1968 Firebird 400

[68400BIRD]

Dropped all of the parts off at a friends house for powder coating.

Front bumper brackets.

Rear bumper brackets.

Headlight buckets.

Interior.

Windshield wiper linkage.

Seat tracks.

[E.rodz]

Rob. what happened to the concept of getting something done everyday?seams how you should be alot further by now.just kidding buddy! glad to see you are still moving forward.it should be ready to roll by summer!

[68400BIRD]

Next on the list was to fix my shifter problem. I had a two speed floor shifter but wanted a three speed floor shifter with the ratcheting option. To my surprise it seems all late 60's to early 80's shifters are built off of the same base with just different mounting points to the floor. Along with that I think mine was the only year with the neutral safety switch on the floor shifter. I had twelve spot welds to drill out, six per shifter. There is already an alignment pin to help line up the brackets when you go to change them over.
Here's a picture with both the front and rear brackets removed.

These are the brackets removed from my old shifter that I will weld back onto my new shifter.

Getting ready to weld the rear bracket back on, if you look closely you can also see the monting holes for the neutral safety switch.


Brackets all welded on and finished.


I wanted a stock looking shifter but also wanted a shifter that would not go from 1st to neutral with one push.

[68400BIRD]

Next I spent a few hours and hand buffed out the inside of the cowl and mounted my windshield wiper arms. I had to drill out all four broken mounting screws before I had it powder coated. I replaced them with four short stainless steel screws. I'm not sure why but both wiper arm mounting points had a small plastic sleeve under them. They were in bad shape and they had to be removed to coat them. I had some shrink tubing with the glue inside of it laying around that I was not using so I cut two of them out and used a heat gun to put them on.

[68400BIRD]

Rob. what happened to the concept of getting something done everyday?seams how you should be alot further by now.just kidding buddy! glad to see you are still moving forward.it should be ready to roll by summer!

LOL, I'm not sure what happened. It was a novel idea and it worked for a while. I guess life and low funds got in the way. Then it got to be so long since I had worked on it that I had know idea where to start. So, I just didn't do anything. I had to kick myself in the but to get started again. I will try and keep little projects moving along. I have a couple of problems that are holding me up that I'm not sure how I want to address them.

[68400BIRD]

I plan on making adapters to mount the PMD center caps to keep them centered and add blackcenter lugnuts.

Looks close to original with a 17" rim.

[TheBandit]

Have some new pictures with the car back down on the ground.

Really like those wheels. To confirm, those are American Racing AR-500 (also now listed as VN500)? What sizes and backspacing wheels and tires did you end up with?

How do the center caps attach?

[68400BIRD]

Yes they are the VN500 rims.
The rim sizes are 17x7 4.25BS and 17x8 5.25BS 5x4.75
Tires are Nitto 555's 235x45 and 255x45

The PMD center caps are made to attach to a original pmd rim. They are the non theft type which have a threaded stud,fender washer, and nylonlock nut. The stud is a little to short and there is nothing to keep them centered on the face of the VN500 rim. I plan on running a longer stud and making some plastic washers with a shoulder that will fit into the face of the rim to keep everything centered.

[LeighP]

Nice job....love those wheels, was originally going to run them on my 71 before I shifted to the 17" Honeycombs.
Your car is looking real good!

[rickpaw]

Rob, car is looking better than new. I just cleaned up and rattled can the small parts on my 67, and your powder coated parts turned out ALOT better. Wish I had gone the same route.

[68400BIRD]

Thanks Guys. I just wish my car was at the same point as either of yours. Having a good friend who does powder coating has been a great big help.

[68400BIRD]

The next project on my list was to upgrade to bigger front brakes. I had already changed it over from drum to disc but now I wanted to go bigger. A couple of calls to Tobin at kore3.com solved the problem of what brake kit I was going to use. I started with locating some drum hubs.
I had a friend machine down the face of the hub so the rotor will fit on correctly.

All cleaned up and I removed the seals,races,,bearings, and ran a chase down all of the threads. I know you see four of them. You only need two but it worked out better this way. And now I have an extra set.


A little paint and new seals and bearings.

Then I took off the the old caliper mounting brackets and dust shields.

Another few weeks and I will have enough money saved up to buy the kit.

[LeighP]

Thats a cool set up....interested in seeing how the brakes go together.

[rohrt]

I like what you did with the ratchet shifter. I remember looking at doing that my self but the chrome on the ratchet shifter was really rusty.

The hubs look nice. What are your plans for the studs? Standard length?

[68400BIRD]

Thats a cool set up....interested in seeing how the brakes go together.

Thanks Leigh, I Can't wait until I can order the kit for Kore3. Tobin has been great to work with.

[68400BIRD]

I like what you did with the ratchet shifter. I remember looking at doing that my self but the chrome on the ratchet shifter was really rusty.

The hubs look nice. What are your plans for the studs? Standard length?

The shifter was a lot of work but I'm glad that I did it. I also cut another groove into the handle so I can use either the T-handle or a push button. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for studs yet. I have .30 worth of washers between the hub and rim. The Corvette rotor is .30 I'm not sure how much thread you need for it to be safe, I know I read some where if you have at least the thickness of the bolt in threads that the hold strength will not be any better than if the nut went pass the threads. Comments??

[Motown 454]

Nice job on the shifter, everything looks great. Those wheels look nice on there.

[Vicinity]

She's coming along nicely. I was curious about the steering arm setup you have, it doesn't look stock..

[68400BIRD]

Nice job on the shifter, everything looks great. Those wheels look nice on there.

Thanks Wayne!

[68400BIRD]

She's coming along nicely. I was curious about the steering arm setup you have, it doesn't look stock..

HMmmm, what looks different. Everything should be the correct besides the idler arm. I have a Camaro arm on the car. It will work if you use the Pontiac long branch manifolds. Otherwise it needs to be a curved arm to work with the stock manifolds or headers.