70 Firebird "The 14 Car" Performance Therapy project

When it comes to projects, scope creep is inevitable. We start out thinking "I'll just do this and this" and before ya know it you've gone waaay beyond what you planned. In my case I had the front end off and drive line out with new body panels needing paint that would never match the 20+ year old paint from when I first did the car. And since I'm gonna put solid body mounts in to replace the polys I installed years ago anyway......... I figured, Just get it over with and do the whole damn car!

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So this brings the GRM collective to where I am today. The top side of the unibody is almost stripped and bodywork is getting done while at the same time stripping the floor pans and subframe to bare metal.

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best thread ever. Update or ban.

I've been looking for a set of those nos hooker header/sidepipe combos for my 72 bird and they are hard as hell to find and/or super expensive. Let me know if you come across another set at a halfway decent price.

Cotton wrote: I've been looking for a set of those nos hooker header/sidepipe combos for my 72 bird and they are hard as hell to find and/or super expensive. Let me know if you come across another set at a halfway decent price.

Ya they're rare to find now set up for Pontiac heads in decent condition or NOS. You can find Chevy ones occasionally. I bought the black ones from a member on one of the TA forums a few years ago and even during the recession I spent about 1500.00 with shipping. I'd been looking for a NOS setup for about 10 years.

This is one of my favorite cars ever. I followed your build back when I was on the Trans Am Country forums all the time, and I remember wanting so bad to start doing a Pro Touring-esque build to my '79 because of this car. I still haven't gotten around to that yet.

Glad to see you still have it, and glad to see you are bringing it to another level of awesome.

In reply to Rad_Capz:

yeah I'd be content with a good used set at this point, but can't find those either.

Anyway....your new build out looks awesome!

THIS is a great build thread.

In reply to Rad_Capz:

i love you.

It makes me happy to see a Pontiac build thread.

I can vouch for the advice to use a four leg engine stand...I once tipped over a freshly rebuilt 389 when using a three leg stand, once that big old engine starts to tip there's no stopping it.

Thanks Guys! glad you like the thread.

While stripping the body for new paint ( I didn't strip to metal the first time 20 years ago) we found a couple previous repairs. Among them was a dent that was filled with bondo instead of pulling it out. The dent was in a spot where you can't get to the inside of the sheet metal and whoever did the work must not have had access to a stud gun. So for those who never saw one or saw one used here's how it works.

This is a stud gun which is sort of a 110V spot welder that attaches a stud to the body. The stud is loaded into the gun, pressed to the body, pull the trigger, and the tip of the stud glows red welding itself to the body.

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There's a couple sizes of the studs but even the small ones will burn through most modern cars because the metal is much thinner than the old cars so the guns aren't used much by collision shops any more.The studs shown are the larger size which work great on old cars.

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My buddy Jeff shows how the tool that pulls the studs works. He's been a body man all his life so he's got the technique down from working on cars like mine since they were new. Jeff's helping me do the car as part of a trade deal. So he's doing the exterior bodywork & paint which is really going to speed up my project since I can do the subframe, underside, and other things while he's making the car straight. We do jobs together and it works out well.

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+1000 for H&S Autoshot products! Them and Spitznagel/Dent Fix are all I ever recommend.

Since I've recruited Jeff to pick up and continue from where I was on the exterior bodywork I've been stripping the underside and doing other things. I never trimmed the rear wheel lips or rolled them before and since now's the best time to do it I cut them and Jeff rolled them so they're tucked out of the way. They'll be epoxied and seam sealed to keep anything out of the rolled section. Jeff's got the outside of the doors in primer and is working on making the roof & quarters straight by skim coating & blocking some areas.

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It's more humid here in South FL than most parts of the country even this time of year. So as soon as a panel is ready for primer it gets shot to prevent rust.

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What primer are you using? Actually it would be cool to know what materials you're using for all the bodywork...filler(s), primer(s), base/clear.

Sections Jeff's doing:
Evercoat Z-Grip filler over bare metal because it is self etching. The last coat of filler before final blocking with primer the filler is thinned with Evercoat Plastik Honey to prevent pinholes and makes it easier to put on a very thin coat. Mar-hyde Ultimate 2K primer (3M owns Mar-Hyde now) with cheapy HD spray can paint used as a guide coat for blocking. Couple coats of primer will be used with block sanding between till it's straight.

Exterior will be sealed (probably thinned PPG K 38) and then painted with PPG single stage Enamel or Urethane (haven't decided yet). I'm not a fan of BC/CC for collector/race/toy cars. I know it's the in thing but I just don't like the "look" of it. Cars like mine rarely see the light of day compared with a DD so I'm willing to put up with the maintenance necessary to keep the paint looking nice to get a true mirror reflection. If the new paint holds up as well as the last PPG Acrylic Enamel did (over 20 years) I'll probably be dead before it needs another repaint unless I stuff it in a wall on track or something. I'll put some pics below.

Sections I did/am doing: The body pieces I did before Jeff showed up in the thread were done with Evercoat Z-Grip filler over bare metal with Evercoat Glazing putty to prevent pinholes. Then PPG K 38 primer, block sanded, prime block till straight.

The underside floorpans etc.will be PPG DP 48LF epoxy primer (only because I already have a couple quarts left from a previous project) and shot body color with single stage PPG DAR Acrylic Enamel.

Subframe will be done either the same as floor pans or Magnet Paint Chassis Saver. If I get ambitious I may fill the pits and smooth the subframe before paint.

History pics:

First let me say, I HAVE LESS THAN YEARLY CHALLENGE MONEY IN THIS CAR. Someday maybe I'll post the story.

Purchased the bird for $190.00 circa 1990. Yup, $190.00 which was the full asking price in the Bargain News (pre internet). It had been sitting in a CT backyard since about '77. Soaked the cylinders with Marvel Mystery Oil and got it running with a $5.00 condenser for the points distributor and a battery using the old gas that was still in the tank.

Decided to give it a quick paint job and throw a set of Cragers on it so I could use it as a DD. A bud offered me a deal on Trans Am body parts so I used them during the repaint. It's come a long way since then. Last pic is just before taking it apart this time.

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Unreal.

I wanted to trim and roll the wheel well lips not only to create more side clearance for wide tires but also to allow more suspensiion travel and to allow the possibility of dropping the car a little. I know I was right at the limits before hitting with the 315 tires I had before. I'll be doing the Adams mod during this project which will drop the car a small amount and I may drop it a little lower than that before I'm done. So trimming and rolling the lips now before paint is just the right time to do it.

As seen in my previous post I trimmed about half of the wheel lip off in the center directly above the rear wheels and tapered off to nothing several inches above the body line. This way no one will notice when looking at the car from the sides because the wheel well lip looks stock. You can only tell if down really low looking up. Filled the gutter created by rolling the lip with panel bond to add strength and prevent debris from getting in there and holding water IF the car ever gets wet. Then I primed the wheel wells so I can move on to getting the rest of the underside stripped to bare metal without having the sheet metal get rusty from humidity.

Here's pics of the rolled lip, shiny clean 43 year old wheelwell, and 1st coat primer.

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Meanwhile Jeffs been getting the quarters in primer and now he's skimming a few places on the roof. A couple small patches were used on the passenger side quarter to fix soft spots that could have eventually become a problem years down the road and the drivers side only needed a very small repair (size of a nickel) in the corner right behind the wheel. For original 1970 quarters on a car that was originally a DD up North it doesn't get much better!

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Awesome! Just Awesome!

Thanks!

Jeff's done with getting the unibody & door exterior surfaces stripped, straightened, skimmed, etc. and is on to the prime & block stage. I'm still stripping the underneath and areas like the tail panel to shiny metal then priming. Yes, the firewall will be modified.

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Looking great man. These pics make me look forward to pulling apart my own Trans Am.

This is fantastic.

I forgot what a sexy shape this car was/is.

Thanks guys! Do it up SilverFleet!

The body & door exterior is in primer ready for final blocking. I moved on to stripping the trunk channel area and found an old rust repair the PO had done with fiberglass at the base of the rear window (never leaked) which will require removing the window to repair with metal. I'm having a glass guy who showed up at a couple jobs I've been on come by & pop it out then return for install when I'm ready. Not too expensive and I don't want to risk the piece.

Since Jeff had the body in primer and I was waiting on glass removal we pushed the car out of the way to work on other things. I moved to the gas tank. The inside of the tank is perfectly clean with not a speck of rust but like many northern cars this one had been backed into frozen snow mounds denting the tank. So the stud gun got called back into action and worked great to get the dents out. Then a skim coat of filler to smooth out the surface followed with prime & block and it'll look perfect when painted. Since I'm going to fabricate a diffuser that will allow the tank to be seen if someone peaks under there I wanted it nice.

You can see one of the dents in this old pic, others are more subtle and flat black hides them.

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Cleaned enough to use the stud gun and pull the dents.

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Studs ground off, high spots hammered and cleaned for filler.

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Starting skim coat.

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While I was messing with the tank Jeff started on the front fender we knew would need some work. I'd gotten the fenders from a bud back when I painted the car the first time 20+ years ago and one was an early fender without the core support brace provision that had some rust issues. I'd done some repairs but without a welder at the time I was limited. Fast forward to now and we decided to take the fender apart from the inner support to make repairs.

After getting started and thinking about the best thing to do I remembered a bud had a couple late 2nd gen bird fenders he didn't need and couldn't sell stored in his warehouse so I went to look for them (ya I have a key). I thought we could cut up the Formula fenders to get the metal sections needed to fix my fender. When I got there there were no regular fenders BUT there was a really nice rust free early 2nd gen left TA fender by itself and I just happened to need a left! I talked to my bud (OK,begged) and he gave me the fender. There's a little dent in it by the side marker light but we can fix that right up in a lot less time than doing metal work on my old fender.

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Outstanding!