There's Nothing Like...

Beautiful car Dave.

Congrats! That's probably the best mix of old and new front to back I've seen. Send us pix of it finished off!

The Vampire, "Muffin Man"

poncho462 Spilled my beer when they jumped on the table and proclaimed in :

Looks good! Congrats!

NOI

Dave, I'm jealous as hell. Now .... go grab the Desert Eagle .50 and be prepared to furiously defend it. (you know...uhm...from...uh...other people............)

Martin '01 Formula - MTI Air Box Lid, K&N Filter, Hurst-6, SLP Cold Air Induction & Smooth Intake Bellow Corsa Catback w/Premium Tips '83 V45 Magna

Sweet. I'm using this as proof I'll get my 80 back together one day...

So, what year is that back bumper from? Sure doesn't look like a '73 bumper... ;)

The car is an early 76 455 4 speed model, built around October I think. The goal of the project was to build a 3500 lb car that could compete with the

2nd gen Camaros running 383s and 406s. The T/A weighed 4025 lbs with me and an half a tank of gas so it had to go on a diet. The heads, intake, water pump, etc. are all aluminum which helped some. The 76 nose is extremely heavy so it had to go but there aren't any fiberglass 76 noses available and I already have one car with a glass nose and it chips pretty easy. I found a complete 70 front end and fitted it to the car. The rear bumper is the stock heavy one. I replaced the hood with a fiberglass shaker hood and the front end has raised about 2 inches. The front springs are Hotchkiss 2 inch drops so the front as almost at the original height. It's definitely not a stocker anymore, but it hasn't been hacked up. It could go back to the original form without too much trouble. The A/C is functional; I wasn't going to loose that comfort to save weight. ;^)

Dave

Hard to tell by the picture, but are the wheel flares smoothed or fiberglassed into the body? HD

It's been raining nonstop since the car went into the shop, makes pictures a bit tough. ;^)

The flares are mounted in the factory manner and not glassed in. The clear coat is starting to haze up so it looks like it's time for the second buff. I fixed a buddy's buffer so he's going to take care of it for me.

When we get some good weather I'll post more pictures. I let a guy drive the car today who has a low 12s on the motor/low 11s on the naaws 71 RS. He's helped a lot over the past two years so he got the maiden voyage (well, I felt I was too buzzed to drive had a bit to do with it). It was so cool to see and hear the car go down the road and back. The car is ultra quiet but he said it's going to be a tough race for him when we go to the track. hehehehe ;^)

Dave

So I guessed the wrong end. Right back bumper, wrong front bumper. I love the look of the 70-73 nose. (even though I had a 75 and have an 80...) Man, those cars are porkers. I'm not sure how I'm going to get my

80 down on weight - throwing out 200 pounds of moldy sound deadening was a start. How about the back window? How'd you switch from wraparound glass back to the other style? That must have been a LOT of work - and why I guessed it was originally a 73...

This picture is probably a bit clearer:

Still has the wrap around glass but I was thinking it would be really fun to whack the quarters and install a 70-73 rear end, chrome bumper and all, that would really mess people up. ;^)

I've heard that the wrap glass was planned for 70 but GM had problems making the rear window so they went with a flat back glass.

Got to get a few test runs in the car, no traction in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear on the 295 street tires. I really want to find some stickies before Saturday.

Dave

Dave:

As long as you don't chop up a #s matching SE car to do your conversion, it's OK in my book. I hate to see #s matching rare cars get "restified". LOL.

Beyond that, great job on the car. Keep the questions coming, I'll try to lend a hand where I can....

Next time you're in Barnes and Noble, browse through "The History of the Firebird" by Marc Cranswick there.

Tell me if you recognize the car and names on Page 81 and 87. LOL.

Good luck with your Bird... Joe--ASE Certified Parts Specialist & 10th Ann.Club Tech Director '80 Carousel Red Turbo T/A, 26k orig. '79 "Y89" 400/4 speed 10th Ann. T/A, 57k orig '84 Olds 88 Royale Bgm 2 dr, 307 "Rocket" (lol), 141k and still going.... '80 T/A project car...

The 76 is chopped up Joe, I could put the body back to original in a weeked if I had to. The driveline would be a different matter. ;^)

I'm going to try to get a copy this week.

Thanks Joe, you've been a big help. Someone was asking about the vendor I bought the cutouts from. Here's the link:

I had a problem blowing the power fuse when I installed the cutouts. I called the company and they walked me through a troubleshooting procedure on the phone and got it fixed in 10 minutes, great support. They also make some cool stuff for 4th gens as far as headers, Y-pipes and cutouts.

Here's a couple of shots from today. The sun was getting low so the quality isn't the best but they look okay. I didn't have time to get the car up in the air so the cutout pics aren't the best.

Still playing with the carb jetting. I fixed a couple of problems and tried

82/86 jets. Killer acceleration on the primaries but a bit of a bog on the secondaries. I dropped the primaries 2 sizes and got a good run on the car today. When the engine is cold I'll see what the plugs say.

On a sad note, the left rear tire ejected something into the quarter panel so I have my first scratch in the paint. shouldn't be too hard to fix but I'm going to buy some stainless steel mud flaps to prevent that from happening again.

Dave

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Make that isn't. doooh!

Dave