Brendon's '67 Firebird thread

[syborg tt]

Pump gas is our friend and cool to see your car on the Dyno in bare steel

[MX145]

Dyno run sounds awesome! I'm digging the front end work too.

[Che70velle]

Car sounds great! I wish I had 450 to the wheels. Nothing skimpy about that, for sure!

[Tuske427]

Thanks, guys!

I've signed up for a track day in January (Speed Ventures @ Fontana Raceway Jan 16th) and now I need to get the car ready. One of the things I need are tow hooks. Since my car is so customized, I doubt that I could just buy a set (and why would I want to. that would be too easy, ha ha) I had to first make a place to mount a rear hook, then the hook itself. Then I made the front hook... only I welded all my front bumper brackets when I built the car. So the front bumper assy will need to come off, cut the welds, and reassemble everything and hopefully the tow hook will fit in there.

[KPC67]

Looks great!:welder:

[MX145]

Nice work!

[Tuske427]

Looks great!:welder:

Nice work!


Thanks, guys! Here's more pics from the weekend. I installed my 5th belts as well as cut holes in my seats (not without poking myself with the exacto, ha ha) and got my front hook installed. Of course, it needed trimming and I managed to destroy the headlight wiring in the process by pulling wires out from sockets as they were too short. So I had to rewire my headlights and I gave them longer wires/ weather pack connectors to allow for improved future dis assembly.

[waynieZ]

Nice job on the tow hooks, they came out nice.

[preston]

what did you use for those seat inserts ?
I've got ugly gashes in my seats for the sub belts, having a nice plastic piece of trim looks a lot better.

[Tuske427]

Nice job on the tow hooks, they came out nice.

Thanks, Wayne!

what did you use for those seat inserts ?
I've got ugly gashes in my seats for the sub belts, having a nice plastic piece of trim looks a lot better.

I bought this:

http://www.sector111.com/parts/interior/seats_and_harnesses/elise_5th_point_seat_grommet.cfm

Hopefully the gashes in your seats are smaller than these.

[gofastwclass]

Did you ever decide what you are going to do about a remote key less entry / push to start system? I looked at the Advanced Keys stuff in the past but you are the second person I've heard of that couldn't get their product to work as desired.

[Tuske427]

Did you ever decide what you are going to do about a remote key less entry / push to start system? I looked at the Advanced Keys stuff in the past but you are the second person I've heard of that couldn't get their product to work as desired.

I looked around a while back but didn't find anything that jumped out at me. It seemed like several of the brands out there use the same parts as the A/K version was made from. I may look around again this winter.

[gofastwclass]

I looked around a while back but didn't find anything that jumped out at me. It seemed like several of the brands out there use the same parts as the A/K version was made from. I may look around again this winter.

Ok, then I'm not crazy - at least about that.
I haven't actually talked to any vendors, but last year when I looked I saw pictures and thought "gee, that looks familiar" a few times.

There is probably some company that builds and sells this stuff wholesale then these companies simply add their name, logo and packaging. The irony is the A/K stuff shows a 2010 - 2013 Camaro on their main page, yet several people on the Camaro forum say their hardware will not properly interface with and reliably bypass some of the electronics in those cars. That was two years ago and their site still looks the same and doesn't mention any incompatibilities or even potential pitfalls. WTF

[Tuske427]

I took my car to the track last weekend. Speed Ventures @ Fontana. After getting my trailer (stored 2 hours away), prepping my car, my wife even made a crock pot with pulled pork bbq sandwiches, lugging everything to the track, paying extra $$ for a ride along instructor, I got out on the track and literally 1.5 laps into it my engine puked oil. What tipped me off was the huge smoke screen I made as I came around a corner- I felt like I was driving the car from Spy Hunter. I immediately pulled into the pits and oil was trailing/ dripping underneath. Oil was covered in the passenger side of the engine bay, cross member, steering linkage as well as underneath. Fortunately, I still had oil pressure. Today I took some time to look into it further, and have concluded the following:

- catch can assy wasn't set up right/ working effectively to relieve crankcase pressure
- oil blew out past the dipstick tube
- very high oil pressure coming from engine

my oil pressure when I'm on it was around 80psi and that's with thicker oil (Valvoline VR1 20w 50. it's what my engine builder said to use) Today I put some thinner oil in and my oil pressure goes even higher. it jumps up past 80 when accelerating moderately (estimating around 85). Also swapping the oil will help tell me if the oil I'm cleaning up is from last week (dirtier, darker color) or it'll be very clean oil if it's still spraying out today.

I replaced the o-ring on the dipstick tube and revised the catch can assy and it should be good. it's a closed system now (was open before). I'm also going to look into an electric vacuum pump for the engine- something I can switch on for track days and leave off for regular driving. I'm also going to call Melling- the manufacturer of my oil pump and see what they say. I did a bit of research and it turns out that the oil pump used in my engine can have the spring swapped out. Now it has the heavier spring in it and the lighter spring will reduce about 20 psi.

Attached is a pic of my car at the track. Fortunately, the folks who do photography there (Caliphotography) caught me on the first lap, or I'd have no pics at all, ha ha.

Hopefully my next track event will be more successful

[WSSix]

Bummer Brendon but at least it sounds like an easy fix for the most part. Good luck getting it back out there!

[Tuske427]

Hey everyone, just thought I'd share this- the Hot Wheels 1:64 of my car is shipping and will be in stores soon, assuming I don't get there first to buy it, ha ha. It'll look like this

[waynieZ]

I'll be looking for one! That!s so cool!!!
How have you been? I hope you've been enjoying the heck out of it!!

[Tuske427]

Hey everyone,

Long time no updates, so it's about time I provide some. First, my Firebird:

1- Last year two more Hot Wheels versions of it were introduced- both in the premium retail line and in the ID line. While they look the same, they are entirely different castings/ tools made at different plants.

2- I did get a little track time in last fall as well, but definitely not enough.

3- Last fall it was at SEMA representing Borla Exhaust.

4- had a sweet photoshoot with Justin Keys of Keys Cars photography. Highly recommend him if you want your car photographed. He's here in Ca.

[Tuske427]

While all that was going on I also built another car. It's not a Lateral-G build, in fact it can barely turn at all, but it was fun. More about it here if interested:

https://www.motortrend.com/features/1955-chevy-gasser-hot-wheels-designer/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmqxb3wNCyg&t=9s

[Tuske427]

Last fall this '68 Firebird 400 came my way. It was the one I had looked at a few years prior (I had posted previously on this) and I was at the right place right time and I couldn't say no. I would have loved to have kept this one, especially with all the parts that came with it, but I also acquired this on the weekend that the first Pomona swap meet post covid was happening so I had it brought there with a high price on it and it was sold by 8am. The proceed paid for an engine rebuild I needed on my '55 so it all worked out. Except no new Firebird, ha ha

[Tuske427]

and most recently, this 1967 Firebird 400 found a new home at my place. Also a good deal it too came with a lot of parts as the seller claimed to have been collecting parts for 20 years. I'm not sure how many #'s matching Firebird 400's there are still out there, but but I've probably claimed my allotment by now so I'm keeping this one, even though it needs a bit more work to bring it back.

I want to make a driver out of this one, so it won't be too radical, but it definitely won't be a stock restoration, either. I'll probably post a build thread here so stay tuned. For now I'm tearing it down so I can get it media blasted. Some parts of this car are very solid, while others not so much. it's quite inconsistent, really. Most of the fasteners came off with ease, even the clipped on nuts that hold the leaf springs all came off in one piece, but that tunk is gone.

[Roscoe03]

Man, just read your whole build! What a well detailed build and done by you in your garage, impressive to say the least. Now I get to the end and see that you're about to start another Firebird! Giving the readers what they want! Haha.

[WSSix]

Thanks for updating us. Congrats on getting the firebird featured at SEMA. That must have been cool. Hope you're able to get some track time with it this year. Good luck with the new one!

[waynieZ]

I'm in for watching another of your builds!!

[Tuske427]

Thanks, guys, and it's great to see some old names and hear from ya, too

[Tuske427]

As I get into this build I'm starting off with some small unglamorous things as my free time permits. I've been de rusting some parts and rattle canning them black, and setting them out of the way. I also need to repair the subframe as I plan to use this one instead of the restored one that came with this car. I sold that one, along with all the stock restored parts that were on it as I plan to do some mods and reinforcements on this anyway.

The front passenger end was smashed in and that needed fixing. I enlisted my neighbor to help get me started as he has a oxy acetylene torch to really heat up the metal so we could start to push it back to where it should be. Afterwards I decided to just rebuild the sides to get a cleaner look to them.

[Tuske427]

more pics...

one quick frame mod I pulled off this afternoon is a reinforcement for the idler arm. It always bugged me on these frames that the driver side has so much more strength by comparison where the steering box bolts up- shaped metal, the sleeves for the bolts, etc whereas the pass side just bolts up to a flat panel. no ribbing, no reinforcement, none. So I made an additional plate to weld up on the inside with a rib to help give it some lateral strength and plug welded it in.

More mods to come.