My 69

I was told I needed to start a post so here it is all.

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_1337553.jpg

My name is Steven and I am the proud owner of a 1969 Firebird Convertible. When I started this car 2 years and 4 months ago I had no idea what I was doing. See I had always paid to have all my other cars built, but this time I wanted to do it myself ( with a lot of help ). I called a friend of mine in Mobile, AL who builds cars all the time. He says, " bring it down here we'll work on it together". He said he had never built a firebird and you just don't see that many on the road. Most first gen cars are cut up to become first gen Camaro's. So that’s what I did. I first had to find a 1969 bird Conv. I called around and nobody had one. Everyone said why build that instead on a Camaro? I already have 2 Camaro's and never liked the thought of making a bird a Camaro. So anyway, I found a car in NC and brought that to Alabama. Man was it bad!!!!

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_258928.jpg
We started by deconstructing the car to see what we had. Before long it was painfully obvious. Floor pans had to be replaced, trunk pans, door skins, left side back frame and left side leaf perches, and last but not least the rear light structure. Bad deal. I thought of just scrapping it but I said no, " I bought the darn thing going to fix it". We sent it out to media blasting and thank god nothing else was found. Car came back and we sprayed sealer on everything and got started replacing metal. Removed all the rot, replaced with new metal ( only way to go ). With all body work done we assembled the car before spraying any color. Got all the gaps correct. Disassembled again and sprayed primer, blocked it and blocked it and blocked it. Then came the color!!

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_42419.jpg

I always knew I wanted it a gunmetal color. I called a friend of mine out in Texas to draw me up a sketch of what it might look like. He did and i loved it. We went with a Ferrari color. Giorgio Silverstone Metallic ( had seen it in a mag and love it). Sprayed 4 coats of base, why 4 you ask. Well this color is notorious for splotching ( lots of very fine metal in it ). After that sprayed 4 coats of Glamor clear. All of these colors are PPG. It looked fabulous. We had already sent the frame out for power coating and started assembling it. Replaced everything, new global west control arms, Hodkis suspensions springs, leafs, sub frame connectors. We dropped the front with 2 1/2 inch drop spindles. We also put 4 wheel disks from Wilwood. 6 piston in front and 4 in rear. We wanted good handling on the car and good steering so we installed a rack and pinion and new flaming river stainless tilt Colum. Now comes the fun part of what you can see.

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_491889.jpg

We built a 383 GM stroker. Started with a vortec block, line bored, power honed, and cylinders bored to .030. New eagle steel 383 stroker crank. Clevite rod and main bearings. Forged 5.7 rods, custom 383 stroker speed pro 0.30 forged pistons. 262 extreme energy cam. ARP heads. HP tuned port fuel injection show polished. Flow matched HP 24 lb injectors, March pulley system with A/C. We stuck that thing to a cruising transmission, 700R4, but had it built to trash some rubber. Replaced the gears in the rear to 3.73. Plugged it up and it ran, a few twicks here and there and the heart was installed. ( Used aero motive fuel pumps and filters, new lines and installed stainless fuel cell with sump ).

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_1957634.jpg
To the interior: Here's where it gets kind of messed up. I wanted to find some cool seats, but not just what you could get out of a catalog. Looked around and around and finally settled on the seats out of an 06 GTO. Had to cut the back seats down and also remove the GTO emblems from the front seats. Sent these out to be done. Ordered fiberglass door panels and rear panels from Fessler. Covered these with leather and gray sued. Fabricated a center console also covered in leather. Ordered a Carbon fiber dash with Autolite Carbon fiber gauges. Installed Classic auto air into the car along with a billet controls. Installed electric windows ( all 4 ) and shaved the door handles, so we installed pop locks. Installed push button start as well. Now comes the stereo. Put in an Eclipse double din head unit with Nav,DVD, CD, XM radio and back up camera. Installed 4 Boston Acoustics speaker in the inside along with Boston Acoustics tweeters. These are driven by a Boston Acoustics amp. Installed a 3000 watt Autobahn amp to drive the 2 12" pioneer competition subs in the rear. Blanked off the trunk area so all is hidden. My plans are to remove the push button start and replace with a Fist Biometric start system which is on order.

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums/uploads/1328295417/gallery_17058_2369_926144.jpg
Wheels and tires: Choose Fosse Nitro wheels 18 x 9 in the front and 18 x10 in the rear. Cover these with Nitto rubber all the way around.

Things that have been added as of late: Ring brothers hood hinges, Carbon Fiber stripes.

So that’s my car, hope to see you guys around.

Steven

Firebird Nation: My 69 - Firebird Nation

My 69 Birdzilla Rate Topic:

#1 Birdzilla

#2 Formula71

#3 Pete W

#4 Erwin78ta

#5 mrrman

#6 Theresa

#7 TheBat

#8 CF_TransAm

#9 firebird_madness

#10 Birdzilla

#11 Birdzilla

#12 Birdzilla

Share this topic:

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users

Delete Post

Skin and Language

Execution Stats