'69 Firebird - Counterfeit Trans Am

[Josh@Ridetech]

I haven't worked on the much at all lately with selling the house and moving/working on the new house. The good news is that we're getting ready to start on the new garage (pretty stoked about that, I'll post some pictures of that when it's going up too).

On a side note, the car isn't on the back burner completely. It's currently at the body shop getting a couple things put on that I think that it should've had put on when it got painted the first time! Sneak peak below

[68Formula]

Much better.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Much better.

Thanks! Haha, I think so too. Since I bought this car, I never have understood why the guy painted it like a Trans Am and left the base hood on it and put a Camaro spoiler on... Putting the right parts on it has been on my to-do list for a while. Hood pictures will be on here soon!

- - - Updated - - -

Much better.

Thanks! Haha, I think so too. Since I bought this car, I never have understood why the guy painted it like a Trans Am and left the base hood on it and put a Camaro spoiler on... Putting the right parts on it has been on my to-do list for a while. Hood pictures will be on here soon!

[Bulletpruf]

Gorgeous car; I always thought the '69 T/A was the best-looking version of the first-gen F-bodies.

[stevehoj]

[Josh@Ridetech]

Gorgeous car; I always thought the '69 T/A was the best-looking version of the first-gen F-bodies.

Thanks guys! I knew I was going to change a couple things when I bought it. If it was going to be a clone of any type, I wasn't going to let it be bad clone

[Josh@Ridetech]

The stripe layout on the car wasn't spot on to begin with so I wasn't extremely set on making it match "what it should've been from the factory" but it's not far off from it. The roof isn't getting repainted so the width of the smaller stripes is going to stay the same. I played with lining everything up to my liking and came up with this. Dimensionally, it actually isn't far off from the GM manual specs on spacing and such (the outside stripes on my car are 1/4" whereas the OE ones were 1/8"). From looking at the survivor cars and textbook restorations, it doesn't even seem that those cars were consistent with how the layouts were. Some look straight from front to back and some are angled worse than mine are. I think these will be just fine for a counterfeit Trans Am.


PS - the cowl panel is getting painted as well so it'll all line up properly.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Got the car back from the body shop last week and put a couple hundred miles on it on Saturday. I'm loving the car more and more especially with the new hood and spoiler

[jaybee]

Fabulous, I've always loved those Gen 1 Firebirds.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Fabulous, I've always loved those Gen 1 Firebirds.

Thanks! I'm very happy with how it came out!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Hey everyone!

It's been a while since an update but I've had a ton going on (alot of good stuff). Got married, moved/getting everything situated, and built a new shop at the new house. Now that everything is more in order (and I can turn the lights on), I was able to bring my car back from my buddies house where I was keeping it. It's been a long time coming but I finally put the gauges in, trimmed the carpet and got everything fitting better, installed Morris 3 point rear seat belts, and put the new Corbeau seats in. I'm not thrilled with the way they're fitting but I'll live with it until winter and modify the bracketry then. I also plan to recover the rear seat to black at that point too.



and finally got a good rolling shot

[rickpaw]

Nice.



Jealous of the new shop.

[dontlifttoshift]

Car and shop look great Josh!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Nice.

Jealous of the new shop.

Car and shop look great Josh!

Thanks guys! I'm very excited for both of them. It's been a goal of mine for a long time!

[chevyz240]

Got the car back from the body shop last week and put a couple hundred miles on it on Saturday. I'm loving the car more and more especially with the new hood and spoiler

The car looks great! But I hope that you are planning to adjust the rear bumper angle.

[Josh@Ridetech]

The car looks great! But I hope that you are planning to adjust the rear bumper angle.

Thanks! I'll mess with it at some point I'm sure. Crazy enough, almost every '69 Firebird I've seen/found pictures of has the same (or worse) angle on the rear bumper from the side. I haven't tried to adjust anything yet but I'm sure there is some play in it. It is level from left to right if you're standing behind the car though, this picture makes it look crooked for some reason lol.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Morning guys! Just thought I'd throw one small update on here. I've made a few small updates to the car when time allowed. I've learned it's nicer to have a running car in the nice months so now that the winter months are here, I'm ready to rock. I've got some autocrosses planned for 2026 and the original brakes I put on the car a couple years ago were great (way better than the car has ever had) but lacking for more spirited driving. I put some Baer 14" Baer 6P's on the front and rear and what a difference... I haven't got them 100% bedded in yet but I can already tell this is going to be one heck of a change. I love the matte black/gloss black combo on these too.





Also gave it a nice buff/wax! I can't stand the thought of decals on the car right now so I ordered some magnetic one's from autocrossdigits.com. These are super nice if anyone else is wondering!

[NCSU68]

An amazing build. The wheel/tire package looks great! Thank you for sharing the pictures. Please update with your Autocross results.

[Josh@Ridetech]

An amazing build. The wheel/tire package looks great! Thank you for sharing the pictures. Please update with your Autocross results.

Thanks! I appreciate that. It's been a fun build and I'm looking forward to putting it to use! I'll post up some pictures and info

[jaybee]

That caliper looks nice enough to be on display in your office or living room.