Jeremy Porter has a long, if twisted, history with first-gen Firebirds. When he was 15 years old, he bought his brother’s 1969 Firebird Formula 400, an original paint car with just 60,000 miles on the clock. At 16, Jeremy went off the deep end.

“I was fighting and partying and being a delinquent, so my father kicked me out of the house,” he explained. “I ended up living in an abandoned house and then a homeless shelter. During that time the Firebird had a flat tire that I didn’t have the money to fix. It sat in my father’s apartment complex and eventually the car was towed and impounded. As you can guess, I didn’t have the $180 to pay the impound fee so the towing company sold it.”

Fast forward 25 years and Jeremy was in a much happier place. His business was successful and he even built a really nice race track near Atlanta, Georgia (check out Atlanta Motorsports Park—it’s cool). And when you have your own race track, you need a car to play with on it. Jeremy purchased another 1969 Firebird and had Pooles Mill Rods in Pooles Mill, Georgia turn it into a road course-capable restomod. Its name? Impounded.

You can see tons of build photos and beauty shots of the Firebird on Jeremy’s Instagram page and many of the parts used to create it in our Jeremy Porter 1969 Pontiac Firebird Parts Combos.

Drivetrain Parts Combo

LS engine and first-gen Camaros and Firebirds are a match made in muscle car heaven. Jeremy went with a Mast Motorsports LS3 crate engine rated at 615 horsepower and controlled by a Holley HP EFI engine management system. That engine is no longer available, so our combo has a Mast Motorsports Road and Track 416 cubic inch LS3 crate engine rated at 605 horsepower and 570 lbs.-ft. of torque.  We also included an Eddie Motorsports Elite S-Series drive with an alternator, power steering, and a Sanden A/C compressor, a Griffin Direct-Fit radiator module, and a set of Billet Specialties billet aluminum valve covers.

The LS3 is connected to a TCI 6X six-speed automatic transmission. The GM 4L80E-based transmission is rated to handle up to 850 horsepower and comes with a slick paddle shifter, bellhousing, and controller. The torque converter is a 10 inch diameter TCI Super Streetfighter rated around 3,500 RPM stall speed.

A set of American Racing long tube stainless steel headers is connected to a custom-built three inch stainless steel exhaust system featuring a Summit Racing X-pipe and Magnaflow manual exhaust cutouts fitted with Quick Time electric cutout units. Our combo also includes a pair of Summit Racing polished stainless steel mufflers.

Chassis and Brakes Parts Combo

The chassis is all Detroit Speed components. Up front is a subframe with hydroformed steel rails that won’t flex like stamped steel rails. It has a tubular A-arm suspension with forged steel spindles, coilover shocks, a splined anti-sway bar, and power rack and pinion steering.  The Firebird’s buggy spring rear suspension was replaced with QUADRAlink adjustable four-link suspension with coilover shocks and an adjustable panhard bar. The suspension assemblies are connected by a pair of weld-in subframe connectors.

Jeremy had Detroit Speed build a Ford 9 inch rear axle designed to work with four-link suspension. It’s fitted with Corvette C6 floater hubs to improve handling and provide  consistent braking and tire contact patches. Our combo includes the Detroit Speed axle housing, 31-spline axle shafts, and floater hub kit, plus a Moser third member assembly with 3.89 gears and a Detroit Trutrac limited slip.

Wilwood disc brakes sit on all four corners–AERO6 front brakes with 14 inch rotors and six-piston calipers and AERO4 rear brakes with 14 inch rotors and four-piston calipers. Our combo also includes a Wilwood master cylinder and a Goodridge Brake Builder Kit with the fittings you need to make custom stainless steel braided brake line.

Exterior Parts Combo

The Firebird arrived at Pooles Mill Rods as a rolling shell. The shop put it back together using a mix of factory parts and aftermarket sheetmetal; our combo includes Goodmark front inner fenders and Detroit Speed Mini Tubs. Custom touches abound:

• Body lowered 2″
• Lower body panels extended 1″ to make the car appear lower
• Quarter panels welded to rocker panels for a seamless appearance
• Drip rails removed and door handles shaved
• Half-inch indent running down the middle of the roof
• Front fender air vent indents opened up to route fresh air to the brakes
• OER reproduction rear bumper cut and frenched into the body
• OER rear spoiler molded into the trunk lid with indent to match the roof
• OER front bumpers molded into the body
• Indigo Blue Metallic basecoat-clearcoat paint

Our combo also includes OER grille shell assemblies, an OER front spoiler, and a Detroit Muscle mount kit to mate the front subframe to the body shell.

Moldings and Emblems Parts Combo

Big surprise—the Firebird’s weatherstripping was beat to heck. A SoffSeal weatherstrip kit took care of that; it includes door and side window, quarter-window, hood, and trunk weatherstripping. The equally-battered windshield and rear glass molding were replaced with OER and Sherman Parts reproduction pieces. Other stuff from the OER parts bin includes a Pontiac grille emblem. those cool ‘bird’ rear side marker lenses, and bezels for the headlights and parking lights.

Electrical System and Electronics Parts Combo

The Firebird has cool tech including a $150,000 audio system by CarTunes Atlanta and two touch screens to control it. Apparently, Jeremy hates (or loses) keys as he had a Dakota Digital keyless remote entry system and an ididit keyless ignition system installed. The remote entry system controls Dakota Digital door actuators and door poppers. Jeremy had the exterior lighting updated with a Dakota Digital LED taillight conversion kit and a  Vision X LED headlight conversion and adapter to allow the high and low beams to shine at the same time. A Dakota Digital light controller turns on the headlights and interior lights when either door is opened. The Firebird also has power windows courtesy of Electric Life and was wired with an American Autowire Highway 22 22-circuit wiring harness and a kit that allows you to mount the fuse panel in the trunk for easy access.

Interior Parts Combo

The interior was custom made by Cato’s Custom Upholstery (upholstery, carpet, seating) and CarTunes Atlanta (dash, center console, door panels). A Dakota Digital VHX analog/digital gauge cluster was fitted in a Classic Dash reproduction dash panel. The gauge cluster packs a analog speedometer, tach, and water temperature and oil pressure gauges. It also has digital displays for the odometer, trip odometer, clock, and gear indicator plus 0-60 time, quarter-mile timer/speed, top speed, and high RPM recall functions.

Climate control is handled by a Vintage Air Gen-IV Magnum system, Streamline control panel, and some really cool Vintage Air aluminum vent louvers. Other components include an E-Stopp electronic emergency brake, a Billet Specialties Formula steering wheel with a leather half-wrap, and a Dakota Digital shift indicator sending unit, and an OBD-II diagnostics interface.

SEE THE JEREMY PORTER 1969 PONTIAC FIREBIRD PARTS COMBOS AT SUMMIT RACING

Rick Seitz

Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, the parent company to Timeless Muscle Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the magazine’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next round modifications for his own cars.