1967 Camaro LS build from Australia

[Ausssie Nick]

HI Everyone. This is my first post. I bought a 1967 camaro in early 2019. I thought i would buy the car to drive and enjoy. Shortly after purchase i decided to but a reverse cowl hood on. When the car was at the paint shop we decided to touch a few other things up and then things quickly sprialed out of control. The car is now undergoing a full bare metal rebuild.

I have posted pics in this first post of the car when i bought it and then pictures of the taredown process and subframe rebuild. The car is currently at the body shop. I am expecting to have the car back with the firewall, door jambs and interior painted in colour and the rest of the body primed and blocked by the end of January. I will then put the car on a rotisserie and paint the underside, install a Ridetech quadralink. The car will then get the subframe installed, sheet metal hung and return to the paint shop for final paint. Feel free to share your comments

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[slimjim]

great to see another PT project back down in Aus

[BlackHD]

Nice upgrades coming!

[Ausssie Nick]

Visited The paint shop yesterday. the car is straight and in primer. Expecting to have the car back home with the interior, firewall and door jambs all painted in colour in the next couple of weeks. Pics to come shortly

[Ausssie Nick]

Pics of the car in primer

[minendrews68]

you know, I was wanting to know what my '68 would look like with the BFG's turned with the white letters out (instead of blackwall). Your car is very close to the color of mine, and now I know what it would look like. I think I like it better with the white letters out...

[Autobahn-Outlaw]

Looks very good after turning a driveable car into a piece of metal, lol.
But this is our hobby. Keep up the good work ! Thumps up !
In one pic lurks a 70s Chevelle back in the garage ?

[Gmc427]

Dse quadalink?

[Ausssie Nick]

HI All. Sorry I haven't posted any updates for a while. I have been working away over the past 6 months which hasn't left much time for work on the camaro. I have also been working on the front end of my El Camino. I installed a new sway bar, blasted and powder coated the upper and lower control arms, installed new polyurethane bushes, installed 2 inch drop spindles and QA1 pro coil overs. Made a huge difference as when I bought it the front springs had been cut to lower and it had the wrong sway bar. This resulted in the tie rod ends rubbing in the sway bar under brakes which was DANGEROUS as it pulled to the side and did not stop. It now stops and steers 100% better. I have attached a pic of it. It has a 502BB, TH350, 12 bolt with 35 spline and full spool.

As for the camaro I now have the car back from the paint shop. The car is straight and in primer. the firewall and door jambs are painted in colour. The interior is also painted but I have decided to change the interior to black as it will go better with the body colour so it will need to be repainted when it goes back for final paint. I haven't told the painter the great news RE the interior yet :hand:.

I have now got the camaro in the rotisserie. I built adapters for my car hoist to allow it to be used as the rotisserie. Built the brackets and used wheel hubs and bearings for the rotation. It came out well and works a treat. I have started grinding the floor as I have decided to paint under the car in the body colour (how these projects spiral out of control). I have also decided to install DSE mini tubs. I ordered these from Summit last week and they arrived at my house in Australia yesterday which is really fast postage! Anyway plans for the next few weeks is to install the mini tubs, finish grinding the floors back to bare metal. Once I get this done I will get the engine and gearbox mounted on the subframe and mount to the body to check transmission tunnel clearance before painting under the car.

[ryeguy2006a]

Great project! You are doing a great job on that!

If you don't feel like spending the effort to get the car back to the body shop, I used a product called Transtar 2 in 1 trim black and it matched the stock finish for the interior extremely well. Not sure if you can get that down under, but something worth looking at if you want to go that route.

[68EFIvert]

That really is a nice color. I like the metal flake it has. Good choice.

[Ausssie Nick]

Made some progress grinding the floors on the weekend. I will be glad when the underneath is complete!

[TANKMASTERJ]

Wow that's a lot of grinding and sanding
You need a. Small blast pot lol
Looking great

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi all. Thought I would post a few pics of progress over the past months or so. I have finally finished stripping the underneath of the car. I never want to do that again! I ordered the DSE mini tub kit and spent a while deciding weather to take it to a shop to install or try to do it myself. I decided on the latter. It was a bit daunting cutting into the floor at first but took my time and am really happy with the results. I have only done the drivers side so far as I wanted to complete one side so I did not repeat any mistakes learnt on the other side. I will install the passenger side over the coming weeks. I am pretty motivated to get the passenger side done as my Ridetech 4 link and muscle bar has arrived so I am itching to install that!

[srode]

Looks really nice! how did you end up doing the stripping underneath? Looks like a wire wheel maybe?

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi all. apologies for not updating this thread more regularly. Work has been hectic lately therefore progress on the Camaro has been slow. I have finally completed the mini tub installation. I have sealed the seams with Sika and epoxy primed the floor inside. I will hopefully have the inside floor and trunk painted in black spatter paint this week. Plans for this weekend are to seal the tubs underneath and epoxy prime the underbody. The painter will be able to paint the underbody in colour over the coming weeks.

Plans after the underbody is painted is to but the subframe back under the car and start engine and transmission installation. I have ordered a new Tremec TKX which should arrive in the next few weeks.
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[Senek67RS]

HI All. Sorry I haven't posted any updates for a while. I have been working away over the past 6 months which hasn't left much time for work on the camaro. I have also been working on the front end of my El Camino. I installed a new sway bar, blasted and powder coated the upper and lower control arms, installed new polyurethane bushes, installed 2 inch drop spindles and QA1 pro coil overs. Made a huge difference as when I bought it the front springs had been cut to lower and it had the wrong sway bar. This resulted in the tie rod ends rubbing in the sway bar under brakes which was DANGEROUS as it pulled to the side and did not stop. It now stops and steers 100% better. I have attached a pic of it. It has a 502BB, TH350, 12 bolt with 35 spline and full spool.

As for the camaro I now have the car back from the paint shop. The car is straight and in primer. the firewall and door jambs are painted in colour. The interior is also painted but I have decided to change the interior to black as it will go better with the body colour so it will need to be repainted when it goes back for final paint. I haven't told the painter the great news RE the interior yet :hand:.

I have now got the camaro in the rotisserie. I built adapters for my car hoist to allow it to be used as the rotisserie. Built the brackets and used wheel hubs and bearings for the rotation. It came out well and works a treat. I have started grinding the floor as I have decided to paint under the car in the body colour (how these projects spiral out of control). I have also decided to install DSE mini tubs. I ordered these from Summit last week and they arrived at my house in Australia yesterday which is really fast postage! Anyway plans for the next few weeks is to install the mini tubs, finish grinding the floors back to bare metal. Once I get this done I will get the engine and gearbox mounted on the subframe and mount to the body to check transmission tunnel clearance before painting under the car.


Curious if the color you went with is, Atlas Grey, which is a Porsche color?

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi,

I picked the colour from the Sikkens colour book. It is code 357 G3. It does look similar to Atlas Grey185698

[Senek67RS]

Hi,

I picked the colour from the Sikkens colour book. It is code 357 G3. It does look similar to Atlas Grey185698


I painted my car Atlas Grey and the way it darkens up in the shade, then the flake sparkles like crazy in the sun. The different appearances it has is what drew me to it, nice color, bud!

[Ausssie Nick]

That's what I hope this colour does. It should look nice on the curved panels

[BK2LIFE]

hey mate, what part of oz are you from?

[Senek67RS]

That's what I hope this colour does. It should look nice on the curved panels


Definitely will

[Ausssie Nick]

hey mate, what part of oz are you from?
I'm from Toowoomba in QLD

[Ausssie Nick]

Finally got the underbody primed in epoxy over the weekend. Plan now is to test fit the Ridetech 4 link before getting the underbody painted in color185909185910

[Motown 454]

Looking Good!

[TANKMASTERJ]

Awesome progress keep up the pushing.

[Ausssie Nick]

HI All,

Had a productive weekend. the floor is finally painted. It came up great. I also test fitted the ridetech 4 link on the weekend. The cradle does not fit as there is manufacturing differences in this era of cars according to Ridetech. After a bit work I need to have a few spacers cut to put between the cradle and chassis rails. We have a computer waterjet cutter at work so I will get some spacers cut that are neat and match the profile of the cradle. I will post some pics of the instillation of the 4 link. The Plan this coming weekend is to repaint the firewall as there are a few more holes that I would like to weld up. We will also repaint the interior black. All going well I should be able to put the subframe back under the car over Easter. 186136186137186138186139186140

[Ausssie Nick]

4 link is now installed. This weekends task will be to repaint the firewall
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[Ausssie Nick]

Hi all. Had a productive weekend. The firewall is now repainted. This was necessary as I welded up the holes where the heater lines went through the firewall. I am going to install a vintage air system and wanted the firewall to look as clean as possible. We also repainted the interior of the car. I have decided to go with a black interior. I am now ready to install the subframe. The new Tremec TKX should arrive this week. I should be able to make some good progress over Easter.
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[Ausssie Nick]

My new TKX arrived yesterday. Looking forward to putting the sub frame under the car, and mounting the engine, gearbox and diff over the Easter long weekend
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[Ausssie Nick]

Made some progress over the Easter long weekend. mock-up Engine and transmission are now installed. I have installed the radiator support panel and radiator for mockup purpose. This will allow me to mock up turbo and intercooler piping. Once I am happy with the turbo piping I will remove the radiator support and get it painted.


Next step is to mount the 12 bolt diff under the car so I can weld the ridetech 4 link brackets onto the housing. I will also start looking at what accessory drive will work on the LS. I am open to suggestions that look nice but don't break the bank. Utilizing some stock parts with upgraded pulleys may be an option. I will need to run A/C, Alternator, Power steering and water pump.
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[srode]

Looking great!

[andrewb70]

Excellent progress. How did the TKX fit in the transmission tunnel?

Andrew

[CARLMB]

You are moving quickly. What paint did you use on the interior floor sheet metal? Thanks

[Ausssie Nick]

Excellent progress. How did the TKX fit in the transmission tunnel?

Andrew
Hi Andrew. The TKX fits with plenty of clearance. I used trans department 1 1/4 inch setback engine mounts. There is still plenty of rom around the transmission

[Ausssie Nick]

You are moving quickly. What paint did you use on the interior floor sheet metal? Thanks
I primed it in Epoxy primer first and then used Tex coat chip guard from transtar. It went on really nice. I also used the tex coat in the rear wheel tubs before applying color
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[Kuhlhaus]

Cool build! Look forward to following.

You're a little ahead of me... Nice to see what I'm store for.

[srode]

Looks like getting to those 2 last rear horizontal bolts for the 4 link to frame rail was a challenge? I'm working on installing my 4 link now, doing some messaging on the trunk pan to get it to fit up tight and was thinking drilling those last to bolts look pretty darn near impossible to drill.

[Ausssie Nick]

Looks like getting to those 2 last rear horizontal bolts for the 4 link to frame rail was a challenge? I'm working on installing my 4 link now, doing some messaging on the trunk pan to get it to fit up tight and was thinking drilling those last to bolts look pretty darn near impossible to drill.
Yes you are right. I still need to figure out how to get them in. Messaging the floor is not an option for me as it is all painted now. If you figure out a way let me know as it is still on my to do list.

[Ausssie Nick]

Cool build! Look forward to following.

You're a little ahead of me... Nice to see what I'm store for.
Hi Ken,

Just had a look at your build. You're doing a great job! Not to much longer and all the dirty work will be done. It sure is nice when the car is painted and all of the work involves reassembly. The stage your at I found most challenging to remain motivated.

Nick.

[Kuhlhaus]

Hi Ken,

Just had a look at your build. You're doing a great job! Not to much longer and all the dirty work will be done. It sure is nice when the car is painted and all of the work involves reassembly. The stage your at I found most challenging to remain motivated.

Nick.

Thanks Nick! Kind of you to say.

As I'm fond of saying... "It's a process" and you have to celebrate the small victories when they come. LOL

Thanks for the vote of confidence - greatly appreciated!

[Ausssie Nick]

A few updates of progress over the past week. I now have all of the Ridetech 4 link brackets tacked onto the diff and is ready to be welded off. I am interested is anyone has a way to do this without taking it to an engineering shop while keeping it straight at the same time. Has anyone had any joy building a jig and welding the brackets off? I was planning to take it to a local engineering shop that welds a lot of diff housings but if I can do it on my own that would be first prize.

I also receive my turbo header this week. Next step is purchasing turbos, wastegates, BOV, intercooler and Vintage air A/C. This will allow me to build all of the turbo plumbing and get all of the cooling packs mounted to the radiator support panel. I can then send the support panel for paint.
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[408maro]

This thing is awesome!!

[Motown 454]

Very nice.

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have made some progress on the Camaro over the past couple of weekends. I ended up deciding to build my own true bar and bushes to keep the diff housing straight while I welded the 4 link brackets off. The bar worked really well and the housing is straight with no runout after cooling. I use 2" solid bar and machined spacers down that located in the bearing carriers and housing ends. I will now be able to use this when I need to cut the housing and weld the floaters on.

As for the engine I purchased a new Brian Tooley intake which I love the look of. I really wanted a top shelf billet intake but it was out of my budget so I think the BTR still gives a racy look at a reasonable price. As for the turbos I got the last Precision LS 7576 from Summit. The second one is on back order which is a real pain. Nearly everything is out of stock or on back order right now which is quite frustrating. I have spent a fair amount of time fabricating a bracket that mounts the vintage air unit under the dash without the need to drill holes in the firewall like the factory bracket does. I spent so much time welding up the firewall it seemed counterintuitive to go ahead and drill holes back in it. I will post a pic of the bracket when its completed.

I have decide I am going to fabricate all of the turbo pluming myself as this is something I would like to learn. I went ahead and bought myself an AC/DC tig welder and bandsaw. I have been practicing my tig welding a lot and should be able to produce reasonable welds by the time I start the plumbing.
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[andrewb70]

This build is getting spicy!

[Ausssie Nick]

A few pics of progress over the past couple of weeks. The diff is now under the car. Everything fits really well. Now I need to decide on the wheels so I can order the floater kit and cut the housing to length, install floaters, brakes and paint the housing.

As for the AC I have finished the bracket to hold the A/C unit under the dash. The bracket looks pretty simple but took a lot of time. The A/C system is now mounted to check fitment. It will need to be removed 1 last time to install heater and A/C lines then I will permanently mount it. and call that job done.

Plans over the coming weeks are to mount the intercoolers and fabricate all of the charge pipe plumbing. I will post pics as things progress 190121190120190122190123190124190125190126190127

[ryeguy2006a]

Looks great!! Love that 4 link rear. Did you make that Vintage Air cradle or is that something you can buy?

[Ausssie Nick]

Looks great!! Love that 4 link rear. Did you make that Vintage Air cradle or is that something you can buy?
Thanks. I made the Vintage air cradle. The mounting bracket that comes in the kit requires holes to be drilled in the firewall which I did not want to do.

[craigF]

Just looked through your build Nick.
Awesome
Well done looks amazing.

[Ausssie Nick]

Just looked through your build Nick.
Awesome
Well done looks amazing.
Hi Craig,

Thanks. I just looked at your mustang build. You have done an amazing job. I cant wait to see it painted. What part of Australia are you from?

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi All

Made some progress today. I built the brackets to mount the intercoolers. The brackets came up well and will look nice when painted. I rubber mounted the intercoolers to reduce vibration and reduce the chance of cracking. Now the challenge of modifying the hood latch to fit. Summit finally shipped the second Turbo today along with the BOV's and ridetech true turn system. These parts have been on backorder for weeks. Hopefully they should arrive in the next couple of weeks. The next step will be fabricating and mounting the turbos and turbo plumbing. I am looking forward to this.
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[andrewb70]

Looking good!

Andrew

[Larry R]

Very nice work

[no_go nico]

sweet build!

[wareaglescott]

Nick this is a great looking build. Very inspirational to see the progress!

[Ausssie Nick]

Quick update on the build. I started building the charge piping on the weekend. A 4 inch mandrel bend was not tight enough to clear the thermo fan. I decided to make the bend with pie cuts. Took a bit of head scratching to figure out the angles. I will mount dual blow of valves on the charge pipe which will look nice. Hopefully I can get the rest of the charge piping from the intercooler completed this coming weekend191088191089191090

[TANKMASTERJ]

Quick update on the build. I started building the charge piping on the weekend. A 4 inch mandrel bend was not tight enough to clear the thermo fan. I decided to make the bend with pie cuts. Took a bit of head scratching to figure out the angles. I will mount dual blow of valves on the charge pipe which will look nice. Hopefully I can get the rest of the charge piping from the intercooler completed this coming weekend191088191089191090
Very impressive build and fab work etc. It's awesome. Keep up the great updates.
Jason
Jason's 67 pro touring Camaro build

[John McIntire]

Very nice! How did you figure out all the pie cuts on that charge pipe? It'll definitely look cool all welded up and you can see all the beads.

[Ausssie Nick]

Very nice! How did you figure out all the pie cuts on that charge pipe? It'll definitely look cool all welded up and you can see all the beads.
I would love to say I used a complex calculation but in reality I set my bandsaw to 9 degrees and got lucky!

[TanMan]

That charge pipe pie-cut fabrication is slick! Love the build.

[Ausssie Nick]

Had a productive weekend on the Camaro. After reviewing the pie cut charge pipe and thermo fan setup I decided to change the design. I was running a single thermo fan that interfered with the charge piping hence the pie cut design. After measuring this was not the best option. It would not leave enough clearance for the Wegner accessory drive kit and the lower mandrel bends in the charge system looked a bit out of place with the pie cut top pipe.

I decided to get a new radiator shroud build so I could run 2 thermo fans which has given more clearance in the center where the main charge pipe enters the throttle body. This extra clearance has allowed me to use a 4 inch mandrel bend opposed to the pie cut bend. This design also gives me adequate clearance to run the Wegner accessory drive. While the pie cut did look racy I am happy with the updated design which flows better and has symmetry in the engine bay.
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[Ausssie Nick]

Started mounting turbos now. I have the passenger side header all tacked together and turbo clamped in place. Surprisingly it fits in the inner fender really neatly. There is plenty of room for the exhaust to exit the turbo without interfering with anything. Now to start on the drivers side which will be a little more tricky.
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[Ausssie Nick]

Progress continued on the turbo mounting today. Both turbos are now mounted. I was pretty good at removing an reinstalling the headers by the end of the exercise! There was alot of trial and error to get the angles correct where the pie cuts meet the headers. I am happy with how it turned out. If I did it again I would have ordered mirror image turbos to satisfy my OCD but not to worry. Next step is to mount wastegates and build the dump pipes. I ordered some ICT billet remote coil mounts today. I would like to mount the coils to the engine block behind the engine mounts but am concerned regarding the heat from the dump pipe that will be running right past. I will mock it up and see how close the pipe comes.
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[andrewb70]

Are the turbos supported by anything other than the headers?

[Ausssie Nick]

Are the turbos supported by anything other than the headers?
I am going to support the turbos from the radiator support panel to the compressor housing. This will be hidden in the inner fender. I am yet to figure the design of the support out as it will need to allow some movement.

[Vimes]

What you did looks pretty sharp and really well made, but I think a set of shorty headers would probably be better here. Shorties would give you additional room to allow the use of stainless flex pipe between the exhaust manifold and the turbo, which would allow you to hard mount the turbos while allowing for engine movement.

[TANKMASTERJ]

What you did looks pretty sharp and really well made, but I think a set of shorty headers would probably be better here. Shorties would give you additional room to allow the use of stainless flex pipe between the exhaust manifold and the turbo, which would allow you to hard mount the turbos while allowing for engine movement.
Aussie Nick
Such an awesome job your doing on the piping fab. Support for those turbos will definitely be paramount. I know in some heavy equipment applications I've used some stainless flex pipe like bellows style as well as stainless braid styles.
Keep Rocking
Jaaon

[Motown 454]

Nice job Nick, it really looks neat a mirror image.

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi All,

I haven't updated the thread for a while. Here are some pics of the turbo pluming layout finally complete. I just need to weld it off now. Hopefully I can do that on the weekend. after looking at the pie cut design I decided to start again and go with mandrel bends. I have decided I am going to ceramic coat all of the pipe work in black. I thought the pie cut design would look strange in black as it would lose the coloured effect pie cut exhausts get from the heat. Anyway long story short I am happy with the plumbing layout.

I have added some pics of the radiator support panel. I started modifying this on the weekend to add some clearance around the turbo turbine housing for heat management. I have completed the drivers side and will now do the passenger side. Using a mild steel mandrel ben did the job perfectly.

A few other things I have done since the last update: Built a new set of stronger engine mounts, installed ridetech tru turn up front, started developing a wiring strategy for the dominator.
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[TANKMASTERJ]

Rock on Aussie Nick.
Great progress on the turbos and cooler. Looks fantastic. I opted for the Wegner WAK033 on my build and it's a piece of art. It did consume some room on the front of my accessories drive to my C and R Radiator bjt it's all in.
Keep on
Jason

[Ausssie Nick]

Hi All,

This is a bit of a long post but thought I would provide an update as its been more than 2 years since I lasted posted progress and im finally getting the camaro build underway again.

Shortly after my last post we decided to buy another house. We weren't planning on doing this but a place came up in an area Me and my Wife have always wanted to live so we bought the house. The only issue is there was no garage or vehicle storage so the Camaro, Elcamino and all my tools, parts etc went into storage at my parents and friends' places. The house we bought was on 1 acre so plenty of room to build a nice big shed, the only problem is it on a 17 degree slope which meant the civils and construction was quite a challenge.

The block was overgrown with trees and scrub and had not been maintained for a really long time. We brought excavators, bobcat, rollers etc and started clearing. we removed over 70 trees, imported more than 1,000 tonne of crushed quarry material to build driveway and shed foundation, more than 3,000 split face stone retaining wall blocks and over 200m3 of concrete to complete the shed, driveway and retaining walls ( im still finishing the final level of retaining wall).

I did all of the works myself expect for placing the concrete. Being a carpenter by trade helped. In short all my spare time over the past 2 years has been spent building the shed, building retaining walls, completing the civils, epoxying the shed floor etc. Then we decided to have our first child to throw a bit more chaos into the mix.

Now that the works are nearing completion it's time to get back onto the cars. I decided to pull the motor, and box out of the Elcamino to give the engine and engine bay a cosmetic clean up. I also made a 3inch mandrel bent stainless system for it while it was out.

I'm now back onto the Camaro with renewed motivation. I have fitted the PWR intercooler to check fitment, finished tacking together the charge piping and started test fitting panels for gap and alignment before sending back to the paint shop for color. I will fit the doors, boot lid and hood this weekend. I'll then start stripping it down to send to the paint shop.

Ive included a heap of pics of what I've been up to since the last post. Everything from her on in the thread will be Camaro related.

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[68Formula]

Nice fab work! Needs these between the turbos and the headers to allow some flex for the engine movement relative to the body.

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