this goes far back but the new corvettes have a emergency release in the hatch that you can pull to open the doors (they desided to remove the jump box off a vette at work when i was in it but i knew about the release) its just like the hood release its on drivers side rear maybe you could do something like that?

being locked in or out of a car is kinda sucky lmao if the battery went dead

You did what i wanted to do with the gap on the strut mount sheet metal to inner fender sheet metal did you weld it up then grind it down and bondo it ?

 

Yeah, thanks that is a good idea and I will probably do somehting like that for an emergency release. Yes again, I had my body shop guys weld, smooth and they used some crap better than bondo, not sure what it was.

Thanks all for the compliments, I was pretty stoked when I got the tail lights mounted! Having the lights on makes the car look more complete. Oh, they are the original tail lights, not new.

 

Your GM LS-1 harness should be in on Monday or Tuesday. I call you when I go down to pick it up.

It's starting to look like a car again!

You'll still need a factory LS-1 ECM from an '02. Chris will hook you up with the owner of MTI to tune it. Jason can tune the factory ECM to run that motor no problem that way we can start it and drive it. Then he'll wide-band tweak it on the dyno. You won't have to go the DFI route. Save the DFI $$$ for the T-56.

Mike

 

Nice nice nice progress Neil! Look like a few late nights. I seem to remember that vaguely...

 

Today's progress: Cleaned the dash and center console and then dyed it a deep, satin black. I didn't dye the air bag lid so you can see the difference......i'll have to get a new one b/c this one is cracked.

 

and I installed the clutch master cylinder and drilled the holes to mount the gas pedal bracket. That's it for now, gonna take a break and maybe get back at it later this evening.

 

I hope you have all of those wires labelled

What are the strut top mounts you are using?

 

Yeah, no labels. I am going to have to go off a wiring schematic and whatever info I can find on this site.

The strut tower mounts are from Spohn, I like them, very solid!

 

That car is going to be so nice man maybe ill get to see it at a show sometime. Is that a 4thgen clutch MC?

 

Yes it is.

 

Neil,
Very awesome work so far. This is definetly going to be one of the finest 3rd gen examples around! Ide feel comfortable calling it the best modified thirdgen Ive seen. Great work!

One question... You do awesome work, and its obvious you have skills...but how the heck did you get the master cylinder to line up so nice??? I measured and checked and all that before I drilled the holes for mine, but it still came out with the rod goin in crooked. I had to modify my holes to make it better, but it still isnt perfect.

Any tips for setting that up? Tweaks to the pedal brackets, spacers, etc etc??

You can PM me if you want so you dont have to clog your thread up with it...

Thanks!

Justin

 

i wana know too!!

 

Thanks for the nice compliments, they are very much appreciated! However, I didn't get it to line up as well as you think, from the the picture it looks pretty damn straight, but when you look down from the clutch pedal there is a slight angle in the rod. Not a big deal and i'll probably have to do what you were getting at and that is use washers and or a very small spacer to get the correct rod angle or should I say to get no angle! Then after shimming it up i'll probably use that insulation tape as a gasket to fill in the gap.

I think it's gotta be a slight difference in the mounting surface on our firewalls relative to the 4th gens which is why the clutch rod doesn't line up perfectly, you agree?

 

Nope, I don't agree...... I've installed all 4 of my conversions straight!

You have to get the rod as close to perfect as you can otherwise when you step on the clutch you will bend that rod. It's not as strong as it looks.

 

Dear Mike,

Kiss my A$$ lol. If you wouldn't have mangled the pedal assembly you got me than probably mine would have lined up too . Perhaps the rest of us are getting pedal assemblies that are slightly missaligned because my holes were marked perfectly to the alignment of the bracket holes and the rod is not perfectly straight like you think it would be. Nevertheless it won't be a big deal to get it straight.

 

Right..."as perfect as you can"... Which can still be angled...which is where me and Neil seem to sit.

I drove mine around fine. That rod is pretty strong, and even at my angle there was no way it was going to bend... Either way, Im not using the stock rod...so I guess I cant vouche too much for it anyhow. Stocker is a two piece deal, mine is solid with a rod end on it.

My pedal assembly was out of a A4 to M6 swap car also, so Im not sure if it was tweaked, but it definetly didnt just line up to my firewall. It was wayyyy off at first. Then I tweaked, and its where it is now. Still with a slight angle. Its SO frustrating because Ive heard of people just dropping it in and having it work. I guess on some cars it falls in place and in others it doesnt...

Anyway, thanks for the info!! Keep up the good progress on that sucker!

Justin

 

My car had a T-5 and I dropped a T-56 in it and that rod lined right up with my pedals. Are you guys just talking about auto cars, that need drilling? (I would assume you are)

 

Yeah...auto cars. I figured the T-5 cars would be ok. I think its just the combination of the 4th gen pedals and 3rd gen firewall. Atleast in my case. Things were just off alittle bit. So when I pushed the master cylinder bracket into place, i pushed it alittle out of whack. Punched my holes and got the crooked alignment.

Justin

 

lol

Haha... Was just giving you crap! The brand new assembly I got you was not mangled you terd!
I do think the firewall on the inside of a 4thgen is different than a 3rdgens' (proof is in the gas pedal allignment). That's why I suggested to use the 3rdgen gas pedal.

FYI for those who care:

The factory two piece clutch master cylinder is weaker than you think. I had to make a new firewall plate and reallign a NEW master cylinder for a customer's car that attempted the conversion himself. He had the rod at a slight angle and after a few months of him driving the car, the rod snapped.

From memory, how I set it up :
I didn't use the brackets to draw out and drill the 2 holes. I removed the bracket arms and made my own template and brace. For the center oval, I used the correct size hole saw to make the top and bottom of the oval, then I used a dremel tool to cut the vertical lines (if that makes sense). The clutch master cylinder rod is perfect allignment to the center of the cylinder the whole stroke of the clutch pedal on the conversions I've done.

But anywho, I think the bracket hole on the left side (driver) is accurate and the other hole on the bracket arm (torwards the console) is the one that is off. Make a U brace/ for the two bolts that way you don't flex the firewall as much.

I called GM today, your harness is on a 1 to 2 week back order. If I get a VIN for an '02 with an LS-1 / Six-speed, I can speed up the order and be 1st in line. Jim's son has an '02 SS with a six-speed. I'll see if I can borrow his VIN.




I don't hear that thing runnin' yet, get that *** in gear!

 

and you aren't going to hear it run without an engine harness . Just giving you a hard time, freakin, mangling my parts, lol. Anyway, when I put the Mcleod clutch in with the Mcleod clutch master cylinder i'll line that biatch up!

 

Hey just keep in mind, I'll have a harness to mangle soon, so better shape up yo!

 

What did you use to dye it black? It would make my search for fourth gen parts a lot easier if I can just dye them black!

 

I used Color Coat by SEM, Satin Black #15243. You can also buy a adhesion promotor made by SEM, but I didn't do that and I never have. I have just made sure the surface was as clean as possible.

 

You will be much happier with an exedy twin disc, it's WAY better than the Mcleod. I think it also comes with an adjustable master/slave and an aluminum flywheel. I forgot to get a part number and price when I went to Jim's on Monday. I'll get it next time when I get the VIN.

 

Sweet progress Neil!! Tell your man to stop mangling the parts......LOL. What's up Mike?? Neil said he wanted you to come and help him hold up the dash...Car is looking really good. I still can't get over the 335's. They are going to leave a sweet patch! Can you say YouTube video???

 

Whats up!

Mine's almost drivable again. Going to hang the rebuilt rear and suspension today. Hopefully next weekend it'll be drivable again. I still need to see you about detailing the ride as soon as it's up and running.

Neil - I got the part number for your clutch. Jim will have a price for you on monday. It's NOT cheap .... holysh*t !! It retails for $2,899.00 !!!
Of course he can get a major break on that though. It's a twin disc stage 4 Exedy and I'm pretty sure it comes with an aluminum flywheel and an adjustable master/slave. But for that price, it should also come with a blonde bimbo and 6 winning numbers!!

 

With the generous help of a friend of mine from work, we were able to get the dash in the car and test-fitted. This is definitely a two man job! After holding the dash up, both brackets close to both doors had to be completely removed. Notching them out as was done by another member in the 4th gen dash sticky, wasn't working for me...so the air cut-off tool and the Rotozip had a little party.

Thanks Bob!

 

i'm movin out to texas near houston to go to uti in october, maybe i'll get a chance to see the car around sometime!

 

More photos to show how the dash mounting tabs are flush with the metal lip (I did have to drill holes about 1/2" wider than the existing holes).

 

Crap, sorry about that........accidentally hit enter! Ok, so the outermost upper mounting tab on the drivers side is about 3/4 - 1" away from the mounting surface (middle pic). Once I have the A/C box installed and the lower dash mounting brackets fabricated and installed, i'll then determine what spacer, if any I will need on the drivers side upper tab. The drivers side, lower mounting tab will take some work as it is in the way of the hood release. I'll have to see what the other guys have done, unless someone has an idea.

 

Absolutely! I have actually met and know some of the instructors as well as the super-intendent.

 

Neil, what do you plan to do with the gaps on the left and right sides by the doors?

 

I'm not certain at this point but thinking of filling the gaps with vinyl covered plastic or aluminum. Just a thought at this point.

 

I see you are having problems with that hood release. I think I can shed some light on that. It all depends what you wanna do. I personally always like how the old school car guys just reach up under the nose, and pull down. (when outside the car) so thats where I relocated mine. Granted I just have a hole where the old one went, for now. I have my entire interior covered in cloth, so I plan to just cover over the hole in the kick panel and and forget about it.

I can get pics of you want. Lemme know.

 

Neil - if you use the 4th gen kick panels they should fill in the hole.

http://www.ms-fbodies.com/jade_ta.htm is a great resource, he has no gap with the 4th gen dash.

 

Thank you for that! I think I do have the kick panels from the 4th gen camaro, so I'll have to plop those right in. That guy did a really thorough and good job on his car!

 

Ever figure out what you are doing wit the new space between the tail light housings and the license plate?

 

looks like it, click this https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...ctures-016.jpg

 

Yeah, that space to me is either acceptable or just not so noticeable anymore, maybe because I have been looking at the car this way for awhile now. When I get the license plate back on i'll get your guys' opinion.

 

Nope. That is stock. The space between those black panels is now about 1.5" wider, per side, than the license plate. So, there is a gap between the plate and those black pieces.

Here is another pic, showing the gaps...before the paint was put on.

 

Here are some not so exciting pics pics of the modified ducting behind the 4th gen dash. I got some very helpful photos from 'Faded' on cutting the 4th gen ducting. Next, i'll epoxy small pieces of plastic on the smaller ports to achieve a proper seal. Pic on the left (before cutting), pic on the right (after).

 

The pic rwdtech posted is not of my car stock. John cut a piece of plastic to cover the gaps on both sides, which goes behind the license plate (obviously no license plate in these pics).

 

Well,the gap is still there, is what meant. That just eliminated any body color showing of the sheetmetal. Still stock housings.

I'd get another set of inner black pieces, plastic weld them together, smooth and sand them, then paint them a semi gloss black, so they appeared stock, just wider.

I'd do the amber to red turn light lenses conversion too.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Looking good Neil!

For those of you in suspense for the airbox, here's a photo I sent to Neil a couple days ago.

 

You guys must be getting bored of these pictures, but here is the 2nd layer of Dynamat, 'Dynapad' going on the firewall. This stuff weighs slightly more than the stock rubber padding and is easy to work with. I've been using Gorilla glue to hold the Dynapad down on the sharp turns and the stock plastic retainers are working well also. Tomorrow I will finish modifying the 4th gen ducting and then by the weekend i'll have the dash in the car with all the duct work installed.

 

Neil did you buy that Z28 emblem with the red bowtie or was it custom made? It's a nice touch..

 

It's custom made, I actually had all the emblems painted on. Very nice car by the way!

 

That's what I figured.

Thanks for the compliment! Can't wait for completed shots of your car.. should make for some awesome desktop material!

 

Hey Neil, what are you still doing up???

 

Yeah, I can't wait to get this thing finished, i'm getting there though. Desktop material, wow, never thought these old Camaro's would ever make it to that level

Thanks again!
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Well, can't seem to get off the computer. I was working on the car til about 10:30, then did some real work, posted some pics. What are you doing up? Wait, let me guess.......ebay!