1967 tempest bench seat sleeper

[lucky13firebird]

well, measured the rear in the tempest and the rear on my trailer in the garage, and they're the same width. 55 1/2 flange to flange... that means the 67 being a split year i got the wider late style a body rear end. this also means the 5 spoke wheels which look better on the tempest are staying on the tempest. I'll just now have to cut up the wheel wells when i'll be replacing the quarter skins.

[lucky13firebird]

put the old 98-2002 Aussie PBR brakes i had on the front of the firebird on to the tempest. made a little how to video series for anyone interested, they came out good, just need to be cleaned up a little, now i just need to get the rear "ls1" brake setup and bolt that to the 12 bolt i got. also really looking for some 12 bolt 2.56 or 2.29 gears if anyone has a set they're willing to part with for a decent price...

[Gil]

Nice work, looks good with big front brakes !
Did the inner fender clearance changed from drum to disc for the 18" wheel ?
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

the front is a 17" wheel. it kicked out a 1/4" so i don't think it changes much. the tempest fenders have plenty of room, and I only have a 235 45 17 on the front. that backs are 275 35 18 and I'll need to do some work to make that fit.

BTW i set the budget for this car. The goal is to have it all done for under $8,000 including the initial price of the car.

thats with new sheetmetal, new interior panels, 4 wheel disc brakes, 12 bolt with posi, decent wheels and tires and the running 400. and maybe if i'm still under budget I'll squeeze in some bmr or hotchkis springs to make it stick somewhat.

[Gil]

Your Tempest will be very nice!

Thinking about wheels also... backspace, offset, taking mesurements of the inner fenders, converting inches to centimeters... Funny thing... but seems not to have a lot of choice at the end without paying a kidney for special fitments rims... dreaming about AmericanRacing magnum500, 17x8 BS4.75 Offset+6mm for the rear & 17x7 BS4.47 Offset+12mm... Front should work with 0.25 inch spacer & rear without anything... and 225/45 & 245/45 R17... Wait & see
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Your Tempest will be very nice!

Thinking about wheels also... backspace, offset, taking mesurements of the inner fenders, converting inches to centimeters... Funny thing... but seems not to have a lot of choice at the end without paying a kidney for special fitments rims... dreaming about AmericanRacing magnum500, 17x8 BS4.75 Offset+6mm for the rear & 17x7 BS4.47 Offset+12mm... Front should work with 0.25 inch spacer & rear without anything... and 225/45 & 245/45 R17... Wait & see
Gil

brother, there is a light at the end of the tunnel... BMW 5 series, ie M5 and 525i and 540i etc use the exact same offset and lug pattern wheels as you need. be careful not to get wheels for the 3 series because those won't fit ;-)

so a staggered set of wheels for 540i bmw would be +13mm front and +15mm rear offset... that exactly whats on my firebird and works great.

[lucky13firebird]

So, good news is i found and bought some rarer than hens teeth 256 ratio 12 bolt gears... sold my ls1 front brakes to my buddy with a 74 nova and snagged up a used complete ls1 rear disc setup for 220 bucks shipped, and they already come with drilled and slotted rotors that match the 13" front corvette disc setup cpp sells.... yeah i hate their customer service but you cant beat the 395 dollar price tag for 13" corvette brakes that bolt on using stock spindles and drum hubs... posting a how to rear ls1 brake conversion on the 12 bolt soon and hopefully will be getting the 12 bolt under the car asap.

Why 256 gears..... well, with a 295 45 18 nitto rear tire i can hit 198 mph at 6k rpm... this is important to me because pontiacs dont like to rev past 6k and one of my long term goals with this car is to turbo and stroke the 400 in this thing to 461 cubic inches and try and hit 200 with this sucker without revving past 6,500 rpm.

Also will be swapping the st300 out for a th400 with a custom 2.98 first gear and 1.58 second so i can still hit 12-13 seconds on the 1/4 mile...

Thats all in theory and will take insane power levels. But, a low rpm (not exotic valve train) turbo pontiac motor has been built before in a 9 second 69 firebird i know of and was very reliable and affordable so ill follow his example. ;-)

[lucky13firebird]

Found a set of rear ls1 brakes for $180 plus shipping, the rotors were already drilled and slotted to match the cpp corvette 13" brakes that are planned for the fronts, so i just had to nab em. Installed in about 45 minutes including pressing in new dorman 601-157 studs on the axles.

Also snagged a rarer than hens teeth 256 set of gears and a forged 1350 yoke for the 12 bolt.

Still un decided as to what suspension ill be going with, lota of good ones out there but i can only afford so much...

[lucky13firebird]

SOOOO after much diliberation i had to just go and buy a set of 05 GTO calipers for 75 bucks, then a set of 98 camaro caliper brackets.... and a box of dorman studs and a cheapo set of drilled C6 rotors and good american made timken bearings... i will be using KORE3 brackets, they're steel not aluminum...

i priced everything out and i kid you not, but using real PBR calipers (05 GTO calipers are C6 corvette calipers) and american made bearings and studs and reusing my drum hubs and steel adapter brackets, not imported aluminum ones i'll be cheaper than that kit CPP offers... and we all know how much i hate CPP and theire imported garbage...

the "complete" kit they sell comes with studs you can't use and the bearings are straight chinese garbage... so in reality piecing together the real deal with PBR calipers and KORE3 brackets I'll be better off and have a higher quality set of brakes.... for CHEAPER.

[lucky13firebird]

Finaly got around to doing one side of the brakes, gotta do the other side as soon as time permits, threw together a quick how to video though. Its a C5 swap using a KORE3 brackett kit. Gotta say, kore3 is good stuff and good people, sway was very simple, no surprises. I used '06 GTO calipers with c5/c6 corvette brackets because they were the same exact caliper, but cheaper and said "GTO" on them...

OH and the camaro brackets didn't work, different size bolts. So i had to buy corvette ones, and I had to use Moroso studs because dorman didn't make anything as long as i needed (or felt i needed) for the swap with the wider .580" knurl... the axles on the 12 bolt and the hubs i got from classic performance were all .480 knurl.

[Nicks67GTO]

Quick question.....is the "GTO" on the calipers machined in or is it just a paint on deal?

[lucky13firebird]

it's painted and seams to be baked on. not just something you can chip off, but also not raised letters cast in like the "corvette" logo on the PBR calipers i've seen. big difference is the price tag mostly.

[lucky13firebird]

Finally scored a 2 series posi unit to hang the 2.56 ring and pinion on... then snagged a truck 12 bolt for cheap as hell and used the guts to build the car posi and now i have a complete posi for cheap ;-) fyi the truck 12 bolts are noticably weaker units. Still stronger than a 10 bolt of course. And the spider gears and clutch packs are same as the 12 bolt car posi so thats the same strength... hope someone finds the video useful.

[lucky13firebird]

after long diliberation i sold the 12 bolt and used the 2.56 gears and posi in my 68 firebird... loving it Btw. I then bought a 9 inch rear end with 3.25 gears out of a 69 f100 pickup, a set of currie spring mounts to weld on and a $450 set of gm pattern 31 spline axles. Also snagged a disc brake kit from ford racing for $170 that i'll need to drill the rotors for 5x4.75 and got a 4 pin 31 spline new billet clutch posi for $262 .... all in all just over a grand but well worth it in my opinion due to me being able swap gears for different events should i want to spend the coin on new center chunks....

[lucky13firebird]

The 9 inch from a 69 f100 is the exact width of a 68-72 chevelle rear axle... just needs axles in a gm bolt pattern and the mounts for the triangulated 4 link...

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Team of streetfighters!

[Gil]

69 charger ? Awesome find !
Another crazy future build
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Yeah, been pretty busy around here... i'll do build threads on the other cars as soon as i make enough progress on them to show something for it... but that charger was a pretty wild setup, old owner was trying to do a drift car so he sold off all the metal and bought fiberglass for everything... trunk lid, hood, one piece nose, fiberglass doors... and even quarter skins. Oh and it has a roll cage setup to take some serious side impact so the doors are gutted and will be pin on just like the front. My wife will have to climb over the door dukes of hazzard style to get in and out... but should make for a wild track car... ;-)

But back to the tempest, i'm not sure who to go with for springs yet. I've been pretty happy with the hotchkis ones on my firebird but the bmr or some other american made ones are a whole lot cheaper... and then i gotta also fab up new wheel wells thatll be tighter on the quarter skins to allow room for more tire without notching the frame rails (doesn't make much sense to me to do that) and possibly a taller drum spindle and so on for better handling up front.

[Gil]

Tarantino's Death Proof Charger 69...

Yep, full 2 in. drop set from BMR or UMI @ 250 $...
Beware, seems rear 2 in. drop lowered about 3.5 in.
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Yes... a deathproof charger... makes a perfect match to my "hand of death" 67 tempest.

Yeah i've been looking at the umi or bmr stuff. At least for springs anyway. The currie weld on kit comes with some cool ball joint bushing things that replace the regular rubber bushings... they look like they'd bind less...