I then used a spray bottle full of Purple Stuff degreaser and some wooden sticks and vinyl/brass brushes to clean all the oil, tar, mud and sand that was encrusted on the sides. Took several "lather, rinse, repeat" iterations to get it comepletely clean. I stayed away from steel wire brushes as they tend to scratch the aluminum.

Sure is handy having the cherry picker to hang the thing on.

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http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006309.jpg

After hoisting the tranny up I was able to pull the pan and replace the filter. The pan looked great, no metal in there. I guess someone back in the 70's replaced the filter as there was some gasket goo on the pan gasket. The underside of the pan was pefect, flat, and scratch free, further evidence that the tranny had never been out of the car. (They usually get dragged across the floor when removed.) I was careful to not place it on the ground, in order to further preserve the pan's finish.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006310.jpg

Here is the VIN stamp location on the turbo 350. Happily, this one matches the car and the engine.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006307.jpg

All done and headed back into the garage. Last thing left to do is the filler tube O-ring which doesn't arrive til tomorrow.

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Looks good Steve. Wish I had the time and room to do a lot of that stuff!

Cleaning time. Used a spray bottle of the purple stuff degreaser and cleaned the engine compartment. Thirty six years of oil and dirt everywhere. Got most of it washed away with the garden hose.

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http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006355.jpg

Notice where the exhaust head pipes are sitting? Gee, what do you think the odds are that when I went to remove the brake master cylinder, that the flare nut wrench would slip out of my hand and fly through the air and land right in the driver's side head pipe...and then slide a foot or two down the pipe...laughing at me the whole way. Nothing but net.

I had to find a flexible wire and fasten a magnet to the end and fish it down the pipe. It was like a carnival game from Hell. I finally won the game and got my wrench back after about an hour of fishing.

I pulled the front steering linkage and the steering box, just to clean the encrusted gunk off. The steering box was natural cast finish with an aluminum cover and a pink paint daub on the spline where the steering shaft mounts up.

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Dodged a bullet here! Check out the steering box bolt in the center. I used PB Blaster to loosen the bolt but it still took an impact gun to get them loosened. I would loosen, then tighten, then loosen repeatedly, to rock them free. Looks like the center bolt came out just in time. I was surprised it didn't break after seeing how much was rusted away.

The steering linkage was gunk covered and took a lot of brushing and degreaser to get it clean. You can see the original green paint mark on the driver's side, inner tie rod. (Just like my 72 T/A had). The weird black plastic ball thingy that looks like a toilet bowl float is actually the plastic cover (two piece) that goes over the steering box rag joint and the lower six inches of the steering column shaft. I think this was some kind of safety item to prevent debris, rocks and stuff from jamming the steering if it got caught between the rag joint and the subframe.

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I pulled the brake booster out to clean it up. It had quite a bit of surface rust on it. Soaking it, face down in the safestrustremover.com stuff. Working very well taking the rustiness away.

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You can see the light blue inspection mark on the "Delco Moraine" stamp in the 2:00 position on the face.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006360.jpg

And on the top was a light blue mark that ran across from the front side to the back side at the 12:00 position, as well as an orange daub right at the top.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006359.jpg

Here's the engine compartment at the moment. I ended up using a little daub of diesel fuel on a rag to clean the firewall and the inner fenders. It worked out very nicely. The dry areas you see on the driver's side of the firewall and alongside the A/C box are the sloppily-applied, factory body schutz undercoating, which I am leaving in place.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006378.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006379.jpg

And, yes that is a rag covering that cursed open exhaust down pipe. :rolleyes:

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Some of the cleaned up parts at the moment: the steering box, wiper motor, the steering shaft, the 7042264 1972 400 carb (matches the intake I have on the car), and an extra brand new master cylinder that I had sitting around waiting to go on something.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006376.jpg

My parts order from Summit Racing should arrive tomorrow so I can bring the pistons, cam bearings and block assembly hardware over to the machine shop. I ended up getting the entire rebuild kit, which includes .030 pistons, rings, cam, main, and rod bearings in one package. (The crank polished up nicely so I can stick with standard size main and rod bearings.) Since I already had bought a new Melling oil pump and a Felpro gasket kit, they were able to deduct those items from the kit and save me about 80 bucks.

Got the engine parts from Summit this morning. For some crazy reason they sent me 6 pistons from one warehouse and 2 from another. I brought them to the machinist and he didn't have a good feeling about them since they looked markedly different: an old version and a new version of the same part number. He weighed them and the weight difference was off the scale, literally.

I called Summit and they agreed that was not right - you never mix and match pistons from different sets, let alone different years of manufacture. All I can assume is that it must have been the computerized inventory system selecting the locations from which to ship. They issued a call tag for the 6+2 pistons and they are drop shipping me a new, matched set directly from Sealed Power.

On a positive note, they do have excellent customer service people, who realized the problem and took care of it immediately.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006391.jpg

The original block was bored .030 and is ready for the cam bearings, galley plugs, freeze plugs, etc.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006381.jpg

The original 6X heads are in process at the moment. Original valves were in nice shape, so we are reusing them. The heads will be resurfaced after the valve job is finished.

Gee, maybe I'll get up to an actual 8.5 compression ratio with the head shaving. I don't know if today's gas can handle all that power!

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006382.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006385.jpg

BTW, here's the brake booster after a couple of days of soaking in the safestrustremover.com stuff. It took most of the rust away. It did also remove what was left of the original zinc dichromate plating.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006393.jpg

Where do you get the time?

:eek:

Is the diaphragm still good?

Spent the weekend playing after supervising the kid's mowing the lawn!

Diaphragm is still good. I plugged the front outlet and the center area prior to soaking and then just dipped the front half, so very little of the derusting liquid got in. Afterwards, I rinsed everything in hot water, just to be sure.

"Cleaning time. Used a spray bottle of the purple stuff degreaser and cleaned the engine compartment. Thirty six years of oil and dirt everywhere. Got most of it washed away with the garden hose."

AAuuuuugggghhhhhh the patina has been removed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Throw the whole thing away now, the value is gone! ;~)

Been there, done that with the open head pipe. oops .. clank ...CLANG ... clatter ... oh Sh!T! lol.

Who are you using for the machine work?

I'm using Rogers Speed Shop in Garwood, NJ. It's a real, old time, machine shop that's been in business for decades.

you'll have to compare prices to 1988 (came with my SD...)

Nice! I'm in good company, then.

Got the new pistons from Summit on Friday...a sealed box with the label "matched weight set." They are at the machine shop now. When I dropped them off, the block was finished but I was in the wife's car and she doesn't take too kindly to transporting engine blocks in her trunk.

Over the weekend I spent some time painting the frame, cleaning all the brake and fuel lines and then reinstalling the lines, brackets, wiper motor, steering box, intermediate column, new motor mounts, etc. I also cleaned and rewrapped the wiring harnesses, too. (And yes, the factory did use bright white, corrugated plastic tubing to contain the firewall engine harness on the 75 Firebirds - not too esthetically pleasing, I'd say, but it is original!)

Waiting for a couple new brake hoses to arrive tomorrow. I had to replace the calipers after snapping the bleeder off one in an attempt to get it ready for bleeding the brakes. Figured I should replace the hoses as well, just to be safe.

Here's the engine compartment at the moment:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006451.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...8/S7006449.jpg

Nice work Steve - as always!

Neat Car with a Cool History!
What's your plan for it?
Nice Summer Driver, Restored back to Original?

I see yours has had the front bird emblem removed and it now has a formula hood-
Is the bright blue paint with tan interior its original color combo?


(I once considered returning my 75 base bird back to factory stock for awhile,
but I could not justify taking off the formula hood for a flat one :D)

Good job on it so far!
-Jason