Long Awaited 68 Camaro Build

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

MUCH Overdue Update. The last month and a half has been pretty crazy. Had to pack everything up to move to GA where I am taking a 6 month long course. Sad, because my wife isn't able to be with me and will be staying in TX, but at least it gives me a LOT more time to work on the car!
Before leaving I did finish up the upper dash panel. I sprayed it with epoxy and used weld through primer in the weld areas. I used 2 part seam sealer instead of the rope seal that was there origionally. I talked to a local restoration shop and they said thats what they do too.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Now... For the fun part... all of this needs to fit in that truck....


Somehow, it all made it in!

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Made it to GA the next day and the few weeks after that consisted of getting the shop put together, my sister in laws wedding, and finally got back to work on the car. I cleaned up the welds on the underbody to get it ready for epoxy priming and then went to work on the firewall. It needed a lot of work. The previous owner was using it to teach his son some fabrication. It wasn't bad, but I had to cut some areas out and start over and do a lot of cleaning it up (made a lot of friends in the new neighborhood with all the hammer and dolly work), evening it out, and making it all square before I could do the work to smooth it out.
You can see some of the before pictures earlier in the thread.
It took a lot of measuring, test fitting, and trimming a little at a time to get it to fit just right.

After, metal work was done, I sanded/blasted everything down and using two inch masking tape covered the areas I would have to weld to before spraying epoxy primer over the areas that would be covered. The bare metal areas I used a weld through primer

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

A whole lot of tack welds every 8 inches all the way around and around.


This is where I finished up for tonight, still got to finish welding but I think I'll get that done tomorrow night after work.

I couldn't of done it all in a weekend without her help. Anyone know if they make welding masks for dogs? haha

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Wow, I have grossly neglected this thread... I've gotten a lot of work done though and of course about to move again so it is a sprint the next few weeks trying to get some things buttoned up to make the car easier to move... I'll fill in the gaps though from posts from my other build thread I used while doing a lot of the engine fitment.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Mocking up the motor with the low mount AC brackets and compressor from S&P. The brackets are great but I did not expect the Hooker plates to allow enough room, and sure enough they did not. I bought the Hooker plates and headers well before I got the great deal on the blower.
Shot of mockup, even with an area of the subframe cut out for the compressor, it just couldn't go back far enough. I need about half an inch to give enough room between the Compressor and engine stands. The NEW Dirty dingo DD plates are on the way along with a set of Kooks headers and I'll try this again Tuesday when the plates arrive.

I'm curious how they turn out. I talked with one of the guys over there for a pretty long time on Friday and he turned me on to these, they are powdercoated steel unlike the current DD's which are aluminum you see and they also have 4 hole configurations instead of 3. Supposedly, the sliders do not work with low mount AC because the compressor will actually come into contact with them.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Got the subframe notch for the AC finished and the motor fits!!! I did have to sell the original Holley swap pan and go for their new one with the shorter front area but didn't take too heavy of a loss on it since they are actually cheaper than the original. What ended up working for me was the Moroso engine plates along with the S&P low mount AC bracket and a fairly significant frame notch even with the spacing of the 5th gen camaro

In case anyone needs to know how to safely and efficiently widen a lower crossmember opening to the proper width that had been gone a bit out of wack (luckly this was the only measurement on the subframe that didn't come out within spec)


With the subframe work done, I had it powdercoated semigloss black.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Then I went to work to get the underbody of the car done. Got all the old gunk and undercoating crap off and of course found a few other small rust areas that needed addressing but all in all it cleaned up well. I covered it with two coats of SPI epoxy followed by SPI bedliner.

I meant to take pics after I finished prepping the underbody but completely forgot so these are the best I got. I had to remove the pinion snubber in order for the ridetech suspension to fit as well as "gently massage" the ribbed area of the floorpan to clearance the upper bar.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

My wife got me an awesome new welder for Xmas, my first project was converting this old tool box into a pretty slick welding cart.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Front subframe bolted up... Haven't made too many friends here yet so I don't have much in the way of help so I have to be creative with the engine hoist.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Went to work on front suspension. Didn't realize the ridetech spindles came uncoated so I painted them a PPG silver metalic

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Time to marry the LS2 and T56

Pilot bearing in... Flexplate on, progressively torqued to 74lbs. Used new factory bolts.

Diamond Stage 2 clutch on and aligned...
Pressure plate on and progressivly torqued to 52lbs with red loctite.


Bellhousing bolts torqued to 36lbs and the motor and trans are in

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Small issue took about a week to figure out. The engine is square to the frame and level. but for whatever reason the transmission is tilted (Clocked counterclockwise).... It will not sit flush on the ats transmission mount which is perfectly level... I have finagled the engine every which way but pulled my hair out trying to get the trans level and the motor... I ended up pulling the motor and separating the trans just to check the dowels but everything checked out. even out of the car it was obvious the trans was about 3.5 degrees off of the motor. I asked around a lot and found out it is a fairly common issue and not a big deal. I wanted to trans mount to be flush with the crossmember so I used a 3.5 degree pinion shim and it worked perfectly.
Heres what I mean:

Luckily I had a lot of help figuring it out.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Got all the rear suspension in place, set the pinion angle, and centered the axle and then welded on the top arm mounts.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

I completely installed all the rear suspension one more time just to make sure it all still lined up, then pulled the axle housing... blasted and painted... I used 2 coats of SPI epoxy, followed by eastwoods 2k Ceramic chassis black. I hadn't sprayed the chassis black before but it shot just like epoxy out of a 1.5 fluid tip and laid down real nice. I've heard it is pretty durable and I liked the idea of touch ups down the road. Hopefully, the third member arrives on time Monday and I can button up the rear next week.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Front brakes on! these things are sexy... I love finally putting new parts on!!! Especially when they don't require days of cutting, welding, and grinding...


Half way to a roller, got these wheels from a local pick and pull for cheap so I have something to push the car onto the trailer with.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

This week the goal is to get the rear buttoned up and install the front ridetech tru turn steering and try to engineer a way to steer this thing without a column.... Definitely wishing I kept the old one until I got a new one.... Gotta move in two weeks so the pressure is on to get a rolling chassis!

[slammedwhitec5vert]

I admire your perseverance, going to be an awesome machine when your done. Good luck on the move!!!

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Thanks a lot... It's sometimes sad to think my wife got me this car 5 years ago and only in the last 3 months have I been able to actually install new parts I've been collecting since 09. 3 years of that I was overseas so that is a decent excuse I guess but we've moved 3 times in the last 2 years and every time it takes about 2 weeks to pack up the shop and then another few weeks to a month to get the shop setup again. I did a lot of organizing here so I am hoping that makes the move a lot easier not to mention I've gotten so much done in the last 5 months that this time I can actually push the car on a trailer!!! The last 2 times when the body was on casters I had to load it in a Penske moving truck...that's not fun! Haha

I'll be doing my UPS rain dance to ensure the third member arrives tomorrow! Been waiting over a month for it.

[BeerB8AmmoGRITS]

Well, the third member did not arrive today but I decided to get the axle housing and suspension installed in the car so I was still productive. But first I finally found my camera so I took some better pics of the ridetech cradle welded in place since I had a few pm's about the truck bed liner undercoating and how it looked.