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Hey folks I definitely took my sweet time putting up a post; I've been working on an 84 Firebird for almost a year and I have found this site extremely useful so far.
Here's the rundown: Last March I picked up an 84 Firebird that the guy was pretty much just sitting on. At that point I was looking for months to find the right 3rd gen to buy and I found this car on Craigslist about 15 minutes after the guy posted it. I called him and he had already had 17 phone calls (so he said) for people to come look at it but he told me that the first person to show up with cash would take it. So I zoomed over to look at the car and I was impressed. Overall the car was straight had only surface rust on the underside of the car and the floor pans were solid. The car originally had a 2.8 v6 in it which personally I feel was a terrible idea anyway but I had plans for this car. After I purchased the car the guy stops me as I'm about to drive away and asks me what I planned to do with it, I told him I was going to restore it and most likely drop in a 350 or maybe a 383 or something like that. He tells me he has a 400sbc that is stock that came out of a 73 big body car that still runs (or did when he pulled it) and has just been sitting on a stand for a year or so that I can have if I throw him a couple hundred bucks. He gave me the motor and the stand and all the goodies to go with it. I couldn't turn that down so I bought that off him too.
Well a month and a half later we find out that we will be expecting out first child in December or January and I wont lie I got a little bummed. I definitely thought that I was going to have to sell the car and put the project on hold. Well I told my better half that I was planning to sell the car and all the goodies with it and she yelled at me. She told me "absolutely not! This is a project that you have been looking forward to and it would be ridiculous for you to sell the car. It might take you longer to finish it but don't you dare get rid of it." I was floored; not the reaction I was expecting but I wasn't about to argue with her. The car stayed and I started to plug away at it and like I said before I've been working on the bird off and on for almost a year but my son did come at the beginning of Jan. and I haven't had any garage time since but I'm starting to itch so I hope to get back out there in the next week or so and get back to it. For now here are some Pictures....enjoy.......And I would love to hear some feedback!
Last edited by jbalzola; Feb 24, 2012 at 01:50 AM.
I haven't done anything to the body other than the rust repair in the engine compartment and that's the paint that was already on the car, looks all original to me, I haven't found anything to indicate otherwise yet.
Nice buy, I had the same thing happen to me with my 84 T/a. Found it on craigslist for cheap, but in good condition. Now its 90% restored and running good. Hope your project goes well!
A trans am with a V6? Strange imo (im not saying its uncommon or anything its just kinda weird imo).
Yeah I thought the same thing but I believe that at some point back in the day whomever had the car swapped out the vents in the bumper to the solid trans am filler pieces, not a big deal to me I think it looks cleaner anyway.
Like you ive been itching for a TA. Buddy of mine found my new TA then helped me buy it.
Needs a full resto but not many T-Top GTA Trans Ams were built with a Tuned port 5spd. This TA will not be sold traded or scrapped, we have to keep 3rd gens alive!!
A trans am with a V6? Strange imo (im not saying its uncommon or anything its just kinda weird imo).
Ok I'm guessing the owner bought it as a T/A and then found out it wasn't and then edited all his posts since I don't see any mention of this car being a T/A anywhere in this thread.
Obvious signs: 2.8, base hood, base taillights.
T/A parts that this car has: fenders, ft grilles.
I'm still going with base model Firebird though just because of the amount of work it would take to properly downgrade it to a 2.8 V6. Only the VIN will say for sure though.
Ok I'm guessing the owner bought it as a T/A and then found out it wasn't and then edited all his posts since I don't see any mention of this car being a T/A anywhere in this thread.
Obvious signs: 2.8, base hood, base taillights.
T/A parts that this car has: fenders, ft grilles.
I'm still going with base model Firebird though just because of the amount of work it would take to properly downgrade it to a 2.8 V6. Only the VIN will say for sure though.
I knew it wasn't a trans am when I bought it, I caught all the signs. After taking the front end off and getting rid of some rust in the engine bay and whatnot I came across a TON of bondo on the core support. It got smacked or a previous owner hit something on the passenger side and most likely replaced the front end with trans am parts. I like the trans am filler pieces and fenders anyway
So while putting the car on jack stands I noticed that with the car sitting since october some new surface rust has shown up and some that was already on the car has gotten a little worse. Any recommendations for rust inhibitors or converters that actually work? My plan is to take a wire wheel and some surface prep disks and get rid of as much rust as possible underneath then hopefully spray some rust inhibitor/converter on the whole bottom of the car then undercoat the whole thing with line-x or hurculiner so I don't have to worry about rust again.
I knew it wasn't a trans am when I bought it, I caught all the signs. After taking the front end off and getting rid of some rust in the engine bay and whatnot I came across a TON of bondo on the core support. It got smacked or a previous owner hit something on the passenger side and most likely replaced the front end with trans am parts. I like the trans am filler pieces and fenders anyway
Yep, although I'm usually a stickler for keeping things correct, I can definitely make an exception in this case as it's a welcome upgrade.
So I put in some garage time this weekend and can I say that it wasn't fun at all. First off a buddy and I were going to work on the 400 that I have and we spent 4 hours trying to take ONE of the heads off. We broke two pry bars, 4 air chisel bits, and there was plenty of colorful language, and we still didn't get the head off. So I have a feeling that I will be pursuing a crate motor of sorts.
Next I pulled the tail lights and rear bumper off the car and found all sorts of goodies. By goodies I mean rust. Once I pulled the tail lights out I could tell it was smacked at one point. When I pulled off the rear bumper cover the actual bumper was rotted out on the bottom and where the bumper bolts to the car is rotting away as well. I was hoping to put off buying a welder until later in the year but it looks like I will be picking one up soon so I can replace the sheet metal in the back.
I did find a pretty good product in Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. Once I take a wire wheel to the bottom of the car and do some surface prep I will be spraying the bottom of the car with this stuff. Here are a few pictures of the weekends discovery.
Keep up the good work, just remember to not skimp on dealing with the rust or it will catch up with you again. Rust is a PITA just take it slow and keep at it!
And a buddy and I tried taking the heads off of the 400 that I have and couldn't get even one side off. We spent 4hrs, broke 2 pry bars and 4 air chisel bits, and plenty of colorful language was flying that night....and have barely gotten enough of a gap at the bottom of the head to wedge a pry bar in. WTF any suggestions
Last edited by jbalzola; Apr 16, 2012 at 06:24 PM.
from the looks of it you didnt take out the bolts that are in between the rocker arms. double check the heads to make sure you got all the bolts off inner and outer. there should be 17 total per head, hope this helps
from the looks of it you didnt take out the bolts that are in between the rocker arms. double check the heads to make sure you got all the bolts off inner and outer. there should be 17 total per head, hope this helps
From the looks of it you can't see **** from this picture, but yeah all the bolts have been taken out and we ended up pulling the rocker arms and pulled the push rods with no luck either. I'm leaning towards getting a crate motor and chalking this one up in the loss column.
i ended up using a big fat screwdriver and a hammer. started right in the corners were the block, heads and intake meet. if your not planning on reusing the head give them a good couple of wacks in between the intake and coolant ports. if you still cant get them off and your set on the 400, take it to a shop and have them do it. while its there i recommend a sonic check. i cant think of anything else off the top of my head.
So I've been busy with life and haven't had a whole lot of time to work on the bird but I did get some good garage time the other day...even though I was not too pleased with what I found. I noticed some bubbles on the driver side door and rocker panel and decided to take the wire wheel to it and found rust that was bondo'd over...then I noticed a crack in the paint just under the mirror and took the wheel to that too and found a rust hole that was again covered by....you guessed it more bondo. I sprayed the bottom of the door and rocker panel with rust encapsulator but didn't do anything with the hole in under the mirror. I plan to strip the whole door down to see if there is anything else hiding but do you guys think I should take the time to weld in new patch panels or should I just try to find new doors?
I would personally get new doors. The rust is probably already on the inside of the skin and would be hard to get rid off. Plus if you put patches in those areas you will need to bondo again or.... you could put a new door skin on but that is a PITA that I wouldn't want to even think about attempting. Just get in with some people at salvage yards, if you haven't already. The savings is worth all the searching. IMO
Good luck with the build! Looking forward to seeing all the hard work come to fruition.
So I'm definitely an idiot, on a whim I took a look at the 400 sitting on my engine stand again and staring at me were 4 more bolts that were tucked in between the rocker arms. took those out and all be damned the heads came right off :/
from the looks of it you didnt take out the bolts that are in between the rocker arms. double check the heads to make sure you got all the bolts off inner and outer. there should be 17 total per head, hope this helps
And you nailed it, I still can't believe I missed those.
So I've been gone for a long time, life had a way of keeping me away from the car but I'm back with a vengeance and I'm determined to get this baby on the road by next spring. Since the last post I have done a few things; QA1 rear coil overs, Umi adjustable torque arm with trans crossmember and relocation, did some more rust repair and then the car sat for another year and some change. I've got the itch again and I have a heated shop now which is definitely nice especially because we moved farther north to the U.P. of Michigan. I have a plan now as far as the direction that I'm going and I should be able to get it done before next May. I have a cargo van that the frame rotted out on and I'm taking out the 5.7 Vortec and I'm going to carb it and toss it in the car while I build my 400sbc. I recently purchased a new fuel sending unit and pump, tank straps, 750cfm edelbrock 4bbl carb, summit racing intake to mate to the Vortec heads, Founders Performance adjustable panhard bar and control arms (will be here Tuesday) I've got a buddy building a 700r4 that'll handle at least 500hp should I build the 400 to get that far, a B&M ratchet shifter, and I'll be ordering a manual brake kit soon. So stay tuned for updates as I plug away at this!
I'm getting a little impatient and one of our work vans had the frame rot away but the engine is still good. I pulled that out last weekend (2000 5.7 Vortec) and let me tell you, pulling an engine out of a snub nose van is not what I call a good time. But in the end I get a free engine and I'm going to tear it down give it a good cleaning and some fresh gaskets then that will be the heart of the Firebird as I accumulate parts for my 400.
This was the start of the tear down process. 
