Great story and nice project. I'd say both flowers and a nice dinner are in order unless you want to start sleeping in the Firebird. Sure she will love it after you fix the brakes and she gets a nice slow sunset ride.

 

Congrats! Keep us up to date on it. Looks like a great car! Can't beat a convertible.

 

Nice! Another firebird thread! Keep the pics coming. Great looking car. :thumbsup:

 

Great story and nice "Bird"

Kev

 

Body Jig:
The car needs a complete restoration. I built a jig to replace the numerous body panels. I chose to buy a set of instructions from Joe Amidio. The plans are can be bought from BelAirBobs Inc. or EBay. The plans come with a spiral bound book that shows the step-by-step instructions. The illustrations are in color. The plans have engineering drawings and cardboard templates. The plans and the descriptions are excellent. It is easy to measure the dimensions between the support posts and frame. You do not need a tram gauge. Most importantly, the body fell on the alignment pins with no problems.

The hard part of mounting the body to the jig was to lift the body high enough in order to roll the jig under the body. Mr. Amidio illustrations show six burly men, standing on icy concrete, lifting the body onto the jig. I did not have any ice, so I had to come up with a different plan.

For a person trying to mount a body on the jig for the first time, it can be a daunting task. If the doors or trunk gaps are not even, try to align them the best that you can. Mark the location of the hinges. The first thing to do is to remove everything from the car. This includes the interior, dash, gas tank, drive shaft, brake lines, fenders, front headlight assembly, steering linkage, etc. The only thing left is the front clip with the engine and transmission are still bolted to the car and the rear axle is still installed. The next thing you need is a lot of space. You will need space for the jig, for what is left of the car that is still sitting on its tires, room for the front clip, and room for the rear axle.

I made a wooden rectangle frame to lift the car using the rocker panels as the contact points. The perimeter of the frame consisted of four, 2x4s, nailed on edge. (That almost 8” x 4”) The length and width of the frame was about five feet by three feet. You will need to fabricate some wooden blocks give the lifting devices more height since the floor jacks and jack stands will not lift the body high enough by themselves.

Slide the wooden frame under the car behind the front clip. Put the two hydraulic floor jacks under the wooden frame on the narrow sides. Chain the engine hoist to the rear bumper mounting holes. The engine hoist will keep the body from tilting since the back is heavy. Jack up the three hydraulic jacks just enough to put tension on the front clip. Install four jack stands under the rocker panels. Remove one of the floor jacks and install it under the transmission pan. Use a board between the jack and transmission pan to distribute the weight. Remove the four front clip mounting bolts. The body will move up when the last bolt is removed since the jack stands are pushing the body upward. The floor jack under the transmission and the car’s two front wheels form a tricycle and the front clip can be rolled forward out of the way. Put a wooden block under the transmission cross member and remove the floor jack. Reposition the floor jack under the wooden frame.

The jack stands that are under the rockers should be raised up a notch each time it is possible. If something goes wrong, hopefully the jack stands will prevent the body from falling. Now remove the rear axle from the leaf springs. Some people might remove the axle and leaf springs as one piece. I was afraid I might get hurt with this method. Continue to raise the car. Roll the axle out of the way when you get the car high enough. Remove the leaf springs. Continue to raise the car. When you get the car high enough, roll the jig under the car. The body has to be perfectly horizontal when it is lowered on the jig. The alignment pins on the jig will not allow the body to drop on the jig at an angle.

Buy your neighbors supper who helped you. Bring your woman out to show her what you accomplished.

 

Great progress. Looks like you definitely have your work cut out for you. Keep the pics coming! :beers:

 

Driver Rocker Panel:
Now that I got the body on the jig, where do I start? I circled the car for days looking at it. I decided not to cut the panels where the jig mounting points are located. I would replace something outside of the twelve mounting points.

The driver rocker panel was in bad shape. It was almost completely rusted away from the floor pan. It was still solid at the A pillar location. The B pillar had problems. Therefore, I decided to attack this piece first.

The convertible rocker is bulky and heavy. The jig’s construction did not have rocker replacement in mind. The jig needed to be modified support the replacement rocker and to align it in its proper location. The first modification was just welding a horizontal bar on the jig’s vertical firewall post to support the front part of the rocker. That little piece of metal provides the correct height for the front part of the rocker. It is a back saver because it also provides a pivot point when you install and remove the rocker 20 times.

The next one I copied from other members of this forum. It is a square tube, with an adjustment bolt. I made the square tube too long and the adjustment bolt too short. I have to lower the screw in order to slip the rocker in place. The screw does not drop down enough and the rocker hits the B pillar assembly. If you make one of these, don’t make the same mistake as I did. I got tired of fighting the screw and removed it until the final time the rocker was installed.

The third one simply bolts to the seatbelt hole in the rocker. It is removable. It locks the rocker at the correct height, makes sure it is not too far forward or too far back, and it rotates the rocker to the correct position. The only thing wrong with it is that a hole has to be cut in the floor because it has to be lifted up in order to remove it. This is not a problem for me since I will have to replace the floor.

 

Sorry about the last post. I am still trying to figure out this computer. I still have not figured out how to insert images in text.

Nothing was welded to the new rocker since everything that connects to it needs to be replaced.

 

Great to someone else working on an old bird. I just ordered a set of the jig plans you mentioned and will be putting my 67 bird on the jig as soon as possible.

I look forward to watching you build.

 

Great progress so far! Looks like you're well on your way to a new bird! :yes: Those rockers look mighty toasty! (almost as toasted as mine were on my '69 coupe...)

Just a tip to keep your garage refrigerator healthy and running for as long as possible... keep the coils extra clean now that you are cutting and grinding and sweeping... LOTS of extra dust will easily cause the fan to suck in excess dust causing your compressor to work overtime. It was advised to me when I bought a frigde for my shop too.

Nice work on the resto! Keep it coming! :beers:

 

Todd, I have been following your posts on your project. You are one of the reasons I decided to tackle a restoration of and old F body. I have right clicked and saved a lot of your photos you posted. I use them for reference and it gives me a guideline on how to tackle this project. I hope you don't mind.

Thank you for posting your good work.

You are right about the dust. It is just not the refrigerators that suck up dirt. I have a Uninterruptable Power Supply on the other side of the garage that sucks up wood shavings and dirt. I have mounted everything that is big and bulky on castors. About twice a year I pull the refrigerators and the UPS out and blow them with my leaf blower. I sweep up the rust droppings at the end of each day. The rest of the junk I blow out the garage with a leaf blower. It makes a cloud of dust.

 

The A pillar is rotten where it connected to the rocker. I ordered a patch panel from Bel Air Bobs.

The patch panel looks good. The fender bolt at the bottom of the panel is smaller than original. There is a large gap between the rocker and the patch panel’s lip.

Now here is my dilemma. Where do I cut the original A pillar? I studied other people on this forum build threads. Most of them cut the original metal where it meets the end of the patch panel. Another words, they use the entire patch panel. I was afraid that I might accidently cut off too much metal. Then I would have a big gaping hole between the patch panel and the original metal.
I decided to make my cut under the top hinge mounting holes. These are my reasons: If I cut too much of the original metal, I would have to order another patch panel. I would be out of $60.00 but I will not have to deal with gaping holes. This location might have a little more strength because the hinge mounting plate will be plug welded above and below the patch panel’s butt joint. The door hinge might partially hide the weld joint if it is irregular. I would welcome any comments since I have to do the passenger side in the future.
The black line is the top of the patch panel. The white line is where I will cut the original metal.

This is how not to align the patch panel. There are too many clamps! I learned to use the hinge mounting plate that mounts behind the pillar to pull the flat pieces of the metal in alignment. Then all you have to worry about are the outer bends.

I need to close the gap of the patch panel where it meets the rocker. I cut the bottom of the patch panel with a cut off wheel and squeezed the panel’s gap together. Then I welded the gap. You can still see the cut between the two white dots. No more gap!

I used some of the scrap patch panel to weld a reinforcement plate behind the butt joint. The surface rust is just one day after sand blasting.

I added more jig reinforcements since the rocker is loose, the cowl panel and firewall, and part of the floor are removed.

I used Evercoat fiberglass filler to smooth out the plug and butt welds.

 

Man!, you are not messing around. You are definitely on the right site for getting the resource you need for the project. Keep the progress coming! opcorn:

 

Wow, you are moving!!! If you haven't already, check out Brian's website, www.screaminperformance.net He has a ton of pictures of a 68 convertible. It is a great roadmap for convertibles. I reference it all the time. Keep those pics coming!

 

Thanks for the comments. I forgot to post a photo showing the gap in the patch panel. Brian at Screaming Performance had the the same but different problem with the patch panel. The difference was he had to stretch the gap. I had to shrink it. I wish I could weld like him.

 

I would like to thank my neighbor, Greg, who helps me with this project. Greg gets a little excited over this project. My wife laid down the law that we could not work on the car during the weekdays. Therefore, he shows up at the house at about 7:00 am on the weekends. During the weekdays, we stare at the car and plan what we are going to do next. We might drink a few cold pops with foam on top during our discussions. Our wives tell us we sound like a couple of 15 year olds talking about how cool the car will be when we are finished.
Cowl Panel repair:
Our next part to repair of the car is the cowl panel. It is in bad shape. I told Greg the a new part would cost $400.00 and I would no longer have the VIN serial number stamped on the panel. He looked at it and said that we should to repair it. I thought about it a while and decided he had a good idea. If we mess it up, I could always buy a new one and tear out the mistake.

The first thing was to cut the upper dash from the cowl panel. The rust holes were deeper than the upper dash panel. The cowl was rusted down to the thick metal frame.

The cowl panel was cut so that all the rust was cut out and only the lower thick metal frame was exposed. There were a lot of spot welds in this area. This area was sand blasted. Sand blasting did not really clean the area. There must be some seam sealer in this location.

A patch panel was made out of 18 gauge steel. On side was beveled so that it would slip under the cowl panel and sit flush where they meet.

The lower part of the cowl panel was so rusted it crumbled if it was touched. I bent and welded two patch panels together. I had to stretch the panel where the windshield wiper motor is located. It has a small bowl shaped indention. It is beveled on three sides. It is temporally screwed to the original metal.

I applied Eastwood’s Rust Converter to the upper area that was sandblasted. I hope that it will convert any rust that was not removed by sand blasting.

That's it for this week.

 

Thanks for sharing. I may follow your lead and repair my cowl. I'm wondering if it would be useful to buy a new one and cut it up. Or, would the new one be too different to be helpful.

 

Mr. Zekeymonkey,
There is a new cowl patch panel that is available. I have never seen one. It looks like it is the upper part of the panel. I cannot tell if it bends down and the windshield washer mounting metal is part of the patch panel.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Upper-Inner.../200760258104?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ebe3e6e38&vxp=mtr

 

Replace the whole inner/upper cowl as one unit. You'll be glad you did. Since your outer cowl boxes are already removed, it's a sinch to remove the cowl as one piece now.

To install the new one is approximately 14 plug welds. 7 along each side seam where it meets the upper door hinge pillar ends.

 

Todd, thanks for the advice. I know that you learned from the school of hard knocks about rusty cowl panels. Like I said before, I have right clicked on several of your photos to save them. Several were of the cowl panel.

I talked it over with my neighbor who helps me. He is still insistant the we continue to repair the panel. He argued that the sheetmetal for the repair is cheap (actually free). And I keep thinking that if I completely mess up the panel, I can cut the cowl panel out and buy a new one. At least this is not a life or death decision.

I decided to contine to repair the panel. It would be good experience and I have lots of time. There is never a point of no return. I can always cut it out if it looks like a Frankenstien repair.

The first thing was to cut out the windshield wiper area rust. I learned on this forum that the wiper motor can be relocated to the driver outer shoulder panel. The fender hides the motor. I might try this.

This gave me access to weld the botttom patch.

The next step was finish removing the upper dash where the VIN number is located. Measure and mark and photograph it's location. Then drill out the spot welds.

Now I sand blasted the front again. It was easy to clean the rust from the inside of the dash with the upper dash panel removed. I used to sand paper to remove the rust from the under side of the cowl panel.

You might notice in the above photos that the jig's cowl bracing was modified. The top horizonal tube was changed so that it can be removed with two bolts. The driver's vertical support had an upper and lower square flange welded to it so that it can be removed with four bolts. With these modifications, I do not need to remove the entire assembly just to work on the cowl. The assembly still supports the passenger side cowl assembly.

Weld the upper patch panel. Plug welds at the top, very small stitch welds at the bottom.

I had to use the hammer and doly to form the bottom patch to the panel.
I smoothed the bottom patch with Evercoat fiberglass filler. It supposed to be water resistant.

Prime the cowl, inside dash and windshield. With the big hole in the cowl is was possible to spray the area inside the cowl panel. The top patch panel will be completly covered by the upper dash panel.

The hard part will be to cover the wiper hole. This is the part I am worried about.

 

You did an awesome job on that cowl I must say. Nice work! The experience here will certainly be an asset to getting the rest of the resto done. Keep it up!

 

Thanks Todd. It was frustrating at times.

Upper Dashboard Panel:
We replaced the dashboard panel this weekend. The 69 firebird panel is the same as a 1968 camaro. The 69 camaro panel is different. If anyone needs a 69 camaro panel, I have one that I cannot use.
Overall, the 68 panel is similar to the original. The dynacorn replacement panel VIN mounting hole is not exactly parallel with the vinyl dash pad. The original panel has square holes punched into it at the front section. The replacement has none. The vinyl pad covers the square holes. Most importantly, the dashboard panel could not be welded in exactly the same location as the original.
I punched two rows of holes in the window section of panel. I removed the paint in this area on the cowl panel.

I punched a row of holes in the front section of the panel. I lined up the replacement panel to the same locations as the original. I tack welded a few spots on the panel. I installed the vinyl dash pad. It did not fit! The replacement dashboard panel was too high on the passenger side. I rechecked the measurements, reviewed the photos of the original dashboard everything seemed to be ok. I broke the welds on the front section of the panel. Now the panel was only tack welded on the windshield side. I reinstalled the vinyl dash pad. The tightened all the cap screws and inserted the vinyl pad into its square holes along the sides of the dashboard. I then crawled under the dash, pushed up on the replacement panel, and marked the locations with a Sharpie. I removed the vinyl pad and used some bolts and nuts to line up the Sharpie marks and locate the front of the replacement panel. The passenger side was definitely lower than the original.
I would have never been able to install the vinyl pad if I welded the panel in the exact location as the original.
The next photos show the plug welds ground down and the final location of the replacement panel.

The next photos show the windshield plug welds grounded down.

Cowl Panel:
I made a patch panel to cover the huge hole in the front of the cowl panel. It is beveled on two sides The bottom part of the panel meets the inside of the panel at 90 degrees. It does not fold up like the original.

I installed the replacement firewall just to see how it looked. It is easy to see the jig modifications to the cowl panel brackets as mentioned earlier. Removing the driver side cowl jig brackets allowed the firewall to be slipped into position.

I removed the firewall and finished welding the panel in the cowl panel. The bottom of the cowl panel where the two patch panels meet was welded upside down. The welds were ground down and rewelded to get rid of the pin holes. I sanded down the primer to get rid of some imperfections that I found in the cowl.

This photo show the inside of the cowl panel where the patch panel is located.

Photo looking up under the dash where the cowl panel was patched. The rusty piece is the brake pedal bracket.

 

Firewall:
Most of the body parts for a Firebird will fit a Camaro. The procedures to install the parts should be about the same. I hope this thread will also help Camaro owners. I wonder if anyone is reading this thread since it is about a Firebird and it has so few replies.
Most of the body part’s labels only show it to be a Camaro part. One has to be careful to order the correct parts for the red headed stepchild Firebird. Bel Air Bobs does not advertise that he sells Firebird parts but he was happy to help me.

The two vertical members of the jig align the firewall’s sub frame holes. The jig’s bolt heads are cut off and are threaded onto welded nuts inside the jig’s vertical members. The ½” bolt sticks up out of the jig and goes through the 3/4” cage nut. I messed up the threads on the bolt when I dropped the body on jig. It is difficult to thread a nut on top of the cage nut assembly in such a tight area. If I ever use this jig again, I need to modify this part of the jig.

This is one of the extra horizontal beams welded to the jig. They were originally intended to hold the rocker in place and provide a pivot point so that one man can install the rocker. They also give another reference point for the firewall alignment.

Install the brake pedal to help align the panel at the top. This is a very important step. The top of the firewall panel moved away from the cowl panel by ¼”. I missed that the firewall was slightly bowed during shipment. The brake pedal made it obvious.

I installed the rocker panel for the last time. There was a large gap between it and the firewall. I had to use several screws to pull the two pieces together. They did not want to go together because the two panels were rigidly held in place by the jig. It took a half a day and several broken bolts to pull the firewall and rocker together. The bolt holes had to be slotted because I had to move the metal in two directions.

The top of the firewall was punched with 5/16” holes and plug welded.

The triangle part of the rocker was plug welded to the firewall.

The A pillar patch was welded to the rocker.

This is an inside view of welded portions of rocker and firewall. The welds look terrible in this photo. I had to redrill and regrind the welds down and then weld again until they looked acceptable. This was a difficult area to weld. There are a stitch welds on the rocker triangle to firewall. The A pillar square hole was plug welded around the perimeter.

 

Rocker alignment measurements:
The following measurements need to be correct before welding the rocker panel:
The first one is the bottom of the rocker flange to the other rocker flange should be 47 inches. The entire length, front to back, should be 47 inches.

The A pillar’s front flange to the rocker panel should be about 4 inches. The word “about” is an important word in the sentence.

The front of the quarter panel wheel well should line up rear of the rocker. The door bottom should be parallel with the rocker. The door and quarter panel were temporarily installed to give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

If the bottom horizontal beam of my jig was level, the rocker was level. The rocker should run parallel with a level surface. A bubble level is all you need for this measurement. I am not completely sure if this is correct measurement.

 

Don't worry. Some of us are reading the thread. And please keep posting. Of course, I'm a bit of Firebird guy. I've got my 67 Firebird thread on the forum. Of course, I've stalled out on it due to other things around the house, work and grad school. And, since I'm moving so quick on the 67 I just purchased a 68 Firebird to rebuild too.