My 67 Firebird

[T_Raven]

Well......it's about that time again. I'm headed to Kuwait tonight to catch my flight home on Sunday.

I might be picking up another Firebird as soon as I get back and I'm gonna have to drive it across the country so if that goes down I'll have less time for the 67. Oh yeah plus I'm headed to Mexico for a bit to visit a young lady friend lol.

Anyway....my goals for this trip home are to put the t56 in, install AC and my Ron Davis radiator, wire up the fans, and get it drivable like that. If time allows install some seats, new carpet, and gauges. I want to get it enjoyable enough to drive when I'm home on leave next summer. Then when I go home for good I'll tear it all apart and really get to work.

I'm probably going to get a Gen IV Vintage Air system and March Style Track serpentine setup from Frank. I talked to Weir Hot Rod products last night about their t56 stuff but I haven't yet decided to go with his bellhousing or the Mcleod Modular one. Any input on that decision would be appreciated.

[T_Raven]

Well I was back in the states for about 10 days then headed to Mexico. I ended up driving all over the place like I always do rather than working on the car. I'm still in Mexico but I'll be back home for about a week before I head back to Iraq. Some of the parts I ordered showed up before I left
Gauges and some of the parts I need to put the t56 in


I bought these seats off ebay. They are pretty cheap quality but they were cheap and I figured if they're not worth leaving in a car I'd use them for game chairs or something. I'll probably put them in the 67 until I get the Corbeau's I want.

[T_Raven]

I put the gauges in to see how they look


Put my steering wheel on also

[T_Raven]

set one of the seats in

Gotta adapt the sliders to fit. the seat belt is in the way of the recline lever, so I'll have to see what I can do with them

[CliffS]

Hey T, wazzup? Back again...time flies!
Parts looking good in the Bird, keep them coming!

[steve g]

I love those gauges. Wish I could have put them in my 69.

[T_Raven]

Well I'm finally home after going to Mexico. I got back to the US on Saturday but it's been a crazy few days so I just now got home lol. I'll have the full story for you guys in the morning. For now here's some parts that showed up while I was gone

Mcleod flywheel and t56 adaptor plate

Vintage Air I ordered through Prodigy Customs, ordered a March style track also but it's not here yet



6 speed knob from D&D performance

[a73formula]

Gauges fit in there nice. Cars commin along nice

[Rhino]

I'm assuming you're planning on building your own front sub? What are the offset of your front wheels? What hub to hub track width do you have planned?

[T_Raven]

I'll have to measure the wheels. The guy I bought them from had them on a 69 Camaro with a stock sub frame. I'll build a frame table, set the body at ride height, put the wheels where I want them, and build the suspension from there

[Motown 454]

The gauges look sweet. Nice work.

[WS6]

Glad to see you're working on it again. I like how you refer to coming home as trips, lol.

[T_Raven]

Glad to see you're working on it again. I like how you refer to coming home as trips, lol.

lol, yeah, I come home on my "vacations" and it is probably more of a journey than a trip. I fly to Kuwait, go through some bs there, wait for three days, fly from Kuwait to Spokane WA which takes a good 24 hrs including layovers, then it's still a 3 hour drive to my house. I get to reverse that all on Tuesday

[T_Raven]

Ok I want to tell you guys about the last week and how crazy it's been. Well first....I've been looking for a 69 Firebird. I also decided to sell the APS turbo kit I had for my '01. A guy in Cali wanted it and was going to drive up to get it. He lives near a buddy of mine, and I saw a 69 in the same area on craigslist for $8,000. So my buddy and I took the turbo kit down, sold it, hung out for a couple days, and I was going to buy the car and bring it back. Then decided I didn't want to spend $8,000 on it so we left it and drove alllllll the way back to northern Idaho. I went to Mexico for 10 days. My buddy lives near Spokane which is where I fly in and out of so I stayed at his house the night I got back from Mexico and was going to drive back to Grangeville the next day. That was Sunday morning, I got up and checked my email and I had one from a saved search on ebay for 69 Firebirds. There was a solid looking one in Cali with a buy it now of $2,000. I looked at my buddy Dustin, (We call him Dirty McFilthmuff lol), so I looked at Dirty and said, 'wanna go back to Cali?' He said hell yeah, so we got a sitter for his GF's kid and I drove from 8pm Sunday till 7am Monday to get us there. He was getting hammered so when he passed out I slammed some 6 hr power to stay awake till he sobered up and drove the last 2 hours.

Ok so we were back in Cali. The plan was to get the car down by Sacramento, stay the night in San Francisco, drive up the cost to Portland, and be back in Idaho late Tuesday night.
So we bought the car



Well San Fran was a pain in the arse to get out of, the highway north was wicked slow and we stopped to see some sights, the drive through tree, truck and trailer wouldn't fit so I walked through

Stopped at confusion hill, only got this pic cause the camera went dead

Not sure what this giant Paul and Babe is about but it's awesome. Luckily I found a place to plug the camera in for a min

[T_Raven]

So we decided we'd stay in Portland Tuesday night since we were behind shedule, but we ended up staying in Eugene because we were so far behind. So now it's Wednesday morning and the plan was to be home that night. We were nearing Portland when a lady we know here in Idaho called Dirt to see if he wanted to go with her to look at a Subaru in Portland! He told her we were already on our way there and I said I'd be happy to look at it for her so she doesn't waste a trip.

Now had I been on schedule I never would've been able to go look at this Subaru.

I called the lady with the car and she said she'd meet me at her house. I got there before she did and they had cars all over, including a couple old Pontiacs. She showed up, saw the Firebird on the trailer, and said, "Oh we have a few of those. We have 11 GTOs and there's a 68 Firebird at our shop that my husband is selling. I wasn't looking to buy another car but he seemed like my kind of guy so I went to check out their body shop. He shows me the 68 and low and behold it's one I had been watching on ebay!





He never had a buy it now on ebay but it's a really rusts free car and drivable so I had been watching it to see how much it went for. I asked what he wanted and he said $6500. Sounded good to me so I drove it to the bank, had them give me a cashier's check and drove that sucker home while my buddy towed the 69.

[T_Raven]

The story keeps going though lol. It was 4pm when we left Portland and my buddy talked me into going to Seattle then headed back to Idaho Thursday morning. I've been wanting to go see Lenie's 68 Firebird and he's over by Seattle so I said alright let's do it.....plus we had been trying to hit a strip club this whole trip and every time we got somewhere for the night it was already too late, so Seattle was our last chance lol.

I couldn't remember where Lenie lived and had a PM from him on here so I stopped in Tacoma to get online and try to contact him. It's just funny how the timing of this whole trip was working out. Everything was going wrong and pissing me off but it was continuing to work out for the better. So I stopped at a gas station in Tacoma near some hotels and couldn't find a wireless signal and the hotels wouldn't let me use their computers. Had that gone smoothly I would've been gone by the time the 95 Trans Am showed up to the gas station. But just before we pulled out this youger black guy pulled up in it and came over to look at mine. He said if I needed a 400 (which I do) he had left one at a house near by that he pulled out of a grand prix after he wrecked it. He said if I wanted it the older couple that bought the house would probably be happy to let me have it. It was late and I had no way to get it in the truck so I didn't bother but I still have the address so I'll have to go back next time I'm in that area and see if it's still there.

We got a room in Seattle and I didn't get to go to Lenie's house, but we finally got to see some ladies of the pole. I think we went to Deja Vu. That was one of the best places I've been too. It was full of good looking girls and they were nice and not pushy about buying dances.

Anyway....I finally made it home Thursday night. Oh one more coincidence before I got home. I went to a wrecking yard in Spokane for the first time and they had a couple LS engines in the show room as well as a turbo ecotec. I was showing it to Dirty telling him about the Chevette being built on here and the next morning I see someone had responded on that thread with a link to the ebay listing for the very engine I had seen the day before. Pretty funny because I've never been to that yard before.

I had to take Dirty back home yesterday so I stopped in Lewiston Id on the way back to see "Seekins", another member on here with a 68 Camaro. I knew he had a shop and made some things with a CNC machine but I forgot what he made. Dustin had been telling me all week about a gun smith school in Cali he wants to go to. I also want to get into machining so I can make some parts I've been thinking up. I looked up Seekins website to get the address and see he makes parts for AR-15s. And I just bought one! So how funny is all of that? lol. He makes gun parts and my buddy had just decided to become a gun smith.

It was just a funny week that delays kept pissing me off but every time it worked out for the better. Now that I've got 2 more 60's Firebirds I'll probably change direction on the 67 a little. I've got some pretty cool Ideas I don't want to give away just yet. I think I'll put the original straight 6 back in though and have v8s in the other two.

[Vicinity]

Holy crap, man. That story is insane. You're wicked lucky with the timing. That 68 looks really clean, when you get a chance, can you post up a few pics of it?

[srh3trinity]

You are a 'bird magnet. Nice finds.

[George]

Thats crazy. I've had my 67 bird for 10 years and cant even get in enough time to work on it. I have a 64 Nova too that I restored in highschool and I cant even finish the little things on that either...

I've been itching for a 68 Bird as I have some ideas I didnt do to my 67 that I would prefer to start fresh on a new car....

[f1shman]

Well, you covered every year for the first generation. Maybe next trip out you can start looking for 70's. The cars you picked up look great though, especially that 68! I can't wait to see what your plans are for them.