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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States

      Project Anchor (68 Firebird Coupe)

      My nephew originally brought this project car to work on during his spare time. This is what it looked like the day he got it:
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      It doesn't look to bad in that picture, but it's definitely a 100 footer with rust in all the usual spots, big dents in the roof and a bad engine block. He started tearing it down and got as far as replacing the left and right floor boards and cut out the trunk floor.
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      Being in the Coast Guard means he moves around a lot as he works his way up the ranks and on one of the moves he had the car on a rotisserie on a trailer but didn't have enough bracing in the rear and during the move the rotisserie collapsed causing the frame rails to twist into a pretzel. So basically the car is now an anchor, hence my project name!
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    2. #2
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      My intentions were to update this project more often, but since my last post Texas had the snowpocalypse which left me without internet and intermittent electricity for a week. Then I just got lazy. Then an 18 year old girl with no driver license driving a 2015 black Camaro ran over my foot while I was attempting to mow my lawn this Saturday morning, so now I have a fractured foot I can barely stand on, so time for an update.

      Unfortunately I forgot to take some photos of the car the day I received it, but instead went right to work. One of the first things I did was build a jig to hold the body in place with the correct elevations for the body support points. Then cut out the quarters and tail panel. My nephew already replaced one of the frame rails and he didn't do to bad a job considering he just eyeballed it into place. It sat a little high in the rear but I was able to correct that. I also installed the other frame rail and new trunk pan.
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    3. #3
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Here's some more photos in no particular order. Mostly just replacing bad metal with new metal.
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      - - - Updated - - -

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    4. #4
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States

    5. #5
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      New roof and fix the subframe mounting points

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    6. #6
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      DSE subframe connectors going in:

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    7. #7
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Got the body on the rotisserie. Installed the ridetech 4-link cradle and started shooting some epoxy and Lizard skin. I'm using both the sound control and ceramic insulation products. I'm hoping to make it quiet and cooler than my Camaro.

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    8. #8
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      My rainy day project are some homemade sequential tail lights. I designed them to work with my power distribution modules (check out my Camaro build to see what that looks like). The tail lights will operate via CAN bus and I made the top and bottom rows of LEDs independent of each other which should allow for some unique sequential displays.

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      Testing the boards to see if red LEDs are working so I created a small program that uses pwm to make the LEDs go all the way bright then dim to off.



      Testing the reverse white LEDs also using PWM. I probably won't be using PWM in the final code, but I designed the hardware to support PWM so testing it now.


    9. #9
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Fixing the door to quarter gaps:

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    10. #10
      Join Date
      Apr 2004
      Location
      Cedar Rapids, IA
      Posts
      999
      Excellent build.

      Subscribed.
      Some times I'm fast sometimes I'm half-fast

    11. #11
      Join Date
      Nov 2006
      Location
      Ma.
      Posts
      5,567
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice job, it looks great!
      Wayne
      Car FINALLY home !!!!!! lol
      Project FNQUIK https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ghlight=FNQUIK

    12. #12
      Join Date
      Aug 2002
      Location
      Waleska Ga.
      Posts
      2,710
      Country Flag: United States
      Looking good! Thanks for sharing!
      David Sloan

      If you’re suggesting sending men with weapons of war to take my weapons of war,then I’m fairly certain that’s what’s called an act of war… and the definition of tyranny.which coincidentally is the reason for the second amendment to begin with!


      https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ght=fun+camaro

      https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...lcamino-build!

    13. #13
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      During my down time while I wait for my foot to heal I did some programming on the tail light boards. I completed the LED sequence displays. I'm thinking I will have the blinkers cycle through the various LED sequences which should keep the guy driving behind me entertained. Do you like the drag race sequences?

    14. #14
      Join Date
      Sep 2009
      Posts
      2,695
      Country Flag: United States
      I really like your brake lights. The drag race is entertaining haha.


      1955 Nomad project LC9, 4L80e, C5 brakes, Vision wheels
      1968 Camaro 6.2 w/ LSA, TR6060-Magnum hybrid and etc SOLD
      1976 T/A LS1 6 Speed, and etc. SOLD

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      I wire brushed and sanded the entire interior and treated it with RustBlast and sealed it with RustSeal black satin. RustBlast creates a nice zinc phosphate coating to prevent future rust and the sealant does not scratch easily. Even though I applied it with a brush you really can't see the brush marks. That was my first time using this product so I'll have to give it a . I think I may use it on the subframe next.
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    16. #16
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Next up was smoothing the firewall. In this picture and the next I started cutting away what I didn't need. In the end I cut away quite a bit more than what is shown in these pictures but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before welding on the new firewall. But in the end I cut away most of the passenger side firewall up and around the transmission tunnel.
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      After I had everything cut away that I didn't need I created my own template for a new firewall and spent a whopping $71.45 on some 16 gauge sheet metal. I got a little bit of oil canning effect on the passenger side which I will fix with a piece of angle iron welded on the inside, but that will wait until I test fit the air conditioner unit as I plan on using that as a mounting bracket. A bead roller sure would be nice but it won't fit in my garage.
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      I also filled in all the holes that I won't be needing. Actually I will be making new holes for the clutch master cylinder and a new hole for a bulk head connector for the wiring as I won't be using the stock connector. I also don't need the parking brake as I plan on using electric parking brakes. It' hard to see in the picture but I left a couple of holes where the VIN tag will be reattached at a later time.
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    17. #17
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Onto the fuel and rear brake plumbing. I decided to go with the Tanks fuel tank. I love the simplicity of the fuel regulator being built into the fuel filter but I am wondering how loud this setup will be with the pump running full speed all the time. I hope I don't regret it. Here's a pic of the fuel pump after cutting the hoses down to size.
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      And here's the fuel sender which I really do not like. I brought this setup as a kit and it came with this universal fuel sender which IMO is a piece of crap. It would probably be okay in a fuel tank that is deeper but in this tank I had to cut the float rod down so much that it barely falls down under its own weight. I decided to crimp on a little more weight to the float to make up for the weight of the rod that I had to cut off. So we'll see if this works, but I fully expect I will be swapping it out later for one of those tube senders.
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      For the tank vent I decided to use the roll-over valve that came with the kit versus a canister. I figure I can always upgrade at a later time if the valve pukes gas or there is a fuel smell. I tucked the valve up between the frame rail and trunk pan which puts it above the tank, but not by much. I used a nylon hose to connect the tank vent to the pump vent then to the valve.
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      I ran the nylon hose up to the valve such that it's always running uphill. In retrospect I may swap this out for a hard line as that would make it easier to control the angle of the dangle. But for now I will use the hose until I decide if I'm going to keep the valve or use a canister. Part of the hose will be zip tied to the muscle bar once that is installed.
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      I attached the filter/regulator with a bolt I welded to the inside of the trunk which also makes for an excellent ground point for the fuel sender.
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      I made a new bracket for the center rear brake line hose as the original one was missing. At first I planned on making it exactly like the original but that looked like it would interfere with the upper control arm so I flipped it around to add more clearance. It still needs to be painted.
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      I ran 3/8" Nickel copper hard line for the fuel line and 3/16" for the brake line. This was my first time using this kind of hard line and I like how easy it is to bend. I still have some bends left to make but I need to attach the subframe first.
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    18. #18
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      So I was getting ready to work on the firebird's subframe which got me looking at my camaro's shocks as I was trying to remember how I had routed the airline for the air shocks (I originally had air shocks on this car) and that is when I discovered this:

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      The top of the shock mount was ripping itself away from the subframe. The passenger side was also starting to come apart but not quite as bad as the driver's side. I always knew there was something not right with the suspension as I could feel it when driving and the stick would shake violently at speed. For the longest time I thought it was something in the rear of the car as that is what if felt like. At one point I even had the car in the air looking for loose or bad components and at that time the only thing I found was a bad transmission mount that was coming apart. But now I know why that mount was failing.

      I think the problem started at the top of the shock mount where the hole is located for that the top of the shock to pass through. There was a crack from the side of that hole all the way to the edge. I decided to add a metal plate to reinforce and box in this area and welded every thing back together again. Hopefully it will hold now.

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    19. #19
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      After fixing that problem I got back to work on the firebird. I had it sand blasted first. I feel much better about my welds after seeing this mess.

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      I then performed the same reinforcement as I did on the camaro,

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      I also patched up some holes, widened the holes for the air shocks and fixed an area where someone had bent the crap out of the front where I'm guessing they towed the car with a chain. Then sent it out for powder coating. Got it mounted to the car and started adding the new stuff.

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      The original core support was missing, so I got a new one from Summit.

    20. #20
      Join Date
      Nov 2011
      Location
      Wylie, Texas
      Posts
      279
      Country Flag: United States
      Added air shocks and ride leveler components. Just a test fit for now the steering arm may need to be replaced with a longer one.

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      Flaming River rack and pinion.

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      Yea, yea I know what you're going to say, rack and pinion doesn't work on stock subframe. In my defense I brought this setup even before I started working on my camaro. One of those spur of the moment purchases I regret. Anyway I'm going to take some bump steer measurements then decide if it stays or goes. But that's a job for another day.

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