1971 Camaro - Sport Coupe "plus"

[1970judge]

Hello all and welcome to my build thread. I am calling it Sport Coupe "Plus". This next bit will be long, so please feel free to skip if you're not into reading a long back ground informational.

So, long time lurker first time caller. I've been browsing PT and LateralG for quite some time, never really having the time or money to build much. Lots of inspiration, but seldom the means. I have been wrenching for about 20 years or so now, but mostly on my modest daily driven Camaros and/or not Camaros to keep them alive through school and work. Years ago I worked at a race shop out of high school geared mostly toward GM products and drag racing, but somewhere along the way two things happened: 1) I fell out of love with drag racing 2) I became rather obsessed with road racing and pro-touring things. Alas, I was laid off in 2008 and started college for Mech. E. because the idea was to keep building cars but for real money (i.e. graduate and get a job at an OEM). My family is born and bred GM, thus, the ultimate goal was to get a job at GM, which I did. College means you're too poor to do anything, but read and study other peoples builds so that when the time comes, you have ideas. In between then and now, another obsession blossomed. Born out of curiosity as well as lack of real dollars, I fell into a rabbit hole of what I call "OEM+". Ever read a magazine article or forum post about someone wasting time to cam swap an LS1 with an xyz cam from similar year model truck, or a stock LS6 cam? "Free mods"? What happens if I port a set of heads/intake/and smooth out a set of OE exhaust manifolds? What will I gain on a track if I add a tubular piece of front and balance it with weight reduction in the rear? Yeah, that's me. All my cars since the "shop days" have been built that way. They're normally faster than factory, perform better than factory, but look at them and you'd never know it. Sum of the parts, so to speak. But I still take lessons learned from others and try to apply them. Look and act like OEM, until you look a little closer.

So, fast forward. A few months ago my dad approached me about building a car to fix up, show, and sell and then start another. He's a truck guy, I'm a Camaro guy so I knew id be building a truck and that's ok. To my surprise he landed on this 1971 Camaro. Now, here we are. I decided to make this build thread in hopes that future owner will understand and appreciate my process. The goal is Goodguys Ft. Worth 2027 or one of the shows thereafter (California? Mostly because i've always wanted to visit California) and if it doesn't sell there (I hope it does so myself and the buyer could go drive it) then BaT it is. I do have social media @camarohistorian but you can only type so much on IG and Facebook as well as image compression, etc. So good old fashioned forums is where this will mostly take place.

The car - it is a 1971 Camaro base coupe. Trim tag is blue/blue and that's all I have. Obvious signs is it was a manual car, v8 car, a/c and PS. Engine decodes to a 1974 350, however I was told by owner it was a 307/manual. So, nothing special, not a Z, not an RS. Just someone's blue on blue daily.

Again, the theme is, OEM+. I know I wont win any awards, and this car isn't going to a SEMA booth. But all the little things I hope will amount to someone's clean, reliable, driver car that has the right extra touches in the right place to make it worthy of driving in 2027 amongst a sea of grey and white rolling iPads. Relevance to this site is that my cars usually end up on the pro-touring "lite" side.

Onward, follow along, and (hopefully) see you at Goodguys next summer. (And by the way, I'm already 2 months in, so following will be catch up posts)

[1970judge]

September 2026 - tear down/discovery.
Always the easy part: Tearing a car apart.
Always the bummer part: finding the typical floor pans. But overall, could be worse.
Luckily, the car is missing almost all of the interior, so it was a pretty short day. Original blue dash was there, albeit wrecked, and gauges. Harness was hacked to pieces. All in all, short work getting the car gutted. Then proceeded to stripping the nose off the car.

[1970judge]

September 2026 - continued
Well, stripped out. Cleaned off. I knew there was rust in the floors, but until you really clear off the old matting and stuff, its hard to tell how much. Passenger side, just a small section. Drivers side, pretty rough, but the good news is it was pretty superficial. None of it made it to the structural pieces (cross bars under seat).
So, i'm no welder. But the only way to learn is to...well, learn. I've seen every video there is to see about how to weld a floor pan. So I made some templates, cut out ONLY what was rotted to leave as much integrity as possible, and went and bought a welder. I'm probably not getting hired by Roadster shop any time soon, but, I can stand on them with no flex and not fall through. It took me pretty much all of the rest of September working late into the night after my real job, cutting, welding, cut again, re-weld, etc. I'm mechanical, not a body man, but I am committed to doing every single step of this car myself.


and finally, once everything was tacked in, i welded everything up, sealed and seam sealed. I plan to go over it once more with a fresher coat of paint and hit the high points with blue during paint work.

[1970judge]

October 2026
Now, onto the fun stuff. I started the month with separating the front end. Certainly a chore when you're 115lbs on a good day, but I made it work. Removed the engine and trans and put in the corner for another day, sold the swapped in th350 because I intend to go back with a muncie. I then spent around 14 days total, getting the sub-frame down to bare metal, coating it, painting it, restoring bolts and brackets. However, now I am at a stand still. What I've done is ordered all new steering components, brake components, stainless hoes, new lines, and then UMI front tubular suspension/2" lowering/bilstein shocks/adjustable - Kit. However, ETA is around Thanksgiving for the UMI. Poor planning on my part.
I'm not totally sure if spending almost an entire month building just the front end will amount to dividends later, but, boy it looks good and with a coming DSE box..this car now is lighter on the nose, easier to adjust, and will steer and brake better than it ever has. And like I said earlier, its all factory looking from 5' foot away, so it fits the theme. The rest like the backing plates, spindles, and misc. bolts were stripped, and painted for just a touch of extra pop. Not factory, not going to a concours show, but hoping to show that I touched everything I possibly could and tried to make it as new as possible and/or bought a replacement where necessary.

Now, the long wait for suspension so I can actually bolt this car back together.

[1970judge]

November 2026 (10/31/26)

Well today is Halloween and at 38 years old I dont suppose I am eligible any longer to go out hunting for candy. So garage work it is. Subframe is out of the car and on hold until suspension components arrive, so now seemed like a good a time as any to remove the old under coating down to the red-oxide coating and re-coat with something more up to date. Raptor? Line-x? Something of the sort. Good thing I have pretty much a whole month before suspension arrives because this is incredibly time consuming. But, it is going well so far as long as no one tells my wife where her hair dryer is.

[grendel]

In for the ride. We built a 73 Camaro. Now doing a 68 Chevelle.

[79 Camaro]

Just FYI. I help at a body shop a couple days a week. They swear by Raptor for rocker panel and bed liner protection.
But I'm guessing your Camaro will never see snow, gravel road any winter time driving.
On my hot rod builds after cleaning the bottom of the car/truck I prime and paint using Rust-Oleum primer and satin black paint. The I use spray bomb under coating.
My current project I had the subframe and other parts and blasted and used Rust-Oleum products. Again turned out great IMO.

[1970judge]

Me personally, my cars get driven, in all weather. Whether its here in TX, or when I lived in Michigan, or anywhere else I may end up.
This car, it will be up to the next owner of course, but I plan to undercoat it with Raptor liner or similar so that they drive as intended!