Life in the Little Red House: February 2007

Monday, February 19, 2007

Our Babies

Jacob and Mo get ready for the Seahawks game.

They love to sleep intertwined on our bed.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Project Firebird

Many of you have heard of the infamous Firebird. So here it is on our blog. I'll start from the beginning and try to catch you up on what's transpired thus far and our future plans. Now that our remodel is virtually complete we are going to focus on finishing my lifelong dream of taking a muscle car and turning it into a modern day sports car. When I'm done it will corner, accelerate and stop better then any other production car on the road and yes, this includes most Ferraris. Take a closer look and tell us what you think and um, don't tell me I'm crazy because I already know. Devin would agree it takes a some weird kind of addiction to try and take a muscle car from the 60's and make it do what I hope to accomplish before the end of the Summer.

I knew Devin understood who I really was when she decided to buy me this old 1968 Firebird. I had been looking into the older F-body cars as a great basis for a potential sports car. They are small, thus light, and have a ton of aftermarket parts available to supe them up. This is mostly due to the huge popularity of the 67 through 69 Camaro's.

Above you see it when we first brought it home and started the tear down. We purchased the car for $600 with no engine or transmission. Which was perfect for what I'm planning. The car had very little rust. One year later I saw one for sale without a front clip (frame) for over $2000 at a local swap meet. This gives you an idea of how good of a deal we got.

Some very interesting things you'll find when you tear a car down this far. It had been in multiple accidents and painted more then three times. This is probably why it had so little rust compared to most cars you see of this age.

This is the start of countless hours of fabrication. Here you see I decided to cut off and build custom air dams as well as smooth out the firewall. Keep an eye on that old front subframe. It won't be around much longer.

After the rough in was complete of the new firewall I concentrated on the rear axle. A mini tub was required to fit the huge 335 (roughly 13.5" wide) Michelan Pilot Sport tires in back. Since I was starting from scratch I chose the rim offset, roughed in the rims and tires where I thought they should go, then built the Axle to match.

Below you'll see where I had to cut, notch and build offsets for the rear subframe. Another modification that was required to fit the huge tires beneath the rear wheel wells.

Since the springs had to be relocated inward roughly 1.25" to clear the rear tires I decided to replace the rear shackles with rollsliders. Roll slider technology is typically used in circle track racing. It helps keep the car's roll center from changing as the spring deflects.

This picture is taken through the rear trunk pan. I had to remove the pan due to extensive rust. It came in handy when I had to build the offsets and weld in the slider box.

No one would know what this is for but it is kind of a custom one off idea I had for locating my rear shocks. The car sits so low to the ground that the upper rear shock mounts had to be relocated. I built this bar to serve as a location to mount the rear shock to as well as provide additional support for the rear subframe.
Below you'll see the rear wheel tubs back in place as well as the final touches on my six point roll cage. The cage is built spec and welded directly to the rocker panels. I bent custom weld plates to match the angle of my rocker panel for a smooth finish.

Below I've attached before and after pictures of my monster rear axle. Swap meets are great. I bought this full floating Ford 9" complete for $150. Some time, energy and a few more bucks... and we have a virtually unbreakable rear axle. It was shortened over 5" to accommodate the offset for the rear rims. Gotta love it.

The heart of the beast
Here you see the all aluminum LS1 engine with T-56 6 speed transmission. As well as custom front clip that makes use of Corvette C-5 front suspension parts. For all of you who don't understand what I'm talking about, this basically makes the car lighter and stiffer than most production cars as well as give it limitless possibilities for racing parts. I'm estimating the cars dry weight at around 2800lbs when complete. The frame was designed to my specifications by Art Morrison enterprises out of Fife.

The original design of these cars require the frame to be bolted directly to the body. Unfortunately it's only in 4 locations so it is almost impossible to keep from flexing. There are many aftermarket companies that build connectors that weld or bolt between the front and rear frame to keep body flex to a minimum. So as you can see I decided to take this project to another level when I cut the floor pan and welded it directly to the car. This will not only make the car lighter but it will also make everything solid as a rock.

The Transmission will be supported from above to grant greater ground clearance. Another benefit by welding the frame into the car.

Now with the LS1 mocked into place I can begin to figure out how the steering is going to work... :). As you can see the car sits much lower. It's roughly 4" in the front and over 4.5" in the rear. the front tires are 285's sitting on a 10" wide rim.

Wilwood vented slotted rotors and calipers on all four corners are going to keep high speeds under control. Up front you see the the awesome six piston calipers and vented rotors.

Steering linkage is mocked in place as well as the 15 to 1 rack and pinion steering and engine mounts.

Our trip to the cabin!

We took off for a weekend at Jacob's familys' cabin near Lake Wenatchee on Jan. 19-21. It took us a long time to arrive at the cabin on Friday night, and when we got there we found the cabin hiding behind this pile of snow. Apparently, since the cabin isn't used very much, the snowplows come through and pile the snow on the side of the road. After awhile, it creates a huge mound, which has to be dug out to reach the driveway up to the cabin.

Ben and Lee and Jacob digging away.

Jacob insisted on getting his truck all the way up the driveway...actually he just liked putting his beloved truck to the test. There were spinning tires and revving the engine, but finally he made it all the way up the driveway. Ben and Jerry are looking on as Jacob makes another attempt.

On Saturday, Jacob and I, Clayton and Tiffany, and Britt and Jerry went up to Stevens Pass for a day of skiing/snowboarding. Colby and Maia and Ben and Lee stayed behind to hang out at the cabin and take a trip into Leavenworth.

I was all smiles before going down the mountain for the first time. Check out my new jacket that Jacob got me for Christmas. It was put to the test while it snowed all day long at the mountain. There was about 5 new inches of snow while we were there. It was very powdery, which was so nice when I fell a zillion times. Before leaving for our trip, Jacob insisted that he was going to be my "snowboard teacher" and that I didn't need to take a lesson. No sooner than we got in line for the "Daisy" lift (or bunny hill) for my first attempt, and Jacob was already trying to ditch me. After a glare or two and reminding him of his promise to be my devoted instructor, we got on the lift. The first trip down the mountain was a bit rough. I couldn't figure out how to slow down, so I would get going out of control and then I would fall hard, just to stop. Jacob proved to be quite the teacher, not:) He kept calling out tips to me, but of course I had no idea what he meant, so we were both getting frustrated. At one point he told me "I don't really know how to explain it...when I'm snowboarding I just feel it, so I can't really tell you how to do it". Tiffany (who's also a teacher) and I decided that we were going to use that line with kids in our class who weren't understanding something, just kidding (ex. I don't know how to explain how to read...I just know how. Sorry, you're out of luck). We teased Jacob about that for quite awhile. After finally reaching the end of the mountain, I was nearly in tears and sulked off, never to go down the stupid mountain again. However, after a break in the lodge, Tiffany found me and I decided to try again. Now Tiffany proved to be a much better teacher, being calm and patient with me, while giving me advise that actually worked. By the third time down the mountain I was finally getting the hang of it. I think I'll go again sometime. The next morning I discovered new muscles in my body that I never knew I had. I was quite sore for about a week, but no pain, go gain, right?

Us driving home from Stevens.

On Saturday night we all went into Leavenworth for dinner at the Allie Cafe, an Italian restaurant. On Sunday we cleaned up the cabin, and closed it back up. Then Jacob and I stopped in Leavenworth to look in the shops and have a Brat before our trip home. We are looking forward to planning another trip to the cabin for October Fest!

New Years 2006

Happy New Year! We welcomed in 2007 at our friend Eric's new house. We played games, the most popular being Attack Uno, where you never know how many cards you're going to get. All of the usual suspects were there and we had a fun evening! We hope 2007 will be a great year for everyone!