Project "Jane Doe" 69 Camaro at Best of Show Coachworks

[Gandalf]

Well, late to the party but friends here have been bugging me to post a build thread on my car for a couple years now. So I have some notes over on PT that I'll post here to get started. So hold on for the ride - there's a lot to cover....

Welcome to my 69 Camaro Coupe build thread, known as “Jane Doe” until we come up with a name. I’m 5yrs into this build and never posted a project thread so here it is. If the guys at Best of Show finish the car before this thread gets posted I’ll never hear the end of it!

The story so far…..

Here she is back in 2005, as purchased, ready for a few days’ work to get her running and on the road again. It had come with a fresh SBC crate motor built by Joe Sherman Racing here in SoCal. The car was an older, driver quality restoration and it looked like it had been done "ok". An x11 car with a/c but after chasing numbers on an earlier project, I could care less. I had different plans for this one.



The crate motor and trans were just sitting in the car with nothing attached so before reconnecting everything I decided it was easy enough to pull the motor and trans to “clean up a few things”. Well, from there it spiraled out of control and I ended up with what I once heard Steve Rupp describe as a bad case of "While I'm here, I might as well ...".

Before I knew it I had completely gutted the car. I had stripped the underside, fitted DSE mini-tubs, replaced a tulip panel, smoothed the firewall and had most of the trim holes welded closed. Then off to have the entire shell media blasted inside and out including the doors & the front sheet metal.



The shell was really good except for a few issues. The passenger quarter had been replaced from below the sail panel leaving a cavernous weld that had been filled over with bondo and the drivers side had some rust down low that could be patched. I decided to have both full quarter panels. Here she is freshly stripped, right before being put in primer.



With the floors, trunk, doors, roof and everywhere else being solid, I would have a good canvas to start the build. Sweet!



The first shop took more than a year to replace both full quarters. Thankfully they did a quality job fitting, aligning and welding these. During that time they managed to "loose" most of my stock front sheet metal, steering and suspension. On top of that the car was left outside for weeks while still in etch primer! Needless to say it needed to be stripped again. I pulled the car from that shop. A total waste of money, time and extremely frustrating.

[Gandalf]

Not long before that I had met Steve Rupp who had introduced me to the guys at Best of Show Coachworks. They were less than 5min away so I literally trailered the car down there. After looking over the car together, I sat down with D!ck and we came up with a plan. Within a few days Best of Show got to work refinishing the previous metalwork including the firewall which was totally redone.



The car was then stripped section by section back to bare metal with the DA and lots of 3M cleanstrip wheels. It was great that BOS let me contribute my own labor to the process. I felt like I still had a connection to my own project and I didn't mind getting down and dirty to get any job done.



Several areas were POR15’d and later the entire shell was sealed-up in epoxy primer. We had collectively achieved more in 2wks than I had seen done in the previous year!



From there the guys got onto bodywork and primer. This was awesome progress after my experience at the previous shop. It would serve as ground-zero for the build ahead.

[Gandalf]

Fast forward 10mths..... I did not have BOS do much more on the body itself. I did get most of the drivetrain & suspension pieces together.

I purchased a number of brand new items including a powdercoated AME subframe w/C6 suspension, ATS engine mounts, Art Morrison LS headers, Ron Davis Radiator and G-Bar setup. I also snagged a freshly built LS6 and 4sp auto as part of the deal but I had other plans.





The LS6/A4 was sold off to help secure an LS7 and FBody T56! I ordered up a few choice performance parts and took everything up to Charlie Williams @ RPM Motors in Santa Clarita to get some love ;-). Charlie has a great reputation as a high performance LSx builder and tuner, especially in the Corvette and CTS-V community. The stuff I see and hear in his shop makes my jaw drop. Charlie & I sat down and went through the build and came up with a plan. I supplied many of the build parts and let Charlie work his magic. I cannot wait to run this motor!



It also helps that RPM have their own in-house transmission shop with a TON of T56 builds to their credit so I had them build the T56 using some much stronger components.



I purchased a "G-Bar ready" Moser narrowed 9” rear and axles from Frank at Prodigy. We welded the G-Bar in place and BOS then sprayed the entire underside of the car with their Wurth StoneGuard. We mounted the GBar components and then the 9" rear.

With Matt overseeing the show, we introduced the freshly built engine and transmission to the sub-frame. From there we used DSE solid aluminum body mounts and polished hardware to mount the sub-frame to the body. A big day!







Like my new rollers? Leave your wheels scattered around the shop and they will be put to good use, Ha!



Since I had changed it up to the LS7 we figured this would be more than just a good idea to add some DSE subframe connectors.




They came out real nice - I had BOS make them a bolt-in with the Art Morrison sub-frame.

[Gandalf]

Aluminum center section from Currie arrived - 3.89 gears and TrueTrac should get the job done.



Delivery from Wilwood who helped us spec out the combination we were after:



All wired and ready to rock! Apparently not one of D!ck's favorite tasks......but still nice to know my rotors aren't going to come flying off anytime soon :-)



On to the custom roll-bar. Would have helped if I had taken photos when it came back from powedercoat and before I wrapped it for the install - oh well. You'll have to imagine it like I have to for now. Went in real nice.

[Gandalf]

Out comes the aircraft stripper......



Lots of bodywork including fitting the trunklid from Matt @ Anvil. More Carbon fiber goodness coming from Anvil - almost seems a shame to cover them with paint!





So now "somebody" thinks his ass is funny when he shows me the freshly applied PINK guide-coat! Very funny. I'm not the one who now has to sand it all off again.... :-)



The boys really knocked it out of the park with the bodywork - lines and gaps are looking killer already.

The overall theme called for a few small modifications to the body but I did not want to detract from the original lines of the car. I liked the thought of raising the filler from down behind the license plate. We'll tidy up the bumpers front and rear, delete the door and trunk locks but keep the original door handles.

[Gandalf]

The boys at BOS continued to block the entire car AGAIN and refine the bodywork even more. The firewall was also blocked and the car given some final fit and finish.



A familiar looking all Carbon Fiber cowl hood from Anvil


The car was blown apart again. Jesus got down to work and gave the firewall area and inner fenders a few layers of Hot Rod Black. The door jams also received sealer and their respective base and clear coats. Finally some color - woot!





With the front sheetmetal off the car one last time, we took the opportunity to unbolt the sub-frame and take care of a few things. I removed the engine and transmission, cleaned-up the subframe and suspension.



Received my SupertTwin P-Trim clutch and flywheel setup from Jeremy @ Spec. Looking forward to a quiet, reasonable effort 1400lb-capable twin clutch.

Paul @ TurnKey installed the updated pilot bearing, SPEC flywheel & clutch. The guys there are great and their facility is like going to LS-heaven. Tons of engines and bins of go-fast parts for LS engines.

[Gandalf]

Everything back together and ready for front sheetmetal. I confess I did not realize just HOW great the engine would look against the Hot Rod Black firewall.




Ok - reassemble the front end one last time before paint. That boy Jesus can mask a car quicker than anyone I've seen!






Time for some paint.... Jon sealed the body Thursday and painted all day Friday. The weather was perfect (for the paint process anyway - we're not sure about Jon)




Outside a few days later, still curing. Tough color to photograph.


Let the colorsanding begin.....

[Gandalf]

After a week and a half of colorsanding and buffing (even from the phone pics in the v. late afternoon sun you can still catch a hint of what all the hard work produced). Jon tells me there's still 2 or 3 stages to go but he refuses to do them until "you guys and your grubby fingers have finished assembling the rest of the car". um, er, "ok Jon" :-)

[Gandalf]

Among other things, we got the lower steering wrapped and D*ck has been running brake lines:


Chris got my ISIS laid out and mounted for me to complete the wiring:


Fuel lines are next, new wheels should be getting close, waiting on our redesigned drysump tank to arrive and about to start laying out the Damplifier Pro mat.

G.

[Gandalf]

Thanks guys. Yes, a TON of my own sweat and tears for sure. Ok, with work out of the way for a few hours, time for some well-overdue updates:

I ordered my Dry Sump Tank from Kevin @ Peterson Fluid Systems back in early December. They delivered early in January as expected but unfortunately the top half of the tank was created without the changes we had ordered. From there we got put back in the standard production queue and did not see the replacement until early February. Disappointing but there was plenty else going on so no lost ground. Here's the tank initially delivered:



This is essentially the ATS part number (still available from Peterson) but included additional ports for a temp/pressure sender and a heater element in the base (I later nixed the heater element port). The top part of the tank had been ordered with the filler to one side and the 2 ports clocked to aid fitment into the first gen fender. Once the correct part arrived, I set to work, spending hours (days) fitting, cutting, mocking-up and had to fab a custom bracket to mount the tank. You can get a sense of it from this shot early in the process (note to self - straigten the bracket before pictures - doh!)



You can see the offset filler in this next shot. It enabled me to set the tank further into the unused portion of the fender while still being able to access the filler. This paid dividends as I soon realized how tight this fit was going to be. You have to cut on the inner fender in just the right spot and mocking-it up is a challenge as you litterally have to consider the limiting factors on ALL SIX planes including top and bottom. It's tight but it worked-out.