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More parts scored! My Moser 28 spline replacement axles and aluminum differential cover arrived recently. I purchased a Zexel-Torsen differential off Ebay that arrived last week. I found a set of flynbye.com drum to disc conversion plates locally and just bought these gorgeous original Ronal R15 rims with massive 275/40/17 Avon tires from a Craiglist ad yesterday. I still need to order a set of ARP wheel studs then I'll be ready to pull the rear axle for rebuild.
Got these in the mail today. If you haven't seen the show Stacey David's Gearz, you need to check it out. He does some great work. I got the Project Book to keep track of all the modifications I'm making on the car. I could have used a notebook, but this looks cool and is layed out really well covering all aspects of the vehicle. It should make maintenance down the road much easier and will be a real asset if the car is sold someday in the future. I got the Electrical Wiring Book because I really know next to nothing on that subject and could use the help. I also got a T-shirt .
I got the same books! I just wish I had the build book when I started. For now this site will be my build book.
More parts scored! My Moser 28 spline replacement axles and aluminum differential cover arrived recently. I purchased a Zexel-Torsen differential off Ebay that arrived last week. I found a set of flynbye.com drum to disc conversion plates locally and just bought these gorgeous original Ronal R15 rims with massive 275/40/17 Avon tires from a Craiglist ad yesterday. I still need to order a set of ARP wheel studs then I'll be ready to pull the rear axle for rebuild.
man ive been searching for those wheels, nice find. you get those spurts of good stuff on CL.
Latest update - I finally got the transmission out of the car. Don't know why it took so long other than life kept getting in the way. While I was at it I went ahead and installed the BMR k-member and a-arms. For whatever reason the passenger side a-arm didn't want to go in so I had to "sweet talk" it and use a rubber mallet to convince it to go in position. My next door neighbor heard my conversation with the car and came over to see who I was cussing at. I still need to torque the passenger side, but at least I'm making some progress. Next week I plan to drop off the transmission for rebuild, verify I have all my front suspension parts, and install the springs, spindles, and struts. We'll see how it goes.
As far as your rear diff, I'm curious why you went for a drum to disc conversion kit, instead of a whole disc brake diff assembly from a 3rd gen camaro?
I don't know any better, but I'm asking because I'm facing a similar choice in the near future.
Also, your new tires are 275 40 17? I like it. Sure as heck can't find any 275 40 16 nowadays...
Last edited by UltRoadWarrior9; 04-25-2014 at 08:30 PM.
I've seen several 4th gen disc brake posi rear ends available in my area, but not that many 28 spline late 89-92 3rd gen. I didn't want the extra length on either side from the 4th gen axle, but did want the 3.42 rear gear ratio which was not common on 3rd gens. Since the engine will be in the 400+hp range I wanted to strengthen everything else in the power train within reason and didn't want to spend the money for a 9", 12 bolt or S60. So with all that said I'm pulling the rear end upgrading the axles to 28 splined Mosers, changing the open differential for Zexel-Torsen, adding a girdle cover, upgrading the rear brakes to LT1 11.5" discs, probably welding the axle tubes and any other reasonable tweaks along the way. I don't plan on drag racing so it should be strong enough for anything else I plan to do.
Tires and wheels was a big debate. The prices on 275-40-17 BFG Comp 2's is within $15 of the 255-50-16's I had planned to run on the GTA rims. As I've said before I've had this car since 1986, and don't plan to sell it ever, so long term tire availability is a consideration. Tire selection in a 16" rim made by an American tire name is slightly above none and who knows what it will be in 5-10 years. With all that in mind I went with 17's. I have nothing against import tire brands, but wanted American for the Camaro, seemed like the right thing to do. (The Avons came with the wheels, when they wear out I'm going to BFG.)
So, this past weekend my friend David and I were going to put the front end back together. I pulled out my Hotchkis Springs, Bilstein front struts, new modified spindles from BigBrakeUpgrade.com, and Founders Performance Caster plates and head into the garage. We loosely mounted the caster plates and slid the struts into the upper mounts. When we tried to fit the front springs into the upper spring mounts they didn't fit. The coil springs' diameter was about a quarter inch too narrow to fit the spring mounts. Not believing what we were seeing we tried them again, no luck. I bought these springs back around 2002 and apparently they were either miss ordered at the shop where I got them or they sent the wrong springs. Either way I was pissed and out a chunk of money.
I ordered the new springs that night and they arrived today; so hopefully I'll have a better report next week.
Haven't made much progress lately. March through June is my Shriner motorcycle team competition season with twice a week practices. Here is a link to a video of my team on our competition run:
Hopefully I can start making progress on the car again. (Yes. I know this site is about thirdgens, but car guys typically like anything with a motor. So...)
Finally made some progress on the car. Today we installed the Hotchkis springs, Bilstein struts, Bigbrakeupgrade.com modified spindles, some drilled and slotted 12" rotors from Summit, and put the front set of Ronals on to get it back to roller status. We had a little trouble getting the springs in until we rented the correct spring compressor from Autozone, big difference. If you check the pictures you'll see we haven't installed the calipers, still working on acquisition and powder coating.
I got a little work done this week. The GTO calipers arrived; I still need to clean them up and mount on the car. Supposedly if you use the LS1 carrier brackets the GTO calipers will bolt straight up. I'll find out this weekend. I bought all new MOOG steering components and got those assembled with my Hotchkis tie rod sleeves. those reverse threads can be pretty annoying if you don't pay attention. I already had a replacement steering box so I'm planning to get all this in the car this weekend. My friend and I replaced all the light fixtures in the garage with T8 shop lights with daylight bulbs from Home Depot. Its so bright in the garage now it almost hurts your eyes.
Some random pictures from this weekend:
Zexel-Torsen and Moser rear cover:
Another BMR front end pic:
The top of the ZZ4 waiting to go in (for some reason I keep typing ZZ$):
Finally getting back to the Camaro after a long hiatus - We spent the afternoon Monday removing the rear end. I still need to remove the lower control arms and rear shocks from the chassis, but its progress.
Next steps:
Remove everything down to the axle case and send it out to have the tubes welded.
Powder coating - gloss black
Add the new brake caliper mounting plates
Send it out to install the Moser axels, Zexel-Torsen limited slip differential, 3.42 gears, and Moser rear girdle cover.
Well, the Camaro took a back seat to another old Chevy during 2016...
I bought a 1956 Chevrolet 210 sedan for my parents and drove it from Texas to Montana to surprise them. Needless to say they were shocked and pleased. I had to do a couple modifications to get it the way I wanted: stripped and powder coated the wheels, added the fat white wall tires, GM Reproduction hub caps, swapped the seal on the fuel sending unit, changed the rear brakes, rewired the headlights, and cleaned and dressed up the engine compartment. The car has a Goodwrench 350 with a small cam, 700r4 transmission, front disc brakes, headers, dual exhaust, and a refreshed interior. It's a great cruiser and sweet on the highway.
So, now back to the Camaro. I finally bought the wheel studs for the rear axle build and will be taking it to Texas Drivetrain Performance on Tuesday. While I was at it I picked up a set of sway bars from Hotchkis and a front steering brace from Umi. Looking forward to getting the axle rebuilt so I can finally roll it out to paint.
I made a parts list of the various items I've acquired for the car and the current replacement costs. Needless to say, I'll never get my money back out of it. I bought this car in 1986, the summer I turned 18, and don't plan to sell it. I'm building it for me...
Fortunately, I've been collecting these parts since the mid 90's and took advantage of many sales, Ebay, and Craigslist purchases along the way.
Purchase price (11,692 miles, Aug. 1986) - $8,800.00
Well, I was planning to drop off the rear axle this week, but it was 25 degrees on my off days, and I didn't think making a 3-hour round trip when I didn't need to was worth the risk. I wouldn't want to have to change a flat when its below freezing. So, Monday its going to be in the 50's, I'll make the trip then. On the plus side, the fuel tank and the sway bars arrived today. Ready to get this project going again.
My UMI steering brace arrived today. Still debating whether to go with a Magnaflow or Flowmaster Cat-back exhaust, and looking for a nice set of early 4th gen Trans Am seats with the big headrests. I still have time on both of those, but like to watch for good deals.
Just a note for the rest of you guys that are building up your cars: Summit Racing just built a new distribution center about 30 miles from my house. It's great, because you can go over and get just about anything you want, but it also means that if you live in Texas anything you order from Summit you will now have to pay sales tax. Keep that in mind when you're making big purchases, always check the shipping cost and taxes. Sometimes the lower priced item you find from one vendor ends up being more expensive when you actually pay for it.
Decided to go with the Flowmaster 17228 3" cat back exhaust for dual cats, Hawks had it on clearance and my SLP headers are setup for dual cats anyway.
Walked out of the house on my way to work tonight and the box for my new exhaust was sitting on my porch. I had actually forgot it was coming. I hope we can get some good weather again soon so I can get some of this on the car and out of the house.
Weather permitting, this weekend's project is dropping the old gas tank and checking the sending unit.
The panhard relocation bar from Founders Performance arrived today. Now I just have to wait for the weather to warm up to get all this stuff on the car. Hopefully the rear axle will be completed next week.
If you're not familiar with Founders Performance suspension components you should check them out. I'm not an expert, but from what I can tell the quality looks comparable to UMI and BMR, but for roughly half the price.
Just got the axle back from rebuild and powder coating. Jason from Texas Drivetrain Performance even delivered it. Almost looks too pretty to put on the car...
Well, 2018 was a busy year, but unfortunately not much progress on the Camaro. I drove the '56 Chevy from Montana to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the TriFive Nationals at Beechbend Raceway Park. It was a great trip and put around 3000 miles on the car in 10 days. I also built a 2500 sq. ft. shop with room for a lift, so we should be able to make some real progress this year. No more excuses...
Finally made a little progress on the car this week. My friend and I were planning to reinstall the rear axle with the upgraded suspension components, but he was a no show and I had an issue with my truck. After getting the truck resolved, I properly mounted the flynbye.com disc brake adapter plates on the rear axle and then removed and replaced the rear control arms with the new Hotchkis parts. In reality, it wasn't much progress; but it felt good to finally do something on the car. I can't move the car to the new shop until I get all four wheels back on the ground, so that's my plan to get it back to rolling. I need to see how critical it is to have the torque arm installed when rolling the car.
Here's the old control arm next to the new part from Hotchkis. New is a relative term, I've probably had the parts since before 2002. When I bought them, they just started making the tubular rear control arms, so the big boxed arms were the proven tech at the time. These things are beefy!
This week I reinstalled the Hotchkis rear control arms. I used the old bolts previously and had to reinstall with the new bolts. We removed the old Monroe shocks and added the Bilstein AK1050s. Removed the exhaust, the upper panhard rod, and the fuel tank. When we removed the sending unit, the tank was actually in pretty good shape, no rust. We tried to fit the Founders Performance Panhard relocation bar, but we couldn't get the mounting plates to line up correctly. Might need to grind on them to fit. I spent the rest of the time reaming the powder coating out of the control arm mount holes in the axle. With any luck we should have the axle in on Monday.
I'm sure a real mechanic would have all this done in under a half hour; but that's not me. Feeling relatively clueless as I progress, every part that gets replaced on the car is a victory. As the car progresses, the excitement is building; I can tell you that much for sure. I imagine we all feel that way. Looking forward to bolting on the rear wheels!
Well, it's been a while, but back on the Camaro. It seems like every time I'm about to work on this car something happens with my others. I have a Mazda B4000/Ford Ranger that had to have the full engine wiring replaced, which led to a coolant leak at the back of the engine resulting in needlessly pulling the transmission to discover the leak was coming from the thermostat housing and running across the engine and down the back of the block. Several wasted weekends on that one. Then my big truck had a mystery oil leak that turned out to be a bad seal on the drain plug. More fun.
Well, back to the Camaro. We pulled the fuel tank after dropping the rear axle. On removing the fuel sender, the tank was actually really clean and rust free. The sender appears to still be in good shape, but when last driven the fuel guage wasn't reading accurately and showing above full all the time, so something is wrong in the wiring. We put an ohm meter on the leads from the sender and the readings were erratic when raising and lowering the float arm, so we need to check out the variable resistor in the arm connection. More fun.
In the mean time we continued putting the rear axle back on the car. During the down time on this project I managed to misplace the hardware for the panhard relocation bar, so I contacted Founders Performance and can order replacement parts. We reinstalled the original upper bar and the Hotchkis panhard. We had a little difficulty bolting up the rear control arms, but were finally able to get them to mount. I think part of the issue is the powdercoating on the rear axle makes for a tight fit in the brackets. We installed the Hotchkis springs and bolted up the Bilstein rear shocks. While we were at it we went ahead and installed the rear rotors and mounted the wheels. I might need to get new lug nuts, because the studs might be a little too long. The wheels didn't seem to fit tight like they should. Even on the jack stands, with the wheels on it actually looks like a car again.
If you're following along, you'll notice we didn't install the gas tank. Maybe a dumb move, but I'm trying to get the car to be a roller so I can move it to the new garage. Once we get it over there we'll drop the axle, and install the tank and exhaust and replace the fuel lines. With the axle bolted in place, we installed the UMI transmission cross member. We were able to get the rear two bolts on either side in place, but the front bolts are obstructed on both sides, We think there might be some seam sealer or something similar in the bolt holes and will try reaming them out with a tap. Our last project of the day was installing the UMI torque arm. After getting the arm roughly in place, we realized the bracket didn't have enough of a gap to fit the rear axle. We think it's the powdercoating again affecting the tolerances, so we will have to grind off the coating from the mounting surfaces on the axle. Hopefully, that's all it takes..
Once we get the torque arm installed we're replacing and reconnecting the steering components and the car should be ready to roll. We'll see how that goes...
Last thing left is to install the torque arm and we should be ready to roll. Really need to power wash the underside of the car, but surprisingly there is no rust...just dirty.
This weekend we were able to install the UMI torque arm and fill the differential. We tried to install the torque arm previously, but the powder coating on the differential was too thick preventing it from sliding over the mounting boss. We used a die grinder and a sanding pad to remove the powder coating from the mounting boss and were able to slide it in place. When we installed the bolts we didn't have enough room to install them from the top, so we installed them from the bottom. I don't recommend doing it this way for safety reasons. Ideally I would think you want to install the torque arm mounting bolts from the top so its not possible for them to fall out if the nuts loosen for any reason. We're planning to drop the axle again for the tank install when we get to the new shop, so its a temporary fix at this point.
When we filled the differential, it was a mess. Maybe we had bad technique, maybe we're just inept, but we had differential oil dripping everywhere. If you have the axle out, fill it before you install it; otherwise use a pressure system of some kind. We used a squeeze bottle with a hose, you guessed it, the hose popped off and it dripped everywhere. At least its done for now.
Next plan is to swap out the rear lug nuts to get the wheels to seat properly, then load it on a flat bed and move it to the new shop.
To do list:
Paint - I'm thinking I should get it painted before doing the interior and engine install, but don't want to scratch it later either. the doors and one of the fenders needs body work. I also need to decide on what hood to use. I want a cowl hood, but I want the car to look balanced; so debating the Sunoco style or a Harwood 2" cowl. Still debating keeping the original Bright Blue Metallic or going a little deeper like GM Laser Blue.
Brake calipers and brake lines - I'm using PBR calipers from a GTO on the front and 4th gen LT1 era Camaro on the back. I like the parking brake option on the LT1 style rear calipers. Need a disc/disc proportioning valve; mine is disc/drum.
Engine and transmission install - ZZ4 350 and 700R4 - I still need to get the transmission rebuilt and get the cam swapped in the engine. Planning to go with the LT4 hot cam. Debating swapping heads to the Trick Flow Super 23 195s. I really want this to be an understated beast, and roughly 420hp would work pretty well towards that goal.
Fuel lines - The car was originally carb'd and I plan to keep it that way so may be able to get by with stainless stock replacement lines.
Exhaust and subframe connectors - I have a 3" Flowmaster system and Hotchkis subframe connectors to get welded in. fortunately my neighbor is a welder.
Electrical - The engine harness was completely eaten by rodents years ago, and I seriously mean completely. so I'll need to figure out how to get everything wired and working. I have a pull out harness from a similarly configured Camaro, so hopefully its in decent shape to get me started.
Interior - I have a replacement dash and dash pad. My stock seats are in decent shape, but I'd really like a set of 4th gen Trans Am seats with the large headrest. I'm planning on reupholstering with grey leather. Carpet, headliner, visors and sail panels all need recovered or replaced.
Weather stripping - After painting I'm going to replace all the door, hatch and trunk weather stripping and seals.
Found this thread while searching for pics of R15's on a S/C or Berlinetta as I'm strongly considering a set for my 84 Berlinetta... do you happen to have any updated pics? or pics of the whole car sitting down on them wheels/tires? looks like a nice build! I'm gonna be sure and continue to follow this one!
Been a little distracted from the Camaro project. Drove the '56 sedan to the Tri-Five Nationals again in 2021 and have been working on the 1957 Chevy truck.
After attending a couple Third-Gen car club meets over the past couple months, I'm ready to get back to the Camaro. Embarrassed to say how little it has progressed in recent years, but the project is moving forward at glacial speed.
If you've read this far, you know we gutted everything. We installed the BMR K-member, control arms and spring mounts. Installed the Hotchkis springs, lower control arms, panhard rod, the UMI transmission cross member and torque arm, and rebuilt the rear axle. We upgraded to 12" disc up front and switched from drums to 11.5" discs in the rear. We still need to install the Hotchkis front and rear sway bars, UMI steering brace, MOOG steering linkage, and GTO/PBR brake calipers front and rear. Still need to check fuel lines, replace the brake lines, install the exhaust and the fuel tank and the underside of the car will be done.
Current plan is to load it on a trailer Monday and take it from the house to the shop where we can have room to actually work on it. Its pretty cramped in the garage.
Doesn't look like anything special from the top, but looks pretty stout underneath...leave it a sleeper?
Hopefully I can get it power washed before putting it on the trailer or take it to the car wash.
I need to replace the strainer in the fuel tank and check the fuel sender is working correctly. When last running, the fuel gauge would just point straight up all the time and I don't know why. Being a carbureted car with a mechanical fuel pump, a replacement fuel sending unit is not available. When I get that resolved I can reinstall the fuel tank. Next I'll finish installing the sway bars, steering brace and steering linkage. After that it's down to the engine and transmission.
Monday we used a come-along to winch the Camaro up on a auto-transport trailer from U-Haul and moved it from my house out to my shop so we can get more room to work on it. I also have most of my tools at the shop, so I won't waste time wondering where they are when I need them. Overall, the loading and unloading went very smoothly; considering the car is around 1000 lbs. lighter than stock right now with the engine, transmission, hood, and interior removed.
04-04-2014, 06:08 AM
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