1969 Camaro Z/28

[67pro-street]

Hello, I have been lurking on these message boards on and off for a few years now, but have never been much of a poster. I am starting back up on my project and decided now was a good of time as any to start a build thread and become an active member of the Lateral G community. By the way, I must compliment everyone on their builds, everything i have seen so far has been top notch!

I bought this 69 camaro (true Z/28) back in late 09. Tried locating original engine and transmission, but when the search came up fruitless, I saw the light and decided on a Pro-Touring car! I had a bump road on this car till now and it truly has been a money pit. I took it to the wrong builder who basically screwed me out of a lot of money and showed minimal results. Instead of letting the wallet gouging continue, i brought the car home and it sat for a year and a half as i was too bitter to move forward. Since that time, I tried to put the car back together myself and realized I was in waaay over my head. I have now found a new shop that is a night and day difference from the first one. They are going to take my hack job and make it right!

Initial plans were to buy an Art Morrison back half and then put an AME front subframe in at a later date. The shop that i am working with now deals with Art Morrison frames all the time and one of their customers had a Max G chassis they werent using, so I decided to go with that instead.

I would like to put a LS7 and 6spd manual transmission and paint it back similar to the original colors (Garnet Red with Black stripes). Here are some pics of the car when i first bought it.

[67pro-street]

I took the car to a restoration thief (i mean builder... ) who I had met back in high school. He gave me a few pointers on a truck i restored back then. I had seen some finished cars at his shop and thought he seemed like an honest person. I would have been better off if I just gave the guy a big wad of cash and kept my car at home, but live and learn right!

When i took the car to the shop, my hopes were to have the quarter panels replaced, floor boards patched up where needed, trunk pan replaced, door skins redone and firewall smoothed. Well, he re-skinned the doors(which im now told are off and need to be redone), smoothed the firewall with a bunch of bondo, and more or less took the car down to its substructure (without any sort of jigging or support braces ). Here are some pics of the car at the guys shop.

[67pro-street]

Here is a pic of the backside of the firewall. You can still see the factory "ripples", which just goes to show how much bondo was used in "smoothing" the firewall.





Needless to say, once i saw the work and what he was charging for this "professional fabrication" I took the car home. I do realize that i should have taken the car home at the first sign of trouble, but i was young and put too much trust into this guy. haha, live and learn right!

Here is the makeshift frame he built so i could trailer the car home. This is how it sat for a year and a half while i was recovering from the shock

[67pro-street]

Here is the Triangulated 4 link Art Morrison Frame I had bought for the project. Since i live in Washington, i was able to travel down to Art Morrison's fab shop pick it up. I must say, the guys over there at the shop are super nice people! I asked Brock, one of their salesman, if i could take a tour of the shop while i was there. I was expecting the usual no due to insurance reasons or something like that...But instead he spent the better part of an hour walking me through the shop and showing their fabrication process. I was blown away, to say the least. Their stuff is top notch!!











Once again, thanks to the guys at Art Morrison!

[67pro-street]

I figured i would show some pictures of the 67 Chevy i built in high school. These are pics taken before i sold it to help pay for a small chunk of that $40k piece of paper that says i have a degree in Mechanical Engineering (Well worth the sacrifice by the way, its always hard to "sound" sarcastic when typing...I dont want people to get the wrong impression here

It had a 4/6 drop, 383 stroker, 700R4 transmission, oak wood bed, and a sweet lime green paint job! I did all the work myself on this and it was the first time ever doing any of this, so the pictures hide all the imperfections that would never fly on the Lateral G board This was a great project and i will always love this truck, but it was a very low budget truck built on a high school persons bank account

[67pro-street]

So, back to the Camaro. Summer of 2011 I attempted to put the car back together. I still think if it was just one quarter panel, or just replacing the trunk, i would have been able to struggle through the process. But being that the car go all "kwinky-dink" on the ride home from the guys shop and was never jigged, i got to a certain point where i realized that i am getting these panels about 70% right. But when you put 10-12 panels together that are only 70% "right" you end up with a big steaming pile of...well, lets just say it wont smell like roses

I wasnt sure of the process to follow as far which panels need to go together first, so i put my "enginerding" skills to the test and made my best attempt. I think i am better off enginerding things on paper and letting the guys in the shop do the real work! (I work at a refinery up here in bellingham and get told that all the time!)

I thought i would start with the trunk pan, and then go for the outer wheel wells. Please dont make too much fun of me, but I would love to hear pointers from you guys. although i am not anywhere close to being done with this project, i know it will not be my last and you can never stop learning...









I tried to use jackstands and wood blocks to get the car level, before i started putting my truck pan in and the rear subframe. I cant stress enough how much it would have helped if i build some sort of "frame table" or jib and got that all square and level, then put the car on that. But alas, that ship has sailed and sunk before it left the harbor

[Ron in SoCal]

Wow man. Sorry for your touble! Happens more often than it should. Hang in there dude. There's a couple guys here who have been through it and will tell you - in the end it's worth it.

[frankv11]

sorry to see that happen , i went through something like that with my 64 chevelle so on my camaro i'm doing it all except for paint, besides 75% of the fun is building it. now your of to a good start,