Firebrid: The Prius v Powered Hybrid Convertible

The 17 year old cooling coil (a.k.a. leaking block of ice and refrigerant.



New system is running fine, which is a good thing since we are on our 4th straight day of 90F weather here in central Ohio. I could really use those ocean breezes about now.

Bill the Engineer

 

Took today off from work. The brutal heat continues. I got out into the garage in the morning to work on the project as long as I could. Too hot to scrape and grind stuff, and certainly too hot to weld! I decided to start some part fabrication for around the kick vent areas to channel rainwater away from the interior.





At least now I feel like I made SOME progress this past weekend!

Bill the Engineer

 

LOL!

I weld with a sweatshirt on. I learned early in life not to weld in short sleeves. It can give you quite a sunburn on your arms.

Bill the Engineer

 

This image from last year shows why the kick vent areas need to be partially enclosed while the body is still off of the chassis. There are areas that are completely inaccessible once the body is mounted.



Bill the Engineer

 

Measure twice , cut once... or in my case, measure lots of times because I can't remember what the number was the last time I measured it...

I discovered on Saturday that there is a lower firewall brace on the Prius v chassis that would interfere with the lower portion of the kick vent chamber pieces that I was fabricating. You can see where the Firebird body scraped by them when it was dropped onto the chassis the first time.




So, doing what any red blooded engineer would do, I revised the design to go around them. Saturday was spent fabricating the revised parts out of the old ones. I also created drip gutters to go over the kick vent opening, (something Pontiac should have done to begin with to eliminate kick vent water leaks.)



Sunday was final fit-up and welding day.



Next weekend will be seam sealer and primer weekend, with any extra time going back to scraping out the rear wheel wells.

Bill the Engineer

 

Slow progress this weekend. Taking it step-by-step. Tropical storm rains moved in Sunday afternoon. Hopefully next weekend will go well.







Bill the Engineer

 

Panels welded in, welds ground, sealer applied and primed.




We'll see how much else I can get done.

Bill the Engineer

 

That's entirely up to the weather. I may be welding on thanksgiving weekend...

Bill the Engineer

 

Had some time to photo-document what I need to do before the body drops onto the chassis. These are just a few of over 50 images I took. The modifications of the body are done, but I have a LOT of clean-up and seam welding do do underneath before it becomes inaccessible. I also have a few tasks on the chassis to handle, mostly having to do with rerouting the parking brake cable.





Big dirty job. Glad the coming weekend is supposed to be dry.

Bill the Engineer

 

Wire brushing the soon-to-be inaccessible places on the body and applying rust converting paint. The satin black finish is very similar to the original GM paint in that area. Got the cowl area done today. Tomorrow I move to the underside. Those are areas that had been external on the original Firebird, but will now be mostly internal on the Firebrid.





It's amazing how much a coat of paint improves the appearance, even though some of these areas will never be seen again once the body is welded to the chassis.

Bill the Engineer

 

Bill the Engineer

 

Continued with the wire brushing and rust converting paint today on the underside of the body. Got back as far as the front edge of the rear seat area today.



The inner part of the rocker panels were NEVER painted by GM. (They didn't dip the bodies back then.) Even so, they were remarkably rust free when I painted them.




Naturally, I already see a spot I missed. Ah well, there's always next weekend.

Bill the Engineer

 

First freeze tonight. (All of my joints are already telling me!) Looks like I need to grab any warmish weekend days that I can between now and Winter to work on the project.

Bill the Engineer

 

Took Friday off because the weather is relatively nice. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be damp and cold.

Started off the morning working on the new gas door area. My late Dad must be smiling down on me today. His old recess forming pliers worked much better than the pair that I recently bought. The recess is to make the Gen-II Prius gas door fit flush into the fender. I'm a little concerned about the extent of the Bondo skim coat that I am finding though. (TBD if the entire fender is eventually replaced, or just the areas that are bad.)



In the afternoon, I moved under the car to finish the seam welds in the soon-to-be-hidden places. Then I ran out the can of rust converting paint on the areas that will become inaccessible.



All that is left now is a little bit of weld grinding before I can prep things for the body drop. We'll see if the weather cooperates.

Bill the Engineer