1971 Firebird455 - Project

[LeighP]

Thanks Doug.

mmmmmm, KONI, there is no substitute....

[LeighP]

OK, so I got a chance to paint the housing before I went off to work...painted in the standard "unpainted" style of GM's F-bodies, bright steel tubes and cast grey centre. Axle tubes have been welded and the housing checked for straightness on a jig.....thats been the hold up, the guy was taking his time.
Fitted up the new 11" drum brakes, and now its all down at the diff shop getting set up...should be back in a couple of days.

[LeighP]

Yeah, I know...drum brakes....but they're 2" bigger in diameter than the stock brakes, I'm not racing the car, I'm building it on a budget....and most of all, I enjoy having a good park brake, lol.

[68400BIRD]

The car is looking great. What gears are you going with? I wouldn't worry about the rear drum brakes. I went with a CPP big disc kit in the rear and I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle for a street driven car.

[LeighP]

Running 3.08:1 gears. I'm setting up the TH350 with an aftermarket lower ratio 1st gear set up that'll give some more initial gearing than you'd normall get with 3.08's ...this way I get some highway gears, without the cost of the OD conversion.

[Takid455]

little by little you are getting there. Keep up the progress.

Nothing wrong with drums for most driving. My old '65 Imperial had 4 drums and would put your face in the dash. Brakes did very well stopping 3 tons.

[LeighP]

Productive day.....landscapers were tearing the back yard apart, I was putting the rear axle in....





One thing you have to do with the Pro-Touring F-Body HD U bolt kit is to trim the U bolts down after you fit the axle....the bolts stuck out 3" past the nuts, so I got out the trusty cutting disc on the 4" angle grinder and took them off so theres 3/4" left.

[srh3trinity]

Looks nice. How do you like the PTFB pieces so far? I am going to be buying some stuff from them. I think I am going with some type of link style or torque arm rear setup, but I will be buying their front chassis braces. Did you buy their subframe connectors too? I am curious how well they tuck up and in. I will look back in the thread if you have already covered subframe connectors.

[LeighP]

I liked the PTFB stuff so much I became the Aussie agent for them.....lol.
Seriously, the PTFB stuff fits very nicely, I haven't had any real issues so far. The SFCs went on without having to pound on them, or mod the car. In the above pics, the 4 jack stands are resting on the front and rear of the SFCs...they are VERY sturdy. I have pics of them being fitted further back in the thread.

[srh3trinity]

I liked the PTFB stuff so much I became the Aussie agent for them.....lol.
Seriously, the PTFB stuff fits very nicely, I haven't had any real issues so far. The SFCs went on without having to pound on them, or mod the car. In the above pics, the 4 jack stands are resting on the front and rear of the SFCs...they are VERY sturdy. I have pics of them being fitted further back in the thread.

Thanks, I looked back through after I posted.

[LeighP]

Finished off the back brakes....hand brake cables and painted the new drums.
These pics show you why you need at least 15" wheels with these drums.



If you're thinking of this conversion, you may find that there is a slight interference between the big drum and the lower shock mount / spring plate. When I bolted the wheels on, it rubbed slightly. I ground a little off the sides of both shock mount plates, however you could equally have 2mm or so machined off the back edge of the drum without affecting anything.
In the pic, it rubs between where I've marked the red arrows.


Next...the fuel tank, pump and filter.

[LeighP]

Tank Day.....
Got out the tank I'd previously cleaned up and had tested. New tank straps and a few minutes and .... presto - Fuel tank!
Used some closed cell waterproof neoprene for anti rubbing strips/pads and found some tank strap rubber thats molded to fit the OER repro tank straps exactly (32mm).
Tank pickup is a Rob Mc brand....1/2" pickup tube with no sock filter...you run an external filter before the electric pump. The second pipe on the pickup is a return if you run a return style regulator....I'll just cap that off.




Wouldn't have minded fitting a pretty new bright silver tank...but since this one was in good condition, its hard to justify the money.

[OLDFLM]

Looking good my friend! We used RobbMc for my entire fuel system!

[LeighP]

I've got a Carter electric pump and a RobbMc pre-filter to go on tomorrow..just have to find a couple of fittings to suit my set up.

[LeighP]

Carter electric pump and RobbMc pre-filter went in today along with the plumbing. Add some more hardline tomorrow then move onto the radiator support for a bit...mock up and build the radiator mount to hold the alloy rad and twin thermo fans.

[Taman]

Great to see another 2nd gen. Good luck with the project. Been working on mine for 17 years. Never done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKEDPuKNofQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hlIeToDmM

[LeighP]

So, I've been doing little stuff while I'm waiting for my mechanic friend to get home from his trip to help me sort the engine.
Finishing off the brake hard lines - have to fit up the calipers so I can get some hoses made up - a couple of people running the bigger brake rotors mentioned they'd like a little more length in the flex lines than the stock ones give you.
Also fitted up the trans cooler......I set up the mount so I can add an engine oil cooler easily on the other side if I ever think its necessary. I put some rubber vibration dampening mounts between the cooler and the frame....just in case.






Next job is to mock up the alloy radiator in position and design a mount for the radiator that lets me fit the twin thermo fans easily and neatly.

[LeighP]

Been sorting out the front brake calipers.....a couple of small issues to resolve. If you're using new GM B body spindles to convert to 1LE 12" rotors, the caliper bolt holes are drilled metric, not 7/16" UNF like the original spindles.
I couldn't locate a suitable metric caliper bolt, so I had the mounting threads helicoiled to UNF to suit the bolts.

The Wilwood calipers are drilled and tapped in NPT, so a conventional banjo style fitting won't work (also the area around the hole is not machined over the whole circle for a crush washer to seal). I had new lines made up about 1" longer than the factory lines and an adapter which is NPT to screw into the caliper, but has a brake line flared seat in it for the line to screw into.




Caliper paint is drying at the moment, but I should have it all together tomorrow.

[LeighP]

Heres the finished install on the calipers...I painted them just to help with cleaning issues, you can't really see them through the wheels I'm using much.




The flex lines clear everything on full lock in both directions, so hopefully everything will work OK.

[LeighP]

So I bring out one of the AR500 wheels for a trial fit.....looks good and clears everything nicely.



Then I try the 15x7 Rally II......seems Wilwood GMIII calipers will not clear 15" rims when used with the 1LE mod B body stubs....they just scrape on a few points, noticeably the edges of a couple of the allen bolts that hold the calipers together.....I'm going to file them off so they are flush then see how that goes.