1968 DSTRYR Camaro

[ADiCarlo]

I was talking to some guys at SEMA and they said I should starting posting my build log here on my 1968 camaro. It's been about a year and a half so I'll try to catch up as quickly as possible.

So in June of last year after coming off of building and working on two import cars I decided it was time for another muscle car.


I finally got a decent job and had some income and seeing that I already had a 68 Fastback ten years ago I thought why not do a first gen camaro seeing it's on my bucket list of must own cars.


Originally I thought I'll do some quick fixes and get it up and running... man was I wrong. A couple hours on here and seeing coil over set ups, built LS motors, 335 in the back.. ITS LIKE A FAT KID IN A CANDY STORE.


*I would also like the thank the Vengeance Camaro as it haunted me wherever I went because of all the press*


Out went the window of a basic build and on came the onslaught.




So with a buddies trailer and some saved up cash I picked up a camaro shell that was relatively clean but was pretty much that - just a shell.


This is still in the sane days before ProTouring/Lat-G filled my head with none sense and convinced me that this was a good idea lol:

[ADiCarlo]

Once we got the car home we cleaned it out and really got a good look at it.

To start someone had attempted a half assed smooth firewall which would need to be fixed and the trunk pan and trunk lid brackets had been cut out.

Also a engine front mount had been welded to the subframe and it looks like some used square tube to notch the engine cross member. Well that's going to have to go.

Just an idea of what were working with.



Here's my buddy helping me tear down the car.



Once the car was stripped it was time to get the car blasted. While at the blaster I met a welder that was working on concourse cars and decided that out of everyone I spoke to he could do the best work, was passionate about muscle cars, and work with me on getting this done right.

So instead of a factory firewall we decided on doing a road race firewall out of 18 gauge steel and really tie it to the body for better rigidity.

Us dropping the car and parts off:



Once blasted while we faced the issues listed about the car was pretty clean with a solid floor pan. The only additional issues were a stress crack near the passenger rear window and the fender lips were a little rusted out.

Out of blasting:

[ADiCarlo]

From the sandblaster it went to the welder where a new road race firewall was to be installed. Seeing we were going full custom we mounted Wilwood drop pedals and braced the wall to handle the force of extreme braking during track runs. A special cove was built into the firewall to give us more accessibility when working on the trans and additional metal was added for down bars.

Now for pictures:

How it started:



A special buck was made to hand shape the metal:



Some fitting



Mid progress bracing



Getting it in place



Notching the floor to allow better pedal movement



Pretty much on



Money shot

[blade]

Nice work so far!

[Hotchkis]

Seems like you're off to a good start. Look forward to the progress!

[ADiCarlo]

Seems like you're off to a good start. Look forward to the progress!

Thanks guys - all the new metal in the car is 18 gauge cold rolled steel and some 16 for bracing.


So originally I bought the car with the following issues:

1. Firewall
   Trunk pan
   Trunk lid brackets
   subframe
   windshield

After sandblasting we discovered that the fenders had a good amount of bondo on them and that it would be better to buy new fenders. We also discovered that someone had rolled one of the fenders pretty badly to add a 1/2 inch of additional clearance on the passenger side so that would need to be squared away - plus the lips had started to rust all together.


So the list turned into:

1. Firewall
   Trunk pan
   Trunk lid brackets
   subframe
   new fenders
   quarter lip repair
   windshield

To get all this squared away we put a large order into AMD for fresh metal and it arrived like a christmas package to the welder!





While all this was getting taken car of I was on the hunt for drivetrain/suspension and came across a hybrid LS motor for sale that was used by Hot Rod Magazine to do a cam test then shelved and never put into an actual car... I had to pick it up.

[ADiCarlo]

While the firewall was being worked on I knew I needed to get my suspension squared away. Original I thought of just doing a factory restore with some after market arms and brakes for the front and a new mono leaf set up. A neighbor of mine had done the same to his firebird but he had been working on the car for over 10 years so I thought it might have been a bit out dated even though he swore by it.

So after months and months of research reviewing stuff from Speedtech and Chassisworks and DSE I settled on the DSE Quadralink.

Why?

Well I liked Speedtech's set up but the idea of a torque arm running down the center of the car bugged me. Chassisworks stuff is nice but I couldn't find more than 2 cars running the set up and I'm big on hearing what customers say about a product and not ones that are on the sellers website.

Then DSE.. more expensive then the rest but multiple people have used the set up. Its customizable and upgradable when it comes to the shocks which are made by JRi which are the same people from Penske. And I found plenty of real world reviews and test video... even Jay Leno's reviewed it lol

At the same time the Quadralink would be installed my welder made a very valid point. My trunk is cut, the car is sandblasted... there is absolute no better time to mini tub the car. So after some careful consideration and weighing the cost (even throwing up a forum thread to discuss it) the car will get mini tubbed with a DSE Quadralink set up.

After 2 months of waiting the parts came in.

[ADiCarlo]

Now that we had a good portion of the parts in house it was time to move to the back of the car.

Modification list for the rear:
Road race package tray and close out panel
DSE Mini tubs and Quadralink
Custom trunk pan and Fuel Cell
Speedway Engineering Full Floater Rear End
New trunk hinges and mounting brackets

To start a custom package tray was made and and re-enforced with a dimple die back brace:



The factory tubs were also cut out and the mini tubs fitted for clearance and fit against the tray



Once installed this is the view of the dimple die brace from the trunk side. I think it looks pretty nice and a perfect detail piece.



With the package tray made next up was mini tubs and the DSE Quadralink mounts.

Nice clean fitment of the tubs and getting the center cross member in place. These are still in progress shots, everything has been re-enforced and closed out to make a really solid rear structure. Once the car is done with welding I'll take some detailed shots of the bracing.





Seeing that the floor was cut out the welder went ahead and made a solid piece forward of the cross member to weld to the factory sheet metal and add further bracing in the rear.



Nice shot of it almost complete:

[ADiCarlo]

With the package tray in place, the tubs done, and the cross member brace done, next was a close out panel. Not sure about most autocross event rules but having a close out panel between the gas tank and the passenger cabin is always a good precaution.

So a square panel was made and mocked up to fit between the package tray and cross member:



Once in place the final fit was really nice but we still had space between the tubs and panel:



So custom fill in plates were made to complete the look and the whole thing was welded in place - came out great!

[Motown 454]

Damn you guys do great work!

[ADiCarlo]

Damn you guys do great work!

I wish I could take credit but it's all my welders skill and ability.

Plus hours of just staring at the car and phone calls going back and forth with ideas lol

[Motown 454]

At least you have peace of mind seeing work like that being done. Looking good!

[ADiCarlo]

At least you have peace of mind seeing work like that being done. Looking good!

Haha definitely.

In the mean time while all this welding work was being done I also picked up a square set of Forgelines 18x10's that I'm going to re- lip once the DSE sub frame lands.

[ADiCarlo]

So with the rear tubs done and the wheels purchased we measured the wheels against the tubs and that gave us a 55.5 axle length when measuring from one WMS to the other. I called DSE and they said that there should be at minimum 1 inch between the rim and tub so we add 2 inches to the axle length for either side making it 57.5 - this gives us a 4 inch lip in the back when widening the wheels to 12 inches (currently 10 inches with a 2 inch lip).

We also measured the distance from the fender lip to the rim and 1 side gave us 3.5 inches and the other gave us 4.0 inches due to one of the lips being rolled. Once the trunk is done we'll move to stage three of the car which is tunnel modification (if needed) once the sub frame arrives, widening/fixing/evening the rear fenders, and any type or roll bar.

So at the minimum we had 3.5 inches of clearance - 1 for inner tub the wheel clearance - 2 for going to a 12 inch wheel leaving a half inch of clearance from the outer edge of the wheel to the factory fender lip. We'll be reviewing later if we want to go wider and if there are any obstacles we may hit.

With the axle size and math figured out I got in contact with Ken Sapper at Speedway Engineering and we went thru the process of building a custom floater 9 inch rear end with the DSE brackets welded on. Starting with choosing the style of the center section so it keeps the fluid where it needs to be, custom bracing and baffling from the center section to the axle tubes, 31 spline axles, and mod light hubs in 5x4.75 - I already have a braced iron center section and Eaton True Trac. This thing is built tough and light...


The housing:


The hubs:

[ADiCarlo]

The DSE subframe in it's full glory:




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[ADiCarlo]

It's definitely been awhile since I've updated this thread and I'm going to try and catch up on all the work that's been going on up to this point pretty quickly.


At this point in the build we ordered and received a Detroit Speed subframe. It was a hard decision but I think the right one... I had to break it up into payments with Mike at Musclerodz and really thank him for working on this with me.

Also I ran over to JCG and picked up a 22 gallon Fuel Safe fuel cell that he had for sale. It originally came with the Blu Ballz Camaro but was never used or had gas in it.

When I showed up he was working on a deep purple Challenger with a Mast motor in it. He was incredibly nice and took us for a quick tour. We got to check out Blu Ballz and I was just in awe.

There are some really talented people working on these cars and you can just appreciate the work they put into them.

Pictures to come...

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Lots of nice parts going on there

[5500rm5]

Great work. Looking forward to see this puppy roar!

[TheRealDSTRYR]

me too

[ADiCarlo]

me too

Hahah awesome name!!

Sorry for not updating more regularly holidays and work has killed a lot of my time. But here's some more progress on the car:


To start we had a cut out panel on the driver rear window lucky enough Vince at Meanstreets Performance saved the day and was able to provide an OEM piece of just the cut out so I didn't have to buy the entire sail panel.

Here's the installed piece all lined up and pretty.



We also picked up a 22 gallon Fuel Safe fuel cell from Chris Gonzales over in Oxnard and are fitting the tank in the trunk. The goal is to have it not show from the lower valence for a clean look and to allow as much ground clearance when the car is staged for track use. Also the tank support will run from one rail to the other for added rigidity and bracing.

Starting with measurement of the tank and trunk we got our main box support



Clean tig welds:


threaded locks are added to attach the tank to the brace using the 20 + tank cover screws. This thing isn't going anywhere and is legal across all racing sanctions.



Setting the trunk fitment - it's going to be tight.