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...