[bonneville Joe]

Started making progress on the car again. Painted it last week. Now I'm starting the process of reassembly. Been stripping a lot of parts of my '77 Firebird parts car the last few days. Anyways, here are some pics..

[tenthta]

LOOKS sharp

[4spTA]

That is gonna be one nice T/A. Those tires and wheels fit very nice too.

[bonneville Joe]

I put 2" lowering springs on the rear. I'm hoping after the weight builds on the car it drops more.

[t/a 79]

what size are the tires? Santa is said to be bringing a suspention from protouring f body and a set of the 17x8 snowlakes

Tour paint and body look great also

[bonneville Joe]

They are the billet snowflakes, 17x8 in front with a 255 40 17 and a 17x9.5 in the rear with 285 40 17s. I started with a pretty solid car to begin with but it was dented and dinged. We took our time to get it as straight as possible. I painted the car 2 weeks ago. It's been cold so I've let it sit before I start the wet sanding and buffing. It's got 1" drop springs in front and 2" drop springs in rear. I'm going to bust my ass through the winter to finish it. I've got big plans for the car. Most of the awesome parts are already here. Just need to get it to a state to start putting them on.

[6t7goat]

Looks great, You are a little further along than I am on my 78 T/A. I see the roll bar, what kind of power is the engine making? Also what is the rest of the drivetrain?

[lester]

looks good. dont let the clear set to long. most clears dont buff very well when fully cured.

love the wheels. nice touch. I have the 17x9 flacks , and not sure if I'm going to use them. I dont like the big gap you get from them. even with lowering the car.

[bonneville Joe]

I paint for a living. The clear I've been using can be sanded and buffed way way after. I can go out there tomorrow and sand it, and where you've knocked the top edge off it smells like I shot it yesterday. Stuff is amazing. A week after I shot this one I did some sanding on it and buffed it. Where I buffed it, it actually still felt soft. It was dry but not cured. In the winter with the colder weather, it gives you a long time to work with. If it was August I would have already done all the sanding/buffing.

[bonneville Joe]

Originally Posted by 6t7goat

Looks great, You are a little further along than I am on my 78 T/A. I see the roll bar, what kind of power is the engine making? Also what is the rest of the drivetrain?

It's a '73 .030 400, 6X-4s, decked block and heads, forged TRWs, Comp Cams 274XE, Hedman Headers, Pypes 3" X into Pypes Pro-Vs and turndowns, MSD Streetfire ignition, BW ST-10 to a 3.23 disc rear. I bought the driveline from a local guy that had the motor built at a race shop in Houston. He claimed, and I can't verify this, that it dyno'ed at 480. I think that's a bit optimistic but when it was still in the car I bought just to get the drive line, it was very very strong. I don't have it to where I can fire the motor in this car yet so I don't know what it sounds like. I actually just got home from the shop, I was getting the inner fenders ready so I can put them in the fenders and hang the front clip on for good hopefully tommorrow.

[6t7goat]

Joe, Your engine combo is similar to mine I also have a 73 400 block but my heads are 4x-7h. I'm currious what clear you use. I to am in the process of painting my car and am doing it black and piece by piece. When it is all put back together my plan is to block the clear and spray 2 nice coats in the downdraft booth where I work. I have sprayed everything outside so far so it has a little trash in it. I use SPI universal Clear.

[bonneville Joe]

We use matrix products. Their ms-42 is unreal. It goes on really smooth. If you are used to something like nason, spray a few things first to get used to how it flows. I guarantee your first few sprays will run like crazy.

[bonneville Joe]

It's alive..........it's alive

[bigborehunter]

Just saw pics of your black 78...that is a great looking car.Those mags are about as large as I'd want to go in the aftermarket line. I owned a black 1980 SE..boy was it a curse to keep clean. Looking forward to driving my dark blue TA this spring.

[bonneville Joe]

I had 18"s on my 77 I sold last summer. The '78 I'm building now has 17"s. Weird thing is the 17s on my 78 look huge for some reason. Optical illusion I guess.