Restoring my 1995 Bird..
04-28-2009, 08:15 PM
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Restoring my 1995 Bird.. Just thought I would post my progress on my current project. I am restoring my 1995 Bird.. It started life as a Formula. I purchased the car, brand new, in February of 1995 when I was stationed in the Marine Corps in Beaufort, South Carolina. It had 4 miles on the odometer. It served me well as a daily driver until early 2001. I blew the motor and the transmission was shot..
The car sat in my garage for several years. I began saving a little money and in roughly 2005, I had enough to start the restore process. I arranged transport to a friends shop where it sat on a lift. The LT1 and 4L60E was removed and everything was COMPLETELY rebuilt from the ground up. While the motor and transmission was out, someone (possibly teenage kids) broke into my friends shop and vandalized EVERYTHING. There were several vehicles in his shop (including his 2 week old brand new Chevrolet 2500 truck).
They broke out all of my windows (except my rear hatch window). They smashed in my T-Tops, busted my side mirrors, threw cinder blocks through my windshield (and cracked my dash), smashed up my hood, kicked my side panels, etc.. It was completely trashed. I was devistated. I began saving more money but tragedy struck. I fell deathly ill and nearly died. I was out of work and had to dip into my savings to help support me and my family. So, I was back to square one.. I had to begin the savings process all over again.
Every paycheck, I tried to buy something, or fix something, pretty something up, etc.. Well, it has been a long time coming. I am finally at a point where I am almost done with this long time project. I tried to spare no expense on restoring my LT1 Bird.. My Formula died. RIP. However, since I had to purchase almost every single body piece, I did the Trans Am conversion. The ENTIRE interior has been completely gutted and completely re-done. I purchased all new interior pieces and converted it over from my factory TAN interior to a Dark Grey / Corvette Yellow colored interior.
Lots of stuff will probably not get mentioned here, but chances are it was either "fixed", "removed", "repaired" or "replaced". Let's start with a few pictures of the way my car USED to look:
Here is the car sitting at the shop (after it was vandalized):
The car sat in my garage for several years. I began saving a little money and in roughly 2005, I had enough to start the restore process. I arranged transport to a friends shop where it sat on a lift. The LT1 and 4L60E was removed and everything was COMPLETELY rebuilt from the ground up. While the motor and transmission was out, someone (possibly teenage kids) broke into my friends shop and vandalized EVERYTHING. There were several vehicles in his shop (including his 2 week old brand new Chevrolet 2500 truck).
They broke out all of my windows (except my rear hatch window). They smashed in my T-Tops, busted my side mirrors, threw cinder blocks through my windshield (and cracked my dash), smashed up my hood, kicked my side panels, etc.. It was completely trashed. I was devistated. I began saving more money but tragedy struck. I fell deathly ill and nearly died. I was out of work and had to dip into my savings to help support me and my family. So, I was back to square one.. I had to begin the savings process all over again.
Every paycheck, I tried to buy something, or fix something, pretty something up, etc.. Well, it has been a long time coming. I am finally at a point where I am almost done with this long time project. I tried to spare no expense on restoring my LT1 Bird.. My Formula died. RIP. However, since I had to purchase almost every single body piece, I did the Trans Am conversion. The ENTIRE interior has been completely gutted and completely re-done. I purchased all new interior pieces and converted it over from my factory TAN interior to a Dark Grey / Corvette Yellow colored interior.
Lots of stuff will probably not get mentioned here, but chances are it was either "fixed", "removed", "repaired" or "replaced". Let's start with a few pictures of the way my car USED to look:
Here is the car sitting at the shop (after it was vandalized):
Last edited by officermartinez; 05-03-2009 at 06:34 AM.
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04-29-2009, 08:16 AM
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I took a local trip down to Wolfe Racecraft, about 15 minutes from my house.. I ended up buying a 6 point roll bar (uncoated). I loaded the roll bar up in my truck and drove 10 minutes South, to Kennedale, Texas, where my powder coaters shop is.. I dropped it off and a week later, viola.. (sorry for the upside down bad picture, but trust me.. it looks Sweeeeeeet)!
These pictures are taken from Wolfe's website but it will kind of give you an idea of what their roll bar will look like when it's fully mounted inside an F-Body..
These pictures are taken from Wolfe's website but it will kind of give you an idea of what their roll bar will look like when it's fully mounted inside an F-Body..
04-29-2009, 08:40 PM
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I personally like how he used sound deafening stuff.. Makes the car a bit more refined; sadly at the cost of heavier.. but to each is one's own and the car is making amazing progress!
Curious also as to how much weight in total it added and when you get it on the street again how does it sound compared to usual.. even tho its been 5 years or so i think lol
Curious also as to how much weight in total it added and when you get it on the street again how does it sound compared to usual.. even tho its been 5 years or so i think lol
04-30-2009, 07:36 AM
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I personally like how he used sound deafening stuff.. Makes the car a bit more refined; sadly at the cost of heavier.. but to each is one's own and the car is making amazing progress!
Curious also as to how much weight in total it added and when you get it on the street again how does it sound compared to usual.. even tho its been 5 years or so i think lol
Curious also as to how much weight in total it added and when you get it on the street again how does it sound compared to usual.. even tho its been 5 years or so i think lol
Wow! Thanks for the feedback! The sound deadener that I used is called Fatmat.. It's obviously got some weight but really, it's not THAT bad. Here's the companies info sheet:
Speaking of powder coating, I am getting rid of my factory rims.. 16x8's (245 50 16's). I am now the proud owner of some Corvette ZR1 rims.. 17x9.5's (275 40 17's) up front and 17x11's (315 35 17's) in the rear. They have also been powder coated to match my overall "theme".
04-30-2009, 08:47 AM
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The body is green but the accents are corvette yellow. I really wanted to keep my car, the factory Green color. So, I went to photoshop and started playing around with different color schemes. After about 2 weeks of trying different combo's and colors, I was very impressed with the Green body and yellow accents.
