I had no idea where to put this so if your a moderator here and don't like it here you can move it. I can't believe there is no member rides category anywhere.. any way
I just realized I never made a build thread for this car. Just a brake upgrade thread. So here it is.

I bought this car in High School in 2003 from my parents. My mom bought this car and never drove it. It just sat. It had a short in the cable going to the battery and it kept dying on her. She didn't know why until I bought it off her. Found the problem, replaced the cable, and it has run fine ever since.





The car is originally a 305 5.0 TPI car. With a 700R4 trans and a 3.23 POSI read-end and had 40,000 miles on it. Never seen a winter, no rust, and original paint. The engine wasn't the cleanest one out there and it was bone stock.





Back in high school I was into stereo systems so I had built and installed a custom enclosure with two 12" Kenwood subwoofers, an amp and Capacitor.

 

With the 305 still in the car I added a big *** lopey cam and I thought I was a badass mother****er. A few months later it wiped out a cam bearing. Did some thinking and decided to build a completely new engine. I had enough of that 305 boat anchor bullshit and knew it had to be at least a 350 cubic inch. At the time I thought swapping an LS motor and electronics was going to be too much work. I settled on a 350 ZZ4 iron block with forged internals. Picked up a nice pair of RHS heads. Comp Cams ***** Thumper Cam with lifters, pushrods, springs and a roller rocker stud girdle. Also added a pricey TPIS Mini-Ram Intake manifold. Larger 58mm throttle body. 42lb injectors. With an MSD 6AL. At this point I regret just not getting an LS based motor but it's kind a unique motor that most people dont see anymore.





Old 305 Parts:

 

New Parts:

 

 

I know I had made separate build thread for this brake upgrade, but I wanted to make a complete thread for the whole car. I decided last winter that I really wanted to update the look of my car. My stock IROC wheels were peeling and the braking power wasn't the greatest. So I decided it was time to upgrade the braking system on my Camaro. I searched forums and many websites to get ideas of where to go with this. I originally started with wanted to just do an LS1 upgrade. The further I got looking into it, the C5 Corvette brake set-up wasn't much more and looked way bigger. I was contemplating on cutting the spindles myself and make my own brackets. But the more I thought about it, this could cost me much more time and money than it's worth. So I knew about a site called www.bigbrakeupgrade.com. I emailed them with all my questions concerns. Scott (runs the upgrade site) emailed me back everyday until all my questions were answered. He was very informative and helpful. You basically send your stock spindles in as a core and then they will send back everything you need. They even offer powder coating.







The Old Spindles are off.

 

Once I got the spindles off and ready to ship out, I really examined everything in the wheel well and decided I might as well clean it up while I have everything apart. My underbody coating was cracking and falling off. My springs, struts, and control arm were still in perfect functioning condition but just looked rough. So I decided to powder coat the control arm and clean and paint the other parts. I also wanted to fix the cracking rubberized coating in the wheel well, so I scrapped it all off and recoated it.

 

I tried a few different ways to get the bushing out of the control arms. I tried getting them pressed out and drilling the centers out in hopes that they would just fall apart. Then, thanks to youtube I found a very simple way to remove them. All you need to do is drill a drill bit in between the edge of the bushing and the wall of the control arm. Start the drill slowly and it will start walking around the outside of the bushing. After no time at all the bushing pushed itself out.











Finally got the control arms back from the powder coater.

 

New Stainless Steel Brakelines











And Finally, New Brake Kit arrived )))))))



With the Rears:


New Bushings:




And the New Rims in:

 

I decided to go with Nitto 555 tires. I put some Nitto 555R Drag Radials in the back.

Sneak Peak:


View Through the wheels.


Since I had the springs off all winter, the car sits higher than is did before the winter. She has been lowering a bit each week. She should sit back down where she was before I took everything apart. When I had my engine out the car did the exact same thing. It looked like I jacked the front end up.



After a nice fresh buff:

 

I took the stereo system out awhile ago and no longer have one in the car just a head unit. The front end could use some more lowering but the car stays in a underground garage with a steep incline drive to get it out. It scrapes sometime as it is, so I am waiting until I get a place to keep it that I can just drive straight out of and not worry about ripping the front end off the car.

I'm currently installing a 4th gen rear end. I am going to be tearing it down and putting a 4.10 Motiv gear in it. I have a "LS1" Brake set-up to put on that with matching rotors and powder coating as the fronts. The 4th gen rear end is a tad longer than the third gen unit and won't require me to have spacers on the back which is a good thing and put the wheels where they need to be.

Also planning on ripping out the trans and getting it re-built with better internals, a shift kit and putting a 3500 stall converter in it. My car is a dog right now without it. So hopefully by this summer it will all be done so I can see what this engine has got. Maybe I won't hold the non LS engine decision over my head.

 

Here is the second start up video. I know **** doesn't run right. It smoking because of oil on the header, and it's not the greatest. It is was it is.

And one of me backing up for a photoshoot.

 

Car looks great! You did a nice job. Nice idle too. Are you still running on the stock chip?

 

Nice looking car

 

Nice car! What kind of brake set up is that up front? Did you have to modify anything or was is just bolt on?

 

man thats effin nice! i love everything bout that car you did a really good job, whats up with that cobra too is it yours?

 

Nah, the chip had to be reprogrammed. Everything is bigger and nothing close to stock. It ran with the stock chip but the air/fuel ratio was bad. I was dumping gas into my engine. TPIS made a custom chip for me.

 

You just need to modify the spindles. You have to cut of the mount for calipers and make a custom mount to mount the new size calipers. Here is a link to show how to do it.
http://lukeskaff.com/?page_id=396

 

The Cobra is my buddies. We have been working on it for a while. He just swapped his supercharger for a 2.9 Whipple. Should be making over 700hp now. We just have the rear end to put in and finish up a few lines for the fuel system. Running three fuel pumps.

 

So winter is upon us and it's time to do some more work on the IROC-Z. I just picked up a 4th Gen rear end from a guy in Indiana. The 4th gen rear ends are 4" longer than the 3rd gen ones. This way I won't have to run a set of spacers on the rear anymore.



I am going to clean her up, and paint her with a rust seal coating from KBS Coatings. I am going to be pulling the trans and sending it off to be rebuilt. While everything is basically off from the underside I am going to strip the undercoating and re-seal everything.

I also purchased a Motive gear to put in the rear end. I currently have a stock 3.23 gear. That **** isn’t doing anything good for my car. I am going with a 4.10 set-up. I picked up and installation kit that includes all new bearings, shims, seals, and sleeves.







I will be swapping the rear brakes to the “LS1” ones. I got them powder coated to match the front set-up. Also got a set of cross-drilled, slotted rotors to match.





I will take more photos during the process. I should be starting stripping the rear end tomorrow.

 

Car looks great dude! Awesome swap!
What cam did you go with?

 

subscribed!

 

Your IROC Z sticker in the wrong place. But cool whip

 

Why? My '87 is in the same place.

 

My 87 is closer to the rear wheels on the site some where it tells u the locations

 

Maybe yours is in the wrong place. I don't think they moved back until 88.



To the OP, Great looking car!


What is the Moog "problem solver"?

 

Thanks Man! Went with the Comp Cams ***** Thumr Cam

 

hahah they didn't move the sticker back until 88. Mines original paint still and the stickers haven't been off since they were put on in the factory. Must have gotten yours painted and placed in the wrong spot. lololol

 

Never heard of it? It just the ball joint but designed for racing/heavy duty applications.

 

Maybe lol sweet car though did u get it dynoed, who did your tuning

 

No Dyno yet, Working on getting my trans together this winter and rear end complete. Then I'll take her to get dynoed. TPIS in Minnesota did my tuning.

 

Nice car, looks & sounds great.

The "problem solver" ball joints are usually either adjustable or redesigned in some way to compensate for suspension issues that can't otherwise be adjusted, made greaseable, etc.. The problem solver series is available to most suspension parts for most cars, I have them on my 98 Honda Accord. Nothing to do really with performace or race applications, just a fancy term for their R&D replacement parts. http://www.moogproblemsolver.com/

 

Brando look like u have the TES headers do u have the matching y pipe. I have some umi sfc and it look like the y is in the way on the left side

 

Do u have sfc

 

Sweet setup!! Very nice build!

 

Yes I have the TES headers and the matching Y-Pipe. I don't understand what else you are asking/saying? Everything fit perfectly on mine, besides the 7 quart oil pan I had. I couldn't use it and had to stick with the stock one.

 

lol sorry SFC sub-frame connectors. Do you have them, I got some UMI SFC but the Y Pipe is in the way on the right side. I had them for a year and i either have to get some long tubes or mod the stock Y which I might do. I'm thinking 2 inches off where the 2 pipes meet into 1. Or do you have a different brand that works. My car came from cali wish my paint was as clean as yours I hope i can paint it

 

I love it! The color is my favorite too. After I get my 69 camaro done I will be working on my new 89 IROC lol. Could be 30 years or so from now haha.

 

Nice looking car man keep the updates coming!

 

Other than the 4th gen axel being longer, is there any other differences ???? Will it just bolt up..and stick out more???

 

4th gen rear bolts right up.

Run 4th gen offset wheels or they'll stickout.

 

Thanks...

 

Yup, no other differences. The main purpose is to not have to run spacers in the rear to mount the 4th gen wheel too it.

 

sick thread