i pretty much have my project figured out, but i keep looking around for ideas and info on the ideas i have. just to get the ball rolling, and to explain myself a bit, i am building my car in flattened gray paint and a black hood (to look like primer, but not); 17" cragar soft 8s with 275/40s; taillights replaced with aluminum sheet and trailer lights; gutted interior with rhino liner all over the place; gutted doors with no glass, no dash or console, and no visible gauges or switches. why build it this way? part of this is that the car was a $300 175k mile beater and meant to be a project all along, and i don't have the money to build it "right." nothing on the car worked when i got it except the driver's side window, and it has driver's side front end damage. the other reason is that to build it "right" is boring.

the thing is, what is the story out there on what a street car is? to me, it's what the driver is willing to tolerate. as long as it's legal, it's a street car as far as i'm concerned.

 

Im actually doing the same thing with a beat up 85 Firebird SE. Im not going to restore it to its original state but i do want to build it up with new parts and make it run the way a muscle car should...and the way it ran before i took it off jumps :/... Yesterday i got the tank off the car so now its completely stripped but im also wondering what if i need to worry about as far as making it still street legal. Besides lights and all the nessisary equipment to run. I want to strip most of the metal and get a good roll cage.

So i second your question! Whats makes a car a street car??

 

i have tossed around the roll cage idea a few times, but if i don't keep the rear seats, the other half will be displeased, to say the least. what i really want to do is make the thing look like it won't even run. i have an idea for switches that are totally hidden from view so even without door glass, it should be moderately safe in public.

 

Hah yeah i guess you have to listen to that better half good luck with that!... i like the hidden button idea though! What are you going to do for the windows in place of the glass? and as far as the "doesnt look like it can run" look, a friend and i were throwin around the idea of putting the engine in the back so when you pop the hood...no engine :P ...bad idea i know but it was a good laugh

 

"Street car" can mean something different to different people. Other than the obvious that it must be street legal with lights, horn, exhaust etc. To me a street car is something that can be considered a daily driver. A car that can be driven to work every day and can be used to hop down to the store for groceries without needing hours of downtime every time it's used. A street car should also be capable of doing a long highway trip of at least 3 hours without needing major maintenance.

I'd love to have an old model A rat rod. No interior other than padded seats. No heater, no radio, no side windows. Something that can be driven year round even if you have to dress warmly in the winter time. It would have the basics to be street legal but to some, would it still be considered a street car?

 

that is basically how i am doing my 92, like a rat rod. but i have to be careful to not make it to ratty, or the meaning is lost. it has to be built well and run very hard. i want the car to look like a turd until you look close enough to notice the real work and tricks in the car. not just steel truck wheels, but 17s with 275s... not primer, but flattened gray paint... not just a gutted interior, but with panels replaced with new sections of swiss cheesed metal.

door glass? none. i was thinking about making jeep wrangler soft top style windows though.

 

Emory, I've got to say, this sounds pretty interesting man. I'm a big fan of rat rods and the like, and I've always wanted one, but I've got my Camaro instead. I'm planning out how I'm going to clean it up and customize it, and at one point I was considering doing a "homage to the rat rod" using the Camaro.

Basically, street legal means it's got to pass inspection (or lack thereof depending on what state you're in... and if you're in Jersey, just give up now.) Other than that, the sky's the limit! Most rat rods are basically built using whatever metal was available. I've seen beer cans for coolant run-off tanks, old coffee cans that were taillight shrouds, and even street signs for floor pans! (Though I'd buy new ones not steal them off the street...there's a pretty hefty fine, and if you get pulled over....)

I've seen Rebel flags for headliners, those Mexican blankets for seat covers, and non-firing handguns for the top of the shifter! At one point (and I may still do it) I was going to use the top from an old blowtorch (you know the ones that look like a gun barrel, usually seen in 3 stooges movies?) for a hood ornament. Look at different rods that people have built and get your inspiration from there.

On a side note (and this is my opinion) I wouldn't use flat gray as your paint job, but that's me. There is a whole line of flat color paints for hotrods that will give you the flat look, but with an actual color. Check this out:

http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksflatz.aspx

Post pictures, I want to see what you're up to!

 

when i have something to take a picture of, i will. i am still in the middle of my dumpster makeover right now. lots of brackets to remove now that the interior is bare. the carpet was totally soaked from a permanently 1/8" cracked passenger side window, but when i yaked the rug and padding, the floor was cherry. only rust is a spot on the firewall right under the evaporator.

 

I like the soft top type window idea...i had something like that in mind...just have it be a snap on plastic. Each of my doors wheigh 105 lbs so im pretty set on getting rid of most of that weight which means no window. Thinking about smoothing everything out and welding the doors strait on the body and cleaning it up so there are no seams. I've pretty much mastered the Dukes of Hazzard jump throught the window move :P

Do i have to have doors that open to make my bird street legal?
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I Love that man i might go for the rebel flag and handgun shifter...it'll go with my 12 gauge shotty rack -_-

git r' done

 

I remember that. When I first took off my doors and weighed them, they were 105 pounds each. Power mirror and windows, glass, window regulators, inner paneling, etc.

I picked up a couple of unrusted manual doors from the junkyard. I cut out the crash bar, cut out most of the inner steel panel and left just enough metal to hold the window regulator. Removed the mirror and filled in the hole. The new door still with glass and regulator and a piece of aluminum for an inner panel was now 75 pounds. 60 pounds off the car just by doing all that.

Since then I've removed the glass and regulator and installed a solid piece of Lexan for a window. I have no idea what the weight is now. Some fiberglass doors would be nice but around $300 each, I'll pass.

 

I love sleeper cars PLEASE post some pics when your done. I had an 87 sc that my friend gave me when the ecm crapped out. 2 wheels were uni mags 1 was stock and the other was orange from a firebird. The tint was peeling off the back window, no int except driver seat and shifter, and tach. Damn I miss that car.. An F350 ended its short life.

 

Why a different color hood i don't understand it sounds like what sum ***** would do,i get where your going with primer I've been there before , and building it right isn't boring its fun and you know ur car will hold together without duct tape, that rag type window idea i don't think would work very good i don't know how you would manage to do that i don't wanna discourage you, I'm big into customization, I'm just looking for a better explanation of why you picked those choices

 

i think it would be cool.....but a waste of money...if you wanna make a rat rod just build a bada$$ running gear and ******* the rest of the car would be cheaper and recieve the same results

 

the black hood is to simulate gelcoat. i intend to build it right, just not follow convention. the single most important thing is that it will be absolutely bulletproof. i'll do a simple scribble of my soft top window idea and post it soon.

here is the bext explanation i can give for why i am building the car this way... i really like my camaro, but it is a piece of crap. it's a $300 beater that came with a mangled driver's front fender, nose, and hood (it may actually need a whole new subframe). it's a V6 automatic, and nothing works on it but the running gear and the driver's window. i am building the car as cheap as i can, without making the car look like joe dirt drives it. all the real money goes to the running gear (350/350 swap and the suspension to handle it). i basically started taking out all the stuff that was trashed or broken, and realized it was all too expensive to be fixed or replaced; or that i really didn't need it. then i realized i was building a 92 camaro rat rod, but i am going to go in and remove all the unused tabs and fill in a lot of holes; i'm not gonna be all ***** about it.

this thread is actually going a lot better than i imagined. i expected to get completely harrassed here.

 

Paint, chrome and polished aluminum never makes it faster. I always tell people that my car will never win any best engineering awards and it will never win at any car shows but it looks good going down the track and it looks good in pictures and that's all that counts. I painted my car back in 2000 and it's really in need of another paint job. If I ever decided to pull all the decals off the runs and scrapes, it would get painted flat black.

 

Whoever said that they didn't get the different color hood, ever see the old muscle cars back in the day? They had a flat black hood to reduce sun glare in the driver's eyes. Nowadays, you may be accused of trying to make it look like a carbon fiber hood or soemthing. Frankly, with the way my paintjob is, I'd appreciate ANY color as long as it sticks to the primer...

Hey, and what's wrong with an auto V6? I've got one and I have to say it's got more ***** than most of the other V6s on the road today. Again, it ain't going to win any car shows, but she hauls when I drop the hammer...and that's stock!

Funny story - had a buddy of mine in the Camaro one day, haulin' down the highway. He drives a BMW. I punched the gas, and he asked me, why does my car feel like it's taking off and his doesn't? I said because it's got more torque. So, he asked "How can I get more torque?"

I said "Get a new car."

He laughed, then stopped, and looked at me and said "You're not kidding are you?"

Emory, I think you've got a car that is pretty limitless when it comes to possibilities of different ways of setting up these cars. You can add almost any option that was ever offered on a Camaro or 'Bird over a DECADE. I think yours is the first "rat rod" possibility that I've heard of that isn't that way for racing, so I say do whatever you want.

Just post some pics.

On another note, your soft window idea. It intrigues me. Doesn't it get cold where you live? And are you going to replace the rear hatch glass too? That might look cool. Maybe.

BTW, does anyone know where I could get fiberglass doors for a '84 Camaro?

 

there plenty of fiberglass doors out there, your just have to except the fact that you wont have functional windows anymore.. as far as a v6 third gen having more ***** then most other v6's on the road today I really have to disagree with that statement, IIRC the only V6 in a third gen that made over 150hp stock was the turbo buick in the TTA...

 

You know, you just HAVE to burst a guy's bubble don't ya'?

That was just cold hearted man....*snifle*

 

yeah, it gets a little bit cold here in jacksonville (fl), but not for long. i did think about the hatch glass too, but i am afraid of losing too much rear end weight. then again, if i move the battery back there i can gain some of it back

i have entertained the idea of keeping the 6 and putting boost to it, but it has close to 180k, so it'd need a rebuild. might as well slap a 350 in it instead of going through all that effort and money and get much more reliable power

 

I'm latching on so I can see the results...

Very interesting...

 

ok, here is a simple drawing of my soft top window idea. fill in the top of the door and then make holes for the 3 rods. on the inside edge of the door, install nutserts for whatever bolts to be used to secure the soft top.

 

Yeah, I guess down in Florida snow isn't an issue like it is here in Jersey...

I see what you're getting at and it makes sense. I was envisioning snaps all around the door or something like that. Hmm...I wonder what a soft top would look like if you had t-tops and it wrapped across the whole top of the car...

Anyway, I guess it also makes sense not to remove the hatch, you would loose a lot of wieght over the back tires. I don't think the battery is going to help gain more wieght back...unless what you're using is for a cruise ship or something.

Quick thought, isn't the top of the window going to flap against the car at speed? What's to keep it from flopping around?

 

preload. that's how it works on a jeep. it's a metal frame with canvas attached to it. the widow is attached solid at the bottom and zipped on the sides and top. that whole project is further down the list for now.

i have the interior almost totally stripped now. the hood and both fenders are off also. i can now see the damage to the front end. i'd like to keep from having to replace the whole thing, but i may have to. i think it'll be hard to do a subframe swap in a 1 car garage

 

think i would just do a drive train swap.....

 

the most recent description of a street car i heard, was, a car that runs on pump gas....i uh donno bout that, put a pump in a drum of race gas and its pump gas right?

 

yeah, i could do a drive train swap, but other than the nose damage, my car is very solid. the only rust is a palm sized hole in the firewall under the blower motor. even though my carpets were permanently soaked, my floors are near perfect. when i was working on it this past weekend, i was looking at my driver's door, and the hinges are in excellent shape. they squeak like mad, but the is zero sag and no slop in them, even with 180k on the odometer. i also have no intentions of keeping my 3.1/700 combo. basically, all i have is a solid shell from the firewall back and a clear title.

wanna run race gas on the street? i have a buddy that did that with a 14:1 big block 69 Z/28. the way i see it, if you are willing to have a car that can't get too far from home or a gas station/racetrack that sells race gas, then it's still a street car. see, this was the intent of my thread... not to talk about my car.

 

hey 4-4-2 i got you on all your ideas but the soft windows not my thing but its yours thats cool and i wouldnt spray t with bedliner because that will make it as bad as a oven in there(i know i live in florida and drove a friends truck with rhino lined interior)but yea i am doin a rat rod sorta too but im doin a 455h.o. and im buildin it and then the actual lump sum is for the Richmond 6-speed and the chassis and suspension to handle it.

Interior and paint come last(years later)

 

well, i'm gonna hold off on the windows for now. the doors are empty, and all the parts except glass have been dumpsterized. the thing is an oven already, having driven it daily (80-100 miles) from december to june with the driver's window as the only ventilation. i'm sure it can get hotter with the bedliner, but i can't imagine how much. i am in fl too.

i dig your 455/6 speed vibe. i'm tossing around the idea of either a 6-71 or a tunnel ram. but then, i could just buy a hood

 

i'd say my car is a street car and anything faster than me is a race car

 

as long as you keep your tongue firmly in cheek, then by all means, it is a viable definition

 

O.k. what is the difference between a street car, a pro-touring car, or a rest-a-mod? All three names have the same 'basic' things done to the car. Driveline, interior, paint, custom stuff. Are the size of the wheels re-classifying the name of what we are doing?

 

pro touring is Big Red, dan and rj gottlieb's 69 Z28, and the cars that try to be like it. it is the nascar chassis, lingenfelter big block, stock bodied monster that was banned from every race it was entered in when it was built. it ran the silver state classic in 24 minutes and was promptly outlawed.

i believe that "street car" is ambiguous, and restomod is pretty much what most people build

 

a "street car" should be FAST!
plain and simple. dont matter on interior, wheels, tires,seats, paint.
fast=10's BTW.

 

when new Z06s run 11s, yeah, you need to be in the 10s to run your mouth