Wash Me - f1shman's dirty car thread

[f1shman]

I suppose I've been lurking here long enough and it's time to start a build thread for my junker.

Disclaimer:
I must warn you however, if you are looking for a pretty car thread, this is probably not the build for you. All you will find here is pictures of a dirty, rusty, 42 year old firebird that doesnt get the benefit of having its own garage stall. In fact, the car only ever saw garage time on the weekends when I was working on it. It was outside in the driveway the rest of the week. As such, the pictures posted here do contain flash rust,:eek: there are water spots shown on aluminum:scared: and car parts are frequently covered in both dirt and cobwebs! :help: Also, due to time constraints, there were numerous oportunities missed to further disassemble the car during the build to clean and paint areas that would have made things much more appealing in pictures.

The Purchase
The car came into my possession as the result of an ebay transaction with a seller in Rhode Island during the winter season 2004-2005. You can see the original ebay pictures that were with the listing below. They do show some of the damage to the car, but the quarter panel shot just doesn't do justice to the actual thickness of bondo on the panel. Even with all
the problems the car has, I still think I got a good deal on a classic musclecar. The car didn't get to this point in a day, it certainly won't be fixed in just 24 hours either.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/yellow1-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/yellow2-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/yellow3-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/yellow4-1.jpg

The seller was great to work with and helped with obtaining a trailer rental in his area so that I could get the car home. When we got there, the car wouldn't start for him so we were forced to try to push the car onto the trailer while winching it up with a come-along. With the icy slush mixture on the pavement, pushing the car certainly was not as easy as it could have been, but we got it done.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/rightside-1.jpg

The ride home was interesting, to say the least. It was white knuckle driving all the way back to New Hampshire due to the slick road conditions, but even more so going over some of the bridges in Rhode Island with the wind hitting the side of the Uhaul truck. :scared: I thought I was going to sideswipe someone on more than one occasion. Things were really bad until we got further inland and away from the wind coming in off the ocean. The ride back was memorable for more than just the weather conditions though. The highlight of the entire trip was having people pull up alongside me on I-95 and honk while giving thumbs ups after they saw the car. Everone did make it back to New Hampshire without getting into any accidents and the car had a new driveway to call home for a few years.

[f1shman]

Engine Mods
The following morning I was back at the car. The goal was to figure out why the engine refused to start for us in Rhode Island. The seller had stated that the car was in running conditon and I was hopeful that he was correct and that the problem was a simple fix. After a few brief moments under the hood the culprit was found... someone had left the distributor hold down bolt loose and you could spin the distributor by hand. A quick timing check and the car fired up, and was mobile for a week or so until the parts started piling up.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/MVC099F-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/partspile-1.jpg

Since the car came to me with a Chevrolet engine already in the subframe that was in running condition, I decided to stay with a small block and not search around for a Pontiac replacement. I got an idea in my mind to power this car with an engine that Chevy High Performance wrote up a few years back. It was their "Twister" engine build series that was centered around the GM Performance Parts 383 short block. (link to the magazine build coverage (http://%5BURL=http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/57841_ht_383_crate_engine_test/index.html)) It was your basic magazine engine build, throw parts at it and dyno flog until you hit a decent amount of power, all the while documenting everything that they went through. The end results of their testing put the 383 at 500 lb-ft of torque and 491 hp at 5,700 RPM. Those numbers sounded appealing to me, so I started basing engine purchases off of their build sheet. I ran out of funds before I could buy the actual short block, and since the 350 that was in the car already needed gaskets I made the decision to run the bolt ons on the present engine, and pick up the larger displacement short block at a later date. That is also why I didnt bother to go through cleaning the engine bay up or even adding another coat of paint to the engine.

During the tear down it was evident that the previous owner held stock in a silicone company. There was orange silicone over just about everything in the engine. Valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets, head gaskets, exhaust gaskets :scared: ... it was even holding a chunk of the passenger side where it had snapped at a bolt hole. After cleaning as much orange from the gasket surfaces as possible, the engine parts started going on. A cheap set of ebay valve covers with matching air cleaner lid topped it all off and left me with this:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/MVC544F-1.jpg

Rear Suspension
The next project on the list was the suspension upgrades. The parts for the rear came in first so we started there. I was plenty happy to finally get rid of the air shocks on the back of the car. Why anyone would add those to a sports coupe is beyond me. Unfortunately during this disassembly process we spotted a bit more body damage to the car. One of the rear frame rails was buckled ever so slightly in the previous accidents the car has seen. Looks like it'll need to see a frame machine at some point. Hotchkis lowering springs went on at this point, while a set of 98-02 Fbody disc brakes were added later on. Caltrac bars also found their way in there but are not pictured.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/IM0000621-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/airshock-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/MVC505F-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/sideshot-1.jpg

Well at least the back half has a decent stance. :)

[f1shman]

Front Suspension & Brakes
A few weekends later I finally had most of the parts necessary to start the same process with the suspension on the front of the car. I ended up going with Hotchkis springs and sway bar, KYB shocks, Speedtech upper and lower control arms and also their C5 caliper brackets. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of the front end prior to the tear down, but it was your typical front drum setup. When everything was coming apart I found another hidden problem: the car had two different front hubs. Fortunately, I was able to track down a local seller in New Hampshire that had a set of drum hubs up on ebay shortly after making the discovery.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/hubs-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/MVC585F-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/PICT0009_1024-1.jpg

About this time I solved another issue I had. When I made my purchases from Summit, I bought a March Pulley kit. I had to order it blind since the engine in the car obviously wasn't stock and I had no idea what it came from. Because of the mismatch of parts, it took me longer than I would have liked to track down a power steering pump that would work with the brackets and pulley. I think my local parts house swapped pumps with me about four times before I finally got it right.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/MVC595F-1.jpg

Because I was getting nearer to throwing the much larger C5 brakes on the front of the car, I needed new wheels to clear them. I was short on funds at this point so I picked up a very budget oriented set of Mustang Bullit knockoff wheels and wrapped them with Kumho rubber. In order to run these on the car, I needed to use wheel spacer adaptors front and rear. It's not pretty, but at least the calipers won't hit the rim now.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/PICT0963-1.jpg

H2O
Alright, alright... the car was dirty so I washed it. Don't worry, I'll find some way to get it dirty again... it's just a matter of time.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/Pict0060-1.jpg

Work continued on the car at this point, but without too many pictures. My photographer and I had different schedules so progress was being made but I don't have much to show you. A 3rd gen Fbody steering box was added to the car and I finally figured out why there was so much play in the steering.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/ragjoint-1.jpg

Yeah, oops. :scared: At least the car didnt see any street time with that rag joint in it. As of now, the car has had the entire steering system checked and either upgraded or replaced if defective.

Some extra exterior purchases were made in this time as well. I bought a fiberglass replica Trans Am style rear spoiler to replace the more typical style that the car had when purchased. I also snagged a front spoiler as well, but have not installed it yet as it makes things more difficult when I need to get a jack under the car.

The Move
About this time in the build my time in New Hampshire was at an end. So the car and I made the trek back to Western Massachusetts to our present location. I'm still without a garage, but I'll make due. I'll be sure to give you guys some more dirty bird updates as the snow melts.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/PICT0035_001-1.jpg

[Patrick]

I like budget builds. They make people think about what they are building and how to build it.

So are you naming it "Project Dirty Bird"?

[T_Raven]

Nice car

[Steve1968LS2]

Cool build...

Hey, you could call it Project Dirty Birdie or Dirty Bird if you want to be less "Sessame Street"

;)

[1971CHEVELLE]

Car looks good..........solid project to start with

[Munster]

Cool build...

Hey, you could call it Project Dirty Birdie or Dirty Bird if you want to be less "Sessame Street"

;)

"Dirty Bird......I like that.

[rlplive]

I love it

[f1shman]

Dirty Bird definitely has a ring to it doesn't it? Thanks for the suggestions!

Hood
So here it is, February in Massachusetts and I'm outside in the snow playing with the car. :screwy: It got up to about 40*F today and the snow was mostly melted from on top of the car (but obviously not from around it) so I uncovered the front end to throw the VFN fiberglass hood on. It is a custom ordered 2" cowl induction hood that is necessary as much for function as show, since the air cleaner was hitting the stock flat hood and causing issues. The VFN unit bolted into place nicely and the overall look of the hood is fantastic. I am very pleased with the purchase. We spent a few hours outside working on getting the hood on, but the temperature wasn't cooperating so we headed back inside for coffee before I could get everything to line up nicely. The rest of the fitment issues will probably wait until spring arrives and the rest of the snow gets evicted. :machine:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/hood-1.jpg

[GM_muscle]

the bird is coming along great. keep up the work .