swapinthedark
03-17-2014, 07:14 PM
My name is Kiely Mackey (girl's name? a weird name for anyone for sure) and I have lurked here for a while. I am about to start driving this thing that I spent the winter building and parts are coming in slow, so I figured now would be a good time to stop being a creeper and socialize a bit!
I know pro-touring is not the quickest to "jump-flame" place in the world (not by far) but considering what I am going for here, I figure I should post some background so that someone does not tell me to leave this poor camaro alone and buy a 240 or something. I have been drifting for about ten years, I have basically not done any other track activities though drift events have placed me on some of the best road courses in America (arguably a bit of a waste). During those years I have built, cared for and driven all of my competition/play cars with only beer compensated help from friends. I started with the usual 240sx (S13) then another, (S14), then an R32 Skyline, then another 240... then another Skyline and lastly a JZX100 Chaser (google it I guess?). None of these cars left my side "wrecked". All were sold or traded as healthy cars (as for what happened after..ugh, we all know how it is when you sell something YOU built). I am not rich. I actually make VERY little but I am lucky to usually work for places with shop space and I have my hands many places helping out soooo deals come around. During my time in these cars, I have used whatever engine/trans combo fit my budget and would do the job RELIABLY. I have had a few RB20s, and RB25, a 1JZ, a 1JZ VVTI, and lastly a couple of LS1s in my drift cars. The LS1/skyline has been the best combo for me to date. This car helped me earn my FD (formula drift) license in 2007. I could not afford the huge expenditure of time and more importantly MONEY required to run an FD season so I sold the Skyline and built a "play car" 1970 chevelle drift car that was fun for a bit but eventually proved very hard to make transition consistently on the budget I had at the time (pretty much wasn't one). I spent a year or six helping to run the drift events at Summit Point Motorsports Park in WV (Known as Drift Nirvana) during all of this and lastly, I used the JZX100 for a season doing "clinics" for beginning drifters.
That all brings us up to date on me in the drifty world... now, as for the camaro.. I sold the JZX100 at the end of summer because I found an almost rust free 1969 camaro shell in NJ of all places for a silly deal. The car had been a little used drag car almost since birth. The owner was a long haul truck driver on a trip to the west coast in 1973. He found the car for sale in front of a body shop with minor damage and no drivetrain. The shop helped him load it and over here it came. He and his son used it for only half a season before the cost got out of hand and it was moth balled. A revamp was started by son and grandson in the 90s but it was never to be. When I bought the car, the CA pink slip was still only signed by the original owner in 1973!!!
Have no fear, I am not ruining anything that is likely to have serious historic value. The car only had three or four good points to it's trim tag. It was originally LeMans blue with black std interior, it was V8 and it was manual. There was no sign of any factory running gear, interior, or the original color except where the paint stuck to the rubber seals and revealed some OG color there. The good part however was that aside from a small spot in one quarter (3'x4' still under paint) and some very tiny door bubbles in the corners, it is NOT RUSTY... "rust free".
Needless to say, I took it home with little haggling.
Wait a minute. This is not for the intro, it is all for the BUILD intro. How bout a pic of the car as it sits today and an offer to come by and check out the "build" when I post it tomorrow? I will also be posting up the learning process involved in sorting this thing out for the weirdest motorsport a 1969 camaro can possibly get wrapped up in as I do events all over the east coast this season. If there are spots left in time, I also hope to drift it at the LSFest this year. ((My skyline was drifted at LS fest by the new owner right after I sold it and with HIS/his friend's business plastered all over it)) and that has never sat well with me. I would just like to put my own butt in a seat in a car I built there this year. haha.
Me..only pic I got folks. Not a pretty kid and not good at the "duck face" so selfies are a nono.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2wd0i94-1.jpg
This is the second skyline in one of many "forms"
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2ro1h1v-1.jpg
and another of it's "forms"
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/iyk6le-1.jpg
The chevelle...
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/1218nbt-1.jpg
and the last car before the camaro. (One of two in the country if it makes a big poo), the 1999 Toyota Chaser (JZX100).https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2ypgrwn-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2z4d00h-1.jpg
Lastly, the camaro as I received it and quick bits through the build
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/34s5x0w-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2a4tqbp-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/bfowv7-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/vpwb3r-1.jpg
I know pro-touring is not the quickest to "jump-flame" place in the world (not by far) but considering what I am going for here, I figure I should post some background so that someone does not tell me to leave this poor camaro alone and buy a 240 or something. I have been drifting for about ten years, I have basically not done any other track activities though drift events have placed me on some of the best road courses in America (arguably a bit of a waste). During those years I have built, cared for and driven all of my competition/play cars with only beer compensated help from friends. I started with the usual 240sx (S13) then another, (S14), then an R32 Skyline, then another 240... then another Skyline and lastly a JZX100 Chaser (google it I guess?). None of these cars left my side "wrecked". All were sold or traded as healthy cars (as for what happened after..ugh, we all know how it is when you sell something YOU built). I am not rich. I actually make VERY little but I am lucky to usually work for places with shop space and I have my hands many places helping out soooo deals come around. During my time in these cars, I have used whatever engine/trans combo fit my budget and would do the job RELIABLY. I have had a few RB20s, and RB25, a 1JZ, a 1JZ VVTI, and lastly a couple of LS1s in my drift cars. The LS1/skyline has been the best combo for me to date. This car helped me earn my FD (formula drift) license in 2007. I could not afford the huge expenditure of time and more importantly MONEY required to run an FD season so I sold the Skyline and built a "play car" 1970 chevelle drift car that was fun for a bit but eventually proved very hard to make transition consistently on the budget I had at the time (pretty much wasn't one). I spent a year or six helping to run the drift events at Summit Point Motorsports Park in WV (Known as Drift Nirvana) during all of this and lastly, I used the JZX100 for a season doing "clinics" for beginning drifters.
That all brings us up to date on me in the drifty world... now, as for the camaro.. I sold the JZX100 at the end of summer because I found an almost rust free 1969 camaro shell in NJ of all places for a silly deal. The car had been a little used drag car almost since birth. The owner was a long haul truck driver on a trip to the west coast in 1973. He found the car for sale in front of a body shop with minor damage and no drivetrain. The shop helped him load it and over here it came. He and his son used it for only half a season before the cost got out of hand and it was moth balled. A revamp was started by son and grandson in the 90s but it was never to be. When I bought the car, the CA pink slip was still only signed by the original owner in 1973!!!
Have no fear, I am not ruining anything that is likely to have serious historic value. The car only had three or four good points to it's trim tag. It was originally LeMans blue with black std interior, it was V8 and it was manual. There was no sign of any factory running gear, interior, or the original color except where the paint stuck to the rubber seals and revealed some OG color there. The good part however was that aside from a small spot in one quarter (3'x4' still under paint) and some very tiny door bubbles in the corners, it is NOT RUSTY... "rust free".
Needless to say, I took it home with little haggling.
Wait a minute. This is not for the intro, it is all for the BUILD intro. How bout a pic of the car as it sits today and an offer to come by and check out the "build" when I post it tomorrow? I will also be posting up the learning process involved in sorting this thing out for the weirdest motorsport a 1969 camaro can possibly get wrapped up in as I do events all over the east coast this season. If there are spots left in time, I also hope to drift it at the LSFest this year. ((My skyline was drifted at LS fest by the new owner right after I sold it and with HIS/his friend's business plastered all over it)) and that has never sat well with me. I would just like to put my own butt in a seat in a car I built there this year. haha.
Me..only pic I got folks. Not a pretty kid and not good at the "duck face" so selfies are a nono.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2wd0i94-1.jpg
This is the second skyline in one of many "forms"
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2ro1h1v-1.jpg
and another of it's "forms"
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/iyk6le-1.jpg
The chevelle...
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/1218nbt-1.jpg
and the last car before the camaro. (One of two in the country if it makes a big poo), the 1999 Toyota Chaser (JZX100).https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2ypgrwn-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2z4d00h-1.jpg
Lastly, the camaro as I received it and quick bits through the build
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/34s5x0w-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/2a4tqbp-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/bfowv7-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/03/vpwb3r-1.jpg