That looks really nice for a blacksmith!!! lol Keep up the good work!

More work on the "short" cross-member mod
 

I didn't work on the car over the Christmas break because I was out of town for two weeks. Good to get back in the garage!
I got tired of trying to bend the doubler plates over all the wrong things and welded a pipe to my table it really helped.

https://i.imgur.com/MTqE1Ysl.jpg

I cut some slots in the plates to joggled them up over the seat pan. I also drilled a few holes to pull them tight into the corner with some small bolts.

https://i.imgur.com/XvGW7Ybl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JBQI7kDl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5MH9B4tl.jpg

Then some tabs were cut out and tacked up the cross-member brackets.

https://i.imgur.com/AyoQfSal.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YQdKCu1l.jpg

I tacked up a quick transmission support and removed the long cross-member that goes out to the sub-frame - goodbye forever I hope!

https://i.imgur.com/SVKZClol.jpg

I made a simple support to help line up the brackets, marked the sides and cut out the holes in the tunnel. It took quite a while because I didn't know exactly how I was going to do this at first.

https://i.imgur.com/fGUXtobl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/effHcsKl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/r58ZqMjl.jpg

The tabs were trimmed up and tack welded to the doubler plates. This took time taking them in and out of the car many times until it all fit.

https://i.imgur.com/tB8ULnXl.jpg

I started playing with what the cross member pattern will look like. Here is roughly what it will be (half anyway). I need to check all my angles before I cut out the plates for the cross-member. The trans is a bit low in this photo, slightly over 3 degrees down.

https://i.imgur.com/smPpG6Jl.jpg

This week I will weld up the mounts and plates and drill a bunch of holes to prepare to plug weld them into the floor. I will also fab up the short cross-member and get it all welded together and bolted in hopefully.

http://i.imgur.com/MTqE1Ysl.jpg

You and I have the same brand of bender! I respect that.
Great work on the trans mount, your work is always inspiring.

Instead of putting a mount on the transmission in the middle you could weld poly bushings to each end of the cross member instead.

Thanks I appreciate that. I wish I wasn't so slow!

That's a good idea but probably too late for me. I am committed to this setup. I was talking to someone today and what I really would like is a nice soft, factory style clamshell mount on the trans. I will probably try the poly first and see how it works though.

More Cross-Member Work
 

This week I finished the transmission cross-member (almost). I started by finish welding all the brackets and doing a final fit check in the car.

https://i.imgur.com/wlNlMfpl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5pH1d7zl.jpg

Once the fit was good I welded up the front side and drilled all the holes for plug welding.

https://i.imgur.com/nGkArtcl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RvENlXsl.jpg

It took several hours to get all the welds completed and the holes drilled, longer than I expected. It took about an hour per side to get each bracket welded in. Overall, it was pretty easy just time consuming.

https://i.imgur.com/sy5LMmZl.jpg

I cleaned it up a little but it will be under sound mat so I didn’t really need to.

https://i.imgur.com/t9oufpol.jpg

Great to have the tabs and doubler plates welded in.

I cut out the webs for the cross-member with the Makita grinder and a .040 disk one at a time and smoothed them up with a flap wheel. It would be nice to have a band saw but I don’t have the room in my garage.

https://i.imgur.com/feh5g0Fl.jpg

I ended up with one cross-member mount just a little crooked so I had to fit the pieces one at a time.

https://i.imgur.com/PNnRnECl.jpg

Once everything was more-or-less fitted I just tacked it with the MIG. I forgot to turn the gas on so the tacks are pretty sooty!

https://i.imgur.com/NWxqDyRl.jpg

Only thing left to do is finish the welds on the cross-member and it will be done. That should be an easy after work project, 1 or 2 evenings.

https://i.imgur.com/wpQFqVMl.jpg

I am glad to have this behind me. This week I will move on to figuring out the radiator mount and core support mods. This should be a big job because there will need to be a bunch of core support mods to make it fit correctly. It will probably take at least 3-4 weeks (or more). I haven't even thought about how I am going to do it yet!

Trans crossmember looks great. Mind if I copy the idea for my 6 speed swap? I'm at parts collecting phase for a TR6060 swap later this year.

Tu

Unreal craftmanship I am so jelous of you guys that build stuff from scratch, I struggle with brake braket bolts hahaha. looking great can not wait to see what comes next

Sure and make it better so we all gain something. I copied it from Steilow, Dutchboys and Detroit Speed!


Thanks for the comment.

On to the radiator support
 

I finished the cross-member Friday and Saturday. Not much changed, just trimmed it down and added a couple of details. It seems really stiff with the bolts tightened. I will drill the center holes when I know I am happy with the transmission centering.

https://i.imgur.com/W3X9nnzl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JQj7KBml.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nTNsNr9l.jpg

I moved on the radiator support. Just set it on top at first to start planning out what to do. I know the lower part needs to move down several inches so I started by drilling out the spot welds. It was pretty easy because this thing is flat and I could use the drill press.

https://i.imgur.com/6R7eKaLl.jpg

I am going to move the lower part down so it won’t block the core and also so the radiator is protected from road rash. Probably do something like the Dutch Boys did here to let some air through.


https://i119.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0417722e.jpg

I will also post in the PWM thread but does anyone know the mating connector to the Cadillac CTSV fan?

https://i.imgur.com/yM7wHTIl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/G9tFVxTl.jpg

Next week just keep plugging away at the core support.

I made some progress on the radiator support mods for the new radiator. I cut the lower stiffener off the donor core support and cleaned up the rusty bits. Then drilled the spot welds and removed the stiffener on the good core support.

https://i.imgur.com/NvYFOKKl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/a3rZqdql.jpg

Then I just started cutting and hacking until it looked about right and tack welded all the pieces together.

https://i.imgur.com/uTmhG6ol.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SCAvkUFl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/k2LEnyLl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gP1brMhl.jpg

I started trimming the opening, again using parts from the donor core support. This is as far as I got this weekend. You can see the general size of the opening and how the parts are going to fit together. I am going to trim the lower part off that has all the drilled spot holes and replace with clean metal. Right now it is holding everything together.

https://i.imgur.com/tZrSlS4l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ovw5anml.jpg

This week I will finish the engine side welding and hopefully start on the actual radiator mounts and maybe punch all the holes in the lower stiffener to let more air through. Once the holes are punched I will finish all the welding.

Nice job, On all of it, how much did you open it up?

Hey Wayne. It is a little over 2 inches wider and little over 2.5 inches taller. It doesn't seem like much but that is about another 100 square inches of area. That doesn't include some area that will be picked up by the holes in the lower stiffener if I can figure out how to do that.

Scott

Nice, it all adds up and helps!

More radiator support
 

Well the end of the week wasn’t too kind to Camaro work. My son’s car broke down and I spent almost all my free time trouble-shooting electrical gremlins. I had just a little time on Sunday and this evening so I will post up what it have.
The lip is pieced back together and tacked. Then I cut out a filler piece to replace all the holes.

https://i.imgur.com/si4DcIAl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/16DggdXl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/amAlBdol.jpg

I got it all pretty well roughed in tonight and had to stop and clean up my mess.
Front side
https://i.imgur.com/Tw5ZkXul.jpg

Engine side
https://i.imgur.com/pgvbizsl.jpg

I will get it tacked in and drill the dimple holes where the radiator is covered. I could dimple the holes now on the flat part but thought it might make all the edges wavey and slow down the welding. So I guess I will be patient if I have to!!

I had Friday and Monday off and put quite a few hours into the radiator support. It is a tedious job and I didn’t quite finish but all the hard parts are now complete. I finally got the filler pieces all tacked in and dimpled the engine side.

https://i.imgur.com/U5wFyZ9l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/L4nghqjl.jpg

A lot more time than expected was spent welding and grinding the stiffener channel. It is just so many little pieces and lots of holes that needed to be filled. But I got it all pieced back together and found a way to make the dimples.

https://i.imgur.com/se704R8l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yTlJFZgl.jpg
The female die is way bigger than the channel so I just used a piece of aluminum tube with the edges beveled. I didn’t get perfect dimples but they look fine.
https://i.imgur.com/VsfGWdRl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oQCvfUKl.jpg

I played around with paper templates to figure out the mounting brackets. They ended up really simple and I still need to trim them back a little and clean-up the profile.

https://i.imgur.com/GY03vyGl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/95sXcwzl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zZjOgajl.jpg

I mounted the radiator with the top brackets only and put all the sheet metal on the car, as well as the headlights to make sure nothing is in the way. It looks like I can move the radiator at least an inch higher. I will probably move it up to have a little more room for the Vintage Air condenser. I also rolled the car outside to blow all the grinding dust off and clean up the garage a little. It was mid 80s today so it was a perfect day to take some “motivational” photos.

https://i.imgur.com/SP54Ctsl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XRDK4K7l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pwwqglsl.jpg

This week I plan to finish up the radiator support and if that gets done move on to the PCM and fusebox install. There are still a bunch of little welds and grinding to get the core support finished.

Very Nice .... I love the attention to detail, reminds me of someone else I know, lol!

80's uh? .... that sure is nice weather to work on the Camaro, I'm jealous!

Michael

Don't be jealous. In a few weeks when you are entering Spring I will be hiding inside to avoid 100 degree Temps.

Looking really good, love all of these pictures.

Core support mods are finished
 

I finally finished up the core support project. I underestimated it a little. There were so many little welds to execute and clean up. I really learned a lot on this thing.
Due to the location of the lower mount I had to build some hidden doublers with captive nuts. I also built a couple doublers for the lower channel and plug welded them in place. The lower mount bolts go in from the engine side and the upper bolts go in from the front side. I also built an angle stiffener for the vertical sides of the opening to make sure it would be strong and stay flat.

https://i.imgur.com/ktvv462l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5j1O80ul.jpg

Then just lots of plug welds, spot welds and a few more butt welds. I spend several hours grinding all the welds down and also filled a few stray holes. It will require some bodywork before paint and I may fill a few more holes before it get painted.

https://i.imgur.com/NKjOff6l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/l1CioQrl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VU760yjl.jpg

It doesn’t look much different from last week but it is finished this time and I did end up raising it about 7/8" which helped the condenser fit a little better.

https://i.imgur.com/CeI5R0pl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eZ1hYo9l.jpg

Last thing was to install the condenser. I will need to make some spacers to get that pushed forward to allow more room for the hoses on the right side.

https://i.imgur.com/bFk9mQel.jpg

Bonus photo, this is what is left of the bent and rusty donor core support. Thanks Tony for letting me have that!

https://i.imgur.com/kfsgqQll.jpg

Next week start working on mounting the GMPP fuse box and the engine PCM.

Very nice work! Glad you took pictures since it will all be hidden once the car is back together.

ECM and Fusebox Mounting
 

I started out playing around with a flat pattern to mount the ECM. My MSD was already in this location so I just sort of changed it around to fit the GMPP ECM. Made a few paper patterns and then one in metal. I reused the vibration isolators off the old MSD.

https://i.imgur.com/o5GRTV1l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/C3jetz2l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sMonkENl.jpg

The fusebox mount is pretty much flat, except for a little pickup point for the round hole in the fuse box. I used the old battery tray mounting holes.

https://i.imgur.com/aqjK8vsl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/67TCah0l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zK43bU7l.jpg

I probably wasted too much time making the little hold-down clips. I know they can be purchased already made and of course they are thicker and better quality. But it was sort of a challenge to see if I could make them.

https://i.imgur.com/RQFRrA3l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VxiDRNtl.jpg

Overall I think it came out about like I expected.

https://i.imgur.com/udtqyTkl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vKR366yl.jpg

Before long I will be ripping the harness apart and planning all the wire routes. So it will be nice to have the box and ECM mounted to support that.

I just started receiving my stainless exhaust pieces and mufflers. All the oval tube and transitions are on order. Next week I will get started on the exhaust which will take probably 5-6 weeks at my pace (or more). I need to order a driveshaft this week, or I won't be able to route the tubes properly. I also need to figure out the back-purge for my TIG welder.

https://i.imgur.com/iPV6UxCl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ENBrGS0l.jpg

Nice fab skills! Good progress!

Some great work there.

Exhaust parts received from Burns
 

This is a short mid-week update. I received all the exhaust parts from Burns, up to the mufflers. I am looking forward to getting started on this but I will take it slow to avoid too many mistakes. I plan to get the easy part done before I go up and over the axle and figure out how to cut the trunk area. I have lots of extra straight tube so I will probably practice a little before I get going. The plan is to figure out and tack up the transition from the headers and get started on the cross-over this weekend.

https://i.imgur.com/oSlY9Ril.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0xwmTZrl.jpg

I decided to shamelessly copy the cross-over idea from the J-Rod 68 Camaro. I think this one looks really nice.

http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/q...23F745C6C6.jpg

no shame in wanting your exhaust to look like that.
I absolutely love all the parts going on your car, you have a good way of executing all the details to boot.
keep at it , you give inspiration.

Thanks for all the kind comments. I didn't get any car work done this weekend but I cleaned the snake pit of a garage and put the car back on the rotisserie (finished adjusting tonight). Dang I am getting too old to do that by myself !!
I will plug away at routing the exhaust and also the fuel line while it is easy to work on. Looks like my pickup will spend another hot Summer outside. There is just no room for a second car now.

Scott

https://i.imgur.com/44DPtRtl.jpg

This is such a cool shot, car looks awesome

Exhaust Cross-Over
 

I got a pretty good start on the exhaust this weekend. I had Friday and Monday off which helped. I ran a few errands and got the back-purge setup working pretty well on Friday. I spent a few hours practicing. The purge gas works great with good clean welds on the inside of the tubing. My outside skills are weak. I need to practice a little (lot) more before I do the final welds.

I picked up this (Fupa 12) for my torch. I like the added visibility. It seems pretty sensitive to a light breeze with all that open area. Jury still out whether it will help me or not.

https://i.imgur.com/3UD1Hmml.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Csh5ZH3l.jpg

Once I got the headers back on the car the transitions were pretty easy. They were a good confidence builder.

https://i.imgur.com/KAzzxFwl.jpg

I really got schooled on the cross-over. The basic pipes were not that bad. I got one finished and then just made a mirror image. Getting this far was also pretty easy. First one took a while second half as long.

https://i.imgur.com/d0KzFYPl.jpg

I don’t have a band saw, or good chop saw and it took a long time to get the cross-over worked out. I finally just had to free hand all the cuts, after a failed attempt on my cheap chop saw. That was ok but crooked cuts cost me a lot of sanding time and I wore out two flap wheels. I still have some fine tuning to do.

https://i.imgur.com/ZrWG1DNl.jpg


I put the mufflers up and it looks like I will be able to connect them pretty well. I still haven’t figured out the hangers. I was hoping to have that completed but didn't quite get there.

This week I will try to get the mufflers roughed in and get the tail pipe pieces on order.

Nice work!

Still plugging away !
 

Still plugging away. Not much progress. I will upload some photos when the rear exhaust routing is almost complete.

https://i.imgur.com/nxcEjjjl.jpg

A bit exhausting!
 

Well I did make a little progress although nothing like I expected. Stainless just cuts really slow and is hard to work with. I always forget that until I mess with it. This was my life the last few days.

https://i.imgur.com/B0uyP1bl.jpg

I got the hole roughed in on the right side. I went really slow because I kept working on making it fit a little better. The cover needs some modification but here is how it will look.

https://i.imgur.com/gGQaSWxl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TGc5PMml.jpg

This is my high tech way of aligning the segments. This fits pretty well so the left side I will just copy and it should be faster.

https://i.imgur.com/ofakoKMl.jpg

I think my hanger idea is going to work out ok. I thought I could just use a simple off-shelf part but I had to cut them all apart and weld the bits back togher at the right angles. I wasted too much time messing with it trying to use it as-is. Once I cut it apart it only took an hour to get it all aligned and tacked back up. The mufflers will get V-band couplings when the angles are all worked out.

https://i.imgur.com/JS7gzyCl.jpg

Also, this wasted too much of my time this weekend. Seems like I was just stuck doing one sort of plumbing or another !

https://i.imgur.com/kbt3ShUl.jpg

Next week finish the hangers, cut the left side hole and hopefully tack the whole exhaust together and have some feeling of getting this done!

Great job on your car, attention to detail top notch........like the hanger bracket- really nice.
Would you mind sharing the source of that flattened exhaust tubing or did you fab that yourself, Thanks!

I bought it from Burns Stainless. There are other companies that sell it as well. I think Vibrant also sells an oval tube. The burns quality was pretty good. I bought a few odds and ends from Vibrant but haven't seen their oval tube. It should be pretty easy to find. Stainless is really expensive for sure!

Great fab skills, that exhaust is beautiful...your car off the chart.... 24 pages of wow :trophy-1302:

A bit more exhaust progress
 

I didn’t get nearly where I wanted to this weekend but progress is progress.
I finished the trunk cutouts after routing the RH exhaust pipe. It seems like it took forever, definitely something that was slow and challenging to me
Once the RH was done, I just made a paper template and rolled the mirror image for the LH side.

https://i.imgur.com/oN7aX53l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gGQaSWxl.jpg

Cutting and tacking the LH side took about a quarter of the time it took to do the right. It is nice to have the trunk roughed-in. I probably won’t finish the welding until I have all the other parts removed for bodywork. It will be much easier that way.

https://i.imgur.com/6hJ0cPBl.jpg

I moved on to start working on the LH tail pipe. It is pretty much just a copy the RH side, except where it is mirror image. There are quite a few compound angles and I got the pieces rough cut but not trimmed to the final shape.

https://i.imgur.com/iIZE8S5l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mvsOqSXl.jpg

I lost my cleco pliers, shop was dirty and I am tired so I quit for this weekend.

Next week I will just keep plugging away on the exhaust, hopefully I won't make a career out of it!

Exhaust looks nice, great progress.

Looks awesome Scott. I like the style of the the trunk reliefs, they turned out nice too!

Thanks guys. I was sort of burned out this weekend. That is a general sign I need to wrap up and move on to something else!

Cobwebs
 

Well the last few weeks have been busy with everything around the home except the Camaro. I figured I better post a short update so I could still find my thread. I had to wade through cobwebs just to find it!
Ole Yeller broke down a couple weeks ago and cost me a whole weekend repairing the cooling fan. I have toyed with the idea of buying a new TIG machine but I am so close to being done with metal work on this project I thought best to save the money for paint.

https://i.imgur.com/PWruKuKl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2F8nySfl.jpg

My dryer, pool pump, mountain bike and son’s car also decided to check out. Hot weather is upon us in Phoenix and everything needs to be done outside in preparation for a long hot Summer. I always forget how busy the end of Spring is here!
I haven’t really spent much time on the exhaust, ordered a few parts and fine tuning the fit a little.
I did pick up a new workbench which should be fun in the coming weeks!

https://i.imgur.com/Pu6wtLAl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PBxhehFl.jpg

Scott