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Hey guys. I have been working on this build on and off for the past 2.5 years. It's been a long time since I have had a build thread on a forum. The last one was back in 2014/15 over on Corvette Forum when I built my 2006 Z06 that was fire burnt. So I thought it would be fun to share this one on here with you guys.
So the story starts with an abandoned 1985 Z28 my best friend found. They wanted it hauled off so he called me up because he didn't have any use for it. I originally picked it up as a parts car. From the outside it looked far too rough to ever be used for anything else. I got the car from him in 2018. I had to file for a lost title because the best we can tell the car was abandoned around 1996. The car sat in my back barn until 2020. With all the covid BS going on I decided to drag it out and see what kind of shape it was in. I pulled it up to my shop and tore into it. Once it was on the lift I was shocked by how solid it was considering how rough the outside of it is.
The car is nothing special. It is an LG4 1985 Z28. The most rare thing about it is the Lear Siegler interior option. But unfortunately as you can see by the pictures its been a raccoon habitat for decades...
The car is getting a very extensive drag race build. I will be doing some drag and drive events with it along with runninig some True-street classes.
Originally Posted by Komet
It is UPSETTING to see Lear Siegler seats in that condition.
Cool save though, I'd be tempted to leave the outside as-is and put a nasty drivetrain in it.
I know. I hate that the interior took such a beating over the years. I am going to do the race seat covers in the Lear Siegler material. So it will retain the look. I am leaving the paint and body along and it is definitely getting a nasty drivetrain.
The engine bay was an absolute disaster. Animal carcasses, loads of "sh*t" hence the name "Sh*tbox". But surprisingly it ran for a short time on starting fluid. I gave the engine to a local kid for his C1500 pickup. Everything came apart fairly smoothly. I had to pull the valve cover because someone had put it on over a part of the wiring harness.....
Some more tear down pictures. The engine bay mostly gutted. As you can see there were plenty of residents living in the heater box... All were evicted.
I installed my spare BMR tubular cradle with manual steering rack for mockup. It will most likely be switching up to a Racecraft front suspension to go along with their 9" I have for the rear.
The car is getting a very extensive drag race build. I will be doing some drag and drive events with it along with runninig some True-street classes.
I know. I hate that the interior took such a beating over the years. I am going to do the race seat covers in the Lear Siegler material. So it will retain the look. I am leaving the paint and body along and it is definitely getting a nasty drivetrain.
Mark me down as pro-paint.
I've yet to figure out why so many are "fans" of leaving the exterior like that.
1. $3,200 MAACO paint job
2. Sand and rattle can it a matte color
3. Prep it for a full wrap
I've yet to figure out why so many are "fans" of leaving the exterior like that.
1. $3,200 MAACO paint job
2. Sand and rattle can it a matte color
3. Prep it for a full wrap
Something
it's OK. A lot of people don't like it. There are plenty of 3rd gens with nice paint. I have 2 others with nice paint. This one has never been wrecked or painted on. So the age and wear are uniform and I like the rusty neglected look. It took 38 years to get this way. It carries its stories on the surface. A paint job erases all those stories and turns it into just another worthless LG4 85 Z28.
As expected an abandoned 80k mile 85 Z28 from Indiana is going to be less than clean underneath. But after a little scrubbing it cleaned up better than expected. I was fairly surprised by how little rust was present. The drive floor pan was by far the worst. I installed a mockup block and trans as well to check clearance.
I got my mockup block and transmission installed to get the AEI CNC motor plate location finalized. Once I was happy with everything I welded the mounting tabs in. I ended up having to make a custom tab for the driver side because the odd shape of the frame rail near the steering box. It all went smoothly though. I dont really care for the thin transmission crossmember I had for mockup. I will probably fabricate something a little more robust later on. I set my Beck sheet metal LS7 intake on the mockup engine to see how it fit. But now I have decided not to use my nitrous 441ci LS7 in favor of a more boost friendly engine. I will update more on that later.
And I thought I was the only one who called my perpetual project Sh!tbox.. Glad to see another 3rd gen rescued from the crusher.
Hahaha! Nope this one was literally a giant **** box. It was full of so much raccoon and rat **** we had to wear masks while cleaning it out. So the name stuck. Somehow the system didn't reject my custom plate either.
On to the rear end. I had a Quick Performance 4th gen housing that I purchased many years ago from a guy off Facebook marketplace. But unfortunately the housing was bent along with the torque arm mount. So I threw it out in the barn for a future build. It fit the bill for this project perfectly. I took it over to my friend Andy at Pro Tree Race Cars and he straightened the housing out, cut it to length and welded on new housing ends for me. I ordered everything I could from Strange Engineering. I picked up their 40 spline hy-tuf gun drilled axles with star flange and 5/8" studs, HD-Pro center section with billet pinion support yoke and 40 spline spool with a 3.89 gear and their drag brake kit. The Quick Performance torque arm mount was bent and they refused to sell me a replacement piece I chopped that junk off and installed the Racecraft torque arm from my other 9" housing that will eventually find its way under the car. It is narrowed and requires mini tubs and with the wish bone setup you cant run a factory style fuel tank. So that will be installed when I get tired of street driving the car and go full racecar with it. I mocked up the torque arm and tacked it in place to get it up under the car for final location.
With the rear end and rear suspension mocked up in the car I was able to weld the torque arm brackets to the rear end for good. I got the mock up shocks installed as well. The car will be running Strange coilovers all the way around. But to make the car a roller I threw some stock springs in it for now.
Here are some pictures of the front suspension components. Unfortunately I dont have many of the installation. At the time I was working on the front suspension I had ordered Strange coilovers for the front and they were on an extreme back order. So I ended up getting a set of Lakewood 90/10s and a cheap slip-on coilover kit just to get the car rolling. So I didnt take any pics of that process since it wasn't the final parts to be used. I went with a pair of Racecraft billet spindles and their flat caster camber plates to allow for a few more inches of front end travel. As well as Strange brakes to match the rear.
Great progress on the build! I can appreciate all the time and attention you put into the car. I like the stance. And really love the way the rear tires fill up the wheel wells. Post some pics from the rear!
Great progress on the build! I can appreciate all the time and attention you put into the car. I like the stance. And really love the way the rear tires fill up the wheel wells. Post some pics from the rear!
Thanks! Im really happy with the wheels and stance. When I narrowed the rear end I measured it out to try to get the perfect wheel fit. I dont have any pics from the rear but I will try to get some.
With it back on the ground and somewhat cleaned up I turned my attention to the interior. I removed all the disgusting carpet and piles of rat and racoon crap. Pulled the dash and HVAC system. Then started to inspect the rust damage. As you could see in the earlier pictures the driver floor pan was in bad shape. With the condition of the car I knew it was going to have some fairly serious rust somewhere. Thankfully the worst of it was localized in the driver foot well area. I learned in the process of replacing the floor pans that around 1990 they added a extra rib in the floor pan on the transmission tunnel. The rib extended down towards the floor and got into my repair a little bit. I can only assume this was for crash standard changes. So I had to work around that but it wasnt a huge deal.
The front seat mount brace had some significant rust in it as well. So I drilled out all the spot welds and removed it as well. Thankfully the rocker area wasnt too rusty. That can be a difficult repair.
After cutting all the rusty metal out of the car I went to work on dissecting the donor floor section. A valuable lesson was learned here.... Dont remove the guards from your air tools. No matter how much they are in the way! The cutoff wheel got pinched between the panel and blew up. A small piece got my leg but a larger piece hit me in the inside of the arm. I am lucky it got me there and not the neck. I still remember the sound it made when it blew up. Be smart in the garage.
Nice thread so far. Congrats on the war wounds. Looks like the HF wheel of doom? Serious note though, those guards even though they are a PITA save your butt. Also don't forget to at least get that checked out by a doctor. Discs can carry random rust particles to the impact site.
Here are some shots of the panel installation. I whittled out a patch panel from the complete floor section and started trimming it to fit the hole. I'm no fabricator. But I did the best I could. I missed on the tunnel side a little bit. So I had to make a small filler piece to bridge the gap. I was happy with the results. I still have to grind it and finished everything. But its good enough for the girls I date, as they say.
Nice thread so far. Congrats on the war wounds. Looks like the HF wheel of doom? Serious note though, those guards even though they are a PITA save your butt. Also don't forget to at least get that checked out by a doctor. Discs can carry random rust particles to the impact site.
Thanks! I have tons of war wounds by now. I've been doing this stuff for almost 30 years now. I started butchering cars when I was 11 years old. I actually joined TGO back in 1999 but I lost my login info and the email it was attached to is long gone. So I had to start a new one.
I knew better but I just couldnt get the cut I was after with the guard on there. I paid for it big time. Thankfully that was last summer. Everything healed up well and no permanent damage other than my jeans lol.
Now that the floor repair was done I started making the car roll so I could get it to the chassis ship for the cage install. I picked up a TRZ tubular steering column kit with a Strange quick disconnect for the steering wheel. I didnt have a steering wheel yet. So I drilled some holes in the stock wheel and tossed the column in the car uncut just to be able to steer it into the trailer.
After getting the steering column partially installed so I could move the car I got it over to my friend Norm at Storminn Normand's Custom Rollcages. And he knocked me out a super tight moly 8.50 cert cage. He is a unicorn in the chassis world. Hes good, fast and cheap (reasonable). He had this job knocked out in 1 week. I couldnt be happier with the fitment. The X in the door bars wasnt a requirement for cert. I just had him add it because I think it looks good
Wow, that cage looks really nice. I think you should keep the stock wheel like that, I've kept mine all rusty and peeling just for the hell of it.
Thanks man. I like the stock wheel too. I drilled the holes for the mount nicely so if I decided to keep it it wouldnt look bad. I just need to get the right counter sink bit so the machine head screws sit flush with the wheel surface.
The cutoff wheel got pinched between the panel and blew up.
I had a wake-up call a few years ago. The cutoff wheel blew up (came apart) for no reason. I was cutting exterior vinyl siding. Pieces went flying everywhere but just a few hit me. Some pieces ended-up across the road!!! One small piece hit my safety glasses and another one grazed my head. No injuries!!!! I can tell you that I always wear a full face now and YES the guard is back on... and I don't buy cheap cutoff wheels anymore.
I'm not telling you the day I was cutting an exhaust piece on the bench holding the grinder with one hand and the tube with the other hand. I dropped the grinder, it bounced off the bench and landed on my thigh, a few inches from my ba***. The grinder made a small cut in my thigh with huge bruise (just like your picture below, except the cut was longer). Since my pants were thick, the grinder tangled itself in the fabric, tore the pants, stopped spinning and made a nasty humming electrical sound. I quickly pull the plug. I thought about it for a few days, petrified. I could have castrated myself easily that day.
So here is a little update on the Sh*tbox camaro. I was a bit hesitant to post engine pictures because I wasn't totally sure which engine I was going to settle on. I originally started the build with intensions of running my 441ci LS7 engine I build back in 2015 for my 06 Z06. The engine is a 441ci LS7 build on a GM Racing Daytona Prototype block that I sourced from a dumpster in Detriot It has a Manley forged crank, Oliver billet I-beam rods, Mahle Forged dome pistons netting 14:1 compression, West Coast Cylinder heads ported LS7, 260/272 .660/.660 109LSA camshaft and a John Beck sheet metal intake manifold. The engine made 655rwhp and 557ftlbs of torque on motor and 1090rwhp and 925ftlbs on a 350 shot in my Z06. I have since upgraded the lifters, pushrods and worked on valvetrain geometry which will hopefully net me more high RPM horsepower. The clutch I am running in it is a Monster R-Series single disk with a Quicktime blowproof bellhousing, and an RPM Transmissions T56 with a G-force billet faceplated gearset and a 300M billet mainshaft.
So here is a wild twist to this story. When I bought this car I had no interest in doing anything with it but parting it out. But as it sat in my barn the worn look of it grew on me. So during covid I decided to blow it apart and start the build. When I was pulling it apart I was floored to find the original build sheet in near flawless condition under the carpet. When I pulled it out I seen it was bought new in Knightstown Indiana. Just a town over from where I grew up. That was a cool little piece of history to find in it. In the process I found the owners manual under the passenger seat. I opened it up and got the shock of a lifetime. Inside the cover was a name and address I hadn't seen in over 20 years. I spent countless hours with this man when I was 11-13 years old. He owned the house my mom rented at that time. He was an ex county sheriff and owned a construction company. He was one of the kindest people I ever knew, he always made sure we were doing well and everything was right with the house. He also gave me my first paying job cleaning up construction sites. He taught me a lot about hard work and the importance of doing a good job. I did some research and he bought the car brand new for his daughter for graduating college. She drove it for a few years and sold it when she started her family. So now I have some sentimental attachment to it... After all that, a friend of a friend comes to my shop and sees the car and says "my dad had one just like that back in the 80s". He remembered the interior vividly. He went home and started digging through pictures and sure enough his dad owned the car from 1988-91. I thought it was really cool to find some previous history of the car.
As they say small world! That is a cool story, history of the car. The build quality is important, so it the finished results; yet these sort of stories behind our cars, and how they intertwined with life our lives is really the most interesting parts! IMO
11-14-2023, 04:14 PM
It has a Manley forged crank, Oliver billet I-beam rods, Mahle Forged dome pistons netting 14:1 compression, West Coast Cylinder heads ported LS7, 260/272 .660/.660 109LSA camshaft and a John Beck sheet metal intake manifold. The engine made 655rwhp and 557ftlbs of torque on motor and 1090rwhp and 925ftlbs on a 350 shot in my Z06. I have since upgraded the lifters, pushrods and worked on valvetrain geometry which will hopefully net me more high RPM horsepower. The clutch I am running in it is a Monster R-Series single disk with a Quicktime blowproof bellhousing, and an RPM Transmissions T56 with a G-force billet faceplated gearset and a 300M billet mainshaft.
