Pypes Exhaust is a proud sponsor of Ty Ingle and his Pro-Tour Freedom Bird Resto/Mod. Here is the story from Ty himself:
"(I thought) The car was a pretty nice "restomod" but I wanted to go the pro-touring route... call it my mid life crisis... I'm 42 now and have had this car since high school (1985)... it was my first car and carries a lot of sentimental value and memories as you can imagine.
Somehow traveling around all these 23+ years while on active duty in the Air Force I've managed to keep the car and work on it when time and money allowed... but now, with the help of Fletcher's Customs, TIN INDIAN Performance, Kauffman Racing Equipment and all the generous vendors/sponsors it's going to be more than I ever dreamed of!
What started out as me just wanting to fix up my old muscle car has turned into SEMA build!!!
The car is simply going to be AMAZING! It's on track to be the most advanced, refined 2nd gen ever! One off parts built by the world's leading fabricators, custom paint and body, high level components and the list keeps growing! The outpouring of support for the build has just been INCREDIBLE!! I just can't thank everyone involved enough!
I'm anxious to see the car finally make the jump from restomod with a home built #13-headed/406ci combo to a world class pro-touring/g-machine with this INCREDIBLE TIP/KRE 440!!"
- Ty Ingle
Ty's Freedom Bird will be featured in the Pypes Exhaust booth during SEMA 2009 (Nov. 3-6, 2009). Come have a look at the finished product.
CAR CRAZY at SEMA
In this episode of Car Crazy, Barry Meguiar tours the 2010 SEMA show. At about the 12:50 mark in the video, he visits the Pypes Exhaust Booth and interviews Sgt. Ty Ingle and Chad Fletcher about the Freedom Bird project. Have a listen:
This project was made possable with help from the following companies:
Here are some pictures of the car at the begining of the project:
PROGRESS UPDATE (September 1st, 2009):
Another good day today!! Had three of us on the car for 5 hours each! Got the remaining bodywork, grinding, and a little bit of welding we found on the under side of the car done. Then seam sealed the DSE subframe connectors, the new floor pan seams just to be safe even though there welded solid, and then Josh grabbed the paint gun and went to town! Two nice coats of Epoxy primer, and then dumped 2 gallons of U-pol sprayable bedliner on the underside. I'm ecstatic on how the underside came out! Tomorrow off the the rotisserie and back on the lift.
Then BMR suspension mock up and subframe back under the car... getting close to being on the ground. The hard work is done!!!!
PROGRESS UPDATE (September 8th, 2009):
What a week!! Ty's Firebird has progressed amazingly fast over the last 7 days. We went from a bare metal blasted shell, to a rolling chassis with the underside complete, rust repair and rough bodywork done on the rest of the shell,firewall shaved, bodyworked and in color, subframe complete with all new parts, rear BMR suspension installed, brakes installed and wheels and tires on it. Rolled out of the shop for the first time since Nov 08 when I go the car. I owe so much to my guys Josh and Jerry, between the three of us there were 146 hours put in since last Monday! And with three back to back 14 hour days this weekend, not even a single word from either of them!
The TIN INDIAN Performance/Kauffman Racing Equipment 440cid Poncho engine will be dyno'd at Kauffman Racing tomorrow!! Then shipped Thursday so we can mate it to the Phoenix Transmission Products 700R4, get it in the car and get the new aluminum driveshaft ordered from Inland Empire Driveline. The trunk lid and filler panel should be arriving today from Anvil Auto with the rest of the carbon fiber parts due in any day now! Then it's just final fit and alignment before laying out the stripes and more color!!
We're moving right along here at Fletcher's Customs!!! Thanks for your continued support! More pics are on the website as well as posted on Lateral-G and Pro Touring.
PROGRESS UPDATE (September 24th, 2009):
Got this pic of the engine installed in the car from Josh yesterday and
wanted to share!!!
Jerry has most of the motor done... headers are on, March serp
system/pulleys are on etc.
Polished valve covers and billet water neck from TIN INDIAN Performance are
scheduled for delivery today!
AutoRad radiator support, radiator and AC condenser are here and we'll be
sending out pics of them soon!
Fesler billet hood hinges, door strikers and some other shiney billet pieces
have arrived as well... pics to follow!
Body shell is in full primer with more final blocking being done this week!
Carbon fiber nose from Anvil showed up yesterday! Hoping the hood, lower front valance, rear spoiler center
section, rear tail panel show up today/tomorrow...
Color could be on the rest of the car this weekend!!! Pics from the last
week attached...
PROGRESS UPDATE (September 25th, 2009):
It's been a crazy week! Bodywork is done!!! We are playing the waiting game right now… Waiting on the few parts to arrive from Anvil and then full assembly of car with glass and trim. Make sure everything is perfect and then in color the weekend of October 2nd! WE will be building exhaust, nut and bolting the car and remainder of the wiring and plumbing this week. Then tear down for the big spray weekend shortly.
I know where the "light at the end of tunnel" saying comes from now. As I can finally start to see a glimpse!!!
A few snags this week, but nothing that scares me. All interior panels are at the interior shop being covered this next week also.
SO after paint, it's together and hopefully a few days of street terror before SEMA!!!!
I can't think my team enough!! Jerry, Josh and Wayne have been knocking things out this last week!!!!!
Pics of the engine with most of its accessories installed and pics of some of the billet goodies from Fesler below…
PROGRESS UPDATE (October 4th, 2009):
Well, we didn't make it to paint this weekend! We had front fender issues!! Ty's originals were trashed and had a ton of mud and dent and dings in them. So we searched the country over and found a set of "scuff and shoot" (as the guy described) 71 fenders with the vents like Ty's originals. After waiting 10 days they finally showed Tuesday of last week. Off to the media blaster they went! That's when my nightmare started... The "scuff and shoot" fenders were trashed also! Driver's side had a basketball size rust hole behind wheel that had a piece of sheet metal riveted in it with a half gallon of mud covering. The other side was almost as bad...
Some phone calls later we found a set of 72-73 fenders (without fender vent) up in Warner Robins, one of Ty's friends had them! LOL So I drove up and picked them up. All in all they were in pretty good shape! Just a couple of small patches and pulled a few dents and they were good to go! We lost 10 days waiting on them and $525 for the junkers, and then another two days securing and fixing the new ones. But after just a little body work on them and some time with a long board we'll be ready for paint THIS week!
All the Anvil carbon fiber parts are installed and lined up pretty decent. A few of them needed a little bit of work, but for prototypes straight out of the mold they are really good! All mechanical aspects are done, lines, motor, tranny , etc. Still waiting on driveshaft this week. Interior is pretty much done and seats will be arriving from Arizen this week! Paint will be flying this Friday!!! Once paint is on the car, assembly should go together quickly as everything else is basically already done!!
It was nice to have Ty down on Saturday and let him witness how fun and hellacious building a car can be! I think he was amazed that one little problem can turn into a huge 5-6 hour fix, that then requires fixing everything else behind it!!
Some pics from the past week are attached... the Fletcher's Customs SEMA 2009 thrash continues!
Stay tuned for big updates over the next week as the car gets some color!!
Chad
FOR TECH ADVICE:
READ OUR EXHAUST TECH FORUM or
Call: (800) 421-3890 or E-mail
with your application for Expert Sales Advice. E-mail
with your application for Expert Technical Advice.
