The unorthodox budget Firebird (-74)

[Ripper]

I've been lurking around here for quite some time. I used write more posts a couple of years ago, but now a days I'm mostly reading...

Kind of a strange name on the thread, but I would like to show my car... or what's left of it.



I bought the Firebird ten years ago, 1999, and it was my first car. I was 18 then and I quite alone with an american car - alone at my high school, alone in my neigborhood, alone among my friends but at least not alone in the city... After that, I've done quite a lot of work on the suspension but not much on the rest of it. Mostly because of lack of time, money, interest and a decent garage to work in.
The car was fast, behaved well but it was a six footer. No, probably a sixty footer - the paintjob was a 150dollar job that was made when I just bought the car. There was rust, bad interior panels, ugly trunk and overall a bad impression.



When I found a garage last year the fuel injection had the nice timing to break down (harware failure) which resulted in "well, if I should do some minor maintenance at the same time...."


So the car was stripped of all the parts...


quite alot of cables in a car, eventhough it's old... It was heavier than I thought.


front off...


I made a rotisserie so I could weld and work on the floor more easily.




And the suspension was removed (and sold!)


It took me like five minutes to realise that the rotisserie was probably one of my best ideas during this rebuild... I'll never again find myself under a car welding rust...




Why am I calling this a budget build then?
Well, I have app. 10000 USD to spend (plus the old parts that I can sell) on it which is going to cover new suspension, wheels, paint job, electric system, interior, roll cage etc.
Since I also live in Europe, and not the US - buying aftermarket parts for the project is out of the question. Everything I see, I can make cheaper myself after import taxes, shipping, toll, taxes on the shipping, toll fees, tax on the toll fees and tax on the taxes etc has been added.
That means this thread probably will contain a lot of manufacturing and not that much purchasing... That's why I'm calling it unorthodox - I want to eat the cookie (=have a fast car) and save it (=for less than a **** load of money) at the same time...
So, starting my budget project - what can be better than starting with shopping for "new" (used) wheels?


A used set of centerbolt BBS E87 was purchased for "only" 2500 USD... So much for that budget... :bsjerk:
2500 USD was excluding polished lip and new paint on the center, which I did myself - atleast that was "free"...


What's my goal with the project then?
Well, focus for me is getting a car that is real fast. Not a 3500 lbs 1200 hp car, but a 2500 lbs 500 hp car or so. Good suspension is better than a 100% super duper mega show paint job.
If the money can cover a cage, suspension and some aerodynamic improvements and I'm satisfied...

That's all for now. Hope you guys like it...

[jy211]

yeah for some reasons budget's NEVER seem to work when building cars..LOL

[srh3trinity]

I have always wanted to see pics of this car. I remember the blocked out front grill. The new wheels look perfect.

[fbody_mike]

Those centerbolt BBS E87 look great.

[Bad Bird]

The "unorthodox" build threads are the best to read. Bolt-ons, whilst good, are not interesting to read about in comparison to fabrication.

[formula]

Heck yeah man! I'm a longtime fan of your car, and it looks like it's going to come back badder than ever. Keep us updated!

[CruizinKev]

cool to see another europe project! good luck with it

[bonecrrusher]

That rotisserie looks awesome!!

[GM_muscle]

good looking car keep up the good work.

[Ripper]

Thanks for all the comments guys!
Things like this helps keep up the motivation for the project...

Yeah, the front mod came out pretty good...





Hmmm, why did I tear it down... I actually miss it when I look at the pictures.

some more pictures;

Pontiac 400 with Kauffman heads, fuel injection, dry sump lubrication and some other nice stuff.

[Ripper]

A friend helped me with the wheel nuts since he had a NC-lathe. Since aluminum in small pieces are hard to find (at least good quality), I ended up buying aluminum from e-bay USA. A friend then took it with him home to Sweden. Funny, it's easier to find aluminum pieces on internet on the other side of the world, than it is in my own city...


I designed the nuts (the blue thing) with five edges (or is refered to as surfaces?) instead of six. Since the car will be parked on the streets occasionally. That way I'll hopefully will stop the temptation to steal the wheels on a simple way...



They came out preeeeeetty nice, right?


(I actually made the washers myself... They wasn't that advanced.)


Now I just have to make a five edged socket too... Or maybe two if I lose one of them.

[LSXfan]

great work ! very cool ideas !

[WS6]

bad impression or not, I've always liked you car. I've known about it for years now. Glad to see you still making updates. Keep up the good work.

[bonecrrusher]

Damn - looking good.

I'd take the stickers off the side though.

[Ripper]

Does anyone know where I can find polybushings for my Ford 8.8 rear end? (rear suspension is from a Lincoln Mark VIII).

It's mostly the front bushings that are interesting. I'm going to build a new rear mount and will use either stock rear bushing (if I can find out what it looks like - I didn't get any with the used section) model or same as the front bushings.

I've looked at summit, energy suspension, google etc but can't find anything.

any help would be very appreciated!

[78 Type-LT]

wicked bird..tha center lug wheel idea is sweet

[roadrage79]

It was a cool ride before you started, I can't wait to see the result.

I wish I had fabrication skills, my car would have a chance to actually get done sometime this century.

[NOT A TA]

I always liked your car. It'll be cool to see how it progresses!

[jetwrench34]

great work keep it up

[Ripper]

Thanks for the support guys.

Progress is slow right now. Waiting for bushings for the carrier, SAE drillbits, sheet metal and some other things before I can finish my fixture and start making the mounts for the rear suspension in the body.
The dedione is finished in CAD and the necessary sheet metal for it is ordered (pics are coming).

I've added some room for the mufflers since I'm not going to keep the back seat.
With the modification made, I realized that it would be easier to just cut out all of the floor and start building a new. The problem though, is that I have to pass a certain kind of governemental inspection with th car and to be able to do that I can not do things like cutting out all of the sheet metal and replace it with a tube frame etc... That's why my body mods sometimes may look more time consuming and perhaps slightly more stupid than others...

Anyway,
Before:


After:



The lowest parts of the floor has been raised to allow for really low ground clearance:



I'm currently seam welding most of the body. Hard to see on the picture, but look in the lower parts of the door hole


That's all for now.