1971 Firebird Build ("The Other Woman", a.k.a. Project "T.O.W.")

[carbuff]

I rented a 16' box truck today and loaded it up with parts which I then delivered to Griffith's. Phew! His shop is full of my parts now. And unfortunately, there are a few things which I couldn't find that I think I should have. I'll be digging through boxes at my storage room again tomorrow before I re-order things from Summit (I already have a few duplicates).

Eric is working on smoothing the firewall for me. I wasn't necessarily planning to do it, but since the car is so far apart, now is the time. Plus we've decided to build/add down-bars to the front of the subframe, so he's going to beef up the mount area on the firewall for those. If we are going to do that, may as well go ahead and smooth it.

He's going to mock up the install and see if we are going to have to do any transmission tunnel mod-work. One of the items I can't find are the JRS motor mount adapter plates. I am going to have to dig and see if I have them or not. I thought I did, but they weren't in with all of my other JRS goodies...

Even though I'm not doing the assembly, I got pretty excited today at least getting my hands on all the parts!

[carbuff]

I stopped by the shop tonight to drop off a few parts and to check on the progress of the car. Eric is cruising right along! He's make a firewall filler-plate and welded that in, and filled in a few of the other holes as well. He's also installed the JRS subframe and today was able to stick in a mockup LS block and bellhousing. When I got there he was bolting up the JRS Tri-Y headers to check on the fitment.

So far it's looking pretty good. Unfortunately the subframe isn't exactly lining up with the already-installed DSE subframe connectors, but we have a path to fix that. The JRS subframe and Tri-Y headers leave all kinds of space around the engine, so that is nice. I ordered the steering u-joints and shaft, and routing that will be a breeze.

Hopefully a few more parts will be arriving tomorrow or Monday so that by next week when I get back to town, a lot of the car will be mocked up. I have a 3rd member on the way, and Jake is sending me some pieces that I either never received or have somehow misplaced to install the torque arm.

For my part, I've been busy getting some needed parts ordered this week. Amazing how much time that can take when you need the parts 'now'. Hopefully I've unblocked Eric for at least the next week or so.

It feels good for the project to be making progress! After staring at these parts for almost 2 years, it's nice to see some of them bolted to the car now...

[Rick D]

Come on not even some crappy cell phone pictures??

[c.schulz]

Originally Posted by Rick D

Come on not even some crappy cell phone pictures??

X2

Chris

[carbuff]

Apparently I have learned nothing in my 8 years of membership here at Lat-G. I hang my head in shame...

I know that Eric is taking some along the way, but he's been pretty busy actually working on the car. I'll definitely get some next week when I get back to town!

[Rick D]

Originally Posted by carbuff

Apparently I have learned nothing in my 8 years of membership here at Lat-G. I hang my head in shame...
I'll definitely get some next week when I get back to town!

You better or NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!

[GriffithMetal]

I've been busy getting everything together. We are making some progress getting everything mocked up. I'm really terrible about taking pictures as I go. Its easy to get into a zone and forget to take some pictures.

[coolwelder62]

Lookin good.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Looking good Bry,

Those headers fit pretty nice. Jake did a great job on them.

How do they fit under side?

[waynieZ]

Looking good.