Alaskan Newbie with a 1st gen Camaro

[AKlowriderZ71]

New to this forum, been lurking around for a week or so, reading up. Lots of very cool cars and very cool builds going on here. I've already got some questions and ideas for my own project.

Not new to going fast, I've got a 4x4 Silverado that ran 12.3 in the 1/4 last season, shooting for 11's this year. Not too bad considering she weighs in at over 5600 pounds.

Here's the new project. Just got it home on Saturday. It's a '67 Camaro, in pretty good shape(I think). Gonna start with some cleanup and interior work, wiring, then a little body & paint work it needs. All of this will happen over the next who-knows-how-long, with the help of my fiance. She'll be working along side, getting grit under her nails, right along with me. She's the one that found the car, and made the offer to purchase it. It wasn't even for sale, just a project that had gone by the wayside.

Enough of the long post, pics to follow! Any questions or suggestions, I'm all ears. I'll be asking plenty of questions myself as things go along. I'm new to all of the body/paint stuff.

[anmobley]

Welcome. I finally have someone in Alaska that is building another. I have been doing a 1969 Camaro frame off pro touring for the past year. Now about 30 thousand deep and not even quite done. I am down on the Peninsula. It goes to paint on June 1 and will be in the shop for the next month and half. I have tubbed out the rear end, narrowed down 12" Moser, Speed Tech subframe. All I can say is wait for the shipping cost on stuff to Alaska. It eats into your budget. I would say get you a Classic Industry Catalog and start pricing parts. I have a rep in Soldotna that can get you parts and are shipped on his stock order at a very reduced rate.

[AKlowriderZ71]

If you ever get to Wasilla, look me up. I've lived here for the last 20 years, I own & operate my own shop, Roger's Autocare. We get alot of older American iron here, and alot of forced induction late model stuff too. I don't get to the peninsula too often, but I do once in a while. Here's the shop & some customer cars.

[AKlowriderZ71]

Here's some of the interior challenges we have to work with. It must've gotten a 70's-80's custom interior done, velour diamond tuck & roll.......yuck. I think I like original interior better.

Previous owner's instrument panel upgrades, not too keen on these either.



So far, the seats are out, the old Pioneer TRX-I6 speakers are out of the rear deck, and all of the trash is out. The unfinished wiring is all over the place. In the next couple days, will remove the seatbelts and carpet so we can inspect the floorpans. From the bottom, they look great! Already been searching on here about how to handle surface rust, plenty of POR 15 posts and threads. Seems that may be the way to go. Here's more pics of what we are dealing with here.

[lowjeremy]

Welcome! As for the car, build it then throw some spiked tires on it and go ICE RACIN' !!!! YEEHAAAAAAAW!!!!

[1red68]

welcome!!! i was up in Anchorage for 3 weeks last fall doing some repair work on a boat. made a day trip up to Wasilla, nice country.
thats a nice project. I'm looking forward to the seeing the progress.

[pro-touringAK]

welcome from another Alaskan. I'm down in Juneau and there is a small grouping of hot rods here. My car is a 68 mustang coupe that has coil overs in the front Mustang II front end 392 stroker with retrotek fi, TKO 600, and other things here are there. Shipping is a bear coming up to AK. Makes the project go slower.

[AKlowriderZ71]

Nice to see a couple of other Alaskans on here. Once I start to make a little progress on the car, I'll start a project update thread. Nothing new to post as of yet.

[CruizinKev]

welcome aboard! nice project over there! good luck with it

[SOM1969]

nice rides!

[anmobley]

Before



After

[AKlowriderZ71]

Funny how life works & how situations change...

Right after my last post here in 2011, our house sold & we had to pack up and move out. Only to find out that I didn't qualify for a mortgage on a new house because I was self employed, and my business was less than 3 years old. So we had to RENT for the first time since 1995......

The car went into storage, in the back of our 40 ft connex, and stayed there until we moved to Wyoming in July of 2013. And once we got here, lack of parking space & no garage forced it into storage again.

A few months ago, I decided to bring the car home & work on it in the driveway. New interior package purchased from Classic Industries has been waiting over a year now, so why not?

The rust in the right front floor had gotten worse, so I replaced that floor pan. Had to do some rust correction on the inside of the roof and pillars. My wife & I installed a new headliner, it turned out pretty nice. She's good at helping me with this stuff. New sound deadener & carpet is in the car too. Today I started taking apart the seats for new foam & upholstery. Much bigger PITA than I expected, but it's all new to me.

And today, I heard the engine run for the first time. Today was a good day, and hearing that engine fire up so easy & run so smooth & quiet has really got me fired up to finish the car. It sat so long without being turned over that I have been worried about it. Anyways, enough rambling. Here's some pictures and video from 2011-2015.....


Coming out of the connex.


Leaving Alaska headed for Wyoming.


Pulling out of storage in Wyoming. Still covered in dirt from the Alcan Highway. :(


Later the same day, ready to cut out a floor pan.


No turning back!



Fitting new Goodmark floor pan.



Butt-welded, seam sealed, and primed.


Painted and ready for sound deadener & carpet.


Fitting the carpet. Ignore the dirty foot & knee prints. They will clean up.

No headliner pics yet, forgot to take one.

And here's an idle video. Electric fuel pump is disabled until I can flush the fuel tank on Friday. That's why we're filling the carb with the bottle....
First startup after several years in storage. - YouTube

[AKlowriderZ71]

^^^ That is NICE!! Do you have a build thread?

[TheJDMan]

Nice work on the floor, have you started a build thread? What is your goal for the build, street car, autocross, track days? Where in WY are you located now? Did you open another shop? I have to believe there is more nice driving weather in WY than AK.

[AKlowriderZ71]

When I get a little further along, I should start a build thread. It's going to be a street car that will see the drag strip once in a while, just for fun. When I get closer to painting the car, I'm going to strip it to the bare shell, install the mini-tubs that I have in storage, and redo the subframe connectors. Maybe more. Not much autocrossing happening near me in Wyoming.

I didn't open another shop here, and it has been nice to step away from the auto repair industry. Working on cars is starting to be fun again. We are in the northwest corner of the state, lots of good hunting, fishing, camping, etc.