Kiwibirdmans 1968 Pontiac Firebird Convertible

[Kiwibirdman]

After more than a year of working on the Firebird its about time to start a build thread. @j.e.d. had been asking.

First the back story sharn about this car. I first saw pictures of it in the paper when its was stilling in a car dealers yard in New North Rd in 1986. I remember the car and still have a copy of the advert which I was given when I bought the car. It had been stolen and recovered, minus engine and gearbox and was bashed around with the interior destroyed.

Fast forward 10 years and I had not long got back from a 4 month holiday in Europe and was at a friends place when he said we are going to Whangaparoa to look at Peters Firebird, do you want to come. Peter has to sell it, he has run out of money building a new house and wife is giving him grief about his cars. My mates father was thinking about buying it.

We went up to the house, opened the garage and found a pile of boxes that had a car buried under them. We cleared it off and pushed this car out side. It was red, on rusty HQ holden wheels, ripped roof, no bonnet, noting in the engine bay, not grill, headlights etc, My mates father walked once around the car, scratched his head and said too much work for me. I had a bit of a rummage in the garage and found the seats and boxes of bits. It looked like it was pretty much all there.

We pushed it away and went home. When I got home I found a Pommy Hot Rod magazine that I bough while I was on holiday. In the cars for sale section was a 1968, 350HO Firebird Convertible. Strangely I had been drawn to that car when I bought the magazine. 

A couple of days later I rang Peter and said is the car still for sale and if so how much. The answer was yes and $12k. Sounded fair enough to me so I said it going to take me a couple of weeks to get the money, I need to refinance my mortgage and add a bit more. Bank came to the party and 2 weeks later the car was mine. 

As an aside I got a call about a year later from a reasonable well known Whangaparoa Hot Rodder asking if I owned the car and if so how much did I pay. Yes I own it and paid $12k. This guy, who was known for dicking people around said he offered $15k for the car. I guess I got a good deal and it pays not to stuff people around.

When I collected the car I went up with a car transporter one weekend and go the car, filled with parts, and back the next weekend to get the rest of the parts. Peter had got a lot of good bits out of really well optioned 400HO coupe that got written off. This included a nice black delux interior, power windows, remote mirror. 

The deal included a 350 Pontiac in bits, a 400 Pontiac that needed a rebuild and actually got swapped for a running 350 Pontiac out of another car that was being turned into the written off 400 HO car. There is a yellow firebird out there which isn't quite what it is portrayed as. I also have the original bonnet off that car, but that is another story.

 

[Kiwibirdman]

Firebird sharn part 2. Over the next 5 years I slowly rebuilt the car, having a badly paid job that required me to travel a lot meant that I didn't have the time or money to do the car fast. The final push to get it done was getting married and it was the wedding car.

It got finished in time, 350 Pontiac, not an HO motor but I found a 4 barrel manifold and put an Edelbrock 600cfm carby on it and with a set of headers it went well. It also had a turbo 350 auto with a hi stall converter, a set of SS Cragars and it was pretty cool. Here is a photo from our wedding day.

Over the next few years we used the car off and on. Once the kids were born it didn't get used much when they were small. Also with the autobox, high stall and 3.23 diff it did about 2700 rpm at 100 kph. That is not much for a jap 4 cylinder, its half way to the red line on a Pontiac. It was noise and thirsty and not much fun on a trip.

About 10 years ago we went to see my wifes family in Holland and I drove my brother in-laws left hand drive manual station wagon. This changing gear with the right hand isn't a bad idea, I wonder about the firebird. Not long after we got back I found a Pontiac bell housing and flywheel, then a T5 out of an 1989 TPI Camaro and a friend had an 11 inch GM clutch that he didn't need that would fit. 

The flywheel turned out to be not a Pontiac, I sold it and to this day still don't know what it fitted, possibly big blog Chev or Oldsmobile. I bit the bullet and bought a new fly wheel, hurst shifter and a hydraulic release bearing. The release bearing was a bad idea, i couldn't get enough clearance and I blew the seals out of it twice. Other wise the manual swap was a great success. I had always wanted a manual V8 and in 5th gear it was doing 1850 rpm at 100kph. It will happily go over the harbour bridge at 1250 rpm in 5th. The torgue of a Pontiac is awesome.

 

[Kiwibirdman]

Firebird sharn Part 3, About 4 or so years ago I was going to an oldschool Auckkland meet up and backing out of the garage hit the door post. This pushed in the righthand quarter panel. I new it had bog and there we bubbles coming though. Popping the panel out made most of the bog fall off. Since I already had one car in a million bits the Firbird got parked and ignored for a few years. I robbed the HZ Holden brake calipers of it for the EJ Holden, then the brake master cylinder and finally the front wheels.

When the Holden was getting close to finished I started ordering bits. From classic industries  I got 2 new back guards, both sides had been flared out to clear big tires, a boot spoiler and a bunch of other bits like the proper remote mirror and new badge for the centre of the bumper.

I wrote a list of all the things that needed to be fixed, clutch mechanism- get rid of the hydraulic release bearing, better brakes, new front seats-the original drives seat was bent and they were like sitting wooden park benches, fix the rust and paint.

Summit racing supplied an external hydraulic slave cylinder, clutch fork and release bearing. In another order I bought a kit to fit C5 corvette discs and calipers. This was from Classic Performance and was based on a new cast stub axle. I like the idea of using factory parts so that pad etc will always be available. 

Even though Corvettes run 17 inch wheels I had to get 18 inch to clear the calipers. Not what I wanted but I'm happy with the result.

 

 

[Kiwibirdman]

Here is the place to discuss

 

[Kiwibirdman]

Writing this up has caused me to think about how much has been done so far. I had the gearbox rebuilt. Ever since it went in the change from 4 to 3 would not go without double clutching. Up changes were fine and down changes for all other gears were good as well. 

I took it to a guy in Puke that @cletusrecommended. He asked what was wrong and explained and said otherwise box was quiet and changed well. He said that while it was apart might as well do all the synchros and bearings. When I picked it up he said that it was amazing that any down shifts worked and all the bearings has lost their preload. Amazing that it did as well as it did.

While that was out I made a bracket for an external slave cylinder, universal from Rock auto but designed for a jeep, and refitted the original clutch fork came with bell housing. The pedal now has proper travel and is jap car light. It still needs the final adjusting/massaging once I can drive the car. It is light enough for the wife to use OK. Not sure that is a great idea. Also never took any photos, sorry.

The next major job was fitting the new back guards. I had been watching a body man from New Foundland in Canada call Fitzee on YouTube. He did some videos on swapping panels and has a system called Cut and Butt. This inspired me to have a crack, working on the theory that the guards weren't expensive and if it all turned to crap I could buy another one. It was also a good excuse to buy a Mig.

Here are a couple of phots of the bad guard

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Here it is with the guard cut off. Amazing how little rust there was, I was worried what I was going to find.

And the final product

Here is the other side finished

I did the drivers side first. The first cut into the guard took a out of doing, mainly the thought of cutting up a really expensive car. I did remind myself that I have had it for 25 years and it only owes me a about $25k. Once the fit cut was done it was all on. I took my time and it worked out pretty good. For anyone who wants to do something similar here is the link.