Happy Birthday to Me!

I helped my wife out when it came to what I wanted (needed) for my birthday.  I asked for an AFR stud girdle for my heads.  She said "just send me the part #'s."  I also recently got the rest of the money owed to me for my 12 bolt, so figured I'd treat myself to another birthday gift, a day before my actual birthday.  Dad was already up watching the girls because I had training for work, so once I was headed home, I gave McCormack Racing a phone call. Located about 15 minutes from home, they have a healthy stock of racing tires.  After verifying they had the Mickey Thompson ET Streets in 275/60/R15, I stopped home, removed my wheels and tires, and headed downriver.  I also picked up a full set of 3" axle studs, since the 2" studs I bought with my rear weren't long enough to protrude from my open lugs.  It felt good to get the tires out of the way, since they were the second most costly item on my list, after a set of Hooker Super Comp headers.

Here are the run of the mill 275/60/R15 radials I've had on the car for about 13 years, though with only about 5-6 years of use.  Nothing fancy, and nothing even remotely sticky.  That's why I'm so anxious to see what this car will do when it can hook up.

With the wheels/tires removed, you can see my Wilwood disc brake kit.

The new meats, Mickey Thompson ET Streets.  These should give the car some bite!

Here are the AFR Rocker Arm Stud Girdle.  I failed to realize that I would need new rocker arm nuts, for another cool $104 for the full set.  AFR makes some amazing heads, but their lack of instructions, or even just an engraving, telling what to torque the side bolts to would have been nice.  I suppose the answer is simply a phone call away.

Not bolted on, since I need to replace the 2" axle studs with some 3" studs, but you can see what they will look like.

There are some items on my list that I can skip if I have to.  Tires were not one of those items.  In fact, the tires were the deal breaker.  I could cut a whole bunch of the list down, and still make it to the track next season now.

Look for me to get back to work on my Camaro in the coming weeks, and we will be back hitting our 68 Firebird hard come next month.  Winter is nearly upon us, but I got plenty on my plate, so stay tuned.