Long Awaited 68 Camaro Build

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Back Story First. My amazing wife bought me this car almost 4 years ago now as an engagement present (she got a ring so I got a car) I WIN! I got very little play time with it due to the fact that we got stationed in Korea for two years almost immediately (We are both in the Army). But what I got was 2 years of every Holiday getting parts! Unfortunately I haven't even been able to open one box since as soon as we got back to the states we had just enough time to tie the knot and we were both shipped to Afghanistan. Oh well, another year of buying and receiving parts as gifts. Bottom line, I am sick and tired of looking at EVERYONE's project updates when I have been separated from my car for 3 years and since I am FINALLY returning home for good very shortly I figured there was no better motivation than to start my build thread! Here is a run down of the parts I have accumulated:

Drive train:
- Forged LQ9 block bored .30 over (including wiring harness, ecu, pedals, LS1 front drive accessories, basically everything to make it run
- Hooker LS swap headers and motor plates
- LS3 Heads
- Had purchased an LS3 intake but then I found a sweet deal on a Harrop HVT 1900 Supercharger kit for an LS3 I couldn't resist
- LS1 T-56 Trans w/ 5.0 shifter (gonna need to beef that up a bit)
- Impulse buy on a great deal from MCB on a vaporworks tank with the LSA fuel pump (can't wait to see one of these in person)
Suspension:
- Complete ridetech front coilover kit
- Rear ridetech air bar
- Front and rear single adjustable ridetech coilovers
- Front Wilwood 6 piston dynalite kit w/ drilled/slotted rotors
- Rear Wilwood 4 piston brakes w/ ebrake assembly
- Wilwood master with hydratech hyrdroboost (another deal too good to pass up from Matt at MCB... that guy is killin me with his specials!!)

and about a thousand miscellaneous parts to make it all work...



Up next is a rear 9 inch (haven't made up my mind of currie, moser, strange just yet) But I need it to get a rolling chassis together
Some Pics of how it has sat for the last 3 years waiting for me to get home. Not a bad start. The majority of the heavy bodywork is done. These pics are from right before I left, but now I am being told the pile of boxes of new parts has overtaken the car, I can't wait to get home!! Making up for 3 lost Christmas's!

[chuckd71]

Looks like somewhere in there you might almost have enough pieces to slap together a car of some sort. What color is it going to be?

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Haha, I definitely have all of the original parts (It was a complete car minus the motor) and most of the major components to build it the way I want it. The nickel and dime pieces are what is going to get me, along with any more of the "while it's apart..." stuff.

As for the color, something in the neighborhood of corvette electron blue. HOK Shimron 2 has a thousand combinations of different pearl and metallic blues I've been trying to decide between. The color and the wheels have been the absolute hardest decisions... well at least since I made the choice on the suspension... That one took about a year and a half.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Well, for years of following all the build threads I did exactly what used to get me so upset... I started a build thread and then disappeared from the face of the earth for 9 months... I returned from Afghanistan in June and since have been moving into a new house getting everything moved from VA, getting the shop setup, and slowly getting work done on the car. Thus far I've gotten the firewall cleaned up and epoxy primed, got the subframe test fit and mocked up all the ridetech goodies only to take them off to get ready for the motor and trans mock-up hopefully if it ever arrives! I'm not even going to get into the difficulties with the engine builder.... Let's just say it has been MANY "I'll have everything at your door in two weeks"... It's hard to stay motivated doing sheetmetal work when you don't have blown engine eye candy in the corner urging you to get the car ready for it. Anyway, these threads are useless without pictures. Please feel free to critique or lend any suggestions, this is my first build of this magnitude.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Both floorboards were pretty bad... Needed complete drivers side replaced and a couple patches on the passenger side

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

There are a ton of spotwelds that hold the seat braces onto the floor. My advice to anyone replacing full length floors is just to cut around the braces and order new ones... By the time I thought of that I was already too far in and just had to keep going at the spot welds... My air chisel also became my best friend...

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

And a whole lot of welding later.... Man... a lap joint would have been easier... but this way you can't tell they've been replaced when you look under the car.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Spent a lot of time fixing the firewall area getting the engine bay more presentable then sprayed it with some epoxy primer to keep it from flash rusting.. somehow failed o take pics of it primed...

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Now time for some fun... DSE mini-tubs, So far not nearly as hard as I was afraid of, If your thinking about doing it this walkthrough makes it pretty easy
https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...a-68-69-Camaro
This one is pretty good too... http://www.superchevy.com/technical/...opy/index.html

First things first... The wheel dolly I made is really great for moving the body around the shop but I was a little worried of tipping the whole thing backwards with as much time as I would be spending in the trunk so I took a precautionary measure... 200lbs of media should keep me upright... lol

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Deck lid springs were real easy to get out using a small deep well socket on a 6" extension.


A few spot welds and a couple passes with the plasma later the old tub is out... Don't have a plasma?? Get one... and when you get one make sure you remember to turn down the amps after cutting 1/4" and moving to sheet metal! lol, this first cut was pretty ugly before I went and fixed my settings.



This is the money shot.


You can see in this pic that in this poor camaro's life somebody REALLY boogered up a shock mount repair.... Good thing its going away!


Got the remaining bits of the inner tub off the flange with the outer tub.


Started cutting the bottom portion here. You have to leave an extra 3/4" to fold down for a flange to plug weld the new inner tub too. On the rest I've started inching closer to the scribe line at 2 3/4". Probably going to be a LOT of test fitting

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

I didn't get too much farther for today before I had to start getting ready for the week. Posting today's progress has really motivated me to get more work done. I can't wait to get away from the sheet metal and into installing some go fast goodies. But still soooo far away. Still have to do something about all the surface rust on the interior panels, trying to decide if it would be worth it to blast it. Hopefully it will be a lot shorter time before I have more updates to post.

[KnightMare]

I just got done installing minitubs in my camaro. making good progress

[rustomatic]

Thank you for your service--you deserve to have fun for a while. Enjoy the time with your car--we all like to see a dirty beginning!

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

KnightMare,
I took a look at your build thread last night. I've complained about my Camaro's past "restorations" but after seeing what somebody did to your car I want to go give the previous owner of mine a hug. At least he used metal to patch rust, its easier to fix booger welds then than foam stuff, bondo, and chicken wire. Does depress me cause even with all that, you are moving a LOT faster than me! I need to get in the shop!

You also inspired me to do a rendering on mine... this is pretty quick and dirty but it is the color I want... still don't really know the wheels, but not any in the digital paintbooth database. I have the original SS hood that I am planning to use but I couldn't find that option in digital paintbooth... But you get the idea.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Rustomatic, thank you for your support. I can't wait to get this back on the road! It's a double edged sword, you want to get it finished, but I do worry about when I'm done cause then I won't be able to build it anymore!

[KnightMare]

Yeah, I just completed the last of the rusty panels to cut out the car tonight. Now it's just welding and customizing stage now

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Well, its been a while.... The shop that I had building the engine and transmission completely disappeared on me. I should have seen it coming after he blew deadline after deadline. He started building everything for me while I was stationed in Korea 3 years ago and it was supposed to be done by June of 2011 when I returned to the states. It wasn't... I kept getting the 2 more weeks excuse. Unfortunately 3 months after returning from Korea I ended up getting deployed to Afghanistan so it was hard to keep tabs on him but I was assured it would be done by July 2012 when I got back... Again, it wasn't and once again the "I need two more weeks" for ... Anyway, the last several months I have just been trying to figure out how I can at least get the parts I sent him back (including the harrop supercharger) which all totaled about $11,000. I was so pissed at the situation I worked on other projects and didn't get too much done on the camaro. Still not entirely sure if I am going to get any of my money or parts back from him but it is time to move on with the project. Last weekend, I scored a pretty killer deal on this


A vette LS2. The guy had several he was trying to get rid of. He said he thought it was from an 07 but it appears to have a black crank sensor so I suspect it was from an 05 with the 24 tooth reluctor wheel. I'm pulling the engine apart this weekend to confirm. I'll be going with a similar setup the shop was putting together for me (this time with an aluminum block) I am just back to square one again sourcing the parts.... Still kills me that I have already bought brand new LS3 heads, blower, cam, T56 and about a hundred other things I won't see again. I just wish I had gone with a sponsor on here or LS1tech instead of going for somebody with a flashy website and a lot of promises. Now that I'm in TX I got a few great sponsors not too far down the road.

Let this be a lesson to anyone thinking they can get a good deal off somebody found on ebay!!! (unless there are people here to confirm they are legit)

[Buryingthesun]

Saweeeeeeeeeeeet

[rickpaw]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the machine shop. That really sucked. Hope there was some recourse. Glad to see you're moving forward with the build. Wish I were closer.

And Thank You for your service.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

As of yet, no recourse with the shop... But my insurance company is trying to go after them right now and if that doesn't work out I have already spoken with a lawyer... I just would hate to go that route... It just really frustrates me because I have been a car guy for 20 years and am so used to running into nothing but the best people and businesses (classic domestic only cars of course... imports is a whole other ball game). Everyone I've seen before just has the business for the love of the hobby, never met anyone who is out to screw people over trying to build the cars they love.

As of now, I am back working on the body. finishing up the mods this weekend and I have an appointment with the media blaster in 2 weeks. The guy I bought the car from had already done some bodywork to the rear quarters and firewall and then primed it with PPG K36... SInce that 2k primer does nothing to keep moisture out coupled with the questionable bodywork on the firewall and floors I had to fix, I want to get it back to bare metal just to be sure. Also, working to get the rest of the parts collected for the motor... still looking for LS3 heads, ecu, wiring harness, and also searching for the best machine shop to take the LS2 here in Texas to get it worked over with forged pistons. Wish me luck!