1971 Firebird455 - Project

[LeighP]

So I'm slowly pulling interior parts out of the pile of pieces that came with the car.
I decided that the original rear side panels and sail panels are just not going to cut it with the full resto....so I'll be buying new ones of these, which luckily they reproduce for 71 models. Same with the headliner retaining side trims...I have two sets and both are just too UV damaged at the front to go with a full restoration. I was fooling myself that they'd be OK.....doh!

Anyhow, I'm converting the car over to the solid headliner board style, rather than the correct early soft headliner. The car came with a late 73/74 headliner, that had seen better days, but it was salvageable....so out comes the fibreglass repair kit and it came up pretty good. I'll be getting my interior guy to retrim it in the correct black perforated vinyl and foam.



Had to completely rebuild this corner



There were some splits that must have happened while the board was sitting around out of the car.

[Doug1]

I bought one of the hard plastic backers from Year One. It looks like they just took a big, flat sheet of semi-ridgid plastic, about the thickness of plastic on a milk jug, and cut it out using one like yours for a template. Seems easy enough to reproduce since the roll it up into a tube a ship it that way. I'm not sure how well it works but I think the advantage is that it won't disentegrate over time like most pressed backer boards do. With the humdity we have here, the factory ones all sagged after a couple of years.

As for the sail panel and plastic side supports, why don't you consider covering them? You can add filler to shape them out if needed and then put on a faux leather fabric or whatever fabric you cover your seats in. IIRC you are using more modern seats. That has the advantage of the look of more modern materials and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for finding old ones in good condition. Just a thought.

[LeighP]

I thought about that...covering the panels, but the only way I've seen that looks good is to vacuum mold the vinyl to the panel the way they restore dash tops. The company that restored my dash will do it, but they want more than the cost of new panels to do the job.
I can buy brand new OER repro rear side armrests, sail panels and upper headliner side moldings, all done in black....and they'll match the black of the Year One door panels.....

[michael k]

4 my self im thinking of a dark green metalic coulor on my formula
volvo has one very nice

[LeighP]

Do it...everyone goes red, yellow, orange or blue.....green is different.

[Doug1]

I thought about that...covering the panels, but the only way I've seen that looks good is to vacuum mold the vinyl to the panel the way they restore dash tops. The company that restored my dash will do it, but they want more than the cost of new panels to do the job.
I can buy brand new OER repro rear side armrests, sail panels and upper headliner side moldings, all done in black....and they'll match the black of the Year One door panels.....

I have seen some that are glued that look great. It takes a lot of patience and some skill to stretch the material so that it looks factory. I have some photos and an article that I saved somewhere of a guy who did the panels in a 4th gen. They came out great and he took tons of photos and explained how he did it.

[LeighP]

Got a great deal from Pete at Fbodywarehouse....really looked after me on the trim parts......I don't mind the look of the factory trim, but it has to be in good condition to look right.

[LeighP]

The panel shop has finished up those annoying "before Christmas" jobs, and they're back onto my car.

They found that the rear window opening didn't really line up nicely along the edge of the window trims....so they've been working those edges to get things right.
I dropped the front and rear screens down today so they can trial fit the glass to make sure the molds sit correctly all the way round....these guys are really going to town on this and spending some serious time to make it look right.

First skim of filler ....got this just as they were applying it.


LH side of the rear window, where he's been working the body line....


And for some reason, I'd accidentally spun the selector knob on the new camera to video....so heres a few seconds of MP4

[LeighP]

Saturday - the guys are hard at it...fixing poorly done old repairs.... they hope to have it in primer Monday or Tuesday





Heres the RH side sail panel area after reworking it...the LH is half done.

[LeighP]

Work continues...they are hoping to have the shell primed tomorrow or wednesday.

Undetected previous repairs that had to be reworked currently stand at....
- Left and right sail panel areas where the vinyl roof had been removed and the leading had cracked
- rear LH quarter bottom and rear valance from previous accident damage
- LH lower B pillar at the bottom edge above the sill, looks like a small rust repair poorly done...not rusty, just not real nice work.
- RH front fender dents from old accident damage

[Ripper]

Looking real good!

I wish I could have started with a solid body like that. That would have saved me a year or so, haha.

[LeighP]

Ouch.....bit more work there than mine....

[LeighP]

Well, almost there (primer)...looks like tomorrow now. They've got one more spot they want to work then it'll be ready to prime. Doors were in the booth getting guide coated when I was there today. Rear inner fender lips have been rolled and the fender lip trims trial fitted to make sure everything will work OK.

[LeighP]

So, we're finally up to primer.....they got it into the booth this afternoon and sprayed some primer/hi-fill on it. He said they'll be doing some blocking tomorrow then next week they'll be fitting up the panels.







And they're also working that damage on the front RH fender...they tell me it'll be good.

[LeighP]

This is what the fender damage looked like after the filler was removed...


Now it looks like this, all metal work, too...not filled up like before...


Heres the base coat that they mixed up to colour the car as a base for blocking it, and also to provide a coloured base for the translucent pearl green topcoat, so it covers better.


And heres the first of the topcoat on the inner door surfaces....over the base coat great...it really looks great in person.

[Ripper]

Nice color! You won't be able to sneak around town with it though. lol

[LeighP]

Awww, and here I was thinking it'd be low profile......lol.

[Doug1]

It looks like they do some excellent paint work. That is looking very clean and sharp!

[LeighP]

More happening...they're working on the Formula hood...found a couple of small spots where they need to do fibreglass repairs on the undersides.

Trunk lid is painted inside, as are the fenders. He stone guarded the interior of the fenders before painting....not really sure that was needed as no rocks can get up there with the inner fenders in place, but it looks clean and neat.






They also found a previous repair on the windscreen surround that I had done at another place was a bit dodgy (thin), so they're reworking it....I hate paying for poor workmanship, really annoys me.

[tazzz25906112]

Leigh I love the color buddy,,,, my cousin David use have a 73 4 speed Formula in that color with a white gut...... It was a great looking car and turned heads like crazy....