[Scarebird]

In the month since the last post I did a few things, one being removing the temp exhaust extensions and welding in a pair of slicer tips. These kick in a little bit, more like te 70-72 Camaros had for a cleaner, tighter look.

Another thing was fitting up the tail panel and trunk lock. This is what I ended up doing. Not being any sort of low production or high value as stock car, I modded the tail panel so the lock face sits flush. I did not like the idea of the lock sitting too far in and the key scraping the paint when turned.

I clamped the tail panel in the Bridgeport and used a swedge cutter to get to 0.812" Ø. I needed 0.841 or so, a brief touch of the rotary file did this.

In the mean time I made a test backing plate. I am thinking of making a small laser cut run of these as the welded studs seem to all disappear over the years...

I welded some gussets in the latch section of the trunk so access to the back two bolts is bad at best...





Test fitted up. Will use some neoprene gasket and smear the outer section of the lock with sealant.

[Scarebird]

Tail panel in with rear bumper, hopefully for the last time. The paint was wrong - more of a darker blue than Lucy Blue - but as a happy accident as it looks better to me...



The stripes were installed from 165th - the letters had release issues but Greg was 4.0 in solving it. The blue of the insert seemed to match the outer portion of the stripe.

[Scarebird]

Trim time. No, not there - front and back windows. The OEM aluminum pieces were in sad shape, so I had them stripped and lightly powder coated with a shiny aluminum paint.



As I started to install them the clips kept coming off. Seems Johnny Chinaman didn't form the clips correctly - a squeeze in the vise fixed this.



The rears were hell; one of the pieces was dented on the install. So when the fronts went on, I greased up the clips and marked there location with blue tape: click - click - click this time.

[Scarebird]

The amount of time this damn car has eaten up is frightening at times. Tomorrow it goes to the dealership for alignment and CASE learn. Tested it tonight to check brake lever ratio (much better) and noted I had no brake lights. Swung by Brent's and took a few pix:





Sorted out light issue when I returned. The nose on this 80 was a piece from my 79.

[HWYSTR455]

Subscribing...

Nice work, several areas I'm taking notes on!

.

[Scarebird]

that coming from an expert - thank you

[Scarebird]

Shake down time.

One sure thing is no lack of items to tweak and or fix. I put in the tranverse muffler at the wrong angle and it was interfering with the axle at full compression so out came the plasma. Replaced with an identical unit but most of the time was spent carefully cutting the welds off the pipes so they could be reused. Thrush (Walker) does not sell any of the components except the muffler separately (Summit guy sez "it's only $250"... sure buddy, and I am stuck with 80% of the kit I do not need - no thanks!). Amazon sells the muffler too.

Tomorrow I will examine the front bushings and see why they squeak so much...

[Scarebird]

Now that winter is stealing upon us, the T/A has crept back into drydock. Lot of issues to be addressed, one of the biggest is no gauges or turn signals. I removed the dash and began tracing the wiring, realizing as usual the issue lies with a missing ground and a miswired main feed to the gauges.
Iwill again try to straighten out the rat nest that is adapting Speedhut gauges to an original 1980 harness (changed in order to get blade fuses).

Of course I could not leave well enough... in September Vintage Air came out with their direct fit AC setup. Noting the the last five summers have been quite hot (regardless of what the Koch-fed "scientists" say...) I decided now would be an excellent time to refit with AC. Obviously the best thing would have been to save the OEM setup a few years ago but that is long gone.



I went to install the VA's airbox and ran into snag number one - the mounting brackets are hilariously not up to the task. A few hours with calipers, squares and Auto CAD and I sent a drawing to our laser cutters. Should see the prototypes in a week or so. I will contact VA once this is sorted out and see if they are interested. Next night I installed the condensor - it went together well; kudos to VA.

Tonight was test fitting the compressor. VA uses Kwik Performance brackets; nothing fancy - just simple plates with machined spacers...



A few things will need to be changed: the existing heater hose routing got nuked; I will need to come forward with it first then up the inner fender. The CPS widget will need to be remounted as it's home got kypped.

[JC455]

Pics??

[Scarebird]

Earlier this week I got the hoses back from Vintage. One of the flaws of this system is they use a module to house the whole thing; heater core, evap, motor, etc. This means that the connections for the heater and evap are under the dash, and behind the unit. Arrggh. You feed the hose thru the firewall, then connect and mount the whole assy. on the firewall. Our brackets have studs; I cannot imagine doing this with bolts...




Another view of the brackets. If VA does not show interest we plan of selling them on our website and ebay. This is how it attachs (the white block is a custom fuse holder):



This is it mounted the first time sans hoses. Another option is if the fan was removable from the front - this would allow access to the fittings without removal of the airbox. A special length Phillips screwdriver may allow this anyway if needed.



This evening I found that the connectors for the PCM are hitting the hood; I had to raise the bracket 1/2" to clear the compressor. I fabbed a bracket and relocated the PCM and mount on the firewall.

[Scarebird]

Engine side of things. New home for the PCM.



Overall pic of the passenger side engine compartment.

[HWYSTR455]

Nice work on the VA bracket, that will be a popular item. Have a friend who worked for 2 different VA dealers and he would make his own brackets. He complained that VA doesn't have a better mounting.

I'm in the same boat with the driver, but I did a smoothie plate. I was thinking of tacking the studs right to the firewall on the inside, but will figure that all out when the time comes.

May end up taking you up on the offer and grabbing a bracket from you....(and will let my buddy know they are available too)..

.

[HWYSTR455]

He shot me a pic of his last brackets. He says no holes thru the firewall...

.

[Scarebird]

Holy Cats! That mount looks really complex.

The studs can be trimmed if needed, I was more concerned function over fashion. I will order a batch of the production brackets - there is a 71 Camaro shell a buddy has that he is mounting the VA setup that I can use to final test.

[HWYSTR455]

That one is for a '53 panel wagon custom, but he's done similar for 2nd gens and A bodies. Guy's an artist. He's at GodSpeed Rides at the moment...

Serious though, there's a market for that stuff, no surprise all the custom guys are whining about the ones that come with the systems. They would snap that stuff up left & right if they were available, would save them hours upon hours.

.

[Scarebird]

Last couple days have been busy working on wiring. Vintage radio sounded like crap - volume would do wild swings depending on station. I picked up an Audiovox unit at a swap meet; this unit was made in the 70's to get around the high priced OEM units. Sound is not the greatest but you really have to look hard to distinguish from an OEM unit. Small issues remain but this is the result so far:



Gauge on the far right is the clock - the arms do not light up. Vintage Air controls do not like the headlight dimming rheostat much... one nice thing about the OEM setup is it all plays well together.

[Scarebird]

I fobbled the start today and the motor backfired - evil blue smoke welling out of the hood. Opened hood - no fire or anything but when running the engine had a whooshing noise; the backfire blew off the main vacuum cap (manual brakes). Took a while to find the port and cap it; the original plug was not found.

[Scarebird]

Had AC setup charged - in wettest February yet here, why not? Really wished I had intermittent wipers here.

[HWYSTR455]

I'm going to retro some intermittent wipers on all my classics, from what I understand, it's not that difficult, and there are a few kits out there too.

Think the 79-81 firebird wiper motors are intermittent, and you just need to figure something out with the switch. Mounting I believe is pretty standard among A & F bodies (and some B), 67-81. (but can't recall exactly at the moment)

I'll do the homework and do a thread on it when it comes time to do the 79 tribute, should be about 3 months or so.

I totally dig the gauges by the way....

.

[Scarebird]

I bought the Delco delay/pump add-on unit and fabricated a switch - but it only went 20° total swing. I will bench test another idea I have.

Still have not been able to get the PCM to talk to the gauges