yesterday was a pretty good day for teh life of my bird....i embarked on a simple mission a little less than a year ago to put some new rims and tires on my bird....little did i know then the challenge that laid ahead. my 68 convertible was in pretty good shape. it was far away from restored, but it lookd pretty good and ran nice. i had issues with a tire that always went flat and with work, family, and a touch of just plain laziness i let it sit in the garage for a year on a jack stand cause i didnt want to put a new tire on a car that i planned on changing out the rims and tires once i got going.
so for xmas last year i treated myself to a set of american racing hopster rims fitted with some nice khumo ecsta spt tires. got them mouted and balanced slapped them on the car and pulled out of the drive way to only have the rear springs give out and leave me stranded in the street 10 seconds after speanding 2 grand to give me lady new shoes....after getting it back in the garage and back on the stands it was time to really go to work. i purchased new 6 leaf springs from national parts depot, get them in and realize that some [censored] welded the front eye brackets into the frame rather then find the captive nuts that slid into the frame. now, i am a novice and i dream more about being mechanicaly inclined, than i actually am. my best friend whom is building his 69 cutlass as i work on the bird has basically been my right, and left hand during this process. so to install the new leafs, we were grinding out some real nasty welds, to get fix that issue. at this point after we speant hours under the car, we decided that it was time to rework some other suspension issues. i ordered a front and rear sway bar kit from ST performace, as well as an entire poly-graphite front end kit from PST and koni shocks all around. during the removal of the front end the sprins in the front were in such sore shape, that one actually snapped in half from the rust. so add another delay as i oredered some nice eibach springs to replace the old ones. it took a few days of 10 hours or more to get all this old crap out of the car and new stuff in.
it was now time to get it alligned i take it down to the good year with the original specs and after the tech realized that i forgot to put some shims in the car when putting the upper control arm back on, he was not a happy camper. he was also nice enough to snap one of the bolts that held those pieces in. luckily i had a few extra from when i had to order those and after a day i had an alligned car. i drive to a local shop to have my hooker headers and my super 40 flowmasters in the car, along with some new pipes. while drving home i loose both the alternator and battery, both of which i kinda thought were on the way out, but was hoping i could get a little more life out of. i order a new 100 amp alternator, get a nice powerful cold cranking battery, as well as new belts and a new power-steering pump as i noticed some small issues with that. so after recieving all those parts in and installing that along with a mallory unilite distributor and hyfire ignition system, i was finnaly going to get a decent ride out of her, so last night after finishing the last bit of wiring on the new alternator plug i got, i fired her up and took her for a nice ride. about 30 miles total on some nice winding roads. beautiful....i would highly reccomend the poly-graphite set as it handeled better than any car i have ever driven.
one year in the making....just wanted rims and tires....the headaches, the joys, the ups, and the downs were all worth it as i finally got the satisfaction i have been craving for a long time.....i still have a long trip ahead, but man....what a great step. i didnt right this to brag about anything....just thought that a few of you out there would appreciate this littel journey.

Congrats! Good job sticking to it, it really is worth it, isn't it! Glad to hear that you did it up right, it's now a much better handling and safer car than when it came from the factory.

We can get fussy and complain that our Firebirds don't have ideal front end geometry for the best handling but when the right pieces are installed they are a great handling and feeling car. I autocrossed mine for several years with very good results and had just a ton (or two) of fun!

Thats a cool story. Sounds like you got a good FB education out of the whole thing.

The scarey part is...if that first day you would have made it past the driveway and taken it on the hwy going 55-70mph with all those other problems... Could have been bad. So Id consider it a blessing, and that your Bird knew better and was looking out for you.

Great story. I think we've all been there to some extent. My winter project(as if we really get a winter down here) is to replace front and rear springs. Now, you have me thinking about poly-graphite bushings...

Thats a cool story. Sounds like you got a good FB education out of the whole thing.

My bird looked out for me!

Things can happen any time ....3 yrs ago, meaning I had owned mine for 3 yrs plus, and was basically "done" with the car...
I`m driving home on I10 thru town ,from a friends house at 10 pm or so...in the dark, going about 90 in the left lane (out of 3)along the concrete barrier, passing cars ,and top down ,windows down ,elbow on my drivers door....exit , drove 1 mi to my house, parked in the garage...next am, I backed out , added some helper springs I had bought off EBay, drove out on the street ,to test drive to feel if there was any difference...got 2 blocks, and driving about 10 mph over some speed bumps ,when my left fron wheel just caves in...a ball joint broke!

luckily it didnt happen 2,3 miles earlier ,the night before at 90 mph!
I`d needed new door skin ,paint job ,maybe new elbow!

Ahh, the one thing leads to another syndrome. Been there, done that... twice! And still in the process.

..ever put it back together and take it out for a test drive, windows down and hear a "tink, tink tink" as you ride down the road. Also notice your rear view mirror shaking a little more than usual. Noticing something shiny darting off into the ditch on the driver side, thinking - were those LUG NUTS.... CRAPPPP!!! I was nineteen, and forgot to tighten some lug nuts...

I think she was giving me little hints.

..ever put it back together and take it out for a test drive, windows down and hear a "tink, tink tink" as you ride down the road. Also notice your rear view mirror shaking a little more than usual. Noticing something shiny darting off into the ditch on the driver side, thinking - were those LUG NUTS.... CRAPPPP!!! I was nineteen, and forgot to tighten some lug nuts...

I think she was giving me little hints.

this exact thing happened to me when i was 18,heard the same tink,tink,tink and since i was only 5 miles from home and it was late i just keep going.bad choice! driver side front tire left the car and rolled into the opposite ditch,damaged the front fender and the rim. live and learn i guess.

I bought a car that "lost" its lugnuts, but because of the hubcap all you could see is that the wheel was tilted. Owner thought it broke a ball joint, sold me the '72 Cutlass Supreme for $35. One spare tire, some studs and lugnuts, and good to go.

This reminds me of a story my uncle told me many years ago....

A man stopped to change a flat tire out in front of the loonie bin. He accidentally knocked over the hubcap full of lugnuts. They all spilled into the storm drain. As he sat there sitting on the curb in despair, one of the inmates looking over the wall offered "why don't you just take one off each of the other three wheels and drive to a service station and buy more? The astonished man asked "this is a hospital for crazy people, so why are you here?"

He replied, "I'm crazy, not stupid".

LOL funny...

That is funny! ...I couldn't find my lost lug nuts and took one off of the other three wheels to get home and nab some from my uncles old chevy.

First I tried pulling them off of a Dodge Dart Swinger 340. That's when I realized Dodge made LEFT hand lug nuts. I tried pulling some from an old Dart my uncle had, but noticed an "L" in the center of the stud. As I tried to loosen the lug nuts, I realized it was not getting loose. I stared at the stud and thought.....what the hell does that "L" mean.......................does that mean LEFT hand threads?

Sure enough, I tried tightening them and it spun off like the undies of a drunk chick on prom night. "sa c'est bon" I was learning something about dodges too. Anyway, I went to the old truck and found some that worked until I could replace mine.

I just wanted a new paint job. One thing lead to another...glass out, doors off, interior out, motor/trans out, bumpers off, new tires & rims, new leaf springs, new rubber, carpet, etc... I'm sure by the time it's "done" everything will be replaced at least once.