1969 Firebird Pro Touring build

[clueless69bird]

I have a 1969 Pontiac Firebird. I want to start this thread by saying I have absolutely no experience in building cars. Before I had this car, I did not know how to even change a tire. I watched the movie Hit and Run and decided building a muscle car sounded like a good hobby. I love the 1969 Camaro but since everyone has one, I wanted to the next best thing so I bought a 69 Firebird. I fell in love with pro touring cars the more I did my research on what I wanted.

I have been building this car with lots of advice from a friend (who has never seen or touched the car) and this site. I guess I have been too chicken to post my build because I didn't want to get embarrassed by my obvious rookie mistakes or stupid questions. I finally said, what the hell, and here it is. I have been building this car in my garage. So with that being said, all of you well experienced mechanics show me some grace.

I have been building this car for a few years. Car started out as a basic 350 Firebird. I will list the specifics about the car and picture to follow.

Motor:
-99 Camaro Ls1 block and crank. Block has been decked for higher compression. Slightly bored out.
-Racetech pistons and rings. Scat rods
-ls6 heads. valve job. resurfaced for higher compression. dual springs from Lunati.
-Lunati 219/223 .625 lift cam
-ls6 intake. 85 port and polished throttle body. 42 lb injectors.
-clevite bearings throughout.



200 4r transmission from bowtie overdrive. Full Speedtech suspension. 3.89 gears. Tanks inc efi tank. Kore3 13 inch brakes. Dakota Digital gauges. American Auto Wire harness. Mini tubbed. Bonspeed gt-b all black rims. 275 front/325 rear Invo tires. Trans am hood. I will have pictures up shortly.

The car is currently getting painted. I haven't decided on interior just yet.

[Jimmy Sean]

Welcome and sounds like a great project. Post up those pictures.

[rickpaw]

Welcome to the site, and make sure to post up pictures. We love pictures.

Do have a question though. Since you're running an LS1, why not run a 4l60e trans too, since you can get the engine harness to control the transmission?

[clueless69bird]

Thanks. I've been trying to post pictures but it's not working for me. Or I might be doing it wrong.

I was originally going to build a 383 stroker so I bought the 200 4r then changed my mind. So since I spent good money on the 200 r4 and the built 4l60e doesn't come cheap I just stuck with it

[clueless69bird]

the floors were rusted so I replaced all 4 floor pans. If the welding doesn't look great, that's because it was my first time welding. I taught myself how to weld on this car. YouTube videos is how I got my ideas.

[clueless69bird]

This is how the body looked when I bought it. It did not have any rust or dents.

[clueless69bird]

All of the machine work was done by Rich at performance engine. I bought a book on how to build an LS. Along with some Youtube videos before I started so I had an idea on what to do

[clueless69bird]

This was my first real modification to the car. This was when I realized things aren't as easy as video/tv/internet makes it seem. I struggled so much doing these mini-tubs, but it worked out... sort of

[clueless69bird]

This is the Speedtech suspension (shout out to Rodger. He was great to work with). Their subframe, Torque arm, Viking coil overs and components. Kore3 13" brakes. Tobin answered a lot of my questions and had great customer service.

[clueless69bird]

I put the battery in the trunk with lots of help from people on this site since wiring. Wiring was so intimidating, but American Auto Wire made wiring super easy. I had no clue on how to wire anything but their kit was as plug and play as it gets. I got my first taste of excitement when I saw the gauges actually working. Dakota digital had great customer service as well. They sent me a kit without the two push buttons and they shipped them to me free of charge with no questions asked.

[clueless69bird]

Now, I know I have been talking about all the great customer service I received from all of the aforementioned companies. But boy let me tell you, that was just not the case with Bonspeed. They told me it would take 10 weeks to ship the rims to me but it took 15 weeks. During those extra 5 weeks, I was told by a few employees that they would call me back to give an update but never called me back. They lied to me and told me the would be shipped out in a few days. I also got other excuses that I just can't think of right now. I finally got ahold of Brad and he tried to make me feel better by sending me free lug nuts. To make matters worse, When I received the rims one of the rims had a defect with a few small bubbles from the clear coat. I emailed Brad about the defect along with a picture of the defect. He said he could not see the defect in the picture and never replied to me after that. So... not happy with Bonspeed. I'll stop venting now.

The wheels are dope though. 18x9 in the front with 275 and 19x12 in the rear with 325 Nitto Invo Tires. Rodger at Speedtech hooked me and narrowed the rear end so I can get that good 6 inch lip in the rear wheel.

[clueless69bird]

I got a complete front fiber glass piece from Josh at Zinger customs. Josh was super down to earth, gave me updates continually, and even sent me pictures of the progress. I must say it was hella high quality work. I know nothing about fiber glass, but I have a close up picture to show it looks real good. Stevie wonder can see its good work. I can't wait to put this bad boy on the front... it's going to set it off!

[clueless69bird]

And this is how she looks right now. This was the first time I sat her on the ground. I wanted to put her lower to the ground but the front fender wouldn't fit over the tire. I know there will be more weight on the car once I put all the other stuff on it; I just put the fenders on the car without fitting them on there so I'll wait to mess with the stance. Thats how she looked before I sent it into paint.

But damn she looks good!

[clueless69bird]

This is how she looked the last time I seen her. No rust underneath the white coat so I'm still on schedule. She should be out of paint at the end of May or the beginning of June.

[clueless69bird]

I am still undecided which interior I want to go with. I'm open to any ideas any of you may have.

I want to hear comments, thoughts, ideas, critiques, compliments, or suggestions.

[Zoomin]

You're the first guy I've ever seen that went from not changing a tire straight to replacing floorboards and installing mini-tubs. Super impressed!

What color in the car going to be? Are you thinking of a stock interior?

[clueless69bird]

Thanks. I figured it was just like anything else. Educate yourself and do your research. I watched hours of video multiple times.

It's going to be gloss black with a matte black stripe from the bottom of the grill outlining the beak and scoops and satin black on the tail light panel. Nothing else on the car is stock so i figured i would do some aftermarket interior. Have a few weeks to narrow it down. What do you think would look good?

[expensivehobby22]

Great work!

[Zoomin]

Have you seen the interiors from TMI? Tmiproducts.com.

Kind of between stock and custom price range. With a black car, you can go black, red or tan.

[clueless69bird]

Thanks