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SlowProgress Project Introduction
67 Camaro SlowProgress ( Project in process)
I finally decided to start a build thread. Hoping it will keep me and others motivated, without slowing the build down even more. I will post it up in sections to try and get caught up to the current status over a few weeks and gradually add all the more recent photos and then try to keep up. There is some risk this will be one of those projects that drags out for a long time but I hope it can wrap up in the next two years so I can drive the car on its 50th birthday, a goal my son came up with. Because some people won’t want to read the boring background story here is the top level plan so far. It will be a low end to mid-level build with most of the work done in my garage. Pretty good chance I will have the painting done by someone else, but I may take that one on as well. Typical DSE stuff
Ride Tech True Turn in front (I am still sentimental about the stock front clip) Ride Tech muscle bar Rushforth Livewires all around
Engine – LS7 ( 75% sure at this point)
Paint color – Not 100% sure yet but probably will paint it similar to the high school red color Interior will be mostly stock because it is just fun that way. Probably will upgrade the seats a little using TMI kits or something similar (may do leather?) Open still and looking around to finish final plans
Recent History It all got started when I met Jason Rushforth at Goodguys to talk about wheels and he and I collaborated on a simple rendering. I was sure I wanted to use his wheels and it was fun to see how the car will look when finished. I was sort of stuck on how to proceed and going through the rendering process created a good starting point and really got me going with ordering some parts, starting with the Livewires. For now it will be belly-button “Camaro Red” because it has always been that way. Here is the rendering. https://i.imgur.com/3SPkmwL.jpg I have been waiting (lurking) and learning on this site for a few years now. This 67 was bought used as my first car in 1978 for $800. It was faded purple with side pipes and pretty cheesy Z-28 strips in white. The body filler was flaking in spots and it was pretty clear the fenders and tail panel had been whacked and the right quarter had been replaced using some sort of primitive chisels and clubs and about 20 lbs of brazing rod. My parents were pretty sure I had been taken but it was a typical Southwest solid body car which was great, even though it was pretty worn for an 11 year old car ! It also came with the bonus of about 300 Coors pull tabs under the seat and a couple recreational pharmaceuticals still in the ash tray. I saved parts up under my bed to build up a decent iron 12:1 compression 427 with a big solid cam. Coupled with some 4.56 gears out back, it was always a blast to drive. Gosh I have no idea how many times I fished through the gears with the original wide ratio Muncie transmission. Working at the local Firestone I managed to save up my nickels for some used Keystone Classics and finally a quickie paint job from a local painter. https://i.imgur.com/oR8CxFJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/h28dN9C.jpg I polished up the chrome and got all the electrical circuits working and drove it daily for several years, hauling friends around and cruising Fridays and Saturdays around the local Sonic drive-in (those are great memories). I added some skinny Centerlines up front and always intended to take it to the strip but never really had the time or money to do that. https://i.imgur.com/KEYMYyj.jpg Eventually I went back to school, got married, had a son and life changed directions. For some reason I hung onto the car, always intending to repaint in and leave the rest more-or less alone. In the early 90’s, just before my son was born, I took it all apart and freshened the engine painted the bottom, firewall, sub-frame, door interiors, dash, door jams and trunk edges preparing for the final bodywork. The paint was shot and peeling on the outside by that time. https://i.imgur.com/r3cS8hvl.jpg I sold the original fenders which were rusted in spots and full of lead in the fender lip area and stuck on some reproduction fenders (more on that later). It sat for a while when my son was born and having recently moved to Arizona I found out the cruel intentions of the state to force emissions on my old hotrod. Putting it through emissions was a trick at best. By the time I got it tuned to pass the yearly emissions test the engine would barely turn the dyno rollers and was seriously intimidating to the emission technicians who had never driven a lean, high compression 427 that would buck and spit fire out the carburetor at times. The yearly emissions grind, oppressive Summer temperatures and working to pay off the house meant the Camaro sort of just sat in the garage most of the time, fun to drive but a hassle at the same time. I occasionally drove it around in the cool mornings to keep the fluids circulating, but the more frequent downtime meant there was always a dry seal, leaking carburetor needle and seat, dead pump, low tire, or broken switch that got in the way of a really fun cruise, not to mention the blast furnace air that would lead to boil-overs. This engine always ran hot and I never did really figure out why. I was having fun taking it to the drag strip occasionally and did manage to get it down around 12.40s at 114 MPH, nothing stellar but fun at the same time. Problem was I still had to drive around with skinny tires and a less than road-friendly 12:1 compression engine. Around 2008 I started looking on the Interweb for cool ways to have fun with an old Camaro. That’s about the time I came across the Pro-Touring and Lat-g websites. I really liked what was happening with the old musclecars, improving their handling and driving them looked way better than having a garage blockage. I wasn’t sure I wanted to cut up a perfectly good 67 to perform all these handling mods but I decided to start on the body repairs while the ideas sort of percolated a bit. I really liked all the wide tires and low stance of the g-machines. Of course there is no way I am going to spend $4000 on wheels. Guys that do that must be crazy (more on that later). |
Always cool to see a long-term ownership car get radically transformed...even more so IMO the ones that have been set aside for awhile, for one reason or another. :thumbsup:
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Thanks for starting a build thread. I like the plans you have. Glad you stopped lurking too.
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:G-Dub: :clap:
Welcome to the site. I also love to hear the back stories about the old cars, that to me means a great deal. As you can see it takes quite a bit to put one of these cars back on the road both from time and money spent on them, but I know it will be worth it in the end. Keep up the motivation and remember the pain is temporary, the memories last forever... :flag2: |
I've always envied those who kept cars from their early years.
I certainly wish I had kept a couple of mine. Take your time, after all a forty year build is not unusual for this site! :lmao: |
Great cars with even better back stories are cool. Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the site!!
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Today
Thanks for all the encouraging words.
Here is a quick shot from today. I will post up the "how I got here photos" soon ! Scott http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...6d772faab4.jpg |
Tail Panel update
The rear lower valence was always wavy on the car and when I put the backup lights in it was obvious there was a lot of filler. Besides being wavy, one side was flat and the other rounded. It gave the valence a real wonky look that just felt wrong. That was one of those little things that always bugged me.
When I stripped the paint this time around I bought a stud gun to pull the panel out thinking it would be a really easy to fix the lower valence. https://i.imgur.com/rBNLCpml.jpg The metal was really stretched on one side and it was just beyond my skill set to fix it. I was a little discouraged and set that aside for a while. In 2011 a friend had a left-over tail panel that he gave me. I was able to cut off the lower valence and weld in a new one. It was good I did because the backup light holes were punched wrong from the factory. One side was ¼ inch higher than the other. I was able to fix it by lining the mis-punched hole up with the inner valence and now everything is lined up properly. https://i.imgur.com/ssIOEbyl.jpg Also there were always two holes burned around the hole beneath the license plate. I always assumed it was something the painter did. When fitting the valence I noticed the center hole would not sit flush because the inner valence was not trimmed correctly. The factory could not get the panel to sit flush so someone bridged the gap with a stick welder and burned a couple of holes around the opening. There were no spot welds anywhere. The inner valence hole was pretty jagged like it wasn’t trimmed right, or was early enough in production that it just wasn’t worked out properly (my car was built in Sep 1966). I trimmed the hole correctly and the parts dropped right in like they should and I was able to spot weld it in. https://i.imgur.com/86uErBkl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3tvSCntl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/oEm7Hpxl.jpg There was a softball sized dent in the lower right quarter. Again using my trusty stud welder I was pretty sure I could pull it out. Again the results weren’t that great so I bought patch panel and welded it in while working on welding in the lower valence. https://i.imgur.com/6bKnUyDl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0jFtFwwl.jpg Overall this part came out well. The car will have a straight lower valence now which was something missing for years. |
Door and fender fit
I got the new fenders and put them on the car in 2009 and it was pretty disappointing. With the fender shoved all the way back the gap was too wide.
https://i.imgur.com/o6sBp9Ol.jpg I was thinking about welding on the edge of the fender or door but the gap was pretty big. To make it worse I figured out there was no way to save the original LH door skin and had to cut it off. This was actually a pretty low point because I was optimistic to bolt new parts on and everything would fit. It really slowed me down but I decided to just start cutting and fixing. Cut the firewall bracket off the fender and slid it forward so the fender would slide back more. https://i.imgur.com/OTWrke6l.jpg] https://i.imgur.com/vt9YQBdl.jpg Cut the door skin off to fit a new one. http://i.imgur.com/moIfE0Nl.jpg But it wasn’t as easy as I expected. The new door skin matched the fender more closely but it really fit poorly on the frame so I had to build up the edge of the frame to get an edge to crimp the skin to and also slit the skin and change the shape. https://i.imgur.com/LSFD64tl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tdVEBqBl.jpg The back edge of the skin was too narrow and didn’t match the quarter panel so I had to slit it and widen to match. Overall the door just about took me out but I hung in there and learned a lot about putting aftermarket parts on an original body. https://i.imgur.com/5W8NHhAl.jpg I was finally able to media blast and prime everything. https://i.imgur.com/9p2zY33l.jpg Somewhere in there I build a temporary paint both and primed most of the front end pieces. https://i.imgur.com/jifXSHEl.jpg Was great to get the door back together. Overall the door skin fit was pretty good. https://i.imgur.com/eQX8Ppol.jpg I media blasted the fenders so I could weld on the edges to finish off the gapping process. Probably 80% done. Waiting to build up my TIG skills and refine the gap a little more. https://i.imgur.com/DBwtvsHl.jpg This took many weekends and it was great to get this behind me and finally start to order all the shiny pieces to go on the car. |
great story
you will definitely learn a lot by doing your own work and appreciate the people that do it for a living. the only drawback is once get better you'll want to redo some of your previous work. keep it up and post plenty of pictures. |
Great story. Keep posting up as I want to hear more :)
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Very nice work so far,it sure feels good when you do the work yourself.keep updates coming.
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I had been putting nickels in my piggy bank for some time and honestly I was just hesitant to spend it. The economy, family issues just seemed to keep me stalled out. Finally after settling on the wheels and tires I ordered some of the first pieces needed. This was a relief because it set the direction and it also allowed me to commit.
https://i.imgur.com/L6CDEaLl.jpg I had a simple plan to install Tru Turn system from Ride Tech and drive the car around a little. The plan was to motivate me and also find out what sort of sheet metal mods I needed in front. Ride Tech had just built the 48 hour car so I just ordered the kit and wheel backspacing to match, along with their Muscle Bar. I had run my hand over the fender lip at Goodguys and had a pretty good idea how far I would have to roll/flatten the wheelwell. In the mean time I ordered the brakes and all the DES rear suspension parts in order to have that ready. I also picked up some Ring Brothers hinges. Their designs are really nice and I knew from previous years that the Camaro hood always sits high in the rear after closing. I am hoping to eliminate that and walking around the car manually pushing the rear of the hood down every time I shut it. https://i.imgur.com/d6dchSEl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7fPS8drl.jpg In the process I found out that all the vendors I was working with were really good to deal with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Rushforth, DSE, Ride Tech, Ring Brothers or Baer to anyone. Having the tires mounted up was super cool. I just had to post the mandatory new tire versus old tire photo. I settled on 325s with 12 inch wheels. The thought process was to reduce the front/rear stagger (a little), knowing I could only get a 275 up front with the factory clip. https://i.imgur.com/kVOjLKZl.jpg |
Big Piggy Bank
Wow, you really did make a commitment. Good choices and lots of fun ahead. Really like the picture of the tires. Can't think of a better statement of intent then that pic. Was wondering who's hood hinges you decided to go with? They look nice in the picture. This will be a thread that I will continue to follow.
Rod |
I had fun bolting on the True Turn kit and muscle bar in. It is always nice to work with clean parts. It was good to finally be able to mock up the brakes and wheels.
https://i.imgur.com/0ZL6H4Rl.jpg I started rolling the fender lip. https://i.imgur.com/lHCavsel.jpg It was excited to see the body sitting lower over the front tires and all the Baer brakes parts installed as expected. I still have quite a bit of work to get the front fenders finished and the final ride height worked out. I need to set the camber and really dial in the front end. It is going to be close but I am pretty sure it will work out. https://i.imgur.com/OQENs2kl.jpg I started working the inner wheel tub by first cutting a donor piece out of an old fender laying around for spare parts. The plan for the part I cut out is to flip that piece around and weld to the inner lip and make a connection with the inner tub. It made a great window to look through and see what all goes on in there. https://i.imgur.com/huGn9tGl.jpg I cut the part of the inner tub that is stamped down toward the wheel so I can make the whole tub as tall as possible. A good sheet metal person probably would be more clever but I decided to work with what it have. The idea was to figure out the left side and then copy it on the right. https://i.imgur.com/aM8CCBSl.jpg You know how when things are going well something always happens. In this case I had to get a car running for my son to go to college. Some neighbors gave us a car several years previous and now I had procrastinated my time away and needed to get it running. I spent several weeks off-and-on getting the old Pontiac running and was a little distracted by the whole preparing my son (and myself) for college. It was hard to get anything done while the garage looked like this. https://i.imgur.com/uJvqgZfl.jpg I finally got the Pontiac running and reliable for the school commuting. The Camaro had been sitting for a couple months and the Pontiac was in the way, but at the same time it sort of forced me out in the garage and got me accomplishing things again, which was good. Playing around with all the sensors, swapping parts, fixing harness issues and changing the tank mounted pump also got me thinking about how nice it would be to have an LS engine in the Camaro. Now I was thinking just two more cylinders and basically the same process, but I was committed to the big block for the short term ! I jumped back in planning to finish the front fenders and go for a victory cruise with Tru Turn installed. I pulled the old high compression big block that I first built in high school in 1978 to put on the shorter pan. https://i.imgur.com/xtUxAqnl.jpg I had already purchased the pan and flipped the engine over to install it. https://i.imgur.com/nKvRNWAl.jpg I did a quick fit check and was about to work some clearance issues with the oil windage screen when I noticed the crank scraper was bent. Looking around I found a piston skirt laying in the engine. Dang ! so much for reusing the old big block without a rebuild ! https://i.imgur.com/VdBhDRBl.jpg To say I was discouraged is pretty accurate. But I decided to set the engine aside and work out some of the sheet metal projects to keep me busy while I figured out what to do for an engine. |
When you’ve blown up your favorite engine, it’s time to buy a welder. I had been looking at the 211 for some time and realized I would need it for building up the back end of the car.
https://i.imgur.com/FD0Tm1Dl.jpg Since my MIG skills are even worse than my poor TIG skills, I decided to build something easy as a confidence builder. I may not know a lot but I know that thick metal burns up slower than thin metal, so I started putting together a simple body cart to give me a chance to practice with the MIG. I bought some telescopic tube online and had it delivered to my door. That stuff was great and saved a bunch of heartache trying to get tubes to slide together. https://i.imgur.com/i6ePRYTl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rvyA7yJl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/J6oQQsNl.jpg I bought the good urethane wheels. Don't do that if you want the cart to roll. When I switched to the metal wheels I can move it around with one hand now. I also pulled the 12-bolt out to prepare the axle ends for the Quadralink brackets. http://i.imgur.com/wegBxnDl.jpg Since I knew the ends were going to be changing it was pretty easy to just cut them off and grind all the welds flush. Easy is a relative term I probably have about 3-4 hours in that grinding. The RH perch had been stick welded back on so it was obvious the wreck that caused the RH quarter to be replaced had also damaged the perch. Good time to straighten everything back out correctly. That perch was hard to remove because they stick welded every square inch. It came out in a bunch of pieces. https://i.imgur.com/w3FUIxll.jpg https://i.imgur.com/08zaXO1l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/u6nlABxl.jpg Having the car up on the cart really helped and with the rearend out I was able to really get going finally. Cool weather in the Spring helped also. Working with the garage door open is nice. I got started on the upper 4-link pockets https://i.imgur.com/qWTcoAbl.jpg I also cut out the LH tub. After drilling all those spot welds I realized I should have just cut them out. Guess I should have watched a few more videos on Youtube. Probably doesn’t hurt to be cautious the first time anyway. https://i.imgur.com/ZWMrwJ2l.jpg It was super cool to get the tub up in the wheelwell the first time. This is one of those big milestones in the whole back end project. This was installation #1 of about 100 test fits. https://i.imgur.com/c3ndPfJl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JFjymfXl.jpg Or course it didn’t take very long to shove one of those 325 up in the wheelwell. This car had tires sticking outside the wheelwell the last 40 years. What a huge improvement in the looks to have the tire up inside the wheelwell !! https://i.imgur.com/iSW8BBQl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/USRkJgkl.jpg |
Huge improvement indeed! Looking great
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It felt good to get some progress on the tubs and closeout panels.
https://i.imgur.com/pxRuEFul.jpg https://i.imgur.com/a3GnhVul.jpg I also spent some time working the lip around the wheel opening. I know some people with experience don't event do this part, but I decided it would make the car a little stronger and I felt like it would make it easier for me to weld in the tubs. https://i.imgur.com/aFudmpbl.jpg The RH side went a little smoother because I knew the steps and what to expect. https://i.imgur.com/FYOM78Zl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JM9S444l.jpg I mocked up all the filler panels on the RH side and welded them together on the table. https://i.imgur.com/p1TdQiHl.jpg I saved a little bit of time doing this but it really didn’t come out any nicer than the LH side. MIG welding thick pieces to thin pieces that are covered in zinc just isn’t my specialty. https://i.imgur.com/wBLtMs9l.jpg In the end I was more of a grinder than a welder on this job. https://i.imgur.com/itIlvW4l.jpg I finished the closeout on the LH tub somewhere along the way. https://i.imgur.com/oLpTtVRl.jpg Finally I cut the trunk floor for the cross-member. This was surprisingly more stressful than I thought it would be. I guess because the back of the car was starting to look like a disaster and I was wanting some things to be going back together by now. https://i.imgur.com/iqOPTuVl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/sTBeD6Pl.jpg I had been throwing all the bits and pieces in a tub and decided to lay them out to take a photo. I ended up drilling all the spots around the outer wheel house to take the old flange off. If I had to do it over again I would not have done that, too much work for almost no benefit. There was no rust or anything in there and it would have been a fine surface to weld to. But looking at all the pieces reminds me of all the time I spend in the trunk ! https://i.imgur.com/sJEMuA7l.jpg During the Christmas break I spent a few hours actually planning out what to do next. I decided what order I was going to work in and the best way to get started. I decided I was sick of burning paint and flaming seam sealer. Step 1 would be to get the car ready for media blasting, so that I would have a clean body to weld all the parts back to. I figured the cost was worth it, so I started getting the body, sub-frame and rear axle housing ready for media blasting. https://i.imgur.com/N9Q3Ax6l.jpg I found a local wrecker company that was used to hauling cars to media blast. The cart came in handy for this part. He did a great job getting it there and back. https://i.imgur.com/lTpfGDbl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/MWvFKnkl.jpg |
Courage above all else
That is great progress you are making. It takes a lot of courage to cut out the tubs when you feel the uncertainty of how it will turn out. Looks great so I think you are making great progress. I am following your build to learn what to watch for when I do my project.
So thanks for the posting of the many pictures. It does take time to maintain the build thread an I appreciate the time you are taking to update all of us that are watching. Good luck on the next step. Rod |
I'm liking this build thread. Nice parts list you have there too. Keep up the good work and oh, keep the pics coming too.
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Great story!! Nice that you had it for over 35 years. Look forward to watching your progress! Keep up the good work.
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Nice 3100 in that Pontiac - was it a Grand Prix?
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Like the progress and your story, you are doing a great job and it will show in the end. Love those rims, how is the clearance on those 325's?
I'm jealous of your welder .... that's what I need someday! Keep up the good work. Michael |
Thanks Sonar chief. I have been following your build as well. The 325s have about 1-Inch clearance inside and outside. My car already had the rear openings rolled with a baseball bat when I mounted my first set of wide (8-inch) wheels in 1978. I was also pretty careful to put the tubs in a little deeper than necessary. I just ordered the axles and differential so I should be able to post some photos in a couple weeks. Right now the axle ends are just tacked in case I need some last minute tweaking.
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I shouldn’t have procrastinated starting this thread for so long. Getting caught-up is cutting into my project time.
It was great to get the Camaro back from the media blaster. If you live in the Phoenix area I highly recommend Patrick over at Pro Strip Media blasting. He always finishes when he says and is a very conscientious person. When I visited he was actually repairing a 55 hood that had been damaged by another blaster. I didn’t even know you could do that. Anyway the car looked great and it was odd to see it heading down the road on the flatbed https://i.imgur.com/Moc8KgZl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CZXjcORl.jpg I was itching to weld something, without burning up a bunch of paint and sealer and not wasting all my time grinding to bare metal before I welded anything. I had already D/A sanded the quarters so I didn't have them stripped. The metal has quite a few scratches. When I was younger I unknowingly took a body grinder to it to strip some of the paint. I will get to pay for that little mistake when I start the body work. https://i.imgur.com/6QqXJnal.jpg The blasting didn’t reveal much that was unexpected. I did notice just how bad the firewall was and found some of my 20 year old braze repairs. I was a little disappointed to see in detail just how wrinkled the RH outer wheel house was. I knew the quarter was replaced (poorly), but I didn’t see all the wheel house damage because it was undercoated. You can see a little in the photo below at the bottom. https://i.imgur.com/0LjPuXFl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/s8195B3l.jpg I decided to keep the quarter and the wheelhouse for now. Both are solid. It will require a little bit of filler in the wheelhouse to make it visually smooth. It is going to get coated with bed-liner anyway. I guess it would be fun to have a perfect car but I sort of like the little warts and bumps on this one. Having the original (to me) quarter just sort of fits somehow. Anyway the first task was to prepare the cross-member. I didn’t get photos for some reason but the first thing you have to do on a 67 is weld up the odd chamfer and scallop that must work just fine on a 69. This had me scratching my head and I even called DSE to make sure I had the right part. You can see where the pieces need to weld in from this photo. https://i.imgur.com/Xm14OD4l.jpg I capped both ends of the cross-member with some .116 material I had purchased for the filler panels. I also welded a closeout on the inside of the frame rail on the left side. The panhard bracket closes out the RH. You can see the weld marks where the inner closeout was in this photo on the left. I tacked it from below after it was all aligned and then took the cross-member out and final welded before I put the cross-member in for the last time. This made welding the inner closeout easier. https://i.imgur.com/OzYCrVNl.jpg I was finally able to start welding in the cross member after hours of leveling and checking. Here is where the Miller 211 came in handy. I could see where I needed to weld but sometimes it was hard to get in there. My TIG skills are probably not good enough to have completed some of the welds. It was great having the cross-member in because now I could finally get going on the tubs. https://i.imgur.com/FL6F4bkl.jpg I tacked the panhard bracket in but I wasn’t really happy with how far it poked out into the wheel well. I decided to plug weld a ¼ inch spacer behind it and weld to that. This part took some time. I am sure there are better ways to do it but this was the way I chose. BTW I found out my MIG skills are poor welding thick to thin material. I still have a few burn-through spots to repair. https://i.imgur.com/1hGl2Url.jpg I finished (mostly) welding the rear (trunk side) of the cross-member. It came out Ok but again there are some holes that need TLC. I was a little discouraged about some of the welding mistakes. Finally I realized that you just have to learn somewhere, or pay someone else who is better to do it for you. It will take some grinding time to clean-up but that is not a big deal really. https://i.imgur.com/AFv19mpl.jpg I finally sat down and drilled all those holes in the 4-link dog house assemblies. https://i.imgur.com/szJ4Fe9l.jpg Having the cross-member in allowed me to finally weld in the tubs. I used a combination of MIG, TIG and spot welds where I could save time. This was actually one of the more relaxing parts to the back-end work, because everything was clean and all the hard work had been done already. Here the speed of the MIG really pays off and most of the plug welds came out fine. I should have taken some photos with all the clamps installed before the welds. Sometimes I forget to take simple photos that I actually would have liked later. https://i.imgur.com/tMqFjQal.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PaAGT2ll.jpg https://i.imgur.com/HgF2shBl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/WblHwW4l.jpg Man the tubs and cross-member were in the car. That was a huge morale booster. Honestly this job isn’t that difficult. It does take time to get it done in your spare hours and all the starting and stopping isn’t very efficient with a few days, or weeks in between each work session. Overall I am glad I did it myself. |
Wow...that's crazy clean. Great work. Thanks for the motivation!!
:D |
OT - that large port 3100 should run forever. It might end up having bad lower intake manifold gaskets - and the camshaft can snap inside the block.
I have owned several of those 60* V6's - and was swapping a 3400 5 speed combo into a Beretta Z26 - then I got a job 1000 miles from Chicago, so I scrapped that project and bought the C6... Back on topic - those welds look really good. Where is your spot welder from? |
That's great pics and detailed work,that's real good info for others to go by.Looks like it's still a solid car to start with,here in WV you would be ordering a lot of new metal after sandblasting,keep those good pics coming:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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What size/offset front wheels are you running? Interested in seeing what you do to the front fenders.
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With the tubs in I was finally ready to weld in the upper 4-link pockets. It went really fast with the MIG welder. There were a couple of spots where I had to bang the floor around with a 20oz ball peen hammer but mostly the gaps closed up nice. I still need to skip weld around the edges, sort of saving that for a rainy day.
https://i.imgur.com/UmSDZW7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/h2SJHh2l.jpg With the pockets welded in (mostly) I was just looking to get some motivation. I purchased a digital level and tack-welded some temporary stands to the welding table. I decided to buy a pinion center locating tool from Moser. It was really well made from stainless, so it won’t rust and everything is laser cut. I like buying things that turn out better than expected. With the pinion angle set, I was able to slip the Quadralink brackets on and start tacking everything. This took a lot of time but it was really an interesting job. Compared to working in the trunk on the wheel tubs, standing upright at the welding table was just more fun ! https://i.imgur.com/v2BLOwPl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/BB6gvQEl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/nDbU3mtl.jpg With the brackets tacked in place I was able to put the rear end under the car and get it all centered left-to-right and also front-to-back. I put the wheels up on stands and sighted down the axle tubes to get it lined up in the center of the wheel wells. This was a pretty good evening. https://i.imgur.com/eB3G92Vl.jpg I had gone back and forth whether to spend money on a rotisserie. It is sort of a luxury and I really didn’t want to tie up funds in something that wasn’t directly car parts. I was having some problems with out-of-position welds various places around the car, so I decided to just buy it and plan to sell it to someone after I am through. I was thinking of building one but I decided that would eat up too much car time and actually cost more than buying a good one. I ended up buying the AT+ from Accessible Systems. I have been really happy with it. Top notch quality and it has lived up to all their claims on the website. Since I work by myself, I really needed a lift that was easy to balance and manipulate with one person. I set the car up and had it balanced within an hour or so. The body seems really secure on this stand. https://i.imgur.com/qCLmOVDl.jpg Before putting the car on the rotisserie I wanted to finish some of the firewall work that would be harder to do with something in the way. I cut out some of the beat up firewall and started welding in the DSE panel. This actually turned out to be really easy and took only about 8 hours spread out over a couple of days. https://i.imgur.com/TEDhsrfl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pN9Hvszl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tJx5yhWl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/UW59NEil.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JFhrKeTl.jpg So, I thought the filler panel was going to be hard and the hydraulic clutch bracket was going to be easy. It turned out just the opposite for me. For the clutch master bracket, fabricating the filler panels, welding the round hole up underneath and getting it all to look good really took some time. There are so many curved surfaces and compound angles that I threw away a couple sets of closeout pieces before I got them close. I am pretty sure I have almost as much time in the hydraulic bracket as the firewall filler panel. It came out pretty good but I still have a little clean-up work to do. https://i.imgur.com/KHutS9sl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/X8GyAyQl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9v4mbq0l.jpg Time to move on to the subframe connectors. |
Starting on the subframe connectors I cut out the seat pans per the DSE instructions.
https://i.imgur.com/cbe5i2tl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3CXwKBXl.jpg Then cut the slot in the floor. This was another one of those sort of stressful jobs. I measured a bunch of times to make sure I didn’t mess it up before slitting the floor pan to slide the connectors in place. https://i.imgur.com/lT0t7sWl.jpg I cut the opening per the instructions but I actually ended up having to weld a piece back in. I wasn’t too bummed because it didn’t take too long to fix. I wasn’t sure why so far off but my body uses aluminum full–height mounts. I think the cut dimension is more geared to half-height mounts. Cut conservatively was the lesson I learned. https://i.imgur.com/JgnkYiul.jpg Of course the second one is always easier because you know what to expect. https://i.imgur.com/C7KqSukl.jpg I welded the closeouts before final tacking in the connectors. I also welded some sleeves inside so the tubes won’t crush when I tighten the bolts. I drilled some small holes and tack welded the sleeves in place so they would not drop out. https://i.imgur.com/eqfOiFkl.jpg Cleaned-up they look like this. I decided to use all pilot holes for bolts rather than weld them together. Someday the subframe may come out of the car and having it welded in doesn’t seem like the best idea. https://i.imgur.com/rPC9noQl.jpg I decided the best thing to do now was to put in the front subframe and line everything up. I spent quite a while leveling and measuring to make sure the subframe was in square. https://i.imgur.com/75AjmZol.jpg Once it was square and tight, I put the connectors in and made sure everything lined up. I was happy that it did. This would have been a bad thing to mess up, so it was nice to see it all work out. I tacked the connectors in place and also tacked the brackets to the subframe. https://i.imgur.com/cskgXehl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/RjaR032l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/jNa0YEPl.jpg I decided not to weld the brackets until the car is a little further along. Some people claim it will settle with the engine, interior and seats installed. So I will cut the spot welds and do final weld at a later time. To take a break I decided to weld up the firewall blower motor hole. This really was an easy job. Sometimes you just have to do some easy things to get motivated to do the hard jobs. https://i.imgur.com/z9y0MFjl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1JB69h7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/liV8aG7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/FWLQ6del.jpg It was good to see most of the big holes in the body start to close-up. The only big job left is cutting the tunnel for the T-56 installation. That is a ways off at this point. |
nice work, coming out very clean.
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You are doing an excellent job. Taking your time is key, so don't get discouraged. Doing it right like you are doing takes time. Great story with the history of the car also. I can't wait to see more.
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BTW. I got some ideas from your 69 project. It really came out great. I just bookmarked the silicon braze link ! |
Nice work! Your doing a great job on this rebuild.
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After I finished the small repair where I cut a little too far I finished welding the seat pan cutouts back in the car. I was a little more careful on the other side.
https://i.imgur.com/er2OyDnl.jpg I use lots of magnets to hold things in alignment. This works pretty well with MIG but don’t try it with TIG. First time I welded up close to a magnet with TIG I couldn’t figure out why the arc was wandering all over the place. https://i.imgur.com/XQ4zs87l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Z9Yx3XTl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/zIAG7CEl.jpg I re-discovered a cool thing about this time in the project. Flap disks are probably the best creation of all time. They remove material like crazy without getting too hot and warping everything. You still have to be careful not to over-grind things but they work great. When grinding MIG welds you need a really aggressive cutter because it is so hard and these flap wheels just work well. This photo is from today after making my weekly welding store run. These parts are going to be 3 layers under everything but they actually came out looking OK. https://i.imgur.com/Y3VbcGRl.jpg With the subframe connectors partially installed I was tripping over fewer loose parts every trip to the garage. I decide it was finally time to put the body up on the twirler because that was the largest piece I was tripping over. This not only was easy but it lets me lift the body and tilt it at an angle so I can get everything stored underneath when I want to park my other vehicle in the garage ! https://i.imgur.com/R0vQnHRl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/yyh6eYdl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pBpLDu0l.jpg Here is an image the first time I had it all balanced and went vertical. I knew that the stand and connections were strong but the first time you go past vertical just feels weird. https://i.imgur.com/iGQNWHxl.jpg Finally had it upside down so I could get some things welded and cleaned-up on the bottom. https://i.imgur.com/N0cMtUZl.jpg I started cleaning the left side of the cross-member with the flap wheel. I had a few holes to weld up. I think they were from the original cross-flow rear muffler – long gone by the time I got the car. I don’t want to go crazy on the bottom but it will get paint not bed liner so I want it to look decent. The coil-over mounts are just tacked for now in case I want a make minor changes once the rearend is all lined-up. https://i.imgur.com/AFJiez5l.jpg I also finished welding the left subframe connector on the bottom side. Now all the litte burn-throughs and gaps are filled with weld so the topside should go fast with the MIG welder. https://i.imgur.com/1PJWrcEl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Cjq1QpYl.jpg I still can’t lay down a constant bead to save my life but it is strong and that’s all the matters. Nothing a few extra coats of primer won’t cover. I finally got my alignment bar and adapters on order. This was a fun time because I got to actually put the axle ends on the housing. I flipped the car over and lowered it to place the wheels and tires in the tubs. This was so nice to see all that rubber not sticking outside the wheel opening. It is just a little high in the photo but that is the lowest point of the twirler and good enough to take some width measurements. https://i.imgur.com/3O73G07l.jpg |
I measured 3 or 4 or 10 times and then wrote a number on the floor. I subtracted the rotor hat thickness and came up with 55 inches axle flange-to-flange (more-or-less). I wrote that number in big letters on the floor so I couldn’t forget it. The rear wheels are 19 x 12 with a 6 inch backspace. The tires are 325/19s.
Then I made a pretty dumb mistake and cut the housing flange-to-flange width to my axle flange dimensions. Got the ends all tacked on didn’t figure it out until my final measurement. So the photo here is really 5 inches too wide. I have to admit that because someone will spot the axle ends are not close enough to the outer 4-link brackets. It is just best to admit my sin now! https://i.imgur.com/lbKoMSkl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tRiLag3l.jpg With the ends tack welded on the housing it was fun to mock-up the brakes and put the Moser rear cover on. It is starting to look pretty good and after the final fit check with axles I will weld all the brackets up to complete it. There are two version of this mock-up photo. Tidy version: where it looks like everything is pretty organized and under control. https://i.imgur.com/FVzdUQUl.jpg Real version: looking the other direction at all the chaos. https://i.imgur.com/TJLNYU0l.jpg With the final sizing all planned out I ordered the axles, differential, gears and setup kit. Those will be coming in next week. Soon after the rearend is all fitted, I will get the transmission on order so I can mock that up and start cutting the tunnel, the last really big metal job. Next after tunnel mods is to fit the air-conditioner under the dash. I want the A/C mounted because I can’t body-work the firewall until all the holes are drilled and mounts all figured out. Those two jobs will probably take me deep into the Fall. I still need to weld the RH subframe connector and clean up the cross member on that side of the car. There are quite a few hours there and I will work that in between rear end assembly mock-up. Procrastination sucks ! Posting all this at once was way harder than if I just started doing it as I went along. But I am finally all caught up on posting. Now I can post the occasional project shot and answer "why aren't you working on your car " questions and it won't take so much time ! |
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