out of the garage after 4 months!


so, as the picture says, after 4 month of being on jack stands, its finally out of the garage. all new brakes all around, new washer pump, new battery tray, new battery, new rear brake lines etc etc... its runs terrible.
in the next couple of weeks I need to get it over to a buddys shop, were going to put it on a lift to do the plugs, wires, cap, probably injectors and just for good measure, do an oil and filter change.

 

new set of wheels from cypris


pretty good weekend, other than getting the car out of the garage, the family and I made about a 700 mile round trip to pick up these wheels from cypris, I have big plans for them that involve a white formula.
other than that there is a set of pbr brakes, rotors, carriers, pads ect under the wheels thanks to a guy from Dayton. $50 for the wheels $75 for the brakes, not a bad weekend at all.

 

Subscibed!

 

The lengths we go to, to get parts for our 3rd gens

 

figured out where the egr solenoid goes


so I figured out where the egr is supposed to be mounted, as well as where the lines go, I saw something about deleting the egr valve and solenoid but I think they mentioned that you have to have a new tune to delete them so were gonna skip that for now and ill just cap off the line that goes to the smog stuff. p.s still runs like crap.

 

parking brake engaged


finally got around to hooking up the parking brake cable, between the cable and the spring there is some massive tension, so I wasn't up to tackling it when I put the brakes on, but last night was a good night and I got it done. this weekend I hope to bleed the front brakes because they are still pretty spongy, I think with getting the back brakes adjusted properly that should help.

 

so, ive spent the week modifying my garage to help work on the car, before I only had about 2 feet between the car and the shelves on the wall. well, now those shelves are gone. if all goes well this weekend im going to try to bleed my front brakes again (still soft) and look at the spark plugs again and be intimidated some more.

 

so o finally got the courage up to tackle the spark plugs just to find out that the e3 plugs that chuck purchased were the wrong plugs. so I went out,and got correct ones on Friday.


old spark plug, wrong e3 spark,plug, new spark plug

 

possibly the cause of the car running rough?


mice have made their presence known..

 

rotor cap with quite a bit of build up from the rotor.

 

just finished replacing the plugs, wires distributer cap and rotor and cleaned the m.a.f with mass airflow cleaner hoping to get to take it out tonight to see how she runs.

 

It would definitely run rough due to the exposed plug wires allowing the spark to arc out on something instead of reaching the plug itself.

go over all the vacuum lines as well, that's usually the first thing I go to when an older car is running bad

 

yeah that's the next step, I purchased a new vacuum canister and have yet to pit it in. the vacuum lines have been a mess since I got the car but it did run pretty well a couple of months ago and it progressively got worse

 

That old plug looks like your running rich....any others look like that? What do you mean by running rough?

 

small vacuum leak..

all of the plugs looked like that, really black, not burned though. no idea how old they were or how many miles on them.

the reason its running so rough is because the vacuum system is all jacked up.

 

when I started working on the windshield washer pump the line going from the pump to the tank was T'd off going to this nipple on the engine. I'm thinking this is supposed to be for the hvac controls, and the whole T section of vacuum line was supposed to stay on here and go to the hvac control and the vacuum canister.... needless to say the whole vacuum system is a mess. I'm probably going to print out the vacuum diagram and pull everything out and start over.

 

so, I decided the bird needed to come put of its nest for a while. I capped of my vacuum leak and took her out for a spin. it's an amazing ride! new brakes new cold air intake, plugs wires and everything else make it an amazing experience... I actually put gas in the take today! for the first time in almost a year I filled the tank... it was a minor obsession before but I think this takes it to a new level... I think I'm in trouble

 

love this car! so much fun!,

 

He's been bitten and infected by the 3rd gen bug.

 

so I tore out the headliner today, it all came out in one piece which seems to be a positive and there is only 1 small broken spot which I'm sure I could fix by putting the new fabric on but I tried something else, not gonna say what until i see if it works, for now a few pics
headliner board without fabric



what was left of the headliner fabric

 

Yes, I'd say you got ALL of the life out of that headliner cloth.

Breaks like that can be fixed from the back side with fiberglass.

 

so, I didnt want to say what i did with my headliner until I saw if it worked. it did work but I didn't take pics.. ::
what I did was used small pieces of fiberglass
cloth to strengthen the broken spot and the thin spots and instead of using the fiberglass resin I used clear flexseal. I also coated the entire backside of the board with the flexseal to help hold the whole board together
new fabric on the headliner

 

fabric trimmed down

 

headliner done? lol, not gonna know until i flip it over i guess

 

new headliner in place
new headliner in place

 

so I finally got the guts to put my headliner in, it's not a job for the faint of heart if your by yourself. I could not find a way to get it inside the car without bending it.
also starting recovering the sail panels


old sail panel



newly recovered sail panel

 

also found this


original user manual

 

Nice job your doing there jworks
Patience is a Virtueand it seems you have it.

 

thank you mantaguy, patience is not really one of my strong points but this project seems to be rather theraputic and relaxing, whenever I get frustrated or stuck I just walk way for the night. I guess age truely does bring wisdom

 

so i finally got both of the sail panels recovered and installed Saturday night and worked a bit more on the body. come Sunday the wife mentioned something about taking the firebird out for a drive as a family (which would be the first time any one has been in the back seat), So I jumped on it and started throwing the car back together as fast as I could, right when I was about to put the spoiler back on for the ride it started to rain... bummer.
So.... I started to work on the body a little more which I think solidified my thought on painting the car myself, so I'm ordering new sprayer, mixing cups, r.o sander ect. tonight and I plan on figuring out what kind of paint to get and where to get it. any input is very welcome

 

decided we were going to take the firebird out for a cruise today, daughter in the front seat, son on the back, wife... God knows where lol. get ready to turn off my street and my daughter goes "uh-oh... daddy..." I look over and she has reclined the seat all the,way back and it won't come back up... so her headrest is literally in my son's lap. I instantly turn red and head back home. she swings open the door to get out and nails our rock wall with the door. we were supposed to take it out tonight for a cruise with my neighbor tonight as a family.. oh well, I guess new seats are going in sooner rather than later.

 

Oh yes...been there. Sorry to hear about the difficulties.

 

yeah, this was the weekend we were supposed to take it our for a cruise and them I was going to start blowing it all apart on Sunday to get it ready to prep for paint, but we found out that my wife had to take a trip out to new jersey for the week, so the car is on hold as I am now taking care of both kids myself. props to all the single parents out there, I'm only 1 day in and it sucks...
she coms back on Friday, so hopefully I can really dig my heels in on Saturday and get some work done.

 

Great job so far! Love these cars..

 

she swings open the door to get out and nails our rock wall with the door.

I really want to make a comment, but I will control myself.

 

so since I've decided to paint the car myself I decided that the basement, which is adjoining the garage by a door, needed to be a bit more functional. so I started to refinish the walls got my new FREE work bench installed and figure out the placement of my air compressor and this is what ive

come up with
new workbench



new conpressor

 

the compressor is not installed yet, trying to decide if it's gonna stay there or not, and trying to decide on iron or copper for plumbing it in.

 

Copper does not rust.

 

Copper can burst. Use iron, or a kit like this.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...4023_200484023

 

https://www.copper.org/applications/...th_table5.html

For info only. Draw your own conclusion.
But that kit you referenced is the way to go and easy.

 

Leave it where it is and install a couple of air drops with filters.

 

Interesting. Thanks for sharing that. There seems to be enough controversy about it on garagejournal.com that I think I'll still steer clear. Facts don't lie though. Looks like it should work.

 

so, it's been be year almost to the hour since chuck passed. I took the old bird put for a drive tonight in his honor, did some of the stupid stuff he did, burn out on a main drag, fish tailed it a couple of times and kept it floored for well over a mile. unfortunately I'm not sure how fast I was going because the dash lights decided to stop working. this is only the 3rd time I've had it out after dark since I've had it so no idea how long they havnt worked... I'm gonna milk this nice weather as long as I can and I guess when i swap out the seats im gonna pull out the dash and clean all the contacts and replace the bulbs

 

Yep, enjoy 'em while you can! Winter's coming.

 

Ya, winter is coming. Sounds like a fun ride despite the dash lights.

FWIW, my car club built the 6 bay shop in the early 1970s and used all 1/2" copper lines for the air compressor and all are still in service today with only quick connect fittings having been replaced. It is only used for tools though, not for painting. They used a flex line between the compressor and the copper to avoid transmitting vibrations to the lines. Good luck with what ever way you go.

 

well the more i look into in and the more i talk to guys that have done this the more I'm leaning towards cpvc, operating pressure is 400 psi at 73º 100 psi at 200º. this is in a basement and garage that stays mostly around 60º. I'm going to run 2 3/4 inch lines, one oiled, one not. the non oiled line will be just for paint, the oiled line will have drop lines that are 1/2 inch in both my basement and in my garage. I'm not planning on staying in this house for more than another 2 years or so.

 

I don't know, I wouldn't run it. In my old house I ran a CPVC system for my air, and I did it all correctly. Blew out a line at one of the fittings and all hell broke loose. Never will I do that again. In my new shop I did it all in copper with soldered joints. Solid as hell and doesn't leak a bit.

 

really? hmmm.... havnt done anything yet, I've gotten roped into doing crap for everyone else the past few weekends, and I just found out im replacing a bath tub this weekend. i was thinking copper, but I'm also trying to figure out if i should run 2 lines, one oiled and the other dry (for painting)

 

I've never run an oiled line and never really had any issues. Always kept mine dry air, even in my mechanics shop we only run dry air.

 

I could not go with PVC either, it's not rated for shock load like a pneumatic system sees. Also I would not bother with an oiler system, just a dryer. I think they sell oil devices that can screw to the tool, or just dump some in before each use, that is what I do.