I just purchased my 1969 Firebird and have a question about the front end. The previous owner replaced the upper and lower A frame bushings, upper and lower ball joints, rear springs, front and rear shocks and larger front sway bar. The vehicle has power steering which is too easy with turning the steering wheel. The problem is when I drive the car it swerves when it hits semi rough road. I can be driving it with no problems when all of a sudden it will swerve to the left or right. Any ideas what needs to be repaired? The tires are BFgoodrich and in pretty good shape with plenty of tread. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Becaue I'm first in line, I may make it past the noise, and some logic will be used before replacing the firewall as an attempt to cure the problem.

CHECK THE IDLER ARM because such steering problem is a textbook example of a bad idler arm. (They quit using idler arms because the design is a death trap.) Since hit-or-miss seems to be the norm, before you dump $5k into the problem, toss on an idler arm.

They are about $50, a fairly easy install, and installing them will not alter whatever "front-end settings" the vehicle currently has.

Get someone qualified to inspect the work that was done; there might be an issue that either didn't get fixed or wasn't fixed properly. What you describe could be quite a number of things and without driving your car it's very hard to even point you in the right direction but it sounds like something is seriously loose or shifting. Who did the work?

To be safe I wouldn't drive the car until you find the problem. To compare, my '69 tracks dead straight at any speed up to and well beyond highway speed; yours should too.

The person I bought it from did all of the work. He has been a mechanic since the 60's and still has his shop. The car drives nice on the freeway but any kind of roughness in the road and it wants to wander. On the back roads where I live I cant drive it over 60 without feeling like it could get away from me. I pulled and pushed on the arms and wheels and everything feels tight nothing felt like it had any play. Thanks for the advice

How old are your tires? You may have a tire issue.

Anything older than 8 years should be replaced.

Does it have issues driving in road ruts?

Just for a lark, look at the upper control arms cross shaft end bolts to make sure they are all there and tight. While you're there you might consider pulling them one at a time and loctiting them on. They have a tendancy to work themselves loose and fall out. I've seen it more than a few times. Not saying that's your deal but worth the effort anyway.

The tires looked like they were newer due to the amount of tread they have but after looking at them closer I can see some small cracks that is caused by weathering at the top edge of the tire. It wanders when I hit ruts and uneven pavement. I will also check the upper control arms. Thanks for the help. If everything looks good with the upper control arms it may be time to get new tires.
Thanks again

you can check the age of the tires...the code should be there on the side...10 yrs MAX for old tires...they get 'old' by sunlight..in Europe they say 6 yrs, some here say 8...but if protected right I say 10, but thats max.

heres a site where you can read how to determine the age....its a bit down.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/tire_expire.htm

Might check the play in your steering box. Also sounds like a possible adjustment issue.

Thanks a bunch for the helpful info. I am going to check these items in the morning.

I checked the tires and couldnt find a code that looked similar to the picture in the article that Bjorn Sefeldt added. The only two codes I found that looked anything like this code was 026094 and 517. Each number of the 517 is stamped with a circle around it. Looking at the tread in between the tread are cracks that look as if the tires are very old. Thanks

Seen where alignment shims have fallen out but my guess is the idler arm of the steering box especially if the power steering feels "light"