Christmas Eve morning, after dicking with the door locks for what seemed like a month, the remote keyless entry is working with perfectly all new door locks that match the glovebox. Now, I’ve only got to do the trunk, and run the wire for the popper.
Of course, I had Christmas obligations to attend to last night and today, so nothing today.
The bumper is back on! I called the parts company this week wondering where my damn bushings were, and they found the paperwork sitting there and misplaced. They fast-tracked the shipping and 2 days later the parts were here (yesterday). UPS dropped them off about 10 minutes before my friend Zane got here, so I suckered him into helping me get the bumper back on. I told him it would only take ten minutes. An hour later, we had it secured.
Tonight, I went out and finished putting the bumper on, spacing the gap between it and the hood, reinforcing it, etc. I’m sure I’ll find more places that need attaching later, but the lights are working (sorta) and it’s drivable-ish.
I learned a few things while doing research – most important, the car doesn’t have factory air. Shit. The aftermarket kits are decent, so I’m not too worried, they’re just expensive. I also think that other than A/C, the car was loaded. Auto locks, remote mirror, the works.
After I got the bumper on, I started looking at the wiring. It’s really a mess. Overwhelming, even. I can’t wait to go to a car show where I can take a look at a perfectly restored Firebird and take photos, so I can see how it should look.
The next step is obviously to fix the locks. I realized that the old power locks were seizing or something, and that’s why I now can’t get the driver’s side door open. I’m not happy about having to hop my fat ass through the window every time I want to start it or get inside. With any luck, Joe can gimme a hand over the holidays. Or maybe Roy or Chris. I need to buy beer. It also shitty that the mechanisms for the lock are buried way the fuck inside the door, so I’m shredding my forearms trying to get up in there. Crap waffles. I need to buy a lot of beer.
But for today, I’m stoked.
The old bird is happy this weekend. It got a lot of overdue attention. I first started out by lighting a few candles and apologizing for ignoring him for a few months due to things like going to Europe, getting married, post-Thanksgiving turkey sleepiness disorder. However, I did a bunch of shit this weekend and now allow myself to sit here with radiator fluid in my hair, raw knuckles and a strategically blended odor of tranny oil, degreaser and B.O. In a few words – best weekend ever.
Now, before I go too far, I need to list the things I’ve done:
1) Disassembled the front end and began refinishing it.
2) Replaced the transmission fluid pan.
3) Fixed the power steering.
4) Saved the cheerleader, saved the world.
5) Cleaned the engine.
Now, I know that doesn’t sound like much, but completely taking apart the bumper, which needed almost all the bolts cut off was a BITCH! However, I avoided lopping off a finger this time, so everything is awesome. I undid the whole cannoli, cleaned all the parts, wire-wheeled the rust off, and began paint on the under bumper frame (which has absolutely no name whatsoever). Because of the cold, I’ll have to paint it a few more times over the next week, but who cares. It’s looking good and I spent nothing on it. Goal achieved. Of course, I have to buy a few parts before I can put it back together (rubber bushings and most of the bumper bolts).
Transmission pan was simple too – just unbolted the old one with a hole in it, put gasket seal on the new one, and bolted it back in. No sweat. The pain in the ass part is that of the 3 jacks I own, the big 2 have shitty seals and I spent a lot of time figuring out that they suck donkey balls. Need rebuilt. Crap. Refilled El Kabong with tranny fluid and it’s as perfect as a burrito fart. While I was at the store, I also bought some new body bolts for the gap fix I need to do on the valance. With all the fluids and parts, I spend $80 this weekend. Could have been worse. (TC – $8980)
Now the steering was a nice surprise. While I was dicking around with the transmission fluid, I was looking for the refill/dipstick tube. What I assumed it was, turned out to be the power steering reservoir. Okay. I have power steering. And by filling it up, it works now. Butt-fucking brilliant! There’s $300 and a weekend I don’t have to spend on it. Can’t be better that that.
So I took it out in the rain just to run the fluids through it, and I’m super happy with the new performance. Bunch of shit still to do, but for the time, I’m a fluffy bunny of happiness.
P.S. I finally took the thing back to Meineke (NEVER AGAIN!) and they got the fucking brakes right this time. Dude. Seriously. Anyway, I can stop again. Of course, the rear end sounds like robots fucking, so I’m starting to think I’m going to need to fix that. Which will be expensive, I’m sure, but once I get the lights back in and the locks on it, I’ll take it to a non-retarded place for a free look at the rear suspension. Fingers crossed. Maybe it only needs new rear brakes.
1967 Pontiac Firebird V8 400. The car I’ve always wanted and now I have it. I rule!
I decided to start this blog thing to keep a record of what I do, what I spend, what I mess up and what I learn about my car. I tried doing the same thing with the BSA I was restoring, but came up short, so wish me luck.
On Thursday, I was able to win the bidding on eBay for the car of my dreams. The bidding ended at $8211.14 and would have been cheaper if one asshole hadn’t kept upping it on me. Oh well, it’s worth every penny of what I paid, considering that a crusty, rusty rolling frame with no motor goes for around $3-4000 and the motor itself runs about the same. Here’s what caught my eye and stole my heart:
I suckered my buddy Joe to drive the 160 miles each way on Saturday morning with me (we had to leave the house about 5:30am). We picked up the car ran it around a little and I was both scared of it and impressed. There were things that were much better than expected, and some things that were worse – tires especially. The guy I bought it from noticed that I was a little put off by the tires, so he kicked some cash back to me and made it an even $8000. I was down for it and after a gas run, we were on the road.
The bird drove great on the highway and I was smiling the whole four hour drive back to Indy, except when we would pull in for gas and have a tough time starting it, and it started idling high and flooding it. I was starting to get really worried at this point, that I had just gotten scammed or something, since I know a little about motors, only whatever theory can be brought over from motorcycles. We stopped by a Pep Boys and I bought my first part for the car, a replacement air filter for about 11 bucks (total cost of car $8011). It was definitely needed since the old filter looked like a used cigarette filter, but over the next few hours of riding it around, didn’t really seem to help.
In the end, after a few grumpy swears and a few sweaty beers, we found the problem – a sticking throttle valve dumping too much gas into the engine constantly, which was flooding it and making my afternoon a pain. Lesson #1 learned – Always carry around a can of carb spray and a decent tool kit.
Over the weekend I also made my very first modification to the car. I replaced the stock nut that was holding down the air filter with a wingnut, since I was taking it on and off more than a excitable stripper.
Unfortunately, the gas gauge doesn’t work, so I rounded out the weekend by running out of gas a block from the house, and pushed the car down our alley. Of course, I’m used to driving a 1999 Tacoma 4-cyl, so I never think about running out of gas, ever. Lesson #2 learned – If you think you can make it another day without stopping for gas, be prepared to push.
Ben\'s 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400 Rod & Restoration 