The Firebrid Hybrid Convertible Project (Prius platform swap)

[Bill the Engineer]

Forecast for Ohio on Saturday is Sunny and 60F. (Rare for February.) Hoping to get out into the garage!!!

Bill the Engineer

[Bill the Engineer]

Nice day, but boy did I get out of shape over the winter. Surprise of the day is that the front fenders and hood will need to become 9" longer for the Firebird's grill to have clearance in front of the Prius V cooling system.



If I slice and dice properly, it shouldn't look too different.



Next chapter of the story soon.

Bill the Engineer

[Bill the Engineer]

Big business trip to Canada coming this week, so I'll continue with another chapter of the story before I leave...

So, I had bought the running shell of the 2014 Prius V to use in my project. The disassembled body of the 1967 Firebird convertible was sitting beside it on jack stands in the garage, and I had promised my wife that she could get her Gen-III Prius back into the garage before the snow would fly in late Fall. Time to get to work.



There was a lot of preliminary disassembly work on the V.






I had planning to do before grabbing the Sawz-all. Fitting the body onto the chassis was going to be a jigsaw puzzle of curved surfaces against curved surfaces.



It was clear that the roof and door pillars would need to go, so off they came.







After one glorious day of Sawz-all work, I drove the chassis back into the garage.

More soon...

Bill the Engineer

[elhigh]

"Drove the chassis." I would be a menace to society, hooning around in a barebones chassis, sitting on a bucket and laughing like a loon.

The Firebird was designed to mount up to a big block V8 so it's probably more than tough enough, but is the conversion to front drive an issue? It wasn't intended to be pulled around by the front but pushed from the rear.

I assume you're selling these cutoff like-new pieces to shops to recoup some of the costs.

[Bill the Engineer]

Originally Posted by elhigh

"Drove the chassis." I would be a menace to society, hooning around in a barebones chassis, sitting on a bucket and laughing like a loon.

The Firebird was designed to mount up to a big block V8 so it's probably more than tough enough, but is the conversion to front drive an issue? It wasn't intended to be pulled around by the front but pushed from the rear.

I assume you're selling these cutoff like-new pieces to shops to recoup some of the costs.

Actually, anybody within driving range of Ohio can come get the rear roof section for free. It's cluttering up too much space and if I don't hear from anyone by the middle of March it will probably get cut up.



Bill the Engineer

[mcrews]

I sooo enjoy your updates:thumbup :

[benphyr]

I need to subscribe. Thanks.

[HeadlesNorseman]

Originally Posted by elhigh

"Drove the chassis." I would be a menace to society, hooning around in a barebones chassis, sitting on a bucket and laughing like a loon.

The Firebird was designed to mount up to a big block V8 so it's probably more than tough enough, but is the conversion to front drive an issue? It wasn't intended to be pulled around by the front but pushed from the rear.

I assume you're selling these cutoff like-new pieces to shops to recoup some of the costs.

your thinking of it likes hes putting prius parts onto a firebird. he is making a firebird flavored prius. the sheet metal has naught to do with suspension geometry. it will probably, for all intents and purposes, be much safer and stable than an original live axle fire bird.

This is an awesome project. and just going to throw this out there, you are an engineer. you can move easily moveable parts to the back of the car. the thing cant possibly need a massive ammount of cooling capacity. half of the fun is fitting the bits within the original confines of the body!!

[nmz787]

Very cool!

I also wonder if there isn't some way to make things fit without messing with the fenders (and hood?). Gauges seem like they could be adapted with a small microcontroller and the OBD2 port and any number of output displays (using a servo to move an analog needle, using an OLED graphic display, etc):


(or this slightly larger stepper with higher gear ratio for more precision, if needed)

[AndrzejM]

Amazing project! Subscribed!