1975 Firebird Formula

[AngryBird75]

Long time lurker. Too lazy to work on the car tonight so figured I’d bite the bullet and share some details about my project.


The car is a 1975 Firebird Formula I purchased in Sept 2023 in Mesa AZ. My family has always been a Pontiac family, the price was right so I said wtf. From what I was able to research, it’s been an AZ car for at least the last 25 years. When I bought it there was no motor or tranny.


Why the project: I'm in the 7th inning of my professional career and wanted to build a car I can drive in retirement. I am a Mechanical Engineer by schooling but actually work in tech. Always been a hands on guy but I’ve never taken on a project like this before. My auto experience is built on basic car maintenance (fluid changes; wheel bearing changes, tune ups, etc). I needed a new challenge so here we are…


Back to the car. When I bought it I knew it needed some work. I saw there was some rust in the passenger floorboard, driver rear quarter needed to be patched, and the trunk pan needed replaced. I uncovered more rust but I’ll save this pleasant surprise for later. 216166216167216168


The car used to be Bimini Blue. What drew me to the car was the hood scoops. I just think they’re bad ass and you don’t see formulas around all the time.


Current Plans


Motor: 1970 Pontiac 455 bored .030 over (462). I had Paul Carter from Tucson Arizona machine the block for me. He s a really good guy and the Pontiac master in my neck of the woods.
Forged Ohio Crank
Icon Pistons
Molnar Rods
Crower Rockers
KRE Heads Ported
Torker 2 Intake
Sniper 2 EFI and Fuel Delivery, Hyperspark ignition, Including the tank, pump, etc
all other miscellaneous components sourced from Butler. I tried not to have a weak link in the system.
Cam: Lunati VooDoo Hydraulic Roller 294/302. This is supposed to be an aggressive street/mild race cam. Engine builder said it was legit. Who am I to disagree…
Lifters: Comp Cams Evolution


In the future (once im used to the baseline power) I’m planning to add a 100 shot of Nitrous. Just for “special occasions” if you catch my drift.


Transmissions: Art Carr 200 R 4. My heart wants to go 5 speed but some day this car will get handed down to my kids and they don’t know how to drive a stick lol. I’m thinking about putting in a Kilduff Lightning Rod Shifter to give me the best of both worlds though. lol. I always dug those in the Grand Nationals.


Headers: Doug’s 1.75” Ceramic


Exhaust: Pypes 2.5” cross flow crossmember back exhaust Race Pro Series. I hears from Pontiac guys this style delivers the most hp. Shouldn’t be too obnoxious unless you get on it; im going to also add cutouts for those “special occasions” as well. Not sure if I’m going to use Pypes or someone else’s. Open to suggestions.


Rear End: I’m rebuilding the stock 10 bolt. I am using 3.23 Richmond Ring/Gears and an Auburn Carrier. My engine builder suggested the 3.23 because he said the motor will be around 580 ft lbs torque (based on similar build) and he said if I go bigger on the rear end all I will be doing is wasting my gears and spinning tires. I will do some roadtrips up to my cabin in northern AZ so it’ll be nice to have lower rpm’s on the highway.


Suspension: I’m leaning towards using Pro Touring F Body tubular A arms up front and sticking with leaf springs in the back but all brand new. Going to lower it 2” and install subframe connectors. All the newer A Arms don’t seem that differentiated. PTFB has good prices and the reviews are good. Also, I’m not planning on tracking the car so this should be sufficient. Part of the Ethos on this build is I don’t want to over restore it if that makes sense…


Tires: something along the lines of 305/40/19 in back and 255/40/18 up front. I made the decision not to tub the car. I love big meats but I didn’t have it in me to do more metal work lol. I’ve seen what 285s look like so I know that’ll fit for sure and I liked it. If I can squeeze 305s in the back I’ll be happy.


Rims: I’m digging the Boze Pro touring SL. Color tbd. I like that they have a bit of old school snowflake shape like the Pontiacs had back in the day.


Color: still open. Leaning towards darker to try and hide the black bumpers. Speaking of bumpers I’ll probably replace them with 76 bumpers. They don’t have that black rubber strip. Im. It a fan of that. I located a set I just need to get off my ass and pick them up.


Interior: sticking with the stock look and feel. I will likely do aftermarket front seats though. Vendor TBD.


Brakes: for sure 4 wheel discs all around. I need to figure out if I want to go Wilwood or CPP C5. I read I can save money with the latter and that it’s a lower total cost of ownership (pads, etc). Open to suggestions.


As far as expectations go, the good news is I have been at this for over a year. So I should be able to keep content flowing. Im not planning to share exact steps. Y’all can watch YouTube like I did and learn from better mechanics. I’ll,just highlight my process, where I screwed up, what I’d do differently, and what went well. I hope you all enjoy this project.

[Alponcho]

Cool project! I finished up with my '70 Formula a couple years ago (aluminum 535 w/sniper, T56, DSE, etc.,) and am almost done with my son's '79 Y84 (LS, Terminator X Max, TXK, Ride-tech). Mini tubs are not difficult...my HS aged son's first welding project (taught himself) and they turned out great! The '70 is a blast to drive and super reliable, haven't driven the '79 yet. Look forward to watching your progress. Reach out if you need something...have lots of leftover parts from these projects and others. If you're in Mesa, I'm right up the road.

216169

[AngryBird75]

Awesome thank you. Yeah the tubs were definitely doable but I’m a weekend warrior and wanted to manage scope creep. I’ll update the thread with new details soon!

[andrewb70]

Cool project! I finished up with my '70 Formula a couple years ago (aluminum 535 w/sniper, T56, DSE, etc.,) and am almost done with my son's '79 Y84 (LS, Terminator X Max, TXK, Ride-tech). Mini tubs are not difficult...my HS aged son's first welding project (taught himself) and they turned out great! The '70 is a blast to drive and super reliable, haven't driven the '79 yet. Look forward to watching your progress. Reach out if you need something...have lots of leftover parts from these projects and others. If you're in Mesa, I'm right up the road.

216169


Looks great! Please let me know if I can help with the Holley tuning. Shoot me an email: projectgattago at gmail dot com


Andrew

[AngryBird75]

The disassembly went fine… just a lot of bagging and tagging. One surprise was this collision damage on the driver side cowl. This would be my first real project…holy **** we’re really doing it buddy!!!




I drilled out the spot welds and was able to remove the outer metal. Then once I had access to the inner cowl I used a handheld crowbar, a long screw, nut, and two large OD washers to gain leverage and bend the damaged piece out. Once it was most of the way there I was able to use a hammer and dolly to get it as flat as possible. I welded the holes I drilled closed when done.

Overall it came out good for what it was. It won’t be visible anyway when the fender is reattached.

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[AngryBird75]

Apologies the pics are in the reverse order vs what I intended.

Also the two “after”,pics are recent. I couldn’t find the older pics right after welding them in. In these two pics you can see the car is in epoxy now and I Raptor lined the bottom. I’ll share more about those steps later.

[AngryBird75]

I should also highlight that before I welded the outer piece on I neutralized any rust on the inside with ospho, cleaned it up good and sprayed with epoxy.

This was my first time welding. I bought one of the HF Titanium welders. I watched some you tube videos to figure out how to mig weld. This project gave me plenty of plug welding practice. It wasn’t pretty but after belt sanding it was respectable.

[79 Camaro]

Old car projects are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you going to get per Forest Gump. LOL.
I've done a few 2nd gen Fbodys. Great platform.
My current project is a 80 Camaro. LS3/4L60E swap. I'm getting old and tired of shifting.
Few things I've done on my projects.
1. Tubular a-arms so you can dial in more caster. Many suppliers.
2. C5 brakes all around. You can find calipers and rotors anywhere. Tobin at Kore3.com is a good source. Or Custom Works in north CA.
3. 1350 u-joints all around.
4. Eaton Tru Trac posi. 30 spline.
5. Moser 30 spline axles.
6. Weld the axle tubes to the center section. Need to be done by a pro welder since it means welding the mild steel tubes to cast iron center section.
7. Toss up. Hotckiss springs all around or just in the back and coil conversion in the front.
8. Tanks's Inc tank for the EFI.
Man I like spending other peoples money. LOL.
Good luck with your project.

[AngryBird75]

:firefire:

thanks for the recommendations!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[AngryBird75]

Ok, so now that I was a self trained welding expert I decided to step up my game and tackle the floorboards. I figured if it wasn’t pretty at least it would be covered by carpet.

During the euphoria of the initial vehicle purchase I surveyed the car and purchased various sheet metal/panels because supply chain was still a little sketchy. My original assessment was the rear passenger pan had to be replaced and the passenger side floor pan up to, but not including the toe board. After I started tearing into though I realized the passenger toe board was all pitted as well and needed repair. It was just too thin to leave it as is….Unfortunately I could not source a third piece in the toe board only. I had to buy another entire passenger pan including the toe board. This was an unforced error and cost me a few hundy. Maybe I’ll take on another f body in the future and I can use it lol. If anybody can use it lmk I’ll give you a good deal.

I used a cutoff wheel, body saw, and air hammer to cut out the old floor. The torque box had some surface rust but nothing I couldn’t clean up. The frame rails were just dirty no rust.

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[AngryBird75]

To prep the new area I used wax and grease remover and applied ospho to treat rust. Then I cleaned everything up including in the rails, applied epoxy and weld thru primer on the areas I would be welding.

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I started with the rear panel. I watched a lot of videos to learn best methods. I drew inspiration from Carthage Classic Cars, Vinyl Village Garage, Fitzie, and my friend Pete! After a lot of fitting and tweaking I had a pan that could install well. My plan was to cut and butt the pan in with the old one. One thing I screwed up when I started was my cut off wheel thickness could have been thinner. It created a big gap in one section and I had to weld it up which was a pain for a rookie. Anyway it came out solid but I had to do a lot of belt sanding to make it respectable.

Another consideration I had is I wasn’t too hung up on making the welds blend in on the inside. Given it will be covered by sound barrier and carpet I was fine leaving the welds a little proud for additional strength.

[AngryBird75]

The installation of the main passenger pan went ok. One thing I did which I think was thoughtful is there is one cross member that doesn’t go all the way across (one does, the other doesn’t). I made sure to keep enough original floor pan connected to the shorter cross beam and then attached the new pan to that cross beam also. I felt like this would be stronger way to tie in the old pan with the new.

As you can see from the pics it looks like I got good penetration.

For now, I just sprayed the welds with primer and moved on. My plan will be to dress the welds better under the car, apply some duraglass on the welds and do what I can, within reason, to hide the welds.

As a SPOILER ALERT, I actually recently did this body work with Duraglass, took it to 120, reapplied epoxy primer (SPI) and applied raptor liner and it came out really nice. You can hardly tell it was replaced. For the inside I applied 3m seam sealer to the welds and seams and sprayed it all with SPI Epoxy.

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[AngryBird75]

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A recent pic on how it looks on the inside with seam sealer and epoxy. For my first time I’ll take it!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Good work! Getting those kinds of repairs done always feels good!

[AngryBird75]

After the floor pan the next step was to install the Detroit Speed firewall panel. Im going to go with a Vintage AC System so the holes on the passenger side are no longer required.

Overall it went on fine. It’s a lap weld joint for this install. I took the firewall down to metal then used epoxy primer for the middle parts and weld through primer where I need to weld. Overall it’ll work I think….. Ill dial it in with some body work later in the process. 216425216426216427

[AngryBird75]

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Final for now. My primer skill on the spray can needs a lot of work LOL

[AngryBird75]

Sticking with the metal work theme, I realized around this time that the drivers side toe board had some rust. It was small rust holes. I could have left it and used Duraglass but I didn’t want to half ass it. Had I known the extent of the floor damage I would have done a total floor pan vs how I did it. I guess as a consolation it’s nice to know there is still approximately half an original floor in the car.

Anyway, this patch went on pretty straight forward. Similar as the passenger side, I cleaned and osphoed everything and then applied epoxy to hopefully protect it for another 50 years.

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[AngryBird75]

Next step was to get the trunk repaired. I wasn’t looking forward to this project given the awkwardness of working in the trunk.

As you can see from the pics the rust was concentrated to the pillar structures on either side of the trunk pan.

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I elected to not replace the pan 100% but instead patch it side to side completely (all the way to trunk drop offs in other words) but only high enough into the trunk so that the rails that hold the fuel tank straps would still be welded to the original metal. I also decided to put the new pan in two pieces. Lots of cars offer pans in two pieces only so there is precedent from a quality and robustness point of view…and I figured I could save some labor with respect to removing the tail pan (which looked like a whole other can of worms).

I strategically made the cut in the new pan so the butt weld will be concealed underneath by one of the rails. I then also plug welded the heck out of both pieces onto that rail to give it added strength.

Similar as other phases of this project, thoroughly cleaned up the rails and applied epoxy and weld thru primer.

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Once I had it welded in, I applied SPI epoxy to seal it up and then did some minor body work to hide the repair. I knew I was going to raptor line the trunk so I didn’t have to go too crazy on the body work because raptor would offer some coverage.

I did have a zinger on this project. The new patch piece wasn’t in spec. When I fitted it in the trunk the hump section did not sit flush with the tail pan (see pic). Given I already cut the part I couldn’t get a refund so I had to fab a small patch to fill the gap. What I did was cut the hump area and bent what flange I had to work with flush to the tail pan. Then I used tape to create a template and I welded the patch in. It’s not perfect but I didn’t worry too much about it because the trunk latch mechanism will cover 90% of that area anyway. It’s solid and sealed so should be good to go.

One last consideration, the driver side quarter needed to be patched and when I cut into it to investigate the extent of the damage I saw the drop off needed replaced also. I used the old rusted drop off as my reference for the new trunk but I didn’t weld that part in. This way when I tore out the rusty drop off the new trunk pan could then serve as a reference for positioning the new piece.

I was kind of 50/50 on raptor in the trunk but after I got it done im very pleased with the outcome.

Metal work is kicking my butt. I smell like a steel mill and feel like I have metal shavings sweating out of my pores lol. Should be all downhill from here as it pertains to metal work…I did not keep perfect accounting but this probably took me 5 or 6 weekends. Big job!

Apologies for some reason the pics are not uploading in the right order

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[AngryBird75]

I should also mention while I had access to the frame rails I bought some of that Eastwood spray that’s supposed to neutralize and treat rust inside of frame rails. While I was at it I also blew out the rockers as best I could and sprayed the Eastwood stuff in the rockers too. They looked in good shape so hopefully this buys me another 50 years. :thankyou:

[AngryBird75]

Now that the trunk was done and I had a little bit of experience with metal work the time was to patch the drivers quarter panel. Here quality of installation is paramount.

Here is the baseline
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[AngryBird75]

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Pretty nasty!

[AngryBird75]

I decided to get the drop off mocked up first. It fit without any modification.

I took the new panel down to metal, applied 2 part epoxy primer and epoxy sealer from Eastwoods (their 2K Aero). Overall I really like how this stuff laid down but it’s pricey. Given this is a “gunk” prone area I wanted to protect the new metal as much as possible.

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[AngryBird75]

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[AngryBird75]

All in all it came out decent. I’ll apply Duraglass to the weld and then dial it in with filler. It shouldn’t require too much material.

Given how dirty this drop off was I cleaned the heck out of the passenger side and vacuumed and blew air through there to get it clean. I then sprayed Eastwoods spray for inside frame rails that’s supposed to convert and seal off rust. That long hose and nozzle made quick work spraying that narrow area.

[kawasakii]

Looks great! looking at going for the Holley tuning.

[AngryBird75]

Im not sure….Im going to run a sniper 2. Is it worth it in your opinion?

[OLDFLM]

If you're sticking with the Formula hood, I’d highly recommend ditching the Torker II for a Tomahawk. That’s what I run on my '72 Formula with my 440cid Pontiac, and it’s hands down the best intake for this kind of build. It clears the hood, has way better airflow distribution than the Torker II, and keeps strong velocity for better throttle response. Plus, it’ll pair perfectly with your KRE heads (cfm?) and Lunati 241/249 @ .050 cam.


For EFI, I'd recommend the Holley Terminator X Stealth 4150. It’s a huge step up from the Sniper 2. The Terminator uses 8 injectors instead of 4, which makes a big difference in fuel atomization, especially with a bigger cam and high-flow heads. It also has a much better ECU for self-learning and ignition control. I run a Terminator with a Rick’s Tanks Restomod fuel tank (https://www.rickstanks.com/product/pn-15021) and a modern Gen5 Camaro LS3 fuel module, and the setup has been flawless—rock solid fuel pressure and no starvation issues. (https://www.vaporworx.com/resources/fds/6-fuel-modules/)


One thing I can’t stress enough—get Dr. EFI (Andrew Borodin) to tune your setup. I promise you, it’s money well spent. Holley’s self-learning is good, but it won’t get you anywhere near the level of performance and drivability that a proper tune will. He’ll dial in the fuel, ignition, and throttle response perfectly, making sure you get the absolute most power and reliability out of your build. Trust me, this is the difference between a car that runs "pretty good" and one that feels like it was factory-engineered for your setup.

I run a 255/40/18 on my car and it rubs the stock frame slightly at full lock... you'll be hard pressed to fit a 305 out back without minitubs. I ran a 295/40/18 when Falken still made the RT615 and it cleared but their replacement RT660 is/was too wide in the same 295/40/18 size. I'm running Michelin PS4s in 255/40/18f & 285/40/18r now. HTH

p.s. Make sure that 200-4R has the right (billet) internals to handle big torque and watch that 10-bolt. The Auburn limited-slip is decent, but if you ever plan on pushing hard launches or using sticky tires, a TrueTrac or Eaton Posi might be a better long-term option. I had an Auburn and have the Eaton with 31 spline axles now!

p.s.s. A lockup converter would be nice for road trips and the Kilduff Lightning Rod Shifter is a cool, nostalgic touch!

[AngryBird75]

If you're sticking with the Formula hood, I’d highly recommend ditching the Torker II for a Tomahawk. That’s what I run on my '72 Formula with my 440cid Pontiac, and it’s hands down the best intake for this kind of build. It clears the hood, has way better airflow distribution than the Torker II, and keeps strong velocity for better throttle response. Plus, it’ll pair perfectly with your KRE heads (cfm?) and Lunati 241/249 @ .050 cam.


For EFI, I'd recommend the Holley Terminator X Stealth 4150. It’s a huge step up from the Sniper 2. The Terminator uses 8 injectors instead of 4, which makes a big difference in fuel atomization, especially with a bigger cam and high-flow heads. It also has a much better ECU for self-learning and ignition control. I run a Terminator with a Rick’s Tanks Restomod fuel tank (https://www.rickstanks.com/product/pn-15021) and a modern Gen5 Camaro LS3 fuel module, and the setup has been flawless—rock solid fuel pressure and no starvation issues. (https://www.vaporworx.com/resources/fds/6-fuel-modules/)


One thing I can’t stress enough—get Dr. EFI (Andrew Borodin) to tune your setup. I promise you, it’s money well spent. Holley’s self-learning is good, but it won’t get you anywhere near the level of performance and drivability that a proper tune will. He’ll dial in the fuel, ignition, and throttle response perfectly, making sure you get the absolute most power and reliability out of your build. Trust me, this is the difference between a car that runs "pretty good" and one that feels like it was factory-engineered for your setup.

I run a 255/40/18 on my car and it rubs the stock frame slightly at full lock... you'll be hard pressed to fit a 305 out back without minitubs. I ran a 295/40/18 when Falken still made the RT615 and it cleared but their replacement RT660 is/was too wide in the same 295/40/18 size. I'm running Michelin PS4s in 255/40/18f & 285/40/18r now. HTH

p.s. Make sure that 200-4R has the right (billet) internals to handle big torque and watch that 10-bolt. The Auburn limited-slip is decent, but if you ever plan on pushing hard launches or using sticky tires, a TrueTrac or Eaton Posi might be a better long-term option. I had an Auburn and have the Eaton with 31 spline axles now!

p.s.s. A lockup converter would be nice for road trips and the Kilduff Lightning Rod Shifter is a cool, nostalgic touch!

Thank you for the suggestions. Unfortunately I already bought the torker and sniper efi. So I may be stuck with that for a while….

Question on the tuning. How do they do the actual tune? Do they have canned tunes or do I run the motor through its paces and send them engine data from the ECU?

I think you’re right on the tires. Anything better than 285s will be a “bonus”.

im going to buy the tranny from Art Carr. They sell SKUS that are good to 750 hp. That’s what I was thinking…it’s a little overkill but figured buy once cry once.

On the rear end, im not planning on too many hard launches. I figure if it lets go I’ll bite the bullet and go 9”.

agree on the lockup converter!

thanks again for the feedback.

[OLDFLM]

Unfortunately I already bought the torker and sniper efi. So I may be stuck with that for a while….

I'm afraid the Torker may not fit with your Formula hood! I've tried them all including the prototype for the NorthWind that was suppose to fit but didn't, even with a pancake of an air cleaner. Tomahawk works with our Formula hoods!

Question on the tuning. How do they do the actual tune? Do they have canned tunes or do I run the motor through its paces and send them engine data from the ECU?

I've done several tunes with Andrew a couple of different ways. The first time I downloaded my "self-tune" after the car was running and sent him the file via email, he'd clean it up, send it back and I'd upload it. EVERY time it got better and better!! And it was a fun learning experience for me (probably painful for him though LOL). THE BEST WAY and what we did most recently was have Andrew "dial in" and live tune the car remotely... the car is flawless everywhere!! It's honestly the best money I've ever spent on my car! As good as the switch was to the Terminator TBI it wouldn't be half as good or satisfying without his tuning expertise!

I think you’re right on the tires. Anything better than 285s will be a “bonus”.

You can't beat the Michelin PS4s imo! You might be able to find a 295 that works but I think you'd have to go to a 19" in the rear. The RT660 from Falken was a full inch wider than the same 295/40/18 that I was running for years in their RT615.

im going to buy the tranny from Art Carr. They sell SKUS that are good to 750 hp. That’s what I was thinking…it’s a little overkill but figured buy once cry once.

Greg Ducato built a 700R4 with a lock up for my car. He built the transmission for the Popular HotRodding Laguna S-3 you may remember? https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/0902phr-1975-chevy-laguna-700-r4-transmission/

Check him out at https://www.phoenixtrans.com/high-performance-specialty-services/ (https://www.phoenixtrans.com/high-performance-specialty-services/) or give Greg a call at 817-599-7680. You'll be glad you did!

On the rear end, im not planning on too many hard launches. I figure if it lets go I’ll bite the bullet and go 9”.

My stock 10-bolt BOP has held up with the Auburn and 31-splines! Even with the 200 treadwear RT615 Falkens. With the torque our Pontiacs make the tires just go up in smoke anyway.
:6gears:

[AngryBird75]

Unfortunately I already bought the torker and sniper efi. So I may be stuck with that for a while….

I'm afraid the Torker may not fit with your Formula hood! I've tried them all including the prototype for the NorthWind that was suppose to fit but didn't, even with a pancake of an air cleaner. Tomahawk works with our Formula hoods!

Question on the tuning. How do they do the actual tune? Do they have canned tunes or do I run the motor through its paces and send them engine data from the ECU?

I've done several tunes with Andrew a couple of different ways. The first time I downloaded my "self-tune" after the car was running and sent him the file via email, he'd clean it up, send it back and I'd upload it. EVERY time it got better and better!! And it was a fun learning experience for me (probably painful for him though LOL). THE BEST WAY and what we did most recently was have Andrew "dial in" and live tune the car remotely... the car is flawless everywhere!! It's honestly the best money I've ever spent on my car! As good as the switch was to the Terminator TBI it wouldn't be half as good or satisfying without his tuning expertise!

I think you’re right on the tires. Anything better than 285s will be a “bonus”.

You can't beat the Michelin PS4s imo! You might be able to find a 295 that works but I think you'd have to go to a 19" in the rear. The RT660 from Falken was a full inch wider than the same 295/40/18 that I was running for years in their RT615.

im going to buy the tranny from Art Carr. They sell SKUS that are good to 750 hp. That’s what I was thinking…it’s a little overkill but figured buy once cry once.

Greg Ducato built a 700R4 with a lock up for my car. He built the transmission for the Popular HotRodding Laguna S-3 you may remember? https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/0902phr-1975-chevy-laguna-700-r4-transmission/

Check him out at https://www.phoenixtrans.com/high-performance-specialty-services/ (https://www.phoenixtrans.com/high-performance-specialty-services/) or give Greg a call at 817-599-7680 (tel:817-599-7680). You'll be glad you did!

On the rear end, im not planning on too many hard launches. I figure if it lets go I’ll bite the bullet and go 9”.

My stock 10-bolt BOP has held up with the Auburn and 31-splines! Even with the 200 treadwear RT615 Falkens. With the torque our Pontiacs make the tires just go up in smoke anyway.
:6gears:

thank you again for the valuable input!

[BobinFL]

Let me second the thoughts on using Andrew. I have gone to the basic Holley efi school, and the car ran well. Ended up having Andrew then do the tune and it was night and day better. Easy guy to work with. You wont regret using him

[AngryBird75]

Now that the big metal work projects were done, I carefully went through the rest of the car to make sure there were not any other trouble areas. One thing I decided to do is to delete the wheel flares. I like the look but I feel like the fitment and welting looks like crap. If anyone knows of a guy who sells metal ones I’d rather weld them in and do some body work to clean them up.

Anyway, as I was working on the drivers rear quarter flare holes I noticed some filler. So I kept digging and found some old shoddy collision damage repair.

There was literally a poked hole that they just packed full of filler. You can also see the holes they drilled to pull the dent. Not good!


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[AngryBird75]

I created a patch for the big hole. I cleaned out all that packed filler, rust treated it (ospho) and sprayed it with weld thru primer.

Tip of the week: Once I welded the patch in I used a small hammer that I modified by cutting half of its anvil off so I could squeeze my hand in the door jam hole and hammer and dolly the dent better to reduce the amount of required filler. Modifying the hammer gave me a little more “throw” on the backswing.

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[AngryBird75]

For the small holes i looked at a few options. I could have packed them shut with filler. Didn’t like that option for quality reasons.

I considered welding the holes shut but I didn’t want to warp the panel.

The other option was using lead. Eastwoods sells a neat kit and they have a great training video. With this vast knowledge in hand, I used lead to fill up the holes. To give it shape and clean it up I used a file to smooth it out. They do not recommend a DA because I guess it puts lead particles in the air.

Aside from the third nipple growing on my back from the lead exposure i thought it was kind of “fun”. Came out great compared to what it was. A little bit of filler later and it should be golden!

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[AngryBird75]

I stumbled upon a seized bolt that holds the passenger fender. I tried multiple ways to remove it….drilling it, those tap removal tools, heat….dang thing would not budge. Decided to cut it out, created a patch and welded a bolt on the inside section. Came out ok.216569216570

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[AngryBird75]

At this point all the big metal work is done. Next series of posts will segue to body work and stripping panels down to metal. Stay tuned!

[AngryBird75]

My strategy for the body work was to attack it piece by piece. Doors first. I elected to mechanically strip the inside portion and chemically strip the outside. I used that Stripper stuff from Australia. It works really good but there was paint, primer and filler to remove so it took a few coats to get it all off. One thing that confused me is when I stripped it there appeared to be a brownish color left on the outer panel. I didn’t know if it was rust or what. After researching I learned this is the original OEM coating that is created via a chemical dip. I didn’t like the look of it and didn’t want to take chances so hit it with a DA to get it to raw metal.

There was a grayish primer like material on the inside door area which made it a major pain. I felt like I was tossing/vaporizing primer around instead of actually removing it. After several cycles of sanding and cleaning it finally quit showing primer and I called it good enough.

The inside of the doors were not too bad. Mainly surface rust. I treated it liberally with Ospho, taking special care to make sure I was getting ospho in the seams of the doors. I then washed it out with water and dried it quickly with compressed air.

Once it was sanded down to metal, I wiped it down with W&G remover and then sprayed it with SPI epoxy.

For the inside guts of the door I thought I could spray it with epoxy using my spray gun but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work due to clearance issues. So what I did was buy some epoxy primer in a spray can and I gave it 3 heavy coats on the inside.

The amount of labor/time per door was significant. I would estimate 20man hours per door. It sucked lol.

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[AngryBird75]

Once the door was in epoxy my next step was to apply a skim coat of filler to the entire door. The door had a lot of dings especially on the body line.

This was my first time doing body work and admittedly my filler application sucked. I probably over applied which made more work sanding but you learn by doing. Learning in a 110 degree garage wasn’t helpful lol.

In retrospect I also probably over sanded the filler. I began with a 80 DA to get it on plane, then I used 80 sanding board followed by 120. As you can see from the pics, I broke through to metal which is to be expected but maybe I took it a bit far. On the other hand less filler is better right?

Once I felt like it was good (using Mirka guide coat), I blew it all off with air and reapplied epoxy. I let it dry 4-5 days, sanded it with a DA to give it a tooth and applied 3 coats of SPI 2K urethane primer.

Once it was all in one color you can really see your results. Overall it was almost perfect. All the dings and weld imperfections from the trim deletion were gone. I did have one very subtle low ding on the body line that I probably could have avoided with less sanding as noted above.

No big deal though I’ll clean that up and anything else i find with guidecoat using Dolphin Glaze in the next step. 217134217135217136217137

[AngryBird75]

Tip of the day for rookies like me: To give myself more working time I mixed my rage ultra 50/50 wit rage ultra extra. It made a big difference in working time in the brutal AZ heat.

[AngryBird75]

Same process different part. Cleaning the inside fender was also a royal pain. My OCD wouldn’t let me quit until it was perfect.

Oh and I don’t remember if I mentioned this but I am deleting the fender flares. I like the look but I hate the plastic and welting.





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[AngryBird75]

This was one of those bonus finds!

Clearly a high end operation executed this antenna delete. They used a washer and filled the hole with filler.

After some TLC I think it came out looking nice.






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