Belated Introduction: 69 Camaro

[jknight16]

Hey all, I've been hanging around here quite a bit over the past six months but didn't have any great progress to show, and was ashamed of the amount of dust on my car! But this weekend I was able to roll the Camaro out for the first time in over 13 months and give it a much needed bath, so I snapped some pics and thought I'd share with you guys.

I drove this car throughout my Junior and Senior year of high school, then stowed it away in my grandma's garage in Albuquerque, NM for four years while I was going to ASU. I graduated in May 05 and have been working for the past 18 months on improving the build quality of the car while making it stop, turn, and ride better. This car has always been driven a lot and its condition reflects that, but all in all its coming along and I hope i get to drive it a bit before it gets too damn hot here!

Disclaimer: The rear suspension hasn't had a chance to settle yet (will come down an inch or two whether its by settling or by me forcing it down with de-arching ), but it will probably never sit the way you guys usually like it because I think it would look funky with the flares.

Thanks for all the input you guys have provided thus far, I'm excited to contribute to the group.

Jeff K.

1969 Camaro, 408 Small Block, AFR Heads, 700-R4, 9" rear 3.73 gear and Detroit True Trac, 11" rear discs, Comp cams roller valvetrain, front swaybar, SSBC factory style slotted discs w/ pads and stainless braided lines with vacuum power brakes.



Wheels are from Tim at PRRC: Coy's 18", 18x7 in front w/ 4.25 bksp, 18x9.5 rear w/ 5.0 bksp. 245/40/18 front and 295/35/18 rear, Toyo TR1's.

Yet to be installed: Hotchkis front lowering springs, shocks, poly rebuild kit, grille (argh!!), might do rear swaybar that I got with the 9".

Still need: Ron Davis Radiator/Fans, rear shocks, quicker ratio steering box, rear seat upholstery, stereo, some other finishing touches, and eventually a new paint job to get rid of the rock chips and minor scratches etc.

[1971novaSS]

Sweet looking ride! The shade of that window tint is perfect! Not to dark, Least in my opinion. Im not down for limo style on cars.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

That's a very cool and unique Camaro you've got.

[jknight16]

Hahaha, yeah, it's a little different, that's for sure. I'm not sure I would have chosen some of the body features that the prior owner did, but overall I think I still like it.

The car is nice and lightweight. It really helps the braking and handling having the lightweight front end. And the front comes off completely with two big bolts so I can slide the motor tranny out the front quite quickly if need be.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

hey Jeff

the car is nice man, is the front clip fiberglass?
the rear wing is 2nd gen-esque..
how tall is your cowl?

later

Vt.

[jknight16]

Yeah, the front clip is fiberglass and attaches to fittings that are integrated with the part of the fender behind the front tire and up near the cowl. It attaches with flush dzus (??) tabs. The upper section of the firewall is a heavy composite material. The fiberglass is much thicker than most drag cars you'll see with similar tilt front-ends, so it doesn't flop around or look as wavy. I would guess that it's about a 3" cowl, patterned after the old L88 vettes.

To do the rear spoiler they did use a 2nd gen piece then built off of it with fiberglass and molded it all into the trunklid and rear quarters. I'll have to post a shot from the rear of the car, the spoiler is pretty freakin huge, hahaha. One of my friend's used to make fun of it by calling it the whale-tail. Oh well, what ya gonna do?

Used to be a race car, so lucky for me the car came with the scattershields, driveshaft loop, subframe connectors, etc. already installed.

[JEFFTATE]

Cool Car Man !

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

hmm.. gotta get my skateboard out and hit a blunt to fakie on that spoiler..

lol

jk car looks good man

[jknight16]

Hahaha, Thanks Tate!

Yeah, its a pretty serious spoiler. I've always found it to be well suited for a front side varial to nose-grind (hehe, I don't know), but that's just my style. I just can't wait until I can get the rear end down, hoping that the suspension settling will help out but we'll see.

[Y-TRY]

Very cool. The paint doesn't look bad from here. But you next need to take about 6-8" of height out of the suspension. It looks even higher than stock. You'll llove when you get it hunkered down over those wheels.

[jknight16]

Yeah, I think i'll probably be able to take 3-4 inches out of the rear, but like I said, I don't think I'll ever get it down 6-8 inches because the tires will rub. If I had chosen wheels that would allow me to that far down without rubbing, then I would have had 3 inches of fender flare outside the rim of the wheel, and nobody wants to see that!! It's a give and take situation really.

For the most part the paint is good, but years of daily driving has resulted in rock chips and more years of sitting in the garage has resulted in the "mystery" scratches that "must have gotten there by themselves."

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

ahahha "hunkered down"

[zcrz]

just let a little air outta the rear shocks

[jknight16]

Hahah, Hell yeah!! This car actually used to have 'em

I had new springs installed years ago and had a couple small leafs added to keep the rear "pro stock" style tires from rubbing, so they need to come out now. Too bad I didn't think about it before I got everything put back together again... Oh well, I needed to loctite some more things anyway... I guess.

[jknight16]

Lesson learned #328...Tighten all of your u-bolts on the rear end AFTER you take it off the jackstands and put the weight on the suspension, not before... Cause if you don't... you'll end up with the sweet air-shock look like I had!!!

The more you know....