New guy w/Big Bumper Camaro

[jerhofer]

Hello Everyone!

I have wanted to do a Pro-Touring car for a bit. When I found a 1977 Camaro that already had Wilwood disc brakes, Global West control arms, Hotchkiss springs and bars, Bilstein shocks and a Richmond 6 speed with a 406 small block with AFR heads, I knew it could be the basis for what I wanted.

For the past four months, I have had the interior gutted doing minor repairs and some upgrades. Vintage Air is a must for NC summer weather. That led to a Billet Specialties front runner kit. I tidied up the engine bay, installed a pair of Pro-Scat Rally seats, an Eckler console, Auto Meter gauges, FAST dual A/F Gauge, new sound system and some additional sound deadener. New Hooker headers went on today and it is ready to go (at least until something new develops)!!

Photos have been posted in the PT Garage!! More pics at: http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z76/jerhofer/1977%20Camaro%20LT/

I am looking forward to new ideas on ways to make the car better.

[BonzoHansen]

Nice!

[NOT A TA]

Welcome!

[srh3trinity]

That is a very nice looking second gen.

[1971CHEVELLE]

welcome to the site

[David Sloan]

Welcome to the board.

[MikeDVC]

Very nice, welcome

[tazzz25906112]

Great looking second gen and I'm sure it'll handle nicely too... Welcome to the site and hang on to your shorts as this hobby is gonna grab all your extra cash, especially when you hang around here and see all the cool little products that keep popping up LOL...

[Bow Tie 67]

Welcome and nice car, I was recently looking at one for sale.

[Tucks69]

Welcome to the forum.

[jerhofer]

Thanks for the welcome and the nice comments.

I still have things to do. I have a set of stainless brake lines on the way as the existing lines have seen better days. Also, the front end sits too high in spite of the lowering springs. I would like to bring it down about an inch or so.

[CruizinKev]

looks awesome! welcome on PT!

[MrClean]

nice camaro i have an 77 also can i get your rim and tire specs ?

[jerhofer]

The rims are Billet Specialties Street Lites and are 17 x 8 front and 17 x 11 rear. The tires are 255-45 fronts and 295-45 rears.

[MrClean]

The rims are Billet Specialties Street Lites and are 17 x 8 front and 17 x 11 rear. The tires are 255-45 fronts and 295-45 rears.
thanks ..

[JEFFTATE]

Welcome to the site..
I love those second Gens..

[formula]

heck yeah, another later 2nd gen! Very nice looking car, good sir! I think we need to put together a north-south carolina event one day...our numbers are growing!

[jerhofer]

heck yeah, another later 2nd gen! Very nice looking car, good sir! I think we need to put together a north-south carolina event one day...our numbers are growing!

Sounds good to me. The Charlotte F-Body club meets every 2nd and 4th Saturday at the Sonic in Harrisburg, NC. After I got the car on the road, I attended one of their cruise-ins and met a great bunch of members. Not a lot of cars, but some nice ones.

[67CamNKC]

Nice ride! Oh and welcome.

[zbugger]

Wow.... Just saw this. Welcome to the site from a fellow '77 Camaro owner. I just wish mine was in the shape yours is in.

[jerhofer]

Wow.... Just saw this. Welcome to the site from a fellow '77 Camaro owner. I just wish mine was in the shape yours is in.


Thanks for the compliment. The car only has about 17K on the chassis. However, that number is a little deceiving as many of those miles were 1/8 mile at a time. The car was orginally purchased new in Indiana by a guy who owned it until his death in 2006 at 49 years old from cancer. His best friend (and racing buddy) owned it for a year or so but never registered it. He sold it to a guy in Texas who owned it about 8 months. So I am the third registered owner.

I talked with the original owner's friend who said it was a show car for the first three years. Once he became bored with that, he began drag racing. I have many drag racing slips and copious records that the guy kept at each event such as the temperature, relative humidity, tire pressures, etc. One of the lowest ET's I saw was 7.188 for a 1/8 mile.

The guy in Texas installed the suspension goodies with the intention of making it more streetable that it had been. I continued that process to it's current state.

What is really interesting about this car is where it was located in Indiana. My wife and I are both originally from Indiana and the original owner lived about five miles from where my wife grew up. In fact, her first teaching job was at an elementary school in this town!! I think we were destined to own it.

[Chevrolaine]

Cool story, Beautiful car!! Welcome

[2ndgenhunter]

Sweet 77!:twothumbs I love the big bumper cars. I wanted 1 of the when I got my 81.


How do you like them seats?

Welcome and watch out its addicting.

[OldMechanik]

Nice looking car...a little lower would look real good!

[bamadale]

the only thing i would do is maybe lower it a bit. the Camaro looks great though

[jerhofer]

the only thing i would do is maybe lower it a bit. the Camaro looks great though

Yeah, my son and I were discussing lowering the car yesterday. The rear is fine and the front has Hotchkiss lowering springs but it needs to come down at least an inch to look right. At this point, we are considering cutting the coils to lower it. Because of the Wilwood brakes, we cannot use a drop spindle. Any other suggestions?

By the way, my son has an interesting car. It is a '69 Camaro with a 406 SB with an electronic fuel injection system my son built from scratch including carbon fiber stacks and airbox. He is a mechanical engineer and organizes all of the tests and crunches the resulting data for the NASCAR Red Bull team. Prior to his Red Bull career, he designed racing tires for Michelin for 12 years for all types of racing, but primarily for road racing. While with Michelin, he spent three years in France and was the Corvette team's tire engineer during one of their successful class victories at the LeMans 24 hour race. Very exhausting but he says the Corvette team was the best road racing team he had ever worked with.

[Toadman]

Sweet car! Our cars could be cousins! I'm currently tearing mine down for an LS1 swap.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/12/MyCamaro-1.jpg

[jerhofer]

Sweet car! Our cars could be cousins! I'm currently tearing mine down for an LS1 swap.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/12/MyCamaro-1.jpg

For some reason, I like your car!! If I paint mine, I am going to lose the rub strips. Now I can see what it would look like with those gone. Good luck on the LS1 swap.

[jerhofer]

I got the car back from the body shop last Friday. We deleted the body side mouldings and the lower chrome mouldings. I also had the bumpers painted body color, blacked out the headlight trim, and removed the brushed aluminum rear panel. The very bottom of the right front fender had rust and needed a repair piece welded in. The only other rust area was some bubbling up on the bottom of the driver's door that was three pinholes. Very minor. The lower valance under the rear bumper had been smashed in at some point so it was repaired. We also painted the inner fender liners and the cowl area just below the windshield.

After getting the car back, my son came over Saturday and we cut the front coil springs to get the stance I was looking for. Since I already had the Wilwood 4 piston front calipers, I asked Wilwood what would be needed to upgrade to 6 piston calipers. Turns out it was a bolt on as both calipers use the same mounting points. Needless to say, they were also installed Saturday. Tuesday I had the front end alignment done.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/127101977Camarorf343-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/127101977Camaroleftside-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/126091977Camaroenginerightside2-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/111409dashfromleft-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/111409seatsfromright-1.jpg


http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z...20Camaro%20LT/ (http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z76/jerhofer/1977%20Camaro%20LT/)

[DYNODANNY]

Cool car, looks like your right on track. Keep us posted.

[1970 TT Rustang]

nice welcome

[jerhofer]

Thanks for the compliments. Snowing now so no driving the car for a few days at least.