68 Firebird Resto Mod

[gtalum01]

Here is a slight thread on my 68 Firebird. I have owned the car since high school (17 years) and what I scrapped together to do then with nickles and dimes I am slowly attempting to re do with $5's and $10's but that is now jumping to $50's and $100's. And with the addition of a little one it has slowed tremendously, but it is all fun. Majority of the fun is working on it so no rush. Started as a Poncho 350 2 barrel with shackles and glass packs. Eventually had painted and rebuilt the 350 w/ mild cam, headers, etc. Latest trend is to resto mod it the way I want. Current additions include global west upper and lower A Frames, Hotchkis 2" drop springs in front with 1.5 " drop leafs in back. I have new floor pans, window channel and am putting th interior back, slowly. Running gear is out of a 90 Corvette with only $56K on the motor and transmission. 4 wheels disk brakes thanks to a rear end from a 79 T/A WS6 with 3.23 gears. It runs great. Only frustration I have is the bone stock TPI beats the heck out of my cammed up, bored, headers, money pit 350. Main difference is due to the 4 speed auto with better gear ratio than the turbo 350. Now as far as the Vette running gear, I purchased a wrecked running complete car for $2500 and after having a fram shop looking at fixing it, I was going to have as much in fixing the Vette as it was worth, so I had a local hot rod shop swap the running gear and that has me at the stage I am at now. Will post current interior picks in the next week or two.

[gtalum01]

re size file certainly helps! As would loading the pictures in order. The cragers were when I purchased the car in 94 and then had painted in 95.

[gtalum01]

Here is the before and after the engine swap.

[gtalum01]

Here are also a few pictures before I swapped the running gear as well as rebuilt the front end.

[svtmeteor]

Very cool project car, Ive always had a soft spot for those early firebirds! It looks really good with those camaro wheels on it!

[gtalum01]

Thanks, I thought the Camaro wheels looked better than the rally II's, which I also have a set of. A little hard to tell but it has Pontiac center caps on them. Here is what the car looked like before putting in new floors and new windshield channel.

[gtalum01]

Here is the new channel as well as the installed gauge cluster. What I am working on now is a pillar dual pod to house white faced oil and temp, and the volt fits perfectly in the old clock housing that mounts to the console, all gauges are back lit in blue. For such a low buck investment I think it turned out rather nice.

[rickpaw]

Those white face gauges look slick. Where did you get the white face?

[gtalum01]

It is a company called whitefacegauges.com, it was an overlay that you just lay on top of the old gauges, the bird on the gas gauge I had a local print shop do as it was left over from a bird they put on a billet horn button as I am copying the steering whee layout on Adriene Janic's 68 Bird. It's not perfect as it is in several pieces and if you stare between the digits and the speedometer marks you can see a line but it still turned out well. It was $35+-, most expensive part was the blue bulbs at $5 a piece.

[gtalum01]

Here is the look on want on the wheel, I have the button made as I said, the wheel is a Grant model 1020, as I do not have a front end on the car, the wheel is not at the top of my wish list.

[Z06vet]

looking good. I am also working on firebird- 68 convertible. Putting an LS1 in it. I like your progress pics..
Scott

[gtalum01]

Here is a picture of the gauges lit up in the dark, not bashing the new high tech speedometer clusters but I like the old stuff and being on a budget, this really sets the interior off. I have a set of 90 Recaro Vette seats to install and am going to try to modify the back seat from a later model Acura TL. Fiberglassing the pillar pods now so hope to have pictures of that in a week or two.

[gtalum01]

Well so much for buying something I actually needed, but I had some summit money so I splurged and got the Grant wheel, it will be one cool upgrade though I will get much further before installing it but it will be nice. I copied AJ's wheel that Year One did, GOOD STUFF! That's what I love about forums and "borrowing" better ideas than what you yourself could dream up and vise versa. Got to get the second coat of resin on A pillar pods this weekend.

[jbake]

How did you put the top panel on your dash? Mine has a lot more cancer than urs did.

[Tom Welch]

cut the panel out and replace it with an aftermarket panel. We did this on our 69 Nova using panel bond so we could adjust the placement of the panel. With the dash pad in place it is almost a perfect fit, no seams showing.The 67 bird is coming along nicely. I am building a 67 bird also. looking forward to your progress.

[gtalum01]

I was just real lucky as being a GA car, the channel was rusted badly on the sides and the top but the lower / top of dash panel was perfect so it is original to the car and I just cleaned, used POR 15 around the edges and then painted.

[FlyDoc]

with a vet as a parts car, have you considered sliding in the IRS in to the Fire Bird?
it is not all that hard of a swap, but it's intimidating.

[rohrt]

That bird on the overlay and the horn button. Is that a sticker? Tell us more on that. It looks really good.

[jbake]

cut the panel out and replace it with an aftermarket panel. We did this on our 69 Nova using panel bond so we could adjust the placement of the panel. With the dash pad in place it is almost a perfect fit, no seams showing.The 67 bird is coming along nicely. I am building a 67 bird also. looking forward to your progress.

Thanks I'm going to order the panel today n next weekend I'm going to try n replace rusted one.

[gtalum01]

I actually had a local sign shop make the bird emblems, they are vinyl and in about 4 pieces, you lay it down by section and then clear coated over the Horn Button. Cost a grand total of $5. And they made several so I was playing around when I did the white face gauge overlay and put it on the gas gauge since it was kind of bland and had a big empty spot. Having the white background the bird's head being white is a little off as it would look better in a contrasting color but it turned out well for just playing. The whole idea started when I saw AJ's interior in last years Year One Catalog and went from there.