Ironworks Project Donkey Kong Transformation
 

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I have funny story for you about a guy named Nic who lives in Bakersfield Ca. He bought this 68 Camaro off a co-worker of his. And began to search around trying to find someone to build his dream car. He was flipping through an issue of Camaro Performers, that had a short blup about Rich Allen's 68. He thought man that is good looking project, well in that article it said nothing about Ironworks as far as location, so he did an internet search and found our website. Well He was shocked to find out that we were in Bakersfield of all places. So he gave us a call and came by to talk about building his car. Well upon arrival he also met Frank who is local who owns the 48 truck and he knew him from some business dealings. At that point we talked about some work we had done on a 37 Ford for a buddy of Frank's named Frank. At that point Nic said "you mean the tan 37 Ford? That's my neighbor Frank who owns the Italian Restaurant? I was wondering where that car had been for a while." Well at that point I realized I needed to maybe do some door to door sales in Frank and Nic's neighbor hood. Sounds like a good neighbor hood for car building.

Well enough of the emotional made for TV Drama stuff. Nic already had picked up an LS3 with a 4L60 trans from the dealer. We talked about some different options for his build and decided to go with complete Speedtech Suspension set up on this project. We bought the headers and everything from Speedtech. We then ordered the complete Marquez Design Interior kit, the Billet hinges and handles from the Ring brothers and the axles from Moser and the brakes are on order from Wilwood. We ordered a Rick's Fuel tank and a ton of other parts.

We then began with the suspension and drivetrain install. We installed the Vintage Air Front runner on the engine and installed the headers. We got everything major installed in the car to begin our Fabrication around these parts. We built our own mini tubs and got those in place. We installed the DSE sub frame connectors and mocked up the front sheetmetal. We cut out the old dash and Mocked up the Marquez unit and set up the steering column. Currently we are working to widen the inner wheel tubs in the front to clear the wider tires.

Here is a rendering that Carter Hickman has been working on for us. We have some more changes. But this is where we are currently.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...K_camaro_5.jpg

How the car came in and why it got it's name. DONKey Kong
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2010020.jpg

No Camaro is complete without a King of the Cage sticker. http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...May2010034.jpg

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http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010199.jpg

It's a small world now isn't it Rodger? Looks like that's going to be one sweet ride :thumbsup: Keep the pics coming on this one!

A pic of the mini tubs.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010178.jpg

Overall pic of the car
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...uly2010197.jpg

Man that's goin be awesome when it's finished. Love the shop too.:thumbsup:

Looks like the Camaro is on hydraulics.

Keep up the good work. Your mini tub looks good. Where did you guys get the rear tubs?

They made them.... from scratch ......

I saw them last Friday. They look even better in person.



--Eric

The tubs are just standard tubs we build for 67-68 to allow for a 335 rear tire. They are made from 2 pieces of 18 gauge steel.

Thanks

Very nice!!! That is going to be a nice car.
DONKey Kong!!! lollll....:lol: :thumbsup:

Well Guys Donkey Kong is progressing pretty quickly through the build process. We have all the sheetmetal work wrapped up except for what gets done on the rotiesirre. We have the Marquez interior kit and billet parts installed. The Speedtech stuff went in very nicely. The sheetmetal fit up work was was really easy. Actually replacing the door hinges to aftermarket ones improved the fit up since they did not fit like the old ones, they were bigger which made the hood gap great. Well check out the progress, we plan to have this car in Primer and on the way to paint right around SEMA. Nic should be rolling this car in early spring.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010105.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010107.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010108.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010104.jpg

We are going with the "New" 3 piece Sprocket wheels from Schott wheels. 18x10 and 18x12.

Rodger

Rodger, over the top work from the start. Thanks for sharing.

Told you that prototype bare metal gap spray would work. Can you hook a brother up.

Looks good Rodger, thank you for saving another one.


Had a question, what brand door hinges did you use? I haven't had any luck finding a repop brand that fits good.


Vince

Can't help but love that!

Great stuff Rodger. Keep us posted.:thumbsup:

That's a fun story! Looks like you started with a pretty solid car! A true life lond CA car? That sure makes for a solid foundation!

Love the parts list! What paint shop do you guys use? Any roll bar/cage? ST rear suspension? Very cool car, I even dig the flat hood! :thumbsup:

Thanks guys, Nic has allowed us to put together a pretty nice car. Nothing fancy or over the top. But we have weld the quarter panels on completely and installed the Speed tech suspension front and rear with an LS3 with a 4L60E trans. It has a Vintage Air front runner and an Autorad radiator core support. It has Ring Brother hood hinges and door handles, with Marquez Trunk and interior kit. We have some Anvil Carbon inner fenders coming our way. We plan to have our buddy Jim in Stockon paint this car again. I'm not sure he is ready to go public just yet. Between me and about 3-4 other dudes he has quite a bit of work. We plan to take the car to Tracy Weaver at Recovery room somewhere around the time we take Franks 48 truck to him.

We started this car somewhere around July 4th.

The door hinges were way off from the factory units we had on the car when it came in. Or maybe they were aftermarket. These took quite a bit of slotting and such to get them to fit, but once in they moved the door out enough to widen the hood gap at the rear of the hood. I doubt it was planned by Goodmark but it looks like it helped us and made the large amount of time to install these hinges worthwhile. Or we might have just shimmed the hing to the body to bring it out. The Chassisworks Camaro could use the same fix. But I car way less on that car.

Donkey Kong got some kicks
 

Well we are just about ready for Tear down to Primer and paint the bottom of the car. We got the New Schott Sprocket wheels in. It took less the 2.5 Ounces to balance 3 wheels on the car. That is a pretty true wheel. The Front tires are 295/35/18 and the rears are 335/30/18 BFG

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010009.jpg
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http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010013.jpg

Looks good, sit's nice! Way better than the 4x4 that showed up to the shop!

Hence the name Donkey Kong, it is no longer a Donk.

........yeah, I get it! ;)

The Donk is gone. Looks really good.:thumbsup:
Stance looks great.

I like it!
How much room do your mini tubs give you at the 12 o'clock position from the inner tub to the quarter lip?

Well we trim the lip back and bend the flange up so after all that work maybe a 1/2 inch. That flange is pretty long from the factory.

Oh ok, so in the end with the mini tub you end up with around 15" of clearance?

When we tear it down next week I will measure for sure.

Nice work
 

did you do the custom dash or is that a Marquez piece?

Marquez

Well disassembly has completed and we are beginning to get powder coated parts back and sending the body out for blasting and Epoxy primer. I hope to have it running late next month to go out for Final paint.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010044.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010043.jpg
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http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ber2010015.jpg
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The powder coated parts look good. :woot:
What did you break your phone.
I'll see you tomorrow.

I wanted you to make your 3rd post. Looks at you go. 2 posts in 1 week. Pretty soon you will be completely off topic like the rest of us.

Well we are getting some things fit up to send the interior to Tracy and waiting for the 48 truck to be done at the painter before we send this epoxied body to the painter. We got the stereo set up and getting some interior things set up. Joe Ellis from Classic Wire is coming monday to work on the engine and interior wiring. We will get the AC hoses set up and installed next week. You can see how things were mounted under the dash and how the engine comaprtant is coming along.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2011005.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2011008.jpg
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Uhhh... Can you make me this inner cowl and dash support???

What a transformation it is. Looks great Rodger and crew.:thumbsup:

I do like the valve covers and fuel rails, maybe I can buy those used ones off you?

Progress for my Friend Nic and his cool Camaro
 

Just got these pics in from Alan Palmer at Palmer's Customs in Oxnard, Ca.

Looking Good.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...lmercamaro.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/NewImage.jpg


I think Nic will be happy.

NICE!

I saw this car in primer last Friday.... Can't wait to see the Camaro go back together!!



--Eric

Looks almost like Tony's Karma car.
Just kidding

Except this one has the needed engine mounts or adapters to get the engine installed.