Words: Tommy Parry      Images: Anders

When Anders picked up this Firebird 18 years ago, he was just 18 years old and short on money. With $150, he doused the Pontiac in red and proceeded to add a few mild suspension upgrades and a Pontiac 400 with Kauffman heads, fuel injection and dry sump lubrication. That’s pretty impressive trim for a teenage; Anders was over the moon and enjoyed the car in this state for the next ten years. Unfortunately, the Swedish weather wasn’t too kind to the body and when the fuel injection kicked the bucket, he took the opportunity to rebuild everything – though he didn’t necessarily know where it would end up.

Since Sweden taxes American aftermarket parts strongly, he was limited somewhat, especially since he wanted to keep his budget reasonably small – roughly around $10,000. So, he started by dropping a quarter of that amount on a set of 8×10” BBS E87 wheels, which brings us to his central dilemma.

Anders wanted to remain within a tight budget, but also had acquired a taste for the finer things in automobiles, and wanted his car to have all the performance and road holding you’d expect from a Trans Am racer. Therefore, Anders decided to fabricate most of the parts and with those he had to buy, he wouldn’t hold back – hence the BBS wheels. They were light and Anders wanted a svelte machine – say, 2,500 pounds powered by 500 ponies would do the trick.

Once the car was on the rotisserie, Anders started pulling the body apart and cleaning out the rusted sections, followed by comprehensively welding the seams. Not too shabby for a 28-year-old.

Anders continued with the bodywork by raising the rear floo; he raised the floor above where the mufflers are placed, raised the lips in the wheel wells, installed the front mounts for three link suspension and the differential and created the suspension mounting points and panhard mount.

Conveniently, Anders is licensed in Solid Works, so he devised a set of custom calipers for a set of Wilwood P6R brakes with new o-rings and pistons. Additionally, he’d have temperature readouts on the calipers themselves; you know this man means business.

After the grinding and less enjoyable aspects of bodywork were completed, Anders sandblasted the chassis and then covered it all in all in etch-primer. Over a hundred pounds of tubing later, and he’d fitted a cage inside. An additional thirty-two hours later, and Anders had TIG-welded in the entire cage. Perfectionist is an apt descriptor at this point.

Next came the addition of the subframe, Penske shocks and front suspension, and the rear axle, too. Fortunately, they all fit beautifully.

With the front wheels, slicks and the FIA-approved, leather-wrapped seats in place, this was beginning to look like an actual car and not a gorgeous collection of parts. The Pro Touring premise was obvious to the (informed) bystander now.

Anders then used CAD to design a dry sump system of his own before rebuilding the motor. Once mounted, the motor sat completely behind the front arms. Not only would he have incredible weight distribution as a result, but he’d have no problem mounting his radiator. In fact, he could mount ten. Note the gold insulation behind the motor which, incidentally, he’d mount to a custom-fitted T-56.

A C&R radiator was mounted with a pretty nifty homemade bracket. With a front reinforcement bar, the subframe was almost as stiff as the rest of the body.

And with an ATL fuel cell mounted in the trunk, Anders was moving quickly towards his lofty project’s end. As a young man, he was content to drive his tuned Firebird from car meet to car meet, but twenty years on, with a few more Kroner in his pocket, an incredible ability with CAD and TIG welders and an unmatched imagination, chances are he’ll be the builder of Sweden’s best Firebird, if not the builder of Sweden’s most spectacular Pro Touring machine. To keep tabs on where he currently is with this monster, you can follow his build thread here.

The question remains: How many days did it take for him to exceed his original budget of $10,000, and how many tens of thousands has he spent thus far?