Good day to you fine gentlemen and ladies, and welcome back. We’re moving right along here now, as we go into part 3 of the 1967 Firebird restoration by Harbor Freight Tools.

On Wednesday, we showed you part 2 of the restoration, where the boys had finished deconstructing the grill and fenders of the car to reveal the entire front: engine, wheels, and all. They got to use some pretty neat tools too, and you can see part 2 here.

But we’re not even a third of the way through this project. There’s a lot more that needs to be done, and thankfully for them and us, Jeff and crew have all the time and manpower to do it right. They also have the right music, with the Lord of the Rings musical score getting us pumped up for the epic adventure that awaits.

As the picture fades in, we see Jeff has the engine strapped in to the 2-ton foldable shop crane. What a treat these guys get to have. Jeff uses it to slowly extract the engine from the bay, stopping a couple times to check his clearance and detach anything still hooked up to the engine. The engine is then safely separated from the rest of the car.

The engine rested, the guys get to disassembling the engine. The transmission is removed, and then the flywheel. The metallic mass is then situated on a Central Machinery 1000 lb. engine stand to keep it level and stabilized, making the labor easier for what comes next.

You really get a sense of how old and grimy this thing is with all the caked-on grease and little filaments everywhere. It doesn’t get any better when the guys unscrew the oil reservoir plug, and the disgusting, gunky 30-year-old oil comes pouring out.

The manifold is removed, as are the head covers. A Central Pneumatic’s 1/2″ twin hammer impact wrench is then used to remove the resilient, rusted bolts from the short block. Once again, Jeff makes sure to put the bolts in a bag to keep them from getting lost.

Off with its heads. The crew now takes the moment to reflect on the hard work it took to get here, arranging the engine’s parts around the short block. We can see the top of those big ol’ pistons, just aching to get cleaned–or replaced.

A final zoom-in shows the car in its pitiful but auspicious state, as we eagerly await what happens next. So tune in next week as we carry on to part 4.