Carl,

Did you upgrade the magna charger?

The TVS1900 has been on since October 2010.

Carl, very good write up! I am subscribed also. If you need any help with this project feel free to give me a holler, I am in Whittier CA, not too far:-) Best of luck, great story, and a much belated thank you to your father for his service:thumbsup:

Brakes. Someone once told me "You have to stop before you can go." The One Lap makes for many different needs in a car, and brakes are no different. They need to function reliably on big, high-speed road courses like Daytona and VIR, but still be able to stop the car on the highway while stone cold.

Over the years I've had reasonably good luck with the basic performance of the braking system. At times the pedal was too touchy or too hard, but the stopping capability had been well suited for most events and street driving. One Lap is a different deal, so a phone call to Tobin at Kore3 was in order. Tobin had given good advice in the past as to proper parts selection and setup, and he has real-world experience with using the parts he sells.

Like much of the Camaro build many of the parts are budget friendly. The front calipers are C5 that were purchased new from a member advertising in the For Sale section, supported by Kore3 mounting brackets and hardware. The rears are all early 4th-gen Z28. Though not what I would really like to have, they have served well, but my reliability-centric brain has been going over everything in the car, so the front hubs, bearings, spindles, calipers, and pads are all up for inspection, rebuilding, and upgrading.

The first was to inspect the spindles for damage and wear, and fortunately they were in good condition. The hubs however were OE GM hubs purchased years ago used. Though they appeared to be in good condition there was no way to tell without additional inspection methods to determine if there were any other concerns. It was time to upgrade to a set of aluminum hubs with new bearings and hardware. The Kore3 hubs come black anodized to resist corrosion, tapped for ARP studs, have the bearing races installed, and include a sealed dust cap. All that made installation prep very easy.

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/8922/dsc02660gp.jpg

Another item discussed with Tobin was the use of a solid spacer to set the bearing preload. By using the spacer spacer kit, which includes a variety of shims, the preload of the hub can be set to a target endplay.

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/7476/dsc02658bw.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img27/4884/dsc02663hp.jpg

In this case Tobin suggested 0.0015" based on real-world experience. This is very important since the thermal expansion rate of the aluminum hub and the steel spindle shaft are different. Plus, the hub is outer ring rotation, so the bearing cups and hub will be hotter than the spindle shaft as well. Setting the preload takes a bit more work than just turning the nut and setting a cotter pin, but the result is a much more controlled. There is very little wheel movement when completed. Below is how the endplay was measured using a dial indicator set on the caliper bracket.

http://imageshack.us/a/img17/6123/dsc02664t.jpg



With that done attention was then set on the calipers. Brake fluid heating occurs from the transfer of heat from the brake pad backing into the caliper piston. There are various ways to help reduce the heat transfer, and one of them is to change the caliper piston material that does not transfer heat as quickly as the OE aluminum piston. Doug Rippie Motorsports sells stainless pistons that fit the bill and requires no other changes. Add in a new set of $8 caliper piston and dust seals and the calipers are good to go.

http://imageshack.us/a/img51/7233/dsc02650sa.jpg

The pads proved to be more difficult to deal with. During October testing at Buttonwillow we used on the advice of Tobin a Hawk DTC30 pad. Tobin warned that the DTC30 needs heat to work well, so when cold they take additional pedal effort. On the track and warmed up they were great, but when cold they did not work well. We're going to go back to the Hawk HP+, which have worked well on the street and track. We won't be doing 20-minute sessions on any of the tracks were going to so there's no big concern, but there will be more testing before we hit the road for South Bend. Though some might consider the DTC30 testing a failure, I consider it a success. Tobin's words rung true, the cold stopping capability is not acceptable for me, so we move back to what we know.

The front rotors are C5, but they are a super-beefy DBA part that Tobin recommended. They are serious pieces. If I hurt these things the rest of the car will likely be on fire.

http://imageshack.us/a/img820/4323/dsc02665u.jpg

The master cylinder now on the car is a manual 7/8" standard from a 1995 Dodge Spirit (Thanks JR.) Though the pedal travel is a bit longer than what I would like the effort and feedback are good.

The brake fluid will be the NAPA heavy-duty fluid that I've always used. The fluid has only boiled at one event that was really hard on the brakes. Since that time the front caliper and caliper piston material have changed. Add in some brake ducting and fluid boiling should not be a factor.

During testing in October Jon and I did six 20-minute sessions on the big course at Buttonwillow. The only thing we did to the car was put in fuel. The brakes worked well without ducting, so that should help to offset the change to the HP+ pad.

Up next, safety harnesses, hardware, and HANS

The Deist harnesses that were in the Camaro were the traditional five-point type with a "Ball Buster" submarine belt. There were several problems with them that needed to be addressed. First, the submarine belt was not attached properly, hence making it more of a liability instead of a safety device. Second, they were awful to adjust, being almost impossible to make some adjustments. Third, they were not set up for a HANS device.

Since the car is both a street and fun track day car it would be nice to have twin restraint systems, a simple three-point inertia-reel retractable for street and a multi-point harness for track. Fitting both at the same time is a bit difficult since there's not a lot of room to put multiple mounting points for harness systems. Like many things having two brains work on something is better than one, and Jon came up with an idea that worked out great.

The first thing to choose was what type of harness is desired. In Jon's C5 he uses an aftermarket kit that mounts a six-point harness mounted in a Formula style where the sub belts wrap around the legs and clip to the same area as the lap belt. The advantage to the Formula mount is that no hole is needed in the seat. If a racing seat was used, where the seat bottom is thinner and better suited for bottom mount, then the mount would have been under the seat. So, a Schroth six-point HANS type harness was ordered. The harness is nice for multiple drivers since not only do they adjust easily, but there is also a handle on the adjusters.

http://imageshack.us/a/img832/7638/dsc02742qh.jpg

Jon and I are close enough in size to allow sharing of a HANS device. In the C5 the shoulder belt does not seat well into the HANS belt channels. The channels are intended to be used with a 2" wide belt. The Schroth shoulder belts are a hybrid design where the belt on the chest is 3", then reduces to a 2" belt for the HANS. I'm surprised there are not more designs like this because it makes so much sense. I really wanted to buy a harness from one of the OLoA sponsors but they did not offer this design.



Mounting the belts to the floor was where two brains worked better than one. The bracket kit in the C5 is from Brey-Krause. It includes a driver and passenger side bracket kit. Jon did not use the passenger brackets, and to my good fortune they almost fell into the Camaro. Both brackets needed the floor bolt holes opened up by 0.062" to fit the OE shoulder bolt, and the outboard bracket needed just a bit of non-structural relief to allow it to properly rotate. Even the three-point retractable went over the top of these brackets with no fuss. It clears the door and the outboard side and aligns just right to the seat bottom/back hinge point for both. For the transit stages we'll just unclip or lay the harness off to the side and use the retracts. If I was starting a completely new build a different direction would likely be used, but this was an easier than expected modification. Now I have to buy Jon a new set of belt anchors......

Inboard bracket
http://imageshack.us/a/img716/5651/dsc02743cj.jpg

Outboard bracket
http://imageshack.us/a/img28/4558/dsc02745sq.jpg

Inside clip between console and seat
http://imageshack.us/a/img152/2471/dsc02746ot.jpg

We'll have to sit on the sub belt adjusters while on-track but they are not uncomfortable. We're using a piece of carpet anti-slip foam to lay on seat before getting in. This also helps hold us in the seat as well.

One of the rules of One Lap is that one must carry everything in the car or a trailer. The Three Amigos (James, Jimi, and I) are going to do a bit of parts and tools sharing, but there’s still not a lot of room in a 1st-gen. So, out came the rear seat to make more luggage space. The carpet was replaced when the electrical was installed, so to keep costs down we re-used the the aft-half from the old carpet set to cover the exposed floor. Besides the seat belt holes, it fits pretty darn well. A bit of heat to remold and it’s good to go.

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/7985/dsc02740z.jpg

Jon and I also devised a way to store the removable harness bar so that the seats can be reclined during the transit stages. By Day 4 Mary will be wanting to swap transit seats.

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/9408/dsc02737wf.jpg

Jon has used up a bunch of his nine lives, several of them while I was around, so he must use a HANS device to protect his neck. Since I want to stick around too, and the chances of an off-track encounter are higher during One Lap than on typical track days, we are going to share a HANS for this trip. I’ll get one after One Lap, but we both fit in the same size and it will require less space than to back them both.

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/7715/hansu.jpg

"It fits, no problem!" Yeah right.

There are some constants in life. It seems like aftermarket parts are one of them. It's expected that aftermarket parts don't fit right. Maybe it's just me and an over sensitivity to wanting things reasonably correct.

To make the long transit stages a bit more comfortable, and to upgrade the on-track ergonomics, some drivers compartment changes were made. The first was the steering wheel. The Grant wheel was the right size, both in diameter and grip, but it was too slippery and the wrong color. I really like the OLC Momo wheel with the Alcantara covering, so off to the Google search I went and found http://www.leatherwheels.com/. Though Alcantara is not his normal gig, Chris Scow assured he could do the job. When the wheel was done Chris called and said he was a bit disappointed in the work since there was a wrinkle on the back of one of the spokes. It seems that Alcantara stretches more in one direction than another (single vs. dual bias), hence making it more difficult to fit the complex curves. After getting it back I could hardly find a flaw. The workmanship is fantastic and the price reasonable. Now that it is the right color, is much easier to grip, and has the alignment stripe, it's like a whole new wheel. It’s one of those things that made me think, “Why did I wait so long to do this?”

http://imageshack.us/a/img713/769/steeringwheelt.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img845/4789/dsc02667xu.jpg

Next up was to replace the aging stock steering column with a tilt version. A new Ididit column was ordered along with a new Ididit rag joint. Cris at JCG painted the column red to better match the interior.

So it would seem that installing the new rag joint and column hardware should be all that's needed to finish this up, right? It’s a 1st-gen Camaro, unmolested, and the stock steering column fit fine. Not for me. While installing the new column with the rag joint in the only position it could go, the underdash mouting bracket would not line up. Everything was too long. Do I have the right rag joint? According to the catalog and Ididit's customer service, yes. It must be something with the car. Ummm, then why does the stock column, and a second stock column, fit fine? Ugh....

So, out comes the saw to cut down the exposed spline length to shorten the column length, then make a new set screw landing zone. OK, should be good to go, it's late and I want this thing in. Great, it goes in and fits lengthwise! Now, let's tighten the rag joint bolts. Uhhh, why does the flexible rag squeeze out so much? Why are there not compression stops like the stock and DSE rag joint that were on the car? Where are the safety pins that allow steering control even if both fasteners fall out? Ugh.....

After dissecting the Ididit and DSE parts it was found that a marriage of the two could be easily done. By using the side that fits the DSE steering box along with the side that fits the Ididit column, a hybrid joint could be made that has all of the proper installation and safety features. Even the DSE heavy duty flexible rag (far better than the Ididit part) could be used.

http://imageshack.us/a/img26/355/dsc02727gh.jpg

All right, we're ready to go, put the column in, it fits and the rag joint bolts up correctly. Now let's install the firewall seal. Hummm, how come there is so much space around the seal. Uhhh, is it because the column diameter is smaller than stock. What, not even the same diameter? No additional seal or spacer to make up the difference? Nothing. In talking with others this is a normal thing for this column. Ugh....

So here's the new spacer that was needed to make the column the same diameter as the other 500,000 or so 67-8 Camaros that were built. A saw split was used to make installation easier. A dab of silicone will seal up any leaks.

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/5696/dsc02724fk.jpg

Finally, it fits! Maybe as I get older I'm willing to deal with less, but it's tasks like these that make enthusiasts not to enthusiastic about products. Is it really that hard?

Rant off.

The other part added to the car is the new dead pedal. It's big but non-intrusive. The high-beam switch had to be moved to under the clutch pedal but it's still reasonably easy to get to. A guard will be added to keep from kicking the flasher module. The skidtape came from an ebay skateboard shop. A clutch pedal stop is also in there. The accelerator pedal was modified with a piece of aluminum so that some rev-matching can be done.

http://imageshack.us/a/img839/7514/dsc02764t.jpg

In all it's a nicer place to sit, especially with the reworked gauges and steering wheel.

One question... With all the detail your putting into this... How can you possibly stand to have floor mats that far off in color??!?!:hairpullout:


http://imageshack.us/a/img839/7514/dsc02764t.jpg

Factory reproduction! It looks a lot worse in the photos than real life.

I hope so! Cuz it looks like it would match the orange houndstooth quite nicely in the photo. :D

Carl, this is such a cool project on many levels. Many reasonably budget friendly items here too.

The steering wheel, reclining seat, pedal mods .... :trophy-1302: