The 79 Firebird Esprit slow build thread

[87kawzl]

Your car looks great! Same interior as mine. I have been thinking about how far I want to go with the cleanup since it is a run of the mill esprit. I believe the path forward will be low buck make it better than before. I'm not going to take every nugget off the subframe to make it super pretty. It will be cleaned up and made into a driver.

I dig those tires, different than we get here with the RWL towards the tread.

 

[madmanncr500]

Firechicken.... nice!!

 

[alex-germany]

Dein Auto sieht super aus! Gleiche Innenausstattung wie meins. Ich überlege mir gerade, wie weit ich mit der Aufbereitung gehen will, da es ja ein ganz normaler Esprit ist. Ich denke, der beste Weg ist, ihn mit wenig Geld besser als vorher zu machen. Ich werde nicht jedes einzelne Teil vom Hilfsrahmen entfernen, um ihn superhübsch aussehen zu lassen. Er wird einfach nur aufbereitet und alltagstauglich gemacht.

Ich mag diese Reifen, sie unterscheiden sich von den Reifen, die wir hier mit der weißen Schrift auf der Lauffläche bekommen.

 

[alex-germany]

All, what i have done on the car, i have done over 10 years.
The money, what i have spend for all the repairs, i never will get back. But that isn't this, what i want. I do it for me, and for the car. Not for that, what i can get, if i would sell the car. It isn't a concours car, but it's a good used car, which i drive 5-6000mls per year.

The tyres are Dunlop Blue Sport Response in 215/70R15 with a good wet grip. But it was a lot of work, to paint the letters white with little brushes.

But i wanted good tyres for my money. And sorry, the american RWL tyres aren't the best choise for savety drive!

 

[87kawzl]

Nice, we do have some good all season radials in the 15" size. I have BF Goodrich radial TA there is no Michelin sport cup rubber to fit this rim, nor would I want it on there. My 66 mustang has been upgraded over the years and like you, I built it to be a driver.

 

[87kawzl]

I know it is supposed to be a build thread, it sure doesn't feel that way right now. She puked a bunch of coolant and you cant help but get some trans fluid stains.

My old trusty dolly gave up the ghost, the board rotted and wheel collapsed. Bummer, had that for a long time.

 

[R. J.]

Frame looks solid. Seems like it spent less time on PA Winter salted roads than most. What make are the wheels on your Mustang.

 

[87kawzl]

They are centerline wheels.

Im at a crossroads. I have an edge edlebrock p4b intake and swap meet headers (3 tube variety), some gently used flow master mufflers, new cats if I want to keep the stink down, new 2 1/2" tailpipes, an older Demon dual feed 650 carb. All I really need is an X or H mid pipe to complete the exhaust. Do I throw all that stuff on or keep the iron intake/exhaust manifolds and just dual exhaust it?

Manifold won't net me any performance gains and carb may be a wash too

 

[87kawzl]

My buddy gave me his th350/stall converter a long time ago when he did his 5 speed swap to his 68' bird. How long you ask, I paid another transmission guy i drank with $350 to do a freshen up on it, try to find someone to even look at one today for that money. It came with a nice finned aluminum pan.

After a bit of research, the headers appear to be Blackjack.

 

[wuputt]

Hell yes! Can't do any better than $350 that's one good friend!

 

[R. J.]

AAMCO charged me $2500 to rebuild the tranny in my FRONTIER . That included a new torque converter. A year later the tranny took a dump. I'm so glad I bought my 2023 TACOMA TRD 4x4. It just turned 20 K miles. It has a life time power train warranty.

 

[87kawzl]

4 big bolts left. It looks heavy I may have to ask a friend to bring a jack or 2 and lend a hand.


The old days of having pontiac engine paint on the shelf at the parts store appear to be gone. Paint on the trans yesterday.


Time I guess to take the manifolds off the engine.

 

[R. J.]

Is it just me or is rattle can paint that is made today not as good as it was in the 60s/70s. After they took the lead out todays paint seems to chip and fade.

 

[87kawzl]

Looks like there is header clearance for the oil filter. I also dug out an old swap meet Street Demon dual feed with an electric choke since swapping to the Edlebrock doesn't allow for the stove pipe choke and it's ~$100 to convert to electric i would rather deal with the holly style. I even had a junko dual feed line in my hoard.
Dog approved

 

[R. J.]

Is that the original motor. Any work done to it. How many miles on it.

 

[87kawzl]

It had a 301, now it has a .030 over 400 with a pretty big cam. When I was 16 I worked at a parts store / machine shop and they did the block work and heads for me and got me the proper springs for the cam. Its barely broken in. It is a 76 engine from a trans am, the 557 casting, weaker of the 400 blocks but it will just be a fun street vehicle.

The reason for the carnage of the front end being off: Rear driver body mount has a big 2 1/4" hole (off center too) where there are supposed to be small 1 1/2" hole. Probably all 4 will need some love. Common issue, rubber bushings invite water, frame goes away.
Genuine mileage, not rolled over.

 

[87kawzl]

So, I placed the upper bushing in and tossed the bolt to properly position it. Then I scratched the perimeter of the new bushing with a pick. As a backup position marker I will make a cardboard template using a cereal box with a centering hole in it to fit the bolt and trace the outside of the frame in it. I need to get these locations accurate before I drop the frame.

 

[R. J.]

You have your work cut out for you. You going to have the frame dipped and powder coated.

 

[87kawzl]

No, I'm going to hit it with a wire brush, prime and paint it chassis black. Im not planning on replacing suspension parts till I get some miles on it and it needs it. I'll inspect it before it gets thrown back together. Budget build, solid driver is what I am after.

 

[R. J.]

I'd properly do the same thing.