Man this is a bad car. A definite goal to shoot for. Keep up the great work. looking forward to more interior shots.

 

Well I just spent a VERY long time reading through this thread and have to say very nice job Neil. Couple of questions as I am going to begin a complete make over soon on my 92 z and will start a new thread once that gets under way...Have you done any work like this before or are you learning and doing things as you are going along? I plan to do everything except body work and I will probably have a long block built so I have most of that taken care of as well. But your progress updates and photos really help to make this possible for others.Also, was your car originally a manual car or automatic? I probably missed this earlier, but I will be swapping my auto for a T-56 and was looking to see how(if) you did the swap as well.Great job.

 

So now that you are starting the work on the engine, are you going to be changing the title to "phase 3" ??? Great work gives me some insperation, now all I need is the money!!

 

The favorite part of my car has to be the rear quarter panel mod to tuck in those 335's, then second the ZO6 calipers with the wheels! The motor of course should be pretty sick when I get it finished. I am waiting for the heads and I need to decide on a valve spring, with that said I should have the heads next week. Damn, honestly it's hard to rank it all beacuse I like everything so much. I am sure once the motor is in and running I will probably pass out or cry like my car has just been overhauled on the show Overhaulin......j/k. Little by little I guess you could say I overhauled this thirdgen not in 6 or 7 days but 365+, lol.

 

In regards to your question, alot of this work I have done before, though there are alot of new things I am attempting such as the door poppers...never installed them or thought of mounting a switch in the location I did to get the doors to pop with the push of a button or with the remote (will use one of the aux channels from the alarm brain). The way I look at it, anything is possible especially with the use of this website...I learned how to program proms from this site as well as how to perform other mods. I am happy to share and help out anyway I can since alot of you are so helpful. For example the guy performing the LED mod to the tail lights.....very sweet, I will defintiely be picking his brain!
As for my car, it was originally an automatic and pretty soon i'll be cutting the opening in the trans tunnel for the shifter. That will happen when the motor is about to go in. When I am at that stage I will post as much as possible.
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Good point, time to chat with the moderator again! I am swamped at work, so i'll probably PM him this weekend when I have time to breathe.

Thanks again all of you, I am glad you like the car and the progress! I can start to hear the car run, i'm feeling it!!!

 

but he hasnt finished phase 2 yet unless i missed the finished interior shots

 

Who did your engine work and assembly?

 

G&G Performance Engines in Tomball, TX

 

Great pictures Neil!!!

 

Wow, this site seems to be having some difficulties lately or it is down for maintenance often. Anyway, here are pics of the how I assembled the hose ends to the braided stainless steel fuel hose after I cut it to length. Alot of you can probably do this in your sleep, just thought i'd explain how I did this in case some of you are wondering. First, I wrapped the hose with masking tape where the cut was to be made then, I used my Rotozip to make a nice, clean cut. After cleaning the debris out from the hose, I twisted the hose end on counter-clockwise until the hose bottomed out in the hose end fitting. Then, I added a little oil to the tapered end of the fitting and threads and firmly twisted & turned until the threads started to bite (clockwise). Using a AN wrench, I held the hose end and turned the threaded/fitting until there was 1/16" or less between the two pieces. Note: I will thouroughly rinse these lines with gas using my old pump when I get all the hoses made just to make sure all the crud is gone.

 

More pics of the pump and filters mounted to the tank with the -12 AN feed line from the sump to the pre-filter, -10 AN feed line to the engine/fuel rails from the post-filter and -8 AN for the return line.

 

Nice work Cletus! Not too bad for some hill-billy in Dallas!

 

So Neil,still shooting for a daily driver?I couldn't do it.I have a very beautiful 81 z-28(not as nice as your car though IMO) and I couldn't dream of using it as a daily driver.I know i've said this already but,Very sweet car man,and good luck getting it just the way you want it! Oh yeah,did you get the wiring thing figured out?

 

TIMMYS89GTA,
Yeah, I still want to drive this car daily, at least for a while. Probably after 8-12 months i'll stick her in the garage and drive something else, but I want to enjoy it before I turn it into a weekend warrior. As for the wiring, well, I haven't been too focused on that recently. There are still a bunch of wires that go down the passenger side under the carpet, that I am not sure of. Other than those, I think I have the other harness' figured out. Right, I say that now, surely someone will throw this post back in my face later, lol.

 

Did that 4thgen dash we pulled have the driverside firewall bulk-head connector?

Is it the same size / shape as the 3rdgen bulk-head?

 

"We pulled" LOL, you weren't even there! I am not using thirdgen wiring, the 4th gen light/accessory/power harness goes through the firewall and connects to the 'bulk head connector' no problem

 

What is special about AN wrenches? Can you not use a regular wrench?

 

AN wrenches have notches which prevent gouging of the corners of the fittings

 

Nope, you need to use AN wrenches cause they are a different size than regular stuff... -6, -8 ,-10, and so forth.

EDIT: BTW Neil...this is such a kickass car!

 

I have an adjustable wrench... it is any size...
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Hmm.. Interesting.. Can you post a pic of one of the wrenches to show how that works?

Thanks,
Richard.

 

That would work, but you run the risk of rounding the fittings cause they are made of aluminum...I try not to use crescent wrenches unless I can't help it.

AN wrenches:

 

I have assembled my entire car with open faced wrenches and crescent wrenches with very very minimal scraping. If I was making a car like Neils I would opt for the added cost of AN wrenches, but believe me, you will not round them off. I have cranked down to the point of warping the cone on some a long time ago when I had no idea what I was doing and they never even got nicked.

I can count about 30 connections from the top of my head on my car that are AN, and I have never even warped the outside of my cheepo summit connectors. I have scrapped a couple a little. So the blue anodize came off. But no big deal. They are tinny scrapes.

Anyways, just wanted to say that.

Neil: car looks great. Those SS lines look great. You gonna run them all the way up like that or you going to go hard line, then back to braided?

 

meh...maybe I just have crappy crescent wrenches... I am ok with using open ended wrenches...I've never had problems with them.

Anyway, back on topic...! I want to see more interior shots!

 

I am going to run braided SS all the way up to the engine. The only problem area under the car is where the stock fuel filter was. The line needs to make a 45-60 degree bend and I think I can achieve that with mounting brackets without putting too much stress on the line.

As far a AN wrenches, well, I am not as good as you Dennis as I have marred (sp?) AN fittings in the past with regular adjustable wrenches. So, I bought these and all is well so far.

 

Yeah, I need to get back to the interior don't I! Tonight I am stripping off my old weatherstrip channels as the new ones that came in the kit which I already painted are the wrong size! They are too short. So, I found my original weatherstrip channels (the ones which mount to the A-pillar) and i'll get them cleaned tonight and painted by the end of the week. Then i'll install all the T-top rubbers...ah I said rubber! lol. Next will be covering the headliner and installing that, though I would like to get the radar detector wired before I put up the headliner...i'm still thinking of the Valentine One, alot of people praise that thing.

 

What do you mean I wasn't there? Who carried the other side of the dash out of that wrecked 4thgen when we were over at Jim's shop? That's right, it was me! And you're welcome for the hook up!

WHo's your pappy now Cletus! Lol

 

excellent progress. truely a one of a kind 3rd gen camaro when its all said and done. love reading through your thread, keep it up! maybe my sport coupe will be 1/50th as nice as what you've created!

 

Damn, thanks for the compliments! I'll probably say this another 50 times but I can't wait to get this car running down the road!

 

FYI - the dash numbers of AN fittings are just the prefix of a fraction, if I remember correctly they are of 16th's, so a -8 would be a 1/2" (8/16") and a -10 would be a 5/8 (10/16). It was the military way of creating a uniform measure to replace fractional increments. It may be 32nd's, I've been wrong before! Enough history - back to topic!
Awesome, awesome, awesome!

 

You are correct

 

Alright guys, I am back on the interior. I finished running the door switch/popper wires through the door and into the car. Popper relays are mounted and I ran a separate 12volt feed (using 10 ga wire) to these relays and I will also use this feed for the window motor relays (when I get to that), this should help maintain a continuous 12v to the window motors and prevent the sluggish window opening/closing.
Steering wheel is in, but I can't find the 3 bolts which mount the steering wheel housing on the fire wall. Does anyone happen to know what size they are? Metric or standard, I bet metric and if so what is the size; 8, 9 or 10mm and thread pitch and length? I thought I was organized...appareantly not. I swear I have spent HOURS looking for stuff or going to the Home Depot to buy new bolts for example because I can't find my originals.
Also, I added my original Z28/IROC-Z dash emblem to the new dash. Drilled a few holes in the lid and it popped in quite nicely! Keeping some of the 'old' with the 'new'!

 

Couple more....

 

You're going to have to pull the carpet back out when you do the shifter cutout on the tranny tunnel. The thick steel brace where the factory automatic shifter bolted to is going to require alot of grinding with a cutoff wheel in order to remove it. It's going to make alot of carpet melting sparks...... You have to remove the brace before you can even access the tranny tunnel to cut the hole.

As far as the steering column bolts go..... you need to think back to your hill-billy roots. JB weld fixes most problems in this case!

 

Yeah, I realized that LOL. 1bad91Z, I need constructive advice here

 

Dude I've been watching this build up a little by little, and I got a lot of respect for you and this car. It's bad ***, something I'm not sure anyone has done before with a 3rd gen. But the one thing I can't figure out still, is why a third gen? Couldn't you have just bought a vette or elise or anything else and gotten the same result? But at least you are being different. Awesome job.

 

That is exactly it my friend, you nailed it! No one has done this before and buying a new ZO6 vette would be nice, but I wouldn't get the same satisfaction from it. Also from a $$$ standpoint and not that I am looking to sell this car at all, but I bet you in 10-12 years my car will appreciate in value and the value of a 2007/08 vette will have depreciated significantly. Of course there are many caveats and ways of looking at this, but bottom line, I like the 3rd gens and I have always wanted to trick out a car this way!

 

Neil, i hope i am 1st to offer this. Please sell me your car when you decide to part with it ( I am 100% serious). And i live in Houston so it will always be nearby.

 

What you should have said was "Hey Cletus, you better have that beater running in time to make the December gathering!"

Neil - I'll call you tomorrow about the column bolts. If I can get them new from GM, do you want me to order them?

 

BRAVO NEIL!Now where is that vette that blew by you on your commute home?He will definately have a new respect once you get that corrolla running and you hand him his a%# on a platter with bean dip of course!LOL

 

LOL, yeah I can't wait to run some vettes out there! On another note, speaking of having your *** handed to you....ARP, you know the bolt company, well I bought a set of head studs for the LSX block and OMG, I don't even want to type how much they charged me for those things, but they were north of $300!

So, the last couple of days I have been running wires and setting up power distribution blocks for both positive and negative connections. Since I am always trying to find a spot for accessories, here is where they will be connected, along with relays. Still have more to do, but this is where I am so far.

 

sweet baby jesus man i will trade you my mother for that damn car, but seriously that is gorgeous you my friend, are dedicated

 

So, Brennan, be careful what you offer....is your mom HOT? LOL! I know that was wrong on so many levels, but hey you offered her up! I hope your mom doesn't read these posts . Thanks for the compliments though!

 

LOL! Shouldn't it be required for people post pics of their trade "items"????

 

Neil, I've never posted to your thread although I've watched / read it pretty religiously because your project "outdid" mine. I wanted to give you sh*t because the wire / terminal pic you posted had a nice clear shot of "Made In China".....BUT I didnt' because your project KILLS all before it. Nice job man, please tell me you're going to post videos once this beast is on the road.

 

Dude, way too funny and as I posted that pic I new I would be getting **** from someone......LOL! Hopefully that $5.00 relay holds up, we'll see? Oh and you better believe i'll have videos. I'll have one and only one massive burnout for you all on vid...those tires weren't cheap. Thanks again, I am glad you like this build as much as I do.

Here's a couple of pics with the headight covers laid on. Not sure how I am going to fasten them. I want to be able to use them for highway driving and remove them and have no signs that they were ever there. I'll mess with this when I get the car running.

 

Those lights cost as much as my whole car! But man, they are shiny

 

i have the exact set up on my car....lol but black headlight buckets =)

 

Very nice car!!! Nice color too!

 

Wow man, I like alot of others just found this thread, its taken me 3 days to get thru every post and all i can say is....well i dont know what to say that is the nicest third gen ive ever seen. I got my first one in '99, and it took me until last year to get another one, drove it for a year and rear ended somebody about 2 weeks ago. I have always wanted to build my own custom 3rd gen camaro, and i figure if its tore apart anyways what better time to start then now? Then I fine this thread and WOW! Ill never be able to afford to build one that nice, but you have given me some great inspiration! Thanks for the step by step pictures and letting us all see it go thru the transformation. Hopefully I can post some pics of mine when its done. Thanks again, Matt.

 

You ou could attach some L brackets to the headlight covers with some allen buttonhead bolts, epoxy some neodymium magnets to the bracket, and then glue say, felt or foam to the magnet so it doesn't scratch the paint, and then epoxy another magnet on the inside of the bumper. I'm pretty sure the magnets would be strong enough to hold those bad boys on. If all else fails, keep adding more magnets!