Learning curve. My 72 Firebird adventure.

[HO455]

At the suggestions of Raggedjim and Tempest67 I will start posting the trials and tribulations of me resurrecting a 72 Firebird. This won't be a fast moving thread due to the other priorities that always seem to happen in my life.

I bought the car back around 2003 or so. I noticed the for sale sign on my way home from work asking $1400. I called and after meeting up with the girl who owned it we made a deal and I drove it home for $1000.

It had no front valance (Well actually the original plastic valance was in the trunk in 3 pieces.) The front turn signal lights were off a 70' vintage ford pickup and mounted on some 1 1/2 angle iron. It had a P4B manifold with a 750 Holley double pumper on top of a Pontiac 350. It ran so rich a black cloud followed me all the way home. It had a early Formula hood and only the drivers side door and front fender was still the original Lucerne Blue the rest of the car was gray primer. The girl said they ran out of paint and never got back to painting the last part.

Once I replaced the intake and carb with factory pieces the car ran great. It was my daily driver for a couple years and made trips to Tiger Run in Bend OR. Made a few passes at the strip where it ran 14.8's on the non posi rear end. We're pretty sure the engine had a cam and some head work done to it.

Then it got parked, and loaned out, and parts from it got loaned, then got disassembled, and now it's 2024. The engine got installed in a 68 Lemans that I bought with a cracked block and then I sold the Lemans. The first photo is of the car from last summer. One of the reasons I'm not part if the "In crowd" in the Pontiac world.

I've been collecting parts for it all through covid and have started installing the front suspension upgrades. That started by having the front subframe sandblasted and then grinding out a lot of the factory welds and re-welding them. They were some of the worst I've ever seen from GM. It must have been training day when my subframe went down the line. (Photos 2-5) It took a sold 8 hours for me to get thing how I wanted them. Once that was done I chained the subframe to a welding bench and using a port-a-power I jacked it around until it was square and true again. (Assuming it was when it left the factory)

[HO455]

As part of the subframe resurrecting one of the subframe bushing mounts was quite rusted and to repair it I made a custom washer replace the missing metal. I started out by cutting the bad area out with a hole saw. Then I made the custom washer on my lathe so it matched the hole perfectly. Once done it welded it in place from both sides. Unfortunately I don't have a "completed photo" of this at present.

I also didn't take any pictures of the wooden jig I used to hold the pilot bit of the hole saw in place when I drilled the bushing mount out. Basically it was a piece of cabinet makers plywood clamped to the under side of the mount. Then I used a compass to find the center point of the hole. Then I drilled the center point out and that hole kept the hole saw from walking as I drilled. I also replaced the regular pilot bit in the hole saw with a piece of 1/4" round stock so it couldn't waller out the pilot hole thus allowing the hole saw to wander.

[HO455]

According to the interweb the front sway bar mounting is a weak point. Apparently the threads are fairly easily pulled out when a stiff sway bar is installed. Now was the time to address this possibility. I made a pair of plates and tack welded grade 8 nuts on the one side.
I prepared the frame by grinding it smooth in the area and enlarging the factory holes for the fasteners. That allowed me to set the plates and nuts in place and then weld around them to complete the modification.

At this point I would like to acknowledge my friend 2nd gen Firebird guru John Paige for his insight, intelligence and patience with my questions. He passed from our world too early.

https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...?highlight=Rip

https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ght=john+paige

[Tempest67]

looks like a great project and you are off to a good start.

Remember, don't look at the entire project, "just 1 piece at a time"

I had a 73 Formula in High School and loved that car

[raggedjim]

Alright! Another second gen Firebird build!

You are obviously doing a better job than I am! I do plan to pull my subframe eventually but I know I won't be driving it for a while when I do.

Great work, Rg

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by HO455

As part of the subframe resurrecting one of the subframe bushing mounts was quite rusted and to repair it I made a custom washer replace the missing metal. I started out by cutting the bad area out with a hole saw. Then I made the custom washer on my lathe so it matched the hole perfectly. Once done it welded it in place from both sides. Unfortunately I don't have a "completed photo" of this at present.

I also didn't take any pictures of the wooden jig I used to hold the pilot bit of the hole saw in place when I drilled the bushing mount out. Basically it was a piece of cabinet makers plywood clamped to the under side of the mount. Then I used a compass to find the center point of the hole. Then I drilled the center point out and that hole kept the hole saw from walking as I drilled. I also replaced the regular pilot bit in the hole saw with a piece of 1/4" round stock so it couldn't waller out the pilot hole thus allowing the hole saw to wander.

Ingenious method for finding center hole, I've run into that problem and had no solution,TU

Those welds from the factory are unbelievable, wasn't there an inspector on site

[Lokin4AReason]

hey , its coming along

looks like a fun project along w a cool back story , imo

keep the update(s) coming . . .

[HO455]

I converted the front suspension to coil overs from Pro Touring FBody. Installation involves removing part of the factory upper control arm mount as shown in photo #1.

Then it's trimming of the factory mount and the new mount until things sit as expected.

You use the factory upper control arm bolt holes to align the new mount.

[HO455]

More on the coil over modifications. On one side the holes had to be elongated a bit. Apparently there is quite a lot of variation in how the upper control arm mounts got installed over all the 2nd gen F-body years.

Once the mount is fitted I used a torch to enlarge the hole through the frame that the coil over must pass through and then cleaned it up with a grinder.

[HO455]

A couple photos of the subframe after painting. Of course since the paint got sprayed I realized I should have done a couple more things to it but I will have to make them bolt ons instead of welding them.

I went with the gray color as my experiences around race cars is that lighter colors in the engine bay make it easier to spot leaks and cracks.

[Tempest67]

looks good, is that Rustoleum ?

[HO455]

No it's Macco single stage paint. I had a friend who owned a Macco down the road and he would do little things like this for me, as fill in work for his painters. Unfortunately he retired and sold the shop last year.

[LS short box]

Did this one about 25 plus years ago. Base Firebird I cloned into a TA. First project I mini tubbed. 455/400 turbo combo. Bought it as rust free shell roller. Long enough ago that you could still find TA parts in the salvage yard.
Good luck with your project.

[HO455]

That's a beautiful car. Well done.

[Tempest67]

that looks familiar,

when I was in High School, I did this to my 73 Formula. full of Bondo, but I loved it anyways

[HO455]

Another beautiful bird. I don't think mine will be as attractive as yours as are. I'm hoping to at least get it one color.

[HO455]

While not specifically for the Firebird I have been working on a 389 that I picked up over the summer. It was pulled out of a 66 GTO several years ago and was supposed to be under 10K miles since it was rebuilt in 05. It had high compression 66 GTO heads with a roller cam and had run 13.30's before it was pulled for an LS conversion.

I'm not going to use the original heads but a set of Edelbrock's 72 cc round port roller cam version. So I will be able to run pump gas and a reasonable timing curve.

I cc'ed the heads and pistons to be sure of the static compression ratio And since I had the engine this far apart I checked the oil pump internal wear. It was pretty good. I decided to pull #4 main cap to get an idea as to the condition of the bearings. That turned into one of those I'm kind of sorry I did/I'm relieved I did things. The bearings weren't very pretty.

It looks as the engine wasn't very clean when it was assembled as there is a bunch of scoring and some copper showing. When I pulled the rod caps those also showed signs of dirty assembly as well as they seemed to have been installed without enough clearance as there are a lot of shiny spots and some of them are black in the middle of the shiny areas most likely from getting hot.

The bearings are a .010 set. Hopefully the crankshaft can just be polished and a new set of .010 bearings installed. We'll it looks like a trip to the machine shop is on the horizon.

[HO455]

Here is teaser photo of the crankshaft for the Firebird.

[Tempest67]

I always laugh to myself when the ad says 'was running when pulled'. I just assume the motor will need work when I buy them.

It is a good thing that you found the problems now, and you will be glad to know you have a solid reliable motor when it is done.

It's all part of it, carry on and keep going................ and nice looking crank

[HO455]

Well the good times keep rolling on with the 389. In addition to the abovementioned issues Archie (my machinist Sommers Automotive Machine) has discovered.

The crankshaft will need to be ground not just polished.

The rear main cap was not machined the same amount on both legs (?) Of the cap, so it doesn't sit flat on the block. One side is about .015 shorter.

The rod bearing holes are all one to two thousands out of round. Likely from too much material being removed from the pad on the cap during balancing.

The block was decked at an angle with an .011 difference from front to rear on each side. The front pistons are at zero deck but the rear pistons are .011 down.

Two of the cylinder head bolt holes are cracked to the outside of the block. Likely from bottoming a head bolt in the hole and torquing down.

All these things are fixable but they are things that a quality machine shop would have never let out the door. The receipts for building of the engine were from 2005 and my quick interweb searching showed the shop still in business with a good percentage of bad reviews.

[HO455]

I've been cleaning up the steering column I scored at the swap meet last year. It's a tilt floor shift column which means I won't have a manual shift car with a automatic column. Woo Hooo!

It seems to have come out of a high mileage car judging from the wear on the bearings and the tilt nylon bushing appears to have been replaced. One of the captive nuts that are on the interior side is missing and the sealing sheet metal plate on the bottom was fairly abused after it left the car it was originally installed in.

I was told the wear pattern on the upper arm of the fork comes from the tilt bushing being installed incorrectly leading me to believe it was replaced at some point. More on that when I get to the assembly stage. Now it time for quality interaction with the sandblasting cabinet.

[raggedjim]

The 73 Trans Am I had in the Navy had the same damage on tilt couplings. The 2-piece plastic sphere had disintegrated and the two yokes were metal on metal. It was a scary ride back to the base!

Took me a while to fix that in 1985, no internet, no online sales, and very little knowledge on my part!

Good luck, Rg