[67CamaroConvertible]

I noticed a little spot of coolant on the ground after installing my carpet, turns out the heater core was leaking. I worked on removing the heater core and while removing the heater core I pulled the core tube right out of the core. This of course caused a leak on the inside of the car. I very quickly removed the carpet before it the carpet go too wet.

I have ordered a new heater core. While waiting for that to arrive I installed the floor plugs, sound deadening on the firewall, and installed the carpet (again).

I installed the final person of sound deadener on the fire wall. I didn't get a picture of the final install but I put a piece on the transmission tunnel.

I then reinstalled the carpet for hopefully the last time. I got the rear seat installed as well and I must say I am very happy with the results. Its not perfect but for my first carpet install I think it turned out good.

I also have all but one of the grounds reconnected so hopefully I am able to fire up the car once I get the heater core replaced. It is starting to get nice around here so I am getting very anxious to drive the car again.

There is still a lot of things I would like to do to the car but it will be such a relief when it is reliably drivable again. I am hoping to make it to Vintage Torque fest the last week of April. As long as all goes according to plan that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[97 CAIVIAROSS]

Great progress! It is great feeling when it starts to come together like this.

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

Great progress! It is great feeling when it starts to come together like this.

It really is coming along nicely unfortunately right now heater cores are hard to come by (at least at a reasonable price). The lead time is significant. But seeing as we are in the middle of a blizzard as I write this the lead time may not be am issue!

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

While waiting for a heater core I decided to clean the interior half of the heater box. The picture below are after an initial cleaning to remove all the coolant and other junk. I have never used any Sprayway product before but decided to give them a try on this heater box. I was very impressed with how well the Sprayway glass cleaner removed all the dirt.

After I finished the cleaning I primed and painted the heater box. I am very happy with the results and saved a significant amount of money as opposed to buying a new one.

I also starting working on cleaning up some of the chrome specifically the air cleaner lid and the windshield surround. I learned today while doing research that the method for cleaning chrome is something people are pretty passionate about. I used the same method that I have seen on Vice Grip Garage, that is using 0000 steel wool (or SOS pads). I can only speak from my experiences but this seems to work very well. Below are some before and after picture of the air clearer lid and sealing surface for the convertible top. Bare in mind I have never done this before, but its a very simple process.

Before

After

Before

After

All I did was prepared some water with a significant amount of Dawn dish soap and put one chunk of 0000 steel wool in container. I threw used to steel wool very lightly on the entire surface I want to clean. I could feel the chrome go from rough to smooth, at this point I stopped and wiped the surface with a towel. I then used a Never Dull pad in an effort to give the surface a little more shine. I honestly didn't notice much of a difference before and after the Never Dull pad.

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

I also clean all the seats using Sprayway leather cleaner which worked very well. The seats are in pretty decent shape, the driver side does have a few rips in it. All of the seats have basically no padding left in them but they will do for now. In the future I will rebuild or replace the seats.

Before:

After:

I will be mounting my fuel injection ECU in the glove box. However, I don't have the original insert, even if I did I would not be satisfied with that flimsy thing. So I have designed an insert for the glove box made of 1/8" laser cut aluminum. I had to raise the top of the insert to comfortable fit my ECU. I have the piece laser cut and will be bending it this week. In the mean time I have attached the solid model that I have designed.

I will post pictures as soon as I get the insert bent up and installed in my car. At this point I don't have the mounting holes in the part. I wanted to make sure they were in the right spot so I will be drilling the holes after a test fit and marking the holes. Then I will add them to my solid model so if I ever had to make another one in the future I could have the holes laser cut. I have no desire to use this as actual storage area which is why I did not include sides, it would have just been wasted material for what I am looking to do.

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

I haven't had time to put any mounting holes in the insert yet but I did get it bent and roughly placed in the car. This is the first full piece I have tried to fit and it might need a little tweaking but it is looking very good thus far.

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

I got the ECU mount along with the glove box insert. There is currently no heater core in the car as lead time is excess on them right now. This means the insert and ECU will have to come back out to install the heater core but I wanted to try to start the car. Initially the battery voltage was a little low which was causing the handheld to have a communication error but after charging the battery this seems to have gone away. I have successfully started the car. I didn't leave it on long as I had a coolant leak. I have tried to reinstall the plug this evening, hopefully it seals this time. The next step will be take the car for a spin around the neighborhood and make sure everything works as it should. I am really hoping to make it to a big car show called "Vintage Torque Fest" on April 30th and May 1st.

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

Well this is a not an ideal situation.... in an effort to get my transmission cooler lines to seal properly I managed to pull all the thread from the transmission cooler on the side of the radiator. Neither transmission cooler line sealer from the start and I finally missed with them enough the the aluminum threads decided to give up.

I contacted Summit Racing as the radiator kit was purchased through them. I sent the email last Saturday, I had a return label in my email Tuesday and had a new radiator at my door by Friday. I mistakenly thought that I would be able to make the stainless steel hard lines work. I found out that they are just to far away from lining up to make them work. So I will be making my own lines this week hopefully I will be able to install the new lines next weekend.

Removal of old radiator:

The new radiator is installed and filled. I am just waiting for some supplies to make my trans cooler lines. I will be sure to post pictures when this process is complete. Hopefully there is no leaks this time!

 

[67CamaroConvertible]

This is going to be a sizeable update as I have not posted anything in a while since I have been chasing gremlins on the car. The first thing that was completed was the installation of the new radiator. I also made braided nylon lines for the transmission cooler in an attempt to save the threads on the radiator. This approach worked and I think the lines turned out pretty good especially for the first time ever making AN style hoses.

Upon completion of the installation of the transmission lines I attempted to start and run the car. At that point the car was running ok at idle but complete trash when any throttle was applied. This is when the fun started. In a desperate attempt to find a solution I posted my issues on the FAST Discussion Facebook page. I received a good number of replies to my post and ended up connecting with Michael Piasta (he is a member of this forum). Michael has been a huge help in with the FAST system! It was determine that I should change my intake to a single plane intake. There are two reasons for this 1) is that throttle body has one MAP sensor and with the intake divided the sensor is only seeing four cylinder 2) is that the injectors shoot fuel in such a manner that it contacts the divider in a dual plane manifold causing raw fuel to get into the cylinder.

Old intake manifold:

Barrowed single plane intake:

I found a co worker that had a single plane manifold on his race car, he was willing to let me install the manifold on my car to test this theory before buying a new intake. Thus far the car does seem to run much better with the single plane intake. However, the intake swap was the easy part of getting the car running. I worked extensively with Michael to get the car timed properly (not the recommended way per FAST). This process took a couple nights of phone calls, pictures, videos, messages, and a lot of learning on my part. At this point the car is running much better. I have not had the opportunity to drive the car but I will be replacing the barrowed intake soon with my own single plane intake. After replacing that and rerouting a couple wires I will attempt to drive the car. Hopefully the engine reacts much better under load after all the changes that have been made.

Just for excitement I put the air cleaner in place to see how the final product was going to look. I am getting pretty excited to finally drive this car!