Angry Johnny's 69 Camaro Build

[Rodknock]

Wheel selection. Harder to decide than the color I chose!!!
The first pics are the wheel style I initially wanted (not the color), but have since changed. I'm pretty much going to stick with polished outer and brushed centers, but might go with the Royal Gold center (last pic), but not sure yet.


I'M OPEN TO OPINIONS!!!!


Old first choice











New first choice

















Second choice








Third choice. I do kinda like the deep dish look though














Color options for the center section








And the Royal Gold color I mentioned earlier, but not this style of wheel

[Rodknock]

My beefy rear meats came in on the 29th!!! They are definitely yuge compared to the stock 14" wheels. Looks like 12" wide rim and 6 3/4" B.S. will be perfect!














Time to play with the trick tool.

[Rodknock]

This post brings me up to date as of today. I have been way behind posting updates here. Doesn't seem to spark much interest on here anyway, but I'll try to keep it going.
Test fit #2. Re-mounted the doors back on the car. I'm going to pin the hinges this time around. Also need to fit the new Cowl hood, and Anvil parts, since I obtained all of these after the car was torn apart.
Was lucky enough to get a couple of days off of work to get a few things done, although most of my time was spent catching up on neglected chores around the house. Was really hoping to get more done on the car. I mounted the fenders today before work, but didn't get a chance to take pics.


Yes, the glass and the hardware are sitting in the door, to simulate the weight to make it hang properly.
I did find a little rust in the driver door, but it was easily repaired.
Just goes to show what can be hiding under a primered or painted car, when you buy it.

[Vimes]

Looks great. I don't normally care for green but that's an interesting one. The only two issues I see are, that fuel filler looks pretty tight on that trunk floor. The tank WILL move in relation to the body as you go down the road, so that could be a wear area if there's not enough clearance. The second issue is the rear brakes being on the pumpkin side of the shaft instead of the wheel side. I know it means less unsprung weight, but if you snap an axle shaft that wheel no longer has brakes. Slamming on the brakes will mean half the car will have considerably more braking power than the other, which might cause you to lose control in an emergency.

[jamminj007]

If I were you, I would HIGHLY reconsider the polished outer wheel with that design of wheel. Polishing that lip will be a biatch with a floating spoke. Trust me, me and my Brixton forged wheels have a love hate relationship. I LOVE how the look on my Vette, but I hate polishing those m'fers.

[Rodknock]

Looks great. I don't normally care for green but that's an interesting one. The only two issues I see are, that fuel filler looks pretty tight on that trunk floor. The tank WILL move in relation to the body as you go down the road, so that could be a wear area if there's not enough clearance. The second issue is the rear brakes being on the pumpkin side of the shaft instead of the wheel side. I know it means less unsprung weight, but if you snap an axle shaft that wheel no longer has brakes. Slamming on the brakes will mean half the car will have considerably more braking power than the other, which might cause you to lose control in an emergency.

Thanks. Generally, I'm not a big fan of green either. The car is originally Rally Green, which I almost went with, till I found this one. I just didn't want to have a red, blue, black, or any of the other common colors.

Easy enough to make the hole larger. Thank you for the insight on that!!

Not sure how many Heidt's setups are out there. Wonder how many people have broken axles with their setup? I don't plan to put axle snapping power to the ground. It does have a posie unit, so I'm wondering if the braking power of both discs will now be transferred to one wheel, just like as in a power situation.

[Rodknock]

If I were you, I would HIGHLY reconsider the polished outer wheel with that design of wheel. Polishing that lip will be a biatch with a floating spoke. Trust me, me and my Brixton forged wheels have a love hate relationship. I LOVE how the look on my Vette, but I hate polishing those m'fers.

I'm going to go with this one instead. The deep dish look, just looks right on muscle cars. Polished/brushed combo, and SS hardware.

[Vimes]

It does have a posie unit, so I'm wondering if the braking power of both discs will now be transferred to one wheel, just like as in a power situation.

It would, and the effect would be to lock the still-connected rear wheel up, so you'd have one wheel locked and the other wheel free wheeling out back. Once one axle shaft goes, that wheel will never see braking again until the axle is replaced. The locked wheel will force the car's rear end to swing around unexpectedly. If you're good behind the wheel and know in advance what a snapped axle shaft will do to your braking you can probably drive your way out of it without losing it, but I wouldn't let anyone else drive it hard unless you know them to be a good driver.

[Rodknock]

It would, and the effect would be to lock the still-connected rear wheel up, so you'd have one wheel locked and the other wheel free wheeling out back. Once one axle shaft goes, that wheel will never see braking again until the axle is replaced. The locked wheel will force the car's rear end to swing around unexpectedly. If you're good behind the wheel and know in advance what a snapped axle shaft will do to your braking you can probably drive your way out of it without losing it, but I wouldn't let anyone else drive it hard unless you know them to be a good driver.

Heidt's rates the axles at 750 HP. I'm sure that's a conservative rating. I won't be pushing that much power, and I'll never put slicks on it.
Have you heard of these setups failing?

[Vimes]

Heidt's specifically, no, but then I've not been looking. Half shafts in general, yes. The only reason I pointed it out is a broken half shaft in your case means the the rear brakes are messed up, which can cause a wipe-out in a situation that otherwise would just mean stopping. Nothing against IRS systems, I've run them before and like them a lot. I even strongly considered putting one into my current project which hopefully begins in April. The fact is though, an IRS has a lot of moving parts and where you have movement you can have failure. Nature of the beast, kind of thing.

Just be aware that if you hear a loud POP in the back, particularly in a corner, hard braking will be a bad idea. Ease into them instead to see what the car does. That's an impressive build you have, and I'd hate to see it messed up in a situation that otherwise wouldn't have done damage.

[Rodknock]

Heidt's specifically, no, but then I've not been looking. Half shafts in general, yes. The only reason I pointed it out is a broken half shaft in your case means the the rear brakes are messed up, which can cause a wipe-out in a situation that otherwise would just mean stopping. Nothing against IRS systems, I've run them before and like them a lot. I even strongly considered putting one into my current project which hopefully begins in April. The fact is though, an IRS has a lot of moving parts and where you have movement you can have failure. Nature of the beast, kind of thing.

Just be aware that if you hear a loud POP in the back, particularly in a corner, hard braking will be a bad idea. Ease into them instead to see what the car does. That's an impressive build you have, and I'd hate to see it messed up in a situation that otherwise wouldn't have done damage.

Understood. Thank you very much for the insight!! I'm sure if the axle snaps, or a CV joint fails, it will be quite loud, banging against the bottom of the floor


Thank you for the kudos on the build too

[Rodknock]

Got the fenders loosely installed. Funny how I bagged and tagged every nut, bolt, and shim, but it still ends up needing to be tweaked. They just never go back together the same way twice. I'm going to have to work the door gaps of the AMD fender on the passenger side, at the top along the curve, leading up towards the windshield. The angle of the curve in the panel is pretty far off from the curve of the door at the top. Also the door to fender gap at the very bottom of the door will need work. Not much though. It's more of an issue with the door, not the fender with that part.
Driver side has an OEM fender, so the gaps are fairly decent with that one. I just need to do some body work, and weld in the tab for the RS stuff, since it was a standard fender.

[slimjim]

Good choice of wheel IMO

[Rodknock]

Good choice of wheel IMO

Thanks Jim!! I have a friend with that exact wheel, in the same color as the pic. They look good, but I'll do the polished lip and brushed natural centers for mine.

[ICrombie]

Very nice project you have going here, I'm very close to start mocking up wheels for backspacing and was thinking of getting that same tool (I also have an IRS, albeit a C5 corvette so hopefully that won't cause too many issues with the control arms). How much space did you allow yourself on either side of the tire to inner fender lip & wheel well?

Also looking forward to how you like the BC Forged wheels, I see a lot of guys over at corvetteforum are happy with them and was leaning towards their monoblock RZ05 in brushed bronze.

[67BrewserSS]

Great progress! What are you doing for drivetrain?

[Rodknock]

Very nice project you have going here, I'm very close to start mocking up wheels for backspacing and was thinking of getting that same tool (I also have an IRS, albeit a C5 corvette so hopefully that won't cause too many issues with the control arms). How much space did you allow yourself on either side of the tire to inner fender lip & wheel well?

Also looking forward to how you like the BC Forged wheels, I see a lot of guys over at corvetteforum are happy with them and was leaning towards their monoblock RZ05 in brushed bronze.

Thank you.

There's maybe 3/8" of room on each side. I will have to trim the lip on the driver side, just slightly I think. The tire barely hits it at full upward travel, and to be honest, it might not hit at all. I had the coil over removed, and moved it up into the wheel well till the suspension arm hit the frame. In reality it would likely never travel that far up.

I hope I like the wheels. I've never purchased high end wheels before, so this will be a first.

Great progress! What are you doing for drivetrain?

Thank you. I have a 6.0L at home. Going twin turbo and 4L80E

[tward69ss]

Looking forward to the next posts. It's cool to watch the progress with all the pics! It will look awesome when you are done. Thanks for the post.

[Rodknock]

Looking forward to the next posts. It's cool to watch the progress with all the pics! It will look awesome when you are done. Thanks for the post.

Thanks. Hopefully have more today or tomorrow. Also, welcome to PT.com

[Rod]

build is looking great John