67 Camaro SS/RS

[Zapan00]

Greetings! Well, this seems to be the place to seek knowledge on classic cars.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Matt. I'm a U.S. Marine currently deployed to Iraq. I should be returning to the U.S. early next year. I just re-enlisted, and to celebrate I decided to purchase a 1967 Camaro. I was set on that year because my parents owned a 67 RS that was blue with white racing stripes and I always loved that car.

I have never personally owned a classic, but I rebuilt the engines on the first two cars I ever owned, one of which was a 83 Camaro. It wasnt stock and had a 350 in it.

After a few weeks of searching for a 67 in my price range I found one. It runs great and is in okay shape. I had my dad inspect it before purchase. He seemed to think it was a good deal. I had him dig deeper after it was back at his house.

Here's what it currently has:
-350 engine
-turbo 400 trans
-12 bolt rear end with 4:11 gear
-Single leaf spring suspension w/traction bars

Let me also say that I'm not looking to have it show-quality any time in the near future. That being said, there are things it certainly needs right away. Here's what it needs:

-New heater assembly and motor (not sure if duct work is intact under dash (yes, I want it to have heat ))
-Wiper arms and blades and potentially washer pump etc
-New drivers side window and crank assembly (it rubs on something inside the door and is scratching the hell out of the glass)
-There is one small spot of rust bubbling up behind the passenger door at the bottom corner.
-Some kind of new shifter. The current one my dad says takes both arms and alot of effort to downshift.
-The drivers side quarter panel needs new mounting hardware as it sits about an inch lower than the passenger side and makes it appear as the front bumber is crooked.
-New window and door seals all around.

Things I want to do soon besides the things it needs:

-5 or 6 speed manual trans with overdrive
-New rear end with a gear that will still allow good acceleration but doesnt crank the RPMs at highway speeds.

I don't know really anything about what transmissions are good or what rear-ends are good. I would prefer something that I can just swap out with the current one.

Eventually I want to get it repainted and have all the body issues taken care of. It has some slight warping in the metal behind the driver side door. The rust spot I mentioned earlier and then the paint is just not so good.

My budget for this car right now is $10,000. I'm looking for suggestions on what to get and what to stay away from and just anything in general as this is relatively new to me.

Thanks everyone!

[Alex396ss]

Welcome, looks like a good start!

Alex

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Alex396ss

Welcome, looks like a good start!

Alex

What he said! Welcome aboard!

[rich-allen]

Great looking project. Post up pictures with your progress.


Welcome to Lat G and most of all; thank you for your service

[Zapan00]

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything but technical questions. Alot of work has been done on the car since November 08. Being able to actually work on the car instead of just seeing pics from the other side of the world really helped me re-align my priorities on this car.

From Nov 08 thru Mar 09 the car was at my friend's garage getting a new 4-wheel disc brake conversion and new suspension. I had them install 2" drop springs in the front, new shocks all around, a much heavier front sway bar, and multi leaf conversion in the back.

In March i actually got to work on it myself and when we were done getting the suspension work done, we lowered it and did a walk around and the car sat an inch lower on the rear passenger side than anywhere else. Some closer inspection revealed a crack in the frame right above the wheel. Also doing alot of measuring we determined that the entire body is twisted from its former racing days. So, for the time-being i did a band-aid fix by adding a 1" lift kit to the rear passenger side.

Then entire wiring system was screwed up so i ripped it out and ordered the classic update kit from American Autowire and installed it, along with LED tail lights, front turn signals and new headlamps and they all work as intended. I was amazed at how easy and nice this kit was!

I haven't touched the window issues yet, but there are several parts missing on the window crank assemblies.

I installed the 3 point seatbelt conversion kit from Morris Classic Concepts, which installed easy and works great!

The drive-train updates and cosmetic stuff are out the window until i find some way to untwist the body.

Currently working out some soft braking issues which i think are resolved. Going to re-bleed the system this weekend and if all goes well I might have it on the road.

Here are some pictures:

These are the pics of it in my buddy's garage-

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...03335495952962

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...03347371237506

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...03345156958450

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...03352840028466

This is at my house now-

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...04437227054834

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogokati...04440913389586



-Matt-
SGT USMC

[Spiffav8]

Welcome to LG Matt. Nice to see another 67 lover around here. Hey did you contact me awhile back about a car I had for sale?

Tons of good info here. Looking forward to watching what you do with that bad boy!