BIRD67 Needs New Framerails, UPDATE 6/21/10

[BIRD67]

You heard it right! Well, we figured out what that noise was that the rear of the Firebird was making, but it's far worse than we had hoped for! It turns out that our frame rails were rusty and that, combined with the torque the engine now makes, broke our rear frame rails I will get pictures later, but the bushing bolt holding the rear shackle to the rail wore a large hole in the gas tank.. I am so depressed right now, we've put soo much effort in to it all for this!

[69bronzeT5]

That's exactly why when people say I should drive my Charger as is, I say no. That sucks man, I know how it feels having rusty rear frame rails (although, my Charger only has one rusty one)

[BIRD67]

That's exactly why when people say I should drive my Charger as is, I say no. That sucks man, I know how it feels having rusty rear frame rails (although, my Charger only has one rusty one)

Yeah, I know, dude it sucks soo much!! Oh well, we got a guy coming over monday to survey the damage.. We are also gonna tie the frame together, there's too much torque!!

[BIRD67]

Okay, I figured that the frame rails rusted from the inside out.. I guess one of the previous owners decided to undercoat the car and in the process they drilled 2 inch holes in the framerails thinking that getting undercoating inside the frame was more important than structural integrity.. SO here are the pictures.. The first is the leaf spring, notice that the frame is lying on it? The shackle collapsed..

[69bronzeT5]

Ouch. Hey, your camera has the same problem as mine...it goes back in time!

[BIRD67]

Ouch. Hey, your camera has the same problem as mine...it goes back in time!

Yeah yeah yeah! haha, I wish it could, then maybe we wouldn't be having these issues!!

[BIRD67]

Here's some more.. 

[BIRD67]

the final two.. You can see that the Bolt holding the shackle on has created a rather large gouge in the gas tank and that the gas tank has a rather large amount of undercoating on it.. and the final picture is of the shackle. You can see a wire above the leafspring, this is an air line to one of the rear air shocks, which is what is currently keeping the car from collapsing on itself..

[68charger383]

Sorry to hear the bad news.

My next car will be a 67/68 Firebird 400.

Looks like it's time for a frame off restoration of the car or at least the frame.

One good thing about the car, you could build one from scratch with repopped parts.

[jb666]

Man, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear (and see) that. 

[BIRD67]

Yeah, It's time! I already have a few things in mind I would like to do so this won't happen again!! I know for sure we will replace both rails, not sections but the entire rails and I also know that we will also be adding subframe connectors and Torque Boxes, I also want to connect both rails in the rear and in the center to prevent twisting.. The car is also going to get a nice new set of Multi-leaf springs, right now it has monoleaves and they are cracked..

My mom said there is no way in hell we are getting rid of the car, it has way too much sentimental value and there really isn't another one out there like it..

[BIRD67]

Car was evaluated today.. So, I now know how bad of a life the Firebird had! Apparently the rockers, rear quarters, entire trunk, decklid, doors and the door sills have all been replaced it it's life! It will not only need new frame rails, but the gas tank braces need replacing along with the trunk floor and it needs some front frame work.. So, the interior, motor, transmission, driveshaft, rear end, gas tank, front fenders, front subframe exhaust all need to come out in order to really see what we are working with..

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Sorry to hear the news. It looks like a full on resto is in your near future.

[PocketThunder]

Car was evaluated today.. So, I now know how bad of a life the Firebird had! Apparently the rockers, rear quarters, entire trunk, decklid, doors and the door sills have all been replaced it it's life! It will not only need new frame rails, but the gas tank braces need replacing along with the trunk floor and it needs some front frame work.. So, the interior, motor, transmission, driveshaft, rear end, gas tank, front fenders, front subframe exhaust all need to come out in order to really see what we are working with..

Sell it for what you can and buy a Charger?  perhaps?      

[mopar73]

sorry to hear about your problems   Old cars just were'nt meant to last as long as we would like them too.  It sure looks like you will have quite the learning prodject on your hands.  Good luck

[derailed]

Bird, Do you think it may be worth it to find a solid 67-68 camaro/firebird shell and start swapping parts out. There is still a few around. Are you a member over at PY forums?

[BIRD67]

Bird, Do you think it may be worth it to find a solid 67-68 camaro/firebird shell and start swapping parts out. There is still a few around. Are you a member over at PY forums?

No way, this car is the one, nothing is goin away from it! We're gonna have it fixed, the guy said $3500, no biggie.. And No, I am not on Performance Years..

[BIRD67]

Okay, here are some more pictures.. I guess at some point it the car's troubled life, the trunk was replaced.. Now, this may not seem like a bad thing, but when it was poorly welded only on the top and not welded to the fram,e, then we have problems.. In fact it was so bad, that the passenger side wheel well was splitting away from the trunk, of course, some previous owner decided to cover that up in seam sealer, but I just removed all the seam sealer last week to fully evaluate what will need to be replaced... anyways, here are the pictures!

[BIRD67]

here's another.. and here's how the car looks today..

[BIRD67]

more...

[mopar73]

be glad it's a gm product.  there are parts all over for it

[BIRD67]

be glad it's a gm product.  there are parts all over for it

Parts are easy to come by, finding somebody willing to do the work the proper was isn't.. Anyways, we drove the car up to a friends house today, he and a body guy are going to do it, I trust them, they have restored like 5 Chevelles and plenty of GTO's and other non-mopar stuff, but the guy, Tim, said he used to have a 1969 Road Runner. He said it was not comfy at all but it moved very well!

Anyways, when we took the car to his house ( a 45 minute drive) it still handled suprisingly well, it didn't like potholes, though.. The biggest issue was how it was performing, we were doing about 70 on the highway and the car was pretty high in the RPM range, it was 70 MPH at 4200 RPM, it doesn't seem like a high rpm range but Pontiacs are all about low end power.. I will hopefully have an update and pics of the gastank and whatnot removed by thursday..

[aussiemuscle]

i can see why you want to keep it. it's a nice looking firebird. definately sounds like it needs a lot of work tho.

[69bronzeT5]

Prime example of when you do it the first time, you should do it right!

[BIRD67]

i can see why you want to keep it. it's a nice looking firebird. definately sounds like it needs a lot of work tho.

Not really, just your average 42 year old car that was exposed to road salt and improper car most of it's life. Thanks for the compliments   Well, I brought my camera yesterday, but it was dead:( however, they removed the gas tank and we ordered new rails today, we'll go pick them up tomorrow.. it really isnt as bad as we thought