We took Gramma's car out today. It was around 20 degrees and sunny out. The boy needed some driving time for his learners permit so we drove the car around the neighborhood roads. He was plodding along at around 20 mph and eventually felt confortable enough to hit a rollicking 30 mph by the end of the half hour of driving. It was a most entertaining time. His sister's first driving time was in this car, too. Nothing like creating new automotive memories in his Great Grandmother's ancient chariot that was built a quarter century before he was born.

When we got home I decided to swap out the too hot of a heat range plugs for a set of ACDelco R44TSX's. I had NGK UR45s in there but the flame pattern seems a bit close to the base ring.

I pulled the spare out of the trunk today and noticed that it is the original spare tire from 1975. Its a B.F. Goodrich Lifesaver Whitewall F78x15 manufactured the 23rd week of 1975. Cool!

Cool stuff Steve :)

BTW, I guess there must be some type of built-in macho blessing on Firebird drivers from the Patron Saint of Trans Ams: Burt Reynolds.

I looked at my 16 year old son today and he now has the faint beginnings of a mustache that he did not have prior to test driving the car yesterday.

Too cool for school!

As I read that I could hear Burts laugh in my head haha

My son has been begging for more driving time in Gramma's car but the snow this week kind of cancelled that option. Looks like it's his mom's Dodge or the old Suburban til everything thaws out.

Snow? Seriously, it's 80º here...

It was around 45 degrees today so I pulled the rear out to start the process of swapping the 3.42 gears for 3.08s. I have a set of GM 3.08s that a PY forum member sent me to trade for the GM 3.42 set currently in the car.

Here's the result after four hours of work.

I had no clue a Firebird could have 3.42:1 gears in '75. I was under the impression non-A/C cars could get up to 3.23:1 and that was as low as they go! Guess you learn somethin new every day!

Actually the car came with a 2.56. I put the 3.42 posi rear from a 1980 Trans Am in it 25 years ago.

That sounds more reasonable, also sounds pretty cool. It's not too hard to set the lash?

I stopped in at the chassis shop today and they already had the rear all finished. That was quick - dropped it off Monday, picked it up Wednesday.

Ended up costing $250 to set up the gears and an additional $100 to replace the axle bearings. He found that the small retainer bolt that holds the center pin into the carrier, was sheared off. The portion of the bolt head with threads was holding the remaining portion of the retaining pin in place. He said the broken piece came out with a thin magnetic probe. He indicated that this was a common problem he has encountered over the years. Whew!

The rear is back home now in the garage. That gives me something to start cleaning and painting now.

Getting ready to paint and reassemble the rear. I had the chassis guy who set up the rear, sandblast the backing plates and rear cover. Looks like the tubes and backing plates were originally painted black but the center section was natural cast. There is a remnant of the orange "E" on the top. Not much on the bottom. There are orange paint daubs on the bearing caps, where the tubes join the center section and underneath the mating surface of the spring perches.

The new leaf springs arrived today. Dayton Spring 80-335 was on back order all over the country (this is the 1970-81 Trans Am specific leaf spring with 4 leaves). I was able to order them through Stengel Brothers Spring in Pennsylvania. They had them on sale for $104 per side. Rock Auto just got some in and they show $145.79 each plus shipping. I was able to pick up my springs directly at Stengel Brothers and save the shipping costs. I bought this same set five years ago for my 1972 black Formula and the car sat nicely with them.

http://www.stengelbros.net/80-335-Po...y-_p_2927.html

Now I can replace the old, worn out 5-leaf set up in the car that had too tall of a stack for the perches on the 1980 T/A rear. The lower shock mounting plate got all bent out of shape from being tightened around the 5 leaves. Luckily I was able to use my hydraulic press and get them flat again.

I have had good luck with a mechanics awl and "unscrew it" - it usually leaves 1/2 of a thread on what doesn't come out, just takes patience! some tool truck guys sell a kit to drill and use easy out, its a Allen head cap screw with hole drilled in it and a long bit both will work FYI
nice car Steve!

I got the new four-leaf, Trans Am springs installed yesterday and the 3.08 geared rear end back in the car, today. The new springs fit the perches a lot nicer than the old five-leaf setup did. This 1980 T/A rear end was made for a four-leaf spring pack. I installed a pair of KYB GasAdjust shocks to match the fronts. Everything is hooked back up with the exception of the rear brakes. I bought a new set of ProThane rear sway bar bushings for the 9/16" bar but they don't make the correct large bushing for the one-bolt sway bar drop links (only for the 1970-73, two bolt/two-piece), so I had to re-use the original large bushings. For some reason they make the large bushings for the 5/8" and thicker rear bars in the one-bolt version but neglect the 9/16" bar???

I have a new set of brake shoes to go in and had a pair of new wheel cylinders sitting around so I used them since I noticed that the originals were leaking.

Tomorrow the brakes and the new speedometer gear get installed.

Here's how she looks now.

I got the car on the road today after installing and bleeding the brakes, installing the new speedometer gear and housing, and doubling checking all the bolts. The vintage GM 3.08 gears are silent - no whine or howl. Very nice. And it is now 2,400 RPM at 60 mph, verified by the GPS.

While finishing up the brakes, I thought this was kind of neat: the original rear brake drums, still with planty of meat left on them. Dated "F 8 75".

It was a busy weekend!

I sanded and repainted the top of the radiator support with black epoxy paint to get rid of the original "survivor" surface rust look.

I bought a set of the InlineTube reproduction fender to rad support bars and installed them.

I installed the shiny new repro brake booster and bled the front brakes.

I adjusted the parking brake which had been too loose after the rear end installation.

I also pulled the grills, sanded and repainted them using wheel paint sprayed from about a foot away so it gave a nice dry, sparkly finish like the original.

I cleaned the signal lenses and polished the chrome bezels, too.

And yeah, I added an old leftover "455HO" decal I had sitting around. The air cleaner looked too bare and needed something to spruce it up. And technically, the 455 does have the rods from my old 455HO in it... ;-)

After all that I put 5 gallons of aviation fuel in the tank to give her a treat.

I ordered a new ColdCase radiator which should be here tomorrow. Then the shroud comes out and gets refinished, too, during the installation process.

After all this work, I noticed that one of my AC/Delco spark plug wires was not working right when I checked them all with a timing light to chase down an intermittent miss. I checked my old receipts and it turns out that they are guaranteed for life, so Rock Auto is sending me a new set for the ones on the car that I bought in 2008!

TLC X100 :-)

Your cars have a good life:-)

Ryan

Hey you gotta have something to play with. Gramma's car really handles nicely now. I may upgrade to some larger sway bars like a 1-1/4" front and 3/4" rear from a Trans Am/Formula since what is on the car was the luxury cruiser version with a 1" front and 9/16" rear sway bars.

Great stuff Steve!:beers:

I installed the ColdCase radiator today. An alltogether uneventful installation. :-)

I scrubbed the original shroud with soapy water, dried it, and then misted it with SEM Laundau Black vinyl paint and it looks just like new. The radiator went in fine. No issues at all other than the overflow nozzle points down at a 7:00 position when a 1973 and newer Firebird needs it at the 9:00 position for the overflow tube to route to the factory catch bottle properly. Not a big deal but I had to find a different section of hose as it was one size smaller nipple and the original hose was too big.

The car did run at around the same temperature as before - around 195 to 200 with a 160 thermostat. It was 80 degrees outside. I will replace the thermostat tomorrow after I test it in some hot water to see if it is actually opening at the correct temperature. I just tested two old 160 degree units on the stove in some hot water and they didn't open til at least 170 or more.

I also got the warranty replacement Delco HEI wire set from rockauto. I ohm tested the old set and wire #3 was completely open. So it's been running on 7 cylinders. Runs even better on all 8 now with the new set (which I also ohm tested before installing).

Could you tell me exactly what you used and how you did it for the radiator support? 2 stage or single?

It looks perfect, as far as shine/depth goes. I want to replicate it. Thank you very much.

Actually. it was spray can, VHT Roll Bar and Chassis Satin Black epoxy paint. I got it at advanceautoparts.

I swapped the thermostat and it runs at pretty much the same temperature - 190. I did test the thermostat on the stove with a thermometer and it does start to open around 160.

The funny thing is that the car runs cooler the faster you drive it! It pulls like a monster with those 3.08s from 35 to 100 mph. It pegs the factory 100 mph speedo in nothing flat...and the coolant temperature drops, the faster you go. At 100 mph the temp dropped to 170. (Allegedly, of course) ;-)

I think I need to swap out the 1975 100 mph speedometer for the rally gauge 160 speedometer. At least I wont worry about snapping the needle off.

Awesome...allegedly!:cool2:

I took gramma's car out today for a 117 mile cruise with my son. Mostly highway speeds. It was about 70 degrees out and at 75 MPH the temp was around 170. It moves up to around 190 in traffic but immediately resets to 170 when the car is moving again. The car cruises so smoothly with those 3.08s that my teenaged son fell asleep half way through the trip, even with the loud exhaust!

It did use around 3/4 of a tank, too! I think it gets around 8 MPG (highway). Your actual mileage may vary.

When we got home I changed the oil and filter as we just hit the magic 1,000 mile mark on the new 455.

Nice work, love the car.

If she is getting hot in traffic, you may want to check the thermo fan -- could be fubar ... TAZ

Today I drove the gramma car to my buddy's gas station and we evacuated the A/C system and refilled it with R12. It now blows cold at 34 degrees! The coolant temp stays around 190 with the A/C on full blast.

I was thinking that the new heavy duty thermostatic clutch fan I bought last year must kick in around 190, hence the proclivity to run in that temp range at low speeds. Are the clutch fans adjustable to get them to kick in earlier?

Just my opinion -- if you have replaced the fan clutch and the temp stays around 190 ... thats OK. TAZ

I did a little research and it turns out that modern replacement fan clutches are set to engage at higher temps than the originals, so they can be used on a larger number of modern car application. You can adjust the thermostatic spring engagement temp lower if you move the outer spring starting point counterclockwise by a small amount. This thread deatils it: http://www.forums.maxperformanceinc....=776003&page=2

The first photo is the spring in the original factory location. The center valve only moves about 45 degrees to engage the internal valve and lock the clutch. I tested the spring with a head gun and a infrared thermometer and you could see the spring lengthen and turn the inner valve as it got hot around 190 or so.

Second photo shows the spring moved CCW to the left of the retaining location. When heated with the heat gun, it engaged at around 160-170 degrees. You can't just leave the spring like this as it will not disengage the valve if it is not retained in both directions of travel.

I fashioned a retaining clip out of a wiring retainer bracket so it encompassed the circular mount area as well as inside the circle through the original slot. I then used JB Weld to keep it in place.

The last photo shows another person's similar clip but on a rectangular mounting location on a different clutch.

Now, as I wait for the JB Weld to fully cure, I guess I'll give Gramma's car a well deserved wash, claybar and wax since I can't remember the last time I cleaned the outside of this car.

I love how you get to actual situation/issue/root cause:-)

Innocent until PROVEN guilty!!!

Ryan

Guilty (allegedly, of course) ;-)

Can't beat this for proof of the clutch fan spring modification:

Went for a 25 mile drive in the 83 degree heat with the A/C on max the entire time (38 degrees vent temp)

Photo 1 at cruising speed: 170 degrees

Photo 2 at a stoplight for a couple minutes: 175 degrees

Photo 3 beauty shot. :-)

Careful you are leading the witness with all kinds of alternative facts:-)

I love how you actually get to the root cause, very important but also very rare!!!

Ryan

That car is absolutely beautiful, man I gotta get my projects going faster, hahaha.

Brought her out to the first cruise night of the year on Saturday. Runs great and that A/C works chillingly nice. Here's a shot one of my friends took when I was wandering around.

What paint did you use for the under hood area? Thanks a lot Steve.