John's 68 Camaro

[214Chevy]

That rear end is beautiful!!

[suark]

Several members have asked me what rear end I'm using. It's a Winters aluminum center section, Chester 2 1/2" GN axle tubes and Winters GN hubs. I got everything from lefthanderchassis.com. It was easy to build, once I knew what my flange to flange width needed to be I cut the tubes to the correct length. There's a .005" interference fit so I heated the housing in the oven to 300' and put the tubes in dry ice for an hour and they dropped right in. Then just drill & tap for the 12, 3/8-24 bolts to keep it together. The axle tubes came with the floater ends already welded on so I put the tubes in v-blocks before hand and indicated them assuming there would be some run out. They only had .011" and .013" run out so I marked the tubes so I could put the high side up in the housing figuring I may as well take advantage of it and have just a touch of camber. When tig welding the DSE brackets on, I only welded about an inch at a time and let it cool completely before welding any further. The welding took a few days with this method, but when finished I put it back in v-blocks, indicated the tubes again and had almost the same run out again so it was worth taking my time.

[Autokraft]

Those wheels look great John! Also nice job on the rear end, takes time but thats the difference in getting it done right

It looks better on the ground instead of the cart

[DEIGuy38]

Originally Posted by suark

I was originally thinking a period correct color like sea frost green, gold or maybe the original turquoise but I don't want it too boring either. Talking about it gets me thinking about that green again....

PPG 43898 Rallye Green Poly!!!

[suark]

It's been a busy summer so only a little progress, I got the rear brakes done. I wanted to use Z06 rotors and e-brake assemblies but no matter how I tried I couldn't make them work, the calipers were too close to the inner fenders. The full float set up moves everything inboard too much so I ended up having custom rotors made. I guess I should've built the rear end to fit and had the wheels made to fit last but I did the opposite because I wanted that exact look for the rear wheels, oh well, no e-brake, I'll survive.

[suark]

I've changed plans, I'm now going with a big block. So, after getting my T56 and mocking it all up in the car, even though I have stock height body bushings, I had to raise the tunnel. Even with the oil pan laying on the crossmember, the highest I could get the trans was a 5 degree down angle before it hit the tunnel right in front of the seam where the firewall meets the floor pan. I have quite a bit of grinding left to do but it's looking pretty good. Doing this kind of work gives me alot of respect for the guys that do this for a living.

[streetbird]

Wow, I love your quadralink installation. Your welds are very nice

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Killer rolling stock!

[DavidBoren]

Any particular reason for the change to the BBC? Don't get me wrong, seeing anything that isn't LS-based is a cool change of pace, but I figured I would ask.

Looks like you found a good shop to help you along. Keep the updates coming.

[suark]

Originally Posted by DavidBoren

Any particular reason for the change to the BBC? Don't get me wrong, seeing anything that isn't LS-based is a cool change of pace, but I figured I would ask.

Looks like you found a good shop to help you along. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks for the compliments! I guess I was afraid that in 10 years (when I finally get it on the road), a LS motor might look like a TPI now days, so I thought I'd try to keep it a little more timeless. I'm a little partial to big blocks too I guess. I haven't had much time to work on it or post any progress, but I did build a set of headers and the exhaust system too. Pics of the headers are on my computer at work, I'll try to post them tomorrow, but here's the exhaust, everything is tucked up above the frame.