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Still working on the radiator support, cut the whole thing out because I'm an idiot Only really needed to cut the ends out to drop it down about 1 1/2" to make room. Figured it was a good time to learn to weld, seen it on TV all the time and youtube is full of videos on welding so how hard could it be? Picked up a cheap Harbor Freight flux core unit and went to work.
Got the center welded back in and made the ends with the drop down I need to clear the hood, will hopefully finish it up tomorrow. I don't think it came out too bad, definitely not expert work but it should get the job done.
Well it's a good thing I'm not getting paid for this, doing things 3 times is not exactly the most efficient way to do it but I'm making progress still and on a positive side I'm getting plenty of practice with the welder. On to the progress...radiator is in, just need to figure out the top mounts.
Unless you all think the blue painters tape will hold up long term I should have the top locked in tomorrow and can check something else off the list. It's close but I was able to get the hood closed so pretty proud of that.
Nice progress. Way to keep at it. 3 times isn't bad...some of "us" have needed many more than that. Weld, grind, repeat. Over and over. Measure once, cut four times...weld back in what you cut out...grind some more.
Nice progress. Way to keep at it. 3 times isn't bad...some of "us" have needed many more than that. Weld, grind, repeat. Over and over. Measure once, cut four times...weld back in what you cut out...grind some more.
Thanks, you forgot the cussing though. I'm sure I'm not the only one, there was an awful lot of cussing between the cutting, welding and grinding.
Top radiator mounts were pretty easy so that's good to go now. Big brown truck stopped by this week and dropped off my Core Shifter so I think the shifter should be good now too. From my quick measurements and what I've seen online it should pop up right where the stock shifter hole is. I just threw it on there to make sure everything lined up, I'll actually bolt it down when I get the engine/tranny in but it looks pretty slick.
Started on the wiring today, not very much fun. Dash broke to pieces, guess 25 years is tough on plastic, glad I've got a new one to swap in but since it's from a 2000 it's just adding to the list of things to do. Oh well, it's just work right?
Got the dash pulled out, working on the wiring and swapping over to the '98 dash and all those components and I found my next problem Anyone know if I can just run a remote reservoir to the hose off the master cylinder on the clutch pedal for the Camaro and make that work? As you can see it went to the old brake master cylinder which I'm not using, and it looks like it's just hooked up to it as a fluid reservoir. Wilwood makes a few different remote reservoirs that hook up to their brake master cylinders so I don't see why one of those wouldn't work, am I missing anything here? And I see 4oz and 7oz reservoirs, I'm thinking bigger is better, would the 4oz reservoir be enough?
Rock
Last edited by rockusaf; 06-05-2016 at 05:56 PM.
Reason: add question
Not much of an update because I'm home on leave for the next couple weeks but we do have actual junk yards here so I scored a new steering column to go with the new dash. I was gonna try to make the stock one work but this will be way easier getting everything wired up.
4th of July update, well the only real update is that there hasn't been any real change. I got back from leave and had to have back surgery so haven't been able to do any real work on the truck. Tempted but I don't want to experience the opposite of happy wife happy life...so I'm reading ls1tech for motivation and just ordered the remote reservoir for the clutch and a few odds and ends I need. Tempted to order some stuff to do the intake and air filter but without seeing the engine in the truck I'm not sure what it's going to have to look like.
Not giving up, the truck is my daily driver and I'm just borrowing a car from someone that's deployed so I've got to get it done soon.
Wow Rock, glad you are on the mend and mayyour recovery come at Turbo LS speed! My project has been creeping alongat a snail’s pace! Kit cars, if you didn't build it yourself can be areal plain! What should have been usedand what was is sometimes totally different! I am making progress and I hope you are as well, on both front!
Thanks, the back is not feeling great but I'm running out of time so I did make some progress, got the new steering column bracket in and the Camaro clutch pedal mounted, I will probably do some bracing on the firewall but if feels pretty solid. The pedal needs to move over a bit but it is bent from the factory so I should be able to just make it straight and it'll be pretty close to the brake pedal.
Plan is to figure out the gas pedal tomorrow but it's my anniversary so I'm not sure how much my better half is going to put up with.
Crappy pic you can sort of see the pedals in all the mess down there. Hopefully I'll get a better pic with all 3 pedals tomorrow
Only got a couple hours in on Sunday but I got the mount made up for the gas pedal, I think it came out pretty good and puts the pedal close to the stock location. No pic of it mounted yet because there's a tab on the firewall that just hits so I can bolt up the back to the firewall where the stock pedal mounted but can't get the top in far enough to bolt it all together. Small detail to fix but I just ran out of time.
Hope to get the dash in by next weekend and that'll get me into the wiring Still have to figure out the lines for the clutch too.
I'm still making progress but not to the wiring yet. The fuse block I got from BPAutomotive included a pigtail for the gas pedal so I'll just wire that into the stock harness.
I did screw up when I mocked the clutch pedal, I had it lined up pretty close with the bake pedal but the pedal was angled too close so I straightened out the factory bends but apparently it pulled the pedal back a couple inches. Got some thinking to do on that one now
On to the progress, the motor is in!
Such a pain in the *** sitting so far back in the engine bay. I ran into the firewall with the lift leveler so I had to rest the motor on top of the motor mounts, sitting on the Dirty Dingo mounts then remove it and just put chains, that was pretty hairy but it's in and looking right at home.
Still have a long list of things to do but now I can get my drive shaft ordered, figure out my intake routing, exhaust...and I guess I need to start the wiring eventually.
Very nice, keep us updated, I am also making some good progress installing a 2014 LS3/tTR6060 into my 1977 trans am. I just got the motor a tranny mounting and so far everything is going smooth. Once you figure out how and what wires to tie the gas pedal into please post it, I also have a pigtail for the gas pedal but I cannot figure out how to wire it into the wiring harness.
Got some more done this weekend. Engine is in and locked down, tranny crossmember is in, surprised that the stock one was really close to where it needed to be, just a little work to make it all fit. Of course the shifter didn't land right in the middle of the stock hole so I enlarged and filled that all in.
Put the radiator and fans in and figured out I just need to cut about 2 or 3 inches out of the end of the Camaro lower radiator hose and it'll work and take about the same out of the middle of the upper and it'll work. Coolant lines for the tranny look like they'll work too, can't believe I got that lucky.
Now that I can see how things fit I ordered up the filter and everything for the air intake so I'll be able to cross tat off the list soon.
Not coming along as quickly as I had hoped but overall I can't complain.
05-27-2016, 06:55 PM
Only really needed to cut the ends out to drop it down about 1 1/2" to make room. Figured it was a good time to learn to weld, seen it on TV all the time and youtube is full of videos on welding so how hard could it be? Picked up a cheap Harbor Freight flux core unit and went to work. 
4th of July update, well the only real update is that there hasn't been any real change. I got back from leave and had to have back surgery so haven't been able to do any real work on the truck. Tempted but I don't want to experience the opposite of happy wife happy life...so I'm reading ls1tech for motivation and just ordered the remote reservoir for the clutch and a few odds and ends I need. Tempted to order some stuff to do the intake and air filter but without seeing the engine in the truck I'm not sure what it's going to have to look like.
