'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