Project Nighthawk 1969 Camaro - Building the GMR 9" rearend
 

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/concept.png

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/0.concept/rear.jpg

I have loved muscle cars since I was a kid. As an adult, watching the masters like Chip foose and his counterparts on countless car shows on sky tv strengthened that love even more. I knew some day, I would build the car of my dreams, and that day is finally here.

I am going to build a car that embodies everything I love about motoring. Retro style, Lots of usable power, and as much 21st century auto tech. as I can get in. I want a retro bruiser with all the mod cons.

The current plan is, 600hp LS3 motor,
Ridetech full air Suspension upgrades and sway bars managed by Accuair ride management
Rotiform
modern design red leather interior
modern lighting
digital computer controlled dash and electronics
lots of custom gizmos and gadgets

Paint wise I am thing of a dark but heavily metalic grey. Almost like shadow chrome you get on some wheels.
Bespoke body mods including front valance, rear diffuser, side skirts and rear gill.
Lots of carbon trim

The majority of the build work will be taken care off by the excellent Retro Power

This build thread will serve as summary of the build. For full blow by blow updates and pictures, follow the build on
the project facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ProjectNighthawk
and on Twitter here https://twitter.com/#!/ProjNighthawk

Phase one was to come up with some designs. Mike Gillett did an excellent job of turning my ramblings into renders.

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/0.concept/skirts.png

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/0.concept/valance.png

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/0.concept/rear.jpg

more designs Design concepts and rendering

Next, I needed a car to base the build on. I found a beautiful 69 camaro SS clone in hugger orange that had already had some resto work in the past, but you guys convinced me it was too good/original to base the build on, so that was promptly sold and replaced with this rotter off a shell.

Unfortunately I had to buy the shell blind, but the seller assured me it was a perfect base car due to my extensive plans and that structurally it was sound
http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/1.basecar/basecar(01).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/1.basecar/basecar(02).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/1.basecar/basecar(04).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/1.basecar/basecar(06).jpg

see the full gallery of base car pics

The car was delivered straight to Retro Power from the seller.

I had heard lots about the abilities of Callum and Nat at retro power, and had read countless forum posts and mag articles about their previous builds.

Seeing their metal work skills on some of their previous projects, and their very reasonable costs and working practices made them a winner.

The boys got straight to work tearing the car apart ready for blasting, which is when we found out, things werent as rosey as the first seemed.

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...rblast(01).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...rblast(02).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...rblast(13).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...rblast(26).jpg

Full gallery of the car pre blasting

After that, there wasnt much car left for blasting! but we had come too far now to turn back so on it went for media blasting and zinc priming

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...tblast(01).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...tblast(08).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...tblast(24).jpg

http://www.c4ppy.net/camaro/2.blasti...tblast(07).jpg

Full gallery of blasted car

Welcome

A whole new meaning to "perfect bas car":thumbsup: You are braver than I.

Nice project! Can't wait to see more :thumbsup:

Ah yes mine was rust free to!

Looks like some cool ideas in the works ....and a lot of metal work in the future, Welcome aboard

MMMMMMMM BLQ's

Should be an awesome project! Good luck!


Matt

Nice renderings. Don't worry about whats left you were going to change all that anyway. lol Sounds like it will be a great car when your done.

Thanks guys.

Doom, WOW.. but having said that, I am sure mine will look like that too once we break out the can opener and get chopping.

be sure to like the face book page here http://www.facebook.com/ProjectNighthawk

or follow the project on @projNighthawk for the full blow by blow updates