This thread outlines a project that I undertook this year. I had found a super clean body of an 82 z28. It had nothing in it really. I was able to determine that it was not a cross-fire car. It was supposed to be a replacement body for my 83 H.O. but I was going to be extremely bothered knowing that the 83 was not original and I really wanted to build my own flavor of Camaro. So the goal became to build a car that would feel like an IROC, but it would still look like an early model and would outperform the Stock IROC.

 

What sealed the deal for me was finding a cheap Flint built 5.7 TPI. I had already rebuilt a 305 H.O. motor and I wanted badly to restore an L98. I was going to build this from the ground up, so I bought an 83 that was gone underneath, but had a lot of good parts, had the TPI dropped in and delivered. This is one of many cars that contributed.

 

Man, she was dirty. I had to weld a wrench on a flywheel bolt to get it out. She needed to be bored .030 over, crank needed a grind, new hypereutectic pistons, valve job, etc. I couldn’t believe how well it cleaned up.

 

While I waited that eternity to get the engine back from the shop, I decided it had to have 16” wheels, I pressure washed the body, 3M under coated it, replaced the ridiculous manual transmission hack job. Someone literally used a drill to cut the hole....I acquired an injection sending unit and got the tank done up and cleaned. The body of this thing for an 82 of all years blew me away. The brake lines were reusable.

 

i really prefer these early thirdgens. looking forward to your progress.
is that an '83 Daytona peeking into the one picture?? what are you doing with that one??

 

Exhaust and suspension time. My blast cabinet got a lot of work during this time. For some reason the exhaust on the 83 was beautiful even though the floors had rotted out, so I cleaned it up and used it. I also picked up a limited slip 3.23 rear end that was from 82 also and was in great shape. I have a 9 bolt that I had high hopes for that was even cleaner but it’s the 2.73 so no way. I used founders for the lower control arms and adjustable panhard bar. I broke the bank on some Koni Yellows because in my opinion handling is as important as HP. I had to press all bushings and had to replace a control arm that was bent. I could not find 16” wheel control arms, figured I could modify the bump stops if it’s a problem.

 

I did my research and made sure that the car had everything for the 16’s. I picked up an IROC ratio steering gearbox and the wonderbar. I went out of my way to find the best sway bars these cars came with, or at least the WS6 did. 36 hollow up front and I believe 24 in the rear. It was around this time that I decided that I was going to wire it as a 92.

 

Finally! The engine came back and I built her up fresh. I didn’t try to mod it much, but I did use better pistons, true roller timing chain, better oil pump, replaced the pan, it wasn’t happening, better water pump, you know, keep it looking stock and run forever type of build.

 

msi I blasted the intake and runners and put it together....and it looked dumb. So I painted it on the engine. Found a nice dual fan set, found a nice set of headers and wrapped them. They aren’t high quality but they fit like a glove. Got the accessory drives all worked out. Some things were missing so that was slow going.

 

Car is running and driving now, lots more pictures so more to come!

 

Correction! That’s actually not my car. That belongs to a friend that may be willing to sell. It’s his lot where I picked up the red z28 for parts.

 

I’m trying to figure out now how to get my TPI air cleaner on and fit it under the 82-84 composite/fiberglass hood. I would Absolutely hate to cut it, but I would really like that early look. A buddy of mine has a perfect mint red IROC hood that I could buy but man, I don’t want to go that route. Is it blasphemy to cut two slots under the hood to make it fit? I wonder how I could clean it up afterward...

 

Some more context for this build. The motor and engine wiring harness are from a 1991 GTA, and the car’s Interior harness is from a 92 RS. So I had to move everything around in the engine bay as the battery was going to be on the driver side. I also installed 92 supporting equipment (bottles, wiper configuration, third brake light, Etc.) I had to cut out the dash mounts and weld in some real 90-92 mounts. The trunk pull down motor was really interesting. I had to cut into the motor housing to make room for the lock cylinder. I had to re-chip the tach and I installed an EQ radio from an 87 IROC with a 21 to 12 pin adapter. I LOVE the center console clock which I patched in from an 83 wiring harness. Lots of fun in this project, and not done yet.

 

Modifying the frame for a 700R4...

 

Cool project. Don't see many comprehensive builds too often. Nice job.