Exciting new developments on the Firebird!

03/17/2002 From the ashes of the lemans rises the Phoenix, or rather the firebird! It's a total wreck too! Joy!

12/07/2001 I got shit-flogged! Well, party is over for me, thats the luck of the Polish. Looks like I gotta go back to driving my 87 escort since, unfortunately, everybody wants 15K for their lemans's and 30K for their GTO's. Whats a poor dumb polack to do?? Anyone got a 67-68 firebird, 68-69 GTO or 72 lemans sport they wanna sell me cheap? convertibles only please!

07/20/2001 Got my Interior done and took it on its first drive of the year, YAHOO! Gonna drive around for 3 months or so looking for some quotes for a nice paint job. I am thinking of 'Dodge Patriot Blue Pearl' Looks good on the Durango's I think it will look nice on the LAMEans!

07/12/2001 Ok, believe it or not, my top is on (mostly!) and I have a new dash bezel, rally cluster and repo-indash tach installed. I was gonna get an old factory AM radio gutted and have new components put in, but I chickened out and put one of these Radios in. I have everything I need to put the car on the road for the rest (a pittifully short time) of the summer. I bagged plans of taking the body of the frame and por-15 the frame. I am gonna drive around this summer and get quotes for a decent paint job (or rather color). The saga continues.....

08/06/2000 Removed Brake line junction, replacing with Proportioning valve from late 70's F-body. It will not fit on the mouting bracket below the master cylinder that it came with. Brake fluid tastes yummy.

07/30/2000 Put lower & upper radiator hoses in. Lubed up all of the ball joints, tie rods and etc. Re-connected the Tranny cooler lines. I *HATE* Tranny cooler lines.

07/24/2000 - Repaired the Rats Nest of engine wiring, there were about a 100 bad splices. Used a ton of crimp connecters. It now resembles the brazilian rain forest. Maybe I should buy a new front engine wire harness?. Put the engine at TDC and dropped the HEI Dist in.

07/22/2000 - Put the radiator back in and all of the engine accessories back on. Damn thing was like a puzzle, took me all day how to figure where all the brackets went. I wish I had taken pics before I took it apart.

07/15/2000 - Put the timing cover back on, it actually went on really easy. The Edelbrock intake was another story. took me 2 hours, the bolts wouldn't line up and I started to strip one. So I took the intake off and re-tapped the bolt hold and put the tough ones in first this time. No matter how hard I try that damn POR-15 engine paint comes off so easy in my hand. The stuff sucks, don't use it unless you have 3 months to let it dry first.

07/14/2000 - Put in all of the POR-15'd front suspension parts. Tie Rods, Idler Arm and Drag Link. Also, put on the calipers and ILE-1 Rotors and brake hoses. Its starting to look like a real car again.

07/09/2000 - Took out the old camshaft and put in the Summit 2800. I probably banged up all the cam bearings putting it in, those last 6 inches are a killer (I *WISH* thats what the girls would say about me. Actually I would settle for 6 inches to begin with). I put the Summit Double roller timing chain on and of course forgot the cam thrust plate so I had to take the timing chain off in order to put that on. ARGH!

Frustrating new developments on the Yellow Bird

11/16/2001 Well, he got 6 days out of it. Daves mom backed into it. Guess she couldn't see it with that subtle paint job.

11/10/2001 Well, the chicken finally left the coop!

08/04/2001 Crusing around in the bird is so fun, unfortunately daves big beer belly kept interfeering with the drag link and binding up the steering. So he has decided to put a REAL MANLY engine in it.

08/1/2001 After several attempts at rebuilding and installing motors only to have them not work Dave has finally decided on the drivetrain to use. Desperate to get the car on the road Dave has volunteered to power the car with his spindly chicken legs. Currently we are reversing the steering column so he can steer from in the engine compartment. In hot weather the radiator will be filled with Gatorade to provide some thirst quenching relief when powering the bird down the highway

07/12/2001 Major new development! The motors fucked! The 400 was blowing white smoke like CRAZY, The motor is out and apart and the one of the heads was warped (one of the ARP bolts wouldn't come out, got stripped and had to be cut off) and it looks like it was cracked at a water passage on the #6 cylinder (it was full of rust and water). Well, a rebuilt 455 is on the way, should be here next monday from these guys These Guys who are pricey, but hopefully worth it! The money pit gets deeper!!!

06/16/2001 Hey, finally got the bird moving under its own power, too bad dave doesn't know the difference between neutral and first!

03/05/2001 Major new development! Its got a new top, check out the details on the Top Replacement

08/06/2000 Finish the battery mount in the trunk, run the remote oil filter lines and fittings, reinstall gas tank

08/02/2000 Assemble and mount battery box in trunk, Remove and paint power steering pump, and other brackets , drop and paint gas tank

07/30/2000 Reattach exhaust system, attach transmission crossbrace. Rebuild HEI distributor

07/26/2000 Install stainless bolt kit in engine, attach carb, begin to mount exhaust system,

07/24/2000 - Attached the 4spd Tranney to the motor. What a pain inda ass without a clutch alignment tool. Stupid autoparts stores don't sell them seperate since they come with clutch kits now. Tossed the motor back in it, connected the motor mounts and put the headers back on with cool copper gaskets.

07/22/2000 - The motor won't turn over again so we took the pan and lower crank caps AGAIN! But we were able to turn it over without taking off the heads. I am going to have to turn the motor over twice a day to keep it from 'seizing' again. The dude who rebuilt it says its normal, I am not so sure, but what the hell. Re-assembled the motor but cannot get the tranny on without the clutch alignment tool. Will buy one.

07/09/2000 - Went to re-assemble the engine with the new head bolts and found out that some moron at summit sent us bolts for a RAM AIR head. Needless to say it didn't fit. Dave is so depressed that I must beat him senseless with a camshaft so he forgets all about the car.

07/01/2000 - After a month of soaking the cylinders with PB blaster and Mystery oil to no avail, we have decided to take the motor apart to see whats up. Took off the heads and royally f*cked up the outside head bolts because the header studs were in too deep. Davie boy has to buy new ARP head bolts from summit now. Still wouldn't turn, but the cylinders were free of rust (a tiny bit in one). Flipped it over and loosed all of the caps and finally got it to turn, YEA!!!!