Project Dazed and Confused...1975 Camaro RS

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The big bumper 2nd Gen Camaros don't have near the following that the earlier and later 2nd gens do, but I have always liked them since they were the typical high school hot rod when I was growing up. Every time I see one, I think Lakewood traction bars, Gabriel Hi-Jackers, and Cragar S/S wheels. The younger guys in my shop don't get my affinity for this car (it belongs to a customer), but there is something about it that I really like...especially the original-style two tone paint scheme.

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The owner has decided to do this buildup in stages. Stage 1 is the rear suspension, brakes, and the rearend itself, along with a fresh set of wheels and tires. Stage 2 will be an LS swap, with a powdercoated subframe, all new suspension, and big front brakes. Stage 3 will be the paint and bodywork, which will be original style with the same colors and graphics seen on the car now. Stage 1 is well underway, and Stage 2 will be coming soon.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The original rear was in good shape, and could have been upgraded with a posi and a gear swap to handle the power its going to be making, but Wally, the car's owner, wanted something "beefier looking" in the rear....plus the ability to handle power for any future upgrades. Note the vintage Lakewood slapper bars!

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The underside was in good shape, but VERY dirty! We pressure washed the floorpan, removed the exhaust, rear suspension, and fuel tank, and coated the entire floor (up to the trans; we'll do the front part when the subframe comes off in Stage 2) with spray on bedliner.

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We considered a 4 link conversion, but nixed it for cost reasons, and went with a kit from Hotchkis that included the leaf springs, shackles, bushings, and all hardware. We've had very good luck with Hotchkis in the past.

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[Johnny Blaze]

Keep the factory paint scheme!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The brown truck showed up with this on Wednesday. Thanks to Moser, and Frank at Prodigy Customs! The housing is slightly narrowed, and has the full back brace and fill/drain plugs installed. Axles are 31 spline.

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We rushed the housing to the coaters on Wednesday afternoon, and got it back today. It looks gray in one of the shot, but its actually a 60% gloss black.

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

Keep the factory paint scheme!

No worries! Its too cool to change IMHO.

[opnwide]

I like the name of your new project. Dazed and Confused was filmed right here in little ol' Austin, TX. We love that movie!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Great looking camaro..

[BulldawgMusclecars]

I like the name of your new project. Dazed and Confused was filmed right here in little ol' Austin, TX. We love that movie!

Me too!

[newmexicosaint]

Lookin' nice. I deffinately like the project in stages approach.

[Kenova]

:crying::crying:
April 1975 I ordered a Camaro Rally Sport with the LT package. I ordered the Saddle Tan interior, 350, automatic, cat con delete (it was optional up here for '75) and no A/C. I picked it up at the dealer's in June and proceeded to drive the wheels off of it. I sold it August '79 to raise the down payment for my first house.


I want it back in the worse way, but I know deep down that it was probably trashed years ago.
I'll be watching this build with a tear in my eye.

Ken

[LeighP]

very nice...always like the RS two tone scheme.

[Tango68SS]

..... but I have always liked them since they were the typical high school hot rod when I was growing up. Every time I see one, I think Lakewood traction bars, Gabriel Hi-Jackers, and Cragar S/S wheels. The younger guys in my shop don't get my affinity for this car (it belongs to a customer), but there is something about it that I really like...especially the original-style two tone paint scheme....



..don't forget the mullet hair-do too! :)

[srh3trinity]

This should be a cool build. I had a buddy that had the same color scheme on his Camaro and I always thought it was cool.

[Toadman]

Yeah!! I'll be watching this one! Sending some big bumper love your way! :headbang:

[bonecrrusher]

I am really liking the colors on the car..

[SLO_Z28]

Gotta love big bumper camaros! Keep us updated!

[GeoffP]

Very cool project - my mom had a dark blue 75 Camaro. This definitely makes me nostalgic!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The rear brake components should be in tomorrow...drilled and slotted rotors, PBR calipers,pads, and new e-brake cables. I picked up the rear shocks yesterday (Bilsteins). The rear is set up for late Camaro discs ('98-'02).

[John Wright]

Needs a set of Moon Eyes on the Lakewood bars :smoke:

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

What an aggravating day! We got the needed shock plates from a salvage yard about 30 miles from the shop, cleaned them up and painted them...only to discover that they didn't fit! The first donor car we came to was a late '70s Nova, which has suspension parts that mostly interchange with a 2nd Gen F-body. Well, the shock plates don't...the Nova uses a shock with a through-bolt at the bottom, and the F-body uses a shaft type with a nut. Fortunately, Atlanta traffic wasn't too bad today, and we got the right shock plates.

Here are the new Bilstein shocks, along with the drilled and slotted 12" 4th Gen F-body rotors:

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

The Moser-built, nodular-cased center section, freshly painted and ready to bolt in

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

I should have the final decision on wheels tomorrow...between the two we are looking at, either will look great!

[Kenova]

I should have the final decision on wheels tomorrow...between the two we are looking at, either will look great!

Five spoke with spokes painted white and polished rim? :naughty:

Ken

[BulldawgMusclecars]

We're leaning towards this:

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[SRD art]

..... Every time I see one, I think Lakewood traction bars, Gabriel Hi-Jackers, and Cragar S/S wheels. The younger guys in my shop don't get my affinity for this car (it belongs to a customer), but there is something about it that I really like...especially the original-style two tone paint scheme....

..don't forget the mullet hair-do too! :)


...And Bon Jovi and Motley Crue blasting on the cassette player! Lol! My best bud had one of these Camaros back in high school. It was a 76 with a mild 305, chrome modular rims, white letter tires and black mega flake sparkly boat paint. It was cool back then in '87...

Do you like a particular brand for the bed liner spray?

Great build project, looking forward to seeing the other two stages get rolling too!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

...And Bon Jovi and Motley Crue blasting on the cassette player! Lol! My best bud had one of these Camaros back in high school. It was a 76 with a mild 305, chrome modular rims, white letter tires and black mega flake sparkly boat paint. It was cool back then in '87...

Do you like a particular brand for the bed liner spray?

Great build project, looking forward to seeing the other two stages get rolling too!

On this one, we used a spray-on kit from Southern Polyurethane http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com

Its a little messy on a car that isn't on a rotisserie, but it went on great and is very tough. It can be mixed with any standard mixing tints if you don't like black. Herculiner and similar products are easier to apply (no overspray/less masking/bagging), but don't go on as thick and cost about the same in the long run.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Sorry for the delay with the pics! Its been a hectic week at the shop. First, we discovered that the driver's side axle was slightly long... 1/8th of an inch, to be exact. I have run into this issue before, and had to cut off the required amount to fully seat the axle bearing in the housing end. This isn't a mistake, per se...Moser leaves the axle slightly long, since the extra length is needed with some differentials, and its far easier to cut some off than try to add it back. This does preserve the warranty, BTW, so no problem.

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We also ran into some minor issues with the rear disc backing plates, and had to make a few modifications. Note that we are using 2 RH backing plates, in order to clear the rear shocks. Since the shocks are staggered, and so close to the calipers in their "normal" position, using an RH plate on the LH side allowed the clearance we needed for the shock, by staggering the calipers (similar to how the factory did it on early 3rd gen F-bodies). The backing plates are also flipped upside down, from their normal position on a 4th gen F-body, to allow clearance for the e-brake mechanisms. This probably wouldn't have been necessary with a standard width housing, but this one is narrowed 1" on each side. Flipping the backing plates caused another issue...the housing end pattern isn't perfectly square. The upper bolt pattern is slightly wider than the bottom, meaning that flipping the brackets required milling out the bolt holes on the backing plate to match. Problem? Not really. Its actually pretty typical of the minor setbacks that come up every day when building cars. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Here is one of the new plates from Jeff Tate at Day's Chevrolet. Thanks Jeff!

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With this brake setup, and most other GM-based ones, the caliper bracket/backing plate acts as a bearing retainer. For this reason, they have to be put on the axle before the bearings are pressed on.

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The axle installed.

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

I thought I had a set of rear caliper abutments on hand that would work, but no such luck...they are Corvette C6 pieces, and won't work with the F-body rotors and calipers. The correct ones are ordered, and hopefully will be in tomorrow. If so, we can get the calipers mounted and start bending hard line, and get the final measurements for the new wheels.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Sorry for the long delay in updates...things have been crazy busy around here the last month or so! Here are a few more pics of the rear brake setup.

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[BulldawgMusclecars]

Ok, a wheel decision has been made, and I called Jason Rushforth today to place the order:

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Troopers in 18x8/18x10

[Kenova]

Any up-dates?

Ken

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Waiting on wheels right now; custom wheels usually take at least 6 weeks. We'll be continuing with the front suspension and the LS 376/525hp swap in the coming months.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Wheels were shipped today from Rushforth, so this time next week we should have them!

[Rileys68Camaro]

Very cool! I really like that undercoating spray! I'll need to redo some of mine after some welding work and that looks great! How does it work with the tinting? Can you make it a fairly light color?

[BulldawgMusclecars]

This is the un-tinted version (black), but this brand can be mixed with toners to make pretty much any color.

[1972malibu]

Wheels were shipped today from Rushforth, so this time next week we should have them!We love our Rushforth wheels (18x8 and 18x10 Superspokes)! Jason and Melanie were great to work with. Our only regret was that we didn't order direct and our caps are a little loose. Post pictures when you get them mounted up... - Doug

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The wheels came in today!

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I agree, Rushforth Wheels has been great to deal with. I haven't met or spoken to Melanie yet, but Jason has been great!

[SparkyRnD]

This!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Our tires took forever to get in, but they are finally here. I ordered them through the local Discount Tire (Nitto NT555s in 245/40/18 and 285/40/18, respectively), and they mounted them. We used a flush-mount style valve stem, since Rushforth puts them inside the rim (much cleaner look) and nothing else will clear the rear calipers. Note the stance is a little high in front. The rear is lowered with Hotchkiss leafs, but the front suspension and brakes are all stock, for now. Soon the car will get a 525hp LS3/4L70E swap, a powdercoated stock subframe, and aftermarket front control arms and lowering springs with Bilstein shocks. Front brakes will be C6 based, probably Z51/J52 stuff.

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We removed the Lakewood bars, but it looked naked...so we went with an updated version from Competition Engineering.

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[SRD art]

The back tires are on backwards! ;)

Lookin' good, can't wait to see the dropped front done!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The back tires are on backwards! ;)

Lookin' good, can't wait to see the dropped front done!

Doh! Clark is fired! :slap:

[csouth]

Doh! Clark is fired! :slap:

Thats funny!

[Kenova]

Is it for sale yet!?? :naughty:
I know, FATCHNZ.

Do you have any updates for us?

Ken

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Is it for sale yet!?? :naughty:
I know, FATCHNZ.

Do you have any updates for us?

Ken

Wish I did! I haven't spoken to the owner lately...he's had the car back since the last update, and last I heard was saving for an LSx swap.