New Project 68 Firebird (teardown)

[68 firehawk]

Well here’s the start of my baby. A little history, My New wife bought me this car before I decided to marry her. After about 6 years of trying to make sure she was ok with the first love of my life (cars) I decided to make us official. She is the best and I’m sure this will be the greatest car I’ve ever built because of her support. This is my 3rd major project. The first was a 54 Willys I put on a blazer frame and running gear and my 2nd was a 71 442 with over 500 horse. And yes I still have them both. They are not completely tricked out; however, they are both a lot of fun. My 68 Bird will be my first completely tricked project. My goal is to do ALL of the work myself. I’ve been studying Pro-touring cars for over a year and I’ve learned a lot. I still could use some pointers here and there so I’ll probably be calling on you guys every once and a while but for now all I need to do is. “GET ER DUN!”
Jacob Alexander

[68 firehawk]

sorry pics didn't work the first time.
Hopefully these work
Jacob

[1 BAD BIRD]

Looks like you have a good bit of work ahead of ya No worries I am in the same boat. Glad to see another poncho on the board.

bob
68 PT Firebird

[Nine Ball]

Nice, thats how my car looked about 6 months ago. It was kind of depressing seeing it in a million pieces scattered around the garage. But, when you get it done you will look back on those photos and smile - especially when you do all the work yourself.

Nice choice in engines too. Hope you will modify that LS1 some before throwing it into the car. Its so easy to pick up 40-50 rwhp with just a cam swap and headers.

Tony

[Richz68]

Jacob,



I just sold my '68 Bird, and it was tough seeing it go , but I still have my '68 Camaro....


NICE MOTOR/TRANS !!!

[indyjps]

looks great, youve got the welder and the ls1, start running some wire. looks like that engine compartment has seen several custom paint jobs, is that pink and purple.

[68 firehawk]

Oh yeah it's not easy seeing her in this kind of condition but the more I’m able to focus on the small stuff the better. Yep that's pink and purple on parts of the sub frame and firewall. I have know idea why someone would paint parts of the sub frame pink it almost looks like it came out of a junkyard or something, however, the frame is straight as an arrow with no rust. It’s almost too bad I’m not going to use it. It also had blue diamond tuck on the rear dash. The fenders and hood and everything else are all very straight. The only rust repair I had to do was a small section on the driver side dash and floor pan. It must have been in several accidents but the only I could tell was by taking off the fenders. The Air dams or whatever those things are called behind the fenders were dented up pretty good. So I decided to take the plasma and get rid of them. I never was able to find repo ones to weld back on and I work at a sheet metal shop so I’m having one of my guys whip me up some Stainless speaker boxes for the kick panels and new custom air damns. I know a lot of my parts will be new or totally re-fabed by the time I’m done but I still think $600 was a steal for this little gem.

Nine- It’s amazing what you can do with the LS1 engine without spending a dime. My plan is to eventually go with a Magna or a small turbo. I’m still not sure where I’m going to put the laptop to adjust the PCM, air fuel mixtures, ect? I guess my passenger will have to hold on the the laptop at the same time they are holding on for their life. :icon996:
Jacob Alexander

[Nine Ball]

Laptop tuning is best done with two people. Either that, or get AutoTap to log the vitals during some WOT blasts, then just do the tuning between blasts by yourself using LS1EDIT or HPTuners.

At least throw a cam and some valvesprings in there, it will pick up some nice gains and actually sound like a musclecar.

[Novacane]

I'm with Tony! Don't even waste the time stuffing that in the car without at least a cam change! I have done a ton of cam only LS1 cars and have seen 40-65 RWHP!

Even though the car looks rough it appears to be solid. You can't ask for more then that at this stage! I can see it done already....18" wheels (335 rears) single turbo 388 ci LS1.........

Keep us all posted! If you need help with the LS1 stuff let me know as I do quite a bit of GEN3 work!

Howard

[Pzary3233]

Great project to start with! It seems to me that birds are starting to come out of the wood work recently!
did it have a poncho motor? if so, what was it and what are you going to do with it?

[68 firehawk]

I was planning on just slapping in the LS1 and 6 speed, until I opt for the turbo or magna. My 442 is my pure brute muscle, but now that you guys seem so adamant about throwing on a cam I better do it. What does everyone recommend? (Brand, duration, ect) I would like to still keep it fairly drivable. I might even want to use it as a radical daily driver in the summer. I would also like to take it on some road trips. The other question is does anyone know if I will have to adjust anything else if I throw a cam in this thing. Fuel injectors, ect. Will it affect which turbo I can go with? I'm already planning on headers and a few other small mods. Just the t-stat mod, oil pump port, valve body mods, mass flow upgrade, chip and no cats should put me up at least 30hp over factory.
Paul- Nope I bought the car without the engine or trans. I haven't checked the #'s but I think it was a 6-cylinder car.

[T_Raven]

What ever happened to this car?

[68 firehawk]

What ever happened to this car?

Better late then never I guess..
The attached is the best picture I have to date. It's a little more put together but not much.

The best way to describe how it drives has to be by comparing it to flying a F-14 or something....

I was able to get one of my buddies to actually pass out.

The newest update happing this spring is flopping out the rear suspension with coil overs and a watts link setup.

Jake