69 Camaro - JKnight

[JKnight]

Spent last week doing house projects so I can dedicate the rest of the month to the Camaro. My 6.0L diesel F350 consumed my budget for gauges and rear shocks so the goal of driving out of the garage on April 30th will have to be missed. But, progress can still be made.

Passenger side upper, lower and shock replacement is complete.






Now I can update the alignment and close the book on the front end.

[JKnight]

Finalized a small task that I've been sitting on for years. Since I'm not doing a hydraulic throwout bearing I still have the factory mech linkage. I wanted to minimize the slop and add adjustability so I made some new rods with right and left hand threaded rods using chromoly tube.

It was a real chore tracking down a threaded tube nut/bung/adapter with the right dimensions for the tube and threads for the factory rod that pushes on the clutch arm. Ended up finding it as a mounting bung for custom motorcycle tanks, who'd a thunk it?

[19,69camaro]

Any feedback on how this works? I would think that since it is in single sheer the connecting bolt will wiggle around on you unless you weld in on like a stud. I'm sure if this doesn't work you could always find a clevis that would fit the threaded bungs

[JKnight]

From what I can tell it's mostly in compression, as long as the alignment from the z-bar to clutch fork is good. The heim is thinner than where the factory rod interfaced with the z-bar, so this allows a straight shot to the fork with no header interference. This definitely takes a small mount of slop out of the linkage system.

Oh, and not pictured are jam nuts below all of the heim joints. I didn't have them at the time that pic was taken.

[Panteracer]

I did something similar to my 70 bird
but the ends are bolted to a bracket they
have... the original ends were so worn they
were no longer round.. it made the clutch action
so much better

Bob

[JKnight]

A long-running dilemma for me has been what to do for mounting the rear shocks, as packaging issues with the Fays2 watts link have been plaguing my attempts to mount the shocks inboard of the frame rails.. The picture below illustrates the current issue with drivers side mount plates.



As far as I can tell, I have a few options, would love to get feedback from the group on this:

A) Find spring plates from someone other than DSE that will not have the same interference issue. (Downside: no fun, added cost, delays due to shopping and shipping)

B) Modify the DSE plate to clear the gusset on the Fays2 plate. (Downside: removes material from the DSE plate just above the ear for the shock, though it seems sturdy enough to handle this modification)
Red line is roughly where I'd cut, blue line is possible location for a gusset if necessary.


C) same as option B but weld the two plates together to make a single unit and regain some strength removed by 'clearancing' the DSE plate. (Downside: end result is a Franken-plate, but I suppose that's fitting for this car)

[JKnight]

Ended up going with option D, lol. Ran across some Ridetech coilover brackets in the for sale forum and figured they'd work nicely. Had to add a hole for the leaf spring bolt to protrude. Nice thing is they'll allow me to use the 14" shocks I already have. Waiting on the billet lower mount and I'll have this issue wrapped up.

I also got the Hyperco springs solid mounted as Ridetech does with them in their StreetGrip setup. A .5" (top) and .25" (bottom) aluminum lowering block Serve to take up the added depth of the multi-leaf mounts and allow a good grip/crush on the composite spring.

[JKnight]

The upper shock mount will consist of a piece of 1.5" OD .188 wall DOM that spans between the forward mount plates of the chassis-mounted watts frame. The actual mounts are Ridetech builder pieces that should interface hook up with the stud mount shocks.

I'll have to angle the shocks a bit to clear the leafs, but should be able to stay under 25 degrees.



http://www.ridetech.com/store/upper-...dge-mount.html

[JKnight]

While I'm waiting for the brackets I got moving on the trunk pan replacement. Started clearing away years of grime and paint with a flap wheel to make sure I had good metal to weld the new pan. As expected, the passenger rear corner is a mess. Will have to redo the majority of the metal in that corner, and the tail support. Drilling spot welds sucks...

[JKnight]

Keep in mind, this is the first thing I've ever done that even resembles fabrication or metal repair, so any tips or 'holy**** you're doing it wrong' warnings are welcome.