Introducing "TRACKDAY", 1968 Camaro

[sik68]

At 23 years old, I am no doubt, a young gun in the pro-touring community. I know some of you have been wrenching on cars for twice as long as I have been alive! So I know, I'm a boy in a man's hobby. But, I'm too busy working on my car to care! I'm cutting my teeth on my first teardown and buildup.

I've been postponing to introduce my project for a while now; I wanted to make sure I had the guts to take the plunge into the money-pit that is pro-touring. However, If you're looking for a high-dollar, frame-off restification, you've come to the wrong place. Besides not having the money, I really don't have the patience or the desire for a 100 point showtouring car. I'm a battle-scar, rock chip kinda guy, and I hope my car will reflect that. I think the name TRACKDAY suits it well, as I truly intend to rip this car up on the track.

As for the buildup, I hope I have the patience to take things slow and not take shortcuts. Yet, I also hope I have the self-control not to get caught up in the hype of having latest and greatest. I also have a "No Bling" rule (although I think I'll make an exception on those carbon fiber spoilers....mmm).



I'm currently installing the following:
Global West Solid body / subframe bushings
Full Global West Suspension, Hotchkis front swaybar.
ATS tall spindles.

Tyler at ATS has been great getting all this stuff to me

Up next:
C5 brake kit from kore3


Well, stay tuned as I slowly and steadily make this car worthy of its namesake:





Thanks!
Steven

[MrQuick]

looking good Steven.....are you sure its not Tacy Kitty? LOL just kidding..

[SatisTraction]

looks like a great start!!!

one note of caution. that block is a death trap. more then one man has died from a busted concrete block. I see you have some jackstands so i know saftey is on your mind. Just be careful.

[Boulder69]

The block came up in another thread. He indicated it is just holding up the rear end that is not bolted to the car.

[neki67]

Steve,

Great going and I hope you will have lots of fun with it and if you keep the above attitude it will be!

In my opinion this site is most certainly not just about high-dollar cars and also very helpful for people who don't have unlimited budgets (as most of us).

René

[Chad-1stGen]

Welcome to the site. Good to see another 68

[Steve N 69 69 69]

looks like a good start. where in cali are you, just wonderin'.

[whytry]

Yeah where are you at in Cali? Sounds like your going to have a great car there!!!

[sik68]

Hey guys, thanks for all the words of encouragement. I'm from Sacramento, so the car is under tarps there at my parents' place, but I live in Walnut Creek (Bay Area). The bad side is, I'm obviously not around my car as much; but it is good for my wallet as it's much harder to eat, breath, and sleep cars!

[Damn True]

Very cool.

I'm in San Jose.

[Steve N 69 69 69]

cool, I drive through Sacto once a year , on my way to river rafting on the Cashe Creek. You got some good lookin ladies working up there at Joes Crab Shack too.
Have fun with the build up.

[trapin]

Welcome Steven. I will 2nd what 'SatisTraction' said and that you need to get some additional support under that car for safety. We had a long time member on this board who died underneath his truck awhile ago. Very sad. I have lobbied for a General Safety forum on this board but until then I'll keep hammering the safety rhetoric. Great to see another '68 come on board. And welcome.

[sik68]

Alright I have updates!

I completely gutted the front and rear suspension and braking system. Replacing with stuff from Global West and Kore3. Pardon the overwhelming amount of dust and grime that these photos show. I don't have a garage, but I make due.

Here's a shot of everything removed.



When I have time I will weigh these components for other's reference.

Parts have been trickeling in...here's a shot of the upper and lower control arms, front springs, rear Bilstein shocks, and (stock height) solid body mounts:



Here's a shot of the rear-most body bushing being installed into the car. It really freaked me out when I was detaching the subframe from the body.




And back together (Black widow got WD-40 to the face when I realized she was there):



More to come...

[sik68]

Tobin @ Kore3 has been awesome throughout this whole process. He informed me that the brake rotor hub requires that the axle flange be <=6". The flange of the original axles is much larger, requiring a turn-down or a replacment. I chose the latter, going with Superior Axles from Summit (SAG-EV10-1). The flange is 5.8" in diameter, so these axles work. They accept the standard 7/16" press in studs (included in box), as well as 1/2"-20 screw-studs (not included). I chose Moser 2" studs from Summit (MSR-8002). Here's a shot of the studs on the axle, along side the original axle.



I have the pictures of the axle overhaul on a different computer, so I will post a complete write-up on that soon.

Here's a picture of the driver's side axle installed, with the caliper bracket from Kore3. This bracket may look atypical to those who have seen the C5 brackets... that's because this bracket also accepts the in-rotor parking brake setup. Notice how the Global West 5 leaf springs aren't even captured by the monoleaf spring perches and a 1/2" lowering block? That's why I am going to order the DSE multileaf conversion kit.




Staggered Shocks: Notice the bracket is oriented at 9 o'clock. This is the correct position to avoid the shock on the driver's side, which goes behind the axle. On the passenger side of the vehicle, the bracket is also installed at 9 o'clock, to avoid the shock which goes in front of the axle. You must use 2 Left-Hand calipers with these staggered-shock cars so that the brakes can be bled properly.

I love tools. Installing the rear axles gave me an excuse to purchase a dial indicator. Here I am checking the runout



Results:
Driver's side: .003" total
Passenger side: .002" total

I'll do this once again with the rotors on the car...I will expect to see those runout numbers roughly multiplied by 2.

[Nessumsar]

Sweet, another "kid" happy to have a non-show car. You have any plans for an engine?

[sik68]

I am converting over to power steering with Unisteer's Gen II kit and the ATS/Lee 670 box. So I needed a solution for my pulley setup.

Here's my current setup, short water pump driving only the alternator


(BTW the Ron Davis Radiator you see is awesome)

What I needed was a alternator bracket that met several criteria:

1. Run everything from 1 belt
2. Keep the alternator on the driver side
3. NOT a header mount bracket, which I despise
4. Give enough room to allow clearance for the Gen II pump
5. Allow enough "bite" on the PS pump pulley

After much research, I was left with very few options. As I mentioned in my first post, I don't really go for the "bling parts." But I have to admit that I am pretty darn impressed with this alternator bracket I bought. It's a March product that I bought from Summit (MCH-20131). $160 dollars for a bracket isn't exactly my idea of a deal, but I really got what I paid for:



Note the longest bolt in the picture above, used to bolt the alternator up to the bracket. This is the 1/4" bolt that was included in the box, But it is is completely wrong...It should be 3/8" with an allen wrench head (Hex cap) just like every other bolt you see. I don't know how it got in there, but I had to run down to the hardware store to get the correct one.



Also, the shortest bolt you see wasn't correct for my application either! This is the bolt that is supposed to thread into the top hole of the alternator, holding the piece that the turnbuckle mounts to. The thread on the bolt is coarse, while the thread of the alternator is fine (or vice versa, I can't recall). I just simply reused the bolt I already had. These are the type of hangups that I have learned to accept very early in this project.

Here it is on the car:



As you can see, it makes use of the 3/8" drilled accesory holes in the Pro-Topline heads, and provides awesome adjustability with the turnbuckle. It took several hours to install this bracket because I wanted to be sure that the bolts wouldn't bottom out when threading into the aluminum head. I actually bought a bolt that was a smidge shorter and touched it with a grinder, just to be sure. You can see the replacements (in black) HCS that I used to properly install the bracket and alternator. Mismatched bolts build character!

Whether it meets criteria 4 & 5 remains to be seen...I sure hope so.

[sik68]

Sweet, another "kid" happy to have a non-show car. You have any plans for an engine?

Of course! Well I am going to run the 327 for a while, as I rebuilt the top-end just before I put the car on jackstands and ripped all the suspension off it. Eventually though, I have my heart set on building up a 377. The higher it revs, the more beautiful it sounds!

Thanks for your interest!

Steven

[Fesler built]

Steven, welcome to the site looks like a fun project and dont worry about your age we were all young once and the only way to learn is to read up on things and do it yourself. You have a good start and good luck

[sik68]

Steven, welcome to the site looks like a fun project and dont worry about your age we were all young once and the only way to learn is to read up on things and do it yourself. You have a good start and good luck

Thanks Chris. I've had this car since May of 2001, and until now have only "tinkered" with the car. But I consider myself someone who does a lot of research and planning before ever getting my hands dirty, so I think the project is progressing rather smoothly. Even as a shadetree guy, the biggest takeaway I have learned from the high end builders such as your company is to always do it once, and do it right. Because I have cut corners before, and in hindsight have always seen it as a black eye.

By the way, more updates due next weekend, as I plumb the C5 brake system...

[1BADRS]

I think we need a poll of how many users like me and you have to work off our driveway!

Ill mark your thread in my subscriptions so i can come back to it.
Good Job!

You know, the driveway is not so bad!
At least your not sealed up in a hot garage with no air flow!