1968 firebird 461ci stroker project

[lucky13firebird]

these tires are pretty new, 255 front and 275 rear. they are cheap tires but have great reviews, threadwear of 350. fairly sticky considering the price but not soft track tires thats for sure. stumbled across the original pics of the car when i bought it for $4500 many years ago... under all those straight lines is anywhere from 1/8 to 1/2 inch of bondo.... it was horrible. I drove it across the country with its pontiac 350 and saginaw 4 speed with an open 10 bolt and 3.90 gears...

[Gil]

Said that for the new shoes, maybe you"ll swap them ?

Edit - Hum, just see the wheels were for the Tempest, thought were new for the Bird...my bad

Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Yeah I got front tires for those wheels but no back tires yet. And I may indeed swap Em, we'll see. I like having a 255 mm tire on the front.

[lucky13firebird]

here's a vid of me trying to do a 0-60 time, can't get it to hook up though. I also changed out my hei cap and rotor with an msd cap and rotor and disconnected my vacum advance, it was driving me nuts, i prefer the mechanical advance, its not all over the place.

to the guys who've tried some really good tires, how much of a difference did it make? This is primarily a street vehicle but I'm really thinking of getting something a lot more aggressive, and less sliding sideways kinda thing. I don't let the rear kick out much, but its all over till around 35-40 on 0-60 and 0-100 pulls.

[lucky13firebird]

For the first time in a long time the body is straight and dent free. (Aside from my taillight panel, but that's next). I spent all day tearing down the front end and painted the parts I couldn't reach with the fenders on. Then spent a SUPER long time putting everything back together and lining everything up just right because As most of you already know the on going theme of this car is that it's NEVER off the road. That means it's not coming apart for a very very long time, I wouldn't have the luxury of lining up the body lines some other day. I still need to get a handful of bolts to replace the ones that snapped when I took everything apart but I am SO loving it. Big day for me.

Replacing the front bumper assembly also had another benift. The bumper the guy sold me is fiberglass, and so is the hood, tommorrow I'll change over to the pin on fiberglass hood ( fully, not just front like mine) so between the lift off hood and the fiberglass bumper and getting rid of the hinges I'll be losing at least 25 pounds in the front, maybe closer to 35. And the front is exactly where this car needed to lose weight since I'm sticking to the massive pontiac iron block and heads...

[Gil]

Wow... you are skilled & you work fast !
Love the new look, white trunk to match would be fun.
Why not putting a set of Toyo R888 at the rear wheels ?
Not given with your size mount but I think would be a big improvement & it's street/track legal.
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Yeah I'm really thinking about getting something besides these long wearing street tires.

It's gonna be all black when I scrape off all the white paint and stickers. Then I'll paint it like it was.

[lucky13firebird]

Swapped over to the fiberglass hood. Dunno how I feel about the scoop, but whatever, we'll see for now

[AtomicFirebird]

Swapped over to the fiberglass hood. Dunno how I feel about the scoop, but whatever, we'll see for now

Add this to the top of the fiberglass hood and make your own cut out. My scoop is made of metal and is functional. I bought the fiberglass form from some company online.

[AtomicFirebird]

Just saying

[Gil]

Scoop stays in the street fighter theme.
Why not if it helps cooling the 461 ?
Will disappear when all flat black
Very nice
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

It does the opposite of cool.... an extractor would help draw air out from under the hood and through the radiator. A scoop just builds pressure in the engine bay and doesn't do a whole lot but get in the way... A lot of people love it so I'll keep this hood the way it is and get another one with either 69 style scoops or a flat one with extractors.... so I can go back and forth.

Finished up the dash. A huge improvement over the wood burl and 80 s cassette player... and cheesy add on guages.

[captainofiron]

It does the opposite of cool.... an extractor would help draw air out from under the hood and through the radiator. A scoop just builds pressure in the engine bay and doesn't do a whole lot but get in the way... A lot of people love it so I'll keep this hood the way it is and get another one with either 69 style scoops or a flat one with extractors.... so I can go back and forth.

Finished up the dash. A huge improvement over the wood burl and 80 s cassette player... and cheesy add on guages.

pretty cool

I have my gauge pod under the ash tray


have you seen the gauge pod overlay they sell for the 1st gen F-body?

http://www.classicdash.com/shopping/...ank-Panel.html

[68firebird]

pretty cool

I have my gauge pod under the ash tray


have you seen the gauge pod overlay they sell for the 1st gen F-body?

http://www.classicdash.com/shopping/...ank-Panel.html

I like that, but why the hell does a molded piece of plastic, thats not really that big and its not drilled or anything, need to be that expensive!? kind of rediculous.

[lucky13firebird]

oh and GIL, got a new phone mount for the windsheild so here's a vid i took today on my way home from work after dropping off my co-worker at his place. You can see pretty clearly why i'm not a big fan of the scoop. ;-)

[lucky13firebird]

i dunno about that... you were lucky enough to get an AC bird... so you can't just get the $70 metal piece and cut the holes for the guages like i did. but you could get rid of your radio and put them in there...

just that big molded plastic piece gets rid of not only your ac vents but also your heater controls... spend any real seat time in a firebird and while heat isn't important, and neither is AC, the blower is very important in bad weather or foggy mornings at 5 am on the way to work etc... i blew out my heater core and am in no way in a hurry to replace it but i definately hooked up the blower and it makes my driving in north carolina rain MUCH safer for me and the little guys in the baby seats behind me.

you were also lucky enough to get a console bird.... this is what i would do to keep it clean and functional.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Auto+Meter/105...FbTm7Aod7SMAqA

[Gil]

This thing has serious power...
Nice vids, and yes, scoop is not nice for vision...
If I can't see I would prefer a blower than a scoop
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Yes it does gil, the other day I embarrassed a custom big inch harley, TWICE. One from a stop to a out 60, then he got on the gas again, guess he figured I got the jump and he'd do better from a roll... from 35 to 120 he lost by 20 feet after starting 30 feet in front. The look on his face was priceless ;-)

But on a serious note, I got rid of the goofy scoop, have a hole for now that extracts air and does wonders for cooling. Planning on using a small piece from my old metal hood to cover the hole, then I'll be cutting holes on either side right where the 13 louveres were on the metal hood and epoxing mesh grills. The middle of the hood is a low pressure area unlike the front or back (hence cowl induction or the scoops being way forward on 442's and 69 trans am cars and such) so it'll help with cooling.

Also got a wilwood adjustable prop valve and installed it today. Installing it was a breeze and I have nothing but good to say about wilwood products. Now I can daily in more or less rear brake, and if I feel like it I can get rid of my pedal mounted brake light switch and use the one built into the wilwood piece.

[lucky13firebird]

[Gil]

little 2 much front brake ! lol

What is better improvement for you, concerning brakes ? prop. valve, bigger discs & calipers front/rear or master cylinder ?

Gil