is it possible you could get us some pics of that sweet black firebirds engine? it looks like a bad sob.

also on a scale of 1-10 how hard was it to get the rear out? i have to remove my gas tank and they say you have to drop the rear.

and how do all you guys get the jack stands to go up so high? is it a bigger jack or what because my pos jack barely lets me put the jack stands under the car.

 

Looking great man.. man those cars look amazing sitting next to each other..

As for dropping the rear its not hard.. and to do a fuel pump u don't have to completly remove the rear.. u have to drop it.. meaning remove the panhard bar, other bar above that (name slipped my mind right now) shocks from the bottom and the brake line. The rear will be able to pivot on the lower control arms so the higher u get the car the more clearance u have.. I find it easyier to just pull the rear out all together but u don't have to. As for getting the car up high enough for jackstand.. sounds like ju need a better jack.. I like to put the jackstands on blocks and get them as high as my jack will go then if needed I put the jack on a block or 2 to get the stands higher..

 

I replaced my fuel pump a few weeks ago and I'd say the difficulty was about a 5/10. It's definitely a project you'll need a buddy to help you out with and a Saturday with no commitments is a plus too. As for dropping the rear end, quickkris2006 was right; you don't need to drop it completely. The thing he forgot the name of is called a panhard bar brace by the way. However I didn't have to remove my brake lines, I just unbolted ALL of their clamps/braces and used their flexibility.

And I agree about the underhood shots... let's seem em!

 

Ask and you shall receive...

-350 ZZ4 bottom end
-Trick flow CNC aluminum heads
-comp XR288 cam
-Vic jr. intake with holley 750 carb
-hooker longtubes
-working AC!!! LOL



And thanks for the compliments as always guys!

 

Wow I just read this whole thread this morning in lieu of doing what I am supposed to be doing. I am so very very envious of this project. I want a resto like this for my 87. Very nice brother. Cant wait to see it all done.

 

^^^ Thanks for the compliment!

And I picked up some goodies today!! Met up with a buddy of mine who sold me his old LS6 intake, fuel rails, FAST 78mm throttle body, and stock injectors. I'll use the stock injectors for startup so the car will run good with the factory F body computor and then when it comes time for the tuning I'll swap in the 60 pounders.

This is just sat on the engine for pics...nothing is bolted down yet


Needs a little polishing but it looks nice! I had already bought a stock ported throttle body which I will be selling now since I'd rather use the FAST.

 

now its really looking like a ls1.. and that black bird is sweet! I can't wait to have mine painted

 

well damn both engines look good. i cant wait to see that trans am running. does that black bird happen to make high end power ? that intake makes me think of mid to high end power. thanks to the people who helped with the rear thing, didnt mean to jack your thread man!!. keep up the good work and i hope to see alot more updates and pics. i think i remember you saying something about you got laid off? have you gotten a new job? not trying to be all in your business ol

 

The black bird does make good power up top. It'll rev to around 6500 RPM but my brother ussually shifts around 6000 to keep it in it's torque range. Drives awesome on the street too with the new 4.10s in it. Can't even tell it's a big cammed high rpm engine!

And I am actually still jobless. I'd like the car to be close to finished and then I will try to find another job.....gotta keep myself busy after the car is done lol. I've helped a few freinds on working on thier cars and made a few bucks here and there so it's not all too bad!

 

well if u decided to make a business out of building third gens u wouldnt need another "job" and u would be doing something that looks like u love doing.. just somthing to ponder about lol

 

What HE SAID!^^^^

I'm also looking for work, been looking for almost two years now. Might have something lined up but I'm waiting to hear back. If I was working, my car would be on the street right now. Maybe even in paint. I hear its getting better for those who are out looking for jobs though. But yea, as close as you are to having that car done I'd wait if you can afford to wait til you finish it. Its really looking good now, always great to see a car close to being a runner (in relative terms anyway as you said nothing is bolted up LOL).

 

I would LOVE to build cars as my job. Unfortunately, especially for third gens, I don't think they are worth enough as well as not high enough in demand yet. My father was tossing the idea around of quitting his job and oppening up an automotive shop that my brother and I could both work in. Guess we will see what happens!

 

in may i graduate high school and then in the fall i start college for automotive. id like to get a few people together who are into third gens to hopefully buy into hawks third gen and start a shop up here in the northern states instead of just their ONE thats in south carolina

 

the onlything i think would be wrong with opening up one is i think i heard somewhere they are a family business

 

Good news! Got the new Dana 44 all cleaned up and back together so it's ready to go into the car. Now I can finally move forward again instead of backward lol. The brake lines that were on the rear originally were just a quick job and while they worked, I wanted them to look more factory (and nicer!).

Heres the original lines that were on it when I got it...


And here it is now with nicely bent lines all freshened up with the LS1 brakes




Should have it in within a day or two!

 

Well I was bored tonight so I threw the axle in lol. Gotta tighten all the nuts and bolts tomorrow and attach the brake line but for the most part it's in. Will get some better pics in the light tomorrow!

 

make sure your tq arm clears the fuel/brake line bracket in the drive shaft tunnel, im not sure if the d44 moves the tq arm over to the drivers side or not, but i had to relocate my fuel/brake line bracket when i installed my d44

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out but I think it'll be fine. I ran all new 1/2" fuel line with new brackets and didn't really follow the factory routing so it shouldn't hit. I'll be under there tomorrow though so like I said I will keep a heads up on it and check it out.

BTW, how do you like the 44? Ever have any problems with yours yet? I heard they are basically equivalent to a GM 12 bolt in strength which is fine by me!

 

I figured I'd chime in after 2 hours of reading 11 pages of thread that was recommended by a friend. I LOVE THE ORANGE! everythings looking perfect. I admire your motivation to the details, especially the undercoating. I can't wait til you get 'er started and all finished up. If your ever passin through good ole' Ohio and looking for a fellow third genner let me know! Just a little question, are you keepin stock gauges or goin with like an autometer set up.

 

Thanks for the kind words! As for the gauge cluster, I will be going with an autometer custom set up. I love the stock third gen TA gauges but I don't want to use speedo converter boxes, and mess with the gas tank resistance and all just to get them to work correctly.

And I'm not sure when the next time I'll be through Ohio is going to be (never been there actually!) but hey you never know. Me and a freind are thinking of doing a road trip accross the country so we just may stop by lol.

 

haha. sounds good. and I'm gonna do to the same thing with the gauges. They look a heck of a lot better than the stock gauges on my 91

 

Finished up the Dana 44 install today and got the rear brakes bled again so she's all set. Ordered up some Hawks conversion E-brake cables as well to go from the 3rd gen handle to a 4th gen disc set up. Once those come in I'll throw them on, get the driveshaft installed, and the drivetrain should be 100% complete! Going to feel good! Heres a few shots since I had the car back on the wheels and it was a gorgeous day here in CT so I rolled it out for some beauty shots haha.

Heres the dana 44 all buttoned up. Looks right at home


Took this angle of the front suspension as well

 

Wow, 5 days without an update? WE NEED AN UPDATE!!!!!!!! LOL

 

Here it is!!! Not much lol but I got my Hawks E-brake swap cables today and got those in as well as my driveshaft. Drivetrain is done! Hopefully I won't have to get under the car again for a while haha. Also finished painting the floors black and will be dynamating those soon.

Heres some pics.

Hawks E-brake cables for use with a 4th gen axle/brake set up. Very nice quality and excellent fit!






And heres the 4th gen aluminum driveshaft installed

 

did you not bedline a couple spots on the passenger side?

 

Yea the floorboards under the car are not 100% done yet. I plan on getting subframes when the car is almost done and don't want to undercoat the floors until they are on so I can cover up the welds and all. Everything but the area under where the passengers sit on each side is coated underneath though.

 

thats what it looked like, are you gonna undercoat the subframe connectors also. bedliner i mean?

 

doesnt have to be just third gens.. remember if u build it they will come lol.. they way u put in the effort for detail i would love to see what u could do to a 1st gen camaro or firebird.. thats were the reall money is at! spend 30k building a car and sell for 60k+.. sounds like a good profit to me..

cars looking good by the way.. i also did brake lines over the last few days .. just not on my bird. on my brother in laws car.

 

Nice work! I was half kidding when I said we need an update. Typically there is something new every day or every other day. I knew you'd get around to it at some point. I hate to bust your bubble about getting under the car. Unless I missed something, you still have to install the rear sway bar and links.

 

No, the subframes come black powdercoated so I won't need to put any bedliner on them. I'd just like to cover up the bare metal at the edges of the subframes once they are welded on so nothing starts to rust under there!

My uncle just got done restoring a 67 camaro. Gorgeous car!! We will see how things go. I don't currently have a job so maybe I'll do a little research on some kind of restoration business and see what the market looks like.

You're right....missed those. The sway bars were one of the last things I was going to put on the car since I am always lifting it up and putting it down. Didn't want to put uneeded stress on the new bushings so I figured I'd wait. They're easy enough though so it won't be too bad lol.

Unfortunately though progress may be a little slow for a week or so since my brother just had a little "whoops" with his 91 bird so the garage is covered with parts. I can barely move in there at the moment and I think it's supposed to rain the next few days so no pushing it outside to work on it.

 

no issues but i have not pushed it hard. In regards to strength, the ring/pinion is supposedly as strong as a 12 bolt but the case is small/weaker so it will twist/deform due to the TQ arm more easily. That is what i've heard, i have no idea how accurate that is. The consensus is that the 12 bolts break due to center case deformation because the TQ arm puts so much force on it. I want to do a bridge (axle brace) and aluminum cover w/ main cap supports like the off road guys do on their D44's. i imagine that would help out a lot with preventing the case from deforming.

heads up on the sway bar in case you didn't notice already, the stock u-bolts and brackets don't fit right because the D44 has larger diameter axle tubes. i bent/forced mine on but they clearly are too small. On a build of this caliber i would get the right pieces, i plan to get the right ones for mine but that will happen once i get the car back on the road.

 

quick question for white devil ta...do you still have windshield wiper fluid container, or just the wipers???

 

Good to know about the 44. I have heard it performs like a 12 bolt as well. I am not planning on launching mine hard at the track so I'm sure it'll hold up just fine, especially with 3.55 gearing. And as for the sway bars, I did realize that when we saw how the previous owner of my brothers car had rigged up the swaybar mounts to fit the axle tubes lol. I saw that BMR has the correct mounting brackets for the larger tubes which I will most likely get when it comes time to mount the sway bars.

I have the fluid container as well. I hold onto pretty much all the original parts whether I will be using them or not. I even still have the original GM valve covers off the 305 LOL.

 

well if it works out with ur "garage shop" let me know. i went to school for paint and body but im deff a gear head at heart..

 

Ive always wanted to have a business restoring/building cars. Its something thats been on my mind for as long as I can remember.

Very nice work. Whats the ETA?

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it to be done around the June/July timeframe so we will see how it comes along!

 

Made a bit of progress today only to take another step back.

I got my new FAST 78mm throttle body all cleaned up and swapped my sensors from the other throttle body I had bought onto the FAST. Went out searching and found the correct size bolts to mount the TB to the intake as well as the fuel rail bolts however no luck on the actual intake manifold to engine bolts. I'll check the local Fastenal tomorrow and am pretty sure they should have the correct size. In the process however I realized the truck water pump will not work with an LS6 intake since it interferes with the TB. Pulled that off and now need an F-body water pump and I guess I'll just swap pulleys since my belt setup will utilize the truck spacing. Just a small setback but it means more money I need to spend! Hopefully I can sell the truck pump and get some money back for it.

Heres a pic of the TB and fuel rails actually bolted down and the water pump removed.

 

Gatta hate set backs! I've had plenty. I still love that color ! Bet it looks amazing at night

 

looking good my friend i just read the whole thread and i am very impressed by far my fav t/a out there

 

i know i could have asked anyone about this but im at the same stage you are right now. will you put a new washer fluid container in your engine compartment or keep the blades and thats it?? because i cant find a spot for mine the coolant over flow and fuel gauge and regulator in the way.
thanks

 

well if your up for some cutting you can doa the 4th coolant and wiper fluid switcheroo

 

I don't plan on putting my washer bottle in because I really don't plan on drivng the car in anything but decent days. I'm still going to hang onto it incase I change my mind down the road but for now I like the cleaner look the engine bay has without it. I always keep a bottle of detailer in the trunk anyways so if my window did get dirty I'd just pull over and wipe it down!

 

Thank you! That really means a lot to hear that with every other TA out there.

 

You gonna be throwin a strut tower brace in there? just curious. I've read many a thread on here and everyone says there a MUST HAVE.

 

fyi if you have inspection I am pretty sure you have to have windshield washer fluid reservoir, though tbh for how easy it is to remove I would just put it once a year for inspection like I plan to do with my EGR.

 

I'm considering it but am not sure at this time. With subframes and a wonder bar I'm sure the front will be pretty stiff but like I said, guess we'll see when the time comes.

No inspection in CT especially since my car is an 86 and is now 25 years old. Don't even have to worry about emmissions anymore!

 

You lucky bastard all cars newer than 1975 have to be emissions tested every 2 years to get tags in Oregon.

 

I sympathize, I'm in the same boat, thing that pisses me off bout it is the hybrids pollute the earth more than my camaro ever could even if I put in a bbc with no emissions equipment, kinda bs imo, but thats why I'm just going to put the egr on for inspections and take it off right after and or I'll register it in the sticks where I used to live since there is no emissions down there, might have to since Idk that my cammed 3.4 would pass a sniffer test meant for a stock 2.8....lol..

 

Really? WOW thats terrible!! we have a very strong muscle car scene here in CT but I can imagine that if people had to pass emissions in a 75 or newer car we would have a lot less muscle cars lol. MA just passed a law stating that no car OBD1 or older has to go through emmissions which means only 96 and up cars need a sniff test! IMO though emmission tests are BS. My brothers carbed 350 with heads and a huge cam as well as a holley 750 carb passed WITHOUT a cat....no detuning or anything, yet they'll still fail it for not having a cat in place. Honestly if a car can pass, why is it a necesity to have a cat? Such a corrupt test.

On another note, I got some good progress done today since the sun was out most of the day. Floors are now finished with the dynamat. Only areas I need to do still are the trunk and over the gas tank hump, a little bit up the B-pillars, and then I may throw a few patches on the doors since I'll most likely have some leftover. I can already smell that wiring coming soon!

Also ordered my intake manifold bolts and new gaskets for it since the original ones are pretty flat so that will be bolted on it the next few days.

Heres dynamat pics...

 

I suspect emissions laws are so retarded because some govt bureaucrat jackov who doesn't know the first thing about cars and most likely doesn't know that the pollution created just in the creation of a hybrid exceeds the amount a person could feasibly create throughout their life driving 1 smog spewing 25 yr old car they rescued from the brink of death. So its basically an ignorance thing on their part, and no doubt what information is given to them, is biased and doesn't mention what I just didn't and paints our old muscle cars as the devil himself probably. That's my theory on it anyways, imo any 2 decade old car shouldn't have to pass emissions, its hard enough just to keep the things running =/