1978 Pontiac Firebird Week 2009 04 05
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We had a great turn out of the Car Nuts this week. We had two meetings this week and the progress shows it! We had (left to right) Jim Boehly, Lenny Ball, George Nick, Ken Long, Vince Falco, and Don Goodman (not pictured). We got the floors prepped and painted, the rear axle pulled for the second time (more on that later), and the brake system installed and bled. |
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The first project which was started on Wednesday was to repair the ravages of time, previous owners, and the conversion from a four speed to and automatic. These repairs were handled but the floor experts of Don Goodman, George Nick, and Vince Falco |
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All the holes were patched in. |
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The way the patch panel was created for the shifter hole was to square up the edges by making a larger hole and then covering the hole with several layers of tape. Well that would not do so we then used a razor blade and ran around the inside of the hole and ended up with a piece tape that was placed onto a piece of metal. The metal was then cut out along the edge of the tape and we ended up with an exact match for the hole. It was then welded in. |
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Once all the patches were in place, I am really getting tired of patch panels, a wire brush on a grinder was taken to the floor to clean it up for paint. I sure clouded up the garage. |
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Next was a Project I have been wanting to tackle. I wanted to convert from Power brakes to manual brakes for a number of reasons. (remove the weight of the power booster, provide easy access to the spark plugs, remove the vacuum needed to run the booster). Manual brakes was an option for 78 Firebirds and after a lot of research we came up with part numbers for both Raybestos and Bendix. The problem was no one stocked the parts. George Nick got on the phone and track down the master so we could do the install this weekend. |
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This is a Raybestos Master Cylinder part number MC39023. It has a one inch cylinder and is for front disc rear drum manual brakes. |
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We cleaned up the original proportioning valve (it has not been painted here). The lines were for a power brake setup so we had to rebend them so that the proportioning valve would end up under the master. |
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We then cut up the original bracket for the proportioning valve and welded it back together so that the proportioning valve would be supported. (the proportioning valve has been painted here) |
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| The push rod was purchased from MP Brakes (part number PR4721K). It had to be cut to length. I should have cut the threaded end as the treads now almost touch the rubber boot. The rubber boot is important as it holds the rod in place so that it will not fall out of the master. The master for the manual brakes in the 78 firebird had the shallow well (most manual brakes us a deep well in the master so that the push rod stays in place and can not fall out.) | |
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| The brakes were then bled by Ken Long, Vince Falco, and George Nick. Vince was our clean up man. Ken, is that your catheter and specimen bottle? | |
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| The rear axle was pulled for a second time. There was a broken stud so they were all replaced. The bolts holding the “C” clip eliminator were questionable so they were also replaced. There was one other reason for it to be pulled. When the splines were counted last week we came up with 31. Well it turns out that 12 GM rear ends only came as 30, 32, and 34 spline axles. Woops. | |
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I feed all the troop well this weekend. You to can get a free meal if you show up. I do not do this every weekend though, usually I only have doughnuts, beagles, sweet buns, coffee, and soda |
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