My 68 Camaro Project - Page 6 - Lateral-g Forums

jasonz28camaro · #51 01-31-2019, 06:48 PM

I chose to leave the frame rails alone and not mess with the metal around these areas because its in good condition and I'm about done with cutting out spot welds... I have access to both sides of the trunk pan where I'm but welding it all into place so it should work out fine. Got some weld through primer were needed and proceeded on.

Got it all cut out and the fit is very good. Only took about 20 attempts taking the new pan in and out until I got it where I wanted haha. Used some sheet metal screws and got it tacked in and then welded the gas tank supports from the bottom.

jasonz28camaro · #52 01-31-2019, 06:56 PM

Got it all fully welded in and then ground down the welds. While I was there I also took off all the additional Dynamat off the trunk area above the frame rails.

Only Issue I had to deal with was the Ridetech Airbar still being installed. I did not want to remove this and the pan just about sits right on top of the bar so I used a bunch of 1/8" aluminum spacers between the bar and trunk pan so I did not weld to it on accident, it also helped to keep things cool and provided a little backing to weld over.

jasonz28camaro · #53 01-31-2019, 07:15 PM

Got a couple of shots form under the car. That good penetration will hopefully keep the trunk from falling off haha. As you can see the weld is sitting just about on top of the airbar so I'll need to grind this down later on next time I remove the bar.

I seam sealed the areas inside the trunk needed attention and primed it for the time being.

**DWC** · #54 02-01-2019, 06:47 AM

That turned out great. Nice work. And yes, drilling spot welds sucks...

Daniel

CMillwheels · #55 02-02-2019, 09:20 AM

Looks awesome man! I feel your pain on drilling spotwelds and removing Dynamat. Both jobs are terrible.

Chris

jasonz28camaro · #56 02-02-2019, 04:08 PM

Thanks guys! Still not done yet but no more spot welds or Dynamat for the next couple of weeks. I may come across some Dynamat when I do the subframe connectors. I'd much rather drill out spot welds than mess with Dynamat though haha.

I have some more photos I'll post up later. I had to go to work and when I get home I'll wrap up the rear panel mess I made and clean up the filler I applied int he trunk area.

jasonz28camaro · #57 02-07-2019, 10:26 PM

I took a small break from the trunk and focused on some of the patch work on the quarters the local shop did. I removed the paint and welded some pinholes along their shotty welds and fixed other areas like gouges with their cutoff wheel that was hidden in there... After some more welding I ground everything smooth and put some filler on the seams for the time being. While I was doing the filer I also put some on my trunk welds to make it look a little better once its painted later. I still need to go back and sand everything later still.

You can see the pinholes on the PS quarter. I don't have a pic of that side after I filled the pinholes.

jasonz28camaro · #58 02-07-2019, 10:52 PM

I have been looking into accessory drives again and for some reason I'd rather have the ac mounted low to keep everything tucked in and not break the bank. I found a new Holley bracket for the Gen V LT1/4 setups but nobody makes the truck version nor do I want to make a bracket at this time. I think I'm also going to add the ICT power steering pump bracket that sits under the alternator.

I did some research and a good amount of people run the Gen V compressors on their swaps and they do so with Vintage Air too. A guy from Pro-Touring shed some light on how to make the variable displacement compressor on the Gen V compressors run in the fixed displacement mode. Its very simple if I understand correctly... just supply 12v to the variable displacement valve (2nd plug on compressor) when the compressor clutch is activated and it will operate like a fixed compressor. From my understanding of the LS3 style compressors is that they are variable and they do not have an extra plug like the gen V compressors to send the 12v to.

I spoke to Speartech about this and they are not too familiar with the AC compressors but they did tell me that when they were first doing the Gen V harnesses a customer requested his harness to be setup for the factory compressor and they did so. The customer reached out to them with a problem, his compressor was not accepting a charge. They determined the problem with this is that the valve needed to see 12v in order for the compressor to work correctly. I'm assuming the factory AC system sends some sort of signal on and off to make it variable or something along those lines? So we will see if a constant 12v when the clutch is activated will get the job done? Speartech said they now setup their harnesses using the factory compressor so that the valve sees 12v when the clutch is activated. They also recommend a Sanden compressor rather than the factory if possible so we'll see. If all else fails I can find a way to stick a Sanden unit in there later down the road.

Now I have cut the ICT motor mount adapters to fit the compressor. The compressor sits snug against the block.

**tubbed69** · #59 02-08-2019, 08:59 AM

Great work,keep the pics coming

**Spiffav8** · #60 02-09-2019, 10:59 AM

Looking good!!!