Lateral-g Forums - Chad's 68 Camaro V3.0 build. LS3 & TCI goodies

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Yeah, if Jake and Mike would have stayed out of NOLA I would have, along with a bunch of other scenerios that could have played out. In the end it was my average score of 54 in D&E that killed me. If you figure in the forth even in NCM it's more like 49, hard to make that up on the track.

I plan to do NJMP for sure, bummed there is no Charlotte next year. I hope Jimi can find another location not brutally far from the east coast. I may do One Lap of America, depends on if the route I saw is true.

I have some good help coming on board next year, we'll see where the money runs out. Being the "everyman's Underdog car" has a lot of appeal to a lot of people and therefore sponsor help.

Oooo One Lap, I've been day dreaming about doing that one!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen (Post 648639)

Oooo One Lap, I've been day dreaming about doing that one!

Chad you have a great setup for it now. Go win the Vintage class! :thumbsup:

I've been so behind on updating this thread for all of the events I did in 2016 that I decided to start a blog and turn my race season update into a blog post.

https://www.autoxandtrack.com/2016-a...-season-recap/

I competed in four major series that have season championships
1) Optima Ultimate Street Car (2 overall event podium finishes, 4th overall in GTV, and invited to the OUSCI)
2) NMCA West Hotchkis Autocross (a few podium finishes and overall Classic Muscle Hotchkis cup winner)
3) Cal Club SCCA Autocross (lots of first place finishes and 2nd for season championships)
4) SDR SCCA Autocross (lots of first place finishes but attend enough events to qualify for the season championship)

Overall it was an amazing year for me and the Camaro!

Pretty long blog post mostly focused on my racing but I appreciate any feedback.

http://www.autoxandtrack.com/wp-cont...age-edited.jpg

Help needed w install!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen (Post 646565)

I've been eyeballing hood vents for quite a while and was stoked when Trackspec released a set of vents specifically designed for the 67-69 Camaro cowl hood.
http://trackspe.nextmp.net/1st-gener...d-louvers.html

I just installed a set on my painted steel cowl hood and wanted to share the install.

Here is the hood off the car with the supplied templates taped down. The template is the same outer diameter as the vent and has "cut line" cutouts where you need to cut. Trackspec recommended using a grinder with a "thin cut" cutoff wheel.

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psppw2uhfr.jpg

I decided on hood vent placement based on three variables. 1) I wanted the vents placed inboard towards the center of the hood to avoid cutting the strength rib running down the sides of the hood.
Chad, I have an AMD SS hood and there seems to be another brace running from the front to the back for bolting on the SS trim stuff, and this brace is between the inner structure and the hood skin, the R and L relief/bracing of the hood looks exactly like your cowl hood. SO there is THREE layers of metal on a SS hood ... and should the vent rivets go through all of these?? Seems thick? Should be ok cutting into this brace for the short distance needed??
See this pic for the rib:
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...pska4z9za3.jpg

2) Placing the vents closer to the front of the hood but behind the radiator fan shroud opening and 3) far enough foward so that the inside front rivet would not have to pass through the small bump in the below circled area and instead be flat.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...pst0ngyndn.jpg

The angle grinder worked well. The paint about 1/8" from the cut line was burned in spots but is easily covered by the hood vent. I did some basic edge prep and taped off the cut openings about 1/8" back on top and bottom and hit it with touch up spray paint to keep it from rusting. Also, because my hood understructure was body color this helped pain some of the now exposed understrcuture so it would be red when looking though the vent from the top of the hood.

Following the template means you have about at least 1/4" larger hole than the louver part of the vent. This gives you room to position just right. We then taped it down and proceeded to drill and rivet the louver. My louvers matched the slop of the hood perfectly side to side. However front to back the vent was slightly bowed more than my hood. Therefore, when drilling and riveting I started at one end and installed one at a time so that as the vent laid down and conformed to the hood I didn't have to worry about the last set of holes getting out of alignment which might have happened if you drilled all the holes and then installed the rivets. Drill slow and apply light pressure! Will help minimize any jagged metal on the hole exit.That is a very good tip and I'll definetly use it. Didn't I see somewhere some black rivets someone ordered from a vendor instead of the supplied rivets, do you have a p/n?
Again, does the rivets attach through the vent, hood skin and the bracing metal, seems thick no?
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psvg4vyd5i.jpg

Here are some pics of the finished product.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...pswettgeoz.jpg

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psjli34tiq.jpg

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psvvamfx9f.jpg

Chad, wanted to get my Track Spec extractor kit installed and came across some differences with the cowl and an SS hood. Please see comments in RED.

Michael

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonar Chief (Post 652564)

Chad, wanted to get my Track Spec extractor kit installed and came across some differences with the cowl and an SS hood. Please see comments in RED.
Michael

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonar Chief (Post 652564)

Chad, I have an AMD SS hood and there seems to be another brace running from the front to the back for bolting on the SS trim stuff, and this brace is between the inner structure and the hood skin, the R and L relief/bracing of the hood looks exactly like your cowl hood. SO there is THREE layers of metal on a SS hood ... and should the vent rivets go through all of these?? Seems thick? Should be ok cutting into this brace for the short distance needed??

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonar Chief (Post 652564)

That is a very good tip and I'll definitely use it. Didn't I see somewhere some black rivets someone ordered from a vendor instead of the supplied rivets, do you have a p/n?
Again, does the rivets attach through the vent, hood skin and the bracing metal, seems thick no?

Trackspec will supply either raw or black rivets, you just need to specify. My kit also came with a mix of short and long rivets. You need both. There will be areas of the hood where the rivet needs to go through both the hood skin and bracing and spots where it will go through just the hood skin. The long rivets should be long enough to do 3 layers of sheet metal as long as they are all laying flush. Its not too thick as long as you have the correct rivets.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen (Post 652621)

In my amateur opinion there is no problem cutting into that third layer of metal specific to the SS hoods given that flat hoods and cowl hoods don't have this and are plenty strong. As long as the ribs along the perimeter aren't cut you should be fine. See below for discussion of rivets.

Trackspec will supply either raw or black rivets, you just need to specify. My kit also came with a mix of short and long rivets. You need both. There will be areas of the hood where the rivet needs to go through both the hood skin and bracing and spots where it will go through just the hood skin. The long rivets should be long enough to do 3 layers of sheet metal as long as they are all laying flush. Its not too thick as long as you have the correct rivets.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Chad, thanks for the insight! I didn't realize TrackSpec would offer black rivets, guess I didn't ask ...

As far as the three layers going on I was worried about pulling all three together and distorting the surface layer, guess I'll have to make sure there are no gaps between layers before riveting them together.

Chad thanks for helping I appreciate your wisdom, pics to follow ...

Michael

Chad, one more question ... went back and read your tuff testing on the hood and you mentioned that the position directly behind the radiator was best for the cowl hood and the sides were the next best.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/ptKNOs.jpg
This position is 8.5" from the front ... doable but efficient??

Do you have the measurements from the front of the hood to just behind the shroud? I don't have a reference on the car and wondered if that was doable? The SS hood is flatter going down the center and these vents would work if they were in front of the SS louvers.

Thanks for doing the hard work for us ...

Michael

I can measure my set up tonight when I get home. Though it may vary based on the size of your shroud. I vaguely recall it being about 14" but let me double check.

Thanks Chad, I measured Art's 67 SS last nite with the shroud it's around 13" from the peak of the hood. So I decided to delete the SS tray on the hood (more body work, grrr!) and move the vents further back than shown, 13" or 14"

Got some work to do now ...

Michael

Chad,

What's your ride height at? Your stance is damn near perfect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jr (Post 652739)

Chad,

What's your ride height at? Your stance is damn near perfect.

Sorry for the late reply. The wheel well lips at the 12:00 position are just under 26" from the ground

About time for some updates to this thread don't you think Chad? :rules:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSLance (Post 655623)

About time for some updates to this thread don't you think Chad? :rules:

Oh I'm just a little bit behind. Damn work for blocking Lateral-g.net!

Lets see.

San Diego CAM Challenge:
I had a huge win at the San Diego CAM Challenge. My first event ever in which I put down a faster time than Mary Pozzi. Winning the CAM challenge was so unexpected I didn't even register for contingencies!

A full write up of the event with pics is here: San Diego CAM Challenge

Video of my best run from the CAM Challenge:

Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car 2017 Season Opener
Another successful road trip in the Camaro. In the three competitive driving elements I placed 2nd in GTV but design and engineering gave my good friend Efrain a 20 point edge which dropped me to 3rd. Still happy to be on the podium at my first Optima event.

Full recap of that event with pics is here: Optima Ultimate Street Car Las Vegas

Some fun video of catching lap traffic on the road course at that event.

Autocross double header with NMCA West and SCCA ProSolo!
This was a super fun and action packed weekend. My 2nd SCCA national level event of 2017 and my 2nd time being the fastest CAM car. I won the NMCA classic muscle class on Saturday and came in 2nd place Sunday.

I highly encourage folks to check out a ProSolo to get a taste of side by side autocross mixed with drag racing. Read my full event report here: SCCA Fontana ProSolo

Video of my fastest left and right runs at the ProSolo

Recap of the NMCA with pics and cool story about racing family here: NMCA West Autocross

https://www.autoxandtrack.com/wp-con...ntana-2017.jpg

I held fastest time of the day for most of the day on Saturday which was freeking awesome. first time that has ever happened with a car from the classic muscle class. Sadly I ended up 4th overall. Here is video of that lap.

Don't forget boys and girls. You can have awesome sounding videos too. Check out my mic guide here: GoPro External Mic

All of the racing I've done in 2017 already wore out a set of the new Falken RT615K+ tires. With all of the experience I've had on the old Falkens and now using up a set of the new Falkens I decided to write a review.

The full review is here: Falken RT615K+ Review

The short answer is that the new Falken tire is measurable better than the old.

Finally, some folks may have noticed a splitter in some of my pictures. I built a simple splitter last year and have been running it for a while now. I kept getting questions about it and why I chose to build it out of plywood. So I wrote how to article here: how to build a DIY plywood splitter

As I talk about in the article the four main materials I've seen people make splitters out of are: 1/8" aluminum plate, alumalite, carbon fiber and plywood. After a bunch of research I decided to go with plywood. As it is way stronger than alumalite, way lighter than 1/8" aluminum and way cheaper than carbon fiber it seemed like the best option.

https://www.autoxandtrack.com/wp-con...of-plywood.jpg

I also attended LSFest West last weekend. I'm still working on a full event writeup but my normally trouble free Camaro decided to make me work for it this time!

Until I get the write up completed here is a video of my finnally taking my pro touring Camaro down the drag strip. I've owned this car 11 years and people always want to know how fast it goes in the 1/4 mile. As if that is all old muscle cars do...

u meen these cars do more than just the 1/4 mile? lol...12 second car, i can live with that.
I wish i could of attended that event, daughters college grad #1, cars in paint #2. Went to Luftenhalten in Long Beach sunday before moving her out of her dorm.

It was great watching your progress and success on IG and the like. Love your car, always will. It is a true PRO_TOURING machine. Congrats, til the next time

I really enjoyed the splitter article.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jr (Post 658807)

I really enjoyed the splitter article.

Glad to hear it! I'm having fun with the site but it's a lot of work. I have a new respect for folks that do websites on the side :)

Chad, you're the real deal dude! No trailer, a car that never leaves you stranded, and driving to all these events is just epic. I hope my car treats me well like yours has to you!:topic:

Congrats on the Invite from LSFest! everyone I've talked to says get rid of the external fan, it cant take the high RPMS.

I can't believe i've neglected this thread for over a year! Amazing what having this site blocked at work will do lol.

I'm still around and charging hard with the Camaro. I've started doing actual episodic content with my YouTube channel instead of just quick fastest lap videos. You guys might enjoy the latest episodes.

Awesome stuff thanks for sharing.

Another episode covering competing in the NMCA autocross season finale and going for the classic muscle season championship.

Gonna have to save this for later. Thanks for sharing.