Team Honor Flight Camaro takes on the 2013 One Lap of America!
 

As many of you may know my father fell suddenly ill while James Shipka and I were in the middle of the 2012 One Lap of America. The OLoA with James was something that I will always look back on with mixed emotions. There are the highs of winning the events, driving with James, and co-piloting one of the greatest cars ever on a bucket-list tour of America. Those are mixed with the lows of leaving James and my father’s passing. I don't just want to finish what I started, I need to, but not just for me.

In that light, a bit of history is in order. Please excuse me as I’m about to get very long-winded.

My Father
My father SSgt. Joe "Hook" Casanova served with the 3rd Infantry Division during WWII participating in every major landing and battle that the 3rd took on. North Africa, Sicily, Anzio, Southern France. Nasty places like Monte Casino, Tunisia, Battle of the Bulge, and concentration camps. It took its toll on my father and millions of other veterans, both physically and mentally. The physical part was easier to deal with than the mental, and was something he never was able to cope with well, especially in his later years. Here’s my dad after having the Silver Battle Star pinned on him by Gen. Patton. I have the watch displayed along with other items he saved in our living room.

http://imageshack.us/a/img42/4835/dadsbs2.png

Honor Flight
I wanted to visit the WWII Memorialhttp://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=home.asp with my my father after it was built. Like so many proud men of the depression era, the only way I could get him to agree to go was if I signed him up for a program called Honor Flight http://honorflight.org/ Honor Flight transports our veterans to visit THEIR memorials in Washington D.C. There are only two rules with Honor Flight: 1) The veteran must be accompanied by a Guardian, usually a family member to help with their needs, and 2) The veteran cannot pay for anything. The Guardian has to pay their own way. Honor Flight receives no goverment funding, it's all private donations.

We were fortunate to be chosen to go during the Memorial Day weekend of 2010. We travelled together on Southwest Airlines, each time being first on and off by the pilots’ request and announcement. We were greeted at the gate by the Honor Flight folks, the only organization that is allowed to do such things in this era of TSA-level security at the Baltimore airport.

We, along with a group of other WWII and Korean War veterans, stayed at the Hilton Baltimore hotel. The people there were some of the most gracious and generous hosts I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. They made our stay a great one.

The day of the tour started with a bus ride on a super nice coach driven by a volunteer Vietnam veteran. On the way there videos were shown about the building of the WWII memorial and what to expect. What we got was something none of us expected.

The first visit was the WWII memorial. Do we park the bus and take a shuttle? Walk? No way, not for these guests of honor. The bus pulls up and parks right in front of the Memorial. No other organization is allowed to do that.

We visit the Memorial with my sister and her husband. My dad is wearing his 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Division hat and is treated like a rock star by everyone. We have to pause several times during the visit to allow my dad (and us) time to reflect and collect our composure. It was a very emotional time for all of us, especially my dad, since he was finally letting go of a plethora of pent-up emotions after so many years.

http://imageshack.us/a/img844/9708/dadwwiimemorial.jpg

So, what do a bunch of 80-90-year old vets do after that? How about visiting......
1) The Lincoln Memorial
2) Korean Memorial
3) Vietnam Memorial.
4) Iwo Jima Memorial
5) The Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery
6) The Air Force Memorial
7) The Navy Memorial.

At the Changing of the Guard a special place is set aside for the Honor Flight tour to view the ceremony. It’s opposite the main seating area and very close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. When it was time for the spectators to stand up each one of the veterans, even the severely handicapped, stood up. There was no keeping these guys down. The Relief Commander adds a small and hardly noticeable change to the highly regimented routine: He drags his heels the last few steps before leaving as a sign of respect to the veterans.

The only way this can happen with a group like this is that at every Memorial the bus gets to stop right in front to let the veterans off. No other organization is allowed to do this.

Here's a great video with Honor Flight Chairman Jim McLoughlin explaining how it works. His words are far better than my feeble prose.
http://www.10tv.com/content/sections...mclaughlin.xml

The Team Honor Flight Camaro is born.
The One Lap of America is known for raising money for charities. For me, it is a simple choice. I believe it would make my father happy, and hopefully help bring a bit of peace to other deserving veterans as it did with my dad.

My friend Jon Mahn will be the Honor Flight Camaro co-driver. Jon and I have been friends for 26 years. He spent many evenings at my father's home sharing dinner and a place to sleep while we went to college together. He was there when my dad was alive, and helped me more than I could ever thank him for after his death.

So, with the help and expertise of Ben Hermance http://www.hermancedesign.com/, we came up with the concept of the Honor Flight Camaro. The best way I can describe Ben is “He gets it.” He knew exactly what I wanted and why. I wanted something simple so as to not make the theme a blur, but with just enough detail to make it known what the idea is. Ben also comes from a family with a military history so it came naturaly to him.

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/3725/ca...mconcept4c.jpg

Why the gold stars? During WWII if a family member was killed a gold star was hung in window of the home. As an honor to those killed or never found, the Freedom Wall in the WWII memorial has a Field of Stars. There are 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 killed or missing. That’s 404,800 killed or missing. One can't help but be overwhelmed with emotion when standing in front of that wall and what it represents.

http://imageshack.us/a/img821/6051/fieldofstars.jpg

The Honor Flight Camaro Preparation for the One Lap of America
So, what’s planned for the Camaro in preparation for the OLoA? There are three main tasks that are in the works:
1) Reliability
2) Safety
3) Some aero and performance upgrades

For reliability several key systems will be addressed first: Brakes, rear differential, and electrical. Like most other things on the car they won’t be simple drop-in modifications, but certainly not top-flight either. The goal is to make reasonable changes that are cost effective and increase reliability. The changes will be posted here and on the new Honor Flight Camaro website http://www.honorflightcamaro.com

With so many different tracks that we’ve never driven before and 3500 miles of mostly night driving, upgrading the safety of the car makes sense. The entire lighting system of the car has already been upgraded. HANS devices and restraint systems are on the way.

The aero dabbling that James, David, and I have been doing is starting to bear fruit. It’s going to be needed since Daytona is on the list this year, and that place is FAST. More testing after modifications will be needed, and more drawings by Ben will help show where we are going with the build. This build will be a bit different for me in that most everything is being based around a tire choice. Choosing a tire leads to a rim size choice leads to brake performance needs leads to spindle and suspension changes leads to …… All for a tire.

Over the next four months I’ll be outlining the changes and the why behind them in this thread. Preparing for the OLoA is a daunting task and it's going to be tight to get everything done. Breaking down 1500 miles from the start/finish line, and 2500 miles from home, is serious motivation to get everything as reliable and sound as possible.

If you would like to place a tax deductible donation to the Honor Flight organization, please do so my going here:
http://honorflight.org/donate/donation.cfm
In the “Comment or Tribute” section, PLEASE add “Honor Flight Camaro” This allows us to track how sucessful our efforts are. Without the generosity of others organizations like Honor Flight cannot exist.

Team Honor Flight Camaro is also on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/HonorFlightCamaro?fref=ts Please "Like" us on Facebook so the Honor Flight word can be spread far and wide.

Thank you for reading my tale, but I really hope that you will thank a veteran. Stay tuned......

Very cool story Carl and good luck.

That's a great story Carl and a good cause for the veterans. Unfortunately for me my father passed in 84 when I was a kid and before I realized what he and other veterans of WWII went through. Now I wish I could have taken him on a trip like that.

I've got a bunch of friends at the local coffee house that served in Korea and VN and there is one WWII vet there. I'm passing the honor flight info on to the Colonel (a retired Marine and unofficial commander of the post(coffee shop)) to see if we can get our WWII vet signed up.

Good luck with your efforts :cheers:

Your Dad is a hero and we all know you will make him proud. :cheers:

Carl - a very well written intro and a worthy cause my friend. I'm sure your Dad would be proud of you. I was able to do somthing similar w my Dad in 06 and hang out w a bunch of Vets. :cheers:

Now get busy on that aero so you can teach me a thing or two...:D

Very nice Carl!! My dad Is a nazi concentration camp survivor, It's heros like your father, that I give thanks to that my dad and others are around today.

Thank you for your service & our freedom and God bless you SSgt. Joe :cheers:

Great back story and what a great way to honor your Father and Veterans. Good luck and keep use posted with the progress story and pictures.

Brett

Carl- I have heard the story in person.. I know what this tribute build means to you in honor of your dad.. Looking forward to seeing it come together..

A great inspiration for you Carl and everybody else, can't wait to see it come together.


Greg

Carl,

That is a great story and show's what a good job your father did raising his son. I would do anything for my Dad and I know your Dad can be nothing but proud. Good luck with the project, I will be following very closely!
:patriot:

Very inspirational, Carl. Good luck with the build and your pops would be so proud. :thumbsup:

Great story and build. I made it a sticky. :thumbsup:

Donation made. Sounds like a great organization.

Good luck to you Carl.

Wow Carl what great way to honor your father and ALL WWII vets. Good luck and Gods Bless SStg Joe and thanks to him and all the other vets from all wars for our freedom!! :cheers:

Going to make a dontantion right now! Also is there any way we can help you directly with the upgrades to you car!! Wish I was closer so I could lend a hand!

Like the idea ... not such a fan of all the decals.. but the rest I like.

That was a great story Carl. My grandfather also served in WWII and told me stories of his time in North Africa. Sorry to hear of your fathers passing and wish you the best moving forward.

You know I will be rooting for you! If you ever need a hand don't hesitate to give me a call, I'm less than an hour away.

:cheers:

Great story Carl.
I will be showing this to my grandfather who is a 92 year old wwII vet.

Gentlemen, thank you. To say that this project has been an inspiration is an understatement.

Jody, thank you for making this a sticky.

Chris, you are the first of what I hope are many donations. I have a stretch goal in mind and every little bit helps. Spreading the word and liking Honor Flight Camaro on Facebook will help a bunch.

Rick, get him signed up. Also, Honor Flight is open to ALL veterans, but WWII vets are the focus due to time. Younger veterans are given priority if the need arises (note from doctor/terminally ill.) It's a very noble and compasionate organization.

Jon, I may take you up on that. I have a Dodge MC that needs to go in soon!

Gave me goosebumps Carl. Words can't express the feelings once we are old enough to understand what these Veterans really endure for all of us. The debt owed is insurmountable.

God Bless you and guide your journey.

Thank you for sharing. I will spread the word, in fact with your permission I would like to speak of it at our upcoming Camaro club annual banquet Jan 5th.

If you have anything I could use, permission, objections or suggestions please email me. I will print copies of what you might send to make donations easier for folks to make. Membership expected exceeds 200 annually.

I have to ask, Is this your same red/black 68 you will be running or a different car?

Thank you Robert.

That would be great! Please feel free to use any and all of it. That's what it's for. Most people don't know Honor Flight or their purpose. Thank you for your help. If your group decides to to donate to Honor Flight I may be able to do something a bit special on the car for them :unibrow:

It is the same car. It has been in my family since 1977. My father traded a 1953 Ford pickup for it, then my sister drove it for five years. I traded my el Camino for the Camaro since she needed a truck. It's appropriate that the car makes the journey as well.

Carl,

Great mission you've embarked on and I wish you and your team the best. :thumbsup:

"We can't all be hero's. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by." ~Will Rogers

My initial reaction to the appearance wasn't one of appreciation but now understanding the symbolism of the gold stars, seeing Joe on the trunk stripe giving the "proverbial push" to the Camaro while raising awareness so other Veterans can experience the honorable experience they so richly deserve I have to commend Ben Hermance on the layout. I can also see that perhaps Carl wants to retain aspects of the Camaro I have always been something of a fan of because it has stayed largely true to it's original appearance externally.:bow: It looks to be done in a fashion that can be easily returned to it's original appearance as well.:thumbsup:

As I read the history in your response I remembered it...[ insert memory related post-40 excuse of your choice here;) ]

Anyway Carl, thought I would share this post I made with you using your info pasted from here. Please feel welcome to monitor it, join our tiny little forum if you like.:thumbsup:

The modifications to the outside of the car are all, mostly, reversible. There may be a few holes on the front valence that will remain due to the splitter supports. Over the years every single photo of the car at high-speed on a track shows front end lift. Recent aero work confirms what needs to be done to reduce this, but the real solution(s) would better done on a whole new build. There's little enough time to get what's in Ben'sdrawing done, especially since there is much more going on than what can be seen from this one view.

The plan is to get the car in livery ASAP and get it out to the bigger events. Without the decals it would not garner nearly the attention needed to support Honor Flight and the companies that support the fundraising efforts.

Lots of work going on with the car. Updates coming shortly. It's a battle against time to get everything done and keep the news coming.

There should be some great news coming shortly. In the meantime, here's a great trailer for a newdocumentary featuring Honor Flight and four veterans. The movie opened at Miller Park in Milwaukee on December 7 to a world record movie crowd of almost 29,000 people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM_XB...layer_embedded

See here on how to have the movie come to a theater near you. I'm going to be making the request as well.

http://www.honorflightthemovie.com/see-the-film/

Sorry for the long lag time between the announcement and now but work on the car has been progressing at a feverish pace. But, to get to today there was a series of upgrades and systems test performed in the Autumn of last year for validation.

I'm not shy about saying I learned a lot from James last year riding in OLC. Safety and reliability are paramount. Both of us agreed that the front lighting on OLC needed some help, and that's a safety issue. I'll double-down on and say that the stock rear lighting on my car is also wanting in comparison to modern cars.

Those thoughts led to two products. The first was one posted by Roger at Ironworks on the new LED headlights that he offers. After a few conversations with him about fitment and light capability a nice package with a new set of modern LED lights showed up and made their way into the car. Here's a photo before with the Hella 90/100 bulbs (100-hour life rating.)

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/570/dsc02637f.jpg

Don't mind all the rock chips in the grillwork :-)

The headlight bucket had to be removed and the back enlarged to fit the back of the new housing. A scroll saw worked very well to open the back to 5-1/4" dia.

The old and the new:

http://imageshack.us/a/img690/3347/dsc02642lu.jpg

The rest of the assembly went without a hitch. The preload spring has to be stretched a bit to fit but other than that the overall swap took just a few hours total.

After installation:

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/120/dsc02646r.jpg

Here's a side-by-side against a wall comparison. Note how there is a definitive horizon line and better width saturation with the LED on the right vs. the Hella on the left.

http://imageshack.us/a/img4/189/img2012090300007.jpg

Night driving is far better than the Hella's or the lights that were on OLC. On a very dark night on roads with no lighting it was significantly easier to see.

Here's where the triple bonus comes in. Not only are these lights likely to outlast the car vs. the 100-hour rated life of the others, but they required just a tad over six amps to operate. The Hella's are seven amps each. That's less electrical load on the alternator, no special relays are needed, and smaller connectors can be used.

Thanks to Roger who convinced me that I would not be disappointed.

The other lighting upgrade to the car was the replacement of the front turn signals and rear taillights to the modern Digitails LED panel lights. There's no comparing the original vs. the Digitails. The LED's are shockingly bright at night. No so much with the originals.

With the addition of some Ebay red and white LED side marker bulbs, the entire outside electrical lighting takes a grand total of 8.5 amps to run. The electrical power requirement for lighting has been cut by almost 70%. Better safety + better reliability = winner.

Farther back than I care to remember I took the Tick-Tock-Tachometer in the Camaro to be repaired. At the time Shannon Hudson, now the owner of Redline Gaugeworks, performed one of the first modern Tick-Tock-Tach gauge transformations as well as a clock repair. Fast forward twenty+ years and it was time for Shannon to work his magic again on the instruments.

The OLoA seems to have at least one high-speed track on the docket each year. For 2013 it's another bucket-list track, Daytona Motor Speedway. With a possible top-speed of 150+mph, the original 120mph speedometer was in need of an upgrade, along with a re-calibration and change in the warning and redline of the tachometer.

In keeping with the retro-theme of the car, Shannon re-worked the speedometer to house an Autometer 160mph meter movement. He also re-tick'ed the face of the gauge with new numbers but without the smaller hash marks. Trying to fit four hash marks between each major number would have made the gauge far too busy. Here's Shannon's handiwork.

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/9075/dsc02670sy.jpg

The speedometer includes a digital odometer and tripmeter located just under gauge-center. They are controlled by the red button located just below the left-hand instrument housing. The button also controls the speedometer calibration settings.

The tachometer originally had the 5200rpm warning line. We decided not to change that since covering the yellow with black would likely not look good. With the supercharger, up-shifting anywhere in the warning range yeilds good results.

There is a small yellow LED located just under the left hand turn signal indicator. This is for the engine control module Malfunction Indicator Lamp. It's hardly noticeable except when it lights up. It's a subtle touch that blends well.

The back of the cluster has a new circuit board where all of the standard fuctions are still used through the stock wiring plug. The MIL and speedometer feeds from the ECM are fed into the cluster via the wiring just under the center of the right-hand gauge (speedometer) along with the odometer/tripmeter control wiring. The clock still uses the original brass terminal connector for power.


http://imageshack.us/a/img90/7310/dsc02705h.jpg
From a functional and appearance standpoint, it's great. Unlike other cable-driven speedometer options, there is zero needle bounce and it can be re-calibrated in seconds when gearing or tire changes are made. I can count on one hand the number of companies that I have paid to work on parts for the Camaro, and Redline is one of them. Each time the work is perfect and the modifications performed as I would have wanted them done. Thank you to the team at Redline Gaugeworks for a job well done!

Good stuff, Carl!

On your old Hella setup did you have them run off of a relay, or were they on the original harness? I'm thinking about ditching my "HID" bulbs if I can't get a better pattern out of them.

Relays. At that power level it's mandatory.

Coming along nicely:thumbsup:

Thanks Kevin. I have lot's more to post, I just need to find the time to properly write it all up. I really wish there was another six months to prepare. There's a nasty "Tick-tock, tick-tock, ......" in my head.

Hotchkis Sport Suspension has joined Team Honor Flight in our pursuit of the 2013 One Lap of America!

Since 2002 I have had the pleasure of knowing John Hotchkis and the entire team at Hotchkis Sport Suspension. They are gentlemen and gearheads to the core and I am very happy to have them in our corner for this adventure.

The latest suspension changes to the car were tested back in October at Buttonwillow Raceway Park when we ran the newest version of the Hotchkis-tuned Fox shocks. There was a noticeable change for the better when swapping from the Bilsteins to the new shocks when driving on the street, but they really came alive on the track. My OLoA co-driver Jon has a C5 Z06 that he drives and we regularly dice it out on-track being very evenly matched.

With the new shocks it was a whole new race. The new valving is fantastic. After Jon too her on-track with the new shocks his reaction was that the car is "Un-natural", "Don't change a thing in the steering or suspension", "It's more fun to drive than the Corvette." It works very well for such a simple recipie.

So there are a few new Hotchkis parts that need to go on the car. New swaybar main brackets and end links are on the list. There are also a few ideas I want to run by Aaron Ogawa, the Hotchkis Chief Engineer, to do after OLoA, but until then I'm heeding Jon's advice about leaving it alone.

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/8301/dsc02752g.jpg

Wiring. Let’s start my diatribe about wiring….

Much of wiring in the Camaro has been replaced over the years. The front lighting harness was upgraded and relays used when the Hella headlamps were put it, but the wire used was not the really good stuff. Did it function well? Absolutely. Did the rear wiring harness still work well. Yup. Dash. That too. But OLoA has a nasty way of slapping you upside the head, making you think about how awful it would be to have the car break because of something that was very apparent. My day job is basically making machinery reliable, so my reliability-centric brain did not like the old electron tubing, so off I went on what could have been a simple upgrade, but noooooooo…….

At SEMA 2011 I had a long talk with Michael Manning, President of American Autowire. My delay in replacing the wiring in the Camaro boiled down to that I wanted to run all the engine bay to cabin wiring through the factory bulkhead connector. However, with all of the additional functionality the car has, there was no way to get it all through the 1st-gen Classic Update bulkhead connector. Lights, DSE wiper, ECM serial buss, tachometer, speedometer, backup light feed and return, oil and fuel pressure, intercooler, DSE headlight controls, MIL feed, horn, etc. overfilled the available cavities in the as-supplied bulkhead. Well, Michael had a solution to my needs:

http://imageshack.us/a/img805/2888/dsc02674v.jpg

That’s the as supplied Classic Update connector on the right, and the new one on the left. The new part has 12 additional cavities including two higher power. Using this bulkhead means re-pinning both sides of the bulkhead connector, meaning all of the front and engine wiring harnesses also needed to be reworked. There are no circuit diagrams for this, nor suggested layout for the connector. However, it all fits into the stock, unmodified firewall bulkhead hole.

In the end the engine and lighting wiring harnesses were done such that each can be removed from the bulkhead and not interfere with the other. This sounded pretty easy to do, but it was a bit more than challenging to make sure it was all correctly laid out. It took way longer than anticipated, but in the end everything disconnects easily, can be simply serviced with a test light and ohm meter, and all power functions except for a few in the trunk can be run through the main fuse box. Remember the reduction in power due to the lighting change? Now there is zero concern about overtaxing the fuse panel while running higher power items like the intercooler pump. Everything in one place makes diagnostics easier.

http://imageshack.us/a/img5/1013/dsc02707w.jpg

In the trunk a whole new batch of upgrades and changes were made. From a safety standpoint I very much wanted to move the battery away from the aft-corner of the car. If the car ever got hit, or went butt-first into the wall/tires during OLoA, there was a serious chance that the battery could be damaged and/or short out, possibly creating a fire. So, I’m plagiarizing James’ work and moving the battery to just under the right-rear package tray. But, of course, it ended up being a bit more than a simple battery re-location.

During the wiring changes I inspected every electrical connection on the car, even those not being changed. I’m glad I did. The car has had a Lincoln Mark VIII fan installed since, I believe, around 2004. During that time the fan had been controlled by either temperature switches or ECM outputs that triggered a 70A relay. The relay had failed back in 2010, and a simple replacement made things all better. But, after inspecting the fan plug is became apparent that there were more troubles brewing:

http://imageshack.us/a/img651/3505/dsc02761ph.jpg

The terminals in the plug were never intended to take the heavy amperage hit during initial fan-on. They are black and corroded, so a new plug was in order. Fortunately the terminals in the fan were only slightly damaged, and no internal damage occurred, so the fan can be re-used. Not so much with the relay system. Since the Ford OE fan system was PWM controlled it was time to go that route. A DC Controls PWM fan speed controller is being used with a few modifications (of course I can’t leave it alone.) The temperature sensor, normally inserted in to the radiator fan fins near the outlet hose, was epoxied into a gutted brass fan switch housing. This in turn was screwed into a bung that was already on the return tank. I liked this option best from a reliability standpoint since who knows what kind of junk might come up and try to push things around.

http://imageshack.us/a/img59/4536/dsc02719j.jpg

The fan and VaporWorx controllers were mounted next to each other on a panel that will mount above the battery. This keeps the wire runs short but additional circuit protection is needed since the power does not run through the fuse panel. A new power panel with circuit breakers was made that allows for very fast disassembly and battery replacement. Battery connections are quickly accessible through the fold-down rear seat divider.

http://imageshack.us/a/img546/8523/dsc02709x.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img41/421/dsc02721le.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img692/7157/dsc02722z.jpg

In order to cut down on the chances of shorting something out the battery hold-down crossbar was covered in dual wall adhesive lined heat shrink tubing.

http://imageshack.us/a/img543/4494/dsc02718k.jpg

Another thing learned from OLC was the need for additional power taps. There is plenty of time to charge phones, IPads, flashlights, etc. while driving, but there’s not nearly enough cigarette lighters in a 1st-gen to accommodate them all, and I hate having a bunch of splitter spaghetti wires hang all over the dash for eight hours at a time. So, new auxiliary power wiring was run from the dash, under the console, and a GT280 plug pigtail run out the ashtray on the aft console. When it’s not needed it just coils up and the door shuts. This plugs into a dual plug cigarette lighter that has two USB charging plugs as well. There is another similar plug that is available near the battery with a three-foot pigtail that can be used for other needs such as cameras, high-power lighting, etc.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6668/dsc02755ew.jpg

The center console ended up being one of the most challenging wiring jobs. With all of the additional functionality that is needed now, and some that is coming in the future (my VaporWorx brain has been at work since March of last year on something), there are 22 circuits that are now run from the dash area to the console, and most are routed through a 20-cavity Delphi GT150 connector mounted just forward of the console. This allows for quick removal of the console wiring if needed, plus diagnostics are a lot easier too.

There are a ton of other details as well. Lots of B+, ACCY+, and ground drops to make adding new power devices easier. All speaker wiring is integrated into the main harnesses. Everything is either tape wrapped or loomed. LED interior lighting was added. And on, and on, and on…. In all it took almost 10 weeks of work to get it the way I wanted it. Fortunately, since each circuit was checked for continuity and function earlier, there were zero problems on startup.

Finally for this evening, I’ll leave you with a little teaser shot of another test that was done in October. Coming soon, KORE3.

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

Carl.... as you know I like to help out on these types of events/participants... but this time I just visited the Honor Flight Donation site. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Good on ya GW. :thumbsup:

Carl - I know you're buried but.......I'm in the process of figuring out seat belt options, it looks like you have a 5 point system with a single tail strap on the shoulder harness.

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/421/dsc02721le.jpg

Is that a tensioner mounted below the package tray and anchored to the wheel well?

How is the webbing guided and anchored through the tray on over the rear seat back? Possibly a retractable shoulder belt guide?

You're also using a traditional lap/shoulder belt?

Interested to see what you and Tobin have planned!

Thanks

Greg,

Thank you sir. I'm on a mission concerning Honor Flight and the good things they do for our veterans.

Sieg,

Those are three-point rear seat retracts so my young boys can be strapped in. In order to secure them extra reinforcement plates were added to the package tray. Coming soon will be some information on the new Schroth 6-point belts and off-the-shelf, easy to install floor brackets for the lap and sub belts. Shoulder belts still need a crossbar to be correct.

The 5-point sub "ball-buster" belt needs to go through the seat bottom.

The drivers seat has both a 6-point harness and 3-point retracts (for street driving.) I'll get some photos of them and the package tray seat belt guide when I get home from travelling.

Carl- I will be making a donation to support your efforts in helping the veterans... Thanks.

Also... that is interesting to read about your impressions of the Hotchkis-tuned Fox shocks. I might have to upgrade from the Bilsteins to the Fox Shocks after reading... sounds like a nice improvement.

LSXTV.com did a really nice feature article on the Team Honor Flight Camaro. Thanks to Sean Haggai for hitting the nail on the head.

http://www.lsxtv.com/news/paying-bac...3ec2d08f432cba

Sean is one of the good guys!


Nice write up Carl... Good for you! And let's hope it's good for Honor Flight as well... dig deep boys!