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next up was to mount the oil breather tank I got at the swap meet. Another good $15 deal, complete with K&N filter. The valve cover breathers are from Dorman at $7 a piece. Firewall bracket is 1/8 aluminum.
All hoses are 5/8".
I stripped off the headlights and all of the wiring tagging some of the less obvious connectors to make reassembly a little easier. also as I was taking apart, I bagged and tagged the bolts, nuts, adel clamps, etc. so I wouldn't be scrambling for small parts when reassembled.
So many of my panels have been made from scrap metal from different sources, stop signs, furnace duct work, food prep table and part of a clothes dryer. Some of the pictures of the car during construction look like a patchwork quilt. I set about cleaning, sanding and painting them. Since the ones from the front of the car were for the radiator or mounted behind the headlights the were all painted flat black.
Oh yeah, I painted the hood prop rod bright red. Maybe I'll see it and not whack my head on it!
X brace and aluminum panel. These were pop riveted together after painting.
The air cleaner/air pan for the cowl hood. Made from the 18" cake pan.
and the steering parts. I decided that these should be gloss black. Gloss is easier to keep clean.
I'll pull the drive shaft, and tko 600 from the bottom, then pull the engine from the top. A lot of cleaning and sanding after that to paint engine compartment and underbody. Car body, engine compartment and underbody will be a urethane gloss white. Under the hood all suspension and steering parts will be gloss black. I haven't decided on the interior yet. I have light grey cloth seat covers for the Kirkey seats and a darker gray carpet to put down. I don't know if I should paint interior the gloss white and trim in gray or paint the interior all gray. I'm thinking the white with gray trim but idk.
Nice work. Paint sure makes a difference. Waiting to see the cars overall profile with the hood. Lot of talented people on Third gen.
NS
Tex and everyone else that has followed me on this,long journey. I want to apologize for the slow pace as the car gets nearer to completion. I have read to many aggressive build threads that get so far along and just stop, or the car gets sold and we never see it completed.
i'm over the hump, the big work is done, just paint and tidy up loose ends. But life has thrown me a couple of curve ***** these last couple years health wise and it has really slowed the progress down. I've set a goal to get the car stripped bare by end of the month, hopefully sooner so paint work can begin.
To Tex and everyone else that has followed my build for do long. I have been suffering from the affects of trigeminal neuralgia for the past 3 yrs. The constant pain in my head caused me to quit working and go on disability. I have taken several different drugs and gone through 6 nerve block procedures trying to decrease the level of pain. Nothing has worked to date. The pain increased significantly these past few months leaving me pretty much bed ridden thru February and March.
back in November I started to strip the car down for paint, a job that should have taken a week or so. It is still not completely stripped but close. I was hoping to get he engine bay, interior and underbody cleaned and primered before I turn the car over to someone to do the actual body work an paint.
The plan was to have it painted by now and be reasembleing the car now so I could drive it this summer. Now it looks like it will probably get painted this fall and and I'll be driving it again next spring.
You know what they say..."If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans."
I feel bad because I wanted to see this project through and post results of my driving experiences with all the suspension mods. I didn't want to be another grandiose project that never got finished and just faded from tgo. My goal is still to complete it and drive it and beat the crap out of it at autox and track days. Hopefully God is a gearhead will and help me out some.
To everyone that has expressed good wishes I thank you and please keep me in your prayers.
It seems God still is not done testing my faith and resolve. On 4-23-18 my wife suffered a massive stroke while we were working in the yard. She was pronounced brain dead on the 25th and passed away that evening. I'm just starting to get my feet back under me. I've got family near to me so help is there when I need it.
On a positive note in the weeks since I have found an herbal suppliment, CBD oil, that has really helped with the head pain. No thc so not getting high. Only been on it a few,weeks but it seems to be effective.
thanks again for all the encouragement. I'll get back on it as soon as I can.
this is the only thread im sunscribed to on this forum. i was waiting on an email and was disappointed it wasnt what i was waiting for, but after hearing that ive remembered to appreciate the time we have with our loved ones.
im sure weve all been struck by tradgedy, i recently lost a cousin who i promised to take for a ride when i finished my car. still not done yet, but at least somebody said hey man, ill come chill with ya. remember the good times pal, thats part of what makes working on older cars so great.
ill be watching bud, im working out my own kinks but even the idea of having my old z back is enough to make it all worth while.
It seems God still is not done testing my faith and resolve. On 4-23-18 my wife suffered a massive stroke while we were working in the yard. She was pronounced brain dead on the 25th and passed away that evening. I'm just starting to get my feet back under me.
I'm so sorry, Dave.
Philippians 1:3-6
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ"
Tex, it's been a while since I last posted but project isn't dead, just dormant. It's been a tough 3 years with getting sick, having to stop working, then colon cancer, and my wife passing away earlier this year. I am finally at a place health wise that I can get back on it and get it done. I should start posting again in early January. Right now the car is pretty well stripped down. I've got to kick out the windshield to finish up some welding inside.
With the front wheels moved forward the inner sidewall of the tires just touches the factory spring pockets at full lock. I've debated back and forth whether to dimple them in with a hammer or cut them out entirely. I've decided to cut them out and plate the area leaving a nice flat sided frame rail.
So anyway things are starting to look up finally, at least health wise. Getting back to working on the car can only improve my mental outlook. Before I got sick and things went down hill, keeping a steady stream of posts was motivation to go out and work on the car week after week. Hopefully I'll be able to do that again. Having been able to drive this car last year and confirming that it is at least road worthy if not track worthy makes me anxious to get it painted and on the road where I can tweak and tune it into something really special.
With all that you've been through, you've accomplished so much. You have definitely given me the inspiration to start working towards my car. You're doing a fantastic job at it and I loved reading how you did everything step by step. I hope you can get your health back on track - that's the most important thing. I'll be keeping up with you so update us whenever you make some changes to your car, no matter how small. Good luck and you'll be in my thoughts!
I'ld like to thank everyone that has followed along over the last 8 years. Your interest in my project and your encouragement and support were a big part of my motivation to see this project through. I want to wish everyone here a very merry Christmas and hope 2019 is a good year for us all.
Hey guys just want you to know I'm still around and the project is still alive. I finally broke down and paid photo bucket their ransom so I could get my pictures released so at least you can see what was done up until 2018.
If you want to make God laugh just tell Him your plans. We'll my plan was to get back on the 83Z finish my welding and get it to a body man to make it sort of pretty. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I decided to take a couple weeks, pull the 700r4 out of my son's 84 berlinetta and go back through it to fix a 3-4, 4-3 hunt while cruising. The trans has a full manual transgo kit in it along with the good clutches, bands and servos. Upon disassembly I found a crack in the case at the bellhousing (not at a stress point), and a crack in the reverse input housing. Since I had a good working stock 700r4 from my 83Z I decided to gut that case and put in all the good parts from the modified trans. That decision doubled the work I had to do.
Both trans were later model 30 spline units but the one from the Z had the auxiliary valve body and the one from the berlinetta did not. It took a lot of looking, double checking, and head scratching to match up valve body gaskets, seperator plates, check ***** etc. plus add in the modifications per transgo. Long story short, with the trans back in the car I've got no 2-3 shift. Trans stays in second and then shifts to 4th.
After a call to transgo the tech refers me to page 5 of their instruction sheet that covers the mods to the 2-3 and 3-4 shift valves. He points out the roll pin that retains the aluminum sleeve in the 2-3 valve body bore. There is a slot shown on the side of the sleeve at its outer end, parallel with the roll pin. To me and apparently many others installing this kit, it infers that the pin slides down through the valvebody, into the groove and retains the sleeve, shift valve and spring. NOPE!!!! "Yeah, we don't make that real clear in the instructions" the tech says. "The pin actually goes in another notch on the other side of the sleeve that is not in the picture." I'm nearly 100% sure I reassembled that valve as per their picture. They provide no written instructions and it wasn't covered in their vcr (yes a vcr was in the box!). So now I've got to drain it, pull the pan and check the position of the sleeve and retainer pin while ATF drips on my face.
Oh but wait, that was my plan 4 weeks ago! God had other ideas and really likes picking on me. I was out to dinner with friends and started experiencing sharp abdominal pains. After a couple hours and the pain getting worse I was taken to the ER and was diagnosed with a blockage in my small intestine. I left the hospital 11 days later, 15lbs lighter, and 23 staples holding my belly together. I'm finally on the mend and healing up well. It will be a good 4 weeks before I can safely get under a car and stretch and strain my abdomen. Maybe God doesn't want me working on cars, I don't know.
Anyway enjoy looking at the restored photos and really guys I am going to finish this car even if I have to make a deal with the devil!
dammit man grab a belt, sinch it tight, keep your guts inside and get that thing rolling! ive been subscibed to this thread for years and years and i wont be satiafied until i see it running and driving. glad to see somebody has the guts( no pun int.) to stay on it all this time. you must truly love your car. i had to rebuild mine twice and swap everything over onto a new body to get mine back after some guy tboned me back in 09! i have to say its been worth it though, what ive got now is truly a whole new experience than the 92 rs i had back then and im sure a few misc bolts and parts from that car get to be driven once again.
dammit man grab a belt, sinch it tight, keep your guts inside and get that thing rolling! ive been subscibed to this thread for years and years and i wont be satiafied until i see it running and driving. glad to see somebody has the guts( no pun int.) to stay on it all this time. you must truly love your car. i had to rebuild mine twice and swap everything over onto a new body to get mine back after some guy tboned me back in 09! i have to say its been worth it though, what ive got now is truly a whole new experience than the 92 rs i had back then and im sure a few misc bolts and parts from that car get to be driven once again.
CatmanFS thanks got the encouragement. I'll be back on it as soon as I'm am able. Because of my fab skills I get a lit of request from other local 3rd gen owners to help with their projects. I build custom exhaust, sub frame connectors, seat mounts etc. A good friend of mine bought a real clean 86 firebird that had been drag raced in Virginia. My friend just had an 8.50 cert cage installed in it. The car is getting a turbocharged 5.3 LS motor that should make 750 to 800 rwhp. I've been asked to build the hot and cold sides to the turbo, the complete exhaust system, mount the seats and any other fab work that might be needed. Oh yeah I also was asked to assemble the motor. They're hoping to race the car by August so I'll be busy trying to get their car to the track.
Text, thanks for asking a out me. I haven't posted because no work on the car for quite a while. However life is moving along and things are getting back to normal, so hopefully I can get back to working on and completing the car. Over the last 14 months I have fallen in love and remarried at the age of 65. I've been remodeling my home of 42 years and it will go up for sale next month. My new wife and I purchased a new home together but it needs a garage for my car stuff. That should be completed by May.
I did have a few car buddies come help me reassemble most of the Camaro to try and make sure I dont lose any parts during the move. Also it was a running and driveable car before I tore it back apart so hopefully I can drive it in a few weeks to its temporary storage site.
I can't wait to get back on it and get it "finished". These last 5 years have been pretty rough but I'm in a much better situation now than before all of my health problems.
Text, thanks for asking a out me. I haven't posted because no work on the car for quite a while. However life is moving along and things are getting back to normal, so hopefully I can get back to working on and completing the car. Over the last 14 months I have fallen in love and remarried at the age of 65. I've been remodeling my home of 42 years and it will go up for sale next month. My new wife and I purchased a new home together but it needs a garage for my car stuff. That should be completed by May.
I did have a few car buddies come help me reassemble most of the Camaro to try and make sure I dont lose any parts during the move. Also it was a running and driveable car before I tore it back apart so hopefully I can drive it in a few weeks to its temporary storage site.
I can't wait to get back on it and get it "finished". These last 5 years have been pretty rough but I'm in a much better situation now than before all of my health problems.
Glad to hear things have turned around for you. Welcome back. I look forward to seeing your car finished and driving. Wishing you continued happiness and good times moving forward.
I can't wait to get back on it and get it "finished". These last 5 years have been pretty rough but I'm in a much better situation now than before all of my health problems.
just a quick update...I was able to reassemble the car and get it running. I drove it several miles to check everything out and drove it about 40 miles to a temporary storage site. This was the first time I drove the car with the splines away bar on the front and I'm happy to report that it caused no suspension or steering issues. The power from the 383 makes the car a real beast. It takes a light touch on the throttle and clutch to keep from breaking the tires loose. I'm still amazed that for all of the major suspension and steering modifications I've done you would think its stock when driving the car. It steers and tracks like a stock Camaro. The ride is a bit harsh but I blame that more on the stiff springs than the rod ends on the suspension. One other positive thing is that construction of the new garage at the new house starts next week. My goal is to have it completed with heat and electric by early fall so I can get back to finishing this project over the winter.
just a quick update...I was able to reassemble the car and get it running. I drove it several miles to check everything out and drove it about 40 miles to a temporary storage site. This was the first time I drove the car with the splines away bar on the front and I'm happy to report that it caused no suspension or steering issues. The power from the 383 makes the car a real beast. It takes a light touch on the throttle and clutch to keep from breaking the tires loose. I'm still amazed that for all of the major suspension and steering modifications I've done you would think its stock when driving the car. It steers and tracks like a stock Camaro. The ride is a bit harsh but I blame that more on the stiff springs than the rod ends on the suspension. One other positive thing is that construction of the new garage at the new house starts next week. My goal is to have it completed with heat and electric by early fall so I can get back to finishing this project over the winter.
This is great news! I know exactly how you feel, I had the same experience with my build on it's first drive. It is a good feeling when you see all the work you put into your car pay off handsomely. I noticed the same thing about the splined anti-sway bars, they react instantly without being harsh. It does take some finesse getting the car moving without spinning the tires, my exhaust attracts enough attention, I don't want to give the police anymore reasons to pull me over. Congratulations on the successful first drive, but that only leads to wanting to drive it all of the time.
Hi Dave, hope all is going well!
Have you made any more progress on the car?
Tidan, thanks for checking in. No work on the car as its in storage while I finish the new 24x32 garage at my new house. The structure is up now I've got to cut a couple 100ft trenches to run gas and electric to it then wire, plumb and insulate the walls. My plan is to have garage done by Thanksgiving and work on the car over the winter.
Hey guys just giving you an update. No work on the car but the garage is near move in ready. Got heat and electric, just need to get walls and ceiling paneled over the insulation. From May through October my wife and I worked on her 104 year old house and got it sold. We finally just have the new house to take care of now. I ran the gas and electric out to the garage myself (100 ft trench), ran all the wiring for wall outlets and lights, and mounted a 80,000 btu garage heater. Things were moving along pretty well till I went to put up the 4x8 ceiling panels. It seems that the builders that put up the garage didn't spend much time making sure the roof trusses were spaced 24" on center. When we went to put up the panels we found spacing anywhere between 23" to 26" and different from the front of the garage to the back. I guess thats what I get for accepting the low bid. Anyway once the paneling is up I can move all my tools and the car in and get back to it. Hopefully, finally, I'll be getting back to working on the car. Thanks again for to everyone that followed my insanity and encouraged me to build my car my way, and for all the prayers and well wishes during my personal trials.
Hard to imagine carpentry that sloppy . . . looks like you're in for running the 8' direction of your paneling across the trusses rather than along them. And accepting the additional waste as the cost of fixing their screw-up.
Hard to imagine carpentry that sloppy . . . looks like you're in for running the 8' direction of your paneling across the trusses rather than along them. And accepting the additional waste as the cost of fixing their screw-up.
Norm
Norm, good to hear from you again. I ended up running 1x3 furring strips perpendicular to the trusses on 24" centers. More money and time but I think that will solve the problem. The contractor had a couple "friends" help him when the trusses and roof sheeting went up. It was during the covid lockdown last April. It was cheap labor and I'm sure his buddies were laid-off and he was trying to help them out. One other thing they did was install the truss tie-down brackets incorrectly. Most of them were installed too low on the truss leaving an edge that hung down and interfered with anything that had to sit flush against the top of the wall. I had to go around the garage with a 4 1/2" cutoff wheel and trim them flush to the wall. Just poor craftsmanship and a real PITA to fix.
Well we're officially back in business. The car is in the new garage. Even though there are still many tools and parts to put away i made room for the car and the ramps. After sitting for nearly 18 months the car started right up and drove fie the 20 miles to the new garage. 88 degrees, stop and go traffic and the te
Well we are officially back in business. After sitting nearly 18 months in storage the 383 roared to life and drove 20 miles to the new garage without issue. There are still a ton of tools and parts to sort through and put away but I made room for the car to be wo r ked on and set my work ramps up in one bay. After the car ran so well on the trip to the new house I was excited to take it to a third gen group meeting this past Sunday. Well what should have been an hour drive turned into 2 hours as the car started to loose power, backfire out the exhaust and eventually stall. It would instantly restart but not run well. Letting it sit for 20/30 minutes and it would go like he'll again but only for a few miles and then start to loose power. Everytime I pulled off and let it cool down it would restart but only run for shorter and shorter intervals. It was hot, in the high 80s but temp was just below 200*. I thought it might be vapor lock in the fuel bowls but when I pulled the air filter there was no fuel vapor present and the car restarted pretty clean. I finally called on
Well we are officially back in business. After sitting nearly 18 months in storage the 383 roared to life and drove 20 miles to the new garage without issue. There are still a ton of tools and parts to sort through and put away but I made room for the car to be wo r ked on and set my work ramps up in one bay. After the car ran so well on the trip to the new house I was excited to take it to a third gen group meeting this past Sunday. Well what should have been an hour drive turned into 2 hours as the car started to loose power, backfire out the exhaust and eventually stall. It would instantly restart but not run well. Letting it sit for 20/30 minutes and it would go like he'll again but only for a few miles and then start to loose power. Everytime I pulled off and let it cool down it would restart but only run for shorter and shorter intervals. It was hot, in the high 80s but temp was just below 200*. I thought it might be vapor lock in the fuel bowls but when I pulled the air filter there was no fuel vapor present and the car restarted pretty clean. I finally called one of my buddies at the meet and had him pick me up. I was less than a 15 minute drive from my destination. The meet ended a couple hours later and I waited for my wife to come pick me up. We stopped to get the car and try driving it home. I figured after 3 hours of cool down time I could nurse it home. It fired right up and ran strong but before I could get a mile it started loosing power. I tried to nurse it along using the throttle and down shifting but had to pull off on a side street and give up. The car came home on a flatbed.
With it losing power so soon after it had cooled down for 3 hours I'm thinking the ignition module is the likely problem. Its an MSD hei module that I used in a stock car engine a few years back. It doesn't have a lot of miles on it but it has seen a lot of high heat cycles. I'll look into it later this week. Even though it came home on a hook it still felt good to drive this bucket of bolts.
Thanks to all those that have followed this build and offered their support, advice and prayers.
I got some time over the ladt few days to work on the car. First up was to get the engine running again. I had a pretty good idea that the ignition module was failing when it got hot. I replaced the entire hei distributor with a known good unit and when the engine fired up i could tell it sounded much different. I took the time to set the mechanical and vacuum advance curves to make the car more drivable. Initial timing is 14*, vacuum advance is 12* and mechanical advance is all in at 3200 at 36*. Im using the vacuum advance to help out low end torque. The cam makes very little power under 2200 rpm and it only has a 16lb flywheel. The extra 12* from the vacuum advance gives me 26* from idle on up and greatly increases the engines low rpm power.
Next up was to remedy the very soft brake pedal that developed when i put the 7/8" bore master cylinder on when the car was hastily reassembled in 2018. The original master cylinder I used for the manual brake conversion was 1 1/16" bore. That master cylinder was too big and caused a rock hard pedal and almost no brakes. I went to the 7/8" bore after checking several websites from companies that sell manual brake kits for our cars. What i ended up with the smaller bore was excessive travel and a very soft mushy pedal. Certainly not a confidence builder. Very small changes in bore size make a big difference in pedal feel, travel and line pressure. I went up the next available size from 7/8" to 24mm. I also changed out the 20 year old front rubber hoses with braid stainless ones. While i had the system open I plumbed in a line lock unit. This will come in handy for staging at the track and also stop streets on steep grades. After a thorough brake bleed the pedal was firm and travel was similar to stock. A road test to the gas station confirmed that both the distributor and master cylinder replacements corrected the problems. Braking is near normal effort and braking gorce feels good. Ive got an adjustable proportioning valve mounted on the trans tunnel behind the shifter that i will tinker with to maximize the stopping abbility. The distributor change and timing adjustments realy woke the car up and driving to the gas station through a large shopping district with many stoplights proved the worth of the added timing from the vacuum advance. We also verified the efficency of the cooling system and electric fan setup as the temp guage never went past 200* during the 30 minute round trip in 90* heat.
Just a quick update. After breaking down on my first trip since getting the car to my new house/garage and needing a tow to get home, I replaced the distributor with another hei unit and problem solved. I took the time to set the advance and vacuum advance curves and the engine is much more responsive and crisp. Ive had the car out twice since the repairs, the last trip just yesterday was a 70 mile round trip, mostly highway run. The car ran great and handled very well. Im still surprised how well this car drives given that I designed all the suspension mods on graph paper and set their locations with tape measures and plumb bobs. Ive got lots of things to finish up on the car and will post my progress.
So I've been driving the car, taking 5 to 30 mile trips, city streets, country roads and the expressway. The car is running and driving pretty well. I'm not pleased with the performance of my 750 Holley carb so I recently got a used Fitech efi kit to install this winter. Also I haven't pushed the car hard in the handling department yet. It seems to steer fine but i know that the internal rack can rotate up and down which could cause a bump steer problem. To fix this i built 2 brackets that mount small 2" rubber caster wheels above and below my center link. Once I get these welded in I'll take the car out and push it much harder. It feels good to finally be working on this car again and actually driving it. With most of the major fabrication done I'm working to make it as dependable and fun to drive as possible. There are 2 of these brackets, one on each side of the crank damper and pullies. These will prevent the rack from rotating on its axis and causing bump steer problems.
I guess I didn't make a post on fixing my low brake pedal and soft brakes. Earlier in the build i documented making my own manual brake conversion kit. It functioned well but the pedal was low and soft, not a real confidence builder. The problem was the 7/8" bore master cylinder that i used was just a tad to small to work with my ls1 front calipers. Moving up to a 24mm, about
070" larger od, fixed the probem. Now my brakes have a much firmer feel and stop very well. While i had the system open I thought it would be a good time to plumb in a line lock. I teed into the front line and mounted the solenoid on the left front frame rail. I figure the line lock will come in handy sometime with the car being a manual. Sometimes you need 3 feet...lol.
Yes, I've started a companion thread under the fabrication forum titled "homebrew roadracer resurection". The car runs and drives very well, so now I'm working on getting the bodywork squared away. Im not very good with working with body filler, I put too much on, sand too much off and then have to do it all over again. I've done some extensive body modifications so there is a lot of work to do before paint. Here is what I've got done so far.
doors have been gutted and window opening at top has been filled in.
02-06-2018, 06:34 PM
