Here are some new pics from 2001 - New Paint and Top
Here are some pics of the body work in progress from 2001
Now, here are some pictures of the car before I bought it for Jen.
Now here are some I took the first Summer (1998).
Now for some information on the car
The car is a numbers matching 350/TH350 engine/trans. It was ordered as a standard 350
but was converted to 4-bbl Quadrajet with 067 cam by the prior owner. Other options it
was ordered with are:
I have done quite a bit of work on it since I bought it for her, most notable the Rear End
and springs mentioned above. I've also done a lot of carb tuning and timing adjustment
which I'm still playing with. Hope to get it to the track in '99 so I can do further
tuning. I'm hoping to get it under 15 seconds!
06/23/1999 - Got to the track for the first time and ran a best
of 15.487 at 86.08 MPH. That was in 90 degree plus weather, with bad ignition timing,
lack of traction,and low shift point. I still think I get get it under 15 seconds.
I'll update again after our next trip on 07/31/99.
07/31/1999 - Another day of bad weather. Well over 95 degrees
and high humidity. Rebuilt Distributor. 36 degrees total timing.
34 PSI Air in rear tires. 1/2 Tank Gas. Best Run - 15.410 at 87.14 MPH.
An Improvement, but not what I had hoped for.
Working on governor mods to get shift point up from 4000 RPM to 4800 RPM.
10/10/1999 - Finally a day of decent weather. About 65-70 degrees.
since last time I modified the governor for shifts at 4600-4700 RPM.
First run was 15.3, better but not what it should be. Next run was 15.5,
dang something must be wrong. So I checked the timing and it was at 28 degrees
total! I don't know how. Put it back up to 36 degrees and whammo! First run
after that was 15.08 and a little while later with the temp down about 60
she finally broke into the 14's with a 14.994 at 89.11 MPH! Horray!
Here's the timeslip
UPDATE: I had decided on a goal of 14.5 for the 2000 season, but have
since decided that 14.7 is probably more reasonable, with 14.5 a wish. Here
are the mods I have done to get there:
I also have the following PLANNED to be done before returning to the track on July 29th.
Notice how low the Rear End is. After these pictures where taken I replaced the 2.56 open
rear with a 3.23 Posi and put in new 5-leaf springs and it came up about 2 inches. Looks
much nicer now!!
I started looking for a car for Jen around Nov 1997. I checked out 6 different 1969
Firebird Convertibles before this one. I bought it in Feb 1998 and had to go to Detroit
to get it. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for the toe home. I was originally going
to give it to her for our Anniversary in June but couldn't hold back and brought it to
the house one day after work in March.
Now what's the new goal?
Hopefully, these mods will get the car to the 14.5-14.7 range. I've run a 14.72 using a G-Tech Pro, with just the mods done so far. So, assuming the weather cooperates, I think she'll 14.7 or less should be no problem for her come July 29th.
geebjen at gmail.com
This site maintained by Geeb and was last updated on 03/07/2002.
