1969 Firebird "Savannah"

[68Formula]

Usually not a fan of the murdered out treatment, but for some reason yours really works!

[JLMounce]

3438 days later, I'm back with an update. In the past near decade, I've mostly been driving the car. I've continued to build and refine as time goes on, but lately without a huge need to do anything with the car I've been losing a bit of interest in it, so I'm back trying to restoke that love for the car.

So what's new or changed?

Shortly after I stopped updating this thread, I added a complete SC&C Stage 2+ system to the car. This complimented the Hotchkis springs and really transformed how the car drove in basically every way. I added Verishock non-adjustables at the time which was a pretty big step up in ride and control over the cheap parts counter shocks that were on it.

In 2020 I completely gutted the interior and did a color change to black from dark green.

I've gone through two iterations of transmissions, first a minor refresh on the original TH400, then a mildly built 4l80e in 2023. Nothing crazy, basic TransGo HD2 shift kit, additional frictions and I spent some money on a Tri-Shield Performance billet face, triple disk lockup convert.

In 2024 I had a set of wheels built to complete my vision along with an upgrade of the braking system from OE style 11" rotors and calipers to a set of Wilwood brakes.

A couple months after upgrading my wheels and brakes, I lost the engine that was in the car when I purchased it. It was in the process of spinning a rod bearing, but I was fortunate enough to catch it before any catastrophic damage occurred. This would have been the time to LS swap the car, but that just goes against my nature. I opted instead to rebuild and upgrade the Pontiac 455. It's now 0.040 over, with a proper rotating assembly and I had KRE go through my heads, provide their 310cfm port and spec'd a larger hydraulic roller. The engine build took 6 about 6 months and I had the engine back between the frame rails in late October of 2024. Final engine dyno numbers came out to 579hp at 5700 rpm and 600ft lbs at 4500 rpm.

Newly found power starting poking holes in how the car was handling, especially off corner and under heavy braking. The Hotchkis leaf springs were always pretty good, but they just weren't handling the extra power. I already had a nice exhaust under the car so I've opted to stick with a set of leaf springs. I recently had Global West build me a pair of their L2 leaf springs with their Cat5 bearings. I opted for a set of QA1 Pro Coils in the front to get a stiffer spring under the front and get it off the jounce bumpers. The handling is far improved here, but I have been struggling to get the bounce out of the rear end. I'll continue to adjust on the shocks as the weather starts to warm up, I'm confident I should be able to smooth that out.

For now that's it. The story of the last 10 years. I've put enough miles on the car that I'm starting to think about a repaint. It's probably got a couple years left before it's a need, but she's starting to show her usage. Smiles per gallon as it were.

Anyway, I'll be more prudent about keeping this thread up to date!

[Josh@Ridetech]

That's a great post to make for the first time in a long time. Welcome back!

The car looks great. I love the new wheels, the fitment is perfect.

Still alot of great guys on here and a ton of knowledge! I built a '69 Firebird while you were gone so seeing this thread pop back up grabbed my attention pretty quick .

[JLMounce]

That's a great post to make for the first time in a long time. Welcome back!

The car looks great. I love the new wheels, the fitment is perfect.

Still alot of great guys on here and a ton of knowledge! I built a '69 Firebird while you were gone so seeing this thread pop back up grabbed my attention pretty quick .

I've been watching that as well.

I do love the stance as well. She sits slightly taller now with the new springs under it. That was somewhat intentional. The ride quality was never bad, but the front specifically was so low that the jounce bumpers on the SPC arms were about 50% engaged at all times. Any big bumps and it was landing on the hard stops. I also obviously went from a 3" drop leaf in the back to a 2" drop leaf.

Bringing the front up a bit also helped me with a driveline shutter that I had been experiencing since the 4l80e install. The driveshaft was traveling ever so slightly uphill to the axle, so the u-joint working angles were a little weird. That's been solved as well.

[Mr Nick]

Nice update, and glad you kept the Pontiac engine! My SBO needed a rebuild and I did contemplate an LS swap, but I knew I wouldn't be nearly as happy with the result. 428 ci stroker SBO is in the works.

[JLMounce]

Nice update, and glad you kept the Pontiac engine! My SBO needed a rebuild and I did contemplate an LS swap, but I knew I wouldn't be nearly as happy with the result. 428 ci stroker SBO is in the works.

I like modern stuff, but I've got a soft nostalgic spot as well. Part of my decision to rebuild the poncho was cost. To get something in the 550-600hp range from an LS platform, by the time I added the conversion bits, It was going to be a couple grand more than I ended up paying for my rebuild. It was looking like 12-14K all in or so after engine, exhaust, mounts, harness etc.

I spent just over $9000.00 on my engine, but got a really nice piece out of it.

Studded the mains, decked on a BHJ fixture, torque plate honed etc. The machining really came out great. Good parts inside of it to add to piece of mind.

[Mr Nick]

I like modern stuff, but I've got a soft nostalgic spot as well. Part of my decision to rebuild the poncho was cost. To get something in the 550-600hp range from an LS platform, by the time I added the conversion bits, It was going to be a couple grand more than I ended up paying for my rebuild. It was looking like 12-14K all in or so after engine, exhaust, mounts, harness etc.

I spent just over $9000.00 on my engine, but got a really nice piece out of it.

Studded the mains, decked on a BHJ fixture, torque plate honed etc. The machining really came out great. Good parts inside of it to add to piece of mind.

I hear you, for sure. I could junkyard LS swap it for less than the rebuild is going to cost, but I knew I'd want nicer stuff and at that point the cost savings going LS would diminish or even disappear.

[JLMounce]

Back with another update. As mentioned previously, I recently added Global West Cat-5 leafs to the car. I've run into some ride quality issues however that relate to using these with my ridetech subframe connectors. The ridetech pieces have an integrated leaf pocket, but it's not really designed for a reverse eye leaf, especially one on a spherical bearing. I had contact issues from both the upward travel of the leaf, as well as the tilt of the spring eye on it's bearing.

I tried my best to get these RideTech subframes to work with this style leaf, but after cutting about half of the roof off of them, I was able to only make minor improvements in contact by the spring eyes. I really like these pieces, but they just don't work with this style leaf.

So, I swapped them out for Global West's brackets designed for these leafs and their weld-in subframe connectors. The Global West stuff is pretty beefy. The square tubing of the RideTech subframes come in at .125" while the boxed ends on the Global West subframes mic out above .2". Their clearance because of the DOM tubing use is not quite as good as the RideTech pieces and if I'm being honest I like the look of the RideTech subframes better as well. However, now that I'm not smashing my springs into a hard roof, the rear end softened, allowing me to add more bump compression in the shock and smooth out the ride further.

I also went ahead and added a 1/2" lower block and top poly isolator to get my stance back to where it was, and kill some of the differential noise that these leaf springs tend to transmit. Winter changes/upgrades done for this season. Now it's time to enjoy the car.