More 1969 Firebird Goodness

[Torch10th]

Well, she's inching close and closer to road worthiness. Even since I replaced the drum brakes with discs, I've never had a very good pedal in the car. A lot of that could be attributed to the car primarily sitting for the past decade or so. I drug it out of the shed and did a bit of work on the braking system. I bled the master cylinder and all 4 corners. The pedal is now much improved and you could drive it in town if you needed to. I still think there's quite a bit of air trapped in the system though.

I'm debating on a master cylinder change as well as a new distribution block, but I'm going to physically remove the MC and bleed it on a vice before I make that decision. If the weather holds out next weekend I'll tackle the replacement of the forward light and engine harness.

That just leaves the following items until I can plate it and drive it around.

-Replace front springs
-Glass
-Complete interior reinstall
-Alignment
-Tune-up

You can't really tell in the video, but the wheels and tires have to go. The disc brake changes messes with the track width so the wheel and tire combination no longer works with the lowered vehicles. This will keep me from really being able to drive the car until I get a new set. I'd decided on step lipped TF Chicane's in 18" sizing, but the wife and I are on a spending moratorium until our house is complete and the yard put in.

[youtube_browser]ctArBIM23NU[/youtube_browser]

The new rear end in the car is a Moser 12 bolt with an Eaton TrueTrac and a 3.73 ring and pinion. While I've got a pretty indestructible rear-end given the combination, the 3.73's and torque from the 455 are way too much for street tires. I'll need something sticky under the car ASAP! The loose converter doesn't help that either.

 

[Powershift03]

Very cool!

A 455, and 3.73 gears, should be a torque monster.

 

[P49Y-CY]

sounds great! that first day you go for a cruise after it sitting so long is really going to be awesome

 

[SLVRBLT]

Very nice. I love classic cars.

 

[coposrv]

Sounds and looks good. Keep up the work it will be worth it!

 

[Blue Blitz]

Checking out your threads after seeing the posts in the Cuda build. Nice looking 69 bird. Looking forward to checking out project history on it and seeing where it has come from!

William

 

[Steve@TF]

lookin good!

and soundin good! :beer:

 

[Torch10th]

Checking out your threads after seeing the posts in the Cuda build. Nice looking 69 bird. Looking forward to checking out project history on it and seeing where it has come from!

William

lookin good!

and soundin good! :beer:

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words! The wife and I just got moved in to our new place, but I haven't yet had time to move the Firebird. Hopefully this weekend or next and she'll be home too and I can get back to work on it. First on the agenda is an engine and forward light rewire, then I found some rot in the rear floorboards that I've got new panels for. After that it's off to the shop to have glass professionally installed.

Steve, I'm still looking forward to a set of your wheels once finances stabilize!

 

[Torch10th]

Quick update on this.

After seven months in storage at my parents place, I finally got the car to it's new home. Aside from the couple times I could bring it out and work on it, it's been sitting in a dirt floor barn with cats living in and on it.

This weekend I finally had time to get the car moved. I spent about two hours cleaning it up inside and out. I was fearing the worst with the paint, but aside from some swirls here and there it's not bad. Nothing a quick cut and buff won't take care of once I have it completely back together.

I am now however chasing an electrical gremlin with the starter. My guess is that a rodent may have chewed the solenoid wire as I'm getting intermittent power to the starter. Battery is good and when I get contact, starter spins the engine just fine. So I'm going to have to chase that down. Though considering the rats nest of wiring the previous owner left behind, I'll probably just replace the dash harness while I do the forward light and engine harness.

I still need to get the front springs installed. I ordered a set of Proforged tall upper ball joints to help with camber gain in the stock suspension. Once those arrive I'll do the joints and springs at the same time.

Anyhow, here's some pictures at her new home, all cleaned up.

 

[Competition]

Very nice. I love first gen F bodys. Have a 67 myself.

 

[Torch10th]

Very nice. I love first gen F bodys. Have a 67 myself.

Any specs and pics?

 

[VenomGTX]

Sick, I can't wait to see it all finished

 

[Competition]

Any specs and pics?

Pump gas 496, th400, 9" typical street car. Been 9.60s on DOT tires through mufflers in street trim. Full interior plus cage, hoping to go faster next time around.

I need to get some good pictures of it with my DSLR once it's back together.

 

[Torch10th]

Just a quick update on the car. Last week I received a few parts for it to get the front suspension wrapped up. I went with a half inch tall upper ball joint to be placed in the stock arms. This will help with negative camber gain issues in the first gen suspension. It's a stop gap for now until I gut the whole thing and replace all the components with RideTech goodies.

While I was changing the ball joints, it allowed me to install the Hotchkis 2" drop coils. The car still had the stock coils in it which needed changed after I replaced the rear leafs with Hotchkis 3" drop pieces.

It took about 4 hours wheels up to wheels down, but the new ball joints and Hotchkis coils are in. The only thing left on the front suspension is to get an alignment done.

Before:

After:

After a quick journey over the curb onto the street and back, it's actually settled another half to 3/4's of an inch in place.

One thing that this did however was worsen the lean that the car has always had to the passenger side. This is pretty common in early F-bodies and is usually the result of either springs not clocked correctly or the body mount bushings. The body mounts on this car are in desperate need of replacement, so that's my number one suspect currently. I clocked the springs per what I've been reading on line with the pig tail just in front of the inspection hole in the upper mount.

The install was pretty straight forward. Since all I needed to do was replace the upper ball joints and springs, I didn't bother with removing the rotors. Just a pickle fork in the upper joints and a jack beneath the lower control arm to support the load. After the joints were separated, I simply lowered the jack and control arm to gain access to the stock springs

The early F-bodies are horribly undersrpung. Good if you like ride quality, bad if you like handling. The stock units here should be 325 lb rate. The replacement Hotchkis units come in at 600 lbs to match the increased 175 lb rate in the rear leafs.

Notice that although the stock spring is some 4-5 inches longer, with the additional rate of the Hotchkis spring, it lowers the car only about 2" up front.

Finally buttoned up and ready to be placed back on the ground. You can see the added height of the tall upper ball joint in this picture.

Once the car was back on the ground I got a chance to inspect wheel to fender clearance which I had been suspecting would be a problem. The wheels on the car carry to shallow of backspacing as it is. The front disc brakes don't help matters be increasing hub to hub width by an additional 1 3/4". I do have rub issues in the rear, but I suspected I would in the front as well, even with the smaller wheel and tire. Turns out I actually have plenty of room.

This changes my wheel strategy a bit and I can probably save a bit of money by purchasing off the shelf wheels instead of having to go with custom forged pieces. That leaves more money to go the next step on the suspension which would be coil overs and the ride tech tru turn components.

 

[03SonicVert]

Nice rake!
Sinister looking!

SV

 

[99cobrablack]

Looks good, there is a little rod run and 1/8 th mile drag in Atwood ks in May. You should come out.

 

[offroadkarter]

When is it time to put some glass in this thing?

 

[Torch10th]

Not much in the updates column for the car recently. To busy with work and holiday stuff these days. I did spend some time under the dash trying to figure out the rays nest of wiring the previous owner gifted me with.

Needed to move the car further over so I figured I'd get an exhaust clip.

[youtube_browser]gvwpPRF1to8[/youtube_browser]

 

[Torch10th]

Another quick update. Ordered wheels and tires about a month ago and they showed up yesterday. I mounted a rear wheel to check fitment and all is good. In fact, I could have gone wider. These are a 17x9.5 with a 275/40/17 BFG Sport Comp 2. I've got a solid inch and a half inboard that I'm not using. I may check fitment of these up front and order a 10" wheel with a 285 tire for the rear.

Glass service is coming out on Friday and will be installing front and rear glass. I've got to replace a single stud on the driver front rotor and then I'll be able to take it for a quick shakedown to make sure I don't have any rub issues.

Getting ever closer!

 

[AustinSN]

It's a great looking car!