The Work Begins | February 2nd 2021
- Anthony Wood
- Oct 24, 2022
- 2 min read
So - our original goal was to find a vehicle that was in really good shape (or rather good enough shape) that all we needed to do was to install a motor. Essentially the motor was where we were wanting to spend the majority of our efforts. Now as a reminder, we bought a "roller." This is essentially the car body, on wheels, that has everything except the motor. What we didn't know, or rather didn't realize at the time is that these can come in various states of readiness. For instance, when we purchased our car, the front end (I mean the whole front end) was loosely held together with zip ties and a few key positioned bolts. The owner did this to make it easy for him to install the motor he was going to put in - and LS 1.
Being this was our first time with this, we really didn't know what we were looking at. The seasoned restorer / motor head looks at the above picture and knows exactly what he's looking at. We however did not. It wasn't until we started to put together our build list that we realized not only what we had, but what we DIDNT have. After taking down the front end, we began to get a better understanding of what we were going to need...
Here is a short list of the items we discovered that we didn't have that we were going to need:
Front master body bolt kit for a second generation F body (means Firebird or Camaro)
Radiator
Lowe radiator support brackets
upper radiator support brackets
fender braces - two of them
battery tray
battery cables
charcoal canister
washer fluid container
Radiator coolant reservoir
Radiator (with cooling lines for automatic tranny)
Transmission
Transmission cross member
Transmission cooling lines
transmission linkage
AC dryer and evaporator core
Engine motor mounts - frame side for a 1978 Firebird
Engine motor mount conversion brackets - for a 1969 Pontiac 400 block (the motor mount holes are different)
Removal of the welded in LS1 motor mount preliminary brackets
Rerouting fuel lines for to support a 400 motor (this car was manufactured in Cali - so it came with an Olds 403 - much different setup)
Engine wiring harness
There are other items, but these were the big ones. Now for the record, we didn't look into the engine bay and see the above list. It was over time that we began to see what we had and what we were going to need. It was at this point we needed to make some decisions. What were we going to repair/ replace/ restore vs what we were going to just use. Ultimately we chose to address items on a case by case basis. Also, if we did touch it - we would restore it the best we could or upgrade / replace it if needed.
After all was said and done, and with our focus being on building and installing a motor, we focused in removing the modified LS1 engine brackets installed by the previous owner:
After Ben got the modified mounts removed, we then began cleaning the engine compartment, sub frame and steering / front end components. We also had to decide if we were going to keep the original AC system...
To be continued!
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