Today I hit a bit of a milestone in my build. The firewall is nearing completion and the TCI front end did it's final test fit before it goes out for powder coating. I wanted to get the firewall near completion and do one more test fit to make sure nothing has shifted during all the welding that I did on the firewall. To my surprise nothing has moved and the TCI frame fit and was in place in just moments once I got the procedure right in putting the bolts through the frame into the car.
After my last sanding I am overall pretty happy with how flat it looks.
Here the TCI front is going in
HINT : When installing the new TCI frame start with the rear bolts under the seats and move forward
This is the best stuff I've ever come accross and all the in body nuts got a good dose of Gibbs before I put the frame in. I used this stuff when I took the everything apart and didn't break a single bolt. Amazing stuff.
The final holes will get drilled and secured when the frame goes in for the last time as I still have a bit of finishing work to do. I am amazed how well put together this TCI front frame is. Someday I will weld this well.
Little more sanding to do when I take the frame out and send it off then I'll shoot some primer on it.
Made some progress on the firewall and decided to shoot some primer on it. For my first time doing a firewall and doing it in my garage with a cheap-ass 120 volt MIG, over all I think it looks OK. I'm not toally happy with the crispness of the line where the firewall meets the cowl and makes the 90 degree corner. I have applied a thin layer of bondo and sanded the top and side at a 45 degree angle with a long block numerous times trying to make a clean, crisp line accross the top and although it is close when I paint it I'm afraid it will look crappy.
I've decided to take a break from the firewall and then go at it again later on to finish it off. Here is the body stuff that I used on the car so far.
And here is the primer that I used;
My only other thought is to use a filler primer when I get close to painting it but that will not be until Spring, I also watched some YouTube videos of guys shooting some black guide coat and blocksanding to find the low spots. I am now getting the car on the rotisserie and will start working on the bottom;
Last week I sent my TCI frame to the powder coat shop and should have it back in a couple weeks. After that my 350 goes to Richmond Engine in Langley to get broken-in and Dyno tested and then I can start the assembly on the drivetrain. Updates will now start coming much more slowly as it really isn't very interesting to see me cleaning and scraping the bottom of the car. In the Spring I'll order the TCI rear suspension and hopefully get the car back into rolling status.
Bit of an update. The TCI frame is back from powder coating and Kevin at Mayfair Signs and Powder Coating here in Chilliwack did an awesome job at a really reasonable price. I will be getting together some more parts to take over to him for powder coating.
I did a bit of welding and made some rear mounts for the rotisserie that bolt to the original rear spring mounts and to the original arms of the rotisserie. Hint; ALWAYS check fit before you do your final weld, I spent over an hour undoing some welds from some bad measuring.
The Camaro is now hung on the rotisserie and I've started removing the final few parts of the interior and will remove all the glass. The final cleanup on the body is getting near and then the mini-tubs and new quarter panels. I'll also start assembling the front suspension on the TCI frame and the plan will be to assemble the complete front and mount the engine and trans after the SBC gets back from the machine shop for it's break-in and dyno test. It may be coming slow but atleast I'm making progress.
Thanks guys, it really is encouraging with feedback from so many people who have such nice cars. Like I said I'm still getting caught up transfering the information to here on Lateral-G but I have to say what a great group all of you are. This next section is from mid December 2012
It's been slow going and I'm doing the really uninteresting stuff like gutting the doors, removing all the glass and stripping off the last of the original rear suspension. I've also not been feeling well the last few weeks along with some really hectic travel and working hours. So nothing really worth posting about and other than having the car mounted on the rotisserie it doesn't look to much different.
But, there is some cool news as I posted a picture on the Camaro Performers facebook page about installing my TCI frame and it is in this months edition of Camaro Performers firing back page. (note; Penny is the Facebook name that my wife and I share for our facebook account. Penny is actually our rescued Pit Bulls name)
Today thanks to the advice of a few of the very helpful other Pro-tour members I picked up a pair of rear quarter panels from a local guy. These are original GM panels that he has had sitting for 20 years. Sadly I had to shift the money from my budget for my TCI rear suspension savings but I just don't think these kind of items come along everyday.
Nice sunny day here in Vancouver for January so got some stuff done on the car. Worked on finishing the pre-assembly of my TCI front end and do the guys at TCI ever build a nice set up. Everything has gone together without any hassles.
I really like the brake set up that they sold me with my front end kit
didn't install the tie rods as I still need to lube everything before final assembly
Thats it for today, and tomorrow I'll start getting the car car ready to flip on the rotisserie so I can clean the bottom side and get ready to order more goodies for the build. Also, started a new "Todo" list and what I need to take to the powder coaters that I forgot to take last time.
Now I just have to get this baby back on its wheels so I can start cutting off the old skin and installing the new.
Here we go with a small update. The Camaro is on the rotisserie and I'm finishing stripping the last of the interior out and getting it ready to spin so I can start working on the bottom. I thought I was at this stage a while ago but there seems to be an endless supply of little stuff to keep going.
So I started with pulling the rear glass out and all is solid around the rear with no hidden surprises;
Then I pulled out the windshield and somewhere along the life of this car someone thought it would be a good idea to metallic tape over the rust and then bondo and paint it black.
How is this for a chunk of bondo?
And they did it all the way across the lower part of the windshield
Dropped my SBC off at the Dyno earlier this week so I hope to have those numbers this week.
That's it for now and I'll be back at it tomorrow and hoping to get her flipped on its side and start scraping off under coat. Yay
Jim at Richmond Engines just called me and my 350 SBC is running and they've done some light pulls. I'll be stopping in there tomorrow morning to do some full pulls and see what this little fella will do.
I also had concerns as I didn't want to be another one of "those" guys who over cam and over carb my car and wonder why it doesn't perform like it should. I did lots of homework before I purchased this camshaft and here are the specs on it. And, yes I will post the dyno sheet as soon as I get it in my hands from the shop. I'm hoping I'll be able to post some video as well once I figure it out tomorrow night.
Solid roller, rough idle. Good cam for high performance street or mild strip applications. Needs 2500-2800 RPM stall speed converter, 9.5:1 or better compression, aftermarket exhaust system and 3.73 rear gear ratio.
•Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 267/273
•Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 237/243
•Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .566/.578
•LSA/ICL: 110/106
•Valve Lash (Int/Exh): 016/016
•RPM Range: 2500-6800
•Includes: Cam Only
Part Number: 40120731
Previoius Part Number: 60131
[OK so I went to Richmond engine today and Jim ran me through the process and we did some engine pulls to see what my little 350 could do. In all fairness I was not expecting to much and my guess was that I would be in the 425hp range as there is really nothing at all special about this SBC other than I spent to much money on it and I could have bought an LS for what I have into it. All that being said I did use really good parts and the little beast should last without having any reliability issues.
Drum role on what it did...
473 HP & 433 F-lb Trq
Here is a video (if I can get it to work) of the dyno run.
So overall I`m a happy boy with this little engine but I would never recommend someone do this as I said in another post you could have more LS power for what i spent but it easy to work on and a guy could, in a pinch, McGyver this thing to run if you got stuck. I will look at changing this over to a 427 LS down the road if nothing else just to change the emblems on the car from 350 to 427. there is a few more HP to be had with additional jetting and fine tuning but we had to call it quits at some point and this was more than what I was expecting so this was the best pull we had. I will get some more pictures posted when I have the engine and trans assembled in the TCI frame on my garage floor in the next couple weeks.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
Milestone
This next section is from mid December 2012
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