67 Firebird Convertible

[Smock67]

Well I decided to make a new thread for my car as the old one is missing all pictures because apparently putfile.com is no longer working. So unfortunately i have no original pictures of the car when i got it or of any of the horrible body work done by the previous owner. Anyways this car has certainly been a huge learning experience for me. A little background then on to the pictures.

Prior to acquiring the Firebird i had a 2003 Hyundai Tiburon GTV6 with just about everything imaginable done to it, Full suspension, paintjob, lip kit supercharger, 2 sets of wheels 2 or 3 hoods after all was tallyed up i had around 20000 into it all by the time I was 16. Well the unfortunate thing is that it was stolen and torched burnt to the ground and not even stripped.

Well after months of dealing with insurance and the cops pretty much calling and telling me it was a cold case. I ended up getting only 13000 for it. Well I decided that it was then that I would go old school and purchased what looked to be an almost perfect starter project car a 1967 Pontiac Firebird Convertible.

Well the owner wasnt truthful and I was dumb for purchasing a car sight unseen. Well after about 40 or so hours on each quarter panel i finally got them close to perfect. I worked at custom car shop and pretty much taught myself how to do body work. The cars first timeline was to get it done within one year and well I actually was for the most part on schedule till the IRS shut down the shop and i was forced to get my car towed to my moms house, and proceeded to get it closer to being done.

Well I came up with the name Twisted Karma for a few reasons, my previous car was stolen and set on fire, then i ended up getting a firebird. But now I'm thinking more towards Twisted67 if anyone else can come up with a better name im game.








Painting the trunk and jam in the garage








Here it is painted no clear




A few of the interior or lack of

[Smock67]

Then after it was painted i had to put it in the backyard as i was getting ready to leave to go to school at USF, and unfortunately the wiring also decided to go up in smoke literally so there was no way to get it even driveable before i left.







This next set of pictures is before it was reassembled when i was putting in my new 3 row aluminum radiator which of course i dont have a pic of just me cutting up a new bracket to get it to fit.





Heres the engine after cleaning it out and putting all new gaskets and such.

[Smock67]

Well from the last pictures you may have noticed the spot in the middle of the door. When I stored the car in my backyard i covered it with a car cover and two tarps the I bungee corded to the subframe so nothing would fly off. Well unfortunately the bungee cords ended up rubbing through both the towels that I wrapped around them and the car cover. Gotta love those Florida winds. Well here comes repaint which I did much better on then the first time.










I have no pics of the car in the sun nor has it even seen sunlight since it was painted.
Also from the last set of pictures in my previous post that the wheels were a bit funky to be on a firebird.
So I decided to do a quick restoration on my rally II's. With a wire brush attachment for a drill, paint stripper, bead blaster and a straight grinder with a very tiny detail wire attachment. Fun process...






I ended up painting them a satin black then wasnt too happy with how they turned out so now they look more glossy, of course i don't have a final picture of how they turned out.

This is the most recent picture of the engine bay showing the almost completed AAW wiring harness install.


Well thats basically where I am currently. I have certainly overcome quite a few obstacles along the way as well as setbacks. I also decided to paint my front and rear bumpers satin black as I'm not a huge fan of chrome and well they were painted when I got them. I also did a little custom touch on the front bumper which is almost complete.

The worst part of working on the car is I live in Tampa and the car resides in Fort Myers which is about 140 miles south. At this point im just wanting to get the car driveable damn it being perfect. But i still have a ways to go before its there.
My to do list includes:
Finish the wiring harness
Put on bumpers and hood
Install headlights and taillights
Get the top installed
Put in my Stewart Warner Guages and Covans Dash insert

[67rstbkt]

It's nice to see yet another Firebird around here. Keep at it, it will get there. Looks like you're on the right track

[CruizinKev]

cool I also had a 2.7 tiburon years ago:



the 67 looks good! really love the color! something like my daily mustang has

[jackfrost]

how about you name it "Tough Luck", heh.

hope you have better luck from now on. it looks great so far.

[Smock67]

Kev thats a nice looking tibby you had. what all did you have done to yours?

Jack- Thats actually a pretty good name might have to go with that as it is certainly fitting.

I think the worst part about the car is i only get to work on it when i drive down to Fort Myers, and now with school in full swing it'll probably go on hold for awhile.

[Jon69RagTop]

Thanks for posting. We all enjoy new projects, a keep updates rolling>

[Bigmanz]

This car is going to be nice as hell when you finish!

[CruizinKev]

Kev thats a nice looking tibby you had. what all did you have done to yours?

lowering and staggered 18" rims, SSA catback and 05 FL front end (bumper and headlight)

[Smock67]

Well I'm back on the car as my summer internship didn't go as planned (long story) so I'm back in Fort Myers and I'm able to work on it while my apt in Tampa is being rented out. So as far as new things on the car from my last update I got the wiring finished by a local guy that helped with my brother Chevelle, I finally came up with a custom way to mount my headlights (hehe more trouble then it was worth to just buy the new mounting stuff, but much cheaper). I started wet sanding yesterday mind you i painted it last summer so the clear is hard as a rock. Which is good and bad good because it means I am less likely to go through to the color, Bad because it takes forever as I'm doing it by hand(took about 3 hours to do the front fenders). Car will end up getting re-cleared after I'm done wet sanding with 1000.

Car is leaning more towards a streetfighteresque feel I don't like chrome so all chrome pieces will either be painted or powdercoated satin black.

So my to do list to get the car at least street legal
1. finish wiring on tail lights, drop fuel tank to I can hook up the fuel sensor wire
2. Get the top installed
3. Re-install my gauges (lost screws)
4. Change all fluids
5. Install front bumper

Well I'll stop talking and show some progress from yesterday and some general pics
I walked into the garage and saw a nice ass

So i looked up the rest of the body

and then had to check out the other cheek

Moved up front and she had the hood up

My headlights

The business


The cockpit


Then I heard a rumbling

It rained so it seemed fitting to wetsand

Looked outside and saw this


Well that pretty much brings things up to speed as where I am now. When I say this is a budget build now I mean it, I cleaned out my cabinets and took back 25 dollars worth to Harbor Freight, got store credit (might as well be cash to me hehe) I also took back wait for it


130 dollars to Advance Auto Parts. So that is how this is currently being funded and make fun if you want but since im back at my moms house i get 10 an hour for any work that gets done around the house. I also am selling loads of parts from my motorcycle that is out of commission, a RX7 and parts from that and other parts that have just accumulated in the garage.

[Ron Fox]

Keep up the good work.

[Smock67]

Figured I'd give an update about whats been going on with the car I was finally driven for the first time in since I had moved to Tampa from Fort Myers. Talk about an absolutely incredible feeling... Then it over heated so as it sits right now I'm waiting for all my relays and switches to come in so I can put in my Mark VIII fan, which should extinguish my issue entirely. It will certainly still have quite a bit of work to be done but it will be a drivable project which is all that matters to me at this point.
Grant steering wheel i picked up off craigslist brand new still in box for $20

The only big ticket not entirely needed item that will ever make it on the car
Covan insert which was picked up off the bay for half of retail. Stewart Warner gauges were also picked up on discount but it was free shipping iirc.


Also the car was repainted for the third time by my buddy in his booth at his new body shop.
Originally i took it in for a reclear but after we both went over the car we mutually decided to just repaint. So I spent about 7 hours sanding the whole car down fixing a couple little imperfections and masking/ taping.
Taped and masked




Sanded and ready to go




I have about 60+ pictures of him just painting but I'll kip to the good ones

[zipsimons]

love this car! firebird always turns my head faster than a camaro with these years... not as common and slightly better features!

[LeighP]

Very nice....looks like a good job on the paintwork. I like the SW guages...nice touch.

[geberhard]

updates updates!! Very sweet ride! BTW I went to Tampa (UT) dang I miss Ybor City

[chv0606]

Nice build! Keep the pics coming!

[ramrod]

here's a blast from the past........how is this build going? any updates?

[Smock67]

Its going I'm out of work right now because of a motorcycle accident that happened on 9/20. Im too the point that im actually mobile now so I've been trying to get at least one thing done per day. Today new push rods were installed, heads were torqued down, and the headers were reattached. Tomorrow Im going to try and clean my interior out (loads of random stuff stacked in car) and get the rest of the exhaust attached... Well my buddies are doing that I should say.

Oh ya and I ordered a new Edelbrock Performer intake, 750 carb and cam. My torker intake is just not good thanks to somee good advice from Geno (72blackbird)