Updates to the LM7 67 Camaro

[LM7_67]

My car started off mostly stock and original, but it eventually got the 5.3L LM7/T56 combo (that thread can be found here: http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/conver...l-lm7-t56.html ), full Hotchkis suspension, and Lee Manufacturing steering box. For 3 years the car looked like this:


But with Super Chevy Phoenix and the Duel in the Desert event approaching, I decided to make some radical changes to improve performance on the autoX course. That is where this thread picks up: the modifications that led up to the Duel. Speedtech Tubular upper control arms, base-C6 front brakes from Kore3, L&H Kustoms billet hubs, and 275/40/17 NT05s all the way around. (Yes, it is possible to run a 275 on the front of a stock subframe Camaro with the right combination)

First step, get stuff out of the way!


I’d like to thank David Pozzi for this idea. I saw it in one of his posts years ago and decided to give it a try since I didn’t want to see what a pickle fork would do to my aluminum spindles. It worked like a charm!


Old vs. New. This illustrates exactly why I switched to the tubular arms: tire clearance. Without that bend in the leading tube it would not be possible to fit the 275s.


The new UCAs required very minor clearancing of the mounts with a grinder. So much for having a 100% stock subframe. Passenger’s side (driver’s is about the same):


Everything’s back together and ready to go. I also spaced the steering arm away from the spindle at this point with washers. After an alignment, it was ready to go on to the next phase!


I was originally going to use turned-down drums hubs for the Corvette brake swap, but after reading a couple failure stories, I decided to go with billet aluminum hubs. The L&H Kustoms hubs came with ARP hardware and billet grease caps.


These should definitely hold up better than the originals.


Old brake components removed:


Conversion bracket from Kore3 in place. This piece required very minimal grinding on the back to clear the larger geometry of the L&H billet spindle.


New hubs and rotors in place. These are just a little bit more performance oriented than the stuff sitting on the ground there.


Calipers bolted up and the brakes complete aside from swapping the master cylinder to one with a smaller bore, replacing the proportioning valve with an original style one that could be “gutted,” installing the adjustable proportioning valve under the floor pan right behind the driver’s side rocker panel, and bleeding the system.


With appropriately sized adapters bolted up, I could set the car on the ground and bed the new pads/rotors.


There ya have it: 275s all around on a stock-subframe first gen.


First test drive was approximately 2 hours before we left for California to meet up at Spectre for the Duel in the Desert event. The brakes performed without issue throughout the drive/event. Aside from changing the fuel pump at 7am Saturday morning, the weekend went off without a hitch.


Thanks for checking out my thread! That’s all for now. I may post up some old modifications if I feel the posting itch before new mods happen.

[Bryce]

Cool post. If I owned a Camaro I would do the same thing! Super Sleeper

[Vicinity]

Nice, almost the same thing I've done. My 275's clear the front without the upper control arm modification.

[zuess4u]

LM7 67....

nice up grade...keep in touch for further events, we will have to meet up sometime. The color on your car is Butternut?

[LM7_67]

LM7 67....

nice up grade...keep in touch for further events, we will have to meet up sometime. The color on your car is Butternut?

yep, butternut yellow, let me know what car shows you make it out to

Nice, almost the same thing I've done. My 275's clear the front without the upper control arm modification.

ah, the inner hoop of my wheel hit the UCA. I'm ok with a little rubber on frame contact, but aluminum wheel to steel contact is not ok

[Vicinity]

yep, butternut yellow, let me know what car shows you make it out to


ah, the inner hoop of my wheel hit the UCA. I'm ok with a little rubber on frame contact, but aluminum wheel to steel contact is not ok

Weird. I'm running the exact same wheel and brake setup, with a 1.75" spacer.

[LM7_67]

Weird. I'm running the exact same wheel and brake setup, with a 1.75" spacer.

whoa, if I ran that thick of a spacer, my wheel would be in direct contact with the fender lip even just sitting still, at least on the passenger side

[zuess4u]

I was thinking we would use this color, but just not sure yet. The 67 is far from being on the road, but ironic my fathers 69 is set up with the same motor and different trans as yours, I scratched my head when he said he was going to run a carb on his motor....but it makes some sense to me now.

[PhillipM]

Nice work man. The first time I saw this car was at the spring Goodguys event. Looked like you had the autox down! I was in our Grey 65 Olds.

[Pontiac Chris]

Hey Tom, thanks for letting me ride shotgun round the autox at Duel in the Desert, your car runs awesome! Love the upgrades, exactly what I want to do to my Firebird. How does it handle compared to the stock spindle/control arm?

[LM7_67]

Time for updates! :D

After a few SCCA SoloII events, a couple GoodGuys AutoX's, a Super Chevy AutoX, and RTTC 2, I decided I needed more. After getting home from SuperChevy Vegas, I started taking the front end of my car apart. The goal is to clean up the sheet metal and make the whole engine bay look good. Also, I'll be finding another subframe to perform some serious modifications on. Thinking coil-overs and even more tire clearance. The goal was to have the car back together for the Camaro Performers Summer Jam in August. With that event possibly not happening, that's still approximately my goal. Can't stand going more than 3 or so months without driving my car Currently, all the sheet metal in front of the fire wall is apart, some pieces already at the blasters. I hope to find another subframe next week so I can start the modifications to that. I'll keep this thread updated as I make progress. For right now, just time lapse steps of front end disassembly.

The easy stuff:






This is about where I started thinking, "oh ****, am I ever going to get it back together?!"


This is exactly 1 week after I began the tear down:


Open wheel racing, anyone?


And when I was going through the pics on my camera, I found these gems from right after RTTC II.

After I covered my car with mud Saturday morning spinning out on the road coarse, I hosed it off and I thought I got most of the mud off. But I was wrong. This stayed with me all through the rest of Saturday, all of Sunday, and a 400 mile drive home.


This is what happens when you don't have enough static camber.


Hopefully more updates in a few days

[Chad-1stGen]

Cool. Looking forward to following along!

[Nessumsar]

Very cool man. Keep us posted!

[LM7_67]

Two weeks after starting this project. Only thing holding the engine and trans in are the motor mount bolts. Just need to convince one of my friends to lend me their hoist for a bit so I can get them yanked. Then on to find another subframe and break out the cut off wheel and welder

[mjds]

love that color it keeps things underrated, little bit more of a sleeper keeps people guessing!

[LM7_67]

Well, after experiencing computer issues, camera issues, and starting a new job, I'm finally posting updates.

Yanked the engine/trans out a few weeks ago. Freakin' easy with nothing in the way



Then I scrubbed down the firewall and cowl area to get it ready for paint.



After removing the heater box and blower motor, I was able to reach inside the cowl vent area. This is what I found. Car's going to be faster just from the weight savings!



And this is where I'm at now.



Inner fenders and brackets should come back from the powdercoaters tomorrow. Then it's time to order up some parts and get to work.

[Chad-1stGen]

Sweet!! Are you going to clean up the subframe while you are at it?

[Z06killinSBF]

Looks good!! What paint did you use? I used the duplicolor bed liner on mine and it worked wonders!!

[LM7_67]

Sweet!! Are you going to clean up the subframe while you are at it?

oh yes, the subframe will look quite a bit different when I'm done with it

Looks good!! What paint did you use? I used the duplicolor bed liner on mine and it worked wonders!!

just Rustoleum 7777, satin black

[LM7_67]

woo! finally more updates!

Got the inner fenders and the main brackets back from the powder coaters a couple weeks ago. They're just sitting waiting to be installed.


After 5 weeks of waiting, I finally got the subframe from the junkyard. They still hadn't gotten it pulled when I came down for the 3rd time and was like "wtf guys". To make up for it, they gave me all the suspension bits that were on the sub for free. "uhh, thanks, I'm not going to use any of that stuff anyway."


Subframe all cleaned up and ready to go. Also got some nifty LCAs, but I believe those will be modded as well.


Currently waiting on a package from Speedtech and for the weather to cool a bit so I can start cutting up the sub. Hopefully most of the waiting game is behind me at this point. Now hoping for a mid-Sept finish date.