Topic: This is Ruby AKA "The Project"

[Nexus]

Well I thought I would post some past and present Photos of whats going on with my car and include a little story behind it.

It all started 9 years ago when I was leafing through the local Bargain Hunter. I came across this Firebird Esprit which featured T-Roofs, 301 V8, tilt steering, rear spoiler and rally wheels. The guy was asking $1500.00 (Canadian). Wanting a Trans Am, I had little interest in purchasing the car but I called anyway to go have a look because I was curious. I went, I looked and was amased at how there was so little rust compared to everything else I had looked at up to this point. I made a few phone calls to gather some cash which I didn't have of my own and I offered the guy $800.00 bucks cash. To my surprise he took it.

this is what I drove home



Then I probably made the worst mistake! I drove it to my grandparents and put it in the Garage and stripped it like you see below





This is how it stayed for the next 8 years. The only thing I have done is gather parts, read and learn about the car, move it from house to house, etc. etc.

This is how it looked this spring when I got it to my current house







Well over the past month I have cleaned out the garage, emptied all the parts out of it, and today I was able remove the subframe and engine assembly.









All of this action has got me excited about working on it again. I am just glad that my wife has not forced me to get rid of it because I don't know of too many wives that would put up with it for 9 years. It also gives me pleasure to flip the bird to all those who keep telling me to get rid of it because I'll never get it back to gether. Oh it will go back together and it will be painted this colour



I came across this colour yesterday and it is exactly what I had pictured in my head for what I wanted. Long story but if you have read all of the post, thank-you and I will update it as I go along over the next while.

PS.

If you remember "Project Rescue", It will provide several donatable parts to make "The Project" run again

This is Project Rescue R.I.P.



Thank-you for your time

Charlie

[Justin]

thats funny and cool. Hopefully you are working on it right now.

[Nexus]

nope...at work...helps pay for the car

[4speed76]

Funny your story is very similar to mine, The funny thing is that the color you chose is the exact color I am having mine painted.  Good luck with the project and NEVER GIVE UP on a dream.

[bigty88]

Just keep working on her, every hour counts! Thanks for sharing the story.

[deadfish]

Your story is so much like mine. I started with a 70 standard bird...built the engine (350p), crashed it, put the engine in a  74 grand prix, then a 74 standard bird (went through the engine again with a smaller cam) found a 79 T/A in 1995 and put the motor and a rebuilt th350 tranny in the 79. It's been under a tarp and now in one of those "tarp garages" and I'm finally getting some work done on it this year, and lining up my winter projects.
Please keep the stories and pics coming..I thought I was the only man left with an understanding wife...she's let me drag the engine and cars everywhere we moved...now she can't wait to drive it (she raced her neighbor in the 70 bird before she even had her liscense!...we were just dating then..now married 23 years!)

Rick C.

[jorgensen trans am]

i just bought a 1979 6.6 project car and im so excited

[Nexus]

Don't let anyone tell you it won't ever get put back together!!!

So yesterday I managed to spend most of the day stripping the car further.

Blower motor/shroud off firewall, heater core, Brake booster/pedal assembly, wiper assembly, all screws, bolts gromets, etc. off outside of firewal.

Then went inside and removed shifter and linkage, throttle pedal, steering column, parking brake pedal, wiring harness inside and out, wire shrouds, and everthing else that was attached to the front of the body.

I'll get some pics up after of it...at work right now.

[Nexus]

Doea anybody have a close up picture of the firewall. I have accident damage and want to see what things are supposed to look like

After I was done stripping it I was able to pull out my hammer dolly and massage out some obvious stuf. Neighbors were real thrilled with all the noise 

[brian c]

Here's mine



The wrinkle just above the tranny hump is due to the distributor hitting the firewall during a crash. This was well before I bought it and not disclosed at time of purchase.

If you're looking for something else, let me know as I might have a pic of it. If not, I have a 80 firebird with no engine/tranny that I can pop the hood off and grab some quick pics.

[Nexus]

Right on thanks Brian.

So the next silly question is what is the difference in cowl vent hood (top of firewall/ dash) between 72 and 79.

I have seen replacements for 70 - 73 and not 74 -81

[Nexus]

Well took me awhile get them up here but here are some pics of what was accomplished a week or two ago













Thats it for now

[Nexus]

So yesterday I removed the old patch I put in the floor on the passanger side. I put the patch in about 8 or 9 years ago when I first took the car apart. I then had a good look at the floor and the firewall before stopping for the night. Bedtime for the kids and the noise was keeping them up.

Today I removed the frame mount to get to the fender/frame support bracket in the last picture. This allowed me to reshape it using several hammers and dollies. I must have spent an hour and a half just on that bracket. Again, I'm sure the neighbors were thankful when I went into the house with all the noise I was making.

This leads me to my question.

Should I continue to try and hammer out the firewall around the heater core opening and down into the toeboards, or should I cut and weld replacement sheetmetal in there while I have access to it?

Let me know what you think

[Nexus]

Here's some pics of the work









Check out the accident damage:

[Nexus]

So what was hard to see in the pictures above was the fact that the firewall sheet metal was stretched from the accident it was in.

It was pushed up against the air intake tunnel that runs behind it.
Today I finally got myself organised and the confidence or balls in this case to attack the sheet metal with the torch for some old fashioned heat shrinking

Let me tell you it didn't start out pretty. In fact it got that bad that I almost gave up in favor of cutting and rewelding new sheetmetal in it's place.

So I sit here pretty damn proud of myself that one I didn't give up, and two I managed to not oly fix my mangled mess but was able to make the panel look relatively flat and achieve the shrinkage I was looking for in the first place.

Can't really tell too much from the picture but you can at least see all the torch circles