Project Blackbird

Dash Circuit Board Replaced

2011-11-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

Well, the board finally came in on Saturday. Only 3 days to late to put it in the car for Autorama. So I had to wire the fuel gauge with a short piece of 14AWG wire. Here's some pics of the new board replaced. Got it back in the car and it worked perfect.

Houston Autorama 2011

2011-11-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Outstanding in class. Which I was told is second for Conservative Hardtops. Pretty good for this year. Another fun time with the HALF group and Joaquin's new ride was surely what put me over the top!

Mini Me Firebird

2011-11-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

I bought a old pedal car from a friend in Freeport that got this little gem off of ebay. I wanted to get to work on it so I could have it ready for Autorama this year.

It started in pretty bad shape. I had to remove all the rust from all of the hardware and fill in all the scratches and dings in the plastic.It had been a well loved toy in its day.

Then I got to work on the paint which is merely a rattle can job. I plan on re shooting it when I get a good set of spray guns. But for now the kiddo can play in it all he want without worry. Sort of like my car now. A good 10ft paint job.

I also made some decals of the firebird emblems, gauges, tail lights and grills. I got some plexi-glass from Home depot and shaped a windshield.

Ultimately it was a hit at Autorama this year but I still want toadd some working tail lights and headlights, fiberglass a real looking grill and maybe add some car sounds.

Johnny 5 is Dead

2011-11-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well this is a new one for me. Saturday after the Alvin car show I saw my Fuel gauge jump past the 'Full' and then bounce back to the 3 o'clock position. It weird ed me out. All my other electronics seemed to be working. and the car was running fine. I knew I had plenty of gas to make it home so I had to bypass the HALF groups yearly celebration!
My first thing to check was the fuse. No dice. I had a feeling that wasn't the problem since all the other gauges were working.
So it's got to be a grounding issue. I checked the grounding wire coming out of the fuel sending unit. It looked a little gunky so I I cleaned it with a wire brush and and cleaned the trunk wall where it was attached. Reconnected the battery and ..... No dice.
So maybe a bad connection at the circuit board. I dropped the steering column and took off the gauges.
Pretty obvious in the picture to what caused the weird signature. Part ordered and I hope it gets here soon. Autorama is next week! I have to have a fuel gauge so the fire warden lets me in.

Novemberfest in Alvin Tx

2011-11-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Went to the Alvin show for the first time. It was a great day weather wise until is started to lightly rain for no reason other than to hurry up the judging. Which had it own drama but I got to walk away with a plaque. About 90 cars so the field of competition was not staggering like Autorama.I will probably skip this next year because they have a scoring system that does not place cars in a particular class. they allowed you to be what class you want to compete in. So typically people were sandbagging. the 69 Camaro next to me which was a complete restomod with not a single original part, huge sound system and a TV monitor on the trunk lid was in the same class as me. The jerk should of been in the custom class.But thats what you get in a small town car show.

Kemah Car show

2011-10-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Nice weather to hang out at the Chick-Fila car show in Kemah. The car next to me won 1st place. maybe next year.

Cannonbird Run to Fredricksburg Tx

2011-07-30T14:44:00.001-07:00

Met my dad and the rest of the H.A.L.F group in Fredricksburg Tx for 2011 CannonBird Run. Had alot of fun and the car ran great. I added a reproduction lower baffle to get better air flow to keep the car running a little cooler. Ran aroun 205 - 210 F on the highway.

Link to the Photos

2011-05-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

May 7 - Took the car to Aeros and Autos at Ellington Field in Houston. But I made sure to Polish the wheels because they needed it badly.

Later that night Nat took the car out -

Oustanding in Class

2010-12-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Pretty cool Thanksgiving Autorama!

Some new pictures at the Wings over Houston show

2010-11-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

Our H.A.L.F group was included in this years show at Ellington field. The surprise was when we got to display our birds next to the Thunderbirds.

New engine dressing

2010-03-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Collected some OEM style Valve covers and a new Air cleaner. Threw on a 400-4 sticker and now it starting to look real clean in the engine bay. - Still need to replace the brake booster.

Got Second place at the APA show in Galveston (March 28)

Vehicle and Engine Data

2010-01-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

1968 Pontiac Firebird V8 Sport Coupe
This car was the 42,217 made at the Lordstown, Ohio plant.

1968 Pontiac Firebird Coupe with Custom Trim Option
The paint was Verdoro Green (1)
The trim color and material were Medium Gold Custom Option Vinyl.
This car has the Fisher Body Unit Number 15,949 built in the 3rd week of February at the Lordstown, Ohio plant.

BLOCK VIN 28U142217

Pontiac 2

1968 8

Lordstown, OH U

VIN 142217

Date Code A318 31-Jan-68

Casting # Year CID HP Main

9790071 1968-69 400 330 2&4

CODE Car Year CID HP Trans RPO VIN Car Block Cast Main

YT F-body 68 400 330 Turbo 400 L-67 1x4 9790071 2

Displacement 400

Casting # Year CID HP Valve CC Notes

16 1968 400 330 2.11/1.77 72 HO

Head Date Code A128 Jan 12,1968

Buffed

2010-01-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

I had been really disappointing in the lack of true black shine in the paint. Mind you the previous owner did pick a great color to change the original Verdoro green to, but the quality was a little lacking. A good 20 foot look. But in the sun there were so many micro scratches and swirls that the black was looking dingy. So I invested in a Porter Cable 7424xp and Zaino PC swirl remover. My Christmas present to myself and the killer of my Christmas holiday. I spent the better part of 10 -12 hours going over each panel until I was completely satisfied. But there is only so much you can do with a subpar paint job - I did manage to make it at least a 5ft paint job.
BEFORE -------------------> AFTER

A/C install

2010-01-15T11:37:00.001-08:00

Started the process by fitting the a/c condenser and the dryer. My setup is using the binary switch since I don't have a electric fan. I made sure to use plenty of oil for the O ring seals when I attached the piping. Everything fit nicely so I moved on to attaching the compressor. I made sure to order the correct Firebird Brackets for a 1968. I painted the bracket with Underhood black and attached it to the engine block. As for the belt - I had original ordered a standard a/c belt however it proved to bit a bit to larger and cased the compressor to set close to edge the max 90 degree angle for proper operation. So I returned it to the local auto parts store for a slightly smaller one that would fit snugly.
Next I tackled the interior components starting with the heater controls. Very straight forward instructions and it enabled me to use the OEM control panel. The evaporator was a bit of a bear to get in by myself. Helpful tip: test fit the evaporator on the car with all the hose fitting attached so the firewall holes line up correctly. Then tighten the fitting on them. I kept the covers on the ends of the pipes to keep dust from getting in. Once everthing was in and fiited I tighten everything down and checked to see if I had any clearance problems where something might rub. Again make sure to add plenty of oil for the O ring seals.

With the evaprator in I now moved on to putting in all of the ducts and control module. The prescribe duct route that was in the instructions does not work for the Firebird. I used my own paths and got it in without disturbing any of the dash components and without causing crimps in the ducting. It looks lik a large black snake coiled but it all fits. The center duct was the easiest to install but the I had to realy stretch the duct over the opening to fit.
The one task I paid to have installed was the crimping of the a/c pressure hose fitting. I took it to a local shop that specializes in vintage air systems and they had the proper tool to crimp. the ends. I ran teh heater hoses myself and fastened all of the hoses down with electical clamps from home depot. After this I started on the wiring which was surprising simple even though the diagrams in the instruction make it seem daunting. The color coding is simple and the step by step instructions for programing the CPU was straight forward. It took me the better part of an evening to get all the wiring mocked up, connectors crimped on and fed through a groment in the firewall. I had alread made an external fuse box for my radio and simple but another fuse inline for the power to the A/C CPU (purple wire).

The last step was something I had never done which is charge the system with R134. I employed the help of a coworker from NASA that had a electric vacuum pump and we proceed to draw a vacuum on the system and let the car sit for a couple of days. To my relief the vaccum stayed and there were no leaks in the system. We added the prescribed amount of a/c in the car and in no time we got some pretty cold temperatures in the car. Just in time for winter! I am really going to enjoy this during the next Houston summer.

A/C install just in time for winter

2009-10-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

I started this whole mess in August. I found a vintage air Gen IV system from Prodigy custom in Florida. Great price and free shipping. Frank at prodigy's was a big help. Many times I called for advice and after I found out I had the wrong evaporator he immediately shipped me another. Big thanks to him.
However, one project of A/C install prompt me to consider repainting the engine since I was going to have to remove one of the fenders. So why not both? And how about the bumper too? All of this mess just because the original block was painted red/orange? so I called two of my buddies from work to help me get the hood off.

I started off by removing the fenders and the front bumper. I removed the bumper as one piece with all of lighting still attached. This made it allot easier to take off the fenders. If I was only doing the A/C work the passenger fender would only need to be removed. However - it seems like everything is connected to those fenders. All the chrome trim, bumper and bolts/ and shims everywhere. The task was longer than expected because I labeled every bolt and nut taken off. But It would be a time saver later on when everything went back on. I went through a whole box of ziplock sandwich bags. I also took pictures along the way just in case the project took me so long I could not remember how everything fit together. So at this point I drained the radiator and disposed of it at the local oil change shop.
Then I started on the daunting task of removing all of the engine componets that I didn't want to get painted metallic blue. Alternator, power steering, hoses, spark plug wires, intake manifold, distributor, exhaust manifolds... etc, etc etc. Until I had it bare bones where I could start cleaning the block. Two cans of foam engine cleaner and allot of elbow grease. Then I went over the engine with scuff pads and wiped it with Pre-paint for a final cleaning. Then several nights of masking everthing. I made sure to make light coats to make sure it dried well so I wouldn't get any flaking. After painting - I made sure to cover everthing to make sure no dust or dirt got on it.

Next I got started on repainting the radiator. One Saturday morning I stripped it, straightened out the bent fins, cleaned it and laid down several coats of Radiator Black. 10 times better! I roughed up the firewall, A arms, springs, chassis, brackets, inner fenders, and radiator support. Preped everything and hit it with chassis black or Trim black to get the original black tones. This took probably another two weeks to get everything right. But I wanted a clean look.

So the engine is repainted and the hard task of getting everything back on was next. Everthing I could get my hands on was cleaned and reinstalled. Replaced all the rubber hoses for the radiator and gave the engine a brand new set of plugs.

Up next - Actually putting on the A/C!

Trunk carpet and subwoofer

2009-05-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

Pictures from my installation of the new carpet and sub woofer from last week. Also a couple of pictures from the Houston Aeros and Autos show.
Two layers of Edead prior to laying down the carpet.

I cut out a Firebird emblem then carpeted it so it would emboss later when I installed the carpet.

I cut out two separate panels that I carpeted. I used a strip of sheet metal on the back of each and then used some strong magnets to attach each at the corners. It was weird that each side was slightly different to fit properly around the wheel wells.

Here's a picture of the tail light panels. I fiber glassed a bend to go around the gas tank neck.

The final pictures of the sub installed and the other side of the trunk

Radio installed

2009-03-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

The next project to tackle - Radio.
I thought about refurbishing the original radio - way overpriced.
But I didn't want to cut the dash, I liked the original look. So I decided to hide the new radio in the glove compartment.To raise a little scratch I sold some old star wars figure still in the packaging on ebay. - Bam $450 instantly. I really underestimated the buying power of 40 year old comic book guys. So time to shop:
Boston Acoustics SX55 5-1/4" 2-way Speakers

Boston Acoustics SX95 6" x 9" 2-Way Car Audio Speakers
Pioneer DEH-P6000UB CD/MP3 Receiver
120 sqft of eDead sound deadening
Some Speaker wire, a add-on circuit breaker, and a Double pole, double throw switch

So I gutted the interior and took out the carpet, old sound padding, seat, seat belts, console, and rear side panel.
Cleaned the crap off the floor and took a 3M disk to the minor surface rust. Then I clean and reinstalled the floor pan plugs with some high temp black RVT.

Next - POR 15 the entire floor.
After drying - Sound deadening. It came in four big rolls which I cut into 1x1 ft squares. It made it easier to cut to shape and I applied it with the free roller that came with the purchase.

I covered the floor with two layers and covered the seems with roofing aluminum tape I got from home depot. I Put the carpet back in and got started on the wiring and electronics.I took out the glove box and fit a under dash radio mount inside of it, making sure that I had enough room to clear the A/C unit. I cut part of the new mount to better accommodate the wires and shape f the A/C.
I took my time in cutting my kick panels to fit the new speakers as well as removed a little of the metal behind them to give the new speakers room. I ground and smoothed with a grinder so not to cut and wires later by rubbing. I took special attention to location by masking the area that I wanted to cut with painters tape.

Then install the rear speakers - again cutting away some the metal and applying some sound deadening around them. I started running the monster wire from them as well as the front speakers. I taped them down so they wouldn't shift around.

Next radio extensions were soldered on and then attached to the speakers.
Test fitted the new radio again with the wires and sip tied any of the excess wire. I made a trip to Fry's to get a Antenna extension and a switch to raise and lower the antenna.I mounted the new switch under the dash just left of the steering column.

Next I hooked up the power to the already existing gauge circuits and the new Circuit breaker add- on and ran it all from the original box tab marked 'IGN'
Moment of truth - It all powered up and the radio worked. The new switch worked beatifully for the antenna and booster the signal as soon as it started to move.

Then ---- get all the rest of the interior in. That was way more difficult then taking it out. But the good part is that I had no extra pieces left over.
I definitely thought I would need a pro to install all this stuff- but a hour here and there over the course of the last month got it in at my own pace and I know it was done right.

I GOT TUNES

Hood insulation installed

2009-02-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Got some hood insulation and clips - looks allot better. also took off the hood tach and cleaned it - the inside was painted black - so I masked it off and sprayed the inside white. Now the light is bright and more clear.

Christmas - time to get things done

2009-01-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

Lots of work done.
#1 Made a gauge pod for the new Sport Comp gauges I bought.

#2 Install some 3 point seat belts

#3 Install new engine compartment supports and new floor mats

New Louvers? Louvres? Lovures

2008-12-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Put new ones on - how ever you spell it.

If Foose can do it so can I?

2008-12-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

I watch overhaulin - I've seen the drawings. I dabble in art - why not - So here's my first attempt on a drawing of the Blackbird.

Thanksgiving - Autorama

2008-12-20T18:13:00.000-08:00

Got a late call from a friend in HALFTX and said there was a open spot in Autorama. So here's a picture of the car at the show. once again - allot of fun, and it's always good to watch people take pictures of the car.

HALFTX Boctoberfest von Riss

2008-11-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

Picture from the HALF meet.

a Camaro snuck in

And my Bird Debut

First weekend work on BlackBird

2008-11-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

Friday night UPS dropped off the new set of leaf springs, heavy duty shackles and new bushings. With a little internet research I figured that this was a doable project this weekend. Had enough jack stands to do the work safely and it gave me an excuse to run to Home Depot and buy a new Torque wrench. Let me start by saying this is an easy procedure. Lift this, disconnect that, remove, install, reconnect - BAMM - Done.

6 hours later.
4 - F Bombs
2 - Son of ..
#1 Quote of the weekend - Why the F won't this J-nut work! ( Passenger side)
#2 Quote of the weekend - Damn you J-nut ( Driver's Side)

I won't kid myself. I am a novice at best, as a shade tree mechanic. However, I am a Mechanical Engineer. I teach people about the Space Shuttle. I can read a service manual, read the internet, read a schematic, and use a wrench. And I am still amazed that something so simple (mechanically speaking) is such a huge pain in the rear end.
My arms are tired. But the springs are in.

Driveable

2008-10-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Long line. Euphemism for Tax assessors office. The car is titled though, and has some classic plates. The previous owner gave me some brand new 1968 Texas Hemisfair Plates that look sweet with the black paint job. The only problem was that the old Colorado plate was tacked on with security screws. So I got the grinder out and heated up the screw enough to melt the plastic inserts. I sprayed the plates with a clear coat to add some scratch resistance and after it dried attached them to the car. They look sweet and I put them on with my own security screws. I cut some pieces of black tubing to put a spacer between the plates and the screws so they don't scratch up with road vibration.

SOLD

2008-10-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

My first project car has been sold to my friend Carl. I hope to help him out with the car to see it finished.

as for the blackbird my wok is just beginning. So far I got the front pillar vynals inserts in with some 3M adhesive. Got a manual choke set up on the carb. I then took the emblems i repainted and put them on the new bird. I ordered some new rear shocks and I am about to buy new rear multi leaf springs, shackles and bushings since the old one sags.

Emblems painted

2008-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Took some modeling paint and made the old look new. Then hit it with some glossy clear to protect them.

Mid-Life Crisis?

2008-10-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Soooooo. I got another car. Is this a problem? And my wife is okay with that? has the pregnancy gotten to her? Maybe? I found another HALFER that need to sell. His price met what I thought the car to be and before I knew it I was driving it home. I think I have Firebird Fever. Pontiac Pneumonia.

2 inches more

2008-10-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Room is getting tight in the garage. I have playing Tetris with my toys for the better part of a year. So finally convinced myself that there is no reason why this beautiful motor should be sitting on a stand. So I gave my friend Carl a call and he graciously helped me 'drop' the engine in. Without the radiator support in the way is went in pretty effortlessly. Now that it is in is looks like a car. A car with no front fenders; but a car that has the potential for going somewhere other than from one side of the garage to the other. Now I can get rid of the huge 2 ton engine hoist and free up a huge amount of realestate. Also discovered that the 4 speed Muncie is the matching numbers for this car.

Interior dash componets reinstalled

2008-10-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Little work, some cussing and I didn't end up with anything missing. So dash is repainted and wiring is reconnected. I refurbished the kick panels and they look as good as new.

Update - Dash is almost done.

2008-10-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Interior is coming together. Funny how easy it came apart, and how hard it is to remember how it goes back.... Where does this extra screw go? I guess it's good when all the pieces you categorized in little bags find a place back on the car.
So here are some pictures of the final firewall.
The OLD the New chassis black

The in between Por 15'd

I think I am doing something right. Also painted the front dash and got the the dash pad and all of the driver side reinstalled. The Steering column was also reattached back to the new rag joint and manual steering box. Still need to recondition the kick panels and reinstall the heatercore and heater box. Then I'll get the radio and heater controls back in. Then finally the glove box will go home. So one more good evening of stuff to do.

Hurricane over. The car is OKAY.

2008-10-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

September is over and I have little to no work on the car because of it. We lucked out and had no flooding. I have to say I am sick of fixing fences. Post hole digging is a good reminder why I went to school to get a degree. My right arm is also like Popeye from all the hammering.
I did finish the steering wheel tonight. I finished cleaning the chrome and horn buttons. The chrome was cleaned with some soap and water and some aluminum foil. There was a weird funk that was growing on the chrome. Looked like some primordial algae from the 60's.

GOOD weather in HOUSTON??

2008-09-07T15:34:00.001-07:00

This Saturday was beautiful and work need to be done on this rare occasion.

I decided to tackle restoring the old deluxe steering wheel. It had major cracks on nearly every facet and some minor cracks at the edges of the spokes. I had picked a restoration kit from Eastwood that I had heard about and decide to give it a shot. I didn't really worry about ruining the wheel since I have a Grant red/black wheel that would look real nice too. I followed the directions which really isn't my strong suit. I cleaned the wheel with some soap and water and began to make the cracks bigger per the instruction I used a dremel and an assortment of metal files to enlarge the gaps into a V-shape. Then I mixed the two part putty to make a dark grey mush that smell like old shoes. I used a heavy amount to fill the cracks. Bought a $1.50 set of plastic putty knifes and went to work. I tried to get all of the air bubbles out when mixing but still managed to find some later on. I cover the wheel which made it look like a cancer growth had consumed the wheel. Then let is set in my hot garage for a week. No the hard part. Sanding was a boring pain. I stared by knocking the biggest chuncks with the dremel sanding discs. I had also bought some sand paper (150, 220, 320, 400 and 1000) and some 3M sanding blocks (60, 220, and 320) with worked well for the contours. Two seperated nights of sanding and then some more on Saturday finally got it to a point where it felt smooth to the touch. I used some Eastwood plastic prep cleaner to get what dirt I could off. Then hit the wheel with some SEM plastic adhesion sprey. after about 15 minutes I used SEM Landau Black. I applied two coats but it didn't have the gloss I was looking for. So I sprayed some clear coat semi gloss for a little protection. It look pretty good for my first attemp at something like this.

Another project I got started on Saturday was redoing the firewall. Unfotunately, I found out the the previous owner painted right over the original paint with POR15. Not that I dislike POR 15 but I saw places where it was pealing since it was applied in that way. After I had removed all of the components off the firewall I had also noticed that they didn't applied under things like the windshild wash motor or the heater core cover. Boaght some 3M sanding wheels and got to work on the firewheel and forward dash (under cowl). Then I reappled a new coat of POR15 and sprayed some primer after about 45 minutes (when it was still tacky). Later I will spray pait it with Some POR15 Chassis Black coat. It SHOULD look great but I need to get a good HVLP first. So that project is going to be put off for a week.

Another coat?! Save me dolly

2008-08-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

Many inventions/discoveries have effected us all. Of course the internet and it's cornucopia of porn sites. But the invention of craigslist is great. The world's largest garage sale. No more traveling to questionable neighborhoods. People's crap comes to you right on your own computer. My most recent find on craiglist is a set of wheel dollies. $60 bucks and I have a good set of 4 dollies. Steal. Now I can move around my firebird and make more room in the garage at will. Assuming of coaurse I move all the spare parts off the floor and out of the way. But tonight I moved it all by my self and faced it towards the garage door without crunching the wall. So this week I can start sanding off the por 15 coating on the firewall and give it a coat of primer and SEM trim black to match the top of the dash. I wanted it closer to the opening of the garage so the dust won't completely settle all over my tools in the garage. I also picked up a good random orbital sander to get the job done as well.

Glossy

2008-08-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

The flat black for the top of the dash works alright, but the front instrument panels needs a little gloss. Rustoleum Black Satin (7777) worked great. Hit the front with a couple of coats. But plane on adding one more coat tomorrow. also got around to sand/prep/painting the glove box door and matching it with the same black. The back of the door still has the original sticker so I masked it and will not pull it off. I will work around it, it's been there for 40 years and will be there for another 40. I had ordered some new dash knob bezels and cleaned the knobs up some. I took a good scrub to all the faux woodgrain bezel covers for the center dash, ash tray and radio cover. All look good. once I hit the dash with a final clear coat I will start installing some of the instuments.

Dash Painted

2008-08-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

So after a good wipe down with a degreaser I got to work on the paint. Masking is essential and time consuming. And you always find a little sliver of paint where you are convinced that you put tape over. Got two coats on it and killed every bug in the garage by evacuating the area of breathable air. Ventilation was good in the garage but the smell of drying paint still is nausiating. The finish is more of a flat black and I am considering making the forward portion more of a semi gloss. I don't want the top to be glossy though because of sun glare.

2008-08-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Got a little work done today. Began prepping the dash for paint. Going to use SEM Black Trim on a suggestion form Yellowbird. Hope it turns out okay tomorrow.

2008-07-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I last posted. Home repairs set me back a little. Took a couple of weekends to completely gut the dash. I made sure to label all the electrical connections and documented where the were routed. I removed the engine wiring harness, circuit breaker box and interior harness. Also had to do some research to take the ignition, headlight, and light knobs.

Need to also transfer the VIN plate. Got a rivet gun from the new Home depot that opened up close to the house (Man land - as my wife calls it). Two rivets later - its on. Way easier than I though it would be.

I needed to borrow a welder. Easy right? Found a coworker that had a wire feed MIG. Went to his house, took a look, and left it there. I found that exposed wires, a huge empty take and total lack of safety told me not to borrow it. Found another coworker. This one was small and no gas. So I'd attempt some fluxwire welding. After turning it on it tripped my circuit breaker on my extention reel. Problem: the motor was stuck. That's what happens when you use a 10 year old welder that has been sitting outside.
Fine I'll get my own- Trip to Northern tool. Got a small wire fed and a tank of Ar/Co2.
Practice practice practice.... Good thing I saved the old panel to get the voltage and wire speed right. BTW - the web is awesome- DIY MIG - lessons and video.
This weekend, hot as hell. Scratch that. Hotter than the red hot hate of a thousand suns. Saturday I got to it though and prepped and painted the new part. I planned on attaching it with some plug welds. Got it test fitted and marked it off. So today I got into the garage and set it all up. 3 hours later - its on. Just need to ground down one side tomorrow.
I guess my first major project on the car is complete.

Dash Pad removed

2008-06-01T19:53:00.001-07:00

Ground the rest of the panel off and cleaned up the welds on the edge of the dash. The new one has been shipped and would get here within the week. Now I need to prep the area for welding. I am also planing to to repaint the instrument panel. need to find some black gloss paint and wired brush the old off.

Spot weld cutter

2008-05-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to northern tools to pick up a spot weld cutter. Unfortunately they only had the spring loaded kind and the harden bits. So it was a little squirrelly when I tried to cut some of welds out. Just attached to the old electric drill and started drilling them out. I took a punch and made a small hole for the cutter spring guide. Technique wise, I sped up the drill to its highest rpms and slowly dug in. It was more successful that way - couple of runaway holes though. 28 holes later, the front dash and the upper dash are separated. Allot of small shaving were everywhere.

Gutted dash some more

2008-05-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to work in the garage when the sun wasn't making it an oven today. Still had three fans going to circulate air. Removed more stuff. Got the original Delco Radio and in dash speaker out as well as the heater controls. While I was at it I got the heater core, vents and the passenger kick panel out. Also got allot of the old insulation out. Vacuumed more sun flower seeds out of the car and some of the rust I had knock into the car. Tomorrow I will drill out the spot welds and remove the panel if I can.

MORE rust

2008-05-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

So I cleaned up the dash some more. Chiseled away at some rust and vacuumed. Took out the air vents so that I could get to the attach bolts that held the dash pad on. the best surprise yet was opening up the vents and finding dried up sunflower seeds in the air ducts. hundreds of shells fell out of both side and made a sick mess. Vacuum time. So after that mess - I had to take a screw driver and wedge open the small bracket that held the dash pad prong on. It involved use of a mirror, small screw driver and curse words. Many curse words. The curse words didn't help out as much as I'd like but I got the pad off. There would have been no way to pull it off by hand without breaking something - like a finger. I had to remove all of the dash guts. So now I need to order a new dash tin and get a welder. But first figure out how to get the old one off.

In the mean time I am still working on the Steering. I was going to replace the manual steering with new power steering components but, since the old one works fine and it would cost some money and research to get the right parts for a 455 brackets/ pulleys/ hoses/ pitman arm , I opted to stay with the original. I did clean it some more to knock off as much rust as I could and cleaned it with some Eastwood paint prep. Then I use POR-15 on it so it won't rust anymore. I'll order a repop steering knuckle (rag joint) when I order the dash replacement piece. The steering will be set and later I will try to restore the original deluxe steering wheel.

Dash replacement

2008-05-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to remove a little more rust off of the dash. Next - remove the dash pad. So I removed glove box door, glove box, steering column, instrument cluster, and Dash pad screws.
I can see a little daylight from underneath the dash. The rust is completely through. So I'll be buying a new one to weld in pretty soon.

Windshield removed

2008-05-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

Got the windshield out and took a look at the rust underneath. Looks like I'll have to buy a replacement upper dash panel and cut the old one out.

Manual Steering box removed

2008-05-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

The manual steering box is incredibly rusty looking and seemed to have some slop in it. So I tried removing it but the pitman are would not come off easily. So a stop at O-rielly's today and I came back with a pitman arm puller. Three turns and it popped off. I should take the puller back but since I never like taking tools back and I always need more. I hope that my wife does not read that. Cleaned the gear box with a power drill and abrasive pad. Looks ten times better. I clean it a little better tomorrow and slap some paint on it. I have the option of upgrading to power steering at this time but the gear box is in good working order and seems a waste to throw it out. I can live with it for now. But I do need to get a brand new rag joint. So I'll order one tonight and hopefully be able to put everything back together.

2008-04-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Did some work

removed the cowl and windshield trim
Vacuumed out the interior
Removed the console, radio knobs and woodgrain for cleaning
Pitman arm is still stuck on, I'll get a tool from the auto store later
removed the brake booster and master cylinder
started to remove some of the steering column

Engine info

2008-04-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the info I have gathered on the engine
Block VIN
21X326471

Casting Code
485428

Block Code
6310287
YC
Code Car Year CID HP Trans RPO Carb Block Cast Main
YC F-body 71 455 325 Turbo 400 L-75 1x4 485428 2

Displacement Identification: 455

Date Code on Engine block
C 81 – March 8 1971

Head codes:

Casting # Year CID HP Valve CC
6X 1977 400 180,200 2.11/1.66 101

Head Date code – E187 (May 18 1977)

Brakes Part 3 - Proprtioning valve

2008-04-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning - sleep or get out of bed and enjoy one of the last nice weekends that we are going to have in Houston. I took a look at the proportioning valve and saw that it was only be held up by the steel tubing. The bracket bolts were missing so a quick trip to the local Autozone and the valve is mounted. then I discovered why it was not attached. All of the brake lines were not fitted. so after allot of pulling and bending and a little cussing I got all the lines on the valve. I took a look at the brake pedal and discovered that it was not attached to the booster. The connector was on but it was too long and need to be screwed down so that it would align with the brake pedal pin hole. Which meant disconnecting all the lines I had attached and taking the entire master cylinder and booster off so I could back the screw off. then after test fitting the booster and the alignment with the pedal hole I finally got the settled out. So booster back on, proportioning valve back on and lines reconnected. The last thing to get done is to attached the front brake hose brackets. I had dipped them in some carb cleaner and left them there for a night. Then took out a sanding disc to knock off the rest of the rust. I'll paint them tomorrow and attach them later in the week. I'll looking into bleeding the master cylinder next weekend.

Rear Axle bumpers installed

2008-04-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to mount the rear axle brackets and bumpers tonight I am a little concerned about the clearance of the RH bracket to the KYB shock. It is maybe 2mm from touching. I might need to grind down the edge a little just to be sure. But the I think I can say that the rear suspension is now complete. It good to have a new suspension kit and coils in the front and back. It will definitely sit up higher.

Brakes Part 2

2008-04-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

So the rust is off and the calipers were cleaned. Used some Eastwood paint prep. Went down to Autozone and picked up some Red Caliper paint. I removed the disc brake hardware and o-rings and masked off the pistons and seal.

I was also careful to mask off the brake line hose bolts and bleed valves.
The instructions were easy and I applied 3 coats of paint.
After about 24 hours of drying I went ahead and test fit them on the rotor. It'll take about a week for it to cure entirely though.
I could help it but I put one of my Torque thrust rims to see how they will eventually look.
I also notice that the proportional valve was not mounted to the bracket that extended from the booster.Hopefully I can fin those in the remaining parts that David has left at his house.

Brakes Part 1

2008-04-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

Another great feature is that this car is gonna restart life with so front disc brakes. With the 15 inch rally rims there is plenty of room. However the one's I got from David were covered with surface rust. After taking off the rims the disc rotors look just as bad.
So over the coarse of the next couple nights I sanded off the rust and cleaned the rotors as mush as I could with some 400 grit and WD-40.

Rear suspension

2008-03-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

First real work on the car has started. I started out jacking up the rear end and reinstall the Rear wheel spring & shock anchor plate. It was installed backwards. Mainly because David got to the point that it was a rolling chassis for pickup. I checked some schematics on the web just to make sure both sides were facing the right way. So reinstalled it and added the brand new KYB shock absorbers. The shocks went in real easy. Most of the work was taking off the wheels and cleaning them. The rims are 15x7 JJ with BF Goodrich P 235/60R15.

Now all I need to do is finish by installing the new Rear axle Bumbers as soon as I figure out what bolts are need to attach them on the outside of the frame.

What I got

2008-03-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Not much to post other than I took about 5 hours making categories of all the spare pieces, setting up new selves to store the new and old parts. And taking notes on the boxes and what they contain. Next weekend I'll finish up the rear suspension.

How long do you need help

2008-03-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

After talking with everyone about the potential of this car I finally decide to but down the money and buy the car from David. the big sell for me was the Pontiac 455 that came with it. Also a plus is that the builder of the engine is in my backyard. Lee Atkinson built this beautiful beast with the following goodies.
Engine complete from Pan to Carb including:
455 Block and Crankshaft, fully machined and balanced Forged Pistons, resized factory rods, ARP rod bolts, and moly rings, Competition cams
280AH camshaft with Rhoads lifters and Harland Sharp 1.65 roller rockers.
SD Performance heads ~ 9.4:1 compression
Holley 750 Double Pumper Carb
Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold, Mallory Unilite Distributor

complete rebuild of the front and rear suspension. Starting with a strip and repaint of the front frame. They did allot of great work including taking out the rusted floor pans and POR15 in some new ones. New poly suspension kit,David and his brother had done allot of work already. Mainly tearing down the body and new coils, new multi leaf rear springs, body mounts, and the subframe coated in Por15. Brake lines were all replaced.

So I asked my friend Brett to help me out on Saturday. He asked 'How long you need help?' And I of course said we just need to pickup a trailer and head out to get the car. I didn't really tell him that I needed to load a engine hoist in the back of the truck. Or go get another friends trailer. Or unload a car off that trailer before hitching it up. Or traveling an hour cross town to pick up a car with the entire front end disassembled, and engine sitting outside of it. Needless to say we didn't make it home at 12:00. To be fair he made it a point to complain all day, moan about hunger pains and how much trouble that I am. When it was all said and done I got the car in garage that day and he got a great steak dinner out of the deal.

Looking for a new Coupe

2008-02-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

My friends at H.A.L.F gave me allot of help in finding this car. Not only that but a local car here in Houston. I had David (previous owner) and Bjorn send me some pics. got in contact with David and found out a little more about the history of the car. He had originally picked up the car from Manchester, NH back in 2003. David was lucky enough to get allot of info on the original sale. He gave me the original Body Broadcast Sheet, Owner Protection Plan & new Vehicle warranty, and the original Protect-O-Plate. The plate shows that the original owner was J. Ruch in Madison NJ.
I ran the VIN at First Gen Firebird Website.
Here were the results
1968 Pontiac Firebird V8 Sport Coupe
This car was the 42,651 made at the Lordstown, Ohio plant.
1968 Pontiac Firebird Coupe with Custon Trim Option.
The paint was Solar Red with Solar Red upper body color.
The trim color and material are Black Custom Option Vinyl
This car has the Fisher Body Unit Number 16,118 built in the 3rd week of February at the Lordstown, Ohio plant.