Lazarus Camaro project

[boneheadzz]

I havent posted in a while. A bunch has happened since being on here. I lost my dad to cancer. It affected me way more than I expected.

So I sold my side project 79 TA autocrosser to a gentleman in Finland who saw my TA on these pages. He found it on Craigslist and got ahold of me via email. Such a small world we live in now. The short story is he had it shipped overseas without even seeing the car. But he has had it a year now in Helsinki and is enjoying the American car culture and improving the car to much higher levels of detail.







I decided it was time to start on this 69 Camaro I've held onto for 20+ years. I've done nothing to it. Nothing in all this time except collect now out dated parts for it. Always saying I'd fix it up proper when I have the time and money. After dad died, I realized time is running out. And I still don't have the money some of the projects on pro-touring.com use to buy the state-of-the-art improvements. But you can never keep up with the Jones'. So after selling my 79 TA to Mika, I was going to buy the air suspension from Ridetech for my 69.


But I got distracted.




I did something silly and bought a sweet super low mile '15 2SS RS 1LE Camaro. I regret nothing lol.







After helping a friend tear apart his 1,799 mile 2018 ZL1 Camaro and make it stupid fast, he offered up a space to start my project. So we started it.




Loaded up and trailered to Thomp's.


I'm alot farther along than in these pics. These are from December.
I did gather up some money and bought the rear air ride setup from Ridetech. And with some saving and selling of my old school hot rod parts, I bought the front half last week. So I will update this as I go along.
I'm on a pretty tight budget so things will progress as money and time allow like most working people... But the plan is in place. This is more of a bringing back to life project than a restoration. Therefore we named it properly I think.

Lazarus

It will be left rough-ish but hopefully straight, epoxy primered black, while we figure out what then end use will be. No sense in painting it nice just to beat it up on the road course.

Plan is to replace the floor, quarters and rockers. And whatever else happens to need done along the way. To make it driveable and functional. It will have the Ridetech full air ride system front and rear, C6 14" front brakes, LS1 12" rear discs. I'm going to run C6 Z06 Vette wheels until a proper set can be obtained.
Drivetrain was originally going to be a race ready 427 BBC set up for drag racing. And race gas, rough cam, peaky power band, etc. T56. Had this all set up and ready.
After seeing how nice these LS engines actually are, I bought a 2003 15 passenger van. It happened to have a running LQ4 and 4L80E trans combo. I parted it out and saved the harness and motor trans combo. This is the new base line set up for me now. Driveability will be the focus. Then some more power via turbocharger.

I'm mostly doing this so I have an online record of the progress of the journey. It'll be slow like most people's projects. But it will happen.

Bucket list Camaro is alive.

Feel free to comment and make suggestions. I'll try to pop in here and keep it updated.
I have more to add. Just not yet.

Mike

Thanks to my friends for their help over the years and now. I want it known you are appreciated by me. We all share the love of old and new muscle cars. Sharing with like minded induviduals makes it more fun.

[Bill Wellman]

It's nice to see you started on it. Don't worry about keeping up with the Joneses. That car will be beautiful and is a labor of love. I lost my father March 14, 2016 to cancer. That is a hole that cannot be filled or patched. Enjoy the work and then enjoy the drive.

[boneheadzz]

Thanks Bill. My dad passed on June 14th, 2018. Just had the 2 year anniversary. You are right that the hole will never be filled. Miss him a lot. But he would want me to carry on and get this going. He wasnt a huge car guy like me. But he did admire them in general. He taught me what he knew about cars and car maintenence. But my dad was a very impatient man. At age 10 I was a poor flashlight holder (tell me how many of you guys did that with your dad). And when things didn't go smoothly he would yell and throw stuff. And through seeing him like that I learned patience. If that makes sense...


I know I wont keep up with the high dollar builds but just making the car whole again has been most exciting.





Floor pan is just sitting in here in these. We pulled it back out to repair the drivers toeboard and the inner rockers needed some repairs as well.




Factory parts being put in may be a little boring so here are the DSE minitubs and AMD outer wheel houses.







More to come later.

Mike

[andrewb70]

In for updates!

Andrew

[boneheadzz]

Well its been a while since I updated.
Been busy working and working on the car. Trying to be a dad, husband, etc.
Sold a good chunk of my old set up so we've been getting the suspension and brake plan finalized.
Also figured out the drivetrain, fuel system and injection.
Other things like the accessory drive and turbo system are still in flux. But its coming together.
Those updates will come later. I'll try to move along in my progress more quickly.

When I was last on here I had the floor in place and the toeboard patches. A friend came over and asked if we were going to replace the frame rails. I hadn't planned on it until we thought of the power we were planning on adding. So I ordered new rails.



I was talking to another friend about changing these and he asked if the rumor was true. I asked what rumor. He said the replacement rails were thicker the stockers. He was right!




From 18 gauge to not quite 1/8" ! Definitely stronger and stiffer.



Believe it or not, this rail looks crusty but it was only by where the brakeline was clamped to the frame. the rest was not terrible. But since we were in here...






When we started removing the undercoating from the wheel wells you can see how nice the original green was unfaded and protected. I hated the color when I had a '74 Ventura with the same color. Now my taste has changed. I actually like it quite a bit now. It may get painted the original color someday.



Please excuse my frame rail brace. It happened to be the only thing we could find at the time without going for a drive for longer metal bracing.



And at the end we set the cradle in for the ridetech 4 link. Seeing the bracket in there got us really excited. Seeing some real progress helps. But, still a long way to go.

Mike

[srode]

Following - you are replacing much of the things I'm going to do. I was thinking when I do my frame rails I would notch them for the mini tubs before installing them - looks like you're not. Did you consider this and decide not to and if so why?

[TANKMASTERJ]

For anyone doing this I highly recommend Real Deal Steel out of Florida. I purchased my trunk floor from them with frame rails already notched for mini tubs and welded to the trunk floor. I've done them both ways and this was way easier if you need a trunk floor

[srode]

For anyone doing this I highly recommend Real Deal Steel out of Florida. I purchased my trunk floor from them with frame rails already notched for mini tubs and welded to the trunk floor. I've done them both ways and this was way easier if you need a trunk floor

thanks!

[boneheadzz]

Following - you are replacing much of the things I'm going to do. I was thinking when I do my frame rails I would notch them for the mini tubs before installing them - looks like you're not. Did you consider this and decide not to and if so why?

I did minitub the car too. I didn't do it first since I am a bit of a novice with doing serious car repair and actual frame removal. I was worried about placing the rails back exactly where the originals were. I got them in but since most of the trunk floor was gone or out. But I didnt have it tacked in to anything near the rear. So after I started notching the rails, it moved a little on me from the welding in the frame rail caps. So after I got the rails and one piece floor in, I started doing the minitub. Which I'll try to show my pics here in a day or two.

In hindsight, I think a one piece trunk floor would've been a better choice. And like TankmasterJ said about his recommendation, I wonder if the one that is already notched with rails might be an even better way to go. Probably is. But, I was trying to fix things on my tight budget , since I got a decent deal on a drop in trunk center section. I probably spent close to or more than the $300 for the one piece trunk floor, buying all the fill / drop panels and tank supports. But it might have saved a bunch of time and aggrivation using the one piece setup.

[boneheadzz]

So 2 years almost to the day I have an update.
a bunch was done since then and the car was looking good.

This was July of 2021 and not much changed since then. I bought a c10 and started ls swapping it for a work truck.
So fast forward to last month, and the pole barn my friend and I were doing car stuff in caught fire and burned down.
Thankfully no one was hurt or killed. But our cars did not survive.
We lost my camaro, his 78 Trans Am and a 99 Mustang GT.

Like I said it’s been about a month and things are settling down a little. It still hurts to see the loss here but I’m posting this as a warning to everyone.
Check to make sure you have insurance coverage for any car you have even if it doesn’t drive. If you value the car it needs some type of storage or agreed value policy. If it’s a car or associated restoration parts, they are only covered under an auto policy and not homeowners or personal property clauses.
And those with exterior outbuildings double check your coverage on those as well. These are the battles we are dealing with now.
insurance people don’t think or value the things car people do. They didn’t cover old or rare vehicle components like transmissions or spare engines but over valued small things like spray cans, paint, lubricants, cabinets, garbage cans, shovels, lawn equipment etc.
It’s crazy.


I have plans to start again on a project. I can’t quit now. My friends and fellow gearheads won’t allow it.

So in the interest of keeping things a little light, we are having a ‘Weekend at Burnies’ clean up party on Oct 1st if anyone is interested in helping out our cleanup efforts. A bunch of friends and coworkers are coming out to lend a hand, eat some cookout food and plan out next projects.

Later
Mike

[dcozzi]

Damn, it melted the wheels right off the car. Sorry to hear about losing your car. Made me think about my coverage with the things you were talking about. Good luck with the cleanup party and new project, whatever it may be.

[thumper877]

Mike, it hurts me looking at those pics. I can only imagine what it does to you. I was always afraid of tornadoes tearing the garage down. I'm sorry and hope insurance will come through for ya

[boneheadzz]

Hey thanks guys. It sucks for sure. I work at a steel mill so there is a bunch of work to do and we spend many overtime hours there to keep things going. So in your spare time, which is short, you spend time with family and friends. Anything left over you spend on your hobby. So I figure I have two solid years of sundays and v days spent getting the car to where it was. Not to mention the money aspect.
I had all the suspension done with air ride ridetech. New brakes from Kore3 and Rockauto parts. 5th gen camaro Brembos. 6.0 LS motor, 4l80e trans, Action Machine driveshaft, tons of parts and it was close to running. Holley terminator x max and the digital dash that fits this car.
I’ll try to salvage what I can from the car. But it isn’t much. The body was not only cooked but the roof probably fell on it too.
I’ll get more pics when we get the car down from the lift. Someone is donating some time with an all terrain fork lift to help lower the car down. It’ll be a challenge for sure.
I’m hoping the vin and trim tag are still on the shell. We’ve been talking about getting a Dynacorn body. It seems somewhat affordable compared to buying a complete car. The market for 69’s is INSANE.

Thanks for listening to me venting-
Mike

[ICrombie]

Damn sorry to see the car sitting in the burnt out barn like that, any idea on what started the fire? Best of luck starting back up again, and I think you may have to rename this to "Project Phoenix" hahaha

[thumper877]

I think the dynacorn body is the way to go. You would spend about the same amount of money buying a rust bucket and then spend more doing the rust repair and body panels replacement. I have american collectors insurance. They have always been good with me while I was building mine. I just call them when I added parts and told them what I wanted for coverage and a few pics and it was done.

[srode]

Wow, this really sucks - seeing those pictures made me a bit sick to my stomach. It's just tragic, can't even imagine.

[Gmachine1911]

Man, that makes my heart hurt seeing those pics but you’re mindset (and your friend’s) is amazing and I can tell already that you guys will be back in action soon. The “Weekend at Burnies” is awesome. Sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying! Keep your head up, at the end of the day if that the worst that happens to any of us, we’re doing alright…