Not that it really matter.. was bored & thought I'd share... can't let Zeph & 86 have all the picture fun...

Well.. after an exciting past few weeks (fuel pump literally falling apart on the camaro, somewhat expected, ant invasion , and a few other fun filled things..), I got a little more done with the doorhandle on my heap...

Now if my paintgun could find it's way back to my house so I could get some primer & paint on...
Oh yea.. I finally got some tires & put the right wheels on the right cars.. looks alot better with the GTA wheels huh ?

(I used the last of the spraybomb I had to try & make it look a little better for a pic and to cover the bare metal since it won't stop raining here)
*edit... you're seeing correctly.. there are no beers in the picture (they're on the workbench )

 

lookin' good..

When do you think you will have it all done?

 

At my current average progress rate... never :sillylol:

Honestly.. I'm not in a real rush to get it done but, I'd like to get it finished before one of the (many knocking) rods in my camaro gives up the ghost.

I would like to have it done (this year) soon just to be able to cruise it but, at my current rate of luck/paying out cash for other crap I'd rather be spending towards the bird.. it may be awhile. I've still got exhaust to buy/make and a few other small things I'd like to get and other stuff to put on yet but.. the whole time/cash/laziness after work thing that is the biggest limiter (I prefer to not have the c.c. compainies be my best friends over the car either.. ).

It is driveable (not legally tho )

 

Looks awesome man. I wish I had the patience to do that.. I'm getting frustrated enough polishing my rims!

 

I wish I had the patients myself at times too.. lol. It's all a state of mind tho.

I know your pain tho .. I polished my intake at one point but, it became too much upkeep to keep clean with all the motor problems I had.

 

How long did THAT take? I'm running on hmm..7 hours for one rim so far, but thats cause I missed some cast marks and had to go back to 180 from 400 and then back up. I'm at 600 now.

 

This is going to sound retarded, but it looks kinda cool without the door ground effect skirt and only the rocker skirt. Not sure how it would look from other angles, though.

 

no door ground effects acctually looks kinda neat. Gives it a running board look. Different, but i think i'd prefer the whole package.
-crash

 

i think you commented in one post but what handles are you using? Ones from a new trailblazer?

 

MetalliC.. I think somewhere around 4-6 hours. I did pieces at a time sitting in front of the tv on a crappy towel sanding with 6oo or 8oo grit & then polished it. It wasn't mirror perfect but, it looked pretty good.

Ward/capn.. I think it looks good at that angle as well but, not all that great at a side shot. The rocker fx isn't attached at the moment tho and the door piece is on the workbench. I didn't want all the sanding crap undeneath the fx.

Twist.. the doors are from a mid/late 90's Intrepid.. Neon's & I believe Stratus have the same style.

 

damn dude, those handles look SWEEEEEEEET! I wish i had the time and patience to do that. Motor looks good too. i polished up all my stuff the other day. now im just waiting for a 350 to put it all onto. how did you get the engine bay to look so good. it looks to me like no a/c or heat. am i correct? it has that "bare bones" look to it. how'd you do it?

 

Nasty.. I h ave heat an A/C (not on anymore but will go back on eventually). In the pic above, you can see the A/C line is attached(far left side) and the compressor was on the motor (you can't see that though).

I guess one reason it looks bare is the AIR stuff is missing & 97% of the wiring has disappeared.
(try to ignore the nasty azz carpet )

 

Deadbird, your car is awesome! I was just trying to think who did the Intrepid door handle thing the other day... My favorite part of that car! Your spoiler gives the car a sweet look too.

After my recent wreck (my second in my two years of ownership) I'm thinking of taking it off the road for a while for a ground up resto (new engine, tranny, fix all the damage, do the handles like yours etc.). Didn't it just kill you not to drive that beaut all this time? Or did the Camaro help eleviate some of the pain?

 

hey is your car a real gta cause u have the normal firebird taillights lol. also how do u like that wing? i need one for my white formula and i was thinkin about goin with that after i get my cowl hood. wut do u think. oh yea and were did u get it an how much lol. nice car i love it later

 

89formula.. Nope, not a GTA.. just a Formula Firebird.
I'm not awfully crazy about the wing but, it doesn't look too bad. I've considered putting an aero-wing back on it but, the price for a fiberglass one keeps me enjoying the high-rise for now. With a cowl hood, I don't think it would look all that bad on a Formula. I got my wing from JEGs a good while back for around $170 or so. I don't think they sell them anymore tho. I think someone said A&A went belly up (?).

 

ok thanks. wel i have another question. i had a crashed 88 gta in my yard for a while that i was strippin and i wunted to put the ground effects on but when i took off the piece below the door there was a bracket that was welded on to the car so i just left them there. how did u get about this? did u just weld the brackets on your car? also wut about on the tops of them peices were the little metel strips where riveted on how did u do that? well thanks

 

I went to Home Depot and got 2 4'(length) x 1.5"(width) x 1/8"(thick), a few $s a piece,,flat stock metal and made a few ¼" welds on top and below to hold it on to the rocker.
I'm not certain if I know what you're talking about with the metal strips/rivets ? (must be some parts I skipped putting on my gfx)

 

So what is under the hood, deadbird? What's gonna be the motorvation? That's a 350tpi, not a 305, hopefully, right? Once again, beautiful car, especially the door handles. I'm itching to put that tech article on your site to good use!

 

Well... what's under the hood appears to be a few empty quarts of oil and some dirt ...



J/k...


(eeverything except the AIR & A/C are present, the A/C will eventually return)

Sorry to disappoint you but, it's a 305 5-speed. It has a little over 500mi on it right now & runs exactly to my liking and still gets the 32-6mpg on the open road that I didn't want to lose.

Laugh if you want for me rebuilding the 305 but, anything else would be pointless to me.

 

I'm not laughing, dude. With mileage like that, I don't blame you. Is that right? You get better mileage than an LS1? Is that because you unclogged the emission-choked motor? Anyway, you've got to have something in mind to make that 305 more powerful, though, am I right? Maybe a supercharger or a better than stock cam... perhaps modern aluminum heads? Not to be picky, but with a car as beautiful and custom as that, I feel there's gotta be something special and trick underhood! Later, ~Chris

 

I appreciate the compliments Chris.. and don't worry about being nit-picky... I can take the good with the bad.

The 5-speed & 3.08 gears are probably one of the better contributors to the gas milage. The last road trip I took in the car before tearing it down was to Carbondale(sp?),IL which was roughly 280-290mi round trip with 3 buds in the car (friends, not the beer ) using 9 gallons of gas. Not bad for 4 people in the car.

If I'm not mistaken, the 305 5-speed engines got a better cam than others (I heard it had a 350 tpi cam somewhere but forget where... I dunno about that tho) so I merely upped to 1.6 ratio rocker for the bit extra lift while trying to retain mpg. The heads have been milled slightly, block decked, & 10:1 pistons went in. The injectors were sent off to be balanced & flow matched, and run 44-49psi. I port matched the intake & did some extra grinding to blend sharp edges inside the TPI as well (pretty much standard as most do I guess). The motor is also balanced down to the flywheel which helps out a little I guess. The ignition is 100% (excluding plugs) MSD. There's no dyno's I know of close to hear but, the guy who built the motor (since I don't have the resources, brains, or patience to do such a thing) said it was feasable (not definate) for the motor to have roughly 315hp. Wheather or not it does is no particular concern of mine, it runs very strong (IMO) and smooth and that's what I wanted

The car was never a real slouch to begin with.. with 140k mi on the clock & basically most of the free mods that could be done, it would barely lose to an automatic 93-95 z28 in a roughly 1/8th mile race. I figure now after the rebuild, it's got to be at least a little faster than what it was which is what I wanted over anything else aside from keeping the mpg as close to what it was.

I say pointless because there are no real drag race track around here for many and, even if there were, that stuff doesn't impress me alot and it's something I've nevr had a desire to do. It will never be an autocross car just because I'm really not that into ragging it (since it's my baby), I'd rather build a car specific for that if I so desired to autocross. I'm not too worried about imports since 98% of them can't even beat my p.o.s camaro & it's only about half as fast as my bird.

If I can walk up to my car an have a feeling of enjoyment to get in, sit in it & turn the key and drive, that's all I have to worry about.

 

Great out look on your car keep the great work. Not every firebird needs to be a monster. Its nice to have a baby and enjoy everytime you driver her keep us posted on your progress. Just think when your done you can stand back open a beer and smile on what a great job you did.

 

Excellent philosophy on your car, deadbird. Too many people go "overboard" (and yes, that is a relative word based on the person) to the point where they can't drive the car every day.

I, myself, am included. I want to eventually build my car to the point where it's too nice to be a daily driver... hopefully I'll be able to afford another fun car to drive everyday, but you're right. When you have a beast of a brutal car that is the object of envy of EVERYONE, you can't park it anywhere or some a$$hole is gonna key it if they're jealous or steal it... or the car just isn't practical enough to be a daily driver on account of the blown 383 stroker motor with true duals that'd scrape on any speed bump, while netting you 12mpg on the highway!

We don't all need a racecar for a daily driver, I'm beginning to realize (and grow up, finally), just a nice car to whoop on imports and Mustangs. It needs to be respectably fast, not racecar fast... for now!

~Chris

 

Hey Deadbird, what kind of valve covers are those...stock??

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments.

rocc4u.. No, they aren't the originals. I'd tell you what they are but, I don't know myself.
They are a polished cast alum valve cover that I got from JEGs a good while back for like $110. They came in a box with no markings & just the 8 screws (didn't even get gaskets with them ). The oil filler cap is actually for a Honda (they're good for something afterall huh ? )since I couldn't find anything else to fit the hole.
The next month I got a JEGs catalog, they were no longer in the catalog so I assume I have one of the last few sold. I have the p/n somewhere but, nothing came up on JEGs website showing they have them (someone asked me once b4 about them).

I guess I'm lucky though, I sort of have one-of-a-kind valve covers

 

SO what that TPI setups just sanded and buffed with wax or what, I want mine that shiny lol. :hail:

 

mav... I didn't do anything special to polish my intake, as stated above, I sanded smoothe with 6-8oo grit paper & polished it.

I'm a simpleton at times and this is one of those times... pic'd below took me 5mins at best (or however long it takes to smoke a cig & have a few swigs of the frosty beverage )

What you see is what I used....

 

I forgot there was an alum snowshovel on the wall.... this took about 30 seconds. (obviously not alot of effort on my part..)

(I can't help the Kodak takes crappy dark/close-up pics either.... can't expect much for $130)

 

oops.

 

I think people like you car without the door ground effects because it reminds them of the fieros ground effects http://www.v8archie.com/warberfs.htm

 

nice snowshovel keep going you have the best looking one on the block lol.