| This is my brother's 1968 Firebird, he purchased it in the begining of July ,2000. The car had been sitting in the weeds for about a decade with trees growing in the front and back, his first mission was to clean the rodent feces and nests from the interior, there was a happy family of bumble bees that occupied the car for the first few months he owned the car. The rims are steel and were really rusted so he polished them up for a like new appearence then he threw on some new rubber with a little lower profile and some width, which sure beat the bicycle tires the previous owner had on the car. The car also had long exhaust extensions going straight out past the bumper, a hacksaw cut them back to the original position. With a little work he had the car running and was soon driving it up and down the back roads, the car ran like a bat out of hell and the Hurst 4 spd. slid through the gears great. Next he had to repair some of the wiring, someone had cut the headlight wires and some of the marker lights were not working, the dash lights and most of the wiring under the instrument panel has to be repaired and we should be getting to that after most of the other tasks are finished. About a month of driving and the toll of sitting so long started to take effect, first it was the water pump then engine blow by, and the slides in the transmission went stiff. Almost immediately the tranny was on the garage floor and the engine on the stand. The engine is a 1976 standard bore 400 ci., with a lot of carbon build up and oil sludge everywhere. He has most of the parts for the rebuild in his hands but I don't know the horsepower he plans on producing from the 400. The 4 spd. Hurst is to be replaced with a th350 tranny. There's more pics and info on the next page and there are more updated pics on the way. |
