67firebirdak

Cool, good to know! I always figured it was a powerglide, but I guess this makes me feel less bad about converting it to a th350. I was also thinking of painting the block pontiac blue, but I figured since it's a chevy block i'd keep it a chevy color... more to come, its in the paint booth now, main body should be all primed and ready for paint in a couple of weeks.

And the outlet block on the inner fender? Some backyard hack had wired in an electric Airplane heater to the center "hump" and ran house wiring to run it. That all came out in the first hour of my owning it lol. The aftermarket Sears under-dash heater is going too, I think i'm going to leave it heater delete.

67firebirdak

How much do those run? I have a set of Gibson GP115 shorty headers for a 2002 Chevy truck, but i'm not sure if these will clear the power steering gearbox on the driver's side. I guess if they don't I'll get some long tubes but it'd be nice if these did, it'd save me some $$$.

67firebirdak

Just decoded the VIN printed on the firewall, and although I all ready knew most of this, it's still interesting

From the Factory it had:
-Heater Delete (In Alaska ???. Car was from Hawaii Though, still has HI inspection Stickers on the back bumper)
-2 Speed Auto Transmission
-230CI OHC 6 with 1-BBL carb rated @ 165 hp
-Cameo Ivory Paint
-Dark Blue Vinyl Interior.
-2.56 Rear End, Non- Locking / Non- Posi

Apparently the car has had a lot of work done to it in the past, but some of its pretty bad. At least I'm making it better

-Q-

iTrader: (10)

Man, that is freaking outstanding! I am in Eagle River, so let me know if you ever need an extra set of hands!

Lurk

iTrader: (11)

What was the heater delete plate in the center panel inside? I can't tell in the pics, where the controls would have been, is it black pebble plastic?

Can you post a close up of that?

I'm enjoying the thread for sure! I've got a 68 Firebird apart in the garage. But as far as LS engines, I'm just finishing up a swap. L92 into a 1990 RX7. Swaps are a lot of fun!

67firebirdak

There is black pebble plastic filling in the factory heater controls, with a potentiometer mounted in the center of it that fades the front and rear factory mono speakers for the AM radio. I don't have any pics right now but I'll try to get some later.

'WHEELS'

iTrader: (1)

awesome find. i'm assuming the car was kept indoors? wouldn't 22 years of snow and stuff turn the car into a big pile of crap?

67firebirdak

Well, the car took a nice little vacation from this arctic weather to it's homeland of Hawaii today. Well, it might not have made it to Hawaii, but it sure saw a lot of sand. A good portion of the day was spent sand blasting the front of the body, core support, door jambs, rocker panels, window channels, trunk weatherstrip channels, and rear deck filler. All the rust that was there is now gone!





But did it ever make a mess. All nice and cleaned up now, but there was practically a beach in the back seat (haha!).



All that I have to do now is fix the rust pitting in the dash window channel, finish up the body work, and it's ready for paint. Just put in another order with summit, so the engine is becoming more and more complete. More to come on that later.

71 chevy

iTrader: (18)

nice build, but send that edelbrock back and get a real carb

67firebirdak

Well, been hard at work on the firebird over the last week or so. The body is perfect now; I've spent a lot of time blocking it to perfection. Right now it has been completely wet sanded and is ready for me to lay down paint tomorrow!

These pictures are from a couple of days ago, after I put the first 2 coats of Primer Surfacer down and guide coated it.




I've also found the color and got that mixed up at Hi-Tec paint, the local PPG distributor here in Anchorage. The color that I'm using is a Stock 67 camaro color, Marina Blue. It's a custom color match that looks absolutely perfect. I'm using PPG Deltron 2000 Paint with a DT860 Reducer for the basecoat.

Here's what the color looks like, I painted the gas door separately before I did the whole car to make sure the color was right




I'll post more pictures of it once I get done with the paint!

67firebirdak

Also, a little tech update. After a very merry christmas , I'm now going to use a 700R4 Auto Trans to drive the 5.3. Since it has an electronic speedometer output, I decided to go with the cable-x speedometer converter to use the stock gauges.

I also got a kit to convert the Torque converter lock-up to work in overdrive with non-computer controlled engines.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-60109/

This should be interesting to see how this works, but hopefully a 700R4 will give me better gas mileage than a TH350...

LS1MCSS

iTrader: (18)

That lockup kit will work ok. I have tried different ones over the years and it seems to me the best is the B&M kit. It is speed controlled instead of vacuum. With the vacuum kits, the convertor will want to unlock a lot more than it needs to. Every time you come to a small hill and press the gas pedal a little, it will probably unlock the convertor with the vacuum kit, even when it didn't really need to. The speed controlled kit is adjustable so you can set the lockup at whatever speed you desire, up to 90mph.

67firebirdak

Hmm, I see what you mean. I'm not exactly sure how the Painless Wiring one will work, but it was part of the Christmas present so I'm not complaining.

I have to wonder if there is a way to adjust the vacuum pressure on the painless wiring ones so it will stay locked up longer until there is a bigger drop in the vacuum... If not at least it'll help with mileage on the highway

67firebirdak

Well, spent the last few days painting the body of the firebird, and this is how it turned out.







Came out pretty good after the initial wet sand and buff, but it still needs some work before it gets a completely perfect shine.

67firebirdak

Today I got the engine and transmission out, so now it's ready for some subframe and firewall work, then I can start retrofitting the 5.3 in it.










Came out pretty easy, everything was out within a couple of hours. Anyone want to buy a BOP Super Turbine 300? jk

deuce4935

iTrader: (2)

That paint job is f------ awesome! I envy your garage setup also. If only mine was as nice.

crosstraining

iTrader: (1)

Paint looks great!

Lurk

iTrader: (11)

ahhhh so nice- look at that paint! and Look! the trans has breather holes on the bell like I had heard! funny stuff

67firebirdak

Got the subframe all cleaned up and painted it with POR-15. Came out pretty good!



Now for the engine work. I sectioned the stock truck oil pan to fit better in the firebird as well as modify the oil pickup tube to clear the smaller oil pan.

67firebirdak

I also installed a custom ground camshaft from Cam Motion that I had lying around from another project. It's a 208/214 .510/.523 114 lsa, so that should wake it up a bit. No pics of that though...

I also installed the engine so I can fit it to the transmission.



The engine installed pretty painlessly, although I did have to add some spacers to the subframe mounts to get the holes to line up. Oh well, guess that what you get with mounts made in Taiwan...