Looks great! :thumbsup:

X2!! :thumbsup:

im speechless!!! so heres a smiley translation for how i feel! :drool: :rockin: :_party: :beavis: :cheering:


i would LOVE to help ya button everything up on the car this weekend...
haven't been motivated to work on my car but been jonesin for some garage fun time!
call me dood.

Lookin good Todd!!!!!!! Like the rear seat

I could use the help...all subject to getting the car back. I'll call ya if it's done and I don't have to sweep floors for a month to pay the tab.:rofl:

Looks great, I really like the materials.

Looking Sweet Todd !

Wow you're not messin around with that interior! :thumbsup:

Count me in! :thumbsup:

Thanks boys...it turned out kick aise!!! I beat her a little. It's hard to find a place to open it up around here without getting out of town. It's much quieter and the sound system is fantstic.:cheers:

Put her up on jack stands last night since the weather has sucked the last few days for a shake down. 1500 miles and I just wanted to look everything over underneath since it's all brand new. I decided to change the rear end grease as a precautionary measure. I had some gear oil coming out the vent and found that it was slightly overfull. I didn't have a 5/8 allen when I filled it originally and eyeballed it from the cover plug. Fluid looked good with no red flags. I have already swapped the tranny fluid and engine oil and both looked fine. I found the rear e brake cables a tad tight since the ride height is lower than when I set it up. It would have been really tight under full throttle.:_paranoid I adjusted them and they have plenty of give now. I also put in the factory clutch pedal bumper to lower the clutch pedal positioin and adjusted the pedal travel. I had used a rubber grommet since I didn't have the part. Feels really good and more comfortable with the lower pedal height. I did a bolt check on the undercarriage and looked for leaks. The only leak is the rear main seal drip. Not happy about that but I am happy with the power and everything else. I didn't assemble it and it's more of an annoyance than anything. It's not all over anything underneath so I should be ok unless it gets worse. I also tweaked a plug wire that I had replaced since the build that got burn't since I ran them under the headers. (What a pain in the aise) All and all very pleased. I'll take apart my 8 micron fuel filter one of these days to check for debris. I also need to work on my fuel venting. At a full tank it does overflow out the vent for a short time which I know others are fighting with Ricks tanks. I need to figure out a discriminating valve set up or something. I don't want to breach the trunk since it's so damn pretty now:D Next are the photos I've been promising. I have a killer camera and the rest of the week is 60's and sunny. Should have some good stuff coming very soon. Shes a beast and a blast to drive.

That's awesome. I look forward to the pictures.
She looks like an awesome car to drive.:thumbsup: :cheers:

Sounds like you have had a blast driving the car, and it is only getting better. Can't wait for the pictures.

Woke up to a beautiful day with 70's and no wind. Scott was kind enough to feature my car this month. Went and had lunch at the hot rod grill, drove out to Calville bay, around the lake, up through Boulder City. Just had a fantastic cruise. Started to pick up a misfire around the lake. Well about a mile outside of boulder she died on me. Checked everything to no avail. Figured out I had no spark. I noticed when it died the tach was all over the map. An hour later the flat bed showed up and I get her home. Checked spark at the coil and no dice. Had a feeling the distributor gear was sheared. Pulled the cap and the rotor wasn't moving. Here is what I found. What do you want to bet it should have a melonized gear. Love to ring that engine builders neck:D
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ck1969/011.jpg

Checked and it was supposed to have a cast iron gear according to Crane Cams. Could be worse! Love the performance of the motor but they really dropped the ball here.

That sucks dude.

This kinda eerily reminds me of that old jinx of whoever was on the new Madden NFL video game for the year got hurt that year.

Naaaah...just human error. Glad it wan't mine.:cheers:

It always sucks to se you baby on the back of a tow truck! At least it wasn't worse!!

It's the little things like this that keep this hobby exciting. Fun huh? lol...

I've decided to go with the GM melonized gear. That is what GM recommends for there cast rollers. Mine has a cast gear so it should give me the longevity I want.

I added my video to the feature, here it is.
http://www.screencast.com/t/3SxDUi0j

Awesome video.
Car looks killer!!! Sounds great too.:thumbsup: :cheers:

AWESOME CAR AND AWESOME JOB TODD!!

It's nice to see that your dream car is finally a reality. As a builder and lifelong Camaro guy, I know these builds take time. Of the many Camaro's I've owned over the years, each one always gives me new ideas. What you've incorporated here is just incredible. It can sometimes be difficult for an idea to come to life as it can somewhat get lost in translation and other people sometimes have ideas that can cloud the owners (your) true vision. Your attention to detail is top notch and you stayed the course with the car you've had in your head all these years. As with all builds, there were hiccups along the way and you've found that parts are not always what they should be. As a builder, those little gremlins drive me nuts.

It's good to see someone who doesn't build these cars for a living go through the process. I've had several customers help-out with their own projects over the years and they all tell me afterwards that they never had any idea that these cars required so much work. Some of the shows on the tube give people the impression that these cars can be done in a week. So many things can happen along the way that are out of your control and all you can do is try to rectify the situation. As a builder, that can be tough to explain to a customer since they only see it as a delay. You worked through your issues and ended up with an INCREDIBLE CAMARO. Congrats on the "Car of the month" award, you deserve it.

When I finally get my butt out to LasVegas, I would like to come bye and see that "Beast" you built.

P.S. My wife saw the pictures and loves the Camaro. Her exact words were "WOW, that's beautiful" :thumbsup:

Nick, your tact never ceases to amaze me. I really appreciate the comments. You are absolutely right about the difficulty of making these cars happen. Especially when you cross over into the custom territory. It's also one thing to have a vision and another for it to look good and function as intended. I spent countless hours hiding everything I could, covering bare wires and routing them together. Thanks for finding this outstanding car for me. That was a huge peice of the puzzle. That car you built for the California kid is what got my wheels spinning again. I'd be happy to take you for a spin when you make it out.

Hi Todd just saw the video, Nice! You did a nice job on it. Your car looks great I like the seats .
Wayne

Nice job on the video, and even better job on the car. Congrats on the monthly feature.

Realy nice video! I am in love with your ride! :lol:

Appreciate it:cheers: I am posting this more in an attempt to help someone else not get stranded on the side of the road. As I posted on the last page I sheared my distributor gear last weekend at about the 1600 mile mark. The engine was built and dyno tuned by a Nascar engine builder. The performance has always been excellent. I did start to notice a little drop off in power the last few times I drove it before the failure(including the video footage) I had needed to turn up the idle due to low idle not long ago as well. It all ads up now. I hadn't timed the car in quite some time. With the distributor gear wear I bet I lost 5-10 degrees of timing. Anyway....after doing my research and reviewing my engine file I determined that my billet hydraulic roller cam had a pressed on cast iron distributor gear. That is a great thing, but the engine builder used a bronze gear.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...9/121-8471.jpg
It's basically an aluminized brass gear made for billet steel cams without a pressed on cast gear. It's also used frequently by the drag guys. It's absolutely not meant for the street especially on a cast gear.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...121-8561_2.jpg
This is the correct gear for my application. It's a GM melonized cast iron distributor gear. It should give me the reliability we all need for the street. It comes on most GM hei's and so forth.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ck1969/020.jpg
I cut open my last two oil filters and strangly enough the last one had very little debris where the one before had a decent amount of brass. It looks like the oil filter did a great job of catching the wear. I had changed it 4 times in the 1600 miles.

I was a little pissed that the builder put in the wrong gear. Of course there is a possibility of some bearing damage. After many calls and an email he finally called me. He swore my engine had a steel gear and needed the bronze gear. Until I told him which camshaft it had. He admitted they let it get past them and it was there fault. He also said he thought I would be fine but he would stand behind the motor if I have a failure. I changed the oil again and dumped a couple quarts to flush out any debris.
While I was messing around changing the distributor gear and retiming the engine, I decided to fix a seap around the crancase ventilation fitting that started in the last 200 miles.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...1969/001-2.jpg
Gotta love a big block with the valve covers off with a set of dart pro 1 heads and comp rollers.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...9/IMG_0524.jpg
Hear is the fitting that dribbled. I used a dab of blue loctite on the threads.(Suck it the inside fell onto the rockers at 6k) and used some silcone on the washer. Should do it.

Timed her at 36 total and 18 degree intial and went for a 80 mile road test.:D :D Never run better! Car is ****** sick.

I need a fix. Think you can hook me up one of these weekends? :unibrow:

Damn dude. I know your engine builder puts out a ton of crate motors, but that is unacceptable. He damn well better stand behind the motor if it fails.

Glad it's running at its best now. Nice work.

Glad you got it running, and even running better. Nice to have the builder stand behind what happened.

Absolutely...I've never heard anyone complain about the performance of his engines. When it comes to getting an engine when promised or getting a call back, that is a different story. I'll change the oil in another 500 miles. That will tell the story. I was joking around saying I'd just turn it into a 540 if it needs to come apart. I can use my crank and rods.:D Just would need a block and some pistons. Injected all aluminum big block...my wallet is chapped just thinking about it. :_paranoid

You've got a winner under the hood for sure! Nice to know the builder stands behind his work. Absolutely love the sound of that sucker!!! Now I just need a ride...we need to cruise.

Possibility of Friday afternoon or Sat morning. How you looking?

Can't do Friday, wife is taking me out for my B-Day. But Saturday morning would work. What time?

You guys are killing me here ,talking about going for rides :drool:

Happy B day man...9 or so works for me.

glad to hear they fixed ya up bud!

theres a meet sunday evening, if your interested check the board for info.

Laurie says I can't go Sat. How's about I give you a call Sunday or Monday and we work out a time.

Bigger man than me admitting that in public.:D Sounds good man..