'67 Firebird resto progress
 

Well, after about 2 years, I finally started the resto on my '67 Firebird. I pulled the vinyl top off, stripped off most of the '80's repaint to leave the original paint underneath and pulled the motor to clean/degrease/refresh.

Surprisingly, the engine is pretty clean inside and the cylinders show no major wear with very little ridge, and there's virtually no carbon build up. Given that it was running well when I pulled it apart and it looks clean inside, I'm not going to do a full rebuild. I do think I'll add a few things when putting it back together, though. I'm planning to put in 744 cam, new oil pump, new timing chain, arp rod bolts and long branch manifolds to go with the ram air setup.

I'm on the fence on a couple of things, though. It's a California car with the AIR setup, so I'm debating whether to put the full system back on. It's complete and was working when I pulled the engine and is original to the car, but it does clutter things up a bit in the engine bay. Any opinions? I also have a 2400 stall converter sitting in the garage, thinking I might install that while the engine is out. Worthwhile on a street car or will it just make the tires spin worse off the line and kill my gas mileage? I'm thinking it might work well with the 744 cam. The car has factory 3.23 posi and single traction bar. My goal is to get the car in for paint in the next week or two and hopefully spend the next couple of months putting the engine back together so it's ready to go back in when the car is painted.

I think there are better choices out there than the 744
I would go with an 068 for an auto or a choice of a good street cam from your favorite manufacturer.

I've had good luck with the 744 in a basically identical motor (except with headers instead of LB manifolds), so know where I want to go there. The 068 is good but runs out of steam on the top end.

I don't want to rework the valvetrain which leaves most of the aftermarket grinds out as they have too much lift.

Nice black plate car. I have waffled on AIR on mine. Its been on and off several times. Since I am going to put the original engine back in it again, probably the AIR will go back on. The big thing on your project will be putting the engine back in without damaging new paint. Are you going back with original color?

What are the original colors of your car?

I had a '67 400 Bird that was sold new in CA as well. Still had all it's AIR equipment when I got it. I sold it before finished the restoration (15 years ago...), but if I'd kept it I would have put the AIR stuff back on. I just think it's unique (don't see it on many cars any more...), and clearly identifies them as CA cars.

Original color is Coronado gold with black vinyl top and black deluxe interior with fold down rear seat. Most of the paint visible is the original paint, it was painted what looked like mayfair maize back in the 80's but I was able to blast most of it off with a pressure washer.

I'm leaning towards keeping the AIR stuff on as the RA pans fit it (can't be too many '67 RA pans with AIR provisions around).

Any tips on cleaning and degreasing the engine compartment? This thing has a solid inch of grease in spots. For the engine I started by chiseling all of the build up off before disassembling to keep anything from getting inside it, wondering if I should do that in the engine compartment (most grease is on the subframe) and then scrub with degreaser and pressure wash? Or would renting a steam cleaner be more effective?

After cleaning up the timing cover in the parts washer, it's borderline usable (heavy pitting on the inlet and inside but no holes), but for sure the water pump divider plates are shot, any source for those or is it just an ebay deal? I've seen timing covers but not the divider plates.

Cool. My old one was Signet Gold with black vinyl top and black deluxe interior (and fold down seat!). Went to a guy in Minnesota who was going to finish restoring it, but I don't know if that ever happened.

I look forward to seeing yours come together-

Resurrecting this thread (and the project). Went through a few starts and fits but I'm at the point of painting the front subframe and starting re-assembly. I ended up going with Southwest performance parts control arms, front disc brake conversion from Right Stuff, ordered up long branch manifolds and gathered up a few other odds and ends. Engine is ready for final cleaning, painting and re-assembly. Currently trying to decide on cam and whether to go with Fuel Injection - I'm looking at the Holley Sniper spread bore setup, just have to see if it'll fit the ram air pans as my goal is stock looks. I'm going with a new gas tank as well, so I'm thinking about going with an in-tank pump at that point.

Hopefully it won't be 7 years until the next update.

Ha! Coast to coast.

Yep, seeing your post reminded me that I had started one way back when!

Things are always upside down at your place... :noidea:

That's the view I get when scraping the gunk off the underside.

Finally started reassembling - por 15'd the front subframe and decided to switch things up a bit and go for an m22 4 speed setup, so trying to get the engine ready to install when that gets here.

Will second this. The RAIV cam will make it run hot. When I built the engine in my 75 T/A I called Butler and told them what components the engine had (Edelbrock 72cc D ports with R/A exhaust manifolds with a Performer intake) and what my goal was. They suggested a grind and I went with it... runs great.

What color are you going with? Just my two cents, but I don't think changing the color will decrease the value... probably increase it. Not a fan of gold or brown, but it's up to you.

Good luck

I'm probably going to stick with Coronado gold but sometimes I think mayfair maize would be cool - it was repainted that color at some point in the 80s and I liked the look. I found this car that's identical cosmetically (coronado gold 400 with vinyl top and hood tach) , and I think it looks great tbh, but to each their own.

Got the front suspension and brakes mostly put back together. Still need shocks and new sway bar mounts to finish it. Not sure which shocks - koni adjustable, qa1 adjustable or bilstein. I'm looking for good handling without a harsh ride, not too worried about stop light drags or 1/4 launch as this is more of a back road burner/highway flyer.

Getting the engine cleaned up so I can put it back together - making progress on degreasing it. Transmission showed up today, so only major pieces I still need are cam and shocks, based on everything I've gathered I'm probably going with a 744 or whatever is still available that's close. Still unsure on shocks, but that can wait as they're easy enough to install - well unless I talk myself into double adjustables that won't fit through the hole in the bottom of the control arm...

I'm starting to think about wheels and tires, I have both a set of 14" steelies and 14" rally IIs - it originally came with the rally IIs, but looking at available 14" tires and it's pretty bad. Just bfg radial t/a and coker repros - though they do have Michelin xwx and the wide oval radials look pretty cool. I'm wondering if I should step up to 15's for better tire selection? I saw a few pics of a '67 with 15x8 snowflakes and it looked really good, but that's really starting to deviate from original looks...

https://classiccars.com/listings/vie...colorado-80216

Making some (slow) progress - pulled the cam and pieces of cam bearing came with it, so had to do cam bearings. Butler couldn't get any of their ram air cams in stock so I went with the melling spc-3. I pulled the crank to do the rear main and everything looked great, but I put new rod bearings in as a preventative measure. Now it's mostly together and about ready to go in the car, just need to get some new hardware for the exhaust manifolds and new studs for the lower water pump bolts. Just a few things left to do before it goes back in and I can start hooking things back up!

i love the coronado gold. you don happen to have an extra wire loom for the starter like what's in the dirty motor picture do you?

Here's one in Coronado gold.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Pontia...kAAOSwf5RgbQY8

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxN..._id=880000500F
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/X34AA...Y~/s-l1600.jpg

I just have the one that was on the motor, unfortunately.

More (slow) progress, engine and trans are in and I test fired the engine with starting fluid to make sure I didn't need to do any troubleshooting before going any further. I had some struggles like having to rotate the starter housing to fit the 4spd linkage and RA manifolds, had a bad msd blaster 2 coil and did the obligatory 180 out on the distributor, but in the end it fired up for a few seconds and sounded good. Now I have to do a bunch of cleaning/painting of the accessories and brackets, go through the fuel system and carb, and try to remember how all of the accessories go back together. I'm not going to put the AIR pump back on, but kept all of the pieces (along with the th400 and all associated parts). Hopefully it'll be moving under its own power soon.

Getting closer now - a few vacuum lines and a/c parts left to do in the engine bay.

Looking good! Keep up the good work!

I had to order a few parts so started tackling the interior - removed the seats and carpet, cleaned everything up, installed shifter, pedals, new heater core (pita), new carpets, and then hooked up all the wiring and checked basic functionality. No interior lights but have dash lights, glove box light and key works to start the engine. Gas gauge goes all the way past full so most likely will be dropping the tank. I'll finish installing the interior and then do more electrical work once the engine compartment heater box is reinstalled and blower motor is hooked up so I can test all of the electronics, but nothing concerning on that front so far.

Yeah, looking good. I like that deluxe interior. Seats look pretty good, just a little separation at the piping... what’s your plan for the seats? Keep us posted with plenty of photos.

Haven't decided, for now I'm going to put them back in and then see if I can get them resewn later as the covers are in good shape, the stitching just separated in both sides at the shoulder. They're super easy to take out and in the car will be the most convenient place to store them while I work on the rest!

So after a ton of battling, the car finally runs again! The battle with the engine was quite difficult. First, I fired it up and it ran, so I proceeded to connect the exhaust, install most of the front clip, and added water to check for leaks....And 4 of the freeze plugs started leaking. I didn't change them as I didn't want to create a leak, damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess. After a lot of fun changing those out with the engine in the car, I put it all back together and fired it up again - and it ran like hot garbage.

Would not idle, lots of missing, even when revved, and pouring a ton of black smoke. Looking down the carb throat, lots of nozzle drip, so rebuild the carb I thought. Did that, put it back on, and same issue. Vac gauge read around 7", so it was not happy.

Next was to pull the plugs and do a compression test. And that's when I have to take a hit for being an idiot....I put the wrong plugs in. I don't know how, but I grabbed the plugs for an amc 360 from my old grand wagoneer instead of the plugs for the pontiac. They screwed in fine but were too long, so 3 of them were smashed and had no gap, one was smashed but had a gap to the side, the other 4 were ok. So it was running on 5 cylinders at best. I checked the cylinders and valves with a borescope and couldn't see any damage at all (=plugs are fairly soft) and I got extremely lucky that nothing broke off of the plugs and went into the engine, so a new set of plugs went in and it ran much better....but still not well. Some more investigation and I found one of the plugs was not firing. Grabbed an old plug (correct one) and it sparked no problem, so a bad brand new plug. Never had that happen before.

At this point I changed the oil as I could smell it had gas in it from not running right, and I was confident it was firing on all 8 cylinders so wouldn't get diluted again. Still idling rough, still getting nozzle drip, and a ton of timing to get it to idle. At least it would now actually idle and wasn't blowing black smoke, so I proceeded to break the cam in. That went without issue (luckily) so I set back to trying to tune it to get it to idle.

It wasn't having it, nothing I did worked. Pulled a plug again and looking at the spark and it was yellowing and looked weak. So, I pulled the brand new points and condensor (that I didn't remember putting in) and replaced it with a nice pertronix III. Boom, it finally sounded MUCH better. Now I could get it to easily idle on choke, but idle off choke was still a little rough and smelled rich. Pulled a vacuum plug and it smoothed right out - so running really rich. But it now starts right up, idles, and pulls around 14" of vacuum (which is ballpark for the cam). I do not think the vac advance is working and it's obviously super rich, but at least I'm fairly certain the engine isn't hurt (after the plugs I was second guessing everything I had done) and it runs smoothly with no smoke. So, time to change the oil now that the cam is broken in, see if I need a new vacuum advance, and then work on tuning the idle mixture.

Oh, and I have to drop the trans to replace the freeze plugs on the back of the block as they're leaking, too. That should be a lot of fun. Then, just maybe, I can actually drive it a bit. There are a bunch of little things left to do, but it will now run, drive and stop under it's own power. I moved it to my new garage to get some extra room to work and the clutch/trans all work and the engine felt quite peppy. I couldn't run it long as it will start spewing water out of the rear freeze plugs as soon as it gets hot, but finally looking like the end is in sight!

If it was running correctly on choke, but not on no choke. That would seem to me to be a lean condition as choke would enrichen the mixture . But then pulling vac. Plug made it run.

Seems as when it sees more signal through the air horn (moves more air) it gets rich.
Making it rich w choke made it run and making it lean w vac open made it run.? What it would seem you did was bypass the air going through the venturies and pull that air from elsewhere making it NOT add fuel based on signal is my guess. Maybe a good carb guy will chime in .

And please don’t ever run an engine on starting fluid alone if Anyone is reading this unless you want to pound the bearings out of that engine. Alway put some fuel in or something with it, I usually start engines on fuel in a spray bottle w a little two stroke mixed in. If I’m gonna use starting fluid. Some fluid comes w lube now but still not safe IMO. Just my .02

I fill the bowl with fuel via the vent and run it on that - if it hasn't been run in a while (like it was when I first started fiddling with it) I fill it with 2 stroke to lube the cylinders. Gives a little smoke at first but makes sure I'm not washing down the cylinders (hopefully).

I think it was running with choke on due to the higher throttle position. If I manually screwed the idle position screw in to open the throttle blades it would idle but then it was open too much giving nozzle drip (or at least those are my assumptions). When running on choke, if I left it on the choke idle stop but manually opened the choke blade it would pick up on idle, indicating it is also rich with the choke on.

Anyway, I will mess with it and see what I can figure out but I had been thinking about going with the Holley spread bore FI if it will fit the ram air pans even prior to this. I think it may have a little too much throttle opening still so pulling fuel from the primaries, will see if I can get vac advance working and the idle set screw lower so it's only running on the idle circuit.

Freeze plugs are done and it's running and driving! Still some work to do, carb isn't right, rear brakes need rebuild, heater core may be leaking (which I replaced), and a few other odds and ends. Going for paint later this month, so the end (or the end of the beginning) is in sight!

amazing...looks badass as-is as well!

The freeze plug ordeal was pretty crazy.
I guess when everything inside got dried out , whatever magical chemical reaction that was keeping them from leaking before , disappeared .

Heater core fiasco could drive a person insane after the freeze plug exercises.

67's with Qjet had heat riser ports on the intake that came up in front of the primary throttle ports.
Did you plug those off ? Most folks do , with threaded plugs.
Requires a stainless steel plate from factory - between carb and intake.
Carb damage without the SS plate.
One year only feature that was dropped from production.

And guessing you used the angled oil filter adapter with the LongBranch manifolds too.

Car looks real solid.
Best wishes on your progress

I think I have the plate under there but I will check, that'd definitely cause issues if I don't. I did find that the vacuum advance is not working, so that could be the reason for the poor idle and nozzle drip, so a few things to look at there. I have not seen any more moisture near the heater core since, but have not gotten it hot enough to know for sure, maybe dodged a bullet there. It could have been condensation as the garage was left open over night when I had crawled under and seen some moisture.

New issue is the clutch is giving me issues, hopefully it just needs more adjustment after the trans R&R for the freeze plugs. Hasn't gone to paint yet as I want to have it fully mobile first and running without issue. Will hopefully get to those items this weekend.

Make sure you have 12V to the coil with the Pertronix!You need to by pass the resistor wire.If not they will drive like crap.Tom

Just about finished mechanically, figured out the nose, it was like Tetris putting it back together. Took it for a spin around the block, needs a little adjusting on the clutch still and brake pedal is way high and they are like RIGHT NOW if you hit them anything but gently, but otherwise running pretty well. Still a bunch of little electrical stuff, but it's mobile and should be able to fully road test it soon!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wqZhRuCFjizqXQWD6

gotta feel good after all the hrs...

I suspect you were happy with that drive! Congrats on the progress

So I took it for a ride today and the front brakes are dragging. Not sure what it could be, everything except the metal lines in the front are new. It had drums but I converted to single piston discs with a new MC/booster/prop valve specced for disc/drum. I have all new hardware in the rear as well, but definitely the fronts sticking after a short (2 mile) drive - and it appears to be both wheels as both fronts were really hot. Otherwise other than desperately needing an alignment, the car ran well, but not drive-able with the brakes dragging.

Any ideas on where to start there? It feels like something in the mc as there is zero softness at the top of the pedal - I checked the pushrod length and it's actually a tad short as my brake lights are staying on, so it's not that it's too long. I disconnected it from the pedal and it does not come out at all, but it's like the mc is staying pressurized somehow.

Are they old used calipers or new ? Or reconditioned ?

I recently went through a sort of similar episode with the rear disc calipers on my dads 04 Tahoe after doing front/rear brake pads.
Rears would get Hot on test drive. Really Hot

Turned out to be the calipers had bad spots or maybe gunked up deeper up inside the bores and would not retract properly in their new positions with new thick pads.
Had been rarely driven in the past 15 years before he bought it about a year ago with only 65k miles on it. Rear pads were originals and inboard pads were really thin.

Put the old pads back on and it did fine.
He said leave it - I said NO . lol

He didn't want new calipers , so I made a compromise that worked out.
... a whole 'nother story ...

Everything is new except the metal lines - I converted from drums to discs so it has new calipers, hoses, mc, booster and prop valve. I would suspect the metal line if only one wheel were sticking, but both makes me think MC or prop valve. I called up firebird central (which is where I got the mc, booster and prop valve) to see if maybe they sent me the wrong (drum/drum) prop valve and they don't even carry a drum/drum setup, so doubtful. It's really odd, and if everything wasn't new I'd start from the wheels and work my way back but I feel like it's up stream from that...

First I would work the pedal a little bit , then break loose a bleeder on a caliper and see if fluid shoots out.
It should just dribble at the most.
See if the lines are holding pressurized fluid that way.

If you pass that test -

I'd take a caliper loose and artificially simulate the thickness needed to fill the gap from piston to the housing.
Leave about 1/4" gap for movement.
Have someone press the pedal and release while you watch the piston move and retract.
Then do again with 1/2" gap and see if any improvement in retracting.

New Chinese calipers could be flawed or defective or junk.
fwiw

Problems like this usually involve the caliper or the caliper hose.
Your new hoses should be okay

I did some more testing and the brakes seem to hold for a second or two before releasing. I didn't take it for a drive but they are not dragging or holding at all when I test the brakes parked. I was able to notice them taking a second or two to release by driving on a sloped area of my driveway, if I let off the brakes, the car wouldn't start rolling for a second or so and then you could feel the brakes release. They may just need to be bedded in, or it may be something funky in the m/c not retracting properly. Could low vacuum on the booster cause that potentially?

Booster problems usually give less effective brakes.

I had to block sand the pads with 40 grit to skinny them up , and then finish with 80 grit , to get to a point where my Dads calipers would retract properly.

Had to do that trial and error process twice to get satisfaction.
But saw improvement the first time - and continued the process.
And was using a slide caliper (measuring tool - not car part) to measure before and after thicknesses.
Was taking about 1mm off each time.

For full disclosure I actually was re-using his old outer pads that still had some meat left.
Maybe half worn
So was only sanding down 2 of the new pads to use on the inner side against caliper where most of the wear occurs.
In your situation I would sand all 4 pads 1mm each for starters - then take any extra material needed off on just the outer pads.

Wear a dust mask if you do any sanding on pads.
His pads were ceramic carbon fiber and dulled the sandpaper within a minute or so.
Original thickness of pads including the metal backing plate was about 17mm

If you use a pry bar or big screwdriver to wedge some clearance in your pads to remove the caliper - the piston should try to protrude back out a little bit on its own from some of the back pressure still in the lines - if you leave it alone and observe.

If it doesn't do that , the piston is usually hanging in the bore.
Since yours are new they might not be properly finished all the way at the back of the bore.
Thinner pads will keep the piston more into the sweet spot - in a case like that.

If they are "new" Chinese , its likely that is a culprit.
If they are newly remanufactured GM calipers it would be less likely .

edit : the lip on the caliper piston seal aids in pulling the piston back when pressure lets off.
If the piston is hanging , it can't do that .

caliper seals play a part in retracting the caliper piston.
sticky pistons,hard seals will keep this from happening

Thanks for the pointers, I'll see what I can figure out. The reason I went with all new stuff is so I wouldn't have these issues, but I guess in today's world that's not any kind of guarantee.

I think it's the booster. I unplugged it and went to manual brakes and if they're dragging, it's vastly reduced. No more brake smell, wheels were warm after a quick 1-2 mile drive but not hot at all. Going to see if I can source a new booster locally and return the one I have, though it's 2.5 years old so unlikely.

Great to see it coming along!

I did some more testing on the brakes - definitely something in the booster/mc. If I leave the booster unhooked, brakes do not drag at all. I tried shortening the pushrod enough to where it's not even able to hit the brake switch and with the booster plugged in, the brakes drag. However, if I pull up on the pedal, they release. So it's like there's a return spring or something not quite strong enough to push the pedal back only when the booster is plugged in. I do have the booster I pulled off of the car and it was working fine, so I may dig that out of my parts bin and swap them to see if It fixes the issue.

I did take the car for a spin and everything else is working and the 400 is pulling strongly.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZbyJsLRA3Hkuy7o7