2001 Firebird Project

[Drdave88]

I guess I'll start one of these too. I'm picking up an 01 Firebird W68 tomorrow. Initial inspection is that there is no rust to be found, probably a southern car. Needs either head gaskets or a whole engine due to overheating. Not going to matter since it will be the recipient of an LS eventually. For now, I plan on doing a good deep dive into what is needed, and start with the body. I know it needs a hood, looks like someone got body slammed on it, and needs a driver side door. The door has some damage and the skin is coming loose. It's missing the front GFX but since it's in overall good shape and no rust, I figure $550 is a pretty good price for it. I'll throw up some pics when I get a chance to and add some more detail once I get to go through it more this weekend.

[GlennT]

Sounds like a fun project, and a nice find for $550!

[DynoDave]

Yeah really, $550...can't go wrong.

[Drdave88]

For some reason it won't let me post a picture, I keep getting an error. I'll try tomorrow on my work computer, maybe the forum doesn't like Chrome? Anyway, I cleaned the car up and got a good look at everything. Needs a few interior pieces, dash (cracks) driver door panel, driver window switch. Aside from a couple of things, it's quite clean, no major stains and no rips anywhere. No water leaks either. I keep waiting for that one major defect to show up and tell me why this car was only $550 lol. I did notice the roof bubbling, so that will have to be taken care of before any paint is done. Looks like, according to the TSB, it's only 2 hrs labor for a hard top? Is that correct? Anyone know where to get a good panel, I guess the GM one is discontinued. I'll start poking around, just wondering if anyone knows of a good place with a good price.

[GlennT]

I'm no parts guru, but the only roof panels I'm aware of are those available from salvage and a carbon fiber one at 6LE Designs.

[Drdave88]

I'm no parts guru, but the only roof panels I'm aware of are those available from salvage and a carbon fiber one at 6LE Designs.

That's all I've come up with too, bummer. 6LE has CF and fiberglass, still $600 for fiberglass.

[GlennT]

FWIW, I keep seeing this guy post on Craigslist: https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/pts/6133541436.html

I've never contacted him, but it sounds like he has several 98+ cars.

[Drdave88]

I remember seeing his posts a while ago when I had a 98 Formula. Close to my parents house, ulterior motive for visiting the family now!!! lol Thanks for the reminder GlennT.

Good thing too, looks like I'll be needing the rear GFX piece around the bumper as well, noticed a chunk is missing out of it where it wraps around the bumper in the wheel well. Got a bunch of interior pieces and carpet cleaned up, mainly just spots and stains. Nothing is really that bad in there. Someone did a mild hack job on the wiring for the speakers. Disconnected the sail panel subs, then tapped into the rear hatch speakers, and ran wire to the sails for some kind of aftermarket speaker there. They pulled the door and sail 6.5's before selling the car so it looks like Kee Audio will be hearing from me at some point before this gets on the road lol. Gonna give everything a good look over and see how many dents/cracks/chips in the paint I have to start sanding out and filling in over the next few weeks. Also plan on coating the underbody since there isn't really any rust. I'd like to keep it that way.

[Drdave88]

Got my photo issue figured out, looks like this site doesn't like .jpg for some reason. Change the file type and I'm all good lol. So here's one pic of it when I picked it up. I'll upload more later.

[DynoDave]

I love a red Firebird!

[Drdave88]

Not a whole lot to update, there is just going to be a lot of sanding on the body. Looks like it may have had some paint work done before, there are little bubbles along the passenger door, down to the primer, that I will have to sand out. The rear bumper is spidered and the front bumper had the clear coat peel off. Fenders are in good shape, other than some scuffs, easy clean up. The quarters have typical small dents and scratches/chips for the age. Sand and fill there too, but not too bad. Once I get some good progress of the sanding, I'll throw up some more pics, just need time. Never seem to have enough of that.

[Drdave88]

Not too much exciting to post, everything else keeps finding it's way into my schedule. I have all defects sanded out of the pass door, both fenders and the front bumper. On the look out for a driver door and hood, holding out for red ones to minimize painting. Cleaned up some hacked speaker wiring job, luckily they didn't damage too much. Missing the original connectors for the front door speakers, and sail panels, but I found the original connectors for the sail panel speakers left over from my 98 formula. Had to "adjust" a bracket for the passenger fender, it got pretty bent with no sign of any damage anywhere on the fender or bumper in that area. It was bent enough to pull the fender in a good inch or two though. Closed off a couple of gaps nicely.

[Drdave88]

Couple of progress pics Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[Drdave88]

Picked up an LS K member with motor mount brackets and lower control arms. Been looking for a red driver side door and hood, make less to have to repaint. So far, only parts I've come across have been way over priced for the condition of them. It probably won't get any paint until spring, so I'll work on collecting parts and building the front end over winter, since all of the steering/suspension has to go on that car anyway. I may replace the hatch too, since it looks like someone sat on it and cracked the wing on it, based on the damage across it. Nothing too terrible, but if I find one cheap enough........

[Drdave88]

Took a break to work on other things over winter, but getting back to it now. I just picked up a donor car (98 Firebird) to rob some parts off of to get the body/interior/etc going on this. Until I can get the powertrain that I want built, I'm going to keep it a V6 for now and work on the rest of the car. I'll be pulling the door and hood off the donor car, get them stripped down and ready get some paint on the insides before bolting them on the car. The door needs the typical hinge repair, hood only has a couple of dents to work out, nothing too bad though.