I really never had plans to add a spoiler to the rear of the car. Then one day I stumbled across this
aluminum spoiler made by Ed Quay for the Firebird/Formula hatch. I wasn't sure I really liked how
it looked initially, but spent a few days thinking it over. I decided to get one for the car & paint it to
match the body color.

Photo #3 & 4: I added white reflective tape to the spoiler to help make it more visible in the dark. I
don't want anyone to walk into it.

Photo #8: I attached my wing supports to the hatch. I've seen other 'birds with them attached to the
rear bumper cover. That way doesn't look like it would be as sturdy, and it doesn't allow you to pop
the hatch without undoing all the supports first. By putting them on the hatch, I don't have to worry
about undoing them. UPDATE TEASER: This will change once the Trans Am hatch is installed on the car. The
wing supports will then be relocated to the bumper cover.

Since the headlight mechanisms for the pop up headlights are rather heavy, I decided to remove them. Plus, that's just one less thing
to go wrong mechanically with the car. I removed the headlight doors from the mechanism, and reattached them to the car in the factory
closed position with the use of some long bolts. I welded them to the car & to the backside of the headlight doors. Since some racing
sanctioning bodies require "headlights" to be operational, I picked up some lights at Harbor Freight and installed them in the factory driving
lights position. They are wired into the factory headlight switch on the dash as if they were the regular headlights. I don't plan on driving
the car at night any more than I absolutely have to, so these should work just fine.

Photo #1: Once upon a time, the only place to get replacement sockets for the DRL/turn signal lights was GM. They were over $60.00 a
piece. Thankfully, you can now get knock-offs at AutoZone & O'Reilly Auto Parts for $7.99 a piece.

Photo #2: The "headlights" are on :)

Photo #3: The small oval-shaped lights in the lower vent openings are no longer on the car. I had them wired into the "high beams" so they'd
come on when I clicked for brights. Now I no longer have the factory turn signal/cruise control/washer fluid stalk in the car, so the "high beams"
went away.

Photo #8: I slathered the welded-in bolts with POR 15 to keep them from rusting through the white paint.

Photo #10: Some paint burn from the welding penetration....easy fix.

One more headlight door pic since I reached my maximum for attachments in the previous post...

And now for a few photos of the V6 & factory transmission being removed...

I had a rather unorthodox way of removing it from the car. I undid the motor mounts and removed the rear transmission brace. Then I jacked the car up as high as I possibly could get it and pushed the engine out through the back of the engine bay and onto the ground. Then I drug it out from under the car with the aide of my truck :) Please do not try this at home!

The HVAC delete plate that can be easily seen now is from Speed Inc. If I were doing that today, I'd just fabricate my own panel. I believe most people install their panel on the inside of the car, but I didn't like how far back it sat. So, I installed mine on the engine bay side.

Photo #2: I disassembled the engine down as far as possible to make getting it out of the car easier.

Photo #3: I made a wood dolly to pull out from under the car with the engine & transmission sitting on it. I used my truck to pull it out.

Photo #5: Well I made one hell of a mess on the driveway.

Photo #9: I ended up tearing the engine and trans completely apart, and sold all the metals for scrap.

Photo #10: The engine bay was so nasty when I got the car. At this point, I was getting excited about cleaning it up.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT try this method of engine removal. This is by no means the safe or correct way to do it. I ended up pulling the car off of the jackstands while trying this because the wheels on my homemade dolly would not support the weight of the engine/trans and broke. That is the reason for the huge mess of oil on the driveway as well. Drop the k-member and raise the car up with an engine hoist before attempting removal from underneath.
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Cool project man keep up the good work!

Thanks! It's pretty far along now....just need to post all the stuff here now :)

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Photo #1 & 2: The windshield had rather deep scratches on it from the wipers, and I finished it off by cracking it when I trimmed the cowl back. Therefore, I had to have a new windshield put it (was going to anyway).

Photo #3 & 4: I found it really odd that GM used a 2-piece driveshaft on the V6 cars. No big deal to me since it was going to need a new driveshaft anyway.

Photo #5 & 6: The Wheels and tires came along early in the build as well. The front wheels & tires I bought used on ls1tech. The price was too good to pass up on the wheels. The tires that came with them were cheapos but they worked good for rolling the car around the driveway. I'll be replacing them with Mickey Thompsons to match the rears in January 2011. The rears are Mickey Thompson 325 ET Street Radials, and the wheels are new that I purchased from Summit Racing. (Note: These wheels & the rear tires were sold in March 2018 and replaced with Jegs SSR Spike Wheels & 275 M/T ET Street S/S Rear Tires).

Photo #7-9: The driver's-side door guard had a kink in it that I couldn't get straightened out. I'm not sure if it was hit hard at some point, or just from being installed crooked for so long it took on the shape permanently. Anyway, I picked up a used door guard off of a 98-02 era V6 Firebird at a nearby salvage yard. A roll of 3M Emblem Adhesive stuck it on the car in the correct location.

Back in the Winter of 2008, I was out of work & tried my best to keep busy. I spent many a day outside in the snow & cold working on the car. This was before I had a welder, so when it came time to mini tub the car I had to get creative. I used a reciprocating saw to cut out the metal. The metal I used came from a spare sleek beak hood & a tool box cabinet that I wasn't using.

Photo #4: I cut metal out of the wheel well that was rubbing against the tire. That also included the factory bump stop.

Photo #9: The metal arch that I have installed for the mini tub is actually a portion of hood skin off of a spare hood (see last photo in next post).

More partial mini tub pics...

Photo #2: This lower portion of a tool box became the majority of the pieces used to make the tubs. Thanks to a former fiance for the "donation" to the project :)

Photo #3: Posterboard templates were made in order to cut the metal panels.

Photo #4: Yep, it was cold and snowing the day I started this project. In fact it got dark before I was ready to quit for the evening, so I fished my trouble light out there and closed myself up inside the car with my tools. I'm sure my neighbors thought I'd lost my mind. :)

Photo #5: A lot of cuts were made to turn the bent lip into a curved lip.

Photos #6-8: As you can see, a lot of rivets were used to attach the metal to the car.

Photo #9: Installation complete & primered. Ready for seam sealer.

Photo #10: The metal for the passenger-side partial mini tub came from here. I used a metal blade in my jigsaw to cut that out.

Last of the partial mini tub pics. Thanks to Burkhart Chassis for the inspiration via the pics they have posted on their website.

After riveting the tubs into the car, I used automotive seam sealer to seal all the seams. Flat black paint made it all purdy again :)

Disclaimer: Any horrible welds you see are the result of me using a crappy welder & not having a lot of practice. Now I'm able to
lay a weld bead down with the best of 'em! I have plans on building on to my existing garage, and then I will have the space to
disassemble the interior and make the cage right. Until then, this will just have to stay this way :)

I went with the S&W Race Cars 10 point cage (part #11-1530TD) because of their proven history within drag racing. I prefer the fit of this cage much
better than some of the other options out there. The cool part was it was on sale for $249.95 (regular $312.44). I put this in the car in September 2008.
(Note: This cage was removed and replaced with another S&W Race Cars 10 pt cage in January 2018. See Post #286)

More cage pics...

Photo #2: The MSD 6LS box was installed when I thought I was going to build a carburated LS motor. It has since been removed and sold to a fellow in Canada.

Photo #4: I fabricated my own rear seat mount from some metal that I purchased at Menards.

Photo #5: The driver's-side forward cage bar needed to pass through right where the lower bracket for the dashboard was located. I bent it down and tacked it to the cage.

Photo #9 & 10: The cage was shipped right to my house for the painful price of just over $100.00.

Looking good!

Thanks! :)

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With the battery in the hatch area along with the fuel cell, the rear firewall/bulkhead was necessary. I originally purchased a Wolfe rear bulkhead for
the car, but didn't like the way it looked once installed. So I ordered some aluminum sheet from a seller on ebay per NHRA thickness requirements, and made my
own lower bulkhead. I did use a portion of the Wolfe bulkhead for the top of mine. The rest of the Wolfe unit didn't go to waste though...I used it on
the lower portions of the dashboard.

Photo #6 & 7: I wanted to keep all of the spare donut tire area as accessible as I could since it was to be the new location for the battery. Therefore, I built out the
bulkhead around that area.

NOTE: Later on in the build, I make drastic changes to the rear hatch area of the car. An entire new floor was built along with a new rear bulkhead. This change is documented later on in this build thread (post #117, page 6).

More bulkhead photos...

I first painted the hatch area with fleck paint that was commonly used in trunks in a lot of cars once upon a time. The can of it was rather costly, and it didn't go far enough to paint everything. So, I used some flat black paint that I had already stocked up on for the car.

Photo #1: I painted the Summit Racing Fuel Cell & the attachment straps that I purchased from them.

Photo #4: The taping off took quite some time since I didn't want to remove everything.

Photo #9 & 10: I used cardboard to make my patterns based off of the car, and then transferred the shapes to the aluminum with a permanent marker.

Last of the bulkhead photos...

Photo #8: This is the plastic from the hatch area interior panels that was cut off. Since the bulkhead runs the entire width of the hatch area, the interior panels just butt up against it.

Most of this is self-explanitory from just viewing the photos, but I have made a few changes that I did not post a pic about.
My first alternator shutdown was the smaller Painless unit. Realizing that it would be too small for the LS alternator, I
bought the Painless 80 Amp unit. The battery kill switch is from Summit Racing. The battery box came from a seller on
Ebay. Currently, I have a Duralast battery in the car. I have recently raised the floor where the battery sits, and will post
pics of that at a later date.

The battery relocation required running a heavy gauge wire from the front to the back of the car.

Photo #4: I have a distribution block mounted in the passenger-side front seat footwell area that ties all the connections for the battery together.

Photo #5: One of the items that ties into the battery distribution block is the fuse box that I mounted in behind where the factory airbag would have been installed

Photo #6: The battery charging posts that I ordered from a hot rod shop exit under the passenger-side taillight.

Photo #7-10: These are the NHRA Edition emblems that I purchased on ebay. The company that originally manufactured them for GM was selling sets through their ebay store. Since they were an option on 2000-2002 'birds, I thought it would be cool to have them on my car as well. I put them in the same locations as done by GM.

I sanded off the factory Firebird emblems on the factory taillight center section, applied the emblems, then shot it with clearcoat.

The carpet is Ozite in the color "Graphite Gray" that I purchased from Your Auto Trim Store. It's 80" wide, and I bought
four yards of it to do the entire car. I installed the carpet in September 2008. I used Dap Weldwood Contact
Cement that I picked up at a nearby Menards to glue it to the floor of the car. I will say that this carpet doesn't wear
very well, so make sure you have a floor mat or something similar under your feet if you wish to protect the carpet. I
just cut another piece of Ozite in the shape of a floor mat for my car. The glue works well as long as you are patient
and allow it to dry properly. I used items to weigh the carpet down while the glue was drying. The carpet conforms to
shapes very well, and I'm pretty pleased with it. At some point it will be ripped out so that I can reweld the roll cage.
Thankfully, the carpet is only about $70.00. (Note: This is the first of 3 carpets I have installed in the car. As of
2018, the car has an ACC Custom Carpet installed)

More carpet install pics...

The dashboard is full of Auto Meter guages that I bought used from ls1tech. The rocker switches were sourced from JC Whitney & Autozone.
I built the wiring harness for the dash from scratch during the Winter on my living room floor (being single has its perks). The Steering Wheel
is a Grant steering wheel that I painted red to match the other interior accents. I have a custom center cap decal to apply to it later. The lower
aluminum portions of the dash were cut from the unused Wolfe bulkhead that I mentioned earlier.

ADVICE: Don't build a dashboard wiring harness like I did. Take the time to build it without all the extra & unnecessary wiring like I did. DON"T wrap it with electrical tape like all the "shadetree mechanic" type television shows show you. It makes for a nightmare should you need to make a repair, add or remove any wiring. Use plastic split-loom convoluted tubing if you're worried about the wiring rubbing or being exposed to possible damage. Further on in the build, you will see that I redid all of the wiring in the car. It's one of those things that you learn as you go. I didn't really know what I was doing, but advice and experience from coworkers have helped me tremendously. Post #181 of this build thread is a good place to jump ahead to if you're interested in the rewiring.

Note: This factory dashboard eventually finds its way into the garbage, and is replaced by a VFN Fiberglass Dash.

More dashboard-related pics...

1) I thought by siliconing the plastic trim surround back onto the dash, that it would prevent it from rattling. The factory plastic dash pieces get really brittle over time (especially if exposed to the sun a lot), so this dash was a disaster waiting to happen. No worries, it is eventually replaced with a VFN Fiberglass dash, so keep on reading :)

Some of the items visible in the photos are no longer used as this build progresses. The great thing is there's this place called ebay, and I was able to get a little money back to put back into the build.