1969 Pontiac Firebird

Below is the Hot Rod magazine article 1969 Pontiac Firebird - Buddies, Beer, & Body Tools read the article, browse photos from the article, or search related articles in the Automotive.com Enthusiast Central.

1969 Pontiac Firebird - Buddies, Beer, & Body Tools

1969 Pontiac Firebird Remove Sheet Metal

Check Dealer Pricing On a New Pontiac!

1969 Pontiac Firebird - Buddies, Beer, & Body Tools

Text Size

Kristen "The Girl" Kazarian got dirty degreasing the engine and trans, then spray-can-rebuilt it with Duplicolor Cast Iron Gray. New chrome bits from Spectre Performance (not seen here) made it shine.	The engine is a '70 400, and after draining 4.5 gallons (no joke) of what looked like chocolate milk out of the pan, it fired up and ran shockingly well.	Against our better judgment, we cannibalized the '69 Camaro in the garage, stealing its assembled stock subframe and suspension since it was already together and had good bushings.
At first mount the replacement Year One fender scared us, but a few pushes over a spare tire and wheel had the curvature perfect. Special kudos to Grant Rimback for hooking us up on that.	The lower front portion of the passenger-side quarter was the second worst part of the car, with this big dent. Clearance behind it was tight, but with two people we were able to hammer and dolly it out to a point that we could live with.	Some hammer work on the fender lip got it closer to straight, and several applications of Evercoat Rage Gold filler, each followed with judicious sanding, priming, and block sanding, rewarded us with a darn straight panel.
The bracketry that mounts the headlights, grille, and front-end hardware was pretty whacked. We heat-and-beat it well enough to get everything lined up, but we'll still need to replace it.