76 Trans Am (which I tracked down and bought back a month after the 92). She said why not try and find them and spend my time and money on something I'll keep. Well, not 6 months later my buddy calls me and asks me if I want to buy my 92 back. I give him $1k and some parts for his 4th gen Firehawk and head over to pick it up. It is rough - faded paint, doesn't run, tires are the ones I put on it back in 2002, interior disassembled, etc. But, it was my car and I knew I wanted it back. Winched it on the trailer and brought it home.
When I bought it in 2001
190341
Leaving our wedding in 2002
190342
Here's when we brought it home.
190339
Unloaded and reinstalled headlights
190346
Then we went about swapping the old wheels and tires off of my old DD 04 S10 Blazer onto the Firebird. They are 18x9.5 XXR 531 wheels with 275/35/18 tires.
190343
So now that the car actually looked better we went about actually making it run. First the starter wasn't wanting to turn the engine over that quickly, so I installed an LT1 starter and got the engine cranking at least. I pulled the spark plugs and they were all mismatched and gaps were all over the place. Anywhere from .03 to .06 and half of them were fouled. I correctly gapped some new ones and the car KIND OF ran. The timing was off, I set it to TDC and went to figure out which timing mark on the balancer was the correct one. Finally got that figured out and the car still ran terrible. I realized then that the car had an aftermarket pump for the TPI setup it used to have and it was being regulated down from ~50psi down to 7 and the regulator was going nuts. So I knew it was time to do something different. Back into the attic and dug up an FITech setup I had up there. Got it all installed and buttoned up and it runs like a champ.
190344
After we got it running we set our sights on making it look clean again. We started by removing the horrible door edge molding that was faded and peeling and generally hideous. The paint behind it wasn't perfect but it is a ton better than what it looked like before. We also clay barred, polished, buffed and waxed the crap out of it. It isn't perfect but it looks pretty good from a distance and really good for a third gen f-body.
190347
After we got the car looking good, we had to set our sights on getting a hair less altitude. I was getting tired of the 4x4 jokes, so had to do something. I plan on doing something good with the suspension on the car at some point, but for now wanted to get it lower on a budget. Back into the attic I went and dug up a set of BMR lowering springs for the rear. Then I pulled the soft factory springs and cut half a coil off. Got about 1.5" drop and looks so much better. I still need to install some new shocks in the rear but pretty happy with how it sits now.
190345
So currently:
355 flat tappet SBC, L98 heads with the usual head job, Comp XE268H 268/280 .477/.480 114cl cam. Rebuilt 700R4, nothing special. Factory suspension other than cut springs and BMR springs in rear. Factory 10-bolt, 2.73 gears, open diff.
Coming soon:
9-bolt rear, posi with 3.27 gears. Alston SFCs, Founders LCAs, new interior stuff (headliner, carpet, etc)
Future:
T56 swap, better suspension stuff.
It is generally a cruiser. My 98 TA is a full tubular suspension, 9" rear, 402 LS2 stroker street brawler and my 76 TA will be set up for open road and hillclimb stuff.
Backstory on the car. I bought this car back in 2001, drove it for a few years and then sold it to buy a truck when I was starting a business. My wife and I left our wedding in this car, lots of good memories in this thing. Well, my parents bought it from me to give to my brother for his first car. In the mean time my dad let it run in the garage to warm it up and it overheated and blew a head gasket. I lived out of town and was in an apartment so we took it to a former friend who was going to build a new 350 for it and get it running for us. He was going to swap it to TPI, etc. Well, he built the engine and then hacked the crap out of the car and really messed it up. Car was mint when we gave it to him, but when we got it back the underhood wiring was hacked to ****, there were two dash harnesses hacked together, the car ran terrible and there was a power draw somewhere in the car we couldn't track down. My parents took it to a few different shops to try and get it running right, but no one could ever do it. Finally we sold it and washed our hands of it. I kept in touch with the guy I sold it to and we became friends. He worked on the car, pulled the TPI off and threw a big carb on it and had another guy come and redo the wiring so it wasn't totally haxored. It is still haxored, but the guy did good work with what he had to work with. The car still ran decent but not great and my buddy liked the car. I bothered him to sell it to me every now and then, mostly kind of joking because I didn't have any room for more cars. Well, my wife and I were talking one day because I have a terrible habit of buying cars and starting a project and then losing interest. She asked me what cars would make me want to keep them and not bail. I told her my 98 Trans Am (still have), my 92 Firebird (which I now own) and my 76 Trans Am (which I tracked down and bought back a month after the 92). She said why not try and find them and spend my time and money on something I'll keep. Well, not 6 months later my buddy calls me and asks me if I want to buy my 92 back. I give him $1k and some parts for his 4th gen Firehawk and head over to pick it up. It is rough - faded paint, doesn't run, tires are the ones I put on it back in 2002, interior disassembled, etc. But, it was my car and I knew I wanted it back. Winched it on the trailer and brought it home.
When I bought it in 2001
190341
Leaving our wedding in 2002
190342
Here's when we brought it home.
190339
Unloaded and reinstalled headlights
190346
Then we went about swapping the old wheels and tires off of my old DD 04 S10 Blazer onto the Firebird. They are 18x9.5 XXR 531 wheels with 275/35/18 tires.
190343
So now that the car actually looked better we went about actually making it run. First the starter wasn't wanting to turn the engine over that quickly, so I installed an LT1 starter and got the engine cranking at least. I pulled the spark plugs and they were all mismatched and gaps were all over the place. Anywhere from .03 to .06 and half of them were fouled. I correctly gapped some new ones and the car KIND OF ran. The timing was off, I set it to TDC and went to figure out which timing mark on the balancer was the correct one. Finally got that figured out and the car still ran terrible. I realized then that the car had an aftermarket pump for the TPI setup it used to have and it was being regulated down from ~50psi down to 7 and the regulator was going nuts. So I knew it was time to do something different. Back into the attic and dug up an FITech setup I had up there. Got it all installed and buttoned up and it runs like a champ.
190344
After we got it running we set our sights on making it look clean again. We started by removing the horrible door edge molding that was faded and peeling and generally hideous. The paint behind it wasn't perfect but it is a ton better than what it looked like before. We also clay barred, polished, buffed and waxed the crap out of it. It isn't perfect but it looks pretty good from a distance and really good for a third gen f-body.
190347
After we got the car looking good, we had to set our sights on getting a hair less altitude. I was getting tired of the 4x4 jokes, so had to do something. I plan on doing something good with the suspension on the car at some point, but for now wanted to get it lower on a budget. Back into the attic I went and dug up a set of BMR lowering springs for the rear. Then I pulled the soft factory springs and cut half a coil off. Got about 1.5" drop and looks so much better. I still need to install some new shocks in the rear but pretty happy with how it sits now.
190345
So currently:
355 flat tappet SBC, L98 heads with the usual head job, Comp XE268H 268/280 .477/.480 114cl cam. Rebuilt 700R4, nothing special. Factory suspension other than cut springs and BMR springs in rear. Factory 10-bolt, 2.73 gears, open diff.
Coming soon:
9-bolt rear, posi with 3.27 gears. Alston SFCs, Founders LCAs, new interior stuff (headliner, carpet, etc)
Future:
T56 swap, better suspension stuff.
It is generally a cruiser. My 98 TA is a full tubular suspension, 9" rear, 402 LS2 stroker street brawler and my 76 TA will be set up for open road and hillclimb stuff.