ChevyRS-305

Ok for starters this is a documentary over my interpretation of a "stage 2" 3rd gen full build up. I have a "stage 3" build going simultaneously on my z28, but decided to take time to do this build since its ...simpler..? most of these first pics are from about 3 months ago, so that being said lets get with it.....

Here is what i started with before the disassemble, my 1989 rs camaro that i regularly show.

ChevyRS-305

I'm going to skip all to boring nonsense, like pulling the engine and blah blah blah, but i shot this pic of both my cars after i pulled the front end off my rs, and mounted it on my z. Kinda cool i thought... anyways i had to pull my interior out to access my firewall to begin preping for the shaved and smoothed engine bay.

ChevyRS-305

After i gained full access to my firewall from the inside, i began to grind a large area around each hole i decided i would not need anymore for my preferences. I then make an overlapping cardboard template for each hole, and then traced it onto sheet metal.

I used 3m panel bond adhesive to glue the panels in place. Doing it this way rather than welding helps in two ways, one: no heat warping two: corrosion protection is outstanding. Use 1/4" self tapping screws every 3" to clamp the panels down tight over night. After it cures grind the excess glue down, and wha-la...

ChevyRS-305

I loaded the car up, and took it to work for the weekend for a little welding. Thank God a few friends stopped by to give me a hand. Had all the holes in the frame rails, and wheel tub filled in.

Also i completely cut out the battery trays and boxed the corners in with 12g cold rolled steel plates, and then preped for sandblasting.

ChevyRS-305

After sandblasting i started laying down fiberglass filler

ChevyRS-305

Brought the Camaro back home from work, and began laying more and more plastic down. I think after all said and done i used a gallon of filler on this whole engine bay.

ChevyRS-305

my progress in preparation to primer

ChevyRS-305

primed, blocked and primed again and ready for paint. I had a pic of the suspension too but lost it.

ChevyRS-305

OK, so i laid down some paint. base-coat white then added a blue pearl on top to go the extra mile. i actually used the Cadillac paint code but instead of adding white pearl i added blue. this way i will always have a "factory" paint code to go by.

ChevyRS-305

I laid down the stripes with the chevy arrival blue, and then laid another layer of blue pearl down. This time, before it dried, I took a wadded up trash bag, and dabbed it all over the stripe creating a marble effect in the stripe alone.

ChevyRS-305

here is what that marble effect looks like

ChevyRS-305

Also the suspension painted and assembled, and one more pic of the engine bay..

peterc005

Cool.

91 Droptop

Nice job, looks really cool

ChevyRS-305

Well its no where near done yet... the car is actually way more far along than what the pictures are, I just don't want to bombard this post with pics like i have lol.

2007xl50

Great job so far man, keep the pix coming.

ChevyRS-305

Well i refurbished my stock break master cylinder, booster, power steering pump, and wiper motor. Still looks vary clean i think. Also undercoated the front of the core support, the bottom side of the frame rail, and the wheel wells.

ChevyRS-305

First pic is of a Mitsubishi 3000 gt dash i moched into place. Ill be making a fiberglass mold of it that will fit directly in a 3rd gen when done. Also got the Moroso solid motor mounts in and could finally install the engine. Still needs a few pieces to complete and replace damaged parts. (engine was stolen from me 3 years ago). Last pic is when i was installing my hooker long tube headers and figured it was a good shot to show off the suspension.

ChevyRS-305

Hooker long tube header install. after the mini starter and oil filter were removed they fit beautifully. Didn't even scratch the paint. Note: transmission isnt installed yet so the engine sits at an angle making the headers hang lower than normal.

ChevyRS-305

nice pic of my new z28 spoiler from the back. Also bought a set of zr1 wheels and my ss hood. Had to buy 2" spacers for the wheels. Thinking of sandblasting the wheels and painting them blue with the marble effect like my stripes.

ChevyRS-305

Shaved door handle time...more panel pond glue. Had to cut away at about an inch of the inner support

ChevyRS-305

Shaved door jam vents as well. While i had my doors off I realized my upper hinge pins were bad. After realizing GM doesn't make them anymore,after i already cut them out, i gave classic industries a call. They shipped me over 2 sets of their grease-able upper hing pin kit for $110 a pop. I do want to note one thing: first fitment the hinges WOULD NOT LINE UP, then realized when i knocked out the pins with a hammer and pick, i slightly bent the bracket throwing off my alignment. After i bent them back they fit like a dream.

ChevyRS-305

Now for the worst possible idea yet... sounded great at the time till I tried to fit them on. My Duraflex GT fenders... UNLESS YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL BODY MAN, THEN DONT BUY THESE!!! I had to cut away at my upper frame rails, add fiberglass to the top of the fenders to match the hood height, and grind away at the inside of the fender to MAKE A HOOD TO FENDER GAP. Not to mention i had to drill my own holes and make a bottom bracket. The upper braket lip that fits under the hood that the bolts go through, well it was bent at a 45* angle and after 3 weeks of sitting on the car bolted in, its still slightly angled.

ChevyRS-305

Basically how the car sits now. Here is what the hood to fender gap looks like now after i did all that grinding and shaving. Going to start body work tomorrow hopefully. I plan for primer in 2 weeks.

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Need to make a quick decision. Should i shave my side markers? Would be easier for theae fiberglass fenders

ChevyRS-305

Well i have made alot of progress. I have EVERY SINGLE GAP flush and perfect. I have the car torn down again for post mock up stage and actually doing body work. In 2 weeks my wheels, hood hinges, door hinges, and backside of doors are being sandblasted. I changed my plans a little and im going with a t-56 i had laying in my garage from my buddys 95. I talked to steve from spohn and im going with their cross member/ torque arm w/ safety loop. Im also going to blue marblize my wheels and the rest of my suspension and roll cage as well.

ThirdGenDemon

Looks very nice! Going for a show finish? First time I've seen those fenders before. Must have been a PITA to get them right.

ChevyRS-305

You have no idea... better off keeping your stock fenders and molding vents in them, on the bright side their about half as light. Yes this this is going to be a show only car or something to take out on special occasions.

ChevyRS-305

Well I accomplished reinforcing the backside of the fenders and happened to shave my side marker at the same time. I also cut out the opening on my ss hood and had to bridge the top skin to the back skin so it "flows" and gives it a finished look. Very killer looking. Here are some quick pics.

ChevyRS-305

Well for those of you who care, i have all my body work done besides my plastics and im preping for primer on thursday. Possibly the last nice day of the year i have suitable to be spraying. I have put the car together for one last fitment check and now its disassembled for primer and ready to be masked. I also bought a new flywheel for my t-56 that is balanced perfectly for internally balanced crankshaft. Ill have more updates as i start primer. Oh and i also found out one of my vette wheels was bent so im waiting for that to come back to me from the rim shop.

86F.BiRD

very nice engine bay paint scheme.

ChevyRS-305

Well i have been hitting bad luck and couldn't prime my car due to cold weather so im forced to finish all my body parts and then prime them all at one time in my heated garage. So! Onward with the body work. I have gone ahead and finished up the bottom side of my hood shaving and smoothing the seams. Lots of work and have also moved to the bumpers and ground effects.

ChevyRS-305

This hood is as smooth and straight as the rest of the car. So much detail and its driving me crazy! Haha

ThirdGenDemon

Looking good! The attention to detail is where its at. It will be worth it when you finish.

ChevyRS-305

Found a solution to my sagging headlight buckets on my bumper. Took 1" "U" channel aluminum stock and glued them to the underside using 3m panel bond. Held in place using screws until the panel bond cures. Worked perfect and now gives me a solid surface to do my body work on.

ChevyRS-305

I have updates. Finally got, what might be my last warm day of the year, my warm day to primer. I assembled what i could of the car so enjoy...

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Nice day outside again so i assembled a bit more on the car and took care of some little things i have been needing to do. So here it is minus the bumpers and ground effects being done

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Fully assembled teaser for you guys

krazeefewl

iTrader: (1)

Haven't seen those fenders before, are first glance wasn't sure I liked them, but they are starting to grow on me. Any updates in the last month and a half?

ChevyRS-305

Eh...been fixing a few body flaws here and their. In the process of fixing this god awful door gap issue but making excuses up to put it off... ABSOLUTLEY HATE MESSING WITH FIBERGLASS. Bu basically all body work is done just boring stuff. Oh! I did much up my t56 and installed my driveshaft, car has a full drive train in it for the first time in over a year so that's exciting. Also my buddy sold his s10 so he finally gave me back my zr1 wheels. Had them on their a whole 2 days and then sold them. Going with 18" c5 wheels instead to clear the ss brembo brakes.

MeenZ28

Its a shame those fenders are such a pain in the a$$. I really like the look of them.

ChevyRS-305

Actually I had a guy hit me up on FB from Chicago and asked me to make him some from the stock fenders...I charged him $300 and he is coming to get them tomorrow. Since their the original fenders they fit like a glove and save you all that time and labor to get them to fit right.

ChevyRS-305

Here are a few pics..first is my zr1 wheels(woohoo) but you can see all the little spots I fixed, second pic is of the stock fenders I created for this guy, third is the best pic I had with my t56 in

krazeefewl

iTrader: (1)

Nice job fixing the gaps, it looks a lot better now. How much time did you have fabbing up the steel fenders, and do you have the ss brembos in the rear as well?

ChevyRS-305

About 6.5 hours from start to laying down primer.. but then again I'm quick because I do this every day at work. To the average person they could do it in a weekend. And as for the brembos yes I will be using the brembos for the rear, reason being why I had to upgrade wheel sizes. I have not yet purchased anything for brake system yet but I do have a guy that owns a CNC machine whom is going to machine me up a caliper bracket so I can run dual rear calipers(one caliper will be used for my hydrolic hand brake).

I'll order my new wheels next week and post an update when I get them put on.

krazeefewl

iTrader: (1)

Very cool. Something like that would probably take me more than a weekend, lol. My sheetmetal skills are non-existent as I haven't messed with the stuff. I too plan on utilizing either the Brembo SS's or CTS-V brakes, however I want to make the factory e-brake work with our current e-brake setup. Nothing wrong with having the dual caliper, just not something I want to do. With your hookups with the CNC machine you could probably make a bracket that would work. Infact I believe someone already has and I'm sure they'd be willing to share the details

ChevyRS-305

For a dual caliper bracket?

krazeefewl

iTrader: (1)

No I meant a bracket in which someone already fabbed up allowing the use of the OE parking brake setup on the SS brakes. I believe someone in the Brake Board had a set made for the 10-bolt and someone made alterations for the 9-bolt BW rearend. Doing this would prevent having to use a dual caliper setup. The dual caliper setup may be something that you want to run. If so, then by all means do it. I personally just don't like the look of having the dual caliper setup. But thats my opinion, and as long as your happy with your car, your opinion is the only one that really matters.

ChevyRS-305

Reason being for the dual caliper setup is for driftability. I'm basically building a drift car that is for show only if that makes any since????? But flynbye.com makes a bracket but your screwed of you use a factory 10bolt because of the c clipse allow the axle to move about in the housing allowing for caliper chatter. Being the 5th gen is IRS and is a "fixed" axle, the axle won't have that play.

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

Good progress.

What is a "Stage 2" and "Stage 3" build?