So I decided to finally join a forum and share my project, these forums have been one of my go to resources so far and has helped me immensely, so thanks to you all. My dad has always had hot rod projects, so growing up I caught the itch and learned a lot of the "oldschool" ways through building his bbc tubbed '70 elco which has sadly since been sold. The info available on the web/forums/youtube gave me worlds of teachings on welding, turbos, fi, ls engines, chassis building, etc., as I am predominately self taught so be easy!! Advice is always appreciated, I am a very easy going guy and do it for the fun, not the win. I recently had a pretty bad long term breakup (not my choice), had to sell my bike (1990 Katana Drag bike), Vette (C4 with a mild 383), Jeep (YJ with a sbc on 40" tires), and woefully of all, my house.... I buried myself in car mags, books, and forums like these, and here I am. Building my car is my therapy.

With my about me done, now the about my car. I am extremely lucky to still have my very first car, which I got back in 2004 I believe, a 1984 Firebird with t-tops. About 10 years ago I was in the process of putting it for sale, my dad offered to trade me for an S10 with a sbc swap already done, and so I did. He put the car at a friends house in the backyard for storage as a roller, and kept the motor/trans. He gave the car back to me a few years ago when my whole life went south, and I couldn't be thankful enough.

While the car isn't near finished, or running for that matter, I am far enough along to share some pics, experiences, and enjoy some good ol' fashioned car talk. I am currently finishing up some chassis and fab work, and in the midst of the motor build. I've done every cut, grind and weld, soldered every component and joint, and filed every piston ring myself along with everything else, inside a harbor freight portable garage, its rough but doable. I prefer to save on labor and put the money in parts, (not that I have any left!!) no reason I cant learn and at least try, the info is out there these days.

The car is a 1984 t-top bird, I am the second owner. Below are a few crappy pics of back in the day when I spray painted the hood black to be cool, still sporting the 14" hub caps with white walls, with the stuck up, unplugged headlights!! She was taken down to the subframe, and has since got a 10pt cage with strut bars and x-brace, a Midwest fab 9" & torque arm package with crossmember, strange center section with 35sp S-trac and 3.50 gears, CTS-V brake conversion front and rear with dual wildwood masters and balance bar pedal, and a ton of other goodies. The motor is a 405ci with an new LS9 block, Molnar forged crank, Molnar billet rods, and JE fsr turbo pistons with HD pins. Went with junkyard 243 heads, port matched and cleaned the runners up, they still have to go to the machine shop to be cleaned/ resurfaced, haven't bought components for them yet. A new acdelco TBSS manifold and Holley 92mm cable throttle body. I will most likely be going with the bosch 210 injectors, E85 is readily available here in NY, and I also picked up the gm flex sensor. CR is 9.38ish, top rings at .026, mids at .028. Turbo is a billet VS s480 T6 1.32 ar, and I plan to pick up a used set of stock manifolds to cut up & work with. I went with a treadstone front mount IC, and a Megasquirt MS3x kit with daughter card, Mapdaddy4, and SFI. Staying with coil on plug, picked up the truck style coils with the aluminum heatsinks on them. 18" wheels all the way around, "mini tubbed" to fit a 29" tall tire, 305 Mickey Street R's, with Pilot super sports up front. Belltech front and rear sway bars, Koni yellows all the way around, with threaded adjustable spring mounts in rear. Tubular LCA's, panhard, and panhard brace. Front spindles machined for 1LE bearings, cut and tapped for the Brembo caliper brackets as well. Spohn Tubular front k member, billet front and rear motor plates, billet motor mounts, and weld in sfc's.

I am planning to go with vfn glass doors, & glass hood with the flip up headlight delete, I hate flip ups!! No conversions I like around, so I picked up some HID LED high and low beams I will fab up after I get the hood and bumper cover. The car will be used multiple times a week, if not daily. I have never and will never be the trailer car or weekend ride type of guy, I like to enjoy my stuff as much as I can. The window situation with glass doors needs to be worked out yet, but I picked up a vintageair defrost and heat unit. Everybody hates t-tops but I love them for the hot days and nice weather! I fully dynamatted the car, full carpet with insulation as well. Also have a 9 speaker stereo system and an 11" to uchscreen with wifi, gps, Bluetooth, and camera hookups for when I install them. Kirkey alum seats with covers and harness's, and an aluminum dash as well.

That's enough rambling for now, just wanted to document and log my build, and share with anybody that's interested, I will add updates and pics over the next few days to get up to speed, any advise or questions always welcome!! #ad
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Disassembled, port matched, and cleaned up ports a bit, ready for machine shop. Block in there is for mock up!!! #ad
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You're crazy, man! But I like you.

 

Everybody tells me that, I just dont see why , I blame my ex lmao!!

 

View attachment 780163 #ad
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Just a few more pics I had on my phone of some recent work. Finished the tubs, dynamat, enlarging cargo area for fuel cell mounts, still need to buy or fab a bulkhead though, as well as isolators for the IC flanges. Batt tray and fuse/relay box mounted. Fitting up sub/amp box...... keepin it movin

 

Some of the brake system, masters mounted on 1/8" plate welded in, pedal mounted, rear 14.5" rotors and brembo calipers barely fit 18" wheels even with clearancing. #ad
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Some slightly older pics of cutting it up and rough in type work, trans tunnel, wheel tubs, etc. All this has been finish welded, seam sealed and undercoated & sound deadner in since, newer pics soon. #ad
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Some parts pics - turbo before I powdered the cold side, wastegate and bov, tbss manifold and tb with sensors mounted, headlights I plan to fab up and use, and used truck coils I powdered and cleaned up, gotta save that $$$ #ad
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Fun build! I love the extreme nature of the "maybe daily driver", keep the progress coming!

 

Here's the cut and tapped spindles, hubs with the 1LE bearings, caliper brackets for CTS V-1 Brembos, Koni yellows, and the factory control arms I boxed in and powdered (one 3' length 1/8" steel did both sides with some leftover, weight was minimal and although probably not necessary, helps me sleep at night lol). Also did forged ball joints and poly bushings. Eibach sport springs I coated as well in pic, although if I can afford weight Jack's I will pick them up for adjustability.
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Everything looks great! I like that brake pedal setup.

 

Where in NY are you that e85 is available? I’m by Saratoga Springs

 

Thanks, I found some articles here and there for calculating correct pedal ratio's, master sizes, and used the piston volumes on the calipers as well. Hopefully my math works out and I get some good adjustable brakes even with no booster or prop valve, and if a master happens to fail or lose pressure, the other still functions.

I am in Suffolk County on the Island, I guess it's a lot different here because there are at minimum 5 stations less than 10 minutes away with e85, currently 1.99 to 2.09 /g , yay! I plan to test the local ones with a glass and narrow it down to 2 or 3 that have consistent %'s, in addition to using the flex sensor.

 

Finally got some time in to work on her, had to pull the center section to send back to Strange because of a recall. Pain in the ass but I'm glad they reached out to tell me there was a problem and got it fixed right away and sent back for me. Got to spend some time on the short block and took a few pics. Got rotating assembly in, oil pump, pickup, windage tray, rear seal and cover, timing cover, pan, also added a 12an drain to the pan for the turbo.

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I like this build. Same boat as you with the ex...