I have bought pistons for a 70's 400 ci Pontiac Firebird to be fitted in the cylinders. My dad has been doing the task of fitting them on to the piston rods. This did not go easy. Getting the old 370 pistons off of the rods was hard work as the crank pin was not coming out untill a load of pressure was used. For assembling the new pistons to rods was easier but still needed to be cautious. If the crank pin is not sitting well or there is a bit of dirt in the way, it can break the piston or the rod. But my dad has put a lot of effort and care into it and succeeded!

    

The engine block is completely done. The cylinders have been bored out from 370ci (6.1L) to 

400ci (6.6L). Not sure how much more horse power it will produce but i am sure that it will run like new again and even better, now it is bigger in size. On the pictures you can see they did a good job with the cylinder walls.

I decided to have a specialist to come and remove the dents in the body work.

This person is going to "push" them out without damaging the paint work and so 

there will be no sanding to be done and any filler to be used.

I am going to do this, because i want to postpone the spraying for another time

and first drive it at least for one season. As you can see on the pictures, the paint job

on the car at the moment is not that bad although it has a few mistakes in it.

The paint on the roof is very rough and will need some attention. But overall

it is doable and when it will be reassembled with all the trim work and chrome, it will look

totally different and fine. This way i can save a lot of money for now and i can

spent it on the interior which i find more important at the moment. Would the paint have

been awful or a colour that was hideous i would be thinking different. The more i see the

Pontiac in these colours and the further i clean it up and polish, the more i started to like it.

Anyway, have a look at the pictures and you can always give a comment.   

I am starting to think about colours for the Pontiac.

In the fifties, cars had mostly light colours and 

often turquoise.

That's all nice and swell looking if you live in nice sunny area's

in the world. But for me unfortunately, this is not the case.

So, i am more thinking of a darker and less attention drawing colour, as the 

car will already be a head turner when driving past.

I had in mint this dark brown and some vanilla colour in the arrow

on the side and maybe on the roof. I also like the colour of the original advert below.

The welding of the floor plates is finely done!!

Here is a picture of the parts car i bought in Canada.

My friend drove with he's trailer 2.5 hours to collect it and stored it

at he's place for me. A real car lover and good friend. I love these pictures and wish i had

one of these cars standing in my garden to look at. There is something i realy like about an old rusty beautiful shaped car to look at. It has a great history and was ones an icon of its time!

Its a piece of art!! Enjoy !

The motor block is completely dismantled. Seeing that the cylinder walls and the tops of the pistons where looking a bit rusty and all the cooling and oil channels where so full of gunk, we where not very hope full about the rest of the engine. But to all of us surprise, all the rest seemed to be in great shape. The crankshaft, main bearings and camshaft are even new! Everything looks like the engine has had a rebuilt and was then put away. Its a great shame that nobody has taken care of it for so long. If they had only started it up now and then or poured oil in the carburettor, it would have saved me a lot of effort and money. But, i guess these things just happen... and it happened to me !

Completely cleaned to be brought away for boring out the cylinders