Project Anchor (68 Firebird Coupe)

[Senna]

DEWITTS radiators are awesome, zero issues with mine.

I also noticed in your earlier post on your fuel filter that you are using the adapter with the blue plastic tab to hold the adapter in place. I was advised on my build to replace that with the style that have an aluminum locking tab. This a safety issue to prevent the car burning down in a fire.

[blitzer454]

I also noticed in your earlier post on your fuel filter that you are using the adapter with the blue plastic tab to hold the adapter in place. I was advised on my build to replace that with the style that have an aluminum locking tab. This a safety issue to prevent the car burning down in a fire.

Are you saying that the locking tabs fail allowing gas to leak and potentially cause a fire, or that they can melt in a fire then fail?

I looked up the part that I used and I got it from Summit, it's listed as a "Tanks Inc. Fuel Rail Fitting Adapter 640863". Actually both adapters on that end of the filter use plastic locking tabs and they both are Tanks Inc parts made for fuel lines. I see that the adapters with aluminum locking nuts cost about the same as what I used, probably would have been better.

On my camaro build I used an adapter with the aluminum locking nut on the fuel rail. I had a self-created failure with it as I initially only had the aluminum nut secured finger tight and it eventually vibrated off (about 800 miles from home) and the fuel hose popped off and sprayed gas everywhere under the hood. I'm still amazed it didn't catch fire on the headers. So if you forget to tighten the nut with a wrench they also can fail!

[dhutton]

Those plastic tab adaptors are bad and easily fail. I would replace them as recommended. Carl at vaporworx sells a very nice one. Worth every penny.

Don

[Senna]

Are you saying that the locking tabs fail allowing gas to leak and potentially cause a fire, or that they can melt in a fire then fail?
:

Yes, the plastic tabs fail.

[blitzer454]

Good advice, thanks guy. I'll be using them for now on.

[CarlC]

It's not so much the plastic tab that is the problem but the aftermarket aluminum housing. The plastic clip was used for decades by the OEMs with good results.

Jimi Day had one come off of his AMX's LS3 fuel rail and point right at the header late at night during 2013 One Lap of America. Fortunately it was raining.....

I recalled every one sold through vaporworx and replaced it with the U-nut design.

[k72nova]

Going to have to watch this build, it's looking great! I have tanks inc. kit on my 72 Nova and I had to replace the sending unit, luckily tanks inc. sent me a replacement, I have my vent mounted up at the highest point of the rear frame rails and get some puking on hot days but only when the tank is completely full, I've been told a hard line with a few loops helps a lot with the issue but i haven't had the time to try it out yet. Did you find the stl online for that tire fitment tool or did you design it yourself? I've been debating on buying one but I'd rather print one.

[blitzer454]

Going to have to watch this build, it's looking great! I have tanks inc. kit on my 72 Nova and I had to replace the sending unit, luckily tanks inc. sent me a replacement, I have my vent mounted up at the highest point of the rear frame rails and get some puking on hot days but only when the tank is completely full, I've been told a hard line with a few loops helps a lot with the issue but i haven't had the time to try it out yet.

I wasn't impressed with the sender unit. IMO that sender was made for a tank that is deeper than the camaro/firebird tank. So by the time you finish cutting it to length it doesn't seem to operate very smoothly anymore. It needs some of that extra weight that gets cut off.

Did you find the stl online for that tire fitment tool or did you design it yourself? I've been debating on buying one but I'd rather print one.

It's my own design. That was my first version and I made a couple of mistakes that I still need to fix, but it still works as is.

[BikeMaker]

Hurt my heart a bit to see all the rust surgery, but looks GREAT now!! Very similar to the concept I had for my Camaro. Good luck!!

[blitzer454]

Time to re-visit the front end alignment. As you may recall I am using a Flaming River power steering rack and pinion with the original steering arms. I'm also using hubs from Kore3. I want to see how bad the bump steer is with this setup compared to stock settings and the ridetech Tru-Turn setup that uses a stock steering box.

I dialed in the camber, caster and toe settings the best I could before measuring bump steer. I made a tool to measure the bump steer from a piece of MFD board.


I used my folding table as a flat stationary plane and a bolt in the brake caliper bracket to prevent the board from rotating on the spindle. I then measured the distance from the front and rear (spindle center point) of the board to the folding table then subtracted these values to obtain the toe-in/toe-out values as I compressed and de-compressed the shock from the middle riding height in one half inch increments. I used a wire mounted to the subframe as a pointer to the board. This method may not be as accurate as using a tool designed specifically for measuring bump steer, but this is free whereas the tool is kind of expensive for something I probably would only use twice.


I found a good thread on this forum that had some data of the stock settings before and after installing the Tru-Turn hardware. From that data (columns A and B) I added my own measurements for comparison.


It appears that the Flaming River is pretty close to the stock bump steer and of course the Tru-Turn looks much better. Sooo that means I'm going to forget that I ever seen this data and keep the Flaming River setup for now since this car is primarily going to be driven on the street. I may however change my mind once I attempt to get the engine and headers installed. Comments?? Is there an inexpensive way to improve bump steer?

[blitzer454]

Started working on a rear seat delete. The design is pretty close to what I made for my Camaro but with a few improvements.

I changed the inner structure braces so I could accommodate some plastic storage bins.

Made some changes to the latches and now they are counter sunk into the lid so that the top of the latch is flush. Also added some LED strip lights and 3D-printed some switches so they only come on when the lid is off.



I plan to line the inside of the tubs with some unisuede fabric so you can't see through the tub, but that will happen latter.

The back of the top fits over the existing seat hooks in the car. I will be adding some cross bars into the slots latter to hook it into place and some tie down straps mounted from the back of the board down to the original seat mount points will lock it down. I'm also thinking about putting in some forward facing speakers into this board.

There's some other minor improvements I want to make before I call it done but that will have to wait until I start working on the interior in full force.

[blitzer454]

I modified the Vintage Air bracket so the evaporator box now slides onto a bracket then locks down with 2 bolts. I did not want to make any holes into my smooth firewall.


This bracket also fixed the oil canning I had in the firewall.


It's pretty easy to install and remove the evaporator now.

[blitzer454]

Test fitting the Tremec TKX. I started with modifying a cross-member that I already owned. I had one cross-member from my '67 camaro and the original from the '68 firebird. I thought they would be the same, but they are not. Top is firebird and the bottom the camaro.




I ended up only using the cross-member from the camaro. I cut the center section and moved it back to align with the TKX mounting holes then welded it back together with some additional support material. I also added some spacers on each end to lift the transmission as I want it as tight as I can get to the top of the transmission tunnel.


I modified one side so that I can install the cross-member by simply lifting it into place and bolting it in with 3 bolts. If you ever tried installing a stock cross-member after subframe and transmission is in place then you know how much of a pain in the ass in can be to slide into position this mod make to super simple.


I created a trim ring around the hole for the shifter.


Then used my 3d printer to make a gasket holder around the shift boot. I used some 1/2" foam weatherstripping to seal the gap.


It tucks up nicely. I'm right at 3 degrees down.

[blitzer454]

Got the wiper motor installed. I did a poor man's version of the raingear system. The wiper motor is from a '97 Jeep TJ and a Cole Hersee 75600-04-BX intermittent wiper switch with washer control. The motor is mounted behind the firewall under the cowl.

I created a simple L-bracket with side support for the wiper motor and spot welded it onto the firewall. I used the original wiper arm but modified by twisting it 90 degrees so now it mounts to the wiper motor horizontally instead of vertically. I also had to re-key the hole so that the park position was in the right place.


I made a wire harness that connects the switch to the motor. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but you get the idea.



The only thing I don't like is that the wiper switch does not fit properly into the firebird because the box of the switch is too wide to fit into the recessed area of the sheet metal of the dash. The switch angles down so I will need to make a spacer on the shaft to correct this problem. I see Raingear has an extended threaded mount to deal with this problem. I wonder if I could just buy their switch???


Here's the wiring diagram showing how the wiring harness connects the switch to the motor. Note that I added the correct colors for the switch and motor that I used.

[blitzer454]

I ended up ditching the Flaming River rack and pinion in favor of the ridetech Tru-turn system with a quick ratio Borgeson steering box. I did not like how the Flaming River steering column shafts aligned with the steering column. It looked like it would bind and interfere with the exhaust pipes plus it did nothing to improve bump steer. The more I worked with it the more I hated it.

I had to make a new bracket for the wilwood proportioning valve to move the brake lines over a bit.


I took some new bump steer measurements using the same exact technique I used in my previous post. There is a notable improvement over the rack and pinion system.

[blitzer454]

Not much action on the Firebird lately but I did fix some problems in my original wheel fitment tool. Here are 3d printer STL files for anyone who wants them: wheel_fitment_tool.zip