I have a '68 Firebird 400 I'm about to restore and it will be the first time I have restored a car. What I would like to know is the order in which I should do things. It will need just about everything, the car has been almost completely disassembled. I'd hate to get half way through and realize that in order to do a good job I should have done something else first.

What are your suggestions?

well, this may be too late if its disassembled....but the first thing you do is get a lot of plastic bags , put things in them , label all, because its going to be a lot longer until you put it together than you think...and you will NOT remember where everything goes.

as far I think...build engine if you intend to...at the same time you can do body work ,if engine is out and if needed.
paint the car....redo interior and last install conv. top if its a vert....if you chrome things do that while you get body work done...

My suggested first step would be to acquire all the necessary documentation you are going to need to understand the car and hopefully put it back together. Suggest:

Full Pontiac Historical Services factory docs to know what you have.

Full 1968 Pontiac Factory Service manuals to know how to fix things.

Whichever Factory Assembly Manual is best for '68. Don't know it the Firebird one is available or not. I do know that the best us "67 folks can do is the '67 Camaro Assembly Manual and the '69 Firebird one.

Finally, I believe there is now a First Gen Firebird Restoration book out there. I never picked it up and got limited use out of the 1st Gen Camaro book. It helped mostly with taking things apart which is not an area it sounds like you need help with.

I hope you took a TON of pictures as you disassembled it.

ZipLok bags are "gold" when taking things apart and using a sharpie to label everything. I buy the in bulk at Costco.

There was a thread recently where an awesome, incredibly intelligent and handsome man posted a bunch of valuable assembly files. The thread is titled Rockford Files.

https://firstgenfirebird.org/forums/ubbth...true#Post266895

I appreciate all the feedback guys! I did a... decent job labeling/organizing things upon disassemble... but I have another trick up my sleeve. Parked three feet away is a fully original '67 that my Father owns, so I have been using it as a reference.

Cheater! j/k We need pictures and some details about these cars.

I'd start with the body work first. Personally, I think it's the most tedious and time consuming if you're detail oriented.

I collected a lot of parts while doing the body work over the course of a year for my Mustang. I saved a ton of money just by being patient and buying things when I saw a good deal. I'l do my FB the same when it comes time.

Post some pics of your ride.

Embarrassing, but just last month I finally started working on this again (three moves, new job, etc etc). Also, I misspoke, the car is a 67. I'm going to provide some pictures and some updates on what I'm doing/thinking.

I'm going to find someone who can do some sheet metal work for me because I'm planning on replacing both lower rear quarters, and both door skins. After sanding down the doors yesterday, I exposed way more Bondo than I think I want to tolerate. The only part of the car I haven't sanded down past the red yet is the rear where all the curves are that my sander doesn't get to very well... man it's a lot of work. I have a 400 hood that is already primed (bought separately) so I don't have to do much with that. I have fenders at another location, but I think the lower part of them will have to be replaced.

The car originally had a 400 "WZ" engine in it (4 speed), so I've been passively looking for one. There's one listed not too far away from me here http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/pts/4851181279.html. The car has some pontiac wagon motor in it now which runs like a champ, so I'm weighing whether or not it's worth it to me to shell out a couple grand to have the original engine.

You may not be able to see it because of all the red paint dust, but the metal on the inside of the car has been cleaned up and painted with POR15.

Again, I'm a total amateur so feel free to point out things I might have (probably have) missed or just doing plain wrong.

Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/94Yf2#13

I had my passenger door reskinned due to it being total bondo from one end to the other. It had been creased from front to back, then "fixed" via the drill and pull method (bondo snakes inside the door) Much nicer now.

Welcome back, very few bodymen have the skills or patience to install a new doorskin with no bodyfiller, especially some of the aftermarket stuff we are stuck with on our cars. If your doors have minor damage that has been repaired I'd consider re-using them. If they have previos ugly repairs like Salmon has described then check out the inner framework carefully for rust, damage or old repairs before you replace skins. It may be cheaper to buy new door assemblys and sell your old ones. Just an option to look at. good luck. Neill