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If everyone will indulge me for a moment I will give you a little history on this vehicle. My dad bought the vehicle in 92. Since I can remember he has wanted to drop a 350 in it. My fondest memories are under the hood of a vehicle tearing something apart with him. He passed away on New Years day of this year. This build is dedicated to him and to finish what he always wanted to start. The vehicle has sat on the street and deteriorated for about the past 7 years. This will be a long process. So here it is when I inherited it. The start of the build:
After I am stripping it apart for paint
Vehicle as it sat on the street.
LQ4 motor I just picked up. $1000.00 for motor, computer, gas pedal, gas pedal TACS, with alternator, AC compressor, WP, whole 9 yards.
and the LS1 intake with Throttle by cable TB incase I go that route, picked it up for $140.00.
I have the car torn apart a lot more than this and will post more pictures soon. Body parts are in the body shop being prep'd as you read this. Hopefully soon I will have some color for you.
Thanks guys. I will be doing more tear down tomorrow. I am hoping to get the engine compartment dismantled. Will post more pictures tomorrow. This forum is my new passion. My wife is jealous but I think she will be ok once she is sitting in the passenger seat (not driver's haha) of the car. Looking for someone to send the wiring harnesses off too atm if anyone has used someone reliable on the forum post a suggestion. I hear Pocket's name a lot.
Thanks guys. I will be doing more tear down tomorrow. I am hoping to get the engine compartment dismantled. Will post more pictures tomorrow. This forum is my new passion. My wife is jealous but I think she will be ok once she is sitting in the passenger seat (not driver's haha) of the car. Looking for someone to send the wiring harnesses off too atm if anyone has used someone reliable on the forum post a suggestion. I hear Pocket's name a lot.
TPI parts on ebay did an amazing job on my harness. He's located in cape coral FL.
I actually found an amazing page. I am somewhat of a 12v guy. I will most likely be doing this myself. I will probably send the ECU off to this guy for reprogramming as well. http://lt1swap.com/wiringharness.htm
Ok I spent most of yesterday and today tearing this beast down. The motor and the heads are at the machine shop. I am putting a Hot Cam kit in the LQ4 to give it a little "pep". I talked to the machine shop and I inquired about L92 heads. Well their opinion was that I am not going to race it, I want to keep fuel economy, and the price of the heads to buy them and rebuild them do not justify the little amount of power I will get out of them. They told me that the Hot Cam kit will give me the amount of power that I am looking for while keeping the motor fuel efficient since I will be driving this to shows and on the weekend when I get my wife to sit in the passenger side and make me look extra good. I am taking interior and motor parts to get refinished. I will keep the refinishing a surprise. Hopefully will only take a month to get them all back. So here are pics of the vehicle after today.
The interior is completely out now. I will be taking the seats up next week to get reupholstered. Hopefully the engine and tranny will be out next week.
On that note, I have a running 305 TBI with a 700r4 if anyone wants to purchase one....
I will be posting more pics soon. Hopefully I can start posting finished and completed pics. That will be nice.
Ok so today I could not stand sitting around doing nothing on the car. I took the rear tail light covers off. I will be replacing them with the Klearz smoked lenses. I found someone that had a set and purchased them off TGO classified. I got the Klearz tail lights and I am happy with them but.....they were not a very glossy finish. I took the lenses up to my painter and he is going to clear them for me to give them an extra shine.
In case anyone is wondering the tail lights are easy to separate fromt he housing. They are held in, by what us automotive guys call "pooky". It is a black tar that gets EVERYWHERE!!! I just used a heat gun (the sun will work also) and heated up the outer edge around the lens. I then used a screwdriver to pry up one corner and the rest just gave way. So after removing the lenses I noticed that all of the reflective paint has worn off or is flaking badly.
So I sanded the insides down to get all the old paint off. It seems these are made out of a fiberglass type material. The more I sanded the more the housing started to flake. So I just sanded enough to get the old paint off.
Sanded and ready to paint.
I used a primer and a chrome paint. I looked in to getting the LED tail light conversion but for $378.00 I just don't see the point for that much money. If it was a complete taillight lenses with LED I would find that a deal. So I am going to just get LED light bulbs for the original socks. They will be brighter and with the smoke lenses should look pretty good.
Painted and ready for the lenses from the body shop. (hopefully get those back soon)
Will keep posting updates as I get them. Thanks for watching.
Went to pick up my transmission today, a 4L65e, and I asked "hey can I look at it first to make sure it is a 65 and not a 60". Guy says "Suuuuure come on back buddy!" Can you guess the next part?
It was a 4L60. They ordered me another one, for $90 bucks cheaper, so I will see Monday if my transmission is correct.
Ok so I went junk yard diving today!! Fun!! I got a couple of extra nic nacs for the car.
I got a Posi 3.42 rear end, brake lines from rear to master cylinder, and the master cylinder out of a Z28 for $400.00.
I got Power seats for $70 bucks.'
I got a plastic gas tank with a brand new, not used, fuel pump assembly for $200.00
I was looking around a lot for something to do with the coils. I was thinking coil relocation kit, which is cheap. Then I was thinking the stock valve covers kinda look crappy with the bolt holes still in it and a new set of valve covers cost about $275. I also like the look of the coil wires coming going to the plugs, kind of gives it a race feel. So I found these for $215.00. They look great and I get the look I want but I get to cover the ugly coil packs.
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I also ordered the new oil pan, sending unit, splash tray, etc. I will start sanding down the rear end and replacing seals next week and get it painted up to look nice. The transmission will be here Monday and I will do the same to it. I will keep posting.
Now that I know at least one person is till reading haha I have a dilemma. Do I stay with stock metal fuel lines or run new vinyl lines from front to back? I want to stay away from as many splices as I can. I have read many threads and still can not decide.
In case anyone is wondering the tail lights are easy to separate fromt he housing. They are held in, by what us automotive guys call "pooky". It is a black tar that gets EVERYWHERE!!!
So you "automotive guys" just make up words instead of calling it by its proper name? Kinda like "doohickey" and "thingamajig"?
Ok a little update for those still following along with me. I tore the seats down that I bought at the junkyard before taking them to get reupholstered. The frames were Horrid! Rust all over and nasty.
So I sanded them down to metal the best that I could and sprayed them with Rust Off (turns rust in to primer and seals it from rusting any further. Bought it at OReillys).
Then painted them black.
So I took the frames to the interior shop today and was treated with a glimpse of the final product. These are the back seats, the front seats are still getting embroidered.
I did get to see the bottom of the front seats.
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The door panels and headliner should be done by Friday. I feel like I have made some progress at least.
Well it has been awhile since my last update. I have busy in life and on the car. So here is it.
Got the Front Seats, Door Panels, Headliner, and Visors back. All of the thread on gray is blue, and all the thread on blue is gray. The front seats have been steamed to get the wrinkles out but this was a picture sent by the upholstery shop a week before I picked them up:
I got the coil covers, new front steering components, billet door jam vents, transmission bracket from Hawks, lower control arms, panhead bar (not pictured looks like the lower control arms) and full new carpet:
And finally, the best for last, the painter came by yesterday and hauled it for paint!!!!!!!!
I will keep posting updates. Hopefully the motor will be done some time this year. The guy I took it to is very good, but he is very popular and is backed up. I am working on the custom bezel for the double din radio and the headlights. I will post them as soon as I have them complete. I have ordered the BMR K-Member from hawks and a BMR torque bar. Hopefully they will be in soon.
The seats with French stitching (front and back), leather, embroidery, door panels (with new backing), headliner, sun visors, and reinforcing extra padding in the seats was 1800.00. That was the cheapest, and best quality, I could find in my area. I am custom fabricating the bezel right now for a double din radio. The center console, plastic door trim (where the door handle and switches are located), plastics on the sides of the seats, and some misc. trim pieces are being hydro dipped in gunmetal carbon fiber. That is about all for the interior. I am not putting a huge stereo in it, I am too old. I am removing all of the airbag components and electrical and rewiring the interior to house most of the wiring going from the ECU on the LS motor to the interior gauges. I want to keep the engine bay as clean as possible and keep as much hidden as I can.
Well I have been looking at wheels and styles but it is hard to say until the paint is done and it is all back together. Wheels will be last. I am thinking of something like this http://www.carid.com/american-racing...me-441554.html. It will depend upon offset and the style. I am not a fan of wheels going inside the fenderwell. I prefer them to be as close as possible without rubbing when you hit a bump to the outside of the fenderwell. It will take going to a shop and having a test fit done. So when it is all said and done I will probably be driving a bad *** car to the tire shop on some ratty rims haha.
No. I pondered the color for awhile. I am going with imperial blue metallic. It is the new chevy camaro color. Looks almost black in low light and pops a deep blue with nice metallics in the sunlight.
No. I pondered the color for awhile. I am going with imperial blue metallic. It is the new chevy camaro color. Looks almost black in low light and pops a deep blue with nice metallics in the sunlight.
I think the chrome would look good on the Dark blue then, IMO, The Maui blue is too light of a color for chrome wheels.
Nice and thoughtful of you to rebuild Dad's car. A honorable quest something that some may not understand. The movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has a good feel for the ultimate automobile and family story that is truly connected.
Im running on a very limited budget, so its very nice and inspiring to see someone with a large budget restore one of these cars. Someday I will get to this level, but not on my 21 year old Army budget lmao!
Well it has been awhile since I have posted. I have been playing the waiting game. Got the Hot Cam kit in today and it went to the machine shop. Motor should be ready by next week. painter called today and is shooting paint this weekend.
Sorry guys for not responding. It is not sending email notifications for posts. Well the place that Hydro dipped the parts is no longer in business. They finished my stuff and is now belly up. Hopefully it doesnt go wrong lol. Any place that does Hydrographics can get the patterns.
The latest update is I have the motor back with the hotcam kit in it. I have been working on the wiring so when I get the body back and place the engine in it I will have a head start. The jams and engine bay have been painted and he told me within the next couple of weeks I will have my body back. It has been almost a year but he has done a ton of free work on it and I didnt push him since it is a project lol. Here are some pics.
Oh I bought some of the 5 spoke SS wheels off of a 2010-2015 Camaro. The SS come with staggered 20 inch wheels. In the 10-12 range you could special order the same wheels off of an SS that were 19" and not staggered. I bought those and am going to go hyper silver with them. They are silver now. I think the hyper silver will look great with the dark paint.
Hello to all my fellow Thirdgen.org Camaro owners and enthusiasts. Well for almost the past year I have been in a rental property while the Camaro sat in storage. I have finally bought my new house and was able to get the Camaro to the new house this weekend. I am at the point that I am ready to put the vehicle back together and get it completed. I have most of my parts sitting here and I am ready. I will start posting more pictures and updates as soon as they become available. I hope to hear input from everyone soon. Please throw out ideas as I am building this vehicle. I always like to hear everyone's ideas and input.
Taking a while to get the car back together. I am a little too OCD and I have to sand blast all the bolts and repaint them, then spindles, deflector plates for the brakes, etc. etc. I have the A/C housing in the engine bay back in and the car is on stands. I placed the motor mounts on the engine and bolted it to the BMR k member. Problem is the bolts are about 3/4 an inch too short. I will have to get replacement bolts. After that I will be able to lower the engine on to a heavy duty cart and bolt the tranny to it. I am hoping to get that in the vehicle next weekend. Here are some updated pics of the k member on the motor.
08-26-2014, 08:31 AM
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