1968 Pontiac Firebird - Drag Car 5/17/2013

Spent some time this past Friday working on the car again.  Spent most of the day digging deeper, seeking out any areas of surprise.  Thankfully, the car is still as expected, with no real shockers.  I am a slight bit concerned about the rear frame rail where the leaf spring mounts, but until it's disassembled and wire wheeled, I can't really see if the rust is simply on the surface, or a problem.  They make frame rails, so worst case, we could always patch in what we need, as the only portion that looks like it may be rusted is the very rear.

Only other somewhat of a surprise was the roof support structure in the interior.  I can only assume that a mouse or rat packing whatever in the roof may have caused moisture to be trapped.  I don't believe the rust is enough to be concerned about, but was a little surprised to see it all the same.  If I was really concerned, I would probably simply patch in new metal in the small area that rusted.  It's hardly worth buying a new roof support, even if we were doing a frame up restoration.

Here is the gas tank, which I removed.  It has seen better days.  Not that its rusted up, it's simply all dinged and smashed up.  We will likely go the route of a fuel cell any way, so we won't be reusing the tank.

This was somewhat of a surprise.  It appears that the car came this way from factory, with a u-bolt holding the axle on just one side.  The inside was held in place by bolts that simply went through the leaf spring mounting plate on the axle.  The downside, as apparent in our case, both inner bolts rusted through and snapped.  In addition, it looks like somebody used some cut up spare tire for their rubber mounting pad.

Here you can see the passenger side, bolted up the way it should be, with bolts intact.

Here is the removed tank, which will be replaced, likely with a fuel cell.

Here is a rear shot with the gas tank removed.  We also plan on replacing the rear end, as it's not worth putting the money into the Pontiac 10 bolt when it would be better spent on a much stronger 9".

Rear interior door panel removed.

This was a comical surprise.  The front passenger fender, which looked rough, and was already on the list for replacement or patch panel repair.  I can't say I expected to find a Bud Light can repair riveted patch in place.  This was discovered upon removing the interior kick panels.

There exterior shot of their fabulous body work.

This car was equipped with the rear window defroster. A very strange system to say the least.  I originally assumed that it was somehow connected to the heating system.  That assumption was incorrect.  It was a self contained system, one in which consisted of an irregular shaped speaker grill type vent.  The lower half was a different shape, which sealed to the underside of the package tray.  The system simply recirculated interior air.  I can't imagine it worked all that great, and in my opinion, the shape is equally a failure.

Aside from the white sealant, this appears to be how it came from factory.  We're hoping that this device is worth some serious cash, which we can put back into our car once sold.

Still not sure what route to take with the trunk.  If we go with a fuel cell, depending upon the type, we may very well cut out the majority of the trunk.  We still need a solid mounting surface, so replacement will likely still  happen, and the new pan will simply get cut up as needed.

Here is the rear window defroster once removed.  See what I mean?  Very odd design.

Here you can barely see the rust in the roof support I mentioned earlier.  It's just right of the center support.  As I said, I really don't think it's enough to be concerned about, let alone reason to buy a new roof support.  Most likely, we won't even do a thing with it aside from spray bomb it and finished removing the sound deadening material.

Here is the interior with most of the electrical removed.  Next round I will finish off removing all wiring, and likely remove the dash cluster too.

I don't have many more weeks in me as far as working on the car.  My schedule, combined with daughter #2 coming in June, leaves a very tight time frame.  I will probably only get one more day until probably this fall.  At least that will allow for lots of thought, preventing buying twice or even buying wrong the first time.  We talked a bit about the drive-train, and are both now slightly leaning towards finding a Big Block Chevy.  I still would like a Pontiac 455+ long term, but for now, we both are thinking the Pontiac 350 isn't even worth our time/effort.  Do we really want to build a drag car that initially runs probably 16-17 second 1/4 mile times?  Not much fun in that.