The Firebrid Hybrid Convertible Project (Prius platform swap)

[California98Civic]

A clean garage is the necessary handmaid of sanity sometimes. The hole for the gas port I am imagining will draw fire from enthusiasts (not that they should matter much on this). An alternative routing of the gas tank and such was too complex, maybe dangerous, yes?

[Bill the Engineer]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

A clean garage is the necessary handmaid of sanity sometimes. The hole for the gas port I am imagining will draw fire from enthusiasts (not that they should matter much on this). An alternative routing of the gas tank and such was too complex, maybe dangerous, yes?

As I said in an earlier post, the old Firebird filler neck was just a pipe with a vented cap. The Prius V filler neck has a number of vapor recovery tubes which would be difficult to re-route to the center of the rear. In addition, There is no good path to route them under the car due to other suspension and body parts.

This is what I will be using on the fender at the gas fill. It is from a salvaged 2009 Prius.




The rectangular door of the Gen II Prius with its convex shape was a better choice than trying to use the round concave door from the donor Prius V.

Bill the Engineer

[Bill the Engineer]

Big Pontiac show and flea market this weekend in Norwalk, OH, at the dragstrip. Hoping to come home with parts for the front end extension.



I'll let everyone know!

Bill the Engineer

[mcrews]

the nose on the 75 Cadillac Eldorado was like 2 feet long.....you're doing fine!!!

[Bill the Engineer]

Got the spare Firebird hood I was looking for from the Pontiac show in Norwalk. It was the only part that I couldn't buy as a reproduction. I can get started measuring for the stretched hood now that I know where each hood's good and bad areas are.



It was a GOOD day!

Bill the Engineer

[Bill the Engineer]

Well I'll be...
The red paint on hood I bought was not the original color. It's a hood off of another gold Firebird just like mine!



Bill the Engineer

[me and my metro]

Score!

[Bill the Engineer]

The last two machined parts from my order arrived today. The round bar is for the brake pedal, and the rectangular bar is to mount the steering column. This weekend should get interesting!



Bill the Engineer

[Bill the Engineer]

Saturday was 90F and above 90% humidity all day with what seemed to be hourly showers just to make things soggy. It was so bad that my glasses fogged every time I stepped outside from my air conditioned house. Hard to breathe in that kind of pea soup. Sunday (today) has been raw, dark and rainy all day. Fortunately I have a tarp over the car, because the garage door dripped on it every time I opened it to fetch some kind of tool or part from the far side of the garage. I would immediately close it again so that the actual rain would not splash into the garage.



I worked on the new parts at the bench. The holes on the brake pedal bar were opened up to the proper size at each end to fit the respective pivot pins.



I also found out that my bending brake is only good for sheetmetal. I had to resort to the old-fashioned way (bench vise and sledge) to bend the bumper bracket parts. Not pretty, but it gets the job done. The bottom bend will have to wait until I dig up something wide enough to put in the vise.



Hoping next weekend is better!

Bill the Engineer

[California98Civic]

So can I ask? How much do these parts cost to have made like this? Must have set you back hundreds a piece in some cases, no?