Project Tomahawk

[atomicjoe23]

Been gone a long time now. . .been busy moving into a new house and getting a new job. . .and all the extraneous stuff that comes with that. . .so I haven't had a whole lot of spare time lately. . .plus I'm currently away from home in Washington state for work (at least the weather has been nice so far!!!)



Decided to do a quick update though. . .decided to change the colors (I'm sticking with the same design but different colors I think). . .I'm gonna go with the main body color being the color of the Lamborghini Reventon and the stripe/graphic color probably being a dark bronze color. . .the wheels may end up being either body color or the bronze graphic color. . .I'll have to see how it ends up looking with those colors though.

Later,

[69camarokid]

Just finished reading through this entire thread...

and i just have to say that you sir are freakin NUTS!!!!!
....
....
.... and i love it! this car is gonna be the amazing, keep up the updates!

[atomicjoe23]

Just finished reading through this entire thread...

and i just have to say that you sir are freakin NUTS!!!!!
....
....
.... and i love it! this car is gonna be the amazing, keep up the updates!

I'll take the above to be a compliment!!!

[68Formula]

My advice, keep the vent windows. I wish I had them. Really cuts down on wnid buffeting. Something I learned after buying my '68.

[atomicjoe23]

All. . .sorry about the lack of updates. . .just wanted to say that plans are still in place to do all the work to this car, but the time line has changed. . .a divorce and a relocation have put things back quite a bit, but on the plus side these changes have also led to a change of careers and I have decided to give up work for a while and am in my 3rd quarter of welding school. . .I would say that now 99%-100% of the work will be done completely by myself. . .cutting down on expensive labor costs. . .there is one more potential move in December of this year and after that work should start on the car in the spring of '10. . .I will update as soon as I can. . .relocation has kept me from being able to work on the car, but I have not forgotten or given up on it!!! and am even more prepared now with my new welding and technical design (AutoCAD, SolidEdge, SolidWorks) education to make things happen and do this for a living!!!

[Nessumsar]

Good to hear that you're doing good through all of your troubles.

I have a question about your engine choice. I you are trying to keep with a racing "theme", particularly trans-am, why not de-stroke the engine? With the racers having been capped at 5.0L, I would think you could destroke (not anywhere near 5.0L) and make the thing scream! Then it would sound like Zues is trying to come out of your exhaust! Not to mention how "racey" it woudl be.

[atomicjoe23]

Good Point. . .I have struggled with that from the very beginning. . .I want to stay as close as I reasonably can to the TransAm roots of the time period but I also want to keep it a true Pontiac engine. . .where do you make the compromise. . .in this case I think that I make the compromise on the TransAm roots because it won't actually race. . .so I can go with a big displacement aluminum Pontiac block. . .I wish that I could have the best of both worlds. . .the biggest thing to me is that I REFUSE to put an LS engine in this thing. . .it WILL be Pontiac powered. . .it's not a corporate car. . .it's a PONTIAC and it WILL BE powered by a PONTIAC!!!

[T_Raven]

I just found your thread. I love the drawings. I've seen GTOs and 1st gen birds with stripes down the hood like that but I like the way you wrapped it around the sides.

[atomicjoe23]

OK. . .I'm still around. . .I still have the 'Bird. . .and I still plan to follow through on the plans. . .

I just finished my Welding ATA and I'm finishing my Technical Design ATA this summer. . .I think I finally found another job (and as a machinist. . YEAH!!!) so I will be able to move the Firebird to my location (where we should have a nice, new heated garage waiting for it) and be able to finally start work on it. . .

. . .I'm hoping to start on it by this fall.

[David Sloan]

Good to see your still here, never give up!
I know how tough life can be as well, Our car has for the most part been on hold. Due to life,economy,working to survive.
We hope to be back on track in the next month.
Thanks

[atomicjoe23]

OK. . .this has been a long time coming, but my Firebird is finally in my garage. . .the garage at the house where I currently reside!!!

I have another project to finish ('49 Jeep Willy's pickup truck) before I can start work on the Firebird, but at least the car is no longer 1200+ miles away from me!!!

[atomicjoe23]

Quick update. . .I have actually started to work on this thing; I have replaced all the safety items (brake lines, pads, rotors, hoses, and fluids) since it has been in storage for so long; I'm hoping to actually drive this thing this spring/summer and participate in some local auto-x events so I can learn how to drive better.

Things have changed because different things are available now than when I started planning this out so I will post an update on what is going to change from my original plans (just components, not the idea of a TransAm inspired build). . .the other thing to change is this is going to be done in stages instead of all at once. By doing things in stages I will be able to minimize the down time, enjoy driving the car, and hopefully make steady progress instead of a big step in progress and then a long wait while I save for the next purchases.

The build-up stages are going to be dictated by my driving abilities/progress on the track. . .so I will start with a relatively stock car and I will leave it that way while I learn how to drive (saving money up for parts while I do this). Once my driving is improved enough that I'm being held back by the car's old suspension/brakes/drivetrain/wheels & tires (whatever it happens to be) that is when I will upgrade that part of the car.

I'm hoping to have this thing off the jacks stands and moving under it's own power again by the middle of March. . .I will post pictures of it then.

[atomicjoe23]

So I thought I would post some pictures of what I'm starting with. . .this is the '67 Firebird as it sits now; the only thing i have done to the car since I bought it is to remove the rear seat and some interior trim.

I thought I document start to finish. . .

. . .you'll have to forgive the messy garage; my Dad passed away and I shipped two antique tractors, 3 box trucks of tools & equipment, and a box truck of tractor parts. I haven't had time to get it all put away neatly yet.

[BlueGhost93]

Looking good either way! What part of San Diego are you in? Im right here by Mission valley and point loma!

[atomicjoe23]

Guess I need to update my information. . .I now live in Washington state; I did live in Tierra Santa when I lived in SanDiego.

[atomicjoe23]

Just had my first Auto-X experience. . .in the rain!!! Got to take a ride in a Pontiac Solstice and a Subaru BRZ; then my buddy let me dual drive his Mitsibishi Lancer EVO IX. . .HOLY CRAP!!!! Hooked!!!

I ordered an Energy Suspension Hyperflex kit, new Moog ball joints and inner/outer tie rod ends. . .once they come in I will installed, take care of the front disc brake swap, get rid of the high-rise tunnel ram intake and hopefully have that done in time for the next Auto-X event in April.

I will keep updating progress on the project as I make progress.

[atomicjoe23]

New parts!!!

New upper/lower control arm ball joints and Energy Suspension Hyperflex polyurethane bushing kit!!!

Gonna be a BUSY weekend. . .just waiting for the inner/outer tie rod ends to show up.

[atomicjoe23]

I've been working on disassembling the front end of the car. . .I mentioned I had the Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing kit, new Moog upper/lower front control arm ball joints, and inner/outer tie rod ends, as well as solid 7075-T6 aluminum subframe/body mounts I machined.

I now also have my front shocks (Koni Classic adjustables), front coils (722# coils), new 1.5" taller spindles (with a 2" drop) to improve the camber curve. . .waiting to get installed.

I just placed my order for Koni Classic adjustable rear shocks, and Kore 3 GM Short Spinlde C5/C6 325mm (12.8" rotor) big brake kit with Kore billet hubs (w/the 1/2"-20 ARP wheel studs) and billet grease cap, C6 calipers, Centric 120 rotors (for now), and Hawk HP Plus pads. I also have a set of Corvette ZR-1/Camaro SS 5-spoke wheels (17" x 9") with 265/40ZR17 (front) and 275/40ZR17 (rear) tires.

Once the billet hubs and brake rotors show up I will be taking measurements and machining wheel spacers so the front wheels will fit. . .probably make them out 6061-T6 aluminum initially. . .

What I have left to figure out is what rate I want for the front anti-sway bar and to save up a little more money for a DSE rear leaf spring relocation/multi-leaf conversion kit and rear mini-tubs and the rear disc brake upgrade. . .I will be running a Kore3 C5/C6 disc brake set-up on the rear as well. I plan on adding DSE subframe connectors this year as well.

I plan to run with this set-up until sometime next year when I have more driving time under my belt and some more money saved up to upgrade the front end to the ATS AFX aluminum spindles, DSE upper/lower control arms with JRi coilovers and I will have had time to design a 3-link rear with a Watt's linkage and JRi coilovers there as well.

Disassembly pictures aren't very exciting, but I should have made enough progress to start posting pictures of the new upgrades getting installed by next weekend. . .takes a while to get all these 49 year old joints/fasteners apart!!!

[Jeff_R]

When you order the rear brake parts, make sure you talk with Tobin first. Firebirds have a different rear axle (if yours is original) than Camaros. Pontiac used retainer plates instead of c-clips so that changes the brackets. Tobin has it all figured out.

[atomicjoe23]

Thanks for pointing that out Jeff R. . .I hadn't pulled the rear tires off yet.