pro-touring '68 firebird...on a budget

[68firebird]

Wow, looking good! I need to start doing that to my 2nd gen T/A.

How in the world were you able to have that beauty in the garage for 4 years and not drive it? Sounds like torture to me, lol.

hahaha, I had no choice, when I put it in the garage 4 years ago I pulled the front tires and the brakes off, then proceeded to start taking the control arms off. shortly thereafter is when I put it on pause. yes, torture it was.

Got an update this morning that my sway bar has finally shipped from hotchkis. wooo hooo. primed a small area of the frame last night with the eastwood chassis primer just to see, and what a difference, can't wait to put the actual satin chassis paint on. oh, and my bolts came in from ames. Both ames performance and eastwood had extremely fast shipping!!!!

[68firebird]

I'd like to apologize for the crappy cell phone pics, but its the easiest way to get photos up at the moment.

So I started painting the subframe this week. I'm glad I got the eastwood chassis primer and paint, It seems to be quite durable, we'll see when I start putting the suspension back on.



Also got my new umi performance tie rod sleeves in, so I threw those together tonight.

[SPECTACULAR]

Yeah......looking good.

[Andrew McBride]

Nice progress!

[Dons67]

looking good - keep up the pace, I'd hate to see you wait another 4 years to drive that animal

[medhat68]

I have not browsed in Protouring for a long time but when I saw your work on your white 68, I could not resist a post. Very nice. I am just on the home stretch of my restoration of my white 68 Bird. Maybe some of the stuff I have done might help you. I built on a budget in my own garage as well. I will check back on your progress from time to time.
http://www3.telus.net/public/68bird/
Kelly

[68firebird]

I have not browsed in Protouring for a long time but when I saw your work on your white 68, I could not resist a post. Very nice. I am Ojust on the home stretch of my restoration of my white 68 Bird. Maybe some of the stuff I have done might help you. I built on a budget in my own garage as well. I will check back on your progress from time to time.
http://www3.telus.net/public/68bird/
Kelly

Hi Kelly, thanks for posting. I checked out your site, i'll have to look at it more when I have time. Looks like your car started out in real good shape too. I'm trying to post a bunch of pics up as I go along whether it's major news or not. This is my first build of any type and I'm learning alot as I go along.

latest update, I've finished painting the frame (and the control arms, I touched them up with the Eastwood chassis paint)and will start putting the suspension back in this week

[medhat68]

yeah,the body was in good shape on the outside, but that was about it. It had no motor, a T350 tranny, non-posi 2:56 rear, 4 wheel drums, rust in the kick pan area, and a rough interior. Now it's got a 462, muncie 4 speed, 4 wheel power discs, soundproofed and detailed interior, sound system and finished trunk area, detailed engine bay, and no rust anywhere... I fugure about 2 more months and it will be pretty nuch done.
Kelly

[68firebird]

yeah,the body was in good shape on the outside, but that was about it. It had no motor, a T350 tranny, non-posi 2:56 rear, 4 wheel drums, rust in the kick pan area, and a rough interior. Now it's got a 462, muncie 4 speed, 4 wheel power discs, soundproofed and detailed interior, sound system and finished trunk area, detailed engine bay, and no rust anywhere... I fugure about 2 more months and it will be pretty nuch done.
Kelly

you're lucky, LOL, If I had been working on it over the last 4 years it sat dormant I think mine would have been done too, but I had kids instead, hahaha. I think I've got the same rear in mine, which obviously will be changed. It did have 4 wheel drums and that's getting changed too. keep checkin back, I'll have more updates. Like I said, I'll post up a couple time a week with pics if I have any.

[68firebird]

Started putting the suspension back in tonight, got the control arms on both sides installed Hotchkis sway bar should be arriving tomorrow. Gotta buy brakes very soon to tie this front end up.

[68firebird]

Hotchkis sway bar finally arrived today, I installed it (after I went to my local gm restoration shop to get the sway bar bushing bolts which I had tossed, thought this came with new bolts), then I just mocked it up on the endlinks for pics. this thing is huge, way bigger than the stock piece.

[68firebird]

Tonight I put on the centerlink, tie rods and sleeves, and the steering arms, loosely, but they are in place. Now I'm pretty much in a holding pattern waiting to order my brakes to button the suspension up. Hopefully be ordering the brakes by next week.

so I will turn my attention to the interior until then. Here's a couple pics of how I left it 4 years ago. I'm changing the interior over from aqua to black. i had primed and sprayed that special GM interior paint on most of the interior pieces to change it over, and I started putting the new carpet on the bottom of the door panels. I also traded out my aqua seats for black ones, but I think I'm going to go with some nice racing seats for the front and keep the stock back seat.

[4spdharry]

Nice. Will handle well with those mods

When do the speed mods come in?
I'm trying to refrain from scrunching my nose at the chebby

[68firebird]

Nice. Will handle well with those mods

When do the speed mods come in?
I'm trying to refrain from scrunching my nose at the chebby

I know, alot of pontiac fans don't like the chevy in there. I'm focused on getting this thing to handle and stop right now. I'm hoping one day down the line to put one of the LS motors in.

[Tucks69]

Cool Build Thread!

[68firebird]

Well, I changed my mind with what brakes I'm going with. I was gonna get a complete kit, new spindles, single piston calipers, 11 inch rotors, etc..., but I've decided to go with LS1 brakes off a camaro. I figure it'll be easier to replace pads or rotors in the future this way, as well as it'll stop better with 2 piston calipers. I bought a used set of complete calipers tonight off a fellow forum member for a good price. so I guess you can say that its an official move at this point, LOL. can't get the pic bigger with it pixelating too much.



and here's the conversion kit that I'll be buying to do it.



So I've already blasted, primed and painted the drivers side spindle, I'll do the passengers side tomorrow, and I've looked into a machine shop to turn the hubs a bit so the LS1 rotors will fit over it.

[rickpaw]

Rene,
Before you have the shop turn down the Pontiac hubs, check out this thread. There are differences between the camaro hubs and pontiac hubs

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=67803

[rickpaw]

Also, the rear grease seal for the hub is different between the camaro and firebird hubs. At least on my 67 Firebird. I ended up buying a used set of camaro drum hubs from ebay.

[Tucks69]

Looks like the conversion kit pictured above has a spacer to space the rotor out. If you need camaro hubs i have a couple sets.

[68firebird]

Rene,
Before you have the shop turn down the Pontiac hubs, check out this thread. There are differences between the camaro hubs and pontiac hubs

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=67803

yea, I'll wait until I get the kit, calipers and rotors before I have the shop do anything. I was keeping an eye on that thread already. I sent an email to the guy that sells the kit and he says it will work on the bird, we'll see how well it works.