I did get the new driveshaft installed this Monday and have been driving the car quite a bit since. It drives really nice now, no vibration from the drive train anymore!

In fact, this thing is my best driving vehicle at the moment. Has the best fuel mileage too! I got over 20 mpg on the last tank and I was flogging it quite a bit.

Congrats OBWK :cheers:

Great news. Time to Enjoy all your hard work.

Thanks guys!

Oh, and this ones for Ron.....

Attachment 49370

Still giving you a chance man. No actual "Video evidence" yet.

A ten footer, eh? C'mon cupcake :drive: :lol:

what? I'd say his brakes are working just fine.

10ft? That's gotta be around 30'! No wonder it took so long to get your car done. 10 years? Nah, that was only 5! Lucky the guy that did your body gaps had better depth perception than you. :poke: :D

Yeah, who says you need 32" wilwoobrembobears!


Hmmph....I need to find a cheap set of used tires as backups.....

LOL! You guys crack me up!

did you ever get your seats done?

Car turned out great! Engine is my next phase.

Sure did. I guess I forgot to update my thread and post pictures.

The seats are way better than the originals. I put a couple thousand miles on them. They look good and the price was right too. We did have to fab up some pretty snazzy brackets to adapt the bolt pattern to the camaro without making any new holes and still keep the seat low enough to keep my head off the ceiling but we were able to pull it off. I was able to keep the original seat belts as well.

The only thing I don't like is that they wind up a little off-center to the steering wheel but I don't suppose you'd really notice it if you weren't the one to do the fitting and fab. I drove my aunt's 2011 Acadia and noticed it's off too, so no big deal I guess.

I do need to take the brackets back out to paint them one of these days but that probably won't be for a while. Snow on the ground now. Can't wait for spring to drive it again.

ETA: looks like I repeated myself a bit from an earlier post. Did I answer your question Vince? Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?

Seat pictures
 

Any chance you have pics of your seats installed?

Tuned in
 

just because the username is funny

Somewhere. Right now my shop where my car is stored is drifted over with snow. I did reply to your PM though with a fairly accurate description of where the seats sit.

bump for updates

Vince caught me.....

I do have some updates on the way.

I ordered some new forgestar wheels about 6 weeks ago and they are coming in this Friday according to UPS

They are Forgestar 19" CF5V.
Fronts:
19x8.5 +10 offset

Rears:
19x9.5 +6 offset

For lots of good suggestions on the more inexpensive side of wheels and tires for cars like mine you can check out this thread:

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=46383


I've got Bridgstone Potenza S-04 Pole positions being quoted as well as BFGoodrich g-force COMP2. in 245/40R19 for the front and 275/40R19 for the back.

I'm also working on a car audio system centered on an interesting Chinese head unit I picked up:

http://www.autopumpkin.com/car-dvd-p...-free-mic.html

It's powered by android and will be hooked up to a reverse camera, front facing camera (DVR) and my OBD2 port. It can also do pretty much anything an android tablet can do including showing a digital dashboard, clearing DTC's and viewing PID's and logging. I can use Google NAV with a data connection or I can use an offline NAV software as well and not need internet. It will do WIFI as well.

I found some old school car audio goodies at a local shop so the car will also be getting a couple of 12" subs, some vintage NIB Eclipse line source 3 way components and a vintage Soundstream Davinci amplifier to run the system.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...309_171139.jpg

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...309_171154.jpg

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...309_171224.jpg

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...309_171804.jpg

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...309_171945.jpg

I'm about half-way through making some door speaker pods for the 6.5 component woofers and tweeters. Some ahole (a previous owner) already cut holes in my doors so I'll be covering them up with the speaker pods and using the hole for clearance of my speaker magnet. Hopefully I can do a little work on the console and speaker pods tonight. We'll see how it goes.

Sweet dude. Pics all the way...specially of the sound system, dont see enough of those on here imo....:rockin:

Some Updates
 

I've been really busy the last few weeks both with work and with my car. I have several things "in process" but have only completed my column and steering wheel.

Anway, I thought I'd post some pictures of ongoing stuff and especially some of my NRG steering wheel quick release so you guys that might be thinking of one can see how much aditional length it adds and what it looks like.

So, without further ado here's some column and steering wheel pictures:
Attachment 54144
Attachment 54145
Attachment 54146
Attachment 54147

Speaker Pods
 

Next,
I've got some work done on the front door speaker pods.

Step 1, make the template form out of 3/4" MDF.
Attachment 54148
Step 2, make copies of the above form with my POS Home Depot router table and some flush trim bits.
Step 3, attach them to a backing plate with some wedges and hot glue. (sorry, no pix)
Step 4, get some fleece, two-way stretch, or preferably four-way stretch fabric and stretch it over the form so there are no wrinkes (no wrinkes on the front, you can have as many wrinkles on the back as you want!). You can staple it on the back as shown.
You'll end up up with a very organic looking flowing form as seen below after step 5.
Attachment 54149
Step 5, fiberglass resin.
Attachment 54150
This would be a lot smoother but my old resin decided to set too quickly and get a little thick....
Attachment 54151
Step 6, trim excess fabric.
Attachment 54152
Step 7, admire your -still as not yet completed- speaker pods.
Attachment 54153
Attachment 54154

I have a little sanding to do and I may reinforce them with actual fiberglass on the inside later. The general idea though is to cover them with vinyl when they are sufficiently smooth. I think they'll turn out really well and should look like they are made for the car.....afterall, they are.

Next Up Console
 

Here's a sneak preview of my super-secret console build.

This is a mockup out of some thin sheet. The basic shape is there but there will be some changes in height off of the floor and places for my double-din, 2 cup holders and a cell phone. I'm also planning on adding charging ports somewhere.

Attachment 54155

Here is one of the cup holders I'm going to use. It's pretty nice. Stainless steel, two different diameters, and has a cushy bottom. Also, I think they were about $12 a piece, so resonable too.

Attachment 54156

There's still a lot to be done with the console, but I'm really hoping to get some time to work with it more as soon as my sheet metal guy (my uncle) get's some time again.

Interior
 

Nice work on the Speaker enclosures..... now how about some updated pics of those Tiburon seats in your 69???:poke:

What do you mean? You can clearly see a corner of the passenger seat in post #98 and the corner of the drivers seat in post #100.
:action-smiley-027:

Ugh, I keep forgetting about that. I'll get you some.....as soon as I remember. Haha

Where'd you source the cup/drink/beer holders? Like it

Looks like they are $13.48 instead of $12. :D
http://www.boatoutfitters.com/3-5-st...eel-cup-holder
These also come with a self adhesive foam sealing strip attached to the flange.
The nipple on the bottom is a plastic screw on compression fitting for connecting a drain hose (meant for a boat....so). You can just saw it off if you don't like it. I'm going to use the hole to bolt down the console and cup holder at the same time.

What do you think about the extra length added by the NRG adapter. What version did you end up using?

Version 2.5 I believe.

I needed the extra length so I was more than happy with it. I had to move my seats way back so that my legs would fit. That caused me to be too far from the steering wheel. This is much more comfortable.

The stock wheel has quite a dish to it, somewhere over 3 inches, so with the Momo wheel that has barely any dish the location of my wheel is actually only around 1"closer to me.

So, if you are thinking about the NRG system, just watch the dish on various wheels compared to your current wheel.

I've been working a lot on the car lately and have a few updates. I was able to get the new wheels and tires on permanently, finally. I posted the below in my wheel thread as well.

275/40R19's don't really fit which is why it took me so long to make an update to this thread.

I knew I'd have to trim the outer fender lip a little in the rear and that went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, I found that my choice of a 245/40R19 for the front was a bit agressive. It was the diameter that was the problem and it would rub on the back of the outer wheel well opening. Instead of messing with that, I just ordered 245/35R19's which fixed the problem.

Well, I thought I was home free but I then noticed some squeaking during fairly mild cornering and there was a definite rubbing going into driveways and such. It turns out that the rear tires were rubbing on the inner fender when the car was off square. So, if one wheel traveled downwards and the other traveled upwards, the higher tire would rub on the inner fender.

I thought maybe it wasn't too bad and I could do a little "massaging" but I found it was pretty bad actually, bad enough that I had to "micro tub" it, (at least that's what I'm calling it). Basically we cut out a portion of the inner fender and then I tested it by putting a 4" thick block of wood under a front tire and then jacking up the rear axle on the spring perch diagonally from the front tire with the block of wood. This showed how bad it really was. I didn't want to mess with a mini tub just yet as there are other panels I'd like to replace when I do that so we did the best we could.

Long story short, we were able to move the shock inwards by about 3/4" on each side and this allowed us to cut out enough metal to get around 1" more out of the inner fender. It's enough, but it's barely enough.

For those wanting to stay stock I can not recommend this tire size. As a matter of fact, I can't believe that you wouldn't have trouble with a 275/40R18 as well. Maybe if you had a lot stiffer suspension and a sway bar? I'm not sure. If you didn't run the chrome/stainless moldings on the outer fender well lip and trimmed it futher and rolled it, you may get the 18" tires to work with a backspacing that moves them out another 5/8" or so....but the 19's? I don't think so.

Anyway, the finished product looks really good:

Attachment 54705

It does need to go lower though. However; I might have to minitub at that point....so I might as well wait until I have more money for suspension and brakes.

Here are some pictures of my Tiburon seats that people (mainly ClassicCamaro above, haha) were asking for.

Attachment 54708
Attachment 54707
Attachment 54706
Attachment 54709

Pardon my dust in the last picture, I was working on my "micro tub" at the time and there was grinding dust everywhere.

With all the other stuff going on; including having to replace every single joint in my front end due to inferior quality garbage, I finally had some time to work on my stereo some more.

Here's the console that we built, no longer naked. I took our finish bent and welded console to a local upholsterer to have it wrapped in leather.

Attachment 54710

Here's a picture of it installed with my Android powered head unit:

Attachment 54711

Here's some fun with my wireless backup camera. I put the car in reverse while it was sitting on the bench (connected to my 12V power supply). It took video of me and didn't break, so it must be decent.

Attachment 54712

I stayed up really late last night trying to get all that stuff (minus speakers and amps) installed. I was still at it at 1AM and just after I buttoned up the dash and everything else I thought I was done. Then I closed the door and the stupid dome and courtesy lights stayed on! Man, I was not in a good mood. I tried to track it down but it was late and I wasn't happy which isn't a good way to get anything done. So I went to bed.

Of course, I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about the wiring all night. I woke up at about 5:30AM had some coffee and got back at it. With a fresh start I found the problem fairly quickly. I used a ground that I shouldn't have. Once I ran a new one I was fine. Of course, then I had to go to work at my real job........sigh.

Hopefully I can get on to the speakers and amps next. After ANOTHER front end alignment and a couple good nights rest anyway.

finaly some pictures of the seats. those look nice in there.

good job on the console too.

:thumbsup: :superhack:

The car is looking great, I have been following along on the progress.
So what are you initial thoughts on the Pumpkin head unit?

:flag2:

Awesome! The brackets you made looked like they worked out great.....these are wide seats at the bottom, they are "offset" which makes mounting them a bit more work. Car is coming together nicely.....hope you can make it to Car Craft Nationals next month!

Thanks Vince!

I'm slowly but surely making upgrades to my (sometimes) running and driving project.

So far so good on the Pumpkin unit. The peripherals have given me a little trouble though, mainly the backup camera that came with it. It works, but it loses the signal sometimes. I think it's because of the wireless design. I' still have a little tweaking to do with that. On the other hand, it's easy to replace it with any decent backup camera anyway so not a big deal.

I was also having some trouble getting the front facing camera to record but that was just some settings that had to be just right. Now I've got that working as well



The video isn't the greatest but this isn't a gopro or anything, it's more of a CYA camera in case you need some evidence. That being said, it's still fun to watch the videos and anytime something interesting happens you can just tap the screen and it will save the last so many seconds of video (you can designate how much) in your permanent memory so that it doesn't get deleted.

The sound from the external mic could probaby use a little work also. I'm not sure if it's the position on the dash that's the problem or just the mic itself. HOWEVER; even with the mic problems you can get an only slightly distorted idea of how the exhaust sounds. (skip to 1:25) I continue to be impressed with the Magnaflow exhaust, particularly with how it is quiet at cruising speed but beastly sounding when you get on it.

I bench tested the head unit before I ever installed it but haven't yet installed speakers in the car to comment about sound quality. Maybe I'll have time this weekend to finish up my speaker pods and at lest get the front stage installed.

I'm not sure if I'll make it over there or not. I've actually never went. I do like to go around to the local car shows, especially the smaller ones, and I usually make it to automotion in the Dells. I'll have to check and see if my uncle or one of my friends wants to go with me. I'm not yet sure when I'll be in Taiwan either but it'll be somewhere near that time frame.

:popcorn2:

When you first posted about that head unit I looked them up and was impressed with price to option ratio, realizing that it was not a typical name brand. After reading your report on it I am willing to give it a try. I have been one to try and do things a little different than the norm. Did you buy the extra cameras or was that part of the deal?
I am planning on mounting mine down low in front of a 2002 Camaro console similar to your setup.

:ups:

When I purchased it, the backup camera was part of the deal, as well as the external mic. I paid extra (but it was pretty cheap) for the front DVR camera which plugs into one of the USB ports on the head unit. I just thought that if I bought it from the same seller, hopefully it would work without much difficulty. Otherwise, there's no reason you couldn't try another USB camera.

This guy does a good video review of the same unit I have, and below his youtube video is a link to the XDA dev forum thread on this type of unit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIeQHTiuHSM

It's a few months since I've purchased this thing and there may be a better/faster/sexier one out there now so you might want to check into that as well.

Also, I did install the rooted firmware on my unit so I'm not running the stock ROM at the moment.

I guess the biggest thing to remember with these type of head units and Chinese electronics like this in general is that there will be glitches and it won't be as refined as other options out there; however, knowing that going in, it's still well worth the trials and tribulations for the number of cool features you get.

ETA: Oh! If you do buy it, make sure to get the mounting "cage" from them too. I hear that it's just a little bit different in size from a standard double din and that getting the mounting kit from them will save you some headaches. I bought their mouting kits and I still had to sand a little on the cage to get my head unit to slide nicely in and out.

What rims do you have on your car? Hard to tell from the pics?

They are 19" Forgestar CF5V wheels.

You can see a few more pictures in this thread as well as some good discussion on more budget orientated wheel options:
https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=46383

I was perusing my old thread as I'm onto another build and looking for part numbers I may have posted. Anyone remember the GM part number for the doohickey that bolts in just above your oil filter that you can tap off of for a pressure gauge. I used one from a corvette that already comes from GM with the drilled and tapped hole in it.

This thingy!
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...ical-zoil1.jpg

I suppose this wouldn't be complete without a Camaro update!
I switched to an Entropy radiator and that took care of my cooling problems. The other one I had, had holes in it. Probably from the factory. Also, because the fill was on the same side as the inlet from the engine and the flow too slow through the radiator (so it seems to me), everything would go out my overflow at WOT.

Other than that, I've been driving the heck out of it. I haven't decided if or when I'll do suspension upgrades yet. I'm not in a hurry, I'm just enjoying it. BTW, 22MPG highway!

Yay! Found it.

GM 12551587

Oil Filter Adapter Cover