Newbie, building a 68 Camaro for my bro-in-law in Iraq - Page 3

OK, quick update here! I've been busy trying to sell off the extra parts to fund the AirRide setup for the car. AirRide is sponsoring us at a discounted price, so we want to jump all over it. Right now here are some photos of the car in the shop, along with the final rendering from Ben. Note the stripe on the cowl that he came up with and the Wheel Vintiques V40 wheels.





We also received a set of brand new black front and rear seat covers thanks to 78ta.com!

Got the front subframe on the AutoTwirler rotisserie tonight. This thing is sweet! I was able to load the subframe and adjust it by myself, I love this tool. :thumbsup:



How many f-bodies can you pot in this picture?

Did a little work on the taillights tonight. The bezels were in terrible shape and were rusted and pitted. The pictures make it look a lot better than is actually is, but it still came out pretty good. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my powdercoat, so I'm going to block same it to take out some of the small runs and bumps and lay a second coat on it to see if it will fill some of the pits. I'm going to go tomorrow to pick up some stainless hardware for the back of it, too. I changed the lenses from the stockers to a set of LEDs that MuscleRodz hooked me up with.

So it went from this:



To this:



Before and after:

And then we move on to the car.

We took the rear spolier off and it looks like it was held on by two studs and a ton of silicon. One more thing to fix. The trunk lid looks very savable, though.


Also got the interior most of the way torn down. The wiring is trash and most everything needs to be replaced, but I want to give Shawn a new car, so I would be replacing all of that anyway.


And the rear axle that a friend gave me for the car. It is only a 8.2", but I'll freshen it up and it should do fine. I gotta use what I can if it isn't donated for this build, so 8.2" axle it is.


And then  we tore down most of the front sheetmetal and all on the car. Gonna try and finish smoothing the firewall and getting it cleaned up soon.

how did the tail lights turn out?  how is the surface bc of the rust?

I haven't laid the final coat down yet, but you can still see some of the pits and stuff through the PC. I'm going to try a new trick on it with the powdercoat and see if I can fill the pits. 

Got some new parts! A friend of mine gave me an LS1 intake and coolant tubes for the engine. I also got in the Bullitt replica wheels that Custom Wheels Market gave me a discount on.



Haven't done much to the car since I just bought some new tools since I broke a few and some of mine just plain sucked. Gotta have the right tools to build a good car! The aftermarket frame is being lengthened for me by Staples Engineering, so once that is done I'll be able to get the back of the car back together. 

The guys over at RotorsOnline.com hooked us up with some Axxis brake pads for the LS1 brake conversion! These guys have been a huge part of making the LS1 brake setup come into place.

Well, it's going a little slow right now, but things are going on in the background! No photos worth posting though. The engine is being built, the trans is being rebuilt, and I still haven't gotten the frame back, but should have it back by the weekend.

The spindles are going out this week to be modified to fit the LS1 brake setup, and I have modified the firewall and brackets to fit the LS1 brake booster. Once it is done and cleaned up I will post photos.

So that's where I am at. Prothane just donated a total Motion Control package for the car, so I'll be finishing up the front subframe as soon as the POR-15 that was donated gets here.

So as you see, it is slow now, but will hit me like a sock full of pennies in a week or so!

Whoops, I do have more photos for you guys! I thought I had posted it mocked up with the new wheels!

Looks very nice.  Keep us posted.

Comp Performance Group came through huge for us. They hooked us up with a Zex LSX wet nitrous kit and also have hooked Shawn up with discount pricing on any Comp Performance Group part for the rest of his life. They are also going to be putting out a press release about the project and said they'll get us in with a few magazines!

And my little man approves!


Also got the body completely stripped down and the junk subframe off the car. This weekend we'll be POR-15 painting the front subframe and I'll hopefully have the rear frame rails by then as well. I built a little body cart for the front out of some junk 2x4s that were in my way. Worked out pretty well since the back is on casters.

We received a donation from POR-15 of their rust-proofing paint system! We had hoped to get the front subframe stripped and painted this weekend, but I got a wicked cold yesterday and was KO'd most of the day. :( Only thing I got done yesterday was yanking the spindles to send to Ed Miller for the LS1 conversion..

Well, I felt a little better this afternoon and I got a ton of work done. I had to split my time between the Camaro and a huge powdercoating job for a friend's machine shop, so I wasn't as productive as I could have been, but gotta keep the side business going!

Anyway, I got the firewall modified to fit the LS1 booster and MC. First I took the booster and cut out a template for the hole. Then I traced it off on the firewall and went to town with the cutting tool. Fits like a glove! I still need to weld in the section where the old hole used to be and modify the booster shaft to fit the existing brake pedal, but so far so good!

Looks nice, thanks for all the template, firewall, and completed photo's. Those types of pics make me believe I haven’t gotten in over my head, I have, but at least my ego is telling me I haven't!

OK, finally was able to get some real work done on the car! I got the pedals all fitted for the Modo Innovations covers, then I took everything down to HRT Performance to be tanked and blasted. Tonight I powdercoated it all semi-gloss black and reinstalled the Modo covers. Came out amazing. I also cleaned and painted the parking brake assembly. I ordered all new pedal bushings and pins and all from Firewheel, so those should be in tomorrow or the next day, then I can get the pedals all ready to go back in the car once I finish up the LS1 booster and T56 Master cylinder modifications to the firewall and get the seat supports welded in this weekend.
Before:

During:

After:

Got the LS1 booster conversion all finished up. I measured and cut the stock brake rod and welded it on to the LS1 booster shaft. The I welded in some metal and cut it to match the hole in the firewall.

Big thanks to bulldog19 on the Lateral-g board for hooking us up with these very nice inner fenders and some RS headlight hardware!

nice ur getting all the parts.

Got a lot of goodies in the last few days! Autometer sent us some SWEET new Ultra-Lite II gauges, along with some schwag.  




And Second Skin donated a TON of stuff. Damplifier, blankets, sprayer, knife, Spectrum, adhesive, etc. Basically, everything to keep this car quiet inside!

We also got the subframe out outside on the rotisserie before we realized our compressor was acting up and we'll have to call a mobile blaster. We also didn't get much work done on the floors and chassis because our BRAND NEW Hobart 140 welder decided that it didn't feel like feeding wire anymore. Gotta go exchange it tomorrow, but it really ruined my progress on Saturday.


But, besides all the problems, I did manage to get the a-arms powdercoated in a semi-gloss black. I'll run them down to have the Prothane bushings pressed in this week.

the powdercoat looks great

Thanks, Blade!

The Gear Box sent us this T56 rebuild kit and steel 3-4 shift fork for the T56 we're putting in the car. Jerminator donated a T56 and the rebuild, so major thanks to him! We still need an LS1 4th gear/input shaft, 6th gear, and an LS1 front plate, so if anyone has anything lying around they might be able to help us out with, please let me know!

This may be a bit out of line, but I have met some of the guys at Goodmark and wrote an email requesting the donation of some parts for your cause.  I don't know if they will donate but I thought I would try!!!

i'll be seeing your brother-in-law soon enough, i'm out to iraq in april! nice car!!! wish i knew where to start on a project like that.