Hey there everyone, I have a 1984 z28 that started life as a 305 L69 t5 3:73 car. Title and odometer show 24,000 original miles but that's where the happy story ends. I bought this car in June of 2015 off a member here for really cheap and he was Even nice enough to deliver it to me. I wanted to save it as bad as he wanted it to have a good home and be saved so it worked out for the both of us. Progress has been dead slow up until this year. I've been part hunting and collecting and that's about it. For the last year roughly it's been at the shop I work at in pieces and I've been dragging my feet as time nor money has permitted me to do a whole lot with the car other than dream. I had an awesome baby boy on January 3rd last year so that put the brakes on harder than anything. I figured this would be the best place to post this, I'll cover the whole car in this thread from body to drive line. So with all that said let the pictures begin 😊

 

Here she sits as it was getting ready to be delivered to me.

 

After delivery and a good scrubbing, car sat for quite some time so there was plenty of cleaning to do!

 

Congrats on the baby boy. I look forward to following your progress on the Camaro. Your boy will love riding in it.

 

Swapping the ten bolt out for a 9 bolt Aussie unit that came with the car, this is a 2:77 unit but will get changed to a 3:70 gear after tuning.

 

Car at the shop in partial tear down, thankfully seller was very detailed and sent amazing pictures and I knew exactly what I was getting when I got her.

 

 

 

 

Her first wheelie! That's me in the gray

 

Strut tower from a cut up parts car I bought, FYI nason weld through primer blows big donkey dick. **** that junk never again what a waste of $15!

 

Here's a video from last weekend when I finished stripping the car down and was getting ready for this weekend.

http://https://goo.gl/photos/PwEwstrbHryHUZZx8

 

Got the driver's floor welded in 98% of the way today. Need to weld it to the rail underneath and it's done. As you can see I had to et rid of the seat rail because of rot and repair the a pillar and inner rocker as well. This took way longer then I wanted it to. I wanted to have all the metal work done today but I guess that'll be my lunch hour projects this week and getting ready to sand blast the car next weekend so I can etch and seal the car the weekend after. Then it's paint time! I wanted this to look better than it does but I guess it'll get the job done.

 

I missing some pictures off good stuff I want to share and I'll get those takin Monday at work and get them posted up to share. The strut tower is finished and fully welded in. I still need to fab up a lower tie bar, both battery trays, passenger floor, rear floors, spare tire well and some small rear inner wheel well pieces. Also need to get the doors ready as well.

 

Dynodave43 thanks, and I look forward to sharing the build as it will be a bad *** bitch when it's done. I also must add to everyone reading this thread, my grammar and spelling isn't the best and I do have ADHD so if i jump around alot in my typing I apologise. Bare with me lol

 

Drive line time �� I picked up a LT1 T56 for 550 shipped to my work for the car. Has a 5th gear issue, it's getting gone through with a Hawks viper kit and all new innards so I'm not worried about it. Car is going to be LS1 powered, I went with the lt transmission so I can have the external slave cylinder. I'm going to use a Gmpp 3/8 flywheel spacer to make it all work happily together. My LS1 is out of a 1998 and I'm using a set of self ported 862 5.3 heads with the combustion chambers welded to get down to 48-50cc. I'm wanting to run 13.5:1-14.1 compression ratio with the stock flat top pistons. Engine will run on e85 and is going to be carbureted. Also running a stock l69 air cleaner and going to try and stuff this **** under the stock hood. Witch I also have a smc hood that's going on the car. I have pictures of the engine and air cleaner and the awesome 140 mph "z28" logo speed I picked up for $60 shipped brand new in the box. I'll get all this posted up Monday night.

 

Looks like you shattered the windshield on that first hard wheel-standing launch.

 

I wish lmao forgot to get pictures today, boss called off so we had to carry extra weight. I'll get some pictures for everyone tomorrow! I also ope that when it does pull the wheel under its own power that everything goes well ��

 

Finally got some pictures today, my de-burred LS1 block, I got the whole short block, with arp rod bolts. I tore it down due to being locked up from rust when I got it and did the de-burring my self. Also have a Texas speed ported ls6 oil pump for it as well. Gotta get my main studs so I can send out the block for line honing and get the crank polished as well. I'm going to hone and prep the cylinders, the blocks been redone twice by a local shop, same one who's doing the work I need done, so I'm not worried about decking true to the mains. Here's some more pictures of some rust on the car and the finished strut tower, still gotta grind the welds down. Got a little carried away on welding it in lol was nervus about it being a strong repair with the junk Hobart welder I'm using. The passenger floor is rotted out too but not as bad as the driver's side.

 

Some fire wall rust witch was the only surprise on the car when I pulled dash and HVAC box


Drivers rear floor, already cut out as our can see

 

Both lower a pillars look this way

 

And the strut tower that I finally feel good about lol this Saturday should be a good day, plan on getting in the shop early and knocking out the rest of the metal work, getting the car blasted and if I can get all the sand out of her, etched and in sealer I hope lol if not I'll get it blasted and ready for etch and seal next weekend. The she will be coming home. The plan once she is here will be to seam seal everything, lizard skin the inside floors, roof, firewall, insides of quarters and doors with sound killer. The under side of the car will get lizard skin as well but there thermal treatment. I will be using the three stage KBS rust system and there gun to spray every nook and cranny so that it will never rust again, hopefully!!! The it's paint time!!!

 

By the way here is the paint the car is getting by the way, it's R-M Diamont with a strong Pearl and mica content.

 

Wow, love that color. That's really going to pop out in the sun.

 

Thanks, i custom mixed it my self for a truck I had a few years ago, never did use it as you can see. I am really excited to see it at night with lights hitting it, the Pearl and mica are gonna do some really cool stuff!

 

I guess I made some progress today, did a lil this week at work on my lunches too. Tried sand blasting the car and the compressor couldn't keep the blaster fed. Spent 4 hrs today trying to get that **** to work and ended up not even getting a quarter panel blasted. Looking into paying someone to blast it, I'm not sure what I'ma do yet. Got part of the rear driver's floor welded in tho and here's some pictures of what I'm working with on the passenger side. I have a whole floor out of another car for the passenger side. I'm soo done with rust and I've still got alot left to fix!

 

Here's what I got done with the rear floor, after I got done cleaning up 150lbs of waisted sand, was in a horrible mood and it clearly shows in the work. Cut my once piece too shot and got mad, called it a day at that point. o

 

Here's how she sits as of right now, put some rattle can on her to keep flash rust away as I'm going to take a couple weekends off. She has me soo past mad right now lol not enjoying the rust repair as of right now. Have emails into a couple dustless blasting guys, thinking about just letting somebody blast it and me go from there at this point. I will update here before too long.

 

This is NOT the fun part of the project. But once patched up, you can start to get back to the more fun aspects of it. Hang in there.

 

If I wasn't in a rush to have the metal work done before I bring it home it wouldn't be soo bad. Now that I've excepted that it's not gonna happen I can take a week off and calm down and get back at it, hopefully having a good time!! I've done a few restorations and enjoyed them for the most part. Not getting paid to do my own and not having the equipment, metal breaks, bead rollers etc at this shop, plus our junk welder has made this not as fun or nice looking as I had planned lol

 

Amazing work!!! Keep it going! Love seeing this being done to a 84 Z. Cannot wait to see the paint! Keep up the great work!

 

Thanks crazynights! I'm ready to see the paint too!! I got the car home on Monday night, was raining hard here and it got filled with water. Got all of the water out of her today and had a dustless blasting guy come give me a quote to blast the car. I also got some dash work done witch lifted my spirits!!! Here's some pictures!

 

Cleaned up the dash and went from that ugly *** dual speedo to that sexy *** z28 unit. The z28 speedo had a 85+ style needle on it so I took that off and modified my dual needle and swapped that on there. Think it turned out pretty good. Got my dash badge on too. Factory one was Missing, picked this one up from Hawks.

 

Soooooo glad you ended up with this car, it's in very good hands


That blue color is going to look fantastic too! I think it will really pop especially if you stick with those wheels or something else that is also polished or chrome.

 

I'm glad you sold it to me!! The wheels are going to be my race set, however they are going to get tinted with a clear coat/black mixture. Like tail light tent but with real paint and clear not rattle can. They will look like black chrome then and I think that will look sick as ****!

 

Fun fact for the day, I was in my garage working on my 2000 Yamaha warrior 350 and wondered about how old the tires on the draglites were, fronts are Goodyear's from 1978 and reads are BFG from 1981 lol older than the car!!!

 

Those wheels have date stickers on them, iirc they were made in '88. I had the front tires off to clean the beads and saw the stickers then. I knew the tires were old, just figured they were from the same time period. They came with my '78 Nova that looked to have been semi-restored in the late 80's.

Kinda surprised they still hold air, lol.

 

The rear right has a slow leak lol other than that I haven't put air in them in almost 2 years! June will be the 2 year mark. Crazy to think I've had it that long..... And have only got this far lol time to start getting **** done!

 

Just wanted to touch base here. I haven't touched the car since April at this point. Our wedding is coming up on the 9th of September and my grandmother passed unfortunately as well. A over two year battle with cancer finally came to a close. At 84 at least she lived a full life and finally gets to go lay to rest next to Grandpa who has been gone since 95'. Crunch time for the wedding has been consuming every minute of our time since my last post and once that's done I'll finally have time for the car. Doesn't help either that we moved and the car is at my father in law's 10 miles away and I don't have spare time to drag my stuff from work and get over there to get stuff done. If it was here I would pry never sleep, been driving me absolutely crazy not being able to work on it. On a plus note I went back to the dealership world, place called Trenors in Urbana Ohio. We got bought out shortly after by a company called SVG Motor. They are making very promising changes and money is much better than my last shop. So good news for buying parts when this wedding is done consuming all I have lol just wanted to let everyone know the car and build isn't dead, just on hold. Must also add that I have been in conversation with Tony Mamo as well exciting things lay ahead.

 

update for anyone watching. life has still been holding me back on the car, we are down to two cars at the moment and i'm trying to get my suburban back on the road. doing a 4,8 swap in it at the moment that started as a simple swap and got out of control. but here in the next month or two when its done i will have more progress. this once again isn't dead just on hold, unfortunately. this will see the finish line, this will not end in a junked or sold car or just being left to keep falling back pages till its forgotten. hang with folks progress is coming!!

 

Looks like you were making pretty good progress and are dedicated to making it happen. I just picked up an 84 Berlinetta that needs a similar amount of work. Cool to see how much you're doing to restore this car, nice seeing it get a fresh life.

 

Back from the dead!!! a lot of stuff has changed and flipped around and changed back and blah blah. still have not touched the car, has been in dry storage in my father in laws garage this whole time. I did pick up a nice set of rust free doors for it. the ls1 block I have was going to get dartons mid system and a 14:1 443 on e85, darton has pulled back and now they are only wanting to sell mids if there going in billet blocks. Steve at RED said they even restricted sales of sleeves to him! I'm more than likely going to turn my ls1 into a 14.8:1 comp 383 on e85. still looking at options and playing with ideas based off power potential and pricing. things are getting ready to finally take off again. will be ordering ALL of my suspension stuff from spohn this year, have the money saved up but waiting for their black Friday sale. we just had our third kid, another baby boy! may31st! we bought and closed on a house and I finally have my own garage!!! will be bringing the car home in a few weeks. been in house for a few months but with remodeling and side work the garage continues to be a mess and catch all. one of my lawn tractors blew up so no I have a blown up mtd and a half working john deere that I brought back from the dead in the garage, along with atv parts every where since I finally decided to get it fixed up and going again. but back to the car I will give a update on the plans. going to be putting her on a small diet, no air conditioning but I'm going to keep heat. lighter carpet etc but am going to be using lizard skin heat and sound barrier in and under the car. still a built lt1 t56, going with a s60 rear end and 4.10s or something of the likes. was going to stay na with the 443 but now I'm going to need the n2o power boost so if I go 383 it will be eating a 300 shot. I want this car to runs 8s. that's the goal, I feel that to go out and compete racing I'm going to need a 8 second car. plus driving my wifes 12 second dmax is boring so I need more in my life. aaaannnnnddddd the main reason the car has been on the back burner for some time is my 99 k2500 suburban I bought. ill make it short, 5.7 vortec gave me nothing but issues, it locked up and then I ls swapped it with a lr4 4.8, ported heads and a bunch of high dollar trick stuff inside with a hot tune anndd I didn't use moly lube on the rod bolts (arp bolts) first wot pull it spun a rod bearing. then I ended up building a 5.3 with the block, 4.8 pistons, lq4 rods, 98 ls1 crank, all balanced, tsp ported ls6 oil pump, arp rod bolts (with moly lube) A series bearings, new cam bearings, summit billet double roller timing set, tsp stage 3 truck cam, ported 862s with melling ls6 springs, speed master head studs, speed master 4.10 bore .040 head gaskets, pacesetter 1 7/8ths long tubes, true duals etc etc. truck should make 430 to 450fwhp has over 5k miles on it not on the hot 4.8 bench tune, needs to get dyno tuned. but it sucked up all my time and money for some time now. finally the z28s turn tho!!!

Heres some suburban stuff at my new house





















video of it running the night I got the engine in and running

http://photos.app.goo.gl/wU4odn4VP2vGDJvZ6

another video cold start

http://photos.app.goo.gl/1AHCDH9mRF9VtnLK6







Updates of the car will be in the next few weeks after I get her home. body work will be starting almost immediately. I am more than likely going to be ordering a new floor for the drivers side, I'm not satisfied with my current fabbed up cluster f@#k.

 

oh suburban is also 10.56:1 compression. itll be on the dyno getting tuned soon too, hoping this month.

 

updates in the making, started cleaning my garage up last nigh to make room for the car and her parts, still waiting on black Friday sale and I finally have a engine combo down. going to be ordering a cnc-motorsports 415in ls3 based short block, cam motion spec'd me a custom grind for the 415 and a 300 shot, low lash solid roller 260/272@.050 112lsa with a 108 ICL .705/.688 lift wit a 1.7 rocker. said ill be shifting at 7800-8000rpm. engine will be topped with afr ls3 heads milled to 62cc for a final comp of 13.84:1 and run on e85. said he doesn't see any reason why the car wouldn't go 9s N/A. ill be getting the car blasted and in etch and sealer. get the body work done, final coat of sealer wet prepped and in color by spring I hope, time permitting. ill be ordering all my goodies from spohn on black Friday as well as ordering the short block soon. it will slow back down after that but all the big ticket stuff will be out of the way. by next summer id love to see it in one piece again and a roller, work on getting the short block buttoned up and saving for the heads. by the end of next year itd be great to have the engine and trans in the car and getting the interior put together. id love to open the 2021 race season making passes on it. we shall see. heres a picture of how my 16x24 garage is coming. it used to have a attic in it at 6' 3". got that down and my lights hung, slowly working on getting the clutter out and getting ready to get to work.


p.s. ill be cutting the drivers floor pan back out and buying a stamped pan, ive been loosing sleep over it and cant stand it lol

 

Alright! update time! got the car home late yesterday night, unloaded it tonight after I decided to reorganize my garage so the **** ton of stuff I have can fit. I forgot how much **** I have!!! the car took up soo little space when it was in one chunk, damn does it need some real state when its apart lol my suburban is packed full of parts from front to back that I still need to unload. sadly the car did get rustier over the last two years, even tho it was in a nice dry garage. made me sad but I quickly over came the feeling of being over whelmed. I'm ready to get to rocking. went to a estate today and should be picking up a car rotisserie. a numbers matching hemi 4 speed super bee is on it right now. son of guy who died is deciding weather or not hes gonna trade me the rotisserie for helping put the car together or do it him self and sell it to me. car fits very well in my small garage thank god. I have room to actually work on it!! heres some pictures.

 

I understand exactly what you’re saying. My little shop is 16x21ish and right now the shop is full, my lean-to/shed is full, and my ls swap donor truck cab is full. I’m so sick of the clutter.

 

This gives a idea what I'm dealing with, car wasn't this bad 2 years ago but I'm not pulling the plug. also to update, engine plans always change. sold my ls1 and was getting ready to order a cnc-motorsports 415ci ls3 based short block. was gonna be 13.84:1 comp, e85, already had a cam spec'd for it and afr 260cc ls3 heads. Well I came across a ERL 500ci ls2 super deck 2. so I'm working that deal out now and hopefully it goes through. that engine will also end up high comp e85 and I'm head shopping now on what I want to run. hoping to make 900+ crank and then maybe spray the thing with a undetermined amount of N2O.

Heres the worst rust on the car, was going to remove my drivers floor pan and order one but ima just leave it and use the used floor I have on the passenger side and build the piller and fire wall like I did the driver side. nobody will ever see it any ways. please don't judge the rough looking welds, they are over 2 years old and done with a junk welder.

 

LONG TIME COMING!!!! FINALLY a big update, had a lot going on and havnt had time to think let alone mess with the car. I ordered all of my suspension and chassis parts, all parts from spohn, all in bright red, all in chromoloy, wonder bar, lsx k frame with braces, lower control arms, all for stock strut and coil spring, qa1 R series front struts, qa1 18 way adjustable rear shocks, rear lower control arms adjustable, pro series trans mounted torque arm adjustable for dana 60, front sway bar with spiracle end links, rear drag anti roll bar, adjustable panhard bar, lower control arm relocation brackets, sub frame connectors. I still need to order the rear axle, which is going to be a strange dana 60 with 35 spline axles and a Detroit true trac with ls1 rear brakes. I would have liked a 40 spline and some kind of locker but alls they offer is a spool. too much street driving for all that action. alos will be ordering a chromoly top gun drive shaft from spohn as well. in the spring I'm going to have dustless blasting come and blast the car, get the damn sheet metal done and get this bitch in sealer. I will then be ordering a used LSA drive train from Hawks, selling the trans, unless Bruce will sell me the engine stuff with no transmission. this way I can get the car mocked up, engine in and wired, run fuel lines etc and change anything before final seal, block and paint. tear car back apart and paint the thing finally. the car will then go back together and start getting final parts ordered, interior etc. I WANT to make a pass in this car before race season ends 2020. the LSA will get a cam and overdrive pulley for now and get tuned. will be changing to drive by cable as well. ported blower and snot will be upgrades coming soon after along with a heads upgrade, will be running on e85 and aiming for 800whp then I'm going to spray the girl with a 200 shot and see where she ends up. goal is to run 10s and keep it all wrapped up under my SMC z28 hood. I also need to tear my t56 down and see whats broken in it, fix it, have it face plated and cryo treated. either gonna send it to tick or buy hawks kit for 1000tq and put it together my self.

Goals for car,
Weight at or under stock weight, 3250, that was iron L69 with a t5, coupe fully loaded. car will have a/c, lizard skin, 10 point cage chromoly, LSA, looking into plexi windows for weight savings, full interior minus any spare tire, carpet pad and rear seats.
Want the car to run 8s, don't see why not, 7xxwhp ctsv's running 9s
Look stock, non-oem paint color but stock interior plus cage, all oem badging and decals, 5.0 h.o. etc
**** up mustangs, be competitive at heads up events and go street racing with the car and also be competitive. I will be driving this car A LOT, this will not be a trailer queen or hang out in my garage all year, this car will be driven to work and every where else I can. only time it will sit is when there's snow or salt on the road, if roads are clear it will be driven. water doesn't rust cars, salt and other corrosives do. plus I have a 4x4, no reason to drive it in snow.

I will post pictures when the parts show up this week or next, working on day 3 of my order processing. updates coming this car will live again!

 

talked to spohn today, they are building my chromoly k-member, order short ship out by next weeks end.

 

Looking forward to seeing it all come together!