Angry Johnny's 69 Camaro Build

[Rodknock]

I guess I never started a build thread for my car, so today seems like a good day to start.
For me it's very slow progress. I bought the car in 2012, while I was living in WY, and didn't start doing anything to it till 2016. Then I moved to a new house up there, and lived a couple of years, then ended up moving to AZ in July of 2018. Been busy working and moving it seems, so now time to focus. I won't bore you with anymore of my life. Lets get to the Nitty Gritty.

Bought the car off of Ebay. Drove to El Paso TX from WY to pick it up. I only have one pic of the car from when I bought it, since my other computer crashed, and I haven't been able to get the pics off of it yet.

I'll start off with a few basic pics and some as I have time.

Ebay pic of car, and what it looked like when I bought it.

These first few pics were all done around March of 2016, in the middle/end of winter, in my 1 1/4 car garage. It was cold, but not too awful snowy at least.









Finally got off my arse and started doing something.











Next up was the rotisserie. Working in a small 1 1/4 car garage. I would never build a car without one again. Makes life soo much easier. Especially when you're old.























I have since, changed the mounting on the rear, to use the old spring shackle holes.

[Rodknock]

This was an exciting day!! The day all the stuff from Heidts showed up, along with the DSE mini tubs. Thanks to the members here for recommending Randy Johnson over at D&Z customs. He honored the price he quoted me, even though I didn't order it for over a year, from the first time I talked to him about it.

[Rodknock]

Next on the list of things I did, BACK THEN, was clean the bottom side of the body, to get prepped for trunk pan replacement, and what ended up being a top of dash replacement also. Even "rust free" cars, have rust in hidden places.


Some of the rust holes in the trunk. Way too many to weld shut.











Here, I used my plasma cutter to cut away a portion of the trunk pan, since there was rust in it, and will be replaced.








After blasting







- - - Updated - - -

Also blasted the interior and had to replace the top of dash. I was just going to patch it, but it was recommended to replace it. Glad I did, because the rust under it was bad.




















Measure twice cut once, ok, measure 3 times

[Rodknock]

Next on the list is mini tubs. These are DSE tubs, and are very nice units. Having the trunk floor out made the job WAY easier. DSE has a couple of videos on their site showing how to install them. I had never done them before and it took roughly 40 hours to do.

[Rodknock]

Next after the mini tubs, is the trunk pan replacement. I don't remember when this is, but it was probably spring of 2016 when I did this. Shortly after this, I did the firewall, then I moved to a new house, so there was a long break in the action.


I must have taken this thing in and out 100 times before I was satisfied with the fit

[Rodknock]

This was the last major thing I did before I moved to a new house, other than bolting on the suspension to allow me to move the car.


Fully smoothed out firewall. I was just going to weld everything up, but decided this would be easier. Now I need to figure out my hole for the steering column


Simple as drilling out the spot welds, straightening out the trans tunnel flange a bit, then test fitting a flat piece of sheet metal in place.

[Alwhite00]

Looks great so far, keep it up man.

[Rodknock]

Looks great so far, keep it up man.

Thanks brother!!

[Rodknock]

Pre assembly and test fit of the Heidt's Pro G IRS system.






































Subframe connectors

[Rodknock]

Well, now things slow down, due to a move from the little house we were in with a 1 1/4 car garage, to a house we bought with a 30 x 45 pole barn building Only thing is, I stopped progress on the car to try to re-do the shop, and basically wasted time and money, I could have put towards the car



You can see a little of the shop in the background





Poor car, just siting there all neglected and stuff :(





I had big plans for this shop. Office, spray booth, insulated, heated. Almost got it finished, when we ended up moving south from Wyoming to AZ.

[Rodknock]

In this extremely short episode, we have the move from WY to AZ. I hope to God, I never move again. Happy wife, happy life... This move happened in July 2018. Nothing like moving to the AZ desert in the summer. Oh, and lost the tranny in the truck, 3 days after we moved to the new house,
So ended up buying a new truck




I didn't even make it 30 miles out of town and that tarp was history, then on top of that it stated thundering, lightening, hail, rain... It really sucked








To the new digs. At least it's a (mostly) finished shop. 3 car size, and a lift. What's not to like!!

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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]

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]

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.