[LeighP]

lol, ...I now know they're off a 73...a friend kindly pointed that out to me..after I restored them. They don't fit into a 70-72 nose. I just assumed they were the right grills as they were sitting in the trunk when I bought the car. I've got a couple of good 73 noses if I want to use them (less the additional heavy 5mph bracing stuff)....but I found out the 71 grills are available reproduction, so I'll just get a set of them new.

I'll store these ones away. If I ever need to use a 73 nose, then I'll be right for grills.
Doesn't matter...it was good practice....lol.

What annoys me is that they turned out really nicely....would have looked good on the car. lol.

[Father&Son73T/A]

Leigh,how ya doin?,I thought I seen you pokin around here,nice project,cant wait to see more,like the 455.

[LeighP]

Hi...hows it going?
Yeah, its a top forum...you don't find this many people with Pontiac info anywhere else I reckon.

[LeighP]

I dropped into the panel shop this afternoon after work and this is the sight that greeted me....


They've cut out and patched the RH side of the firewall, filled a few holes, cut the steering column hole back into the firewall....just has to add the booster mount back into the left hand side.



When I left, he was cleaning up the rear window channel area....not too much rust, mainly small pitting with a couple of holes to fix.

The boss says he wants to finish it by saturday...I sure hope so.

[LeighP]

So, after much stuffing around with little issues, I finally finished the head light mount assemblies.
I originally ordered some repro buckets, but they turned out to be incorrect for this application and didn't work....so it was down to the local wrecking yard with a sample bucket (I had one crusty old one). I found that local GM Holden buckets from the same vintage cars fit and work, so I snapped up a good pair of them. Added advantage, unlike the original ones, these Holden ones are galvanised.
I used my die grinder and clearanced the backs of the buckets to suit the seals on the new Hella H4 headlights (100W/55W).....new adjusters, retainers and springs later....and all done.
These little projects are all I have to amuse myself while the panel shop drag their feet.....

[LeighP]

Well, I can report that there has been concerted effort this morning to get work done on my car....rust is now all repaired, car is ready for priming of the repaired sections...the firewall, front and rear screen mount areas and the dashtop.
I went down to the shop this morning and stayed there until it was done...helping out, doing some sanding etc. I wasn't going to leave because as long as I stayed there, he couldn't wander off and do something else....lol. :lol:
After talking with the shop owner, I've decided to leave the front and rear screens out until its painted....easier to dry strip the old paint and a cleaner, neater job in the end...and no risk of accidently damaging a screen.
At least all the rust is now repaired.
Here you can see where the conversion back to LHD has been done....the filled firewall and the booster mount relocated to the LH side. The new column drop I got has been welded into location inside.



Heres one of the rear upper seat belt mounts I had fabricated and fitted. A top feeding inertia reel will locate in the bottom of the well section....there will be a brace that runs down to the inner wheel well to further reinforce the mount. When the rear is all trimmed, the belt will feed out like a late model car from under the trimmed deck.

[LeighP]

Dropped in this afternoon.....the worked on areas are now in hi-fill....still some work to touch up in a couple of little spots and he wants it to sit in primer for a few days at least before the colour coat.....but its getting closer to coming home.

[LeighP]

Yippeeeeee.....my car is finally out of the panel shop and back in my garage. Tilt tray guy dumped it in my driveway this afternoon.
Rust around the front and rear screens has been repaired and left in primer. Firewall has been converted back to left hand drive configuration, filled and plated for a smooth firewall....everything has new seam sealer and has been painted. The Stain Black is probably a little too glossy, but I can live with that...looks good.



Best part is, the panel shop owner felt bad about stuffing me around for almost 3 months...gave me a terrific deal on the work, so I made out there OK. Guess it pays to be nice, even when things aren't happening fast enough to suit you.

[Transamric]

So what's neccessary to swap the steering box & idler arm back to the original sides? I asssume it requires a different box than you have.

[LeighP]

I have another subframe that hasn't been chopped around. I bought a complete new LHD steering set up from Pro-TouringFbody incuding a 12.7:1 GM600 steering box. Nothing of what you see attached to the subframe in the pics is going to be used.
I have new B body spindles and SSBC Big Bite 1LE rotors with Wilwood GMIII alloy calipers. The control arms going to be 79 model ones with solid steel upper bushes and alloy/delrin lower bushes - all greasable. Tall upper ball joints to improve the bump camber gain....I also have a full brace kit - G braces for the subframe to firewall with a bolt in upper brace and a set of subframe connectors.

[Transamric]

SERIOUS!!!

[LeighP]

oops, that should be GM670 steering box.....for some reason I can't edit my post....

[LeighP]

Been slipping some of the cowl parts back onto the car as I go. I fitted up a wiper kit I picked up from Detroit Speed & Engineering (DSE) .....converts to a late model wiper with 5 intermittant settings and low/high. Kit comes with adapter and a wiring harness. Fits quite well, very compact on the firewall. Only issue is that the switch mount is made for a Camaro dash, so I'll have to fabricate a mount to suit the Firebird dash.

[bird72]

at first I kinda felt sorry fer ya, marooned on an island basically devoid of Poncho resources trying to put a car togethor..... after seeing your level of creativity and ability to build a car in a weekend or two, it's more a feeling of spiteful jealousy at this point.....

[LeighP]

Weekend or two???? lol, I wish....I'm looking forwards to getting a couple of days off and getting stuck into the HVAC and seatbelts.
My friends 69 Firebird you can see parked next to my car should be going this weekend...I've been storing it for him over the last year. Now I'll have some room back to get serious with my car.....

[LeighP]

For those who've asked about the belt installation.....
- The rears....
I used the last model Ford rear centre seat belts from a local model with Australian compliance tags. They bolt flat to a surface and feed off the top of the belt, which was exactly what I needed. The belts are mounted in a steel box which is welded into the parcel tray corners, low enough so half of the belt reel is recessed into the tray.


The welded in box stiffened the tray somewhat, but its not enough for a good belt mount, so I used the system theats in most of the Australian Compliance Plate converted RHD 2nd gens I've seen....a piece of steel that joins the reel attachment to the inner fender (a bolt will be added on final assembly).


I then made up a cover for the reel, so that it could be trimmed over and also retain the plastic belt feed trim.



- The fronts...
These belts are supplied by an Authorised Restraint Supplier/fitter. I worked with him to combine the length of drop-link I needed as well as the reel type to suit my application. The reel is a special type designed to feed, retract and lock when installed at an angle. A bracket was made to adapt a single top mount bolt to the factory twin bolt top mount...the steel used is thicker than the original attachment bracket. The original trim cover will fit over the new bracket. All other attachment points are the factory locations.




I previously used a similiar arrangement in my 70 RS/SS Camaro, so I know how well these belts fit and work....they are very comfortable.

[LeighP]

Well, I've finished converting a 75+ Camaro subframe to a 71 Firebird frame and added WS6 spec braces for the rear lower control arm mount.

Camaros have the mounts for the sway bar brackets tapped into the chassis metal. Due to the higher loads applied by the larger Trans Am sway bars, Firebirds use Rivnuts to anchor the sway bar brackets.
I drilled the original holes out to fit Rivnuts and set them with hand tools....easy and cheap if you are only doing a few.
Heres all you need....


Here are the Rivnuts set on one of the front frame rails....


I located the correct position for the WS6 control arm brace mounts using a 79 subframe I have spare here. The factory only taps the subframe for the mount, but since I had some Rivnuts, I fitted one into the chassis. The control arm rear mount is drilled for a 3/8" bolt....


The chassis is going by a small engineering shop down the road to get the late model rear body mount locations plated over, then its off to the powder coater for blasting and coating.

[LeighP]

Got the heater unit fitted up .... holes in the firewall etc. Fits in very nicely, though I've now got it out again while I sort out insulating the firewall, at least the bit behind the heater unit.
I hit the firewall and toe board areas with my angle grinder and wire brush.....should have seen the stuff fly....dirt everywhere, lol.
All cleaned up with wax and grease remover then got stuck into a few coats of my home made insulating paint.
The paint is a mix of epoxy anti-rust paint and micro-balloons (aka micro-spheres).....50/50 by volume. I turned 500ml of paint into a litre of this stuff, then coated the firewall until it was all used up.
The micro-balloons are tiny glass spheres that are hollow...suspend them in a paint base like this and it forms a nice insulating layer. There is a commercial product called Lizard Skin that uses this method, but they use a latex based paint and are way more expensive...I'm not even sure you can buy it here in Australia.
Anyway....I'll get some Dynamat Xtreme sheets to go over the paint and add a firewall pad over that of Dynapad....which is a multi layer noise and heat barrier.

[LeighP]

Awwww, I broke it.....



Waiting on the new subframe which is away being welded on then powdercoated.....

[72blackbird]

Leigh,
Are you going to reinstall the factory heater, or go with afermarket A/C? The smooth firewall does look nice though.

Geno