68 Camaro Project Folder 

Progress Folder

This is the finished Product.

 This is what we started with

12/10/2006  The First weekend.  The Rear Hoop
12/17/2006               This is the convertible Model.   Picture by Paula.
12/21/2006 This is the two door sedan Model   Notice that the brake lines are totally inside the tubing from front to back including the right front
12/30/2006 Christmas Week This is Paul's Holiday Jigsaw Puzzle   

Nice rear end if I do say so myself
Schedule 
Monthly   Annual
News Home  Links
2006 Series Points
2005 Series Points

 

January 6, Spent at the NHRA Div 3 Banquet  (No Work) We collected awards and visited from Friends

January 14,  Sorry No picture updates.  We made a lot of progress pictures will not show.

  • Mounted engine compartment parts, Fuel Tank, Oil Tank, Radiator, Transmission Cooler, Alternator.
  • Installed the rest of the Rack and Pinion brackets for the steering, welded on the tie rods.
  • Set-up the Rear End by mounting the shocks, the four link bars, fabricated the wishbone, and Anti-roll bar.

January 21, 2007   The Colts beat New England in the wildest playoff game ever.

  • Completed welding the Frame
  • Installed trans. mount
  • Started on the seat
  • More engine stuff mounted
  • Completed rear end install

January 28, 2007 Winter has struck.  Cold weather.  Started building headers, battery hold down

February 4, 2007, The Colts are the NFL Champions of the Super Bowl XLI

  1. Plumbed the Oil Lines

  2. Rear End brackets for wheelie bar mount.

  3. Seat, pedals, shifter, steering column

  4. Battery box, safety loop

  5. Accu-sump

  6. Stopped short to root on the colts

February 11, 2007.  Work Work Work... Body work sucks.  Fiberglass itches.  We would rather be bending steel and make sparks.

The Doors are mounted and the main body is partially connected to the frame.   It looks pretty good for a dry run doesn't it.

March 4, 2007.  The Frame is Complete Ready for the Power Coating.

The next time you will see the Chassis it will have a shinny coating of black powder coating.

The car sits so low Paul has shortened the injector stacks on the intake manifold by 1 inch.  Paul needed to shorten the stacks the hard way, by cutting 1 inch out of the stacks for hood clearance.     Check-out what Paul has improvised for the rotisserie.  Yea, that is an engine stand bolted to the front. Guess what is bolted to the other end to complete the rotisserie?  Yea, another darned engine stand.  Pretty cool idea!!!  That rotisserie saved a lot of time and back ache.

March 11, 2007.  The Frame is Power Coated and the body is fastened in place

What do you think the coated chassis weighs?  You guessed it.  300 lbs.  The body weighs 25 lbs.  The entire chassis and body will weight less than 500 lbs.  Cool.  We are shooting for a wet curb weight of 1900 lbs.  Do you think we will make it?

March 19, 2007.  Began fabrication of the rear wheel tubs and trunk.  Fab'ed the windows, fit doors and front end.  Paul assembled the short block on the engine.  Installed the rear end and transmission to get the measurement of the drive shaft.

March 25, 2007.  Sorry about the picture quality.  I must have fat fingered a setting on the camera.

Guess the weight now!  No doors, dog-house, drive shaft, windows, transmission cooler lines, wiring, belts, window net, starter and paint.  Everything else is sitting here.  Any guesses?  -> Ta-Daaaa!  1584 lbs.  The color has been selected.  House of Colors Hot Pink.

Check out the Wheel Spacing.  A little close to the suspension parts.  Well these are the wheels from the wreck.  The new ones are spaced out an inch further. This car still has the track width of a dragster.

Check out the reflection in the aluminum.  It looks like someone did a flame job on the panels.

April 2, 2007.  The Camaro is off of the Jig and on the floor.  Wow does it look good and it is real low.  Day 120 of fabrication...

This is the first time that I have been able to stand far enough away to get a full view from this view.  I can wait to see it with the body painted.

Well I have been updating on what is completed.  Now all we need to fabricate and install is Paint, throttle linkage, fuel shut-off cable, the right door glass, wire up the data logger, drive shaft, both door panels, dash cover, wire the lights, and wheelie bars.  After fabrication is complete, all needs assembled, the chassis needs set-up, the new ignition system needs programmed better for boost timing control, the boost waist-gate controller needs tuned, we need to set the trailer up to hold the new car.  
April 8, 2007.  Paul picked up the front End and doors from Lee.  No Pictures, but here is what we did.
  1. Made and installed the side windows
  2. Paul worked hard on a turbo oil leak.  This is kinda technical since we are trying something really new with the turbos.
  3. Built a set of mile long (96 in) wheelie bars.  I have built dragster front ends similar to these wheelie bars.
  4. Replaced the 100# rear springs with 80# springs
  5. I drove the car in the parking lot.  It felt great for driving on a gravel parking lot. 
  6. Making lead weights since the car will be way too light for 2150 lbs.
  7. Church on Sunday.  Happy Easter.
 Tomorrow
  1. Making a carrying rack for the front end.  The car will not fit into our trailer with the front end on.  If we take the front end off and hang it from the ceiling of the trailer, it will fit.
  2. Rack to hold the wheelie bars in the trailer. 
  3. Paul will take the car back to Lee's to finish the body work

The doors and front end are painted flawlessly.  They look very slick and wet.  We can not wait to show the paint off.

It looks doubtful for racing at Indy, April 13 to 15.  We plan to do some testing the weekend after Indy to get ready for the Dart Top Sportsman Shoot out at the National Event in Atlanta.  There is just a lot of stuff to adjust and test out before competing at a points meet. 

April 14, 2007.  Lee completed the paint job on the rest of the body.  With the help of Cheat'in Charlie and Lee, Paul, Paula and I completed the assembly.  Sunday we prepared the trailer for the car.  The car left its mark.  It left a nice black patch in the street on Wernsing Rd.
April 21, 2007.  Paul, and the gang pick up the car from Taylor House of Colors.  If you want to know where Taylor's is in Louisville, KY, turn off of I-164 toward Kentucky Kingdom.  Get on the wooden roller coaster,  after the second big drop, look to the left and there it is, Taylor House of Color.

The first tuning session was at Ohio Valley Dragway during one of regular racing nights.  The first pass the car went right and the boost controller was all screwed up with the shift time has late causing us to hit the rev limiter before the first to high gear change.  The car went 4.53 despite the less than perfect run. 

The other notable thing, we raced a 6.20 dialed Mustang and won the first round of elimination. 

I can't wait to race at the Nationals, in Atlanta.