69 firebird T/A convertible

[Nine Ball]

When is Sam's interior shop open for biz? Nice job on those rear quarters!

[SamHatco]

When is Sam's interior shop open for biz? Nice job on those rear quarters!

Thanks, Tony!

[dhutton]

I am looking forward to seeing this one completed. The quality and creativity are excellent.

[Hoosier]

I'm in the middle of disassembling a 2006 GTO and doing a similar build on a 69 camaro. For motor plates did you use the the standard carshop plates or the 1" set back plates? How much did you have to trim off the front of the dash? I believe I can modify the shifter mount to set back farther and not trim the dash. Do you think that would look awkward? I was hoping to use the dash substructure because I want to use the GTO A/C unit.

Thanks, Rusty

[sunkistcamaro]

Hi Rusty,
Im on the same track as you but with a 04 GTO.
I too plan on using the goat's A/C box. I made my own plates but Im going to make one more set because I want to push it back another 1/2" so I can reuse my 700r4 drive shaft.
Do you have a manual or automatic trans?
thanks,
Bill

[Motown 454]

Wow just saw the quarter panel sweet!

[SamHatco]

I am looking forward to seeing this one completed. The quality and creativity are excellent.

Thanks, Don

Sam

[SamHatco]

I'm in the middle of disassembling a 2006 GTO and doing a similar build on a 69 camaro. For motor plates did you use the the standard carshop plates or the 1" set back plates? How much did you have to trim off the front of the dash? I believe I can modify the shifter mount to set back farther and not trim the dash. Do you think that would look awkward? I was hoping to use the dash substructure because I want to use the GTO A/C unit.

Thanks, Rusty

Rusty,

For the carshop plates I don't know if they were the standard or 1" set back. When I purchased them they only had one style. You will have to trim quite a bit of the dash. I lost the defrost ducts. The way I did it was locate the shifter and console first as that is your anchor point for everything else. If your using the gto manual trans the shifter is farther back than, lets say, the 4th gen f bodies. If you tried not to trim the dash the shifter location in the console would be almost even with the back of the seat. Right now when I rest my elbow on the console the shifter falls right into my hand. It is in a very comfortable location. I too used the substructure of the dash and even if you trim the dash I believe you will have room for the factory a/c. There is quite a bit of room. The reason I didn't use the factory a/c was I didn't get it when I bought the interior.

Hope this helps,

Sam

[SamHatco]

Wow just saw the quarter panel sweet!

Thanks, Wayne. I'll have some more updates hopefully in the next couple of weeks. With the holidays coming up things get in the way of working on the car. Just completed modifying the rear GTO seat frames and will be working on the sub box. Seats will need to be recovered. I also found a killer deal on some BMW M3 convertible seats that have the shoulder harness built into the seat. Wow they are comfortable and you can adjust them 50 ways from Sunday. The firebird seats are about 22 inches wide and the BMW seats are just about the same width, so I'm pretty sure I can get them to fit. I'll post up how I installed them. I Just ordered the vert top. It will be the same top used on the Year One tribute trans am that was featured on Muscle Car TV. There is a punch list of things that have to be addressed, but I'm getting closer.

[Hoosier]

Sam,
I appreciate you sharing info, I'd probably like to ask some more questions as I move along with the swap. Maybe you'll be able to answer some questions when I get to the wiring ie, disabling some of the uneeded items like abs, fuel tank pressure switch etc. My plan is to use as much of the complete wiring harness as possible.

Thanks,
Rusty

[Hoosier]

Bill,
I've got the 6 speed. I picked up the 06 GTO for a really good price it only had 47,000 miles on it. I want to use as much of the car as possible to keep the cost down and sell what I don't use. I'd probably attempt to use the rearend and suspension, but I won a full set of BFG tires at a GoodGuys event prior to buying the GTO. I picked 335/30/18's and 245/40/18's and bought a set of 18"x12" Billet Specialties Draft wheels (the first set made) for the back. So, I guess I'm going the mini-tub route.

Rusty

[JLM]

Still loving to watch this car come together! Quality build for sure!

[19,69camaro]

Yikes what was the previous owner thinking. You are doing a great job by the way!

[thetoystore]

love the quarter inner panel for the speaker. thats clean, factory look'n work

[SamHatco]

Finally got the transmission back and installed last Wednesday. While the trans was at the shop I decided to upgrade the clutch to the LS7 clutch. Boy what a headache! Installed the tranny started the car and I couldn't get into any gear. I couldn't get the clutch to disengage. I could run thought the gears with the engine off, but not with the engine running. My first thought was hydraulics. So I bled the master cylinder and slave cylinder still no go. I fiddled with bleeding the master and slave for the better part of three nights after work. What a frustrating experience. Researched all over this forum and LS1tech. I found out the LS/t56 hydraulics are pretty finicky. Today, I decided to bleed the clutch the old school way which is to do a gravity bleed. I opened up my bleeder on the slave and took off the cap to the master and watched the fluid. I probably filled the master reservoir about three times. Buttoned her up and voilà, I have a clutch. Glad that is done. I was afraid that I would have to pull the tranny again to see what was up.

[SamHatco]

While I was scratching my head with the tranny, I was working on installing the seats. I got a really good deal on a set of BMW M3 convertible seats. First off I want to thank Dave (Daredvl22) and Nick (Grantgb) for telling the rest of us about these awesome seats and answering my pms. A couple of comments over in the interior section led me to believe that these seats were too high. I can tell you guys for certain they are not. Here are a few pics comparing the BMW seats to my original seats



Dimension wise they are pretty close the same width overall. The seat bottom in the above picture is exactly the same height as the 69 seat, however the BMW seat can still be lowered about 1" from its present position. The back is taller and wider, but is much more comfortable than the 69. The extra height is not an issue. The internal shoulder belt was probably my main motivation besides comfort for purchasing these seats. You can adjust them 50 way from Sunday. They just feel great to sit in.

Now for the install. This was easier than I thought it would be. The seat tracts are about 18" wide from outside to outside, so they are a snug fit when setting them on the floor, however they are flat and that made it easy to install. Each tract has bolt holes in them so I just positioned them where I wanted them to sit and drilled 7/16 holes and installed the bolts. The outside tracts have a couple of tabs that are riveted on that have to be removed, but they are for some trim pieces.












If you can get your hands on these seats, do it! They are soooo comfortable, you can adjust every which way, and they have the shoulder belt incorporated in them.

Sam

[sunkistcamaro]

Those are cool seats!
When your all done with this car I might have to catch a plane ride down to TX just to see it!!
As usual, looking good!

[amargari]

Those seats look awesome!! I have to keep an eye out for a set.

[Simbad68]

Nice job! The interior is really coming together.

[LeighP]

Sweet...love the seats. What did you have to do to reinforce the seat anchor points due to the seat mounted belt?