Project Phoenix: 1968 Pontiac Firebird

[captainofiron]

Oh man, that setup should be a monster. Cant wait to see it. You should deff be able to get away with some more cam, but I like the way you're going now just fine.



For tanks I went with this guy

http://www.jegs.com/i/Ricks-Hot-Rod-...oductId=758723

It'll prolly work well in your application too. In tank GM pump ( replacements quick and easy), should support your HP requirements pretty easy, baffled, and stainless steel.

I think the 1.65 rockers will bump up the cam a little, but who knows, I might go with the XR288HR-10 which is bigger, but dont know if its as "streetable" as the XR276HR

I always read/hear people saying after building their engine they wished they would have gone with a bigger cam

Man that tank is REALLY nice, but that will take a big chunk out of my budget

I was thinking more along the lines of this one
http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...rod/prd347.htm

[Pontiac Chris]

Nice build, love the color choice, looking forward to seeing more pics once you get her home.

I have a comp 242˚/246˚ .628" lift ,112 lsa in my 400 Pontiac, with ported Edelbrock heads, its perfectly streetable as far as idle quality and low rpm torque, its a little shy on vacuum (about 8-9") but my dual diaphragm 8" booster seems to cope quite well. So you can definitely go with more cam.

[captainofiron]

Nice build, love the color choice, looking forward to seeing more pics once you get her home.

I have a comp 242˚/246˚ .628" lift ,112 lsa in my 400 Pontiac, with ported Edelbrock heads, its perfectly streetable as far as idle quality and low rpm torque, its a little shy on vacuum (about 8-9") but my dual diaphragm 8" booster seems to cope quite well. So you can definitely go with more cam.

Thanks man.

do you happen to have a video of your cars idle? 325cfm listed in your sig is a little above than I what I was shooting for, but definitely good to know that you are up in the 0.600s on your cam and its not bad.

Is that a custom cam? Is that with 1.65 rockers?
Thanks again

[btbob]

I think the 1.65 rockers will bump up the cam a little, but who knows, I might go with the XR288HR-10 which is bigger, but dont know if its as "streetable" as the XR276HR

I always read/hear people saying after building their engine they wished they would have gone with a bigger cam

Man that tank is REALLY nice, but that will take a big chunk out of my budget

I was thinking more along the lines of this one
http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...rod/prd347.htm

Im rocking a 041 repro that was an extra a buddy had from his project, and.....














....wait for it.....















.... I wish I'd gone for a bigger cam.

That tank looks great. I really like that it looks OE, but does everything you want. Nice choice. And it's way more economical . I remember ordering mine and doing the deep breath before I hit "checkout" lol. The 1.65 rockers will deff make the 276 act a little bigger. Either way it'll be a hell of alot of fun.

[Pontiac Chris]

Thanks man.

do you happen to have a video of your cars idle? 325cfm listed in your sig is a little above than I what I was shooting for, but definitely good to know that you are up in the 0.600s on your cam and its not bad.

Is that a custom cam? Is that with 1.65 rockers?
Thanks again

Yes its a custom grind and yes with 1:65 rockers. Here's a link for idle/light rev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bq15Uw0GwI

[captainofiron]

Im rocking a 041 repro that was an extra a buddy had from his project, and.....
....wait for it.....
.... I wish I'd gone for a bigger cam.

That tank looks great. I really like that it looks OE, but does everything you want. Nice choice. And it's way more economical . I remember ordering mine and doing the deep breath before I hit "checkout" lol. The 1.65 rockers will deff make the 276 act a little bigger. Either way it'll be a hell of alot of fun.

hahaha yea bigger cam, haha

Yea I like that tank alot, especially the price, and where I live rust really isnt an issue, so I think Im good

Yes its a custom grind and yes with 1:65 rockers. Here's a link for idle/light rev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bq15Uw0GwI

Awesome thanks

[captainofiron]

So I got to my parents house and this is how my poor car looks


(I built my mom some really nice shelves so she would stop putting stuff on my car, but alas, it was still a 1968 Pontiac Firebird Shelf and storage unit, haha)

My plan to get it ready for the transporter to pick up the cars was to get the rear axle back under the car, leave the rear drums bare, and fix the front brakes just enough to get them ready to get on and off the trailer

I bought the heavy duty 1/2" u-bolts which gave me some problems I had to drill out the shock plates, and because the ubolts were thicker they didnt shift enough so I had to elongate the bolt holes on the shock plates, but finally I had them on and torqued them down. The tires I had surprisingly were still ok and held air, so I saved some money there.

when I jacked it up to put it back on teh ground, my leafs were almost so soft that the axle was only an inch or 2 away from the bump stops, haha

But FINALLY after about 10 years of being on jack stands and having no rear axle, it was back on all 4 wheels!!!!!

[captainofiron]

well guys Monday morning, after a stressful weekend filled with delivery delays my cars showed up

[captainofiron]

When I first bought the car, it had a 68/69 Camaro center console in it, and I never thought those consoles matched the 68 dash. So I traded it for a 68 Firebird console, but an auto one, and I thought I would be able to find the top manual trans plate, well no dice, nobody makes them, and up until this year nobody offered a repro manual (classic industries has them now, but they are like 700-800 bucks)

SO I was looking on ebay and I would always get outbid on manual consoles in rough shape, UNTIL now

I got 2 consoles, a beat up auto, and a cut manual, but my plan is to fix the manual one and use it.
The guy told me that the manual trans car had an AC unit and the dash and console were cut to fit it in there... sad, who would hack up something hard to find like that. anyways

Here are some pictures:

[captainofiron]

one of my coworkers was suggesting that I install a gauge pack in the cut out area instead of going with the stock look


for anybody who doesnt know what the original console looks like, it is this:

[AusMarty]

I vote Gauge pack.

The clean center console is nice sure.
But without an aircon unit between the dash and the console there's a massive hole. Could tie the two together with a gauge cluster?

[ponjohn]

What car did the buckets come from?

[oweb2]

I am going to have/currently having that same issue on my 68 firebird with the consoles. The car was originally an console automatic but I am going to make it a 4-speed and I am going to need a manual console seeing as it has no transmission in it at the moment I figured now was the best time to do it.

[captainofiron]

I vote Gauge pack.

The clean center console is nice sure.
But without an aircon unit between the dash and the console there's a massive hole. Could tie the two together with a gauge cluster?

There is a bit of a gap between the console and the dash, when I bought the car, it had a little gauge pod, and didnt look too bad




if I do the gauge pack on the console, they will be directly forward of the square hole for the 1967 style shifter location

What car did the buckets come from?

are you talking about these?

if so that isnt my car, but they look like standard interior buckets in white vinyl.

[Buryingthesun]

Im going to solve this issue and just fabricate my own dash/console ;)

Nice build, Id love to see that trailer in front of my garage offloading

[captainofiron]

Im going to solve this issue and just fabricate my own dash/console ;)

Nice build, Id love to see that trailer in front of my garage offloading

thanks man.

Im trying to keep mine a resto-mod car, so a stock looking interior with minor updates that still look stock

[captainofiron]

So I was able to work on the car a little yesterday, but not by choice, I was in the garage getting some stuff and my wife was leaving for work and locked the door to the house, LOL, so I was locked out without my phone

Anyways, the previous owner of the car put in a BBC 454 in the car, so it had some "custom" work done. The car is from upstate NY so it has corrosion issues which Im going to deal with.

Here is some of the stuff that I found yesterday:
First thing is the giant "custom" radiator that weighed a million pounds. I think it was out of a Truck

after I pulled out the radiator I found all sorts of interesting cutting and welding



So Im gonna have to replace the radiator support, thankfully the idiot previous owner didnt cut the frame to wedge in the radiator, he did hammer in the bottom corners to get it to clear the frame

But he did cut up the cross member, shouldnt be too hard to patch up


And finally he did a custom heater/AC delete, which was riveting in a hand cut piece of sheet metal, which was cut horribly and crooked


So there I sat, depressed and hungry in my Pajamas on the garage floor.... haha

[shizzy]

So there I sat, depressed and hungry in my Pajamas on the garage floor.... haha

Been there... Except its usually, Depressed, hungry, out of beer and out of smokes.

[captainofiron]

Well I sold my Jeep, so that should be some cash infusion into this project.... hopefully

[captainofiron]

So sometime this week Im going to meet up with the guy that will be doing the metal work on the Bird. Pretty excited.

Other than that no real updates.

Im still going back and forth on what setup to run on the rear.

I have the BOP 8.2 that I will use, but I had been thinking to go with Global West's leafs. But lately I have been wondering if I should do something like a DSE Quadralink setup

Any opinions?