69 firebird T/A convertible

[SamHatco]

Decided to go a little different route on the engine. Waiting on some power steering hose adapters, made a little more progress. Also waiting for my chromed throttle body and maf from Street & Performance.. but you kinda get the idea the direction I'm heading. LS1/LS6, balanced blueprinted, heads ported and polished, comp cam, hooker headers, synister front drive system.

Intake and stripe color is HOK Oriental Pearl Blue. White is toyota super bright white. Pictures do not do the engine justice, you just want to stand a stare, it really pops!

What do you guys think?









Sam

[69TAPoser]

WOW!

[SamHatco]

WOW!

lol, Thanks Phil.

Thats exactly how I felt when I stood back and look what I installed. I just love it when you have this idea in your head and when you execute that idea, it turns out better than expected.

Sam

[shortrack]

Georgeous.......!!!!!

[68400BIRD]

Thats just sick looking. In a very good kind of way.

[cdoggy81]

WOW!!!!! That is so sharp! Excellent choice Sam, excellent

[Rybar]

Looks killer!

[Motown 454]

Your progress is looking great.

[SamHatco]

Ever try to work on your car when it's 100+ degrees with a feels like 107? It ain't fun! Anyway having said that I've been working on my punch list items and this is where I'm at now.

I wanted to use the DSE wiper kit but I just couldn't justify in my own mind the $$$'s. So I found a 2002 wiper motor and fabbed my own adapter plate out of 1/8 steel plate. I then took the wiper motor and plate along with my old wiper motor to a machine shop and had them make an adapter for the wiper arm. The guy machined a stainless steel rod that screws onto the new wiper motor and machined the other end for the wiper arm. With the old motor to go by he place the wiper arm within a 32nd of an inch from its original location. The motor cost me $30 and the machine work was $75. That's whole lot cheaper than the DSE kit. I'm using the 04 GTO body harness so all I will have to do is plug her in and I'm good to go.



I also got the vintage air system installed and plumbed up:









Installed the PRC radiator and fabbed up brackets for the Mark VIII fan. I had my local welder weld the brackets to the radiator and it turn out perfect.





I also plumbed the power steering lines. All that's left is the electrical. I called Mark at MAD Electrical and got a quick tutoring on electrical systems, boy that guy knows his stuff and ordered some of his products.

Sam

[LSX1STGEN]

I am very interested in your wiper set up. What 2002 vehicle did you use for the motor?

Thanks, Clay

[225jeff]

Did you take any pictures of your wiper setup? I am interested as well.

Jeff

[BMF Machine]

Man, that thing is looking SmooootH! Excellant eye for style!

[SamHatco]

I am very interested in your wiper set up. What 2002 vehicle did you use for the motor?

Thanks, Clay

Clay, the wiper motor was used on the 4th gen f bodies.

Sam

[SamHatco]

Did you take any pictures of your wiper setup? I am interested as well.

Jeff

Jeff, I'll post up some picutres on how I did the mod. It was really pretty easy. The key to this mod is to get the wiper arm as close to the original position so the wiper transmission arms don't bind up. Also you need a switch for the delay feature. I'm using the 04 GTO steering wheel so the switch is not a problem for me, however there are several after market cruise/wiper/turn signal levers out there that you can use on the factory steering column that have the delay feature.

Sam

[69TAPoser]

Wow, Sam. It's looking fantastic!

Looks like you may be driving by Sept.?

Phil

[SamHatco]

Wow, Sam. It's looking fantastic!

Looks like you may be driving by Sept.?

Phil

Thanks Phil, coming from you that means a lot because I think your build in one of the best on this site. That's what I hope to be doing is to have a running car by Labor Day. It's so damn hot down here now that you don't even what to get in the garage.

Sam

[68400BIRD]

Car looks great. I plan on doing the vintage air set up to. Do you plan on running all of your hoses between the inner and outer fender? I also plan on smoothing part of my firewall with the detroit speed kit. Did you cut everything out and replace with new metal or did you smooth the original body line along with new sheet metal?

[SamHatco]

Car looks great. I plan on doing the vintage air set up to. Do you plan on running all of your hoses between the inner and outer fender? I also plan on smoothing part of my firewall with the detroit speed kit. Did you cut everything out and replace with new metal or did you smooth the original body line along with new sheet metal?

If you will notice in the previous pictures the hoses enter the firewall where the heater motor use to be and the hoses are routed along the top of the fender well. Once you put the fenders on you won't see the hoses except when they exit down low by the engine. Makes for a nice clean look. On smoothing the firewall we used patch panels to fill the holes. If I were do it over I would have purchased some 16 or 18 gauge sheet metal and make one large panel to cover all the holes and spot weld it in, much quicker. Hope this helps.

Sam

[SamHatco]

Did you take any pictures of your wiper setup? I am interested as well.

Jeff

Jeff, and to all that might want to do this mod the following is my write up on the wiper motor install.

To begin with I used a wiper motor from an 02 f-body car


The first thing I did was make a template out of cardboard setting out the hole locations for the firewall and for the wiper motor





The next step was to determine the location of the wiper motor onto the adapter plate. That was accomplished by drawing an outline of the back side of the cardboard template and measuring the 69 wiper motor shaft location



Here is a picture of the 69 wiper motor. You will notice that the shaft in not in the center of the hole



Next I made an adapter plate out of 1/8th steel plate drilled and countersunk the holes so the screws would be flush
Front

Back


I then took the entire motor with plate attached to my machinist and he machined an adapter bolt out of stainless steel that screws into the new wiper motor and uses the 69 wiper arm







Here is a picture of all the components used


I'm only allowed 12 pictures so continued below.

Sam

[SamHatco]

This is a picture of everything assembled


And here is a picture from inside the cowl with the motor installed and the wiper arm transmission installed. It looks close, but there is about a finger's width of room when the arm rotates


Hope this helps

Sam