[Damn True]

Greetings everyone,

I began this project with a rather general plan in mind based on an experience gained nearly 30 years ago. Sometime around 1976-77 my father took me to a race at Laguna Seca. I distinctly recall box-fender flared BMW 3-series cars, Datsun 510's & 240-Z's, FIA bodied Corvettes and those wild Chevy Monza's. But what struck me the most was not these high-dollar pro racers but the cars in some of the support races being run by local SCCA members. Particularly if I recall correctly the A-sedan group.

This group was populated by hobby road-racers driving cars that were slightly older. Much like what you'd see at an SCCA or NASA event today. But instead of Miata's, Bimmers and CMC cars, these were late 1960's Musclecars. Mustangs, a few Mopars and Camaros. I was totally blown away. At the tender age of 10 or so I'd seen enough copies of Hot-Rod that I was aware that these cars were frequently used for drag racing. But the fact that they could be road-raced was entirely new to me. The cars were as amazing to me at the time as they are now. Pared down to their base elements, nothing there except what absolutely HAD to be there. Low, loud and mean looking with FOUR instead of two fat tires! Many of them had the "bubble" type fender flares that you can see on David Pozzi's old T/A car

Heck, David's car may have even been out on the track that day, who knows? I knew then that someday I wanted to have a car like one of those. And, I knew just where to start.

In July of 1969 my Grandparents purchased a 1968 Camaro that had been sitting a while on the lot at Courtesy Chevrolet in Santa Clara, CA. They needed a new car to drive to Arizona where I was to be born in a couple of months and since the car had been slow to sell the price was right. The car was a bit different in that it was a special order that wound up not being delivered to the customer it was originally intended for. Playboy had placed an order through COPO for 50 pink 1968 Camaros to be distributed to playmates through the year. They only took delivery of about 30-40 of them. The rest wound up being sent to dealers. This was one of them....and yes, I said it was pink. This was my Grandmothers car for close to 35 years. They drove it all over CA on vacations and fishing trips. In fact, to this day there are bait shops and mountain lodges that I go to and when I mention my Grandparents people say, "Oh the couple with the pink Camaro!" The car was nothing special other than by virtue of it's color. A basic 327 coupe with a powerglide. But it was cool and I knew that eventually this car would be the basis for my Camaro road-racer project.

Fast forward to the year 2000. I was getting out of the Coast Guard after eleven years and moving back home to the Bay Area. My grandparents at that point decided to give me the car. A couple of years earlier some redneck had yelled something vulgar to my Grandfather while he was driving it and it scared him so he had a cheapo Earl Schieb spray-job done on it so it was now blue rather than pink.

The gifting of the Camaro roughly coincided with the "rise" of Pro-Touring. Jeff Smith and Mark Stielow had finally put a name to what had been in my head for years. A classic Musclecar with an updated suspension and drivetrain. Finally, I didn't feel like such a geek for wanting a corner-carving Camaro! And, with websites like this one popping up, magazine coverage for PT builds becoming more common and increased aftermarket support for this type of car it was going to be a whole lot easier than I had originally imagined!!!!

So essentially I have spent the last few years in "planning mode" speaking with various vendors about different suspension configurations. Considering a number of different powertrain options. Asking countless questions of people like David Pozzi, Steve Chryssos, Mark Magers, Steve Rupp, Carl Cassanova, Frank Serafine, Tom Holt, Tyler @ ATS and many others. Weighing my intentions for the car and how that impacts parts selections, build style and how much to spend and where? Further, there has been the debate of the style of build. Street car vs. race car vs. Streetfighter. All of which has brought me to this. A finalized plan for and an opportunity to build the car I have dreamt of for nearly 3/4 of my life.

Introducing:

The car will have a decidedly "Streetfighter" vibe to it and that is by design. I intend to drive the heck out of this thing. It will see auto-x action in and around the Bay Area whenever I get the chance and it will be taken to the many fine tracks (Sears Pt. Thunderhill, Buttonwillow and Laguna Seca) around the area as well. The money will be spent on performance first and appearance second as I care far more about how the car negotiates a corner than about what some judge at a Goodguys event thinks.

Project 1/2 TRAK will feature the following:

Drivetrain:

• LS based EFI engine, target HP - 450
• TK0-600 transmission (unless a T-56 drops in my lap for a good price)
• 9" Strange diff with 3.90 gears

Chassis:

• Fully welded factory subframe modifed for coilovers
• DSE body mounts
• DSE subframe connectors
• DSE mini-tubs
• TC Design-Fab 10pt SCCA legal cage

Rear Suspension:

• Lateral Dynamics 3-link
• Afco Coilover shocks (~250lb springs)

Front Suspension:

• ATS Spindles
• ATS Coilover conversion
  
  • Speed-Tech upper/lower A-arms
• 1-1/8 swaybar
• Afco Coilover shocks (~650lb springs)

Steering:

• Recirc Ball ATS steering gear
• Lee PS pump
• Moog steering system components
• Ididit Column
• Steering wheel quick release
• Sparco wheel

Wheels & Tires:

• Team III, LT-III wheels (minilite replica)
• 17x9.5 front 17x11 rear
• 275-40-17 front 315-35-17 rear
• BFG KD or similar

Interior:

• Cobra Imola FIA legal fiberglass racing seats
• No rear seat
• Factory carpet
• Welded/sealed/carpeted rear bulkhead/package tray
• Combination of spray-on sound damping material and strategically placed mat material for minimal weight contribution
• Custom center gauge panel with Stewart Warner guages
• No AC

Body:

• Weld & fill badge holes and side marker light holes
• Fiberglass decklid
• Fiberglass "stock-flat" hood
• Fiberglass front inner fenders
• "Vanzuuk" front air-dam
• Twist Machine rear decklid spoiler
• Flanks - Subaru WRC Blue
• Hood, roof & decklid - flat black
• Low gloss (~50%) powder coat on all metalic trim, door handles etc

Many of the items on the list above are still open to change based on new product releases, pricing changes etc therefore, any vendor wishing to discuss partnership in this project is welcome to contact me via Private Message here at PT.com

Pretty damned excited. I can't wait to get started on this thing.

First order of business will be to rip the front end off of it so I can finish the welds on the front sub and install the body mounts. Then subframe connectors, then tubs, then the 3-link rear. All of which I have the parts for on hand.

By the time that is done I hope to have purchased enough of the front suspension bits so I can put the car back on the ground so I can roll it onto a tow truck and take it to TC Design-Fab for the cage install.

I will do my best to update this build thread every two weeks or so and look forward to sharing this build with the membership here.

[Damn True]

Well I didn't think it was going to take so long to get crackin on this thing but life happens. It took us longer than we'd thought to get the old house ready to sell. Thankfully it was on the market for a total of 48hrs and is due to close in the next week or so.

With that....I decided to get started on dissasembly.



It came apart pretty easilly. No broken bolts. The only rust at all was a tiny bit of surface rust between panel edges. Like between the fender extension and fender. Came right off with a wire brush. No corrosion penetration at all. Started labeling stuff as it came off. Put small parts in those clear plastic totes. Tried to put bolts in their home hole whenever possible. Even better than bagging.



I haven't worked on an old car in quite a few years. Got a big kick out of how much hardware there is and how big the hardware is. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore. Not to mention how thick the material is compared to new cars. Those fenders are 16ga!!! Wow.

Did you think I was kidding about it being pink? Its pretty darn clean. That discoloration is dirt, not rust. Wipes right off.







This week I'll strip all the suspension and steering off the sub and take it to get sandblasted.

Once I'm done with that I can finish weld the seams. Then I'll be able to do my suspension fabrication. I have one or two decisions to make in that regard this week. Still not sure what system I'll be using.

Then I can prime/paint and install the sub. After that will be subframe connectors.

Gotta love the hub-caps!!!



Views of my workspace not previously visible

[Damn True]

So....not a lot happened in September. It was a busy month at work because I was only AT work for about 2 weeks out of the four. My wife and I spent a week in Hawaii, and another week fishing and camping in the Sierra's. She treated me pretty good for my birthday. All things considered I'd have preferred Camaro stuff to going to Hawaii. Having lived there for seven years it feels more like going home than going on a vacation. But it was nice to get out of the office. The fishing trip though was awesome. The planks are 2"x12" for reference.



So as I said a few posts back, I got the sheet metal stripped from the car pretty easily. No broken or stripped hardware and no rust to speak of. As you can see though, the subframe is really grungy.



Not bad considering the age of the car. Really stoked about the lack of rust. This really was a "grandma car" and as such it was never really driven hard so I'm not even finding evidence of severe wear or any kind of stress cracks.



So I stripped all the suspension off and yanked the subframe in preparation for sandblasting and then finish welding.

Here's what we started with



A little quick work with a wire wheel allowed me to inspect the potential trouble spots for cracks before sandblasting and allows me to explain what I'm up to here. You see how the subframe is only partially welded? Well each unwelded bit is a flex point and the beginning of each weld is a stress riser.



So what we are going to do is link all of the factory welds and tie the whole thing together.

I thought this was going to be easy, but nooooo. It seems that a 40 year old lap joint is nigh impossible to clean. I sandblasted it. I wire brushed it. I sprayed solvent in there and blew it around with a blow-gun. I heated the joint with a torch to burn off contaminants but my welds were just looking like rubbish. This thread catalogs me figuring out the problem with the help of Jake and Matt...

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46863

So with the problem solved the welds came out pretty well. You can see the factory lap weld above my weld in this picture. It looks like they were stick welding these things and doing so very quickly.



Now remember, these are flux-core welds on a dirty, 40 year old lap joint. My torch technique is as you can see "rusty" to say the least. But, the welds are super solid and fully penetrated.

[Damn True]

In addition I also finish welded the seams inside the LCA pocket and the entire K-member. Overkill? Maybe. But it couldn't hurt.



You can see the string of itty-bitty spot welds that were originally used to join the upper and lower halves of the K-member here. Running the bead along both sides really made the assembly into a very solid unit.



I had to roll the subframe over a few times while doing all this work the difference in the stiffness of the assembly was very noticeable. Early in the process I could feel the thing wobble around a bit if I grabbed it by one corner and shook. I mean it felt like grabbing one corner of a sheet of 3/4 plywood. Strong, yet with some springiness to it. With everything welded up it is completely rigid. More like a sheet of 1-1/8 subfloor.

Yeah, my welds still kinda suck and the flux-core wire is messy, but they got better through the process and functionally the welds are good.

Next step.......

Installing the ATS coilover conversion system.......

[Damn True]

So while I was busy ripping the car apart, Tyler and the guys at ATS busy modifying my lower control arms to a double shear mount for our coil over kit.

The took your tubular control arms and setup their lower mount:



Then they ground down the powder coating off the top and bottom so that we could TIG the mounts in place:




The frame gets modified by cutting off the single shear shock mount from the upper control arm bracket, plasma cutting the spring pocket out to allow for the coil over to pass through, and then welding the new upper coil over mount into place inside the control arm bracket. Final results look like this:



Back to the lower control arms, we TIG weld the spacer into one side of the double shear mount; the other side gets a zinc plated floater.







The lower mount is ready to be welded to the lower control arm pocket:



The arms are fully welded; TIG around the brackets, and MIG in the center to plug weld them in place. Now they go off to get re-finished.



Next they will assemble your AFX spindles using the LG Motorsports brake cooling ducts.

[Damn True]

Important feature of the Speed-Tech arms that I really want to point out [white arrow]



That bolt is the key to getting the 275x17" tire on a 9.5" rim on the front of a 1st Gen with a stock subframe. It's a steering limit adjuster and it allows you to slightly limit the steering angle such that the tire will not rub the subframe. The loss of steering angle is negligible.

Speed-Tech is the only aftermarket UCA/LCA manufacturer to offer this feature.

Strap gussets on the bushing housings are a nice addition as well. Stronger with a minimal increase in weight.

Of course, the Acetron (delerin) bushings will offer little/no deflection, exceptionally long wear, no squeaking and have a convienently mounted zerk fitting as well.

Tyler informs me that the modification shown above was significantly easier on the Speed-Tech arms than on other available products.

[Damn True]

So Tyler got some new goodies at the shop. The guys at LG Motorsports drop shipped a set of their C5/C6 Corvette spindle brake ducts. They will be adding them in place of the wheel speed sensor bracket on the forged aluminum AFX spindles. The only issue they had was that during The engineering process of making the AFX spindle we needed to rotate the forged in brake bracket so they could tie it into a fillet gusset while adding about 50% more material to it to eliminate brake flex. This makes the cut of the duct interfere with the upper brake bracket hole due to our redesign. No big deal, the bolts go in from the back side anyways.

Here are the spindles as we test assembled them with the 1/2"x20x3" long ARP stud upgrade.

[Damn True]

As stated, the next step is to install the ATS double shear coilover bracket. I've gotten the sense from some that this is percieved as a difficult task. I mean, it's one thing for Tyler to install these in his shop with a bunch of quality tools and equipment but perhaps another for someone to do at home. Tyler bills this thing as an easy to install upgrade. Well.....let's see.

Here is the bracket:



A darned robust little item if I do say so. 1/4" steel plate (how do you bend this stuff?) nicely mig welded into an assembly that I'm pretty sure could support the weight of the car a couple times over.

I have at my disposal a small Kobalt air compressor and cutoff tool. A cheap Sears Craftsman grinder (with cutoff, grinder, wire and flap-disk wheels), a sawzall, a Miller 175 welder and a little something I borrowed from work that we'll get to later. By no means professional quality stuff. IMO your basic homebrew fab tools.

Since this the install is done twice (left side and right) I've decided to examine two different ways of accomplishing the task.

Here is what we start with:



The sandblasted subframe and it's OE single shear shock mount and upper control mount.

The first step is to remove the single shear shock mount. At first I tried using the pnematic cutoff tool......lesson learned here. Cheap air compressors and pneumatic tools are just that....cheap. The $200 compressor from Lowes (Kobalt brand) just does not have the ooomph to handle this. It couldn't keep up with the cuttoff tool. So I switched to ol' reliable. Sears.



The Craftsman grinder with a 4.5" cuttoff wheel made quick work of the shock mount.



But it does leave a lot of material behind. The lap-welded portion on the subframe arm partially surrounding the spring pocket and the portion still attached to the UCA mount need to be cleaned up.



No worries...I am using both hands on the grinder (with eye and ear protection). My wife leaned over my shoulder with the camera to take the photo.

Still grinding away the mess

[Damn True]

Getting rid of the last of the junk attached to the UCA mount



.....and finally all cleaned up.





The next step is to remove a portion of the spring pocket. This will open up the top of the subrame and allow enough room for the coilover to pass through to the bracket after we attach it.

You'll need to open this up to roughly 4 inches in diameter. I went a little wider for an extra margin of clearance for the shock/spring. You can see the red line guiding my cut below.



Again I tried the pneumatic cuttoff tool. Again I was dissapointed. So I tried an alternate method. I used the sawzall to take small pie cuts out of the material. Sorta nibbleing away at it until the hole was "mostly round" then finished it with a grinder. No pictures of the middle of the process here.......it was ugly. But once cleaned up with the grinder it looks fine.



I also took the time at this point to add a little extra weld to the UCA brakets. Nearly impossible to get that joint in there clean and it's tough to get the torch close enough for good puddle control and see what you are doing. The welds reflect that but they are fully penetrated.....just ugly.

On the other side I decided to try something different to see if the process could be sped up a bit and improve the quality. It involved a slightly more sophisticated tool than the sawzall.



Boy do I like this thing!

Where it took me nearly an hour to cut away the other spring pocket with the sawzall bit by bit, the plasma cutter did the job in about 45 seconds leaving a muuuuuch nicer hole...







....and with far less cleanup with the grinder required as well. All told a much better result with the plasma.



The next step is to begin trial fitting the coil over bracket to the UCA mount. Now remember, we are dealing with a 40 year old car. Tolerances on these things when built were shall we say........loose. The bracket will have to be trimmed here and there to fit.

[Damn True]

Here is the bracket as delivered. You can see that the gaps around the bracket are big.



You'll have to nip away at the c/o bracket and perhaps the UCA bracket some to get your joints tight enough to weld and to locate your shock in the hole such that the spring perch or spring wont make contact with the subframe. There is no sense in me decribing where you'll have to trim he bracket as it will be different on your car. It was differnet on mine from left side to right.



.

[Damn True]

....and after considerable trimming



Yes I know the shock is upside down. The adjustable perch is slightly larger than the fixed one and I assumed closer to the OD of the spring.





Again, YMMV on the trimming required. This is just what had to happen to get it to fit up nicely on MY particular subframe. It isnt hard. Just time consuming. You grind a little, then test. Rinse and repeat until you get a nice fit then tack the sucker in place.



Then weld it up...






Still pretty messy with spatter and the goo from the flux-core wire but it got late and I needed dinner. Now it's even later and I need to go to bed, so more tomorow if I get home from work early enough to work on it.

Thanks for watching.......

[sleepsinshed]

I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite threads! Great work and spectacular pictures. Can't wait to see more.

Did you weld the bracket with a Mig welder and flux core wire? If so you've given me hope that it IS possible to get good results with this setup.

[Zimm2]

that pink is so special and unique, id consider using it somehow in your finished state. Perhaps a small (3/4") seperating stripe between the blue and flat-black colors. Great project, on the money, thanks for sharing!!

[GMJoe]

Looks like you have a good start on your project, keep the pics coming...

[68 Ragtop]

Do you have any paperwork showing this car as a COPO Playboy Pink car?
Can you share the trim tag information?
The 1968 Pink Playboy cars have been discussed before, but I have never actually seen one.
You might have an interesting piece of history there!