Project Nighthawk 1969 Camaro - Ground up rebuild

[Amituk]

Thanks raj.

Will drop em a line and see what they can offer

[Amituk]

And we continue, but the rear end is in sight see what i did there

Hardcore tapered bearings and crush tube live inside the hub. The crush tube is the exact size to ensure you cant over tighten the hub nut allowing the hub housing to spin freely


Billet hub housing bolted in place with brake rotor adapters


Jason expertly measures the axel lengths so we can get them ordered from Strange Engineering


Next up, the great Strange Engineering pro HD aluminium housing, complete with chromoly yoke, Strange S-trac diff, and 3.7 gearset.


These babies have more bite than jaws!


Complete third member bolted in place


finally the fully assembled rear end (minus the shafts)





Next stage, install the gun drilled hy-tuf 35 spline axles from strange, and then we move onto the brakes.

[Amituk]

So we have an update from retropower on the body rebuild.

Stu at retropower has started cutting out the wroten panels and is replacing them with GM Approved repair panels provided by AutoMetalsDirect.

As you will see throughout the build, these panels are as good as OEM.

First up, Stu gets the shell mounted on the chassis jig and tackles the front cowl area

As always, the full public album is available here The Body Rebuild

But here is a preview.

The shell is mounted to the chassis table to maintain its shape once most of its cut out :|


Stu goes wild with the cutting gear. We are building a custom permiter chassis which means custom floor pans and trans tunnnel etc.. so not a lot worth keeping. This will also allows us a 40mm body drop The complete bulkhead and cowl area is chopped out ready for replacement.


The excellent AMD repair sections are spot welded back in place




Coming together in OEM form. Later in the project, this area will be cleaned up with all the holes removed, and a nice clean firewall fabbed with simple bead lines rolled in for strength. No need for brake servo or wiper motor hole as I have some trick stuff up my sleve for these


The front section all complete


Stu then unpicks the roof skin ready for the next phase of repairs which will start in a couple of weeks


Enjoy, and be sure to check out the full gallery of pics here The Body Rebuild

[waynieZ]

Nice build its going to be awesome.

[Amituk]

Thanks.

Would be great to hear some feedback from some more experienced builders on this project.

This is my first muscle car build so constantly learning as I go

Amit

[xtreme]

looks great! Keep it up!

[Rybar]

I think your doing a pretty damn good job myself.

[cashed]

Great looking build! Looking forward to watching it come together.

[Amituk]

Cool thanks guys..

do pipe in if there is anything I am doing wrong or can be done better

work on the body shell will slow down now for a couple of weeks as retropower have to do some work other customer cars.

probably a good thing as I am running out of money already lol

need to find me a rich sheikh backer!

GMR are in the process of fitting the brakes to the rear axle, and building the front uprights. I have seen sneak peaks and they look awesome. Pics to follow soon

[Amituk]

And onto the next thrilling installment in the rebuild saga.

This week, we have moved onto the rear end.

The Full picture set of the story so far can be found here The Body Rebuild Continues

First of all, we strip her back to the core structure. As you can see, not much original metal is staying


The excellent rear panel from AMD is then tacked in place.


To ensure alignment, the outer panels were temporarily refitted.


Then they were removed so the repair work could continue. The wheels tubs were also removed to be replaced by some nice reworked AMD tubs


The outer skin of the pillar support rib wasnt looking too great


so it was cut out


a repair section was fabbed


and welded back in good as new


New wheels tub fitted, after some minor rework to maximize clearance


more rot - before


during


and as after. You would never know it was there. Great repair skill from Stu @retropower


Starting to look like a car again, but still a long way to go. Again outer panels still temporarily fitted to test alignment.


Next installment, we start on the left hand side, and I should have some updates on the front struts