Project NewLife

[reschke18]

After being a member for a while now, (although I was stagnant long enough to forget the password on my first profile), I have finally started building my car. As a way to keep track of the progress and to entertain everyone else, I decided to start a build thread. Another '69 Camaro build thread. How thrilling. How thrilling!!

Quick history of the car (kinda crazy and why the name of the project is what it is (may change it)) : The original owner of the car lost the car to his ex-wife in a divorce. Shortly thereafter he was found with another man's wife, and that guy didn't think to highly of the activity he found them engaged in, so he shot him. Dead on the spot. His ex-wife didn't want the car, so she sold/gave it to her brother. The clutch went out, so he began to tear into it, with the mentality of " while I'm in here, I'll do this too!" After months of taking the car apart, trying his hand at shoddy repairs, trying to weld the firewall and dash, painting engine parts rattle can gold, taking almost all the drivetrain apart and then realizing it was like taking apart the VCR and not knowing how to reassemble, he loaded all the parts into the backseat and trunk and he sold it to me! A few months later, he decided to swallow an entire bottle of pills..... No joke. So moral of the story: Don't sell the car!!

The car began as a base model with the only option being a 327. It had a TH350, but the first guy swapped it for a Muncie M20. Garnet Red with red interior. Bowtie Emblems



At some point the car was painted Hugger Orange with a black "Starsky and Hutch" stripe. The interior stayed red....

Car now: I have acquired maybe half the parts needed, so I started building. With work demanding much of my time, I decided to get all the rust fixed by a shop.
Front: Stock fully welded subframe. Speedtech Protouring Kit with Tubular arms, adjustable coils, and double adjustable Viking shocks. ATS AFX tall spindles, Hotchkis bar, Unisteer power rack & pinion.
Rear: Detroit Speed kit with 2 inch drop leafs, mini-tubs, koni shocks. 9 inch Ford with Eaton TrueTrac, Yukon 3.70 gears. Housing has smooth round back and big bearing ends.
Motor: 402 BBC with KB pistons, GM steel crank, Scat rods, Brodix aluminum oval ports angle milled to 100 cc, Comp cam .552/.555 230/236, RPM Air-Gap manifold, Holley 770 cfm, Pertronix ignition.

Body work is currently getting done by East Bay Customs in Brentwood, CA. Kansas car with lots of rust. Both full rear quarters, inner and outer wheel housings, tail panel, trunk floor, deck lid, rockers, DSE subframe connectors, smooth firewall, dash panel, patching front fender and spots in doors. Lots of work!! Metal work should be done in the next couple weeks. I'm not going to blast and prime it yet. I'll wait for the final body work stage. I should have it home for mock up shortly! I'm building the 3rd member of the 9 inch this weekend and I'll be sure to take some pics.

Next things for purchase: wheels, tires, Wilwood brakes and T56 Magnum.

I may enlist your input for the wheel decision... Stuck between Schott and Forgelines....

Post or PM me your ideas of a project name that goes along with the story!

Thats all for now, more to come!