Another Firebird project

[rickpaw]

Got my gauges and Momo steering wheel installed. I used Grant GM column mount, along with Grant to Momo adapter. I also had to purchase the horn retainer ring from Momo, since the wheel did not include one. I had to enlarge the adapter opening slightly so that the horn retainer would sit flush.







Installed the Mark VIII fan. It's tight. I had to turn the fan upside down for it to fit. The fan mount doesn't look too pretty but it works. Down the road I may have to make some sort of cover to pretty it up.

[rickpaw]

Pypes exhaust install

I also installed the Pypes 2.5" exhaust with Race Pros mufflers, and long branch manifolds. The kit quality is fine, but the instruction needs a lot of improvement, plus the 2 tail pipes are mislabeled. I heard stories about the tail pipes fitment issues with the Pypes kit, but mine went in fine, after a lot of head scratching.

Down pipes. It tucks up nicely along the frame rails.




X-pipes



I used factory exhaust hangers to mount the tail pipes. Here's shot of driver side. Passenger side is the same.



Tail pipes. I wish that the tail pipes are a bit longer.




Race pros mufflers. I used clamps on all connections, so it will make it easy to swap out mufflers, or change the transmission down the road.

[rickpaw]

Next is wiring up the relay for the cooling fan, check all electrical connection, and I'm ready to fire the engine.

[68400BIRD]

Looks great. I still have to do more work to my exhaust. Like you stated the tail pipes are to short and the pipes going over the rear end could have a better bend to them. I just started the wiring process. A lot of head scratching going on over here until I noticed I was missing the instruction sheet. LOL Glad that the oil filter was not a problem.

[rickpaw]

It's been almost a year since I posted an update on my project.

A lot of things had happened. The car is almost done, with an old fashion carbureted Pontiac 400/Turbo 400 tranny combo. I managed to drive the car to a car show in Vancouver before we moved to Houston.

Here's the car at the show, my buddy's 65 fastback parked next to it.




The torque thrust 2 wheels I got off craigslist only had a backspace of 4", so the front end rubbed badly. I ordered a set of TT2 wheels with 4.78" BS, and BFG KDW's tires from the tirerack. The wheels/tires showed up the next day.

Can't tell much, but the new combo fit much better

[rickpaw]

One week before the move, I installed Hotchkis SFC onto the car (one less box to haul down to Houston)





The SFC fit great. I did have to cut a notch in the pass side sfc to clear the factory traction bar.

[rickpaw]

On the trailer, heading south to Houston, TX. This was back in Oct, 2010. The movers already had 97% of our stuff, and the rest of the family moved down in Sept. The uhaul only contained mostly my tools in the garage.

[rickpaw]

Once settled in Houston, I drove the car a bit more and wasn't happy with the front springs. I have Eibach 1" drop spring in front, and every time I hit a dip on the road at moderate speeds, the front end would bottom out. I guess the spring is set up for SBC, and the big Pontiac motor is just too heavy. The Hotchkis SFC did wonders to the car. All the annoying rattles and squeaks are gone, and the car feels tighter.

I decided to change out the front springs to Hotchkis SBC spring as per their recommendation. When I removed the front wheels, I noticed the one of the rubber boot on ball joints that came with GW upper arm had torn, and leaked grease all over the front susp. Gave me a reason to upgrade to Proforged tall upper ball joint.

Rubber boot leaked


Removed the old ball joint


Old bj next to new one


Front end back together with new ball joints and Hotchkis springs

[rickpaw]

While I had the front end apart, I decided to switch the front solid sway bar to Hotchkis hollow bar. Save a bit over 6 lbs in weight as well

Hotchkis sway bar. Great quality and the fit is perfect.

[rickpaw]

One of the rivets on the original hood hinge broke, so gave me another reason to add some bling under the hood.

Bought a set of new Fesler hood hinges from a fellow forum member



Installed in the car. The hood opening action is a lot smoother now.

[rickpaw]

Before Xmas, I bought the new Digital VHX gauges from Matt's Classicbowtie. Carbon fiber face, with blue display




Installed in the car


The gauges worked great, really help cleaning up the dash (I had a set of autometer gauge hanging off the bottom of the dash, and a tach strapped to the column). The only down side is the face is shiny, which reflects badly in sunny days. Plus numerals display is kind of dim, much dimmer than the needles. DD tech said that they should have the same intensity so I may have a bad display unit, which means I have to send it back to them, which is something I don't want to do at the moment.

[rickpaw]

Last week I added a set of Procar Elite Lumbar seats. These have adjustable lumbar built in. I had to lower the seat down by cutting the support bracket, but it still sit a bit high. Other than the height, the seats are very comfortable. It's fairly wide, therefore it butts up against the factory console. Cars without console will fit better.

Procar seat bracket



Seats installed in the car

[rickpaw]

This is where the car sits in the driveway of its new home in Houston. I love how the car drives with the new Hotchkis components. The ride is firmer, but the car did not bottom out going over the same dip on the road.



That's kind of sums up how everything went over the last 10 months since the last update. I'm planning to replace the mono leaf springs with Hotchkis 1.5" spring down the road. Already have the leaf springs, just waiting for some free time. Plus I want to work the bugs out on the car so I can attend runs to the alamo event.

[WS6]

Nice car. I really like the gray with the black body line stripe. Good luck with it.

[rickpaw]

Thanks Trey. As someone had said, it's never done.

[68400BIRD]

Tu, glad things are going good for you down in Texas. Looks like you have made a lot of progress in the last year. Car is looking great and it must be a blast to drive. It will be at least another year before mine will be on the road (in primer) but still looing forward to it. Keep the pics and updates coming.

[Uneek68]

great car, im really diggin the seats, are those seat brackets only for those seats you got there? I went with the bmw E30 seats and need to find either someone who sells them or fabricate them myself

[rickpaw]

great car, im really diggin the seats, are those seat brackets only for those seats you got there? I went with the bmw E30 seats and need to find either someone who sells them or fabricate them myself

Thanks man. Those brackets are made for the seats. I'm sure you can fabricate something for the E30 seats. I had Porsche 924 seats in the car before but they do not have lumbar support so my lower back hurts after driving awhile.

[rickpaw]

Tu, glad things are going good for you down in Texas. Looks like you have made a lot of progress in the last year. Car is looking great and it must be a blast to drive. It will be at least another year before mine will be on the road (in primer) but still looing forward to it. Keep the pics and updates coming.

Hey Rob. Good to hear from you. I begin to wonder where you're with your car. The majority of the work on my car is done, just fixing little bugs here and there. Right now the car is running a bit rich. The back 4 plugs are fouled, but the 4 front ones are OK. I'm trying to get the car ready for RTTA event.

[SamHatco]

Hey Tu,

Sorry we missed you for the cars and coffee at Vintage Park and the New Years Cruise to the Blue Iquana in Magnolia. There were about 500 cars at the cars and coffee, yours would have really set off our group here is a shot that Paul took with us all lined up



Sam