383 6spd 80Z Camaro EFI

[woody80z28]

Made a blockoff plate for the wiper motor hole in the cowl. Once I cut that part of the firewall out it would have been a waterfall inside the car! Also got some standoffs on Amazon to mount the EFI HEI coil on the firewall...I think it will work out nice.

Cut off the wings on the rad support, widened the opening and then bolted them back on. Should keep the air right where it needs to be...and if I have to take them off at some point it's just 4 bolts. I also finalized the radiator mounts and drilled some drainage holes so it doesn't fill with water.

Picked up an AMD deck filler too and WOW it fits like ****! I'll be better off fixing my OEM one and sending that POS back.

[woody80z28]

Ok...no updates in a while. Partially because I've been busy with other stuff...partially because my photo hosting site sucks now. So I switched to photobucket.

Got the basic body work done on all the steel and put down epoxy. Hit the inside of the new door skins with Lizard Skin sound control. Put the door skins on and sealed the seams. Rebuilt the hinges, aligned the doors and burned some of the new seam sealer welding the god awful door gaps on the driver side. What's the best way to seal all that back up after the metal work is done? I'm a little worried about the folded over area with the skin & frame where it all had a nice coat of epoxy & sealer that is now burned off I'm sure.

[woody80z28]

And I've been working on a brake retrofit. I did the 13.4" C6 Z51 brakes up front and it made the 11.6" Blazer rotors out back look tiny. So I wanted to engineer an interchangeable rotor combo for drag & street wheels. C6 Z51 rear rotors are 13.0" and I found that C6 Z06 rear rotors are 13.4"-and a visual match to the Z51 fronts. So the graphic designer in me has to make it happen.

The ebrake shoe is the same between Blazer and Vette. Check. Center bore is the same. Check. Offset is way off - but a spacer behind the backing plate will fix that. Rotor thickness is about 0.200" different...but shaving pads will fix that. There is enough difference in radius between the 11.6 and 13.4 to make an extension bracket to hang the Blazer caliper further out on the big rotor. So I made some templates out of plastic at work and got it all figured out. I just need to fab the final ones out of steel.

By using the Blazer caliper and pads (which are bigger) I can swap between street & drag brakes without bleeding the calipers or popping out the axles. Should be a 10min job per side. I like the sound of that. Oh - and I found GG friction rated Blazer pads at Advance so I'm all good to go there. Maybe this car will even stop after the rebirth!

[woody80z28]

Yes, I'm a dumbass. Just wanted to throw that out there first...

So, I caught the car on fire! And didn't even know it. I was almost finished welding the holes in the inner fender a couple nights ago right when the wife got home from work. So I finished the last couple, took off my helmet & gloves, turned off the welder & gas, shut off the radio and went inside to have dinner.

Came out a couple hours later to a garage full of smoke. One of the last welds must have slowly started the towel on fire. It burned the whole thing. Luckily there wasnt anything flammable but the towel in the immediate area. And it looks as though the only real casualties are the control arm bushings, ball joint boot and a caliper slider boot. Could have been a lot worse.

So, a few parts, some refinish work, and a welding blanket later I'll be all set. And BTW, oven cleaner works awesome for fire damage cleanup!








Used the fire as an excuse to buy tall upper ball joints. And got new pivots from SPC to get it all back together during my second sheet metal mockup. Those new door skins have moved everything around... I'm waiting for a body guy buddy to come over and give a little guidance. I'm still not happy with all the gaps yet.

Picked up some button head bolts for the inner fenders to give just a little bit more tire clearance just in case. Every little bit helps right? And I dont think I've ever posted pics of the ugly fab work for the inner fenders for the extra tuckage. So here they are.

Also figured out my mounting for the Aerocatch pins. By moving the fender brace under the header panel now it clears the hood and the Aerocatch assembly, and gives me a solid place to weld on a tab for the pin and adjust height.

[Sieg]

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-ft-x-...t-67833-1.html

[WSSix]

Yeah, your car is like a cousin to mine. You're way ahead of me on body mods but you're doing the same stuff I want to with mine. Aerocatch latches, modifying the inner fender for clearance, and switching to pan head bolts. At least I now know it all works. Thanks!

Glad to see the good progress, Woody.

[woody80z28]

Guess it's time to update this thread again...even though it will be depressing how little I've had time to do! haha

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3459705, member: 12782

Wow, haven't updated in while. Guess that's ok...haven't gotten much done. Working a ton of OT, but that helps the build fund.

Got the pins done. Actually used the burned up pivots from the SPC arm! haha



Thought briefly about just running with the craptastic panel fitment from the Goodmark door skins...and then thought better of it. Welding the gap in the rear gave me a little warpage, and I found a different technique online. With this technique you use 1/8" solid round stock. A lot less welding. Got it looking pretty good now. Gonna mud the driver's side before I weld the pass to see if there is anything I can improve on. But I think it's gonna be decent.

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3464767, member: 12782

I think the door gap saga is now over...pretty happy with the fitment. I highly recommend the 1/8 solid rod method to anyone tasked with this crap. haha

Next issue: fiberglass! Hood and rear spoiler fitment. I am so highly excited... :screwup:

[woody80z28]

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3467626, member: 12782

Woooooooo fiberglass.

Two studs on the spoiler were gone so I cut some all-thread and glued it in with resin. (Notice the Buick door work bench since my dad stole my saw horses) haha Each end had cracks in them, so I wadded them full of duraglass once I ground them out.




To get the spoiler aligned with the end pieces and fitting the deck lid better I had to add a little bit to the bottom side. So I taped the deck lid, laid duraglass on the deck lid and installed the spoiler. As it was starting to kick I ran the spreader down the front and I think it will smooth out really easily.






Then it was just some perfection work for the gaps and the alignment to the ends. I think I have it close enough for regular filler now. I'll see after I sand it.





Hopefully all is well when it's done. Alignment was horrible before, and with the dark blue that's going on the reflection would stick out like a sore thumb I'm sure. I don't think it ever really shined when it was maroon so it didn't look as bad! haha

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3467884, member: 12782

Haha. Probably a good call. It does have a hair more gap on one side. probably a slice and reweld would do it. You're an evil influence...haha

Cut the spoiler off, cleaned up the bottom side and got the fitment perfect.






And saw a quote in the new Hot Rod that seems directly applicable...

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[woody80z28]

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3493137, member: 12782

Made myself a bondo spreader on the CNC at work. Hopefully it helps me get the 3 pieces of the spoiler matching perfect. Should be a lot easier than what I have been doing...


Hood openings need work too. I'm trying to finish up the spoiler before moving on to the next issue, but I may be able to save some time by ordering a new nose. I'm still not excited about using the one I have. There are some waves in it, and has tiny little cracks when you sand it all the way down to the urethane. Wondering if a different nose will fit at the hood differently. The nose I'm looking at is the Stinger fiberglass one (same place that made my hood).
https://www.americansportscar.com/pr...981-front-flex

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3494833, member: 12782

So I bought the Stinger nose. My dad was headed to Mopar Carlisle to sell parts and Stinger was going to be there as a vendor...so I called them up and had them send a sweet Chevy nose on the truck with all their Mopar junk! haha Saved me about $200 in boxing/shipping charges.

Quality looks pretty good. I do see a couple minor flaws, but that's the beauty of fiberglass...it's easy to fix!

One little problem I ran in to though. Looks like I need to grind the fiberglass headlight bucket/grille structure down to fit the nose over it. It doesn't just stretch over like the urethane.

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[woody80z28]

Originally Posted by woody80z28, post: 3501675, member: 12782

Started installing the nose. I studded the fenders to make it easier to bolt on. Doing the bolts from the front was always a pain because there was no direct shot to get on them, you had to screw around with a knuckle or bend the urethane. Neither are a good solution... So now it goes on and I can start the nuts by hand. Then they are easily tightened with a knuckle on a long extension.





Fitment at the fender extension kinda sucked, and I saw a post about steel supports that were never on my car. So I fabbed some up out of 1/8". Seems to work pretty well.




Hood gap sucks though. So that's something I need to tackle. Hinges need rebuilding before that though. So I'm drilling and using 1/2" bolts and nuts. Going to tack the nut to the bolt when I get the pivot at the tightness I want.



Test fit the headlight & signal buckets, and grilles. None of them fit great, so they will take a little work too.



But I kinda like that it almost looks like a car!


So now I'm working on getting the spoiler perfect...finishing the last fitment project before tackling the newest one...

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