Broken Wing Project. The 'Bird

Yeap. I don't think I show enough love for the guys in the club. I can be pretty rough at time but most of us have known each other since we were kids and the ones I didn't grow up with it still seems like I have known them all my life. I have truely been blessed and have a great bunch of friends. We help each other out when we can and that's what it's all about.

Busy weekend! I noticed the rear glass seal was bad when I saw some water shoot inside the car when I was washing it. I borrowed Joe's fancy Scroungers Windshield Knife to cut it out. I stuck the knife in the seal and it whipped right around without any tension. At the top there was about 4 to 6 inches of the seal holding the glass. I got lucky and cought it before the back glass flew out on the highway.


You can see the dirt on the rubber seal. It hasn't been stuck in a long time.

Since I had the back glass out, I have always wanted to do this to the rear panel.

A little spray on stripper.

Finished off with some sanding to get all the paint off.

I then took it over to Corn Field Customs to get some louvers pressed in it.

The louvers came out nice. The bottom of the fliier has some rust pits so I shot some converter on the inside before priming.

I talked to Terry Thursday and he wanted me to bring the car to the shop for the gear change on Friday morning. I had the back glass out but if he's willing to work on it then I can drive it without the back glass. I was up early and changed the oil. I only had about 50 miles on the oil with that pure zinc added to it. $$.. When I put the tunnel ram on it I lost some water in the engine. Another oil change with Torco Zinc $$. Got the oil change out of the way and headed to Terry's. It didn't take Terry long and he had the 456's out and the 342's in!

I came home and fooled around a bit before it was time to meet up with a few guys and head to the Milford Cruise. A little too happy about my gear swap and not thinking about using more gas with the ram, you guessed it. I ran out of gas! I can't remember the last time I ran out of gas. I'm not talking about a couple years. It's been like 15 or more years. Walking to the gas station was fun. I called Johnny and told him I'd catch up. Being able to run faster than 50 MPH down the highway sure helped out. Made it to Milford and had a good time. On the way back we did a little racing and then I headed to Covington for a cruise in that I forgot about until I was heading home. Long day!

I have cleaned this area up before but it's prone to water sitting in it. No through rust but the is the 3rd time in 20 years I've had to deal with the scale rust.

Where the rear seal was bad it also let a little scale rust start around the seam sealer in the window channel. Nothing major but I don't want it to get worse so I stripped all the seam seler out, treated it and resealed it.

One thing that has always drove me nuts is the prep work GM put into these F Bodies. You can see the ripples in the tops on the doors where they were press out and the lead work in the sale panel is really bad. Every Camaro and Firebird I have ever seen is like this. I can't just do one thing. It seems everything snow balls. So you guess it. I knew I was going to paint the window channel so why not fix that factory lead spot in the sail. I cleaned it up and used a little glaze.



For anyone wondering, that is not cheap bondo. The glaze is a super thin plastic filler. It is really easy to sand and goes on almost like water. The stuff is killer. It is not for filling in dents. This stuff is for small stuff and for blocking out cars. When you see those fancy shows where they cover the car in Bondo and then sand the whole car down, that's not Bondo it's a glaze. It you covered the whole car with Bondo you would shoot your self before sanding that hard crap off. If you have never used the glaze give it a try. Pretty cool stuff.

It's hard to tell from these pics but no more noticable lead work.
I pulled out the old method of painting and laid down some lacquer on the sail panels and window channel.

lookin good bro its coming along good:)

Got the louvered panel and the rear window back in.

i like the louvered panel it looks good

In the middle of posting this stuff I smelled smoke. House over on 10th street.
Not sure if anyone was in it or not.

chev_hotrod wrote:i like the louvered panel it looks good

Thanks man..

Now back to the Bird. Still watching the fire....
Like I said above I shot the sail panel and channel with lacquer. I guess you can see what color the car is going.
This is only the second time I ever shot lacquer. With all the crackk downs and the EPA freaking out they say they are going to do away with lacquer. I figured I'd get one lacquer job in before they pull the plug on it. You ever hear of the old saying about 10 coats of hand rubbed lacquer? Well it's not 10 coats but it's hand rubbed to see what it would look like. No buffer. Just 1500 DRY sand paper and a little rubbing.
I used that new 1500 grit disk that uses no water. It works good. Here it is sanded.

Here's the first rub.

Here's the second.

Last couple of pics before I call it a night. I have been slowly getting the Bird back to some what streetable. I have been looking at fuel cells with sending units in them. I came close to buying one but held out hoping to find one on Craigs List or something. Well then I ran out of gas Friday night. So Saturday I was ready to order a new one. I was looking around in Summit and Jegs for the better deal and made it out to work on the car before I made up my mind. Wondering what size I could manage to stuff in the small trunk I started looking.
Not much room is there?

It's been a long time since the fuel cell was put in the Bird. My memory isn't the best either but when I peaked through the speaket hole look what I found.

Guess I don't have to worry about buying a new cell. Hopefully it all works when I hook it up.

lol it sucks to get old ....lol

chev_hotrod wrote:lol it sucks to get old ....lol

YES IT DOES! LOL

That pretty cool, never saw that panel louvered on a car before! Also is it just me or do you have alot of fires in your area?

the panel looks killer on there. glad i did the one row, i think any more might have been a bit much

cornfield customs wrote:the panel looks killer on there. glad i did the one row, i think any more might have been a bit much

Yeah I have to agree. Like I was saying at first I thought about 2 sets. I think the way you set it up was perfect. 2 rows would have been way too much. I did it for the looks but looking back on it with the water sitting in the hinge area this may help get it out of there faster too. Water / rain runs straight off the back glass and into the trunk channel where the hinges are. Through evaporation or air moving through the filler while I'm driving it may move that water away from the hinge area and on down the trunk channel. So it may help with that years on down the road. Thanks again.

hp77skylark wrote:That pretty cool, never saw that panel louvered on a car before! Also is it just me or do you have alot of fires in your area?

Makes you wonder doesn't it. This one was about 5 houses away from the last one that cought fire. Same block.

I think i would invest in cameras to make sure there is no crazy arsonist running around.

LACQUER was all we ever sprayed growing up, I got so tired of wet sanding I thought about going into the safe cracking business, cause as kids we never had finger prints cause dad always made us wet sand everytime he got pissed at us.. (which was alot!..lol) Yhea lacquer provides a killer deep shine, its the durability that was its down fall.. Gas stains it easy, tends to dry-out and crack, bout man it sure does smell good, wait what did you say about short term memory loss.....I like the louvered panel, nice touch...

I got my front sway bar back from my powder coat guy. The sway bars, front springs and a few other small things will be this grey color. I didn't want anything flashy but didn't want everything black either. So a muted grey will do. I'm going to buy some new springs and get the front end back up in the air the way it was with the small block. Everyone wants their car on the ground. I guess I'm just living in the past because I like the old 70's nose in the air look. I want to replace a couple ball joints too. The car has over 130K and it still has the stock ball joints.