rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

Well I thought it was time to make my own build thread. I bought my Camaro in May of 1996 and it is my first car. I bought it with 22k on it for $9000. It currently has 66k on it and has never seen winter. I have been on 3 Power Tours with it and Long Hauled it once. My plan is to have the car finished by July as I am getting married and want to use the car in the wedding. Enough of that on to my build.

After about a year and a half of slowly gathering parts I am finally getting ready to start getting my LS1/t56 installed. To start with I had to remove the LT1 and 700-R4 that I had been running since about 2002. I installed the LT1 in my dad’s car and you can see his build thread here: http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/lt...ble-355-a.html

Here is what my Camaro looks like.







I began by removing my LT1 and getting it ready to put in my dads car. I went 12.52 at 114 with this motor and a 100 shot of nitrous.

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

For my LS swap I decided to purchase a wrecked Camaro or Trans Am. Luckily for me I found a 01 Z28 on copart.com that fit my needs. I placed my bid and won the car for $4000. I know this may seem high to some, but I have about broke even with all of the parts I sold. I will also use the perfect ebony leather seats in my car. It came with a factory SS hood and spoiler which I sold for a nice profit. For me this was the best option. Here are some pics of the car before and after I was done with it.









My friend being a real toughguy.


Put it on my trailer and took it to a local yard. Got $150 bucks for the shell.





Here is a pic of my LS1/T56 drop out.

thunderzy

awesome! keep it coming

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

I decided now was a good time to remove the factory fuel lines and K-Member. I am going with a BMR K-member with Spohn Coilovers with QA1 12 way adjustable shocks. I removed the k-member by myself and all I can say is that I never want to remove the springs ever again and I am so glad I went with coliovers. That is one of the most dangerous things I have ever done.






Finally got it out


I had to get a picture of the factory k-member next to the BMR one.



Then I decided that I wanted to paint my engine bay since it looked so dirty and bad to me. I also decided to fill a few holes and relocate the coolant overflow and windshield washer tank.

Friggy

iTrader: (1)

Nice looking car, I love that color. Can't wait to see the progress on this. The more LSx powered third gens....the better. Keep the pics coming! How many miles on the donor?

Tuffguy610

iTrader: (2)

Nice car! This will surely turn out nice! After reading your post, I decided to go on copart.com. It definitely looks like the way to go for buying a donor car, but what's the catch?

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

Thanks for the compliment on the color. As you can see my truck is nearly the same color and my fiances car is the about the same as well. We must love the color. The wrecked car I bought had about 95k on it. When I bought it the drives side A-arm was ripped off so I threw one on I had in my garage and actually drove the car off the trailer and up and down the road a few times to make sure that it shifted good and ran good. The windshield was not as bad as it is in the pics, my friends thought it needed smashed up a little more after I parked it to tear it apart.

JWStevens

iTrader: (1)

Looks good! Hurry up and finish, we're waiting....

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

The catch is you have to pay their fees on top of the price of the car. Also you can be outbid if your max is not set high enough. Once you are locked into a price you can not change it. This car was actually the first one I bid on and I really did not expect to win. I had to go to New York to pick the car up at one of coparts warehouses. I watched the bid and it was almost to my max when the other people bidding stopped. You also have to transfer the funds for the car through their site. I used cash, but you may be able to use a credit card or bank check if needed, but I do not know for sure on that.

I'm working on it I made some more progress tonight and hopefully Saturday is a good day. Should have a big update soon as I am almost finished mounting the Tick Master Cylinder.

JWStevens

iTrader: (1)

Well, I hope you get it done before the summer. My DR's are suppose to be here monday so ill probably need a trans a week later... Did you say you were upgrading the rearend?

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

Right now I am running a 9 bolt with 3.73 gears I rebuilt back in 02. I got out of an 88 Trans Am but after years of getting beat on the posi is starting to go so my plan is to buy a 9" with my tax return money, but we will see it may have to wait until later in the summer.

Are you running an auto? If so I just put a Performabuilt Level 2 700-r4 in my dads car and he loves it. He is running my old Precision Industries Vigilante with it and it is very nice. I would recomend it to anyone. Fast shipping and great quality.

JWStevens

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, its a 4l60e and its got 232k on it which is a miracle in itself. If I hadn't gotten the car from a co-worker and knew he was the original owner I wouldn't believe it. I got those wheels from you to put the DR's on so like I said, its days are numbered... I had one of those 9 bolts in my 92 and it did good, but I didn't have a clutch!

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

My posi is shot in the rear so it may be a one wheelie pealie for a little while but I don't expect it to hold up to my drag radials and a clutch. The auto was pretty easy on the rear. Also I hope you enjoy the wheels and they were as good as you expected.

Before I got the engine bay in primer I decided to drill my firewall for the Tick Master Cylinder I purchased. Here is how I did it. I took the Tick apart and made a cardboard template. I then mounted the pedals and drilled the 2 pilot holes. Next I used the stock U-bolt to hold the cardboard template and traced it out on the firewall. I used a 1.5” holesaw and die grinder to make the oval hole in the firewall.











I also had a friend make me a pin to use with the Tick Master Cylinder. The fourth gen pedals have a smaller skinnier pin and since I am using third gen pedals I had to swap the pin out. I could have used the pin out of the 4th gen set I have, but that would make them useless. My friend is an Engineer at a local machine shop so I had him draw it up and make it. It turned out really good I just need to get it mounted in the clutch pedal and welded up.



Finally after hours of scrubing and sanding and filling the car is finally in primer and ready for paint.

Firehawkslplus

First of all thanks for taking the time to document your build ( pics are good).
2 quick questions, 1. I assume that "Tick" is the brand name of of the cl. master; if so where did you get it? I like the construction. I know that alignment of pushrod between pedal and the cylinder is critical to avoid side loading the piston possibly damaging the seal. 2. So how did you determine where to drill for the mounting?

It's this kind of thing that drives me crazy.



thanks Roger

Redbull87

iTrader: (3)

Welcome to the lsx thirdgen world.You will love the combo.Not even full yr of having my ls1 I want to go bigger and picked up an lq4.My original 3:23 gear rearend is still hanging on for life..its been through 4 motor swap beatings..just a matter of time before she snaps but I dont do hard dig launches.

Any plans on building the motort ..small boltons..headers etc? Car looks great

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

I picked up a 6.0 block that I am going to build once this swap is finished. I am slowly pick up parts to build a 408 but that will be finished next year at the earliest. I did buy a set of Stainless Works 1 3/4" longtubes for the swap, an underdrive pulley, ported throttle body, and a MS4 cam. I also have a Textralia clutch and may buy a plate to run a small shot of nitrous on it since the car is already plumbed and ready. I sold the LT1 plate, but kept the bottle, lines, and misc stuff to use it, but I am not sure yet. I have also been on the lookout for a cheap set of 243 heads to run as well.

Yes, Tick is the name of the master cylinder and it is made by Tick Performance. http://www.tickperformance.com/tick-...or-ls1-f-body/ To get the alignment right I mounted the pedals on the firewall and then used the 2 arms on the thirdgen pedals to line up the correct placement of the holes. I don't have a picture of my pedals but if you have a set you will see what I mean. I then drilled one of the holes and then used the U-bolt to determine where to put the other one. Next using my cardboard cutout I traced the patern for the oval out onto the firewall and then used a 1.5" holesaw and die grinder to elongate the hole to get the oval shape. Hope this helps if you need more detail let me know.

rickyzZ28

iTrader: (28)

Finally got some color on the car last night. The flash makes the color look a little more red than it is. I used a rattle can primer and had a friend paint the color. I used a Limco Urethane in my factory paint code. He put down 3 coats of color.





Finally some color







Here is a picture of my homemade paint booth in my garage since there was no front suspension in the car I couldn’t move it to a real paint booth.

toxic99

Lookin good so far

JWStevens

iTrader: (1)

Man, I sell limco paint! I should have just swapped you some paint for those wheels, lol! Looks good. When you're done I'm gonna drive up and take a look.

bonecrrusher

iTrader: (1)

Thats a clean car to start with.... Glad you painted the engine bay - I like the painted bolt tops trick!