The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Posted March 22, 2020 hello all! this is a build thread i am creating to help show the rebuild of my dads dream car. his 1969 pontiac firebird. its a 350 4 on the floor car. originally it was a 350 HO car with an automatic. someone swapped a muncie 4 speed in. this is the first photo of it when i dad bought it about 10 years ago. looks good right? the 400 hood is not correct. and little did we know just how bad the car actually was.. the poor thing had been hacked together worse than ive ever seen. but this thread is about the journey with my dad and i and the trials and tribulations of building it back up to its former glory.
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 so years go by, the car had been partially disassembled and life got in the way so it was parked in storage.. this is when we pulled it out of its hibernating spot to bring it home to start again on bringing her back the doors and fenders were junk. bondo, rivet panels everywhere. sadly no photos but they were stripped of all good parts and junked.
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 once at home disassembly started immediately.
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 by the way that red on some of the inner panels was the original color
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 me removing the glass and inspecting the rust on the dash cowl seem where these cars are known to rust. its hacked. tons of rust and urethane not from the windshield everywhere.
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 sub frame removed and firewall stripped of parts the floors. they looked better than they actually were.. we started drilling out the seat braces to reuse. altimately though we just decided to get new ones. dash partially stripped and the hack repair work for where the radio goes. all welded and elongated.
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 and so begins the fun. oxy-accetalyne torch and cut off wheels. the cutting begins. so initially, with this project we were under the impression that we could cut out the floors, firewall, cowl/dash and go from there. weld in new floors and firewall and everything else would be a breeze. no... the more we cut and dug into the more we found and did not like.. a prime example of what we found as we cut.. and it got worse. unisides were swiss cheese with urethane and rivets. wheel wells too..
The86manche Posted March 22, 2020 Author Posted March 22, 2020 hey look, parts! after finding everything i found with the car and all the sheetmetal ruined we started in a new direction. start new. complete rebuild from the ground up. so home made jig made and it begins.
Pete M Posted March 23, 2020 Posted March 23, 2020 holy huge projects batman! this is an impressive undertaking
Drahcir495 Posted March 27, 2020 Posted March 27, 2020 On 3/22/2020 at 2:44 PM, The86manche said: This looks like a spider to me . Yes, another one saved! It is going to be a sweet ride when you’re done restoring it
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 On 3/27/2020 at 7:14 AM, Drahcir495 said: This looks like a spider to me . Yes, another one saved! It is going to be a sweet ride when you’re done restoring it thats all I'm going to think about now whenever i see this photo
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 update time! still have a lot of photos and progress i just dint have the time to upload them
Pete M Posted April 2, 2020 Posted April 2, 2020 10 minutes ago, The86manche said: update time! still have a lot of photos and progress i just dint have the time to upload them
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 after we had set up our jig, and layed out some of the sheet metal we started prepping, welding, grinding, and more sheet metal drlled holes in the rear unibody rails where we could not weld from the top where the trunk floor lays across. drilled, prepped and coated trunk floor pan with zink weld thru. floor pan burned in, minus a few spots, and welds ground down main floor pan laid down for fitment. it was a decent fit some work needed at the firewall area. but thats a common thing on these repop panels
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 as it turns out i am missing a few photos to explain what happens in between the last photo and the next.. so aftermarket sheet metal for these old cars can be real hit or miss.. the quality is not great and i get that. as most of the dowels used to stamp these pieces are the original from the 60's. what can you do? so, after burning in the main section of flooring we tried fitting one of the uniside sections on to see how it would fit relative to the floors and our work. it wasnt great. where the rear shock mounting area kind of protrudes out interfered with the rear wheel well and rear uniside section fitment. the metal was forcing the uniside out and forward. and we couldnt really massage that area of the floor pan in as it was multiple layers of metal welded together.. lucky for us, my dad had ordered a full floor pan section already welded together.. for all intensive purposes.
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 NEVERMIND i found the photos i was looking for on my phone! And some i didnt even remember taking!
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 so we had gone ahead and fit one, then the other side of the unibody sections. and although things look decent the fitment was poor. the left rear wheel well to floor pan had a huge gap and we could not get the uniside to slide back enough to fill it in.. and the right side was worse
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 And so! The new floor pan came in! And we threw that on the jig. And everything fit so much better! And my dad in the background giving his thumbs up for approval of everything and my older brother off to the left
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 from there it just seemed like smooth sailing. at least for the unisides. we even purchased a spot welder to make our lives even easier!
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 progress was made, burned in the unisides and dry fit the roof braces. started looking like a car! the firewall was still not welded in at this point.
The86manche Posted April 2, 2020 Author Posted April 2, 2020 fitting the cowl to the firewall and seeing how everything fit. still not ready to burn in the firewall though
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