Project: Royal Bird - Paint & Restoration Trim

Our 69 Firebirds got horse power under the hood. This time we pump up the power of its appearance

plus a trip to the All Chevy Show for some horse power history in the making.

Hey, welcome to the horse power shop where today we're going to take you through the steps of restoring the interior and exterior of a classic car like this

back to original beauty. Now, this is our royal purple firebird and last week we gave it some new age horsepower with that all aluminum 474 we backed with a turbo 400. Then we modernized everything from the steering column to the braking system

from the shifter now on the floor to the ignition, believe it or not. Now, inside the cow,

of course, our goal in this project is also to keep the classic looks they gave these cars back at the factory. Well, down to things like these little firebird badges. So thanks to year one, we got all these pieces for the interior and exterior to give that car its light new looks.

We'll get started inside with this carpet that comes with the jute underlay already attached.

Now like the original, this stuff is pressed molded from two pieces and made from 80% rayon and 20% nylon. Now, although it is a direct replacement, a little trimming may be necessary for a perfect fit

and to help hold the carpet in place. A set of replacement door sills followed by a new set of kick panels.

Next, we can install the rear panels with a whole cup for the new window cranks.

Obviously, we're not gonna replace everything inside this car with new stuff. This door mechanism is in pretty good shape. So we're gonna reuse it, just make sure you clean it up real good and

grease it up real well before you stuff it back inside.

Then after installing the rest of the original hardware, we can lower the window back in place and secure it.

Here it is.

Got that in.

Next. We install a new set of window guides

and bolt up the side mirror.

Oh, here's an important step, new weather stripping. Finally, we can install our new direct replacement door panels, knobs and door pools.

Well, the window seems to be working fine. Not too crazy about this old tent job, but we'll deal with that later. Meanwhile, up here, cracked and faded dash pads are pretty common in these old cars.

Now, while we could have died, the old one or covered the problem with a cap.

This new O AM style pad replacement is a lot more correct.

For seats. We've got two different situations to deal with. The rears are still in pretty good shape. So we're going to recover them with a set of replacements. We got from year one

and they came in the original parchment color

to do this job. All you need are some hog rings, a set of special pliers

and a little bit of patience

before we can get those things dropped in though. We've got to get these seat belts installed, which are pretty hard to find for an old car like this. But we were able to find these GM lap style factory direct replacements from A's performance.

Not too bad for the first time recovering seats.

Now, if you remember this car came originally with an old style bench seat and since we got to have buckets, the guys at Ames found these in a junk yard and recovered them in the same color as the rear.

They even went the extra mile to replace all the hardware with stainless.

And I've got to tell you the truth, these things look better than when they came out of the show room. Back in 69.

Next we bolt the shifter back up and cover with a leather boot and billet ring from low car.

Then a few more year one pieces, roof rail moldings, molding for the A pillars,

more weather stripping

and finally a new rear view mirror. Oh, and for a better outlook on life on the road. We even had a new windshield put in.

Now here's something you find a lot in these old cars. This dash application is totally trash. But

this piece from Ames is going to make a big difference. It's a direct replacement and best of all, it's a peel and stick application.

Of course, this inside job is not complete without new knobs, fit balls and all the finishing touches.

I don't know about you but I like it

and those parchment seats look great against all that black.

Yeah, it's got a few modern touches, but mostly it's cool and classic door to door.

Of course, we've got more work story on the exterior before we jump on that though. We're gonna take a little break, blow out of here and have a little fun in the sun.

In fact, we're going to take you to a Florida festival where the Pontiac's Chevrolet Cousins rule the concourse and the quarter mile strip. Stay with us.

Ok. So this

is my

office. This is where I

go to work every

weekend.

You'll also meet the two fastest women in drag racing. Squaring off in a jet powered shootout. It's all coming up at the All

Chevy Show in Florida.

All Motor All Chevy. The only way to fly guys. Ok. Time to put the Ford Blue Oval loyalties behind. We're at the All Chevy Show here at Moroso. That's right. If it doesn't have a bow tie on the body.

It better have one make the horsepower.

Yeah. Whether it's a bad ass bel air from the fifties. A sharp dressed Chevelle from the sixties or? Sure. Even a vicious vega with a big block. What's really cool are some of the odd rods racers choose to plant their bow tie motors.

Like a 1947 Crosley.

It's not a Camaro. It's not a mustang. It's just something different. I always liked things that were different. You know, what did you do to this thing to make it race worthy? Basically, it's got a full tube chassis, you know, a full tube roll bar. It's got a nine inch Ford narrowed, small black Chevrolet power trans brake, two speed power glide.

I'm not out here for points just to have fun. Show the car intrigue. People's minds a little bit. What is it?

The big block Chevy powered sportsman dragsters were easily laying down the lowest numbers. Sometimes in the sixes, the sportsman cars now are faster than uh top dealers were 30 years ago.

While most modern day dragsters all look the same. There's one guy out to change that perception with this blast from the past, he's got a blown alcohol. 468 up front making 1500 horsepower. It doesn't go straight like they're like most of the rear engine drag.

You got ST it around a little bit

while you got the engine barking in your face and you got the,

the smoke coming off the tires and you can see everything. That's the neatest part about it.

Racing at the All Chevy Show is mostly for fun, mostly bracket racing, which is mostly boring, at least to watch. But the headliners are an eye and ear popping array of wild wheel standards,

fire breathing five

jet cars

and this bit of history, a pair of faithful replicas from those insane days of fuel altars

drives the rat trap.

A 68 Banton based car and sucking up the Nitro is a Donovan derivative of the original Chrysler 392.

Well, these are the most exciting cars in drag racing. I believe

there are cars the only class that was ever outlawed by the nr

A

predictable. They are so they're a great show. They're the best ride

you could ever get. And I tell people this is the best seat in the house right in here,

run match races, Rick Po at select events around the country. Rick drives a replica of the 23 Ford Roadster. His dad used to break records back in the seventies.

The car is really a blast to drive and

the people who really enjoy watching you drive it. So

I I get a big pleasure out of people who get pleasure out of it, but it's definitely a handful. And

you're about to witness some horsepower history of

Barroso. Two young women facing off in heads up quarter mile competition for the very first time.

Oh, did I fail to mention they're both going to be powering 6000 horse jet dragsters.

Literally the first time I got in it, I had the biggest smile. I could barely pry the helmet off my head because I'm like,

oh,

just screaming. It was so cool.

I

mean, I love driving this car. The adrenaline rush you get

300 miles an hour in five seconds is absolutely amazing.

Elaine Larson, driver of My

of Fire

and Jessi Harris driver of the Queen of Diamonds. A pair of pretty and perky ladies who just happened to be adrenaline junkies.

Ok. So this is my

office. This is where I go to work every

job.

I've been lucky enough for 3.5 years to have

an undefeated record and I got to like, knock on wood when I say that this will be fun to actually get out there and she seems pretty competitive, which I mean,

you met your match when you met me because I anything you want to do, whether it's cards, poker or racing cars, you, you're

not going to like, go down easy. You know,

I line up, get the fuel boom, foot goes off the brake, this lights, I'm going down the track driving as soon as I'm done driving,

pull the parachute and the throttle at the same time, head comes forward, head comes back, hit the master, get the hand on the reserve. All of that. Happens in 5.5 seconds. And I'm telling you, it's a little bit of heaven. I just think we both have it in our blood. We're two mean chicks and we're out to get each other tonight.

Jessi had two winning five second runs on Saturday and the crowd ate it up. Meanwhile, Elaine still pumped as ever was gunning for a winning finale on Sunday.

This chick flew

last night. Ok.

But I'm telling you the gloves are off, the claws are out. We're ready to go

today. Ok.

Well, after a late red lights, the undefeated Jessi Harris runs a 522 at 303 miles an hour.

And here at the moroso all chevy show, a little bit of history happened on the South Florida track. Thanks to a pair of amazing speed freaks. Two of the fastest females in American race.

Hey, you want to join horsepower at the races? We'll be at Farmington Motorsports Park in North Carolina, June 10th and 11th. It's an outlaw racing street car Association event and these guys put on the most exciting door slammer drag racing shows in the country. Meanwhile, we'll be back with more horsepower after the break.

Man. That 474 motor still sounds mean. And in a minute we'll have to tone the sound down with a new exhaust system. But hey, first things first

earlier, we made the Firebirds interior look show car sharp with a little work and a bunch of restoration pieces. Well, now we turn our attention to the

exterior and once again, we turn to year one for all these replacement parts, everything from badges and bezels to all kinds of trim pieces, including of course, uh new tail light lenses.

We're installing the new lenses inside the stock housing using new bulbs, of course. And this gasket,

a

smaller bub lights up this two piece firebird side mark.

Now make sure when tightening these emblems, you only go finger tight. If not, you can snap one of the arms off. Now, make sure you don't forget about weather stripping for the trunk. And the cool thing about this stuff is you can pick it up at your local auto parts store.

Well, now we can finish dressing up the bird's body with the rest of our badges and trim pieces.

Ok. Help us out here. Do we use this reproduction molding for a more stock look

or

keep the clean lines of the silver bird without it?

You're right. Lose the molding

looks better that way

when it comes to chrome, there's two directions you can take. One is by new reproduction pieces. The other is have your stuff re chromed and that's the way we went with a new nose, headlight, bezels and rear bumper.

One thing we learned in projects like this, keep track of all your old hardware to reuse and things like bolting the bumpers back up

with that front nose bolted in place. We can install these replacement plastic inserts from year one to complete the look,

believe it or not, that's it for the exterior. Now, as I mentioned earlier, as much as we hate to,

we got to do something to quieten down that big nasty motor.

We'll do that by installing a healthy three inch exhaust system, which because of all our rear end modifications and needs to be custom fab.

Well, I guess you were wondering when we were going to get around to putting wheels and tires on this car and got to tell you we've agreed on everything during this build up except wheel choice. I don't like any of the new ones he likes. Yeah. And I can't get retro Joe to decide on anything I like. So until we find a happy medium, we took the wheels off of the old stink ray.

Yeah, we both agree. They look pretty decent on here for now. At least not the right offset, of course. But they kind of give this bad burden attitude to match the motor.

01 more thing.

Check out that kick ass job Gary did on the hood. I guess we can really crown it the royal bird. Now, that's a perfect name for it. And here's how it's changed over the past few weeks.

It went from boring blue to sexy silver on the outside and on the inside from pretty worn and shabby to show car sharp and best of all under the hood, we went from a week 350 to an all aluminum monster 474.

We'll bring this thing back in a few weeks to install an aftermarket ac on it. Then Royal Purple is taking it on the road for appearances around the country.

We just have one request though.

Whoever drives it

has got to wear these. What do you think?

Talking about a generation change? Get those things off.

Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

Say, are you up for a little blackjack? No, we're not playing card games here and you don't want to play games when it comes to buying performance headers.

These dynamics blackjacks also available in a ceramic coating are a good choice because they got mander

bit primary tubes for good flow

and CNC machine Flang is here for a good seal. They come in almost every application you can name

and each kid has a set of gas,

its reducers and a bag of boats for easy installation prices start at about 100 and 10 bucks. Well, downstream from those headers, you want some mufflers that have good flow, a good healthy tone but don't make the neighbors mad. Well, these dynam

X ultra of SSS are a good choice in that department. The stainless steel shell resists corrosion and it's durable, but the real story is in here. Now, this

high temp fiberglass gives you that throaty performance. You like

the straight through tube design is all about maximum flow and power and see those large perforations. Well, they help absorb sound while smoothing out the flow.

Now, these mufflers are reversible and versatile for any kind of setup and price. Well, it'll set you back about 100 and 40 bucks a piece. That's it for hot parts.

I got to go catch a ride.

Guess what? I pretty much lied to Joe. I already had the perfect wheels and tires already picked out for the Firebird

and just mounted them up.

They're custom made polished wheels from intro.

Now they're 17 by nines up front, 17 by tens out back. And we went ahead and wrapped them in a Yokohama es 1000, which is a perfect performance tire. Even when it's wet out. I don't believe it. You got better taste than I thought those things look great. Let's go for a ride.

It's been a long hard road with this project, but this payoff on the pavement makes it worthwhile.

The Royal Bird cruises like a dream.

Looks like a jewel and best of all, it's got more power than most any Pontiac on the street.

Yeah, no doubt about it. This bird's begging to fly.

Yeah. Who needs a break stand when you got a horse power like this? Well, the next time

I've ever heard is the word