Another new guy, another 69 Camaro
 

Hi all,

My name's Matt and I've been lurking around here a while. Back in April my father Steve and I picked up a 69 Camaro project in Vegas off of ebay. Now, were not the most technically inclined and looking back on it now we probably didn't know what we were getting into, but that doesn't really matter know because its been a blast, even if we haven't really gotten our hands dirty working on it, just seeing it come together and figuring out what we want has been fun.

Anyway, I figured I should introduce our little project although you guys have probably seen everything on a 69 Camaro already. In fact, 67ragtp's new Camaro project motivated me to post since I think we've been living in a parallel universe. Seriously, I thought I was looking at our project, same Forgelines and all.

Ok, here are pics because this would be pretty boring without them.

The car is over at Hot Rods and Custom Stuff now, but will be moving over to Best of Show pretty soon for paint and everything else.

This is what we bought, supposedly a complete car disassembled.
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o.../8533_1JPG.jpg
And here are all of the parts we don't need. suppose it was pretty complete.
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...82493_5336.jpg

We ended up getting a DSE subframe, quadralink and minitubs. I don't think we have any pics of it going together but you can see (sort of) the wicked stance on the original wheels
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...93531_1305.jpg

We picked up the Forgelines from Jon over at Driverz Inc. Big thanks to you Jon for handling the order to make them clear the brakes.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00696.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00695.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00765.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00768.jpg
Also, thanks to Tobin at Kore 3 for the C6 Z06 brakes.

Right now, the engine and trans are coming together. We got an LS2 from TurnKey, which was incredibly simple. They gave us everything with the engine, the vintage air frontrunner, the headers, etc. I mean everything. They even ordered the valve covers we liked.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00761.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00763.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00770.jpg
The T56 from ATS (thanks Tyler!) is coming together as well. Last Friday the the work on the trans tunnel was almost finished.
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00771.jpg

Anyway, that's where we are now with the project. It should be finding its way over to Best of Show very soon.

Really nice project Matt, and welcome aboard! :thumbsup:

WOW, nice project. Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Never to many 69's. Nice start.:thumbsup:

lookin good.....

Nice:thumbsup:

Cool, keep us posted. :thumbsup:

I thought this looked very familiar too.

Btw, looks like you and your dad are off to a good start with a great father/son project. Keep posting pics of the progress.

I'm off to Hot Rods and Custom Stuff this afternoon. I'll make sure to take more pics, maybe even of some other stuff, they've got a pretty cool 69 Firebird in the works which doesn't have a stock body panel on it.

Matt,

Perhaps we are long lost brothers, are you guys on the west coast or east coast? You have great taste in wheels, the projects are very similar, nice engine choice. Looking good keep us posted! :thumbsup:

Rich

Yeah, I couldn't believe you ordered the same wheels we did. When I saw your post I thought, damn those look nice :unibrow: we took a couple months, at least, trying to figure out what we thought would look good, then kinda went for the leap of faith with the blind bolts and brushed centers since we hadn't seen any before. Did you go with a gloss or matte powder coat on the centers?

and we're from San Diego BTW.

Oh and you haven't been kicking around the idea of some kind of dark charcoal metallic color with dark red stripe(s) for paint have you Rich?

Here are a couple more pics from the visit today:

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00778.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00779.jpg
We got the DSE 1/2 drop body mounts which have become a pain. The ATS crossmember wouldn't fit so HR&CS modified the stock one
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00774.jpg
and here it is almost at ride height
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00777.jpg

Next order of business is finding a good radiator. Anyone have suggestions?

Matt

I remember reading the problems they can cause in Vegas69 build thread.

Radiator?

Check this one out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf-DfXNzi_g

Nice project!
Yeah those 1/2" lower body mounts can be fun to work with! I had to do the raised tunnel and all too! Never again!!

I have to admit I was sweating how the blind bolts were going to look as well, I went for the gloss clear powder over the brushed center. Couldn't be happier with the decision. Im on the east coast, jersey. As far as color it looks like we are opposite, Im going torch red exterior with gloss black hockey stripes.

The stance looks killer!!! Not sure if you watched the video that 55foward posted, you absolutely will not be disappointed with a Ron Davis radiator the best in the industry. Much like the Forgeline wheels his radiators are friggin automotive jewelry, set up for LS(inlet/outlet on passenger side)with dual spals its about 1100 to 1300 bucks depending on weather you want intergrated puke tank. If you decide to go with them, make sure you tell them not to paint there name in huge letters across the front of the radiator fins, when I look at the front end of my 67 which has no bumper you see a ron davis billboard behind the grill, not to crazy about it.

Got a question for you regarding the engine from turnkey, who's headers did they supply you to fit the ls2 in the DSE chassis? What size are the primary tubes, and how much power did the engine make?

Rich

I watched the video. So many cool projects going on now for SEMA. We've been throwing around the idea of getting a Ron Davis radiator, and I used to think they were overpriced, but it seems everyone else is getting more expensive. I got a quote on a Be Cool for around 1600 bucks which seemed a bit much, so I think we may go Ron Davis, in which case your advice will come in handy.

Oh and Turnkey used Hooker Headers, which I believe have 1 5/8 primaries. We were originally thinking of getting Lemon's headers with 1 7/8 primaries but figured the jump up to the Lemon's wasn't worth it for our engine. In theory the engine is supposed to make 510 at the flywheel. I don't think they ever tested for horsepower, just made sure it ran.

They offered to dyno tune the car once it was finished, so it could be a while before we get some real hp/tq numbers.

Matt

Been a while since there's been much progress on the car. I spent a bunch of time copying receipts for Hagerty trying to convince them about how much it's worth. After that was done it it got soda-blasted, this past week, actually. I was really sweating what was under the filler, hoping we hadn't picked out a pile. Fortunately, everything looks pretty good, and it seems all of my time spent lurking around reading up on this stuff really paid off. the quarters were replaced in kind of a strange way, but everything is solid so I can't complain.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...SA/10p2a1x.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...SA/2a4y41t.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00842.jpg
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00845.jpg

Only other weird little thing was the warping with this vent: http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...A/DSC00833.jpg

Fixed it once but it ended up just the way we found it.

We also decided to go replace the firewall so it'll be completely smooth.

BTW does anyone know how much an original cowl hood goes for? Seems like a waste to put it on this car, since it would be the only original part of any value.

and thanks to Steve for taking the nice bright pictures of the shell.

Matt

Matt it's awesome that it's finally at BOS!! They will take great care of you and the car!

I would use the stock hood....they fit much better than the aftermarket hoods! The money you would get out of it would go right to Dick to make the new hood fit!

Enjoy!! :cheers:

Nice looking project. Love the wheels!

Hey Matt,

Been a while, curious how the project is progressing. Paint layed out yet? Any pics- Rich