A full scale WIP 1969 Chevrolet Z/28 Camaro

For nostalgia's sake the 4 speed is the way to go. I've had alot of fun with manual transmission classic cars. I had two '67 Mustangs that had the same 351W from a 69 Mach 1 car from one car the next after someone pulled out in front of me with the first one. I did alot of work to the engine but backed it up with a Top Loader 4 speed. Fun cars with that engine in there. Had some 3.55's out back and it was the perfect gear. A fifth gear would've made things alot more enjoyable on the highway but in the later stages of me owning the last car I never went anywhere out of town in it so it worked out perfect. 

Looking back I wished I would've kept the car for the same reasons you have for passing it down. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbled though.

Glad to see you're still up and running!  Hope you enjoy that camping trip, though the weather is a bit warm here to really enjoy the outdoors. 

As for the body work, maybe you might see if any of the people at the museum might enjoy working on something besides aircraft bodies.  Must be some there with metal work experience that could donate some time to your project.  Never hurt to ask!

Take care!

Gary

You'll get th st there.  The"rock crusher" is pretty much indestructible. 3.73's are a good compromise....ok fuel mileage and get up and go.

No OD.  It's got a Muncie M21 close ratio 4 speed.  My Dad was going to put a 6 speed in it at one point, but never really finished it.  When he decided to give me the car we figured we would have to shorten the driveshaft, and make a few other modifications for it to work.  I prefered to have it the way it was when I was a kid.  It had the 4 spd, so that is what I got and put back in it.  I don't think anything about the car is numbers matching.  I haven't checked the rear end.  It doesn't matter to me anyway.  The car has way more sentimental value that a price tag just can't be put on.  I would never sell my car.  I'll hand her down to my daughter.  If she's ever in one piece again.  

I hadn't been following this thread, but is this one of those 1:1 scale, mostly metal, super detailed kits that even has working guages and you can make it have actual smoke come out of the tailpipe .  .  . Wow !!!

My first car was a 64-1/2 Ford Mustang convertable, with the venerable 170CI six-banger that was also used in the Falcon. A good little cruiser, but fairly gutless off the line. Interesting aerodynamics too; above 70MPH the front end lightened up, and above 90, in a headwind, the front wheels could get to the point of losing traction / steering. Fun and scary at the same time.

LOL! 3:73's are good fun yet the car can still be driven enjoyably. Do you have an OD or are you running a 1:1 in your final gear? If it weren't for overdrive I'd be running a gear like that. I get to have a little fun with the 3.90's right now but am thinking of going with 4.10's. Makes it real fun down low. 

mustang1989

May not be a whole lot of progress but you sure as hell have gotten alot done in regards to the project. Awesome!!!! 

 

BTW.....what gears did you go with in the diff? Play or practical? 

 

Still has the stock gearing which are 3:73's.  Not great for highway travel as the revs are a bit high, but I would much rather take the back roads, they are curvier, lol.

May not be a whole lot of progress but you sure as hell have gotten alot done in regards to the project. Awesome!!!! 

BTW.....what gears did you go with in the diff? Play or practical? 

Well after making some good progress for a few months things kind of jumped off the tracks.  My cousin got a bit too paranoid about the Coronavirus, and wouldn't let me come work on my car.  I dealt with that for a couple of months until I made the decision to just bring my car home.  So I had to buy a shed and put that up, which was fine.  I planned on doing that anyway so I had a place to store the motorcycles when the car was finally together and in the garage for the winter.  I needed a place to store all the parts.  Up goes the shed.  Step two was having somewhere to put the car.  I managed to get a hold of one of those nice portable garages from Tractor Supply for less than half what they normally sell for, brand new in the box.  Then came the porcess of trucking all my parts home from cousins house. 

Started loading up the shed with the parts I already had at home.

My truck completely loaded inside, and a few bigger things on my cousins trailer.  Round #1 of part retrieval.

Round #2

Round #3 included Hubby's truck, and a trailer he borrowed from work.  At this point I think the regret of taking my car out there to begin with really hit hard.  I never wanted it to go this far.

All that is left there now is the engine and transmission.

At home in the portable garage.

With it being so dark in there I strung up some LED lights.

I started sanding a few spots, and discovred some stuff I wish I hadn't.  Basically a lot of bondo, and a few rust holes in the bottom corners of the door jambs.  I bought the panels to replace them, but that isn't something I'm capable of doing.  That kind of stuff was on Hubby and my cousin, who have both pretty much bailed on me.  My cousin didn't work on the car the entire time it was just sitting at his house, and he was off work for 7 weeks due to Covid.  The whole thing has me very defeated, and at this point it is literally upsetting to even think about my car sitting out there in the condition it's in.  Likely be a while before another update.

GMorrison

You've had a lot of sadness, friend. Nothing like a big project to sink your teeth into.

 

Bill

 

It's been rough, I won't lie.  Being able to volunteer at the museum has really helped me a lot.  When the car is done it's going to be bittersweet since niether one of my parents will be around to see it. 

We made a little bit of progress today.  Got the disc brake conversion installed on the rear end.  Then started taking the leaf springs off so we can replace the bushings and spring pads.  I have to get some new U-bolts made, and source some bolts.  I'm going to head to the local spring place tomorrow.  I'm sure he'll have what I need.

Changed the wheel bearings and rotors on the front while hubby and my cousin worked on the rear end.

Hoping next weekend we can start putting stuff back on the car.  But we'll see how things go. 

You've had a lot of sadness, friend. Nothing like a big project to sink your teeth into.

Bill

GMorrison

Hey! Progress! I was wondering, what with Car Week coming around here again. I sent you so many Z photos last year, reminded me this week when we started planning our own event.

 

I know, right!  We hit a bit of a road block for a while there.  I simply told myself I'll just split my weekends between Whiskey 7 and the Camaro, lol.  So I'm there every Sunday, and should post an update the same day. 

Hey! Progress! I was wondering, what with Car Week coming around here again. I sent you so many Z photos last year, reminded me this week when we started planning our own event.

Thanks! 

Man oh man, this makes me want my Challenger back!  My Dad passed away and left the '70 to me. It's since been sold but every now and then I get the bug to build.  It went through a HORRIBLE body-off restoration back in the early 90's when I was in high school.  They used the wrong front quarter panels so it never looked "correct".  I would love to have been able to put it on a rotisserie and give it the attention it deserved. Keep up the good work! 

Got the subframe and the underside of the car coated yesterday.  Almost ready to start putting major pieces back on the body.  Just have to do the disc brake conversion on the rear end, and that will be ready to go back in.  Hoping to start on that next weekend.

mustang1989

Awesome!! At least some of the assembly process is now in sight anyways. 

 

Yea, we are going to truck bed coat the subframe and the underside of the body, and paint everything else black.  Still a long way to go.  We'll have to wait until the weather warms up at least into the forty's so we can put the car outside to start sanding.  It would make a giant dust mess if we did it in the garage, lol.

Awesome!! At least some of the assembly process is now in sight anyways. 

Thanks Mustang!  I plan on it.  I miss driving my car!

Tanker, Well I won't be changing the color, the car is tattooed on my arm, lol.  I found a few odd things, some that I am insistant on leaving the way they are!

All the major metal work is finally done! 

Gas tank mounting brackets were seam sealed.

Upper dash piece got welded in and sealed as well.

Now it's time to get into some body work.  There are some small spots we have to tend to.  Slowly but surely we are getting somewhere.  Or at least that is what I have to tell myself, lol.

Hi Keyda81!

    Haven't been around this much. Nice rotisserie job. There's a problem though. It's Red. I absolutely grovel for Green! nah. Just kidding.

     Isn't it fascinating when you take a car apart what you find? I bought a flood damaged car years ago . It was in one of the floods back in he late 60s in Mississippi. When I got this old beast she was full of mud right up the the top doorsills.

        No one I knew of then did a car on a rotisserie! So we did it the hard way. All new inside and fully Steam cleaned and Bead blasted. We found a purse in all the mud and sent it back to it's owner. Including the Money! Even the engine had hardened Mud in it! kept the finished 67 Mustang Fastback till 1998. 

 Could never find the car I was really looking for. A rebuildable 65 Corvair Corsa Turbo Convertible. I always thought that 65 Corsa was beautiful !

Keep it comin' Keyda. This is just as fun to watch or more so than scale modeling is.

A bit more metal work done this weekend.  Still a bit more to do. 

Seam sealed the floor pan.

Removed and replace the rusty gas tank brackets.

I spent most of the day cleaning the garage while hubby and my cousin worked on that stuff.  We had quite the mess going in there, lol.

mustang1989

That's a first class job right there. Yeah sheet metal work is not my "area" either and I normally farm that kind of stuff out. Looks like you're giving this whole car the TLC that it deserves. No doubt you'll be happy with it when you're finished.

My son and I are currently working on a 93 C1500 together in order to get it all ready for his Junior year in high school. It's got a 4.3 litre V6 in it now and he's really bugging the crap out of me to put a V-8 in it. After pondering the thought for a while I told him that we'd go with a 305 but nothing more. He's just like I was at that age and he doesn't need any extra help to get into trouble. lol 

 

 

My cousin does a pretty good job welding, he's an electrician by day though.  Hubby can weld as well, he's a mechanic.  Me, well I guess I'll be good at bondo, sand, prime, repeat!  Lol.  It's a ton of work, and I really miss driving my car, but it will be so nice when I can hop in the car and go anywhere I want without having to worry about it. 

My first car was a 90 Cavalier with 2.2L in it, lol.  I got myself in trouble with that more than once! 

That's a first class job right there. Yeah sheet metal work is not my "area" either and I normally farm that kind of stuff out. Looks like you're giving this whole car the TLC that it deserves. No doubt you'll be happy with it when you're finished.

My son and I are currently working on a 93 C1500 together in order to get it all ready for his Junior year in high school. It's got a 4.3 litre V6 in it now and he's really bugging the crap out of me to put a V-8 in it. After pondering the thought for a while I told him that we'd go with a 305 but nothing more. He's just like I was at that age and he doesn't need any extra help to get into trouble. lol 

I guess it's been a while since I've posted an update.  Things kind of "stalled" over the summer.  But we recently started getting back on track with lots of metal work.  Which really isn't something I do, so hubby and my cousin have been doing all that.  We try to get together on Sunday's and work on her.  As long as some kind of progress is being done I'm happy.

New floor pan is welded in, along with some subframe repair plates.

Painted the floor.

New upper cowl piece welded in, and seam sealed.

Next weekend should hopefully get us close to finishing up the metal work.  The upper dash piece needs to be welded in, and the gas tank mounting brackets need replaced. 

mustang1989

I had originally posted my rebuild of my truck here in your thread.....however..........the more I thought about it the more I realized that it never belonged here. I deleted all of what I had posted in regards to MY stuff.  I should've started my own thread for that. My apologies for hi-jacking your tribute build thread.

Will be watching the magic unfold with your car here. This is such a cool restoration and I can't wait to see the results.

 

No worries!  I don't mind.

There hasn't been any progress over the past few months.  Me and my cousin are very similar when it comes to winter time.  We basically turn into hermit crabs, lol.  We don't leave the house unless we have to.  He works outside all day and then retreats to the house, lol.  I try not to leave the house.  But anywho, we got back to work yesterday.  We've gotten to a point where I physically can't do somethings, so I kind of just have to be the gopher for tools and what not while my cousin and hubby handle stuff. 

Yesterday was spent getting out the old floor pan.  The pain in the butt part was seperating the seat pan from the floor pan.  It was 3 layers spot welded together.  Between drilling, chiseling and grinding it came out.  There is still a chunk of floor pan attached to the seat pan, but we'll get to that next time.

The new floor pan set into place.  Still some trimming to do so it sits flush, but not bad for a first fit.

I had originally posted my rebuild of my truck here in your thread.....however..........the more I thought about it the more I realized that it never belonged here. I deleted all of what I had posted in regards to MY stuff.  I should've started my own thread for that. My apologies for hi-jacking your tribute build thread.

Will be watching the magic unfold with your car here. This is such a cool restoration and I can't wait to see the results.

GMorrison

Very nice. The old sign makers I hire always left a penny in the ones they were proud of.

The women who built our glove at ATT Park left their bras in the thumb.

I remodeled our home, as in was the contractor. It was originally built mostly by my late father-in-law with the trades doing the tough stuff. Everywhere we opened walls we found his pencil math of the studs. Sealed it all back up but I know it's there.

 

 

I've found a few things he left in the car over the years.  I never really cleaned it out once I got it.  I knew he wrote something on the body when he had the gas tank out, I just wasn't sure what or when.  I told hubby and my cousin it was there, and it needed to stay there.  We are going to undercoat the car, so it's going to get taped off so it will always be there. 

Very nice. The old sign makers I hire always left a penny in the ones they were proud of.

The women who built our glove at ATT Park left their bras in the thumb.

I remodeled our home, as in was the contractor. It was originally built mostly by my late father-in-law with the trades doing the tough stuff. Everywhere we opened walls we found his pencil math of the studs. Sealed it all back up but I know it's there.