Here’s the short version of my long story. I began in high school with a 1999 black v6 Camaro. I bought the car wrecked and fixed it. Through high school it ended up turning into an ls1 swap car (ls1/4l60e) and slowly got more and more mods. By my senior year it turned into a cam-only daily driver running 11.6s. Some mods included a 9” rear with 3.70s and a th400 with a 3800 stall and trans-brake. After high school I was able to swap the cam-only ls1 for a 402 from Texas Speed. At this point the car ran a best of 10.4 @ 130 with the 402/TH400/9” setup along with the supporting suspension and chassis mods. At this point the car was a running how I had always wanted it to and looked good…..from 50 feet away. Over the modding process I cut corners. If something didn’t fit right, I cut it. If something broke, I rigged it up as cheap as I could. Overall I began to realize that the car looked like crap. Everything seemed homemade and just quickly thrown together. The interior was almost gutted, had just one kirkey seat, no radio, no ac, mufflers right on the headers, etc. Also from the car being wrecked the front nose/fender/hood lines never lined up and the rear hatch and back interior panels never lined up! I always said I wanted to start over and do everything right. I was also embarrassed to drive the car or even take it to the track because of how it looked.
I came across this 2000 red Camaro SS shell. I got a good deal on it from a good friend of mine whom also happened to buy my 2002 Z06 (had to sell it to save money for college). Anyways, I have been very lucky and my dad built a shop for us to work on the car and also store some things for his business. So I begin the process of swapping the major components and doing the car the way I should have done the first time.

Some things Ive done different with the SS: engine bay is painted low gloss black, hvac delete panel is not homemade…I bought one from Thunder Racing. The car has stock carpet and FULL ebony leather interior!! (my favorite part). Under the hood I added the polished bolt kit from Specialized Stainless! I will be ordered the polished covers from SS in the near future.
Nothing on the SS is being cut or hacked up!

From taking the black v6 car apart I have realized the extent of how much of a piece of junk the body really was. The frame was still bent! That explains why a strut tower brace wouldn’t work on the black car. Its weird because parts that took so much effort to get on the black v6 body car such as the k-member, moser 9”, and other misc brackets and such have gone in like a piece of cake on the red car.
Anyways enough back ground here are some quick pictures of my progress. You can see all the pictures on my photobucket account in my sig! Let me know what you guys think and any suggestions about what I can do.
On the red SS I may swap that billet grill for the slp grill and add some smooth red FRCs. I can post a complete mod list when its all done.

The pictures are a little blurry but they work for now.

 

Looks like a nice project, good luck with it.

 

huge improvement. good luck with it man. hopt this new ones runs as well as the other-sometimes they give u a couple fits when u swap parts over.

 

Yea Im going to try not make this one such a "race car" as the black one was. I want it to be a really nice street car. The th400 will limit me on highway driving. The red one will not have ac but it will have a radio and full exhaust!

 

Holy badass garage!!!

That red car is friggin gorgeous man.

 

Guys, I have been working on this car along with our little team and all I can say is it is going to be amazing. A true low mileage SS with lots of power and alot of tasteful mods. I'm just glad I got to be a part of the destruction of the old and the build of the new.

 

this is by far the most fun project i've been on. and i'm learning a lot. its been coming together so fast its kind of scary. within 5 hours of beginning work all that was left in the black car was the motor and front suspension. we expected it to be months before it was ready and its barely even been one month. going to the gym has been a joke, every night we spend working on the car!

 

That sucks you have to do all this in such a small dirty shop!

Can't wait to see when the car is all done! Looks like its coming along very nicely. Wish i could afford to have an 11 second car by my senior year. All my money goes into my car, and its still basically stock. Oh well, it will come soon enough.

Good luck on finishing her up!

 

man now how am i supposed to make fun of you for having a V6 non street driven race car...dissapointing josh...

 

nice!

 

haha mitch, i think i forgot to tell you what i was doing with the car! Ill have to get some good detailed pictures of all the little mods. Its the simple things that Im liking about the red car. Bryant suggested painting the brake calipers to match the SS badges...black with silver brackets! It turned out to be a really nice touch!
The bolts from specialized stainless have been by far my favorite mod! Once again suggested by Bryant and Ryan. We are thinking about painting under that lip on the inside of the fender in the engine bay the same low gloss. It may make those nice bolts stand out a bit more.

We got the tranny, spohn torque arm and driveshaft in last night. Went to put the tires on and set her on the ground for the first time to see the ride height but realized I left the lugnuts at home!!!!!!! Night will be GREAT!!

All that is left to do is mount the shifter, weld the sway bar brackets for the bmr xtreme sway bar, run the exhaust, wire the transbrake, line lock and shift light (which will be hidden in the A-pillar!!), get the steering column in, dash and interior wiring all hooked up!!

 

I just got back in town tonight and saw this post. Looking good w/ the build and I'm real happy you like our polished stainless bolt kit! Keep us up-dated...

 

I cant wait to get some more money together and get some of those stainless covers! I just cant decide what would look better....the polished covers or the brushed.

 

looks good