Not Another Firebird Thread

[Tactical Bacon]

January 2015 - I feel the need. The need for speed! I had previously owned a 1995 Firebird Formula, LT1 engine, 6 speed manual, 172 mph, that I sold to pay off some debt in late 2013. I was still basically dead broke, driving my 1991 Comanche Pioneer with the destroyed bed and tailgate from where I got t-boned (also 2013),when I got my inheritance from my grandma, a whopping $3100. 

 

I immediately started looking for something fast. The dream was (and still is) a triple black 2002 Trans Am WS6 six speed but they were (and still are) way out of my budget. This bird showed up on FB Marketplace a little over an hour away from home so I set up a day, hitched a ride with a friend, and went down to look at it. I talked him down to $3700, borrowed $100 from my friend, and jumped in it to drive 80 miles back home with no plate. 

 

That trip was a small nightmare. The plug for the distributor had a broken clip so the PO tried to rtv the pigtail to it. When it got hot, the rtv swelled and pushed it out, causing the car to die at a red light. Pushed it off the road, yanked the rtv and weather seal off, fished it back in down behind the water pump, and away we went again. 

 

Once we were about 15 miles from home, a state trooper got in behind me and followed me for a little bit and had me sweating. Right after he decided he didn't want to follow me anymore, the factory rear u-joint failed, started vibrating above 55 mph. My friend took off ahead of me to get to work and I parked it for a week when I got home. 

[Pete M]

  need for speed indeed.

[Tactical Bacon]

One of the first priorities for me was taking care of the factory u-joint that failed after about 135,000 miles. How do I know it was factory? GM injected nylon into the driveshaft and yoke to retain the u-joints once they were pressed in. A propane torch melted most of it out but I still wasn't able to press it out with a u-joint/ball joint press so I hopped in the Comanche and took it and the new Moog u-joint to the local driveshaft shop. They had it swapped in less than a minute. Over 11 years later, I still haven't greased that joint or replaced the factory front joint.

 

I miss that '91 Pioneer in the background.

 

The passenger front wheel bearing ended up going bad shortly after so I put in a new Moog hub (back in 2015 when they still were great parts). I sourced a set of factory fog lights for it (not pictured) and swapped in a set of HID headlights (with telescoping bulbs so I'd have low and high beams). I also dropped $300 for a set of honeycomb taillights from a 98-02 Firebird on ebay to replace the cracked up factory tail lamps and did the CETA (Collector's Edition Trans Am) mod with plastidip for the rear bumper (the black lower center section).

 

I noticed at some point I had some slack in the the driveline still, like a loose u-joint. An investigation yielded results that the issue was inside the differential and felt like an improperly shimmed carrier. It seemed reasonable, a previous owner had replaced the factory 3.42s with 4.10s. I took it to someone who did diffs on the side to re-shim it and it turned out the pin bore in the carrier for the center pin was wallowed out and oblong in shape. That resulted in my buying an Eaton Trutrac carrier with an entirely helical gearset.

 

Past that, it was mainly just driving it when the weather was nice and enjoying the car. I took it to Nashville in March 2015 to see Bob Seger w/ my mom. I tried my hand at tuning the computer and bricked it (and coincidentally the laptop died a day or two later). That early OBD2 stuff isn't very resilient. There's also an easy 5 WHP to be made with these cars, you bypass the coolant pipe in the throttle body. And I put in LED tail lights along with electronic flashers for the turn signal and hazards to eliminate the hyperflash.

 

I also took it to Memphis and I think I hit a piece of road debris I didn't see because when I got where I was going, the parking brake stopped working. Putting it on a lift at work revealed at least one of the rear cables and I think the front cable was completely destroyed. It also bent the parking brake cable bracket (a problem I just fixed recently with my newly acquired welder) so after 3 new cables installed, the parking brake still didn't work. 

[Tactical Bacon]

May 15, 2016 - DISASTER STRIKES

 

A cop ran a red light at almost 80 mph in a 40. He had his lights on but no siren coming through a blind corner and I ended up t-boning him right behind his right rear wheel. It happened so fast that I had already reflexively stopped the car and the airbags were deflating by the time I realized I had been involved in a collision. He admitted fault but my insurance company ended up saying it was my fault (f*** progressive) and I only had liability.

 

Passenger airbag destroyed the dashboard, dash panel, and windshield. Front end was ruined and the frame horn on the passenger side got deformed from the hit. 

 

 

I moved about a month later then sued the the city, settled out of court, spent the money on the 67 Firebird in my other thread, collected parts from the internet and the local DIY parts yard over the next 6 years or so, driving the car every now and again in various states of disrepair (gauges ziptied to the column, parking lamps ziptied to the headlight brackets, etc.). 

I've owned the Trans Am for almost 11 and a half years and she's followed me through 3 moves and sat patiently in a garage or under a carport for me to fix it which I recently accomplished (kinda sorta). 

[Gojira94]

I absolutely LOVE 4th Gen F-Bodies. I still have a few small and obscure parts that MIGHT help you out with ones missing/ destroyed. You can have any/ all of it for price of shipping. None of it large or heavy so shipping wold be cheap. I also have a complete (lower/ main) dash you're welcome to. Some idiot put 4 screw holes in it to hold a tach light but no other blemishes. At one time I had 2 94 Formulas. Green one was to replace the 93 I sold during hard times, with 62,000 miles. I still have that one with 77,000 miles on it. It's highly modified, stock-looking green M6 hardtop. The other was a red A4 hardtop that I was building a drag car out of. That project got de-funded when my girlfriend got pregnant and we got married in 2011, but I couldn't have asked for a better trade there!

 

One piece I have that you might really like is an LS1 F-body ram air setup. It's been a long time since I was in the LTx/LSx scene daily and I don't recall the exact steps needed to use the LS1 induction on an LT1 ram air hood but it's not much. Give you a functional ram air setup for that hood... and if Cookeville isn't too far from you, you can hit up Volunteer Muffler for some true duals if you're in the mood for long tube headers to make it worth it.

[Tactical Bacon]

11 hours ago, Gojira94 said:

I absolutely LOVE 4th Gen F-Bodies. I still have a few small and obscure parts that MIGHT help you out with ones missing/ destroyed. You can have any/ all of it for price of shipping. None of it large or heavy so shipping wold be cheap. I also have a complete (lower/ main) dash you're welcome to. Some idiot put 4 screw holes in it to hold a tach light but no other blemishes. At one time I had 2 94 Formulas. Green one was to replace the 93 I sold during hard times, with 62,000 miles. I still have that one with 77,000 miles on it. It's highly modified, stock-looking green M6 hardtop. The other was a red A4 hardtop that I was building a drag car out of. That project got de-funded when my girlfriend got pregnant and we got married in 2011, but I couldn't have asked for a better trade there!

 

One piece I have that you might really like is an LS1 F-body ram air setup. It's been a long time since I was in the LTx/LSx scene daily and I don't recall the exact steps needed to use the LS1 induction on an LT1 ram air hood but it's not much. Give you a functional ram air setup for that hood... and if Cookeville isn't too far from you, you can hit up Volunteer Muffler for some true duals if you're in the mood for long tube headers to make it worth it.

You had me at obscure parts! Honestly, the only part I'm really missing is the little plastic piece that holds the security indicator light in place so it peeks through the dash panel vents. This joker right here:

 

What year of car is the dashboard out of? I have one in the car right now but it's not in the best shape either so I'd be willing to drive the Comanche 10 hours out and back for the fun of it once I get it put back together to buy that dash. And I think all that really needs doing for the LS1 airbox to fit is leaning the radiator back some. I know I've read a few threads on the process before.

 

Either way, I want to see pics of that green one.

[Gojira94]

Oh right, dash and upper cover are different after 96… the dash is from a 94 or 95.

[Gojira94]

And you can have that dash for free. I’ll get some pics of it as soon as I can.