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Been lurking for quite some time, and now that some progress is happening, it's time to throw a thread together on it.
The vehicle in question is a 1989 Camaro RS that my wife bought me for our 10 year anniversary. She wanted to update her ring, so I mentioned that I felt like restoring a good ole dirtbag Camaro. I found this one after months of searching for a rust free, manual, V8 that wasn't too worse for wear. The PO owned it for the last 16 years and it was completely original aside from a horribly small Grant steering wheel, a mangled stereo, and superfluous amounts of overspray courtesy from a Maaco paint job.
Here are the boys playing around in it while we are signing the paperwork to drive it home:
The car lived in southern CO and had plenty of sun damage (hence the respray) the headliner is toast and was rather quickly eroding all over. The PO kept up enough on maintenance, but I'd consider the car neglected really just because he couldn't do the restoration work himself and didn't have the budget for a shop to do it. (Great negotiating tools there
Here she is upon arriving in our driveway:
The attempted wheel paint was particularly wonderful. One of my happiest moments discovering the car, take a look at the average amount of rust I was able to find:
I'm catching myself up here, but if I remember right, the headliner was the first thing to tackle. (The PO had never removed the t-tops in 16 years because one was locked and he couldn't find the key) Because they are C&C tops, I picked up an ABS headliner to cut and I decided I wanted grey suede for the headliner. Came out pretty darn good if I do say so.
I then got the soldering iron out and fixed the loosely wrapped connections on the radio and replaced the flaking front speakers with some nice infinity 4x6" to match the oddly nice 6x9's in the rear. Done. Crank the AC/DC and roast them tires!
Welcome aboard Mork. Looks like a really super rust free place to start.
Thanks, really that was the selling point for me. Didn't originally care for the white, and the interior has been a bit of a headache, but it will get there. I'm still amazed that it drives as well as it does.
Also, good lord, I just read some of your thread. Well done sir. I just don't have the patience for that level of detail. That also happens to be one of my favorite examples of a firebird. Every time I see the hood vents and that bumper specifically, I question my 3rd gen choice...
As you may have seen in post one in my thread, my first new car was an Arctic White '91 RS, with the same grey interior you have. So I have a soft spot in my heart for cars like yours.
Very nice car Mork. Those boys will enjoy riding in that cool car! Some of my earliest memories are driving in my dad's chevelles, my uncle's 68 Z28 and my grandpa's 67 mustang.Then my aunt's 85 Iroc really had an impression on me.
Collecting parts for the swap... Got the T56 crossmember, AC notch plate, new clamshells and poly mounts, clutch/flywheel/slave, gaskets, etc. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about headers - I need to pass smog and I'm finding conflicting info about the cat location wether it needs to match the donor motor.
So so not to be discouraged by the amount of work ahead, I gave her a good thrashing the other night. Man this sure will be nice with some extra juice. I'm also a sucker for clean cast aluminum engine blocks.
Love parts finding. Also, this guy had the coolest garage I’ve seen in a long time. Just looked like a suburban 3 car from outside, but had a full size lift, parking for 3 vehicles, a full paint booth and more I couldn’t see and didn’t want to snoop to.
Still gathering parts... The T56 is back on the motor with a fresh flywheel, clutch, slave, 3/4” adjustable master, remote bleeder, skip shift eliminator, etc.
I managed to snap this while removing the valve covers for cleaning and fresh seals. Who says school stops in summer?
Isn’t that an oil passage? It looks a little boogered up but wth could’ve caused it?
Missing pushrod. The hazards of buying a used engine. Luckily, it looks like a clean break as you can see it through the hole next to the head bolt on the left. The guy who sold it to me seems willing to do something about it, so we shall see...
In addition to the broken exhaust pushrod on #6, #2 has a decent bend and the #4 piston tapped the cylinder.
I haven’t opened the drivers side yet, but I’m expecting some more bends and possibly more nicked pistons.
The seller said to let him know the damage and that he is willing to do something about it. (Local guy that makes a living parting cars) What do you all think is reasonable to ask for?
love to see old cars restored i just got my first car an 87 iroc z28 fully loaded but has bad rust......anyways ur cars looks nice but corvette rims dont belong on a CAMARO but its your car and if you like that then is all good but the iroc rims are the ways to go.
love to see old cars restored i just got my first car an 87 iroc z28 fully loaded but has bad rust......anyways ur cars looks nice but corvette rims dont belong on a CAMARO but its your car and if you like that then is all good but the iroc rims are the ways to go.
False. Bipartisan data unilaterally supports the C4 wheels.
On a slightly more positive note, with the new engine work looming and recognizing that I’ll be driving the 305 a bit longer, might as well slap in the wonderbar and have some fun. Sure was nice not to have any rusty bolts.
More small bits of progress while I’m gathering parts for the LS1. The guy I got the motor from sent another set of heads, pushrods, and a bit of a refund for some parts. Not perfect, but better than being left high and dry.
Heres a Hawks repro consold lid that I picked up half price with a blemished cover (the rubber they use is the most toxic smelling nasty thing, but looks durable) good thing I already had a leather cover with matching shift boot...
No real updates. Heads are back together with fresh valve seals and I’m waiting on the LS7 lifters to arrive. I did find this gem on Craigslist though:
Making progress on little things that add up. Tore open the driver door and replaced the lower pin and bushings. The clunk was just getting to be too much for me. The ole doorman kit was just what it needed. Also replaced the outer seal and upholstered the upper trim piece. Eventually just about every crappy interior touch point is going to be recovered. Now I’m just waiting on the new Christmas tree tabs and the dynomat to arrive so I can finish her up.
I’m also putting a carbon finish on some of the console panels.
And it came out super easy. Ive been seeing so many threads on how to pull these out and after doing it, I can’t figure out why. I didn’t even bother removing my bodywork. Just slid right out the top.
Little bits of progress here and there. Cut and rewelded the k-member for AC and while I was in there, put a healthy notch in. Also welded up and threw some spot putty on the big holes on the wheel wells. I’ll be putting a bit of paint to freshen up the bay, but by no means a shaved show car job.
Came out just as I’d hoped for. Original color matched perfectly. There is a little bit of orange peel, and I have to clean up some overspray, but I planned on that being ok as I need to put some new brake and fuel lines in anyway.
Speaking of, that’s the next step. I remember seeing some sort of pre-bent front LS swap k-member brake line somewhere but can’t remember where. Anyone remember off hand?
And a happy Christmas indeed. The UMI drivers mounts line up wonderfully, but the passenger is using completely different holes. The leading bolt and the bottom bolt both line up, but the third gen f-body specific one on the passenger side has no way of being close. I’m not sure if it’s caused by the AC notch, but another “drill” hole lines up and the tranny mount lines up as well, so...
10 min of googlin and looking at some of my old pics, I don’t have the top right 3rd gen specific hole on my k-member at all. The hole that I’m using for the 3rd bolt is the same one used with the hawks produced ones. Looks like there was just enough wiggle room for me to fit it.
so for others, ‘89 RS with the 305 has different k- member holes than what UMI used for their mounts.
The headers were a complete battle to get in. The motor is pushed back about as far as the UMI mounts allow so I barely had any clearance with the motor mount pin pulled and the hoisted up on each side. Both went in through the bottom as I had welded on the v-bands beforehand. Also, I will pat myself on the back as my first stainless TIG welding project is turning out fantastic.
Looking good what PCM/ignition you planning on running? I just finished my LS1 in my 89 bird.
I have the whole wiring/ecu from the donor happily. I just need to do some more research on a place for a good initial tune / egr, air pump and vats delete.
More progress. LS1 tank is in, parts are on the way to finish the fuel connections, the filler neck is trimmed and finished. For the filler neck, I got the reproduction tube, but had to search to find a new connection tube to the tank from the metal pipe. Luckily a company called “Filler neck supply company” had the tube as the original GM part is discontinued. Had I known it was just a rubber tube and a reducer, I would have made my own.
Anyways, the rubber connection tube gets cut down 1 1/2” and I found the right spot to drill the hole to mount the upper tube. If you look at the first picture, it’s right next to the rearward spot weld/dimple. I’d say it fit up perfectly.
Very nice I ended up installing a second bracket, hose clamped to the filler tube and bolted to the car so it was much more stable. Probably not needed just made me feel better, as it doesn't move when filling it now.
A 2nd bracket isn’t a bad idea at all. For the sending unit, I have been considering replacing all the gauges. A full set of autometers or maybe Dakota digital. I’m not sure I feel like hacking something together just for the gauge.
Something I did to my tank to simplify fuel lines.
Just a feed line to the engine from the tee, stock LS1 filter and tee. Some stainless plus parts store fuel line repair parts. I did the evap line also.
Something I did to my tank to simplify fuel lines.
Just a feed line to the engine from the tee, stock LS1 filter and tee. Some stainless plus parts store fuel line repair parts. I did the evap line also.
interesting approach. I’m planning on running the 3rd gen filter with -AN lines to it with the T before the filter (I figure there’s no sense on filtering the return twice)
...But on that note, is there any benefit to filtering before the return T?
And regarding the evap, have you figured out how to run it without the data from a 4th gen cluster?
That is how it was set up from the factory, originally the 4th and 3rd gen filters are in the same place. I just moved it closer to the tank to make it a more compact package and not have a
return line for half the length of the car. What happens in the tank is kinda neat. There is no baffling of any sort and the pump is in a bucket. The fuel pressure regulator is just inside and it looks like it bleeds off excess fuel into the bucket. I am guessing that it is filtered before it is returned so it does not recirculate debris.
