1967 Camaro Restomod "Herja"

[TOlsenAK]

I'm planning on having it set to have about an inch of wheel gap between the wheel and bottom of the fender which will give around 6-7in of rebound space to travel from what I've measured. Still playing around with the mounting height and may tuck it in another inch or two to give me more wiggle room on the compression travel distance, but i'm still waiting on my bushings for the rear diff to make sure we have proper tunnel clearance for the driveshaft. With that said, the suspension is going to be set up to be pretty tight, so it won't really be a massively comfortable ride compared to a normal car (probably similar to if you took a normal car and put on a set of coil overs on it) but it won't travel a massive amount. keep in mind when I change out the lower control arms it will allow the suspension to travel a little more than what you see for it being completely bottomed out.

Still a lot of work before its finalized in, but for sure a wise word of caution i'll put some more thought into. The coilover set up I have in mind so far will have a fully compressed length of around 14in and a full extended length of around 20.5in. From my estimations (still will be going through and taking more measurements here next week) will probably end up sitting at an adjustment level to have around 2-2.5in of bump travel and 3-4in of droop travel. I'm still doing more research and i might more set it up for a 50/50 split for the travel distance. Though I have read that a good DD rate is 60/40 (rebound/compression) for your suspension setup, so I've got a lot more measuring and dialing in to do.



Lot of what i've been reading shows a lot of coilover setups have around 3.5-7in of travel total, and from a few articles I've read, "Street/strip cars need roughly 40 percent of their shock travel for compression and 60 percent for rebound, as the extra extension assists in front-to-rear weight transfer."

With that said and a 6.5in travel coilover setup, you're looking to have around 2.5in of compression distance and 4in of rebound, which would sit the car about where I want it.

Idea of a few sources I've been looking at that do way better at explaining haha.

http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/cha...t-spring-rate/

I still have a lot to read up on getting my spring rate choice set correctly. As always this project is both me knocking off a bucket list goal and also to learn as much as I can!

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../102407/page1/

https://www.hypercoils.com/spring-rate-calculator/

[TOlsenAK]

Very interested to see what you came up with for a R&P steering setup.

I should have more info and posting here in a few weeks on the steering setup, it seems like a pretty easy task to build mounts to really put any sort of car or truck rack and pinion in, depending on how it goes I may adjust this part of the build, but as it stands it might cost a total of $400 bucks for everything installed from tie rods to the steering column connection.

[TOlsenAK]

Looking like I want to run around a spring rate of around 200-225 for the rear from what I can tell

Used these to get a close estimate:

https://www.ridetech.com/info/tech/s...te-calculator/

https://www.ridetech.com/info/tech/vehicle-weights/

[TOlsenAK]

Been putting some thought more into my current wheel hub dilemma and ways to solve the issue and make life easier for me or possibly any future owner of the car if I someday sell it.

Currently, my rear hub pattern is the S550 pattern of 5x114.3, but the front hubs are still at a 5 X 4.75''.

I know I can get the front hubs re-drilled, the ass pain there though is whenever you get new rotors, you have to get them re-drilled or order custom made rotors if you want both rear and fronts to be the same hub pattern of 5x114.3 (which is what I'd rather go as it opens a lot more options up imo.

The other route I was thinking is just ordering later on some custom Forgeline wheels with the fronts having the Camaro 5 X 4.75'' pattern and the rears at the 5x114.3 but again, different hub patterns and they will require different lug sizes, as the 67 camaro stock is a 7/16-RH and the S550 is a M14 x 1.50. Hex Size: 13/16".

Any ideas for simple solutions? Something like a different hub swap for the front that is a more modern style spindle or hub setup that will mount with the stock upper and lower control arms?

[andrewb70]

Thin bolt on hub adapters that also change the bolt pattern.

Andrew

[Sbeck09]

I just ran into this debate when ordering new spindles on my project with an S550 IRS. I ended up with a Wilwood brake kit on GM A body spindles. The advantage here is the included hubs are duel pattern for both 5x4.5(mustang) and the GM 5x4.75. I just set mine up for the 4.5(114.3) pattern and mustang wheels bolt right up. No redrilling of anything required.

I'm personally not a fan of the adapters due to them not being as strong and adding more load leverage on the wheel bearings. But that is the easiest solution as far as bolting things together.

[TOlsenAK]

Yeah, I have no plans on using adapters of any kind, I want strength. I wonder if the A Body spindles would fit the camaro upper and lower control arms no problem and how much they might push the wheels out vs. the stock camaro setup. For now with the last few days thinking about it, I'm probably going to just revisit ideas here later and just get the rotors re-drilled for 5x114.3 until a later date, its about $90 to have a machine shop do it, which I'll probably get around by just always having an extra set on hand if I need to swap out my rotors later.

[TOlsenAK]

Got a bit of time the other day to thinker on the Camaro, finally installed the front brakes and stole a few larger wheels that would fit over the willwoods other than the 14in wheels it had on the front. Got a little more welding done on the rear end and took a bunch of measurements for getting rear coilovers ordered.

I'm thinking I'll end up going with the ridetech Universal coilovers, single adjustable (not needing much more than that). Will have a 4.1'' Stroke, 10.13'' compressed height, 14.23'' extended with the ride height at 12.5'' extension. I'm taking a guess that for the rear (based off estimations) I'll run a spring rate of 300. Shocks are going to be mounted at a 70 degree angle with an estimated motion ratio of .833 and i'm guessing around 750lbs for corner weight.

I will say im curious to hear or see if anyone has done corner weights on their 67 Camaro, I can always change it out later though easily enough.

I will say i'm glad to have spend the time to help my friend install his lift, it's making things go much faster.



Still waiting on my aluminum bushings for the rear differential and more progress can be made getting everything mocked up so we can get all the measurements and angles sorted out to get a custom driveshaft made. Will have to do more research to figure out driveshaft RPMs at its highest speed and the critical speed for the driveshaft itself. From what it looks like though I don't see having to do any tunnel modifications other than for the shift lever.

On the other note, It will slow down a bit on the Camaro for the next month or so, as my wife and I got a car for her that I will be trying to get painted and fixed up before her parents come visit us in North Pole, Alaska!

67 Mustang Coupe with a 302 and 5 speed, will be painting it performance red with white stripes and updating the brakes, steering, trim pieces and a tune up and she'll be a solid clean driver.

[Sbeck09]

Looking good. I'm super jealous about you having a lift to use!

To answer your question, yes the A body spindles do mount right up.

[TOlsenAK]

I'll have to look into that route, no change in where the wheel is positioned in the wheel well with those?

[Sbeck09]

I'll have to look into that route, no change in where the wheel is positioned in the wheel well with those?

I can't promise you that. It would also depend on the hub you run. If you go the Wilwood route like I did, they have all the measurements displayed right on their website.

[TOlsenAK]

Finally another update, got the rear suspension finally installed, ride height is pretty damn close to where I want it for the rear, now all that's left for the metal work is to weld back in the trunk, weld in the mini-tubs, make a transmission mount, and close out everything and its on to finishing the body work and getting started with paint.



Still need to trim some off the mounts, we built them a bit fat, will probably take another inch or so off them and it'll give me easier access to the adjustment knob.


Math worked out good with all the measurements and calculations for the ride height, will do some more adjusting later but that was the initial installation.


Super happy with how the rear end install turned out, still going to add a bit more bracing between the rear two pillars just for extra strength.


Also got some more work done on the engine, its mostly together and just need to paint the valve covers and its basically there minus the accessories!


Been spending more time on this beast, just about ready for paint. Been a super productive last month or so now that I finished my degree and my extremely patient wife lets me spend quite a bit of time on the cars.

[TOlsenAK]

Finally have the car back after taking a good chunk of the summer to work on that mustang, learned a ton on the paint and body work aspect of it and it turned out pretty well, sold it a month ago for a small profit. Time to get back to working on the Camaro!

[TOlsenAK]

Finally back at the grind (literally) and realizing that I need to redo the mounts for the rear sub frame, but luckily for me i'm starting this summer with a lot more tools at my disposal.

Right now i'm going through and removing the last bits of the old full trunk pan now that I have the new one in, glad I am since everything will mate up much nicer in the end and its really been some amazing practice for my metalworking skills.

The downside though is that after spending a few weeks really looking at the car and taking a bunch of measurements, I realized the mounts were not as square as I would like them. The back two are not mounted evenly for that matter (my own fault for not just doing it myself and having a friend weld it up). Not saying his work wasn't sufficient, but i'm a perfectionist for a final product, and hell, why not tuck it up a bit more for better clearance.

Once I get my current list of tedious metal replacement accomplished, I'll toss the car on the rotisserie I picked up and get the sub frame mounted closer to the body, while still keeping the stock trunk pan and fuel tank mounting.

Current Metal replacement To Do:
-Full trunk pan
-LH Quarter Panel
-Outer Wheel House Panels (LH and RH)
-Trunk stiffeners (LH and RH)
-Trunk Lower side panels (LH and RH)
-Rear Body Panel
-Rear inner valance panel



Hopefully will be doing a better job of posting pictures and progress in the future, last summer I barely touched this thing, but the Mustang ended up with a new home and I got to do a full paint job for the first time ever.

[TANKMASTERJ]

I used real deal steels trunk pan they sell pre narrowed for mini tubs with pre notched frame rails already welded to them. You just install it and then the mini tubs. It worked great

[TOlsenAK]

Yea, I wish I went that route, but with how I reinforced my frame rails it's a bit different so I'd have to probably have trimmed that up as well. Lot of learning going on for sure on this build, but then this started as my first restoration/mod build and has just snowballed into a lot more. I will say I'm miles ahead skill wise from when I started and just now spending a lot of time fixing my initial mistakes haha.

It's all a big learning experience and a really fun journey so far building this car.

[TOlsenAK]

Well, spent the last two days trimming and test fitting multiple times with the full trunk pan, now im slowly added in other panels and temp installing them with Cleco fasteners to see how it all fits together.

Realizing though I need some different clamps (and a lot more of them) to really get the trunk pan installed and fitted right before I weld it in. Also going to pick up/make a few plum bobs to make sure everything is nice and square and make any adjustments needed prior to welding pieces in.



My plan is (once I have it squared and flushed and fitted right) is to weld in the new trunk pan first, followed by the rear lower valance panel, outer wheel wells, inner wheel wells, Quarter Panel, Trunk deck lid panel, and then last the tail panel, checking for as flush as a fit as possible. So far without even making any cuts or trimming anything off (other than the trunk pan) it all seems to fit together decently.


Would love any good tips or tricks to make this go easier though and if anyone knows a good way other than measuring off the frame rails to check for squareness I'd love to hear em.


Trunk pan and left Wheel well put into place, clamped and cleco'd in place.



Test fit of the rear valance panel with the trunk just sitting in (no clamps yet, which will change a decent amount)

[TOlsenAK]

Just used a plum bob and marked on the floor with tape and checked square for the trunk pan against the car. just eyeballing it I was 1/8th an inch off from square, gave it a few love taps and now its right on the money!

Waiting on some long clamps and then will be welding in the trunk pan, Waiting for the weld through primer to dry to weld everything in, so hopefully by next week I will be working on getting the car onto my rotisserie finally and finishing up the left quarter panel.

Any recommendations for those that might read this on what a good way to mount the car to the rear is or have a decent design for a rear mount? not sure if I should use the leaf spring rear mounts or go with bolt on where the bumper mounts go, any pro/con to each style?

[TOlsenAK]

Not too exciting for most people probably, Most of the quarter panels are welded in, the hard part though I've been fighting with has been the new doors, which I hope the results below speak for themselves on the end result (gapping still needs to happen, but they're flush with the quarter panels now!)



Had to go out and pick up a tungsten carbide burr set to make it happen since the new doors were a bit off on where the metal was cut for the hinge mounts. Took a full day of work it all seemed to click together and I've got way better lines than I expected.




What Next hurtle will be the shaved drip rails and fixing that mess. Long story short, the drip rails were rusting and I tried to save myself having to do a roof when I first started and had zero ideal of metal working (i've definately come a long way since I started on my skills) The way it sits though I'm not happy with it and want it to look like it was made that way from the factory, so if anyone who reads this has any ideas or insight I'd love a little help on how you might tackle it. It's not smooth or even and im not sure where to begin shaping that into a nice smooth line that follows the body contours well.

[TOlsenAK]

Made some major progress the last 6 months, took a bit of time off to go get my Commission with the Air Force (now a 2nd Lt) after an 18 year enlisted career.

On to the car though:

Installed a ridetech tru-turn steering package
Installed a Borgeson quick ratio steering box (12.7:1)
Installed a ridetech 4-Link setup
Installed a narrowed Currie 9in (54.75in) rear end with 4.11 twintrac diff
Installed rear brake calipers
Test fit engine with stock engine mount perches and dirty dingo slider LS swap mounts





This week I plan on ordering the transmission package finally to mate up with and make the last few cuts/mods needed to the trans tunnel if needed. Going to go with a tremec Magnum XL 2.66/1.78/1.3/1,0/.8/.63 ratio. Hopefully wont need to do more than cut the space for the floor shifter.