Enter your username:
Do you want to login or register?
  • Forgot your password?

    Login / Register



    Results 1 to 17 of 17
    1. #1
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia

      Aussie build - Blown Big Block '68 Camaro

      So I started this build around 2 years ago and have been going since then. I have been reading through these forums and thought I’d chuck up my project – given the wealth of knowledge on here, I figured it couldn’t hurt to get some tips and advice along the way! The first few posts are from over the past 2 years though – I’ve cut out some stuff where I changed my mind etc, which has happened about 100 times so far.

      The original plan was to get it street ready and have a nice cruiser, however I kept adding and adding to it so now it’s gone in a completely different direction. The end result is looking at a pro-touring style that will be driven on the street and raced on the track as much as I can. Definitely not going for a show car finish, just something that performs well.

      This is what I started with. Looked like an old drag car from the setup. Whole car was messy in general – paint was scratched all over and rust spots, interior was gross, wiring etc was terrible, ladder bar setup… basically not a fun car to drive.













      Next to my other car – ’74 XB Falcon


    2. #2
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Started with getting out the old interior. Apart from a bit of surface rust, the floors were great. Got the wire wheel and got rid of it all, new coat of paint and was good to go.









      And removed the old rubber kit (using a hammer + chisel... as you can see, it was a little baked on. Gotta love 40+ year old rubber, could have killed someone with it!)



      Once all of that was out, I started putting in the new interior. Plan was to keep it pretty much original looking, didn’t really want a crazy interior.

      First up, covered the whole things in Dynamat. Pulling that old insulation off the roof was almost as bad as the old rubber.



      Pulled apart the rear seat and rebuilt / recovered them.



      Made my own parcel shelf, just a MDF board cut to size with a carpet base with marine vinyl over the top. Two very discreet speaker covers, the child restraints (have to have them over here) and seatbelts. Picked these speakers up, not having a crazy stereo as I’ll probably barely be able to hear it, but these are full kevlar, go pretty hard even on the standard headunit which I managed to fiddle around with and get working. Will be replacing it though.



      Although it wasn’t going to stay like this, I still cleaned up the engine bay – it was driving me nuts looking at how messy it was. Hate messy engine bays… haha.



      Bit of the interior put in – ended up changing the carpet to black after this charcoal didn’t really turn out as I had planned.



      One of the non original style things for the interior are the new seats. They are out of a Masterati – picked them up new for a great price and they’re so damn comfy! Made up new rails to bolt them in, all electric movement. Fit in pretty well.







      Painting the dash separately as I won’t be pulling the car apart to paint – just a cheapo job to get it all one colour.


    3. #3
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      New exhaust. Planned to run this but after more recent changes, I’ll probably just salvage what I can from it and build something else that fits better.





      Half of the old gauges didn’t work, so put these ones in. Not shown is the speedo and tacho, just in the original surround.





      Steering was feeling pretty bad, so got a rack and pinion. Had a fair few problems trying to set this up (seems I’m not the only one going off other threads), but after modding the headers got it to work with a single connection.





      Headers after modding them to fit the steering linkage and being coated.


    4. #4
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      This is where I started to go downhill with unnecessary mods – bought a ProCharger to keep things exciting!





      Which resulted in buying more brackets to relocate everything….



      and a new water pump….



      and a new carb / fuel reg set up.





      Video below of the first start up – wasn’t plumbed up or anything, but was good to make some progress after having some set backs.


    5. #5
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Then for a while I had a bit of a break from the Camaro – I killed the gearbox in my other car which is what I was using to drive around in. So got a new engine (351 clevo) and C4 to suit and dropped all of that in, which filled up the only spare time I had around Christmas.



      Pick of the Camaro as it sat there without any changes for so long.



      Can see the other gauges and steering wheel in this shot.


    6. #6
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      After getting my daily driver back, I started work on the Camaro again! Hooked up the ProCharger.





      Video of it running.


    7. #7
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Next big job was the wiring – the old wiring was pretty scary – I don’t think I saw a single wire that didn’t have another wire spliced into it, all without any soldering… just electrical tape.









      Ordered a new kit – way easier than trying to do my own. Few pics of the new wiring for comparison (or rather, lack-there-of).








    8. #8
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Now the engine was going, the old brass radiator was looking a little out of place, so out with the old and in with the new!













      Another quick vid of the car in the driveway. Start it up every weekend to keep things moving, so get bored easily only having a few meters to drive in.



      Also quickly did up some new kick panels, definitely nothing fancy but looked a lot better than the plastic things that were in there. Put a couple of new speakers in too. Will be putting some pinch weld up the edge to make it look nice and smooth.




    9. #9
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Now to the part I was least looking forward to – body work. Before this, I had never welded before and definitely never did any body work. Bought a cheap MIG and came up with this. Couple of small patches to start with.









      Then I came across this. The previous owner had just used fibreglass and bondo to fix this up (did a good enough job as you couldn’t tell just looking at it). Ripped it all out and put in new metal though, same with the other side too.




    10. #10
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Given the body work put me in such a bad mood, I decided to cheer myself up by getting some new suspension! Speedtech front and rear – should be a HUGE improvement over what was there.







      Have some Viking coilovers for now – been told to get some ridetech ones in there when I can.



      Ripping out the old suspension.



      And putting in the new suspension.

















      Bought a new fuel cell – temporarily in place with a couple of straps, will be doing up a cage for it though to keep things safe.







      And how it looked after all of that.


    11. #11
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Little bit more engine work, the old breathers were all clogged up, so went the proper way and plumbed up a catch can with a breather. Wanted to keep it out of the way though, so it’s fairly well hidden.







      While the covers were off – so many colours!


    12. #12
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Was glad to have finished all the rust, but unfortunately no where near done with body work.

      As I didn’t really care about how it looked as much as how it performed (and keeping within the theme of a complete garage build), I decided to do the paint myself. Did up a bit of a booth to keep the dust etc out.



      Hands down my favourite Camaro is Mr Totem’s Vengence street fighter – everything about it is just so damn awesome. Given that I loved it so much, I thought I’d try painting mine a semi gloss black and have a similar look.

      After finishing the base coat (note: in the pic below, it was straight off the gun so no rubbing back or top coat over it) I rolled it outside and sat there for a while looking at it.

      In the end, I decided the colour wasn’t really for me and that I didn’t want a complete copy of someone elses car, so I’m currently in the process of sanding back the black and getting ready to paint it again. I have chosen the new colour – it’s a nice custom metallic / pearl burgundy colour.


    13. #13
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      So this is more or less where I am up to currently. It was tricky getting two years worth of stuff into a few post and I’ve no doubt forgotten some stuff, but you get the idea of what I’ve done so far.

      Last week I ordered some new brakes – Baer 6 piston callipers / 14” rotors, so hopefully they should show up soon (jealous of everyone living in the US for this stuff – a lot of the packages I get sent over and costing $500 - $1000 in postage alone).

      The car is in primer again getting ready for the new colour. Been having some dodgey weather lately though, so given my not-quite-element-proof paint booth setup, I’m waiting for the sun to come back first.

      The plan for what’s left is:

      - new wheels (will be ordering them soon – Work Meister S1 3pc);
      - get the brakes on;
      - fix up a few little things inside;
      - get the fuel cell in properly once I have the ride height set;
      - get a new exhaust systems that gives me as much ground clearance as I can get at the height I want (probably end up just making it);
      - coat all the trim pieces in a satin black colour;
      - do anything I’ve forgotten about and hopefully get it on the road!

      As they’re never really finished, no doubt I’ll keep adding to it from there. Still haven’t decided if I’m going to keep the engine I have – will see how much I like it and if it’s worth dropping a LS something into it at some point. The LSA was just released in a car over here (easy to get around regulations this way), so that’s a fairly tempting choice. Either way, I’d like a 6 speed instead of the auto (no point in changing til I decide what I’m doing with the engine though).

    14. #14
      Join Date
      Dec 2006
      Location
      Vincennes, IN
      Posts
      98
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice build! going to be a runner! Didnt catch what size big block??

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Aug 2008
      Location
      Iowa
      Posts
      304
      Awesome job so far! Keep it going and you will be buying all kinds of tires in no time!

    16. #16
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Brisbane
      Posts
      17
      Country Flag: Australia
      Quote Originally Posted by WICKED_SS View Post
      Nice build! going to be a runner! Didnt catch what size big block??
      oops - knew I'd forget something! It's a 402 - was meant to be around the 500/600HP mark n/a, so will see what it gets up to with the blower. Depending how it goes, might look at adding a intercooler in at some point too. Cheers though!

      Quote Originally Posted by armourmark View Post
      Awesome job so far! Keep it going and you will be buying all kinds of tires in no time!
      Thanks mate - tires and gas are going to be a killer, but no doubt worth it!

    17. #17
      Join Date
      Dec 2006
      Location
      Vincennes, IN
      Posts
      98
      Country Flag: United States
      Im rocking a 396 BB till I can get the 496 together. That pro charger is nasty! keep up the updates.







    Advertise on Pro-Touring.com