ok guys, i need some info/advice/help.
i'm not a mechanic in any sense, but i found this 83 bird, fell in love, bought her on the spot and now i want to fix her up, refurb what i can, rebuild what i must and add some personal touches. sounds dreamy right?
here's where it gets tough..the motor was replaced with a 2.8 V6 that has some lifter knock, i really want to go back to the old 305 or bigger if possible.
i've been told however that because of the t-tops and the unibody design that anything bigger than the 305 will "twist" the frame even a supped up 305 will do this! is that true?
next up ...she needs a paint job. i've decided on gunmetal grey or a dark silver-ish ...but silly me i also want the color to be an original GM color, does anyone have paint chips for the 83 model year so i can stay in the realm of reality here i know i can order and buy them online...but my God it's like 300 + dollars.
now for advice, my brother is selling me his 85 bird for $500.00! should i fix it up or the 83, one will be used as parts to fix the other then parted out.
if i go this route i want the power doors/mirrors to swap from the 85 onto the 83, is that worthwhile?
keep in mind that when i'm done neither car would be "stock" though i will stay original on a few things like paint style/colors available in 83 ect.
next and last questions: i have no clue what the rear diff gear ratio is on either car ...how do i figure this out? same for the transmission?
there'll be more questions down the road but for now help with this stuff is greatly appreicated.

thanks guys

 

has far as the engine id go with a 350 or 383 and as far as the body twisted it will if u have alot of power and nothing done to the body, some sub-fram connetors will probley help from the twist and for the gear ratio probley have 2.73 but maybe not. if u can look by taking off the rearend cover and counting or jacking the cars and counting how meany turns of the driveshaft it takes to turn the wheel once or if the rearends r the ones that can with the car then if u can find the rpo codes u can uses the decoder on this site and it will tell all of that grear ratios and transmisson types.also welcome to the site and i would really like to see some pics of ur car

 

i do have pics up on my vbgarage, she is a lil rough cosmeticaly by she runs ok right now (even with the lifter knock) and nothing satisfies like pulling up next to some rice burning honda with those stupid "race" stickers plastered all over the place at the stop light and toasting it with some good ole usa muscle..lol, God ya gotta love that huh?

 

ya the best part is when they start revin that suped up blender they call an engine it so funny

 

even better is when their hot as hell 19 yr old girlfriend is sitting netx to them checking out my 35yr old bald fat *** cause i have they way hotter car....lol. not mention that my stock pipes have that throaty growl and his has that....moped on crack sound.

 

ya the thing that was really funny was when my sister owend the car and was smoken *****burner the look on there faces u could tell it was "what the hell how did i lose to a girl in a old *** car" lol

 

Whoever told you that you can't have a 350 in there because of the t-tops clearly does not realize that the factory itself put 350s in t-top cars.

Just make sure that you are doing the right thing by building up this car. Ask yourself how much money you will spend on an engine swap, paint, brake work, SFCs, performance parts, rust work etc. and then compare that to what you'd spend buying a nicer 5.7 Bird all ready to cruise as is.

 

I was wondering about that too! Since you could buy stock Camaro and Firebirds off the showroom floor with 350's with t-tops. You also had convertibles with 350's in them too that you could buy off the showroom floor also! Do you think that convertibles would twist more because they have no tops?

 

thanks guys, i thought it sounded funny but i'm not that savvy bout mechanics.

 

np, that's why there's the internet.

Keep us posted.

 

hey Bull thanks for the tips but ya gotta understand that it's not about the money i'll spend, everything will be done little by little so really it's about the act of building my car to my likes plus me and my 11 year old are doing alot of the stuff together and doing father-son stuff is worth any amount of money and then some you know. lol. not baying that mean or smart-alec or anything just explaining why i'm doing it this way.

 

Oh, no, no worries, I hear where you are coming from. Sounds just fine.

I didn't know how old you were or what your plan was when I posted. A lot of younger guys buy complete roaches for cars, that are rotten and hacked and ugly, and then throw good money after bad at them.

Sounds like you are in a different boat. I'm not a dad yet, but I hear you on the father-son project time. Way cool.

 

sounds like you know tons more than i do about the mechanics of cars so i really appreciate you advice and help, check out some of the other questions i posted (all on this message board)

 

I'm pretty amateur/backyard mechanic here. There are guys waaay more knowledgable about these cars than me on here. But, I'll help when I can.

 

oh and check this out, i found a guy that can do chrome work but not just the standard stuff either, he basically (as i understand how he said it) does an "airbrush" kind of thing right and can do colored chrome. we talked about it and decided to go with a "titanium color on all the places most ppl would do reg chrome,plus a few others. as it stands now we're gonna do the rims (only where they're painted gold, the metal on the t-tops (including the strip between the tops), pedals, shifter stem, all the screw heads in the interior (dash, doors and all), and the vents are getting the metal honeycomb chromed. opinions?

 

i think for the most part everyone here is amateur/backyard mechanic but this site puts us all to geather and u pretty much everything u need to know about theses cars

 

hell, i'm just learning stuff as i go. i recently "learned" about the a/c blower motor, releys, and such..lol. course it still doesn't work, i think it's the actual control switches on the dash, i've replaced everything else lol.

 

ya iv just been leaning as i go also and just tryin to read on this site as much as posible most everything i how i learnd from this site