1969 Camaro "Lillian"

[cwylie]

So I figured I might as well start a thread on this built. I have had the car for a few months now and have been collecting parts. This entire project actually started with an entirely different car with an entirely different direction. I pickup up a 69 pro street car about 6 months ago intending to build a true pro street car. After collecting a few parts and coming to the realization I really didnt want a pro street car I ordered all new sheet metal for the car to to take it back to a stock body car and remove the ladder bar backhalf on the car. A few days after I placed the order I ran across this car about 30 miles from where I picked up the first car. While significantly more money all of the sheet metal was already done and probably saved me about 2 years worth of build time vs. if I would have used the other car. I made a deal and headed that way with the trailer. The previous owner had owned the car for about 10 year and started on the ground up restoration when the project got put on hold about 5 years ago. He provided me with all of the picture he had of the car so I have documentation of everything. He found the car in a storage yard in need of some serious help so he pulled it out and sent it off to the Goodmark installation center in Georgia. By the time he got it back pretty much everything except the inner supports, passenger side floorboard and firewall had been replaced. He had the entire interior sprayed with lizard skin and the body, high fill primed, sanded and color primed.

This is where I come into the picture. I picked up the car in Lillian Texas so I figured this was a fitting name for her. The car was originally a Hugger Orange SS and since all the door jams and the undersides of the panels are painted that color she will be staying Hugger Orange. I currently have a full ride tech front suspension installed in the car with shockwaves but I think they are going to be swapped out for coilovers by the end of this. I am in the process of installing DSE mini tubs and subframe connectors. The rear suspension was ordered from Speedtech as well as the rear axle. Roger has been great to deal with and always helpful.

[cwylie]

This is how the previous owner found her. He had the car for several years and sent it to the Goodmark Installation center to have the sheetmetal replaced.

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[cwylie]

The day I picked her up:

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The project begins:

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[cwylie]

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[cwylie]

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[thsnake06]

Looking good.

[cwylie]

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[cwylie]

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[cwylie]

I forgot to take pictures the DSE SFC install. It was easier than the mini tubs but not the easiest job I have ever done. Im was working on the brake lines and starting to plan the fuel lines when the project took a little bit of a left turn....

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Needless to say the single pump vaporworx setup was not going to be enough. The motor is a 6.0 Iron block with forged pistons, stock rods and stock crank. Here is the fun part..... its 11:1 compression so I am going to run it on e85 and hope I can turn the timing back to run it on 93 if take a longer trip.

[cwylie]

Got most of the supercharger drive parts installed, heat exchanger, and radiator.

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[cwylie]

Had to pull the front end back off the car and pull the engine back out to modify the passenger side motor mount to give me enough room for a low mount a/c compressor. I think I found a setup that will work from Street and Performance but there is no telling until it gets here.

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[Justin@EntropyRad]

Wicked setup

[Gil]

Bada$$ car !
I love the wheels...
Awesome work !
Gil

[alexandros]

What size wheels and tires are you running?

[cwylie]

18x9 265 fronts, 18x12 335 rears.

Had to upgrade the clutch from the LS7 I installed originally.


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[cwylie]

Not the greatest picture but I swapped out the Wilwood brakes to Baers to bring the front track width in .38. I had a run a small .160 spacer to clear the calipers. The Hugger Orange calipers do look good behind the black wheels thought.

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[cwylie]

So after all my trouble trying to low mount an a/c compressor with the holley motor mounts I gave up and ordered a setup from C1 pulleys. I got it all installed only to figure out my NW throttle body would not fit. I reached out to Sean at CBM motorsport and he was really helpful with getting me the pics and info I needed to be somewhat confident in ordering their throttle body. It fit but just barely and I had to take the butterfly out and rotate the shaft 180 degrees to mount the TPS sensor facing towards the rear. The TPS sensor then hit the supercharger snout so I had to clearance it a little but it looks like I have it mostly worked out. Now my problem is the throttle body is close close to the alternator bracket I am not sure how I am going to get a silicone coupler on there.

I thought about possible using one of these but dang they are expensive.

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1022_1250_1306&products_id=1628

Im also waiting on a email back from Kevin at C1 as to if he thinks the notch at the alternator could be made a little larger.

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[Motown 454]

If the bracket can't be clearance any more how about tig welding a small extension to the front of the throttle body long enough to get your silicone tube or a clamp on it?

[cwylie]

My new ricks tanks showed up yesterday. This is their new stamped tank that can either their billet hat or a GM 5th gen fuel module. I opted for their billet hat with two Walbro 450 pumps installed since I will be running E85. The second pump will be turned on under boost controlled by the Holley HP EFI.

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[1968CamaroSS_Sam]

Wow, nice job on the car. Looking great.

[cwylie]

Still moving forward. I sent it off to JMS racing to have the intake and exhaust built since I dont have a TIG.

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[cwylie]

The exhaust is making progress at JMS.

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[cwylie]

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[cwylie]

So I ended up trading Lillian for Twin Turbo C6Z after we ended up in a lawsuit with our home builder and I knew where my money was going for the foreseeable future and knew the project would be on the back burner. It changed hands again about a year after that and the owner had the car painted Lexus Atomic Silver.

Roughly 2.5 years after letting the car go I reached out to the owner and asked if he would be interested in selling it back. He didn't really want to but he is a great guy and knew I put a lot of time into the car. We struck a deal and I went and got her back on November 23rd, 2019.

[Senek67RS]

So I ended up trading Lillian for Twin Turbo C6Z after we ended up in a lawsuit with our home builder and I knew where my money was going for the foreseeable future and knew the project would be on the back burner. It changed hands again about a year after that and the owner had the car painted Lexus Atomic Silver.

Roughly 2.5 years after letting the car go I reached out to the owner and asked if he would be interested in selling it back. He didn't really want to but he is a great guy and knew I put a lot of time into the car. We struck a deal and I went and got her back on November 23rd, 2019.


Paint looks awesome! Lucky that you were able to get it back...

[cwylie]

Paint looks awesome! Lucky that you were able to get it back...

Yeah I was fortunate he was willing to sell it back to me. We have since become friends and stay in touch about the progress of the car and other BS.

[cwylie]

After getting it back I started improving a few things on the build before it was even finished. The first of which was to get the exhaust all the way to the back and move the throttle body to reduce the binding of the throttle cable.

[andrewb70]

You've got a lot of updates to post...:-)

Andrew

[214Chevy]

You've got a lot of updates to post...:-)

Andrew

C'mon with it....!!

[cwylie]

I may have a future car nut on my hands.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/W4A3bqGnUbUEVz7p6

[AusMarty]

At first I was sad to see it go in the post after having seen no updates for 7 years....

Then seeing how little progress was actually made in those 7 years.
But I'm glad you've bought it back.
Please finish it!

[Alwhite00]

Damn, this is a rollercoaster of a build but I really like it.

[cwylie]

The car was actually "finished" in March of last year. I just have sucked at doing updates. Im getting caught up because Im actually about to blow it apart again for for some upgrades which I think some people will find pretty interesting.

[Hopperj7]

Do you have any final pictures of the build? Also, what kind of HP are you pushing with that LSA?

[cwylie]

After getting the car back after the exhaust modifications, I started working on all the trim and windows, and doors. If you don't look too close it actually looks like a complete car.

[cwylie]

These pictures are terrible but Im running an Infinity Box wiring system two 2 cells, w/ the inmotion system controlling the windows and door locks.

[cwylie]

So I guess its at this point in the build I need to admit I have a problem with changing things. I ran across a guy that has an LSA long block and he wanted to trade for the 370 iron block that I had. I took the car out for a quick cruise on a Sunday at about 1 pm and had the front end torn off by 6 pm that same day.
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[cwylie]

Here is the LSA long block I picked up. I swapped out the valve spring and cam to units from Brian Tooley Racing.

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[cwylie]

And here is where things truly get a little out of hand. I was never pleased with where I put the AC pass-through. So I figured while the engine was out why not go ahead and chop the firewall out of a painted car and replace it? While Im doing that, I might as well install the trans tunnel for Speedtech extreme subframe if I want to install one in the future (more to come on that). Oh, and let's go ahead and move the wiper motor to the driver's side cowl while Im at it. This is all just after AndrewB70 had finished helping me tune the car, and he's saying to me dude, just go drive the car.

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[CSG]

At least I'm not the only dummy that decides to re-do the firewall on their already painted 69!! I also decided I did not like how my floor pans were done & re-did those...

[cwylie]

Yeah it was a lot of work to chop it out without messing something up and then put everything back together. I'm glad I did it, though.

[cwylie]

While the engine and trans were out, I decided to make a few upgrades (again before the car is even done). I got a Tilton ST248 clutch which is very solid quality and came with all ARP hardware. Their support is top-notch as well.205759

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[cwylie]

I also decided to upgrade from the Concept One single belt setup to their 10R setup, which uses a 10-rib belt for the blower and a separate 8-rib setup for everything else. Again its a very nice complete setup that tucks everything in as tight as possible, and I'm pretty sure belt slip is impossible. Again the support from Kevin from Concept One is nothing short of some of the best in the industry.

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[cwylie]

I still need to finish updating this to where the car currently sits but here are a few teasers of what is to come in V2.
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[thedugan]

Nice build and great updates.

What is it like working on the racedeck style floor? How is it with a jack, jackstands, fluids, etc..

[cwylie]

Nice build and great updates.

What is it like working on the racedeck style floor? How is it with a jack, jackstands, fluids, etc..

It was great at first. But then I got tired of it to be honest. I got rid of it and put a epoxy floor in the new garage.

If you dropped a small piece it was pretty much gone. The only way to find it was to pull up the floor which was a total pain. It you spilled fluids. Again had to pull up the floor. It kept the floor pretty clean feeling but that was because it just collected all the dirt and crap under the floor. I actually had to replace a few because I dropped parts or bolts after welding them and they melted into the floor. If you just parked cars in the garage it would probably be great. If you actually do work in your garage it turned into a total pain in the rear.

[cwylie]

Car is headed to JCG next week to get the new subframe installed and the DCT transmission. As far as I know Im only the second first gen to go with a DCT transmission. I think this thing will be pretty rowdy with ignition cut no lift shift and rev-match downshifts. It will be a different experience than the manual transmission for sure.

[dhutton]

Car is headed to JCG next week to get the new subframe installed and the DCT transmission. As far as I know Im only the second first gen to go with a DCT transmission. I think this thing will be pretty rowdy with ignition cut no lift shift and rev-match downshifts. It will be a different experience than the manual transmission for sure.
Please post details of the DCT. Very cool!

Don

[cwylie]

Well here is what the car looked like not too long ago.

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[cwylie]

I decided to go ahead and tackle some of the work myself. It will likely go to JCG for some finish out. Here is what it looks like after this weekend.

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[cwylie]

I was able to make some progress this weekend. I got the DCT mounted to the engine and it mocked up in the subframe. I decided to use a mount from HPR vs building my own but it was significantly wider than the gm style mount. Luckily the height of the mount was not that far off so I chopped the mount out of the Speedtech cross member and replaced it with a piece of 3/8 plate. Leaving the mount perfectly flat would have been great as it might have provided me with enough room to run an x-pipe but it did have some deflection. To stiffen things up as well as spread the load across multiple welds I braced the center of the mount with some 3/16th. This removed most if not all of the deflection and Im fairly confident it will work. The next big step is to see if the transmission will fit in the speedtech tunnel or if I will be forced to modify it as well.

[cwylie]

A few more pictures

[NCSU68]

Great build! I look forward to seeing it completed. What transmission are you using?

[cwylie]

Its a Getrag dual clutch transmission from a BMW. It will be controlled by a MaxxECU pro and I'm planning to run traction control as well.

[ryeguy2006a]

Love the build! Very interested to see how you like the DCT.

[dhutton]

Great build and great workspace. This DCT is interesting.

Don

[cwylie]

Thanks! The garage has been a long time in the making. I build this car the first time mostly on my back in a two car garage sweating my ass off in Texas. I decided I didnt want to do that again. Haha

[TANKMASTERJ]

Cars looking great and seems to be coming along pretty quick.
Jason

[Motown 454]

Nice job and some great upgrades.

[Number1]

Any updates?

[cwylie]

Okay, so here are some updates: I stalled a bit trying to figure out the clearance between the DCT and the trans tunnel. Then, I had a trashcan fire in my garage, which, lucky for me, caused mostly smoke damage. Lesson learned. Watch what you throw in your trash cans. The day after that, my AC drip pan in my house rusted through, flooding the upstairs of the house. This was already on top of work kicking my rear.

Anyway, back to the good stuff. The speech subframe moves the engine up an inch to an inch and a half from the factory subframe with Holley mounts. The suspension points also increase to allow for a lower ride height. The DCT transmission is about the same length as the T-56 but significantly more girthy. The largest challenge was the mechatronics cover on the passenger side of the transmission. It was also pretty tight around the bell housing area. Had I installed the firewall and tunnel with the DCT already in place, it would not have been that big of an issue.

Just as I was about to cut most of the transmission tunnel out to make it all work, another opportunity presented itself. An air-shifted Quaife 69G popped up for sale. Before going with the DCT I had originally wanted to go sequential. However, I had just received the rear end back from GearFX, where they installed 2.47 rear gears to work with the 1:1 7th gear on the DCT. It would have been a lot of stuff to sell/change. After looking at the ad for a few weeks I decided to reach out and see if the owner of the Quaife had any interest in the DCT gear. And.... He was. He had a build coming up and needed about 90% of the DCT gear I had. We made a deal to do a swap. To further add to my luck he had a friend who lived just north of my traveling to him a few weeks later who could just transport everything for us. Deal done.

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[cwylie]

I got the subframe powder-coated and began the final assembly. I previously ran Baer SS4 rear brakes/calipers. They would not work with the new Miller Built bolt-on free-float axle kit. I ran across a local guy selling a rear set of 6S calipers and rotors off a 350z. I had to change the brackets and hats but Jason from Miller Built was also helpful in sourcing those. Additionally, the Hugger orange brake calipers were just not going to work with the new wheels, so that had to change.

[Ramireed]

I like the direction of this build, super clean!! The color looks good