Well, it is time to finally start my build after purchasing the car in 2009 as a roller. I have a 1991 Pontiac Firebird Formula 5 spd. The end goal is to have a fun summer daily and weekend car that I can enjoy at AutoX events and make the occasional ¼ mile run without breaking. My goal is for this to be picture heavy.

I will update the top post with the “List” as things get done as well as post updates. An * means I am in progress with that item.

Car is currently a 305 TBI completely stock. Then end goal is:

The "List"
Y-pipe
SLP exhaust
Adjustable TA
9 inch with 4.11 gear
4th gen washer and coolant reservoir
SFCs
Black 4th gen seats
Swap to black interior
New carpet
New door glass
New window in-door sweeps
Window tint
Upgrade sound system phase 2 (Sub and Amp)
Hushmat
*Empty wallet mod

Completed:
LS - solid mount
T56 - poly mount
Longtube headers
4th gen gas tank
Paint engine bay
Undercoat
New window motors
86-90 TA sequential taillights
Refinished cross lace wheels.
Outside door window sweeps
Caster/camber plates
Walter Racecraft big black shaft
Adjustable panhard bar
Panhard bar relocation kit (room for new exhaust)
Adjustable LCAs
Lower Control Arm Relocation Brackets
Del-a-lum control arm bushings
New Shocks/Struts on all 4 corners
All new poly graphite bushings front and rear (Sway bar, endlinks, etc)
New Steering rebuild from tie rod to tie rod and everything in between.
Wonderbar
LS1 front brake upgrade
Upgrade sound system phase 1 (Speakers and 4th gen CD deck, aux)

 

Here is the car when I bought it in 2009 as a roller.



And again in 2011.

 

Wheels:

I really wanted crosslace wheel in black for my car. I found a member who had a set for sale 3 hours away. Picked them up and ran them they way they were for a couple years.

They were looking like they had seen better days. I decided to refinish them.

First thing was to clean them really well.

Before



After



Sanding took forever about 5 hours per wheel, but they were ready for paint.

I used VHT wheel paint. Self-etching primer, primer, Gloss black, and clear.

Self-etching primer 2 coats



Primer 2 coats



Gloss black 4 coats and 3 coats of clear



I polished the lips with Mothers Billet polish. If I had to do them again I would have them powder coated. Painting was a pain as there are so many angles and crevasses. Overall I think thy turned out really well.



Here they are on the car.

 

Just go ahead and ship that car my way !

 

I don't think that will happen.

 

I may even send a couple bux and a thank you card!

 

I love thank you cards.

 

Well here is my weekly update. I feel like I made some decent progress in the last few days. Well anything is progress compared to just searching the internet and buying things without installing them.

Rotors have been cut off and are ready for the machine shop to be turned to fit my LS1 brakes as well has have new longer ARP wheel studs pressed in. Once they come back they will be cleaned and painted.





Spindles have been cut down, removed and are ready for the machine shop to drill and tap. (I was going to drill and tap, but then I realized I needed to get the bit and the tap, so this time around I will let the shop do it). Once they come back they will be cleaned and painted.





LCA arms have been removed, rubber bushings and metal sleeved have been removed. They are ready for the machine shop to get new ball joints and del-a-lum bushings. Once they come back they will be cleaned and painted.



Once everything is back, I can start the installation of everything. Including new shocks.





Hopefully I will be able to post more frequent updates. If you have any questions please ask!

-Josh

 

Some goodies came in the mail yesterday.



I was able to install the Caster/Camber mounts as well.



I have class tonight so I won't be able to work on the car today.

 

You got the PHB relocation bar and the PHB upside down in the pic lol

You need to lower the mounting points on the rear end for the PHB. Given its location now lower on the frame with the bracket your PHB is going to be angled way high on the axle tube side.

I have almost the same on mine but the PHB is UMI double rod ended but I made a mount with 4 lowering adjustment holes on the rear and it's barely level with a mild lowering.

 

Yup, I just had them laid out after unboxing them. That would be some feat installing them backwards.

Do you mean something like this?



I get this is done to keep the panhard bar at an ideal angle, but is this necessary on a stock height vehicle? Do you have any pictures of your setup?

 

Yup, that's what u need. The drop is considerable on the frame side even on a stock height vehicle. You will need to level it out at least one hole lower.

Mine is hard to see now with the 4" exhaust and I had to lower it to the last hole after i swapped my 20s to 18" and lowered the ride height alittle.












It drops the frame mount over 2" by looking at the pic.








This was before the last hole was used. It's now basically level but will know more after its on the ground and everything settles.

 

What I am getting from this is I want my panhard bar level after all is said and done? Please educate me.

 

Yes, PHB should be level at ride height. This means on the ground and after a few miles as the suspension settles. This puts the rear in an equal arc through suspension movment. But since the bars location is much lower than stock at both mounting points it creates a lot of problems with IRC and lots of other things. Slicktrackgod can explain everything way more in depth. I know though you should probably increase spring rate in the rear considerably to offset the IRC. I've run 150, 175 and 200 on mine. Stock WS6 rear springs are 105lbin.

 

Perfect, thanks for the advise customblackbird. I will look into fabing something up when all finished. How far apart are all your holes? I am curious to where my panhard is right now being stock. I would be curious to see how this changes with a 9 inch in the back.

 

Don't know for sure, prob alittle over 1.5 on center.

You can buy a bracket already made from Jegs. Made by jegster.

Figure yours is pretty close to level OEM now drop the frame side 2+" and that will give u an idea of how it's going to look lol.

 

I took a look and I don't think Jegster makes them anymore. I hope I'm wrong.

 

The last part of my TDS order came. Now I have polygraphite sway bar bushings for the front and rear with zerk fittings and zink plated brackets from TDS as well as their wonderbar. I can't wait to get this stuff on. A little more pricey than a generic set, but everything looks well built.

 

Look what showed up. I decided to splurge and took the plunge and went with some Koni Yellows. The rears should be on by the end off the weekend.

 

The weekend was very productive. My dad visited from out of town and we got some garage time in. We replaced the panhard bar and upper bar with on car adjustable from Founders. Once ride height is finalized I will be lowering the panhard bar on the axle side to correct it. It was really easy to center the rear in the car. It went quire smooth. We also Installed polygraphite end links and TDS polygraphite rear sway bar bushings. To top it off we installed rear Koni yellow shocks.





We removed the ball joints from the lower control arms and prepped them for paint. I used VHT Epoxy paint. It went on very well and turned out great.

Before



After



Painted my LS1 brake swap brackets as well.



Once my del-a-lum lower control arm bushings come in everything is going to the machine shop to get pressed in. Then the assembly can continue.

 

Nice progress! Getting me motivated to get back to work on my project. It is always a nice treat when pops is around to help turn a wrench or give some advice about how to do things properly. Wish I had more opportunities to wrench with my dad. Keep up the good work!

 

I agree, sometimes I wait to do things just so we can do it together. I'm very thankful for garage time with my dad.

 

I was able to install my Water Racecraft steering shaft tonight. No more rag joint for me. Slow progress, but it is better then none.

 

Busy weekend – Drove to my parents’ house in SE Wisconsin (I live in MN) and got all my parts off the Camaro. Since it was stripped down to the shell my dad and I took the car over to the to the scrap yard.

It took a little ingenuity, but we got it on the trailer.



Special thanks to Cole and his buddy for helping us slide the Camaro into place.



At the salvage yard.



She looks so sad, but most of her parts are going to a good home.

 

Great build. Makes me sad remembering my 2nd car, 92Formula 350tpi. It was my favorite car, and they're hard to find nice like yours.

Did you put 3rd or 4th gen rear Koni's?

Have you acquired your I interior yet?

Are you putting new seamsealer and recoating the front fenderwells?

 

Thanks, I hope it goes well. Hoping to finish up the steering and suspension minus springs (staying WS6 for now) within the next two weeks or at least before my first kid is born.

I went with 3rd gen Koni's. As much as it would have been nice to be able to adjust them on the car. I don't think I would have changed them after I found the setting I liked. Also, the 3rd gen shock is a mono tube design and I liked that over the 4th gen twin tube design.

I have my seats. I will be running 4th gen TA ebony leather seats. I will be purchasing new black carpet. I am still looking for black interior plastics with rear shoulder belts.

Eventually I will be re-coating the front fender wheel well area. I am undecided if I will do it now or when I drop the K member for the LS. I will see how the seam sealer looks when I get in there.

 

My Global West Del-a-lum bushings for my front lower control arms finally came. Hopefully in the next day or two I can get them to the machine shop to be pressed in along with new ball joints. The rotors will be turned town and my spindles will be drilled and tapped too.

 

I was able to get everything dropped off at the machine shop today. Everything should be ready to pick up on Saturday. In the mean-time my goal is to button up the rear suspension. I found a squeak and it is definitely coming from both springs although they were never touched. Shocks are off the car, and so are the end links. I am wondering if I should just let it be and see if it goes away after some driving.

Also was able to pick up my Founders LCAs and LCARBs from a member on here. Thanks Mark. These will finish out the rear of the car until the 9 inch comes. Everything will move over except the LCARBs.

 

Looks good. Do you have any shots of the angle of the PHB? How much lower than stock are you going?

 

I am hoping to button up the rear tonight. I will measure and post what I find.

It's apart because I was trying to isolate the squeak I found. Turns out it's something with the springs although I never touched them. I think I will drive it and see if that helps.

 

Looking forward to this progressing. I just put on some founders LCA's and LCARB's. Haven't driven on them yet, but they are made very well IMO.

 

Big thumbs up for your Formula! Mine needs to look that good ASAP!

 

You can do it! One little thing at a time.

 

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm trying to stay positive and motivated! Keep the posts coming.

 

Well, with Easter and family stiff I got less done than I was planning on. I did get the LCARBs on. One was twisted a bit so it took a while to get it to work. I would like to by the end of this week to finish the rear end, get the panhard measurements and start putting the front back together.

I was able to pick up everything from the machine shop. LS1 brake swap, ball joints, and some Del-a-lum bushings. I think it turned out really nice. For those in the Minneapolis, MN area let me know if you want his name. Just need to paint and assemble after a few more parts I ordered come in.

 

Looking good,tasteful mods and right on schedule for me to come pick it up!

 

Nice build I should of done LS1 brakes on my 87 - it cost way too much to do the 1LE brakes I did in 2004, stock discs are wimpy wimpy wimpy

 

Thanks! You might want to wait until it can be driven away before picking it up. It would take a lot for me to sell it. I really enjoy driving this car.

 

I looked at the 1LE, but for cost vs performance it seemed wise to go LS1 since I had a donor car.

 

Looks like your on the right road looks good

 

I was able to get the measurements after finishing up the rear. At stock ride height with the founders upper relocation mount the driver side of the panhard rod was 2.5 inched higher than the passenger side. I am not sure where I will land on ride height, but I would like to go a tad lower in the rear. I will wait until I have a different rear and an adjustable torque arm before worrying about adjusting ride height.

 

Today I was finally able to install the adjustable lower control arms. It took a while to free them up, but once I got the right size open and used my torch I was home free. Cleaned up the threads with the wire wheel, and once I added some new ant seize and they were good as new. I torqued everything down and greased the zerks up.

The LCAs have 6.5 degrees of sloop going back to the rear wheels. So I should have plenty or room in the event I lower to keep that greater than 0-2 degrees.



The rear end work is done with the exception of adjusting the level on my panhard bar to be level. New polygraphite sway bar bushings with zerk fittings, polygraphite end links, adjustable panhard bar and upper relocation bracket, adjustable lower control arms, lower control arm relocation brackets, and to round it all out, Koni Yellows.

Now onto the front end…..

 

Sounds about right. Every drop in ride height directly affects the bars position, not that it's an exact 1:1 ratio but it's pretty close but it's just that the PHB is so long the angle seems gradual but it takes large drops to affect it. Figure you need 2.5" to level it out and then the mount needs to adjust for the same amount you drop it. So say u level it out and drop it 1" then your next bracket lowering hole could be 1" and it would keep it level.

 

Over the weekend I was able to finish prepping and painting the spindles, backing plates and hubs with black epoxy paint. It turned out really well and the paint went on smooth. The LS1 rotors look huge compared to the stock thirdgen pieces. Hopefully they will be installed within the next couple weeks.



Some other performance parts came in the mail. Life is changing. Less than 3 weeks until our first arrives.

 

Better get all that car playing done b4 the 1st arrives!!!!
You will be very busy soon!

 

The plan is to finish the suspension and chassis stuff before he arrives, but at the rate I am going I won't finish. I just spend two hours trying the put the front spring back in and zero progress.

 

Ya springs are a GIANT pain. I rebuilt my whole front end just to have to take it all apart 3 times. First I found out that my springs were worn out. Then I had to modify my spohn A arms to work with the Moog springs I bought. The best way I found was to line the spring up by placing it on the A Arm so that its indexed right. Then pulling it out, putting it vertical while still keeping the spring turned right so that it stayed indexed, and the jacking the a arm up slowly. With the help of a few wacks of a rubber mallet they just snapped in.


Basically what I did ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Thanks t/aws61985. I will give that a try. I will definitely need to get a pry bar like his first.

 

I use an internal spring compressor, slightly modified to work. The first time I did it, It took my about 30 minuted each side to get the spring in and spindle bolted to the strut.
The second time, I figured I had it all figured out, took me only a few minutes per side... Didn't get the springs in the upper pockets, I figured they needed to settle in with a test drive, when they didn't I figured out they had to come back out for me to get them in there all the way. Passenger side took me like an hour to get in there for some reason, drivers side was a 5 minute job lol.

 

Got my new wheel bearings and seals this as well as my caliper paint. Every little bit helps.