67 Butternut Build

[WS6]

Good looking parts you've got there. Merry Christmas early.

[sjaroslo]

Finally got all of the missing parts and pieces assembled to work on the rear brakes this weekend. After struggling for a while, and then taking measurements and comparing part numbers, etc., finally came to the realization that Prodigy shipped me FRONT rotors (1.25" thick) on the back of the car rather than REAR ROTORS (1.10" thick)! That .15" makes a difference when you're trying to slide brake pads in, let me tell you. So, finally being fed up with the lack of attention to detail and the generally shoddy assembly work that they did, on top of the dinged-up parts, surface rust and mish-mash of hardware, spacers, washers, etc., I boxed up the new calipers and pads that I had purchased from Summit and sent them back and just ordered the complete damned kit. I think that they did the assembly of the backing plate/parking brake correctly, although guaranteed they did not Red Loctite the nuts as per the directions, so I don't think that I have to disassemble any of that aspect of it (which is good because I really don't want to learn how to pull axles), but at least now I'll get to start over with new stuff that looks like it is new.... Can't believe how much experience I'm going to have with safety wire by the time this is all complete. And maybe one of you fine chaps out there might need some of my "never been used even if they sort of look like it" piece parts for a very fair price for your projects....

Should also mention that my brother came down last week to help me install my Rick's Stainless tank, but due to poor preparation on my part, I didn't realize that there is supposed to be a sheet metal screw run trough the "hook" end of the strap (making it in to a positive "loop" rather than an open "hook") and I'm following up to see if Rick's recommend that I use any of the factory-anti-squeak material, as there were no instructions that came with the tank.... So she's got to come back out.

I know the saying is "two steps forward, one step back," but I can't help but feel like "two steps back" all too often. Oh, well, this is the "fun" part, right?

[The Am1nal]

wow, excellent build!

[LUV2XLR8]

Looking at your LS... where or whom makes those black annodized brackets?

[sjaroslo]

Looking at your LS... where or whom makes those black annodized brackets?

Benny, what brackets are you asking about? If you're referring to the front accessories (alternator, power steering), that is the Wegner WAK033R (I think) from Wegner Motorsports http://www.wegnerautomotive.com/ ; I'm not sure that they have it listed on their website, but it is beautiful stuff and I'm looking forward to getting it installed. Also, Casey Wegner has been a great person to work with, very true to his word and responsive.

[LUV2XLR8]

yes, i was looking at the accessory bracket... they look really nice... and machining looks clean... also fitment looks great!.. i will check out their web site... thanks again for the info!!

Benny, what brackets are you asking about? If you're referring to the front accessories (alternator, power steering), that is the Wegner WAK033R (I think) from Wegner Motorsports http://www.wegnerautomotive.com/ ; I'm not sure that they have it listed on their website, but it is beautiful stuff and I'm looking forward to getting it installed. Also, Casey Wegner has been a great person to work with, very true to his word and responsive.

[sjaroslo]

Benny: It looks like Pace Performance might actually have more shown on their web site than Wegner does! It looks like my kit might be called the WAK033-2T, according to Pace:

http://paceperformance.com/i-9053645...ro-finish.html

[sjaroslo]

I have made a few minor steps forward on my build. I have GOT to get re-focused on some plumbing, but in the meantime, I've completely re-done the rear brakes from stem-to-stern and finally got the wind wing handles installed--certainly not an item necessary for getting the car running, but they had been bugging me! Also got my new license plates from the DMV !

I've had a few silly related sub-threads on these topics going on, which I'll link here just to keep everything on the build thread tied together, and I can't say that I'm particularly proud of the speed of my progress, but it is what it is....

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...r-Larger-Studs
https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...on-for-the-Day
https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...al-Ford-9-quot

[icemanrd19]

Sorry to sound like a 10 year old but it almost looks like you have "d*ck" vents in your rotors lol

[KHShapiro]

Good looking build and I've felt your pain in dealing with prodigy and a few other vendors . keep pushing on

[SickSpeedMonte]

Check this out for your brake/fuel line plumbing.

http://www.cunifer.com/

Doesn't rust, and is easy to work with unlike stainless. They have some nice flaring tools, but I have read that this one works very well for much less dough.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Eastwood/Eastw...30564/10002/-1

I use one of these to bend. I actually found it at home depot, and it works very well.

Don't be intimidated by the plumbing. Fabricating hardlines isn't bad if you take your time. It's kinda therapeutic actually. Just use a sharpy to mark where to start the bend, and make a line along the length of the tube on the outside of the bend to point the bend in the right direction. Before you know it, the hardest part will be remembering to put the damn fitting on before you flare the end! ;)

The sharpy comes off with acetone, and you can even polish those cunifer lines if you are so inclined.

[sjaroslo]

I took last Friday off work, and I've spent the last 3 days in the garage bending and cutting lines. I wish that there was more to show for it, but the good news is that the bending is all done! My plan all along has been to cobble together the lines I want in mild steel and then send them back to Inline Tube to be replicated in stainless with all of the correct terminations--I'm definitely closer than I've ever been. Bernie, thanks for the advice and the words of encouragement--I think that if I was doing it again I would have given more serious thought to the Cunifer approach, or even the Dorman plastic route that I know a few of you guys have taken, but for now, for my first build, for this car, I'm going with the stainless.... I don't think that I likely discovered the BEST routes or made the prettiest bends or even came up with the smartest plan, but for now, it is "good enough." I think that I need to tell myself that a little more often. I'm not planning on winning the Riddler Award any time soon, and I even have relatively thick skin if someone ends up laughing at my amateur job, I just want to get it "good enough" to be safe and moving forward and someday actually moving down the road.

So, to recap, my car has an Art Morrison front clip, DSE weld-in sub-frame connectors, and a Chris Alston Chassisworks g-link rear end with a Ford 9" in a Fab9 housing and mini-tubs. Surprisingly, I would say about 70% of the pre-fab, stock 1967 Camaro fuel and brake lines worked just fine. In fact, the brake line that runs to the rear of the car needed no alteration for the part that is under the body all of the way back; only the front part that pokes up in to the engine bay needed to be re-done (I'm also using a Wilwood proportioning valve tucked underneath the master cylinder that definitely alters the geometry). Both ends of the fuel line required extensive modification, but again, the part underneath the car needed no work whatsoever.

It looks like I'll be able to use the stock rear flex line from the body to the differential, and I think I'm even able to re-purpose the stock Camaro brake bracket that is supposed to attach to one of the bolts of the 12-bolt; because the studs on the Ford are facing the front of the car instead of the rear like on the 12-bolt, I swapped the bracket over to the passenger side (so that I could put an S-bend in the hose and take up some slack but still provide enough length to accommodate rear end motion) and ran the short length of hard line to that caliper and ran the longer, over-the-top-of-the-differential line on the driver's side.

Here's what THREE DAYS of work netted me:

Front and rear of the fuel line, front of the rear brake line, left and right rear brake lines, and the line to the "tee" that feeds the front brakes. As I said, I need to cobble the parts that I made on to the remaining portions of the pre-fab lines and send them back to replicated.

Here you can just see the mocked-up master cylinder, proportioning valve, and the line I made that runs from the proportioning valve to the front "tee" for the front brakes:


I will give myself a little credit in that the initial left and right rear brake hardlines that I made were hideous--one of them was in three different parts and the other was a pre-fab line that I started with that was a few inches too long so I ended up with some extra bends and weird shapes to take up slack. I almost did say "good enough" but thankfully I still had some more straight stock on hand, so I took the deep breath, vowed to take it slow, didn't worry too much about how I got the line to bend the way I needed it to bend (since I'm getting them done over) and just went through and re-did both lines--I'm much happier with the pieces that I ended up with....

Like I said, not much to show for three days of work!

[SickSpeedMonte]

Looks good from where I'm sitting! I see you used the sharpy to your advantage

Things take time to do well, especially when you have never done them. If you had to do it again, I bet it would go much quicker. Also, I think that the TV shows and most build threads make things seem a lot easier than they really are because people usually only stop to take a picture when they have something to show for their efforts. That just makes it look like things progress in leaps and bounds.

[sjaroslo]

Oh, yeah, Sharpie city! But of course just when I'm starting to build confidence that I know where my marks will end up while working with the 3/16" line, I started working on the 3/8" line--and that is a completely different animal. Reminds me of the time I visited Switzerland, we were staying in a French canton and as we wandered out and about, and ended up at a shop somewhere, I would repeat "Bon Jour, Bon Jour" over and over in my head so that I could try to sound pleasant to the shopkeeper when we exchanged greetings. On this particular day, I had forgotten that we had traveled to an Italian canton, and when I was greeted with "Buon Giorno!" when stepping in the door, I froze in my tracks.... Don't get me started about when we visited Zurich!

[sjaroslo]

Still need to get the full lines cobbled together, marked, and ready for shipment back to Inline Tube, but that might be my project for tomorrow. In the meantime, I got the flexlines run from the frame to the front calipers, and I flipped the fuel rail around on the intake manifold, so that the input points to the passenger side now. That matches the work I did last weekend on fabbing up the fuel hardline. I also once again spread out the GM engine management harness on the dining room table, this time more or less trying to envision how it will lay out in the engine compartment; I'm beginning to get a better picture in my head! Also asked Speartech to fab up a short Oxygen Sensor extension harness, with the signal wires split out, so that I'll be able to drive my NVU O₂ gauge.... The weather is getting warmer (I know that it is all relative, sorry) and that is definitely helping to get the juices flowing.

Flexline routing (suspension is at full droop)


Intake Manifold before


Intake Manifold after


Harness
Imagine that you are standing at the front of the car, admiring the spaghetti in the engine bay--that's the general layout...
Passenger's Side


Driver's Side


Down the back side (VSS, O₂, throttle pedal and OBDII)

[XLexusTech]

That's Awesome!

[sjaroslo]

Can't believe that I've let 2 months slip by with very little progress to show for it.... My brother did come by a few weekends ago and we pulled the fuel tank, fixed the straps, re-did a little of the plumbing to be more inline with what other vaporworx customers are doing, and made a sizable dent in running the parking brake housings. We have a lot of business and personal travel coming up, so that will cut into car building time, but I really hope to be able to find my second wind and ramp up "production" here with the beautiful summer weather. FINALLY am getting around to shipping off the hard lines to be reproduced in stainless with the proper ends, etc. Can't believe how lazy I've been.

Here is the cobbled up fuel line, in mild steel:


And here is the brake line pattern:


As I've said before, probably 60% to 70% of the stock Camaro lines fit just great--it was just the last few feet on each end that gets wonky with the subframe and the g-link.... We'll be in Boston next week, so seems like a good time for Inline Tube to be working their magic.

[sjaroslo]

LOL! Get your mind out of the gutter, man!

[sjaroslo]

It's hard to believe that ONE YEAR has passed since I started this thread. It was Fourth of July weekend of 2012 when I started on this journey. In the big picture, it seems so very little has actually transpired--certainly not the amount of progress that I had hoped for, but my wife keeps reminding me that it is a HOBBY and it isn't meant to be all wrapped up in a few weeks. Goodness knows I have not been nearly as energetic about getting out there as I thought or hoped that I would be. My brother has been a great assistant and has made the 90-minute drive down to my house on numerous weekends and I wouldn't even be nearly as far along with the build without having had his support.....

After much consternation, I did receive my hard lines back from Inline tube, so they are the next major item to be installed. I'll need some extra help from my son-in-law on that one, I think, and maybe that will come up in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, we've 95% completed the parking brake installation, and I wanted to share with you how I did it, since the Art Morrison folks weren't extraordinarily helpful in providing suggestions that an amateur like myself could follow, and Frank and the Prodigy crew have fallen off of the face of the Earth, and I had been hoping to leverage my relationship with him for some ongoing advice, so in the end, I was left up to my own devices. Right or wrong, this is what I chose to do.

I used a stock 67 Camaro front cable (in Stainless Steel, from Inline tube) and a Wilwood (Lokar) kit for the rears.

In the first photo you can see the cable snaking down from the stock location and crossing under the Art Morrison subframe; I felt like I needed to get inside the framerail in order to have an effective installation.


Here's where I got tricky (as tricky as I am capable); knowing with the stock installation that the front cable is held tightly from moving as it passes through the subframe, I decided to do a similar thing. I drilled a hole in the side of the crossmember mount that was just the right size for the front cable to fit through, so that the collar of the cable was flush against the crossmember. Then I used the same Mickey Mouse clip that the factory used to secure the housing to the hole. It worked really well! I drilled a second large hole at the other end of the crossmember mount to let the spring and the threaded end of the cable pass through, and made it large enough so that it wouldn't bind up upon release.


I bolted the Wilwood bracket to the floor. Now, one of the minor issues that I had run into was that the Wilwood connector blocks were threaded 5/16" fine, but the end of the stock front cable was threaded 5/16" coarse.... what I ended up doing was taking a 5/16" drill bit and drilling out the connector so that it was smooth; I also used 2 connectors to try to improve the grabbing force, since a lot of you guys have commented that the single block doesn't grab hard enough. I used 5/16" coarse nuts on either side of the blocks (which now slide up and down the threaded end) and now I should actually have one more point of adjustability for the entire set up--which may be important as well, since many of you also report that this entire setup doesn't actually work that well, and I suspect that will be the case for me, too, unfortunately.



One of the things that I noticed, that I just don't have time to focus on right now, is that the pedal doesn't snap all of the way back to the fully released position. I suspect that this may be because I put a couple of fairly tight 90* bends in the sheaths as I ran them from the connector block back to the rear wheels. I needed to avoid the exhaust, and I did that by routing up and over the driveshaft tunnel and hugging close to the floor under the rear seat; only time will tell if there are too many bends, and/or if there will be any driveshaft interference (driveshaft is yet another paid-for, Prodigy-promised piece that will never happen...). I decided to use the factory parking brake bracket holes that were in place and found a couple of perfect grommets from McMaster-Carr that filled the bill.



I still need to Dremel off the ends of the rear brake cables to length.

So that's it--not a lot of progress made, but we had a very productive day on Friday. In addition to fairly wrapping up the parking brakes, we were also able to get the headers out (so that new 0₂ sensor bungs can be welded in) and also installed the flywheel stop http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=36828 in anticipation of the removal and replacement of the harmonic balancer for the Wegner pulley kit. Still need to tweak this a little bit.



Anyway, life from here into the foreseeable future will be focused on doing what it takes to be able to get the engine running. There's a LOT involved with that, but I'm going to try to defer anything not directly related to firing up that lump until later in the build. If nothing else, I want to be able to wander out to the garage at any time and at least hear it make some rumpety-rumpety noises! Thanks for listening.

[boodlefoof]

Looking good!