GMan 3MT

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I’m finally getting around to building my attainable ‘dream car’. If I had the means, I’d buy a DB9, but since I don’t, I’ll build a thirdgen. This is it’s story.

This is going to be long, and a bit of rambling at times, so I apologize in advance. I should have lots of pictures for those with short attention spans I know I started a build thread on Knocker, my CMC roadrace car, which I do intend to sometime bring up to date, but for now I’m concentrating on this build. Like that thread, I'll start off this one a few years back and bring it up to present day. Also in advance, I want to thank this board and the members that I’ve gathered ideas and suggestions from. Most of my inspiration and vision of the picture in my heads comes from others here and in some cases blatant copying!

I almost named it Project Unoriginal since most everything has been done before by someone on here. Project Pastiche I think is almost a perfect name by definition, but it’s too… French. Project LS1/T56/driveshaft/rearend/gastank/booster/master/brakes/fans/seats/cluster Swap wouldn’t fit in the title. Maybe Project 15-years-too-late would work. I have this car and the racecar on my computer screen at work. When people ask what they are, I tell them it's my motivation to come to work everyday. Anyways, hopefully you are entertained, inspired, get ideas or give ideas in this thread.

I’m also doing something that every car guy or gal should never do. I’m keeping a spreadsheet of all the parts and part numbers that will be put into the car. That’s actually a good thing in case something ever needs replaced. The bad tho… I’m tracking the prices of said parts, and a running/estimated grand total. It’s amazing and depressing how all the little things add up. If there’s interest, I’ll try post a google link to it.

I knew this was going to be a long build, so I didn't want to start a thread when I first started in 2006. As a sneak peek, here's how it sits today.

GMan 3MT

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I had accumulated quite a few parts over the years. I had the old 350 carb’d engine from Knocker, a T5, an LT1 T56, lots of interior panels from cars stripped over the years, some drum rear ends, and enough other parts to fill a 10x30 storage unit. My then girlfriend (now wife) wanted a fun T-Top play car, and she found a clean title ’91 RS on Craigslist for $150.

GMan 3MT

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We borrowed a trailer and headed to Chapel Hill. The Camaro had a bad engine, bad automatic trans, and needed 2 wheels just to load it onto the trailer, but the price was right. It wasn’t in the greatest shape, but the body was solid with some minor body damage. The idea was to use all those parts in storage to build into a cheap fun weekend car.

Threw a pair of my wheels and tires on the back and brought it home to my girlfriends dads.

Back when Knocker was still streetable!

GMan 3MT

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It sat in the garage for a while pretty much untouched since I was heavily invested in building Knocker to try race the 2008 CMC season.

GMan 3MT

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Finally we got around to working on it. Stripping a car down is always the easy part. We labeled all the bolts into ziplock bags tearing the car apart in her dads garage.

GMan 3MT

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Unfortunately, like so many projects, it then just sat. We bought a house (3 car garage!) and moved the car there. As time passed, it got used more as a shelf than anything else.

GMan 3MT

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Time and money went into the house and the racecar again, and eventually my girlfriend bought an '08 Saturn Sky Redline with less than 5k miles on it as a reward for getting a ‘real’ job. At this point, the need/want for a T-top car was filled, and compared to the '91, this thing blew it out of the water as far as, well everything. The RS was handed over to me. I don’t particularly like T-top cars, one more place to leak, but hey the price was right.

GMan 3MT

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I already had a racecar, so I didn’t want to build a track car. If I was going to build something, I wanted it to look nice and feel comfortable, though I have no experience in body work or interior work. I’ve built and helped build a few racecars, so this would be a challenge for me to be patient and concern myself with how the outcome of things will look, not just do what it takes to make it work. We started adding up what it’d take to bring the car back to life, like new carpet, reupholster the seats, a/c, and it added up quick. The project sat idle some more.

And to make matters worse, I then bought a 2002 Trans Am since I always liked that body style (non-WS6) and everyone needs to own an LS1 in their life. LS1/T56 swap in a way. It was a good deal and I had to jump on it. The motivation dropped heavily to build the Camaro.

GMan 3MT

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After a little over two years, I sold the T/A to my father in law. Between my wife and I, we had 7 cars at the time, and I didn’t drive it enough to justify holding onto it.

My daily Ranger, wife's commuter, racecar, 10mpg tow vehicle, my fun weekend car, her fun weekend car.
Teal car in the garage. No way we were going to push it back up the driveway just for a photo op.


Caption should read "DINKS!"

GMan 3MT

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I still wanted a street thirdgen, so we started a new search. I was in no rush and my paycheck had increased over the past 6 years, so it had a few more requirements this time.

Must by ’91-’92 for the later model gfx and dash, preferably ’92 since it’s got the stigma of being a final year and 25th anniversary car.
MUST be a hardtop.
Not white, black, red, yellow or ugly.
Good shape, especially the interior.
NO rust! Must be a southern car.
Engine/trans didn’t really matter since it’d get replaced, but a manual would make things easier.

GMan 3MT

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This is what we found. 1992 Camaro RS 305 TBI / T5 in dark bright teal. 120k miles. It had been repainted at some point a brighter teal color. All original except the 20” wheels that were on it. I pleaded with the owner to swap back the stock 16’s before I would consider buying it. “Why?” Just do it.

GMan 3MT

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Stayed with a friend (Burro) in San Antonio, then went to check out the car the next day. Met the owner and his son at a gas station.

The camaro was clean, straight, and very original and unmolested (though not quite ‘mint’ as the ad stated). It even had the ’92 Chevy Camaro owners manual and cassette. The car was in good shape for a 20 year old 120k mile car. It was pleasing to know that I could build the car the way I wanted to and not work with or around someone else’s project. It wasn’t a Z28 or anything else rare, so no guilt in modernizing it. I didn’t mind paying a bit extra cash ($4,000) for it knowing there was a lot of work I wouldn’t have to do to it on the interior and body.

On the drive back to San Antonio, we discovered the A/C had a substantial leak. Yeah, worked back at the gas station because the guy must have just topped it off. Oh well.

GMan 3MT

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Unlike the ’91 and Knocker, we drove this one home 300+ miles without major issues. I don’t know if it was the worn out 90’s suspension or the broken in seat, but it was a comfy ride just floating down the road especially compared to the Mini Cooper S JCW I drove on the way up.
Got it washed and took some (a lot!) of pictures.

GMan 3MT

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Interior in overall good shape. A small portion of the headliner was starting to sag and the center glove box lid could do with replacing. The dashpad has been covered in leather (pleather?) as well as the knee panel.

GMan 3MT

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Not much interest. Oh well, my own personal diary

Three thirdgens!

GMan 3MT

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The ’91 got some quick work done on it in preparation to selling it. Swapped the 'good' spindles out with earlier style ones since I was planning on doing big brakes on the racecar and the teal car, plus swapped out the doors for ones with manual windows from the b4c. Sold the car along with the auto trans that came with it for $150.

GMan 3MT

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Those that read my other build thread know why the racecar is named “Knocker”, and if you haven’t you can probably figure it out. I’m not one to try give names to cars, but if it so happens and it sticks, it sticks.

We’ve had “the Ranger”, “the Trans Am”, “the big truck”, “the Sky”, and “the Mini” which my wife named Wheezy, but it really hasn’t stuck in day to day conversation. She did have an ’89 Camaro named “Spot” since it left it’s little mark of oil everywhere it went. I had a ’73 Datsun 240Z in college (2000) that I autocrossed. It was little. It was yellow. It was different. It was affectionately known to all as “Nuprin” (thank you Wayne’s World).

Anyways, point is, this ’92 Camaro we currently simply refer to it as “Teal” or “the Teal car” until it earns it own name.

Nuprin


Wheezy


Knocker

GMan 3MT

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I’ve gone thru a few iterations in my head and on paper of how I want this car to turn out. I don’t want to do things twice or spend unnecessary money. The result is long term planning (or rather waiting) to make sure I don’t change my mind.

I could put the carb’d 350 in it? No, I want fuel injection for reliability, starts regardless of weather, and my wife doesn’t want the fuel smell. I had an LT1 intake I could modify, or maybe the EBL TBI I acquired and put that on the 350 (mild cam, 305 vortec heads). Leaves room to upgrade later too. The LT1 T56 would bolt up to it.

An LS1 would be nice, but initially seems so expensive. It is the easiest to make more power later, not finicky as a daily driver, and reliable. With ported heads and a cam and some other mods, I can realistically hope for around 400hp/400ft*lbs tq. LS2/3/9/42 are just a bit beyond what I want to spend. I think that, ideally for me, the LS1 is the way to go. I’ll have to keep a lookout for a donor.

GMan 3MT

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For the body, I love the look of the Sunoco hood. Paired with the Z28 high rise spoiler or Hawk’s 5” spoiler, it makes for a killer Camaro. Problem is, I’m partial to function over form. If I had something that NEEDED additional hood clearance, like a tall carb’d setup or nasty blower, I’d definitely go this route in a hearbeat.

Blew-By-You, an early inspiration


However, an LS1 sits so low in the engine bay, I couldn’t justify it to myself. I've never been a fan of the 91-92 Z28 hoods, so flat stock RS hood it is. The high rise and 5” spoilers look a little unbalanced without something on the front to even them out.

So for now, the plan is to clean up a few things like removing the side molding, drip rails and antennae, weld in some different door handles, and ‘flush’ the gas cap, tho most of that will have to wait til I’m closer to paint. As time went on, I learned to love the bomb… I mean, the stock RS bodylines.

GMan 3MT

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Heck even the color has grown on me. I’m a blue person. It’s going to get repainted some shade of blue. Knocker is Navy Blue Metallic (’00 Corvette). I think that'd be a bit dark for my street car. I poured over many picture on TGO to find the right shade. However, there was one car that EVERY time I saw in person made me say, wow, I love that color.

C6 Jetstream Blue Metallic. I tried to find examples of other cars painted that color. For some reason I don’t think it looks good on 4th gens. Maybe because they are more round than the C6. It was a gamble that the 3rd gen would show it off as well as the vette. It wouldn’t be cheap, but I hoped House of Kolor or the likes would have something very close.



The teal is such a late 80’s/early 90’s color! I was born in 1980, so I guess it’s really not that bad, especially whatever color it has now been repainted. There’s no denying the car is an 80’s design, so it kinda seems fitting to leave it as is.

Time passed and I actually really like it now, especially flopping in the daylight. Even looking at pictures of my car, the color looks different depending on the position of the sun, cloud cover, camera used, and location of Mars in the sky.

GMan 3MT

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Suspension would be all the usual upgrades.

Big sway bars plus wonder bar
Lowering springs on adjusters
Good shocks/struts with adjustable strut mounts
Rear control arms and panhard bar
Subframe connectors
Big brakes kit up front, disc’s on the rear

I’d love to find a Kenny Brown strut tower brace.

92GTA

GMan 3MT

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Wheels to be no bigger than 17’s with big, wide tires, but nothing that requires major modifications like tubbing. I had 305 Hoosiers on ZR1's on Knocker when I autocrossed it, and they stuck out a hair too much to look good. This is a street car so I'm not looking for every last mm of treadwidth.

I think 275 up front, 295 on the rear should be ideal on some nice 5 spoke wheels. The best IMHO are the Fikse Profil5 or FM5. Gawd that's sexy.

1984 camaros

GMan 3MT

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Interior will be left along for the most part. Throw in a more modern radio and that should be about it. If I could use the LS1 gauge cluster, that'd be awesome too. Saw a few attempts at that here, but no real clean finished products, so that's iffy. One MUST MUST MUST is it WILL have air conditioning!

Maybe some T/A seats too... recovered in real black leather and not ebony... and recover the rear seats... and a suede headliner... and recovered sunvisors...

GMan 3MT

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I’ve never been a guy who keeps up with the times or follows trends. A lot of these things I have planned have been done by many people 10+ years ago. I know this car isn’t something that’s going to stand out at SEMA or any car show for that matter. LS1/T56 swap, yawn! It’s all been done before. If anything this car will be pro-touring-esque-lite which will probably die out by the time I'm done.

I do want it to have a factory-ish look to it, like something out of GM’s skunkworks. Nothing that screams aftermarket or flat looks out of place. I won't be smoothing out firewalls or trying to hide every bit of wiring. I hope it's the attention to the 'best way possible' that makes it stand out. As I mentioned earlier, I've gathered a lot of ideas on TGO, and want to pick what I feel are the best of the best. I'm trying hard to not take shortcuts just to make something work.

Regardless, I think I’ve got a pretty solid plan, so let’s get started... tomorrow.

BrutalGTA

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Nice

GMan 3MT

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I know I say I’m a function over form guy, but the first thing changed were the amber side markers for clear ones with amber bulbs.



Next up was to replace the header panel (slight damage) and throw in some practically new headlights I previously bought for Knocker when it was still street legal. Painted the ambers on the rear lights with Testors Candy Apple Red the lazy way, outside only.



Swapped out the antenna for a GM ‘twisted’ one from the wife’s Saturn Sky (she got a shorty) that I think supposedly cuts down on the noise or drag.

GMan 3MT

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One thing I hate about the ’91-’92 Camaros is the yellow lettering all over the interior. It all has to go. First up was the gauge cluster



Ordered a gauge overlay from Whitegauges.net. They didn’t have black at the time, so I went with gray. I was really just hoping that it’d get rid of the yellow numbering, but unfortunately it didn’t even with using some LED bulbs.



In the process of installing them onto the 140mph cluster from the b4c, I screwed up the odometer that I was swapping over from the original, so that's not working now. Disappointed, I moved onto other things and would come back to the gauges later.

GMan 3MT

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My father in law needed some tires for his V6 4th gen, so I traded him the tires off the car and a set of chrome 16” 4h gen wheels for a set of 17x9.5 Z06 replicas. Initially used a set of 2" wheel adapters all the way around. The front wheels didn't quite clear so I ended up using a pair of 2 1/4" adapters up front.



Went to get an alignment. Tech said I needed inner tie rods. Brought it home and ordered moog inner and outer tie rods, and some heavy duty adjusters. For the life of me I can't remember the brand.

GMan 3MT

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Ordered, received and installed a Wonder bar from TDS. So simple and so good. Thanks Lon! Always a pleasure to deal with.

Also threw in an old pair of Bilstein struts and old set Suspension Techniques lower springs.

GMan 3MT

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My friend (Burro) from SA came down and helped me installed a Pioneer Radio AVH-P1400DVD I picked up at Traders Villiage along with a bezel from DoubleDMods. There was a lot of test fitting to try get it sitting right. The center console went in and out so many times, we broke the tab on the bezel. We got the radio wired up and working and would worry about final fitment later.



The radio can accept a backup camera, but I feel all the aftermarket ones look bulky and out of place, and the license plate frame ones look cheap. I eventually found one that I thought I could hide fairly well, Jensen JCAM1. It’s cheap, so I bought 2 for when the first one fails and they are out of production. It’s a Jensen, barely bigger than a 1inch square. It fits nice and tight right above the rear license plate.





While we were messing with the center console, I drilled a hole inside the glove box to accept a hatch release button (for a Ford!). Also replaced the cig lighter for a 12V aux plug.

GMan 3MT

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Back to the yellow lettering all over the interior. Next up was the RS/25th badge on the dash. I have a friend who bought a vinyl machine when he joined me racing in CMC with his Foxbody. I cad’ed up the design, and we tweaked it at his place. Turned out pretty good I think.





I painted the hood release and the headlight switch white. Grabbed a white HVAC control and white defrost switch from storage and swapped them out. So much better.
Swapped in some LEDs into the third brake light and dome light. Repainted the third brake light since it’s obviously gotten hot and bubbled. The LED dome light makes a big difference.

GMan 3MT

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Scrounging Craigslist one day, I found my potential donor LS1/T56 car. I prefer to find wrecked cars for engine donors. My thought is at least you get a more confident feeling that engine trouble isn’t the reason they are selling it.

This one was a high mileage 2000 Camaro SS. The story was the guy recently bought it and let his “buddy” drive it one drizzly night. “Buddy” shifted into 2nd gear and the rear of the car broke loose. Slid all 4 wheels over the curbed median. I made arrangements with the guy to come check out the car.

My wife and I grabbed my trailer and headed out. When we arrived, there was another guy checking out the car. Um, ok. Seller said this guy had called about it a few days earlier, but never showed until now. A bit peeved, I pointed out that’s fine, but I have a trailer ready to take it tonight and he doesn’t.

Ended up not being a big deal. The guy wanted to ‘restore’ it since it was a genuine SS, but felt it was in too rough a condition to make it worthwhile. The seats were from a Trans Am, interior was mis-matched, and body was pretty rough. I made the deal, paid the man a touch over $3k, and limped it onto my trailer. The axles were obviously very bent, but it did run and drive. Score!

GMan 3MT

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Nearly a year later, I arranged a tear down party with some friends. We weren’t in it to break any records as I wanted to save anything and everything that could be salvaged. Around 8 of us tore into the car and stripped it. By the end of the day, anything worth anything that could be unbolted lay in the back yard. One guy wanted the rear quarters and rockers for his CMC car, so he came back the next day to cut those off.





Over the next few months, I was able to sell off just over $1000 worth of parts, so that put me in at just under $2k for the LS1, T56, and all the other parts I planned on using.

The LS1/T56 got shoved off into the corner of the garage until such a time I was ready to begin the swap. I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick process as I wanted to do everything at once to make sure it all worked together and minimize rework. It would also give me time to continue to collect parts a little at a time.

GMan 3MT

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Mark up a big change to the original plan for brakes and wheels. I previously didn’t want bigger than 17’s. For the upcoming 2016 race season, I was going to be upgrading the 1le front brakes on Knocker to 13” C5 rotors with Wilwood FSL calipers on custom brackets that would fit under my 17” Z06 wheels. While doing that research I found a few of you using 5th gen Brembos, and decided to go that route for the streetcar. I don't really like things that say "Corvette" on a Camaro, so the Brembos will work nicely.

GMan 3MT

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I was able to find a pair of 2010 Camaro Brembo calipers and rotors on craigslist for the streetcar. Guy bought them for his 4th gen but never got around to installing them.



They're yyyyuge!


These will require 18’s. I can live with that.

GMan 3MT

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Sometimes you get lucky. The very next day I was able to source a set of 18” Z06 wheels from Craigslist. OEM 18x10.5 and aftermarket 18x9.5 that were used on some guys vette. Painted black, which I think is just a fad like flat wrapped cars, but will work for now til I can repaint them. Score!

GMan 3MT

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Nice day for a photoshoot.



I finalized the designs for the Wilwood and Brembo brackets. Used AutoCAD to make sure all the dimensions would work.

GMan 3MT

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I got a call from a friend (shortcutsleepin) who runs a third gen in WRL endurance racing. He asked if I still had and wanted to sell the 305 TBI. I happily obliged with the condition he had to come help me pull it. It’s just easier with two people. Before he arrived, I pulled the driveshaft and trans. Engine came out and into the back of his truck. No going back now. Began to pull the rest of the suspension out too. It was now time to begin the Teal cars transformation into the vision I had of it in my head.


Knocker in the background getting Ground Control weight jackers

GMan 3MT

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With the engine out, I could easily see that I have the 'good' XH or HX steering box.

GMan 3MT

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The second race of the CMC season came wasn’t a good one for me and Knocker. I finished the race only to notice zero oil pressure. It ended up being a stripped oil pump drive gear and meant the LT1 had to get pulled and rushed to the machine shop if I had hoped to make the next event. That put another delay in getting the Teal car really off the ground.

I screwed some wood 4x4’s to a few furniture dolly’s to be able to move the car around the garage. Made it easy to push to one side to make more room for working on Knocker, and easier to reorganize the cars.

GMan 3MT

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Unfortunate timing, but I got the teal cars custom brake brackets back from being cut and spindles back from the machine shop after being modified. I used the template from LukeSkaff with my own little tweaks. I was able to get ahold of a drawing of the factory 1le spindle and accurately locate the centers. Made a prototype out of a cutting board and worked the math for the spacers. Once I was happy after making some minor changes, I got the brackets laser cut. Ordered the brake lines from Kore3 along with all the bearings and seals. I wasn’t quite ready to put these on the car just yet as I wanted to do all the suspension work at the one time.

These suckers are heavy compared to the Wilwood/C5 combo. I may someday replace the hubs with aluminum ones. The 5th gen rotors needed to have the bores enlarged slightly. My set uses turned down 1le hubs with ARP studs as I wanted a thicker bracket than what is typically out there. The increased track width is desired since I'll be using adapters anyways, the wider the hubs are, the smaller the adapter needed. Another obvious plus of the 1le hubs is the larger outer bearing. My setup also didn't require any grinding on the caliper, or having to use hokey button head cap screw to make it work. Grade 8 and 10.9. If my math is right, I can use a 1.7" adapter to get the look I want.

GMan 3MT

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Over the next few months, I continued to collect parts. Lots and lots of parts.

Spohn Transmission Crossmember which I actually bought a month before I bought the car.


J&M Caster/camber plates


Parts from RockAuto

Citation X

Nice build can't wait to see the rest.

GMan 3MT

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Moar parts...

Bilsteins (35-125228 & 24-225397)


LG Motorsports (LG035) torque arm


UMI Adjustable panhard bar


Founders rear lower control arms

GMan 3MT

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LS6 intake with ported throttle body


and much more...

LS6 PCV system from Improved Racing

Astro steering shaft from Walter Racecraft

a pair of 4th gen Trans Am ebony seats

LS1 Camaro gauge cluster w/ 124k miles (very close to this cars actual mileage)

Cadillac doors and handles

GMan 3MT

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Finally mid August 2016, I got ‘really’ started on the project. The car got moved into the prime spot of the center bay of the garage. Then LS1/T56 got pulled front and center of the other bay.

There's lots of dirt and grime on the engine that will need to be cleaned off. Lots of Simple Green and elbow grease required. I’m not trying to get it super clean, just didn’t want to have to wash my hands after every time I touch it. Once all the bugs get sorted out, I figure I’ll get it rebuilt with a bit more power.

One of my big problems is I can’t wait to see how new shiny parts will look on the car/engine, so there’s a lot of mock up where things look installed, but are actually only just set in place to appease my lack of patience.

GMan 3MT

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First up was installing the engine mounts to the crossmember. I went with Spohn since they allow the use of the LS1 A/C and paired them with Prothane inserts (7-512BL) on the LS1 side.

GMan 3MT

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Ordered a Dirty Dingo engine lift plate. The intake valley has to be removed to use it. No problem since it's getting replaced by a late LS6 valley cover with the better pcv system.

Of all the parts deliveries, that ONE got dropped off with a neighbor. He texted me to let me know, I picked it up from him, got home, then looked at the box and immediately texted him back letting him know what it was. I could only imagine what they were thinking signing for a box with "DIRTY DINGO" plastered on it. He's a good neighbor and lends me a hand on car stuff every now and then, so he bought the story.



Engine was pretty funky under the intake, but thankfully the internals look pretty good.

GMan 3MT

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First mating of the LS1 and the thirdgen crossmember (using my Dirty Dingo!). It's a bit close all around. Saw on an LSx thread here, "what would you do different" and a few commented about notching the rear for additional pan clearance. Mine was close but did clear, but figure I'll listen to the voice of experience and clearance it anyways.

GMan 3MT

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Researched quite a bit on excessive oil consumption on the LS1. I upgraded the valley cover to the later LS6 PVC system from Improved Racing. This requires cutting out a notch inside the block.



There was a lot of cleaning to get to this point. Out of precaution, replaced the knock sensors and also replaced the CPS O-ring (National 113). Pulled off the skip shift solenoid and replaced it with the plug from Tick (#173). A bit pricey, but I want a finished look for everything.