Mr. Brownstone - 69 PT Camaro

[Richio1]

So as I left off... got the car back from the blaster. Hung all the sheet metal and ready for gap alignment, panel fitment and body work. Fortunetly all the metal from the doors forward is original and in great shape.



Mounted all the suspension and rearend. Have stock spindles on there now but have Heidts 1.5" drop spindles ready and waiting if stance isnt just right.



Sprayed first coat of poly. First of what has been many coats of poly... as you will soon see.

After reading Renners posts I made sure to use some of that killer "Gap Spray". Worked out great



Fast forward a few months... after more delays... The blocking is under way and we finally got to see her with the new shoes on, all aired out. I am going with the Marquez front valance. I also got one of their first production front bumpers. You'll see that in a bit

[Richio1]

So I went up to WCAC to check in and see how things have been coming along and bring my rear seat to measure for cuts to fit with the mini tubs.

Wouldnt you know it, my damn builder has been painting some other guys car instead of working on mine. Just kidding John (John510 with the Bloodline project) His 68 just got shot in black and looks awesome. I am happy to see another one in color and now that John's shot it means mine is next

So as most projects go changes happen along the way. As mentioned before I had the white houndstooth interior which was in great shape. Well in staying with the theme of changing my mind I went from these



to these.



My initial build plan was to shoot it in black with the white rally's again and keep it as a Z/28 clone but that changed too so now the white wont work.

After having the seats stripped and the new TMI buns and covers installed, which looked awesome by the way, I had the covers removed and went with the black. Kim @ Matt's came to my rescue again and found another builder from Oregon who buys all his stuff from them to take the white set off my hands. Ended up only being a $180 set back.

Thanks to "redz" for posting this awesome thread on how to narrow a 69 back seat to fit with DSE tubs... https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=28606 These pics and overview were perfect. I just needed to double check before we cover them.




So as the project has morphed we have decided on a few subtle and not so subtle body mods. The subtle included:
Weld the lower fenders
Fill the side markers, door locks, antenna
Remove fender trim, rocker trim and gills (basically all chrome)
Marquez valence
RS grille conversion with DSE motors
tuck rear bumper
razor sharp body lines

Then there are the not so subtle:
one off rear spoiler
front bumper and grille

Since I was going with the the Marques valence I decided I needed one of their new endura bumpers. While at a GG show I talked with Judas about the one on their car and he mentioned they were going to be producing them. I think I got the first or second one. There were no brackets or mounting points which made it a little more challenging but I just had to have it since the lines are so sharp and fit perfectly with the rest of the cars lines. I wanted it tucked real tight. Here are a few picks before and after the mods to it.



Below you can see the fit. Pretty good but stuck out too far for me and wasnt flush on the sides like I wanted... but again, nice sharp lines.

The fit to the lower grille and fenders. Not bad but I wanted mine tight and to flow together like a modern car does now.



I'm sure you also noticed the additional stock welded all around the nose. Chris welded a 3/8" piece of stock to achieve a couple things... bring the edge out and in to make the bumper fit better and to help hide the grille shroud that always seems to fit so crappy and looks all wavy.

So a little slicing, dicing and glassing was needed to get all the lines to line up and tuck tight.





And we are just about there...

I will tell you, Chris has at least 40 hrs in the bumper with cutting, glassing and fabrication mounting brackets. Here are a couple of it finished. I love how sharp it is.




Then there is the rear spoiler. I wanted to do something a little different and keep it subtle. I really like the flush mount look so Chris went to work removing the base to get it flush and rework it entirely. Now it is about the size of a second gen (about 1/2 as tall as stock). It looks great.




Next time we get into what Chris is doing with the grille...

[Ron in SoCal]

Hey Jeff....car looks great! Love the clean execution and all the body mods. I also thought about killing the side markrer lights, but living in Cali felt that was a conversation w Johnnie Law waiting to happen.

[Richio1]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Hey Jeff....car looks great! Love the clean execution and all the body mods. I also thought about killing the side markrer lights, but living in Cali felt that was a conversation w Johnnie Law waiting to happen.

Yeah I hear ya Ron... rolling the dice and hoping for the best. I guess when I tint the front windows too I'll really be asking for it.

I had originally purchased the Anvil Phantom side markers and was going to paint them body color to hide them but when I decided to not paint it black again I bagged that plan and just filled them in.

So someone who has already filled them in and gotten a fix it ticket needs to come up with (or share) a creative temporary fix before I have my conversation with Mr. Po Po. Ideas are welcomed...

[CornHusker4Life]

I almost threw up when I read that you switched from white houndstooth to black

[CornHusker4Life]

The car will look sick either way

[Richio1]

Originally Posted by CornHusker4Life

I almost threw up when I read that you switched from white houndstooth to black

I know... I love the white too but the white doesn't go with the new color scheme so I had to change to black.

[Richio1]

Here are some pics of the RS custom grille conversion. I have always loved the RS front ends so I was adamant about having that as part of my build. I ordered the complete kit with the DSE motors almost 2 years ago. Well as the project progressed Chris kept planting seeds about modifying it... a little. Well after wearing me down I gave in allowing him free reign to let the creative thoughts flow.

He kept telling me about how he had always wanted to sink the grille back a couple more inches to give it greater depth. Me being a very visual person just couldn't see it the way he did so it led us to Keith Kaucher to have him do a rendering for us about a year ago. Once I saw it I was "all in" and the further it comes along the more I am liking it. Chris just finished the Pullmax tooling this week so the metal will be formed in the next week or two.

So here is a picture of how it looked with the stock grille as a reference



The start of the fiberglassing of the outer shroud



With the RS buckets and doors recessed back he had to cut the core support and build boxes for them to sit into. Here is the back side where the battery would be



Front with the box visable to the right of the door where is will rest when open.



With the the doors open in the box



Here you can see how much the shroud has been deepened. He needs to fabricate the grille before determining where it will sit.



Playing around with a some cardboard. Just wait, It's going to look awesome.

[Richio1]

As I mentioned earlier, I inteded to paint the car black again but along the way Chris, once again, planted seeds but this time of other colors. We discussed the new Chevy Cyber Grey, bright red and a variation of the LeMans blue... all of which would have looked great with the white houndstooth but we decided to go with a brilliant silver. I have always loved the Cortez silver 69's so it had always been in the back of my mind and was easy to get excited about... especially after owning a black car... If you know what I mean.

After being presented with the idea I did some poking around as I knew I had seen some killer silver 69s and came across this one that Kenny Davis did. Coincidentally it has the Rated X's too.

Plus the silver will really accentuate the level of detail Chris and Jared went to with the body lines. I really think these guys have OCD. I have never seen lines so sharp as they are on my car. More about that later...



I love these wheels... but of course, the ones I have wont stay looking like this because that would be too easy Chris will put his touch on those too in keeping with the build theme.



Here is a blown up view of the front end. I show this because I just noticed, coincidentally, another builder came up with the same front spoiler. Great creative minds think alike. It is amazing how close they apprear. I want to get it out there that mine isnt a copy. Below is a rough scetch Chris sent me about a year ago. Keith did a great job capturing it in the rendering and adding the crease in the center. No wonder they came up with the same concept, it looks killer and they build some increadible cars

[Bryan O]

Originally Posted by Richio1

...So as most projects go changes happen along the way. Well in staying with the theme of changing my mind I....

It's just you Jeff. Most of us stick to the script. Personally, I never changed my mind. Not once.

Great write up on your build. Keep it coming.

Let us know how that Moser works out for you.