New member with a 69 Camaro BBC swap

[Garage Dog 65]

Looks like you found an excellent car to start with - and what a monster it's gonna be with that mean big block in there ! Sweet !!

Welcome !

[BBC69Camaro]

Originally Posted by Garage Dog 65

Looks like you found an excellent car to start with - and what a monster it's gonna be with that mean big block in there ! Sweet !!

Welcome !

Thanks! Yeah I spent about 6 months looking till I found one that was pretty good shape. You can't believe how many rustbuckets people were trying to sell.

[BBC69Camaro]

Big update (been lazy ):

Pulled out the old heater box that was all rusted from the old heater leaking. Wire wheeled it and cleaned it up:


Then threw some Por-15 and their Chassis coat black on it and replaced all the weather stripping, also had to weld on some new bolts as two of them broke taking them off:


Came out really nice I am pleased with it, shouldn't have to worry about it rusting anymore.

[BBC69Camaro]

Striped the front sub-frame of control arms, springs and brakes and removed the front sub-frame and cleaned it up. It also had a spot on the drivers side spring pocket that needed some minor welding so welded that up and then it went to the powder coater (it really needed it):



Beautiful work, they sandblasted it, baked off any remnants and then powder coated it. They even painted the inside of the rails, pretty good for $250.00. Pyramid Powder Coating in Sun Valley.

Painted the firewall with Por-15 and Chassis black, came out pretty good, very durable finish.

Put the front clip back on, mounted the Global West uppers and lowers with QA1 double adjustables, put the AFX spindles on, along with the Touring Classics AFX big brake kit (12.7" rotors) and Hydro-boost unit. Brake lines are from the Right Stuff.

A special thanks to Tyler over at ATS for helping me figure out the front suspension and brake setup! He really knows his stuff and is willing to work with you to make sure you are set.

Put the heater box back on with new heater core and big block outer cover and made a small cover since the new big block outer heater box didn't cover up the small block heater holes.

For comparison here is a before and after shot (you tell me which is which ):

[BBC69Camaro]

Painted the inside fenders of the front clip with Por-15 and Chassis black (pictures didn't come out too good):

Before:


After painting (pic didn't come out too good, but it looks nice):


Redid the hinges and hood lock mechanism in Eastwood's Zinc Phosphate paint. The below picture really doesn't do em justice they all look brand new now (from pretty rusty) :

[BBC69Camaro]

Now that the front suspension is mostly together, I took a centerline of the rear axle / body and compared it to where the front clip center line was just to make sure I wasn't too far off before I dropped the rear suspension:

Lets see what kind of trouble I can get into back here:




Started grinding off the undercoating on the inner wheel tubs in the rear in prep for mini-tubbing. Going with a G-Bar with QA1 double adjustables in back with a new Moser 12 bolt true-trac rear axle with 3.55 gears with a Ricks stainless notched tank (Thanks to Frank at Prodigy for hooking me up). Should be interesting to see how the rear matches up to the front when I am done.


Took out the seats and took the dash apart to put in new gauges and for the mini-tubbing. Going to run Stewart Warner Maximum Performance line with Speed, Tach, Fuel (Dash Cluster), Water, Oil Pressure (A-Pillar), Oil Temp, Trans Temp (Under Dash), Voltage, Vacuum, Fuel Pressure, A/F Ratio (Console Pod).



Taking a lot of pictures on the custom work to fit the Stewart Warner Gauges in the stock dash, its looking pretty good (will post when its done).

Well that is it for now

[BBC69Camaro]

Here are the pictures of getting after-market gauges to fit in the stock carrier that I promised:

Since my car didn't have a Tach, I wanted to move the fuel gauge to the center (bought a resto bezel from Classic Industries), so I cut out the center to match the bezel:


Rear shot of same:


Shot of the Bezel along with the bracket I made to hold the gauge and cover up things:


Shot with the bracket in:


Since the stock carrier can't accept standard aftermarket gauges, I removed the old ones and then proceeded to measure and cutout holes that matched 3-3/8" gauges I wanted to install:

Tach cut out


Continued on next post...

[DOOM]

Keep um coming loooooooovvvveeee those 69's !!!!! Was this car on ebay??

[BBC69Camaro]

Quick update - Mini-tubbing is done, painted the bottom of the car and inner tubs with Lizard Skin (very happy with the results so far). Installed G-Bar, Moser 12 bolt rear end with True-trac (33 spline 1350 yoke) and QA1 double adjustable shocks with 225lbs/in springs.

Before:


After (lizard skin still kind of wet, it dried darker see next pic):


With suspension goodies:
]

Next up install rear disc brakes from Touring Classics, brake and fuel lines (1/2 feed and return) from the RightStuff detailing, stainless baffled sumped notched tank from Rick's. After that motor goes in and I'll be redoing the entire car's electrical with a Classic update kit from AAW. Then Rims and tires (torn between VWW V45s and Wheel Vintiques Billet Rallyes - have to run a wheel adaptor in the front for those thou )

Have tons more pictures of the Mini-tub install and Rear suspension, just have to go through them (just busy).