oldgoat69

Thanks for the tip.
One of my goals for the project is to use as many OEM parts as I can. After I start driving the car, when things break, I want to be able to go into a NAPA store and pick a replacement part off the shelf. I have been down this road before with several other cars. I have been in the performance aftermarket business for 45 years. The parts are fantastic, just not nearly as available as OE when you are stuck alongside the highway late at night.

G Atsma

Oil pans are rarely, if ever, a failure point.

oldgoat69

I made some headway this weekend.


Engine and trans are now in place.


Notched the frame rail for the PS pump. ICT bracket fits like a glove. Very nice part.


Gotta figure out where to mount the dry sump tank. C7 is behind the passenger front wheel. Pretty tight, but might work.


The biggest visual is the swap out of the wheels and tires. The ZO6 setup was way too small for the Camaro body.


We participate with Continental/General on some of our SEMA builds. I was offered the opportunity to get on board.


Extreme Contact 335/25x20 rear, 285/30x19 front on 20x12 and 19x10 C7 Grand Sport wheels I found at a smoking deal.





Now the brakes look tiny. I say where another guy used all C7 parts from the control arms out to upgrade the brakes on a C5 cradle.


Looks like the next rabbit hole to chase down.

Jimbo1367

Some people I've seen notch the firewell on the pass side for their dry sump tank. Just a thought. You are going to do something more robust for the trans mount, right? Whats the difference in compression ratio between the LT1/L86 engine vs. a LT4? Do you recall?

oldgoat69

I am going to add a wedge to each side from the center going outboard. It is surprisingly rigid now that it is bolted together.
LT1 is 11.5:1 LT4 is 10:1. This is a very common upgrade. I have yet to see anyone have issues unless they try to step up the boost.

My biggest problem is not with the firewall, more the frame rail. Back to the drawing board. I think I have a solution.

oldgoat69

So I haven't updated for a while. That doesn't mean progress hasn't been made.
Made a few more mods to the trans cross member.
Cut the floor pan out from the cowl to the rear bulkhead. The rockers are in better shape than I originally thought. Just a couple of small patches at the rear need to be done.
The plan is to channel the body down over the frame rails. I will then build a cage into the A-pillars going to the front rails and all the way back to the rear rails.
I am trying to keep the trunk floor and structure. It appears that this is going to work.
I did find that someone crashed it on the PS and did a really crappy job fixing it. They did weld in a galvanized patch but left a rust hole and a 3/4" deep dent.
Same story on the door.
I bought a new quarter skin to take care of that. The DS has already been done.

HILROD

The channeled floor sounds great! For as many times as I have done a full floor you would have thought I'd have thought to do it already.

oldgoat69

I haven't posted for a while, lots has happened.
I bought a C7 front cradle with control and spindles. Discovered that C7 control arms plug into the C5 cradle.
I am going to pull the C5 cradle and upgrade to the C7 since I have it. Not as easy as it sounds though.
I think it will be worth it.
Found a full set of C7 Z06 calipers and rear rotors. Fronts are recoated and rebuilt now.
The 6 piston fronts are absolutely massive.
Rears go to the coater this week.
Also got the right rear quarter welded on.
Pretty much my entire team was furloughed till April 30 so I finally have time to devote to the car.
I am making fillers to eliminate the rear bumper. I will get more practice with the English wheel and planish hammer.
Before I go too much further, a cleanup of the shop is in order.


These things are massive.


Props to the guys at Continental for their help.

oldgoat69

I really don't want bumpers on the car. The front is easy. The rear not so much.
A couple hours with my sandbag and here is the rough in.
A PO riveted the DS quarter skin on. I hate to kill the body work, but I don't trust the metal work.



This is what it looks like before.

And this is the rough in.

Jimbo1367

Looking good. I’m digging this build more and more

oldgoat69

Got a bit more accomplished.
The C7 cradle is now in place. It moved the engine forward and to the drivers side about a half inch.
Notched the frame rail to clear the PS pump some more.
Figured out how to mount the C5 steering rack. I will need to get C7 tie rod ends to correct geometry.
Really didn't like first attempt at the rear bumper delete. Here is version 2. Some time with the english wheel and my brake and it looks tons better.
This is even more of an excuse to buy a slip roll. It would have been a ton easier.
Rear calipers are back and assembled. The C7 rear spindles showed up yesterday so I have a project for today.

oldgoat69

Here is the front cradle installed.

Jimbo1367

How hard was the 1/4 panel replacement? I want to do mine some day.

thanks,
Jim

oldgoat69

A lot happened since this last post.
I hung the drivers side quarter after finding out how poorly the PO did on his replacement.
Completed the rough in of the rear bumper delete.
The frame went to the blaster, then got a coat of paint to protect it during the rest of the mockup.
I got all both of the suspension cradles mounted.
Saved up and bought the brake rotors.
Mounted the body to the frame rails. This proved to be a much bigger undertaking than originally anticipated.
The body at the rear wheel wells is now 2 inches wider than stock without touching the quarters.
Thanks to the removal of the floor pans, it turned out to be fairly easy.
Re mounted the front coil overs. They now clear the swaybar.
The current project is mounting the rear body section to the bobbed frame rails.
I really want to keep the stock gas tank.

oldgoat69

Sorry Jim, I missed your question.
Not really all that hard. Just drill out about 200 spot welds.
I found the aftermarket quarters to fit fairly well.
I think it all depends on how straight the original shell really is.

kipps

This is a primary goal of my build as well. I'm building a daily driver 4wd Chevrolet truck, so it's a bit different of a build. But maintaining a list of OEM parts on the truck, is a high priority. So far, virtually everything is bolt-on GM components. There's a few miscellaneous adapters, and obviously the computer tune and wiring will be custom, but otherwise, I can source replacement parts from RockAuto or the local Federated Auto Parts. My term for this, is a "GM parts number build."

Jimbo1367

no problem. thanks

oldgoat69

Thought I would update the build.
I replaced both outer rockers and cut the door skins off. The new rockers and door skins fit like factory. I highly recommend AMD.
Replaced the lower door shells. The replacement pieces didn't fit for sour owl poo.
I won't name the supplier.
I got front and rear alignment figured out. Ended up being a pretty big problem to solve.

I modified a drive shaft and had it balanced, installed with the adapters to connect to the Camaro transmission and GTO rearend.

Since this project started, I have been trying to decide on what to do for a dash. I really don’t care for the GEN2 Camaro layout. I like the Firebird variant, but those are getting very expensive. I wanted to use as many OEM parts as possible including electronics that can be integrated with the ECU.

The solution is a 2018 GEN6 Camaro dash assembly. I got everything less the radio, including the entire HVAC system. There are 5 different electronic modules that control everything and a wiring harness that rivals the engine harness. Dimensionally, the dash is 1” narrower than the original and does project a few inches further into the cabin from the windshield. Overall should be fairly straightforward.

I made the decision to abandon the stainless headers and go back to the OE manifolds. I am waiting for a pair of front cats before I start making the bulkhead and front floor sections.

Next up will be seats. I am searching for a pair of GEN6 Camaro full power seats in Kalahari. These seem to be the new Unicorn.

oldgoat69

I fussed around this last weekend and moved the car back into my other shop which has more room and better light.
Pulled the windshield and cut out the original dash and steering column mount.
It took a while but I got the dash mocked up into position. My original plan to use a direct mount shifter is out the door. Good thing I held onto the shifter that came with the trans.
The luxurious old desk chair was repurposed as a mockup seat. In all I'm pretty happy with the layout.

oldgoat69

Time for a bit of an update to the project.

I got the bulk of the exhaust built. 304 stainless, cut and weld. Still needs to be ground and maybe polished. It came out better than expected. I still need to figure out how it will terminate. I like the idea of building some sort of diffuser that will also house a single backup light.

After some trial and error I built an air intake for the A/C system. I also bought and installed Gen 6 brake and clutch pedals along with a ZL1 booster and master. Pretty cool, the clutch master is built into the clutch pedal pivot.

I have been searching for a few months for the right deal on OEM Recaros with heat and cool. A pair finally popped up out of a 21 1LE with less than a thousand miles on it. They are in much better shape than I could have hoped for an half the price of well used ones with blown air bags. I spent some time Saturday and mocked them up along with the console. Purely by accident the shifter comes through the hole in just about the right spot. I have been sweating this for a long time.

I stumbled upon a guy parting a 2SS with a bunch of other stuff I needed. I was able to grab the E-brake actuator, power window mechanisms, inner door wiring to tie everything together and a factory amp.

The window motor assemblies are going to work slick. I had a pair out of a CTS that came close, but these will be much better. Not near as much fab as I anticipated.