[Widseth]

This is now going to be my second build on this forum and looks like the 2 builds will be done concurrently. My other Camaro is a '67 and the build thread is here;

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=241665

It was never my plan to work on both at once, but I needed the block out this Camaro when I found the block in the '67 was stuffed. It also looks like I won't be able to work on the '67 for a fair chunk of time while its firewall and floor pan are being replaced, giving me an opportunity to work on this Camaro.

 

[Widseth]

I'm in Australia and I bought the Camaro from a Mecum auction I went to last year. When I bought it I knew I would have to replace or totally rebuild the engine. It was obvious they had just chucked in whatever they had laying around. I'm guessing there was something in there they wanted to keep.

The suspension is also fairly stock and has some cheap bits and pieces in there, so I knew I wanted to replace a lot of that.

But besides that, it's a very solid car and I will barely touch the interior. It is an V8, X11 car, but not an SS. I will be removing the SS badges. I think the standard blue Bow Tie on the '69 grill is one of the best looking emblems anyway. I won't be touching the paint of any panels either. There is no need to.

So my basic plan so far is;
- Build and install a new engine
- Install a functional cowl induction
- Replace the springs and shocks
- Install all new steering components
- Change to power steering
- Install sound deadening
- Install discs on the front
- Change the diff ratio. It felt like quite low on my first drive (Numerically Low)

I'll elaborate on the above as I have a chance

 

[brian2013]

Looks great and sounds like a good plan too!! Which Mecum auction did you get it from? I go to the Indianapolis auction every year….So much fun and amazing cars!!

 

[Widseth]

Looks great and sounds like a good plan too!! Which Mecum auction did you get it from? I go to the Indianapolis auction every year….So much fun and amazing cars!!

Hi Brian, I got the Camaro from Kissimmee. I can’t agree more about the auctions. They would have to be one of the best car shows on earth and you have such good access to the cars.

To help with the cleaning up of my Camaros, I would love to get back to the States to go to another auction. I would like to look at the original Camaros, or Camaros restored back to original. I’m not one of those people who needs to have the correct stickers and tags like they came out of the factory, but I do like to keep them as close to original as possible within reason.

 

[69&76]

The exterior looks beautiful. Great ideas and plan for your improvements.

 

[Widseth]

The exterior looks beautiful. Great ideas and plan for your improvements.

The exterior is the reason I bought it. I love working on mechanical gear, but panels and paint frustrate me.

 

[Widseth]

A few photos to show what I am starting with. In these photos A few things had already been removed to check the condition of the block.

The engine is a 350 out of a '77 something or rather. It appeared to be completely untouched and the block will be used in my '67 Camaro. It did have a Holley 650 CFM double pumper installed.

The gearbox is a M21 built in '68.

The Camaro is a factory air-con car, though the air-con has now been removed. I think I will install a Vintage Air-Con system sometime down the track.

The diff is a 8.5" 10 bolt with a posi ( I think it's a posi anyway)

 

[Widseth]

 

[Widseth]

A few photos from the dropping of the engine and subframe.

Does this make it a frame off restoration now?

Actually when I bought the car it did have the "350" emblem in the hockey stripes. The emblems went missing on the trip to Australia.

 

[Widseth]

This is the build for the engine. It's a 350 and will have a CR of 10.1:1. The block will have the deck machined down to give a quench of 0.04" when using a 0.026" Head Gasket. The rods are 6".

I am having the short block built for me. I would like to build it myself, but considering the money I have spent on parts, I think it might be best to leave this one to the pro’s. I will be building the short block for my '67 myself.

Fuel Injection - MSD Atomic EFI
Intake Manifold - Edelbrock RPM Air-Gap
Heads AFR SB - Chevy Street Aluminum Cylinder Heads 180cc, 65cc
Cam - COMP Cams XR282HR (230/236 @ .050" Lift)
Rocker - Arms COMP Cams Ultra Pro Magnum Rocker Arms, 1.6 Ratio
Followers - COMP Cams High Energy Hydraulic Roller Lifters
Push Rods - COMP Cams Hi-Tech™ Pushrods: 5/16
Timing Chain - COMP Cams Hi-Tech Roller Race Timing Sets
Block - Chevrolet Performance Bare Engine Block, 2-Piece Rear Main Seal
Crank Scat - 4340 Forged
Con Rods - 6” Scat Pro Comp Forged I-Beam
Pistons - DDS Racing GSX-Series Forged Pistons
Rings - Total Seal Maxseal Piston Rings
Bearings - Clevite H-Series
Gaskets – Fel-Pro inc Fel-Pro 0.026” MLS Head Gasket
Oil Pump & Pick-Up - Milodon Oil Pump and Pickup Assembly, High Volume
Windage Tray - Milodon Diamond Stripper
Water Pump - Weiand Action-Plus Aluminium – Long
Damper - Professional Products 8” PowerForce Plus
Alternator - Powermaster 100 Amp Street Alternator
Starter - Powermaster OEM-Style High-Torque
Distributor - MSD Billet & Pro-Billet Distributor - Small Cap
Ignition - MSD 6A Ignition Control
Coil - MSD Blaster Coil
Bolt /Studs - ARP Everywhere Pretty Much





I cleaned up the casting where I could

 

[Widseth]

I have simulated the build on DeskTop Dyno. I would love for this to be accurate!

I was pretty conservative with my inputs too. Though I got the flow rates for the heads off the ARF website, so I don’t know how reliable they are. Though they do say the flows are for when installed on 4.060” bores, which would give slightly better flows than installed on 4.000” bore.

475ft/lb. @ 4000rpm
478hp @ 6000rpm

 

[Widseth]

The ring gear and pinion is a Richmond Gear and the ratio is 4.10:1. The carrier is a Posi too.

My plan for the diff is to rebuild it with a Richmond Gears 3.73:1 ratio ring gear and pinion and to replace all the bearings and seals using a Richmond Gears diff rebuild kit. I will also strip and repaint the housing. Similar to what I'm doing to the diff on the '67.

It's a bit of a shame to rebuild it. It looks like a really nicely built diff but I don't think I could live with the 4.10:1 gearing.

 

[Widseth]

Stripping down the subframe.

I cannot get the LH lower control arm out. The frame has been hit slightly near the front bushing and it has trapped the arm.

A bit of a mix and match of parts.

Comparing a power steering arm from Classic Industries with the original non-power steering arm.

Comparing the power steering pitman arm from Classic Industries with the original non-power steering pitman arm.

It just seems to me that long steering arms with a long pitman arm would have a very similar net effect to short steering arms with a short pitman arm?

 

[Widseth]

These are my plans for the suspension and steering. I had originally earmarked the Global West Control Arms for the ’67, but I think I will use these on the ‘69 now.

Wheels & Tyres – 15” Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T Radials on the Camaro Ralley rims that came on the car.
Front Brakes – Standard ’69 Camaro Discs with the addition of the Wilwood D52 Brake Kit
Rear Brakes – Drum (I’m thinking of getting the D154 Rear Park Brake Kit)
Shocks – Bilstein
Control Arms - Global West Tubular Upper Control Arms with Del-a-Lum Bushings, Global West Tubular Lower Control Arms Del-a-Lum Bushings
Front Springs - Global West 1" Drop (S-2)
Rear Springs - Global West 1 1/2" Drop (L-16)
Frame Connectors - Global West Frame Connectors
Sway Bar - Hotchkis 1 1/8" Hollow Sway Bar
Body Mounts - Global West Solid
Steering Box - AGR 16/13:1 Variable Ratio Power Steering Box
Steering Linkage - Proforged Tall Outer Tie Rod Ends. All the other steering components except the Drag Link will be replaced will be replaced with new, including new Power Steering type Pitman and Steering Arms (Except the Drag Link).

 

[Widseth]

After stripping out the underside of the car, there were a few areas that could do with a bit of attention. A small amount of surface rust was visible and the coating was looking a bit average and patchy. It might be a long time before I have this type of access again, so I thought I better do something while I had the chance. I would always regret it too if I didn't do something now.

I started by using a heat gun and paint scrapper to get off as much of what ever this stuff is. That actually worked really well. I originally tried a wire wheel on an angle grinder, but it was really slow as this stuff was too soft and thick. The photos don't really show it, but it was really thick everywhere except above the fuel tank.

I've run out of time now, but in a couple of weeks time when I'm back home again, I'll use a wire wheel on the angle grinder to do a final clean up before painting.

Below is the product I'm going to use. It's Wurth Stone Guard. I've used it on one of my other vehicle which is pictured below and was really happy with the results. One of the best things is that there is no spray mist, so I don't have to cover the whole car to protect from overspray.

 

[Widseth]

I've finished stripping the underside of the Camaro. For those who have done this before, I'm sure you can appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into doing this. It would have been about 10 to 15 hours of solid work. This is now the 3rd car I've done, and it was the hardest and slowest.

I finished the job off with a grinder with a wire wheel and I used a needle scaler for everywhere I couldn't reach with that.

I found the rear frame rails will need replacing due to rust. I'm not going to do it this time around, but I'll be looking to replace them in the years to come. The trunk also has something like a false floor installed on top of the old floor. I will look to correctly repair this at the same time.

I think we all know these projects never end.

You can also just see some of the green paint which is Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating. I pretty much shoved that in any cavity I could.

 

[Z282NV]

I found the rear frame rails will need replacing due to rust. I'm not going to do it this time around, but I'll be looking to replace them in the years to come. The trunk also has something like a false floor installed on top of the old floor. I will look to correctly repair this at the same time.

Looking great, you have taken it this far why not replace the frame rail rot and floor now?...if you intend on keeping the car it will be less expensive now than in the future.

 

[Widseth]

Looking great, you have taken it this far why not replace the frame rail rot and floor now?...if you intend on keeping the car it will be less expensive now than in the future.

The biggest problem is time. It would be at least 3 month from the time I ordered the frames and trunk pan, till I saw them in Australia. The cost to air freight is over $1000. I did check.

I’m not too worried though, the panel beater is a friend of the family. When I’m ready and I have the other Camaro done so that I can drive it instead, I’ll take the '69 down to him and get the job done. I'll strip the rear end myself at his shop, which won't take long.

Also, transporting a car without a rear axle is a pain.

 

[Widseth]

I had problems with the adhesion of the Wurth Stone Guard to wherever I used rust converter, which fortunately I didn't use a heap of. I don't know if I didn't let the converter dry for long enough, if I put it on too thick or it just wasn't compatible. I pulled off the loose coating and then feathered the edges with a wire wheel.

 

[Widseth]

The finished product. It came out well, just not as well as the last time I used it.

The good thing about this stuff is you don't need to mask up too well. There is no overspray