Project - Mile High Camaro

[waynieZ]

Beautiful set of wheels! They'll look nice on there.

[syborg tt]

I love everything about the build and the car and really looking forward to the build.

However, I would like to add what I have learned on the last four builds.

What makes you want to get in your car and drive it are things we all take for granted when we build a hot rod as we are so used to new cars. Heck, I have driven $5,000 cars that I would feel more comfortable jumping in and driving cross country then cars I have built and owned in the past. We tend to overbuild (syborg) our hot rods which take away the #1 thing we need in our hot rods "Reliability". So when I started the 70 in my garage I wanted to make sure I didn't over complicate the build to the point where the car would be a pain in the butt to drive.

Rule's to consider

Does the car start, run (reliabily), ride comfortably, have good interior sound quality and stop like a new car and the thing we all seem to forget about how easy is the car to service. In other words don't hide stuff as when you need to get to it you might not like your fabricator as much.

If even one of these points are missed then you most likely won't want to drive the car.

That being said I see you have manual brake and that's great however they get old quick and in traffic they suck. You have plenty of room on your firewall so my suggestion is to buy the DSE brake booster and install it and I promise you that you will be happy the first day you have to panic stop. I can honestly say the DSE Booster and the kore3 brakes on my car are simply amazing and they stop like any modern car. Well maybe not the Cayman.

Second thing you should reconsider in the removal of the door handles. Trust me it really sucks to have to charge a battery so you can open a door. More importantly if you are ever in an accident you want to make darn sure EMS can get to you quickly. Leave the door handles and buy any one of the wicket handles that are out there for the 1st Gen Camaro and when your out with your wife or girlfriend you will still be able to open the door like a gentleman for her.

[D-$]

I can honestly say that your genuine criticism and gentle approach couldn't have been done better. Its not easy to take a build like this a which is a obviously my dream car and suggest against certain things.

With that said let me ask you this. It has been communicated to me that with the size of my brakes and the weight of my car that power brakes can be problematic and too much brake. What are your thoughts there?

The door handle thing is a tough one. I know it will suck to get the doors open if the battery dies, or in an emergency. But I just don't like any of the flush mount or fancy cool door handles made compared to none. I am also having a hard time with side mirrors. I need them and want them large enough to be useful but look nice.

Originally Posted by syborg tt

I love everything about the build and the car and really looking forward to the build.

However, I would like to add what I have learned on the last four builds.

What makes you want to get in your car and drive it are things we all take for granted when we build a hot rod as we are so used to new cars. Heck, I have driven $5,000 cars that I would feel more comfortable jumping in and driving cross country then cars I have built and owned in the past. We tend to overbuild (syborg) our hot rods which take away the #1 thing we need in our hot rods "Reliability". So when I started the 70 in my garage I wanted to make sure I didn't over complicate the build to the point where the car would be a pain in the butt to drive.

Rule's to consider

Does the car start, run (reliabily), ride comfortably, have good interior sound quality and stop like a new car and the thing we all seem to forget about how easy is the car to service. In other words don't hide stuff as when you need to get to it you might not like your fabricator as much.

If even one of these points are missed then you most likely won't want to drive the car.

That being said I see you have manual brake and that's great however they get old quick and in traffic they suck. You have plenty of room on your firewall so my suggestion is to buy the DSE brake booster and install it and I promise you that you will be happy the first day you have to panic stop. I can honestly say the DSE Booster and the kore3 brakes on my car are simply amazing and they stop like any modern car. Well maybe not the Cayman.

Second thing you should reconsider in the removal of the door handles. Trust me it really sucks to have to charge a battery so you can open a door. More importantly if you are ever in an accident you want to make darn sure EMS can get to you quickly. Leave the door handles and buy any one of the wicket handles that are out there for the 1st Gen Camaro and when your out with your wife or girlfriend you will still be able to open the door like a gentleman for her.

[fleetus macmullitz]

^^^^^^^^^
Good stuff Marty.

[morris69]

Syborg TT.

Everything you said was true. I'm on my second build coincidentally it's a 1969 camaro vert (lol). But reliability is my primary fuction now after building my first one. I want to be fancy and have exotic parts but then again it sometimes becomes a pain. Not to get in it to much. But your right 100%.

[morris69]

Syborg TT.

Everything you said was true. I'm on my second build coincidentally it's a 1969 camaro vert (lol). But reliability is my primary fuction now after building my first one. I want to be fancy and have exotic parts but then again it sometimes becomes a pain. Not to get in it to much. But your right 100%.

[Musclerodz]

Originally Posted by D-$

I can honestly say that your genuine criticism and gentle approach couldn't have been done better. Its not easy to take a build like this a which is a obviously my dream car and suggest against certain things.

With that said let me ask you this. It has been communicated to me that with the size of my brakes and the weight of my car that power brakes can be problematic and too much brake. What are your thoughts there?

The door handle thing is a tough one. I know it will suck to get the doors open if the battery dies, or in an emergency. But I just don't like any of the flush mount or fancy cool door handles made compared to none. I am also having a hard time with side mirrors. I need them and want them large enough to be useful but look nice.

we are using ctsv door latches for that very reason. They have an emergengy cable if the battery ever dies. You can never have too much brake on the street. With the big tires you can easily feel when they are starting to lock up.

[WSSix]

Keep in mind also that your tires will greatly affect your braking performance. So if you run sticky tires, you can run stronger brakes and not worry about lockup. I'm running Kore3's C5/6 hybrid brakes on my TA with the factory booster. Love them! I will always be calling Tobin when I need brakes. You'll get used to the brakes just like you do with any car. You can also change out master cylinders to tailor the feel to your preference should that be necessary.

Keep at it. It's a long journey but worth it no matter what level of build.

[syborg tt]

Originally Posted by D-$

I can honestly say that your genuine criticism and gentle approach couldn't have been done better. Its not easy to take a build like this a which is a obviously my dream car and suggest against certain things.

Thank you very much. I have learned a bunch during the last three builds and for some reason the 57 is kinda what I am going back to now. However, when we did Dad's 57 everything about the car was perfect except for the brakes. It took at least 4 attempts to get brakes that worked well (notice I said well not perfect as manual brakes suck). Did I mention that the entire brake-master set up is under the dash. Yep, that will never happen again as you have to pull the dash to get to the Master Cylinders. (Think about your hidden wiper kit... hidden means a pain in the ass later)

With that said let me ask you this. It has been communicated to me that with the size of my brakes and the weight of my car that power brakes can be problematic and too much brake. What are your thoughts there?

First question you need to ask yourself is what are you planing to do with the car. Are you just building a bad ass cruise night car that you will most likely drive around or are you building a car for autocross or track car. Once you determine that then you buy that brake kit for the car as there is no reason to buy the biggest baddest brakes as then you might have issue's fitting the rims.

Don't forget when the rotors and calipers get bigger so do your rims and your un-sprung weight. All of this effects how the chassis is set up and since your planning the speed-tech chassis all should be good and they can pretty much tell you what brakes work best for your build.

The door handle thing is a tough one. I know it will suck to get the doors open if the battery dies, or in an emergency. But I just don't like any of the flush mount or fancy cool door handles made compared to none. I am also having a hard time with side mirrors. I need them and want them large enough to be useful but look nice.

Mirrors - that is a tuff one I hope someone will chime in here. I kind like the idea of 2nd gen Camaro mirrors on 1st gens. Look at Steilows last build.


For the door handles or lack there of take a look at what the Dutch boys did on there 70 as it's a nice compromise and it looks pretty darn cool.

Originally Posted by Musclerodz

we are using ctsv door latches for that very reason. They have an emergengy cable if the battery ever dies. You can never have too much brake on the street. With the big tires you can easily feel when they are starting to lock up.

Exactly, This is the perfect setup just costly to install in the car. Figure at least 20 to 30 in labor to get this set up correctly




I also forgot to mention no door handles also mean's no door locks so if you use the inexpensive door pop set up and someone see where your cable is hidden it's pretty darn easy to steal the car.

[D-$]

Yes, At the moment I am planning on using 2nd gen mirrors as it seems to be the only thing that fits in my vision.