'69 Camaro build thread

Started back on the outer wheel tubs so I can get that finished up and ready for epoxy so I can get the floors welded in and the quarters closer to being ready to weld back on. The small stuff takes the longest to fab up and get fit right. Hoping to get the driver tub finished up next weekend. The passenger side is already close to being done so not as much work to get that side finished up.

Scottie, I don't have internet or cable at the house so I haven't seen or even heard of that show. As long as they're not like the hacks at gas monkey then it should be pretty sweet.

Saturday I got back on the driver quarter and outer tub. To get the rear part done first I needed to address the quarter that didn't line up right because of the wide body mod. I had to pie cut the quarter to fix the gap.





With the out of the way I was able to finish up the outer tub.



Since thats the main part I had planned for the day I was able to also check fitment of the supercharger tank that I've been tinkering with. The fitment was good so I'll get the back welded up and get the fittings welded in and check one more item off the list.



I also picked up a 5th gen hood vent to see how it will fit. I like the more forward option and it will clean the supercharger this way as well.



The rest of the afternoon I played with ideas for exhaust layout. I decided to run a Borla muffler even though its only 2.5" and I'm running 3" all the way back. The plan is for it to be quiet when normal driving and not drive me nuts with drone. Its an X style muffler and I'll run the exhaust in from each end and out the opposite side in a cross flow setup. I'm not to worried about it messing with the flow of thing as I'll also have vacuum actuated bypass valves. Since I went with this setup and with the trans cooler in the back it made me have to change from exhaust center under the tail lights to a center exhaust. It will still blend very well into the rear defuser.

I'm setting the car up for track duty and need to get the heat out for 30 min sessions. I wanted to do an extractor hood, but I don't have the room for it because of the supercharger. This is my best option without going to far. And thank you.

They are normally open valves and close when vacuum is applied. I just got them in last night and tested them and they are fully closed at 15" of vacuum. The plan is a duel window switch (the kind that is used to control nitrous, not power windows) to control them thats set to turn on at a certain throttle percentage and RPM for normal operation and a three way switch to command them full closed all the time, full open all the time, auto mode. I'm basically coping how the Corvette system works.

Saturday I decided it was time to tackle the front fenders to get started on making them wider to clear the wheels. In order for that to happen I needed to get the lower fenders mounted. I decided to extent the outer rocker and start the flair with that. I bought a repop outer rocker to save myself some time making the bends hoping it would line up easier. To get started with everything I marked the fender and made my first cut into very expensive fenders.



As you can tell from the picture below the repop rocker wasn't even close to the same size, bend angles, or dimensions as a stock rocker.



With the top part of the rocker the only thing remotely close to right I took the rocker sections and rolled them with a very flat wheel in the english wheel.



After bending the correct dimensions into the rocker I ran it through the stretcher and again through the english wheel to give it a little curve by the door area and it was enough to flow with the body and gain me 1.5" of flair. And yes, I know the body line doesn't line up. I have some more trimming to do on the bottom of the fender, but its easier to remove then it is to add.





With the passenger side tacked mostly welded in I moved onto the driver side.



With the new extensions mostly welded in I went back to the passenger side to start finishing it out. I started with the end cap so I could tie into the frame rail and make sure nothing moved. I left the top and bottom open as I need to install Rivnuts to mount the wheel well liner when I get that made and I need to weld in tubed so I can run bolts up into the fender. The back side of the fender will have aluminum L channel bonded to it on the back side.




I also checked fitment of the trans tunnel plate as well. I made it 3.5" longer because of the wheel base change and cut it out of 1/8" aluminum. This is more than likely going to be made out of carbon fiber as well.

Saturday I got the driver rocker capped off. I'm still waiting on some parts I ordered to finish things off before I can finish boxing in the extensions.




So with the stand still on the fenders I moved to the hood. I got everything measured out and then cut a big hole in the carbon fiber to start mounting the hood vent.





With that out of the way I decided to finish up the metal work on the roof. Some hammer and dolly work to get things banged into place then the shrinking disk to finish things off. I'm going to have my body guy check it out and if its acceptable then I'll weld the inner structure and roof supports back in.


With time to kill still I got the front and back of the spoiler marked to follow the stock spoiler curve and ready to cut out. My band saw blade broke so I'm gonna try and get a new one today.



With the little time I had left I started messing with the hood latch. I didn't buy the cheap knock off one that everyone is selling. I found a clean original Porsche latch on ebay pretty cheap.



Then out in the sun loading up. The rocker being black is hard to get pictures of inside.

Thank you. I actually cut the holes for those side vents like 3-4 years ago. I just pretend its not my parts lol. Wait until you see what I do to the fenders, that will really make your stomach feel sick haha.

Thanks guys.

Saturday I wasn't planning on working on the car as I was supposed to work. Another guy asked me to swap weekends with him so I wasn't really prepared to get anything done on the car. I did have the wicker bill trimmed up and filed to shape and got that installed. Now it follows the body lines.




Then I moved onto the hood latch. I forgot to cut the adapter plate out so I couldn't finish it up.




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After that I got started on mounting the HVAC module. I got two of the 3 or 4 mounts done. Some dimple die work and bead rolling to keep it strong and lose some weight.

Thanks guys. I'm trying to get as much done as fast as possible without cutting corners. I really want to drive this thing and see how she handles.

Saturday I got after it. I had the hood latch bracket cut out and hand filed to match the shape of the hood which has an offset design. Then I got it all lined up and the bracket bolted up. I needed to slightly modify the lower bracket to accept the hood cable, but it all works like it should now.








Hood latch out of the way I got the dash removed and finished up mounting the HVAC module.



Then I got the inner roof structure welded back in.



I finished things up by getting the trunk latch support bracket modified to fit the new floor. I wasn't planning on getting this much done, so I kinda ran out of things to do for the day with the parts that I brought with me to work.

Saturday I got after the lower fender mounts on the passenger side. I decided to use aluminum angle that will be panel bonded to the carbon fiber fenders. The rockers I drilled large holes so I could feed tubing through with thick washers welded on the end. this let me run allen headed bolts up from the bottom. After I got the passenger side done I started on the upper close out panel. It will be finished welded in and metal worked when I take the fenders off next. I'll try and get more pictures of how I did it on the driver side. I thought I took more then I did.

Thank you.

Saturday I got back after the fender mount on the driver side. Same as I did with the passenger side except on this side I made a template off of the passenger side so the holes were in the same place. I'll also have to finish the close out panel once I take the fenders off again.

Not much of an update, lacking some motivation to get stuff done and lacking some parts to give me motivation. I did get started on the fuel filler though. I got the area above the tank cut out to make the fill connection. This will be made into a bolt together cover once I have the pipe built. In order to check for enough drop I had to weld the driver inner wheel well in place. I had to finish fitting it a little bit before it was 100% ready to weld in. After that I located a place to put the filler cap. Not where I wanted to put it, but because of how the tank is I was really limited and I didn't want to put it on the body. With that kinda laid out I built a trunk support now that the wheel well is in the correct location.

Saturday I still wasn't very motivated to do anything on the car, but it needs done so I got some stuff done. I got some more riv-nuts so I was able to get those installed. I relaly like the Hammer fab dimple dies, they make for a really clean install. First up was finishing the HVAC mount and getting those riv-nuts installed. Its pretty solid with 3 mounting points. Then I added 3 to each rocker extension so I can mount the inner fenders once I get to that stage.






Then I moved onto the rear bumper. I had 2 of the mounts done and needed to finish up the 3rd. I got it finished up and then did some adjusting to the drive side mount and got everything panel bonded together.



With the bumper drying and having the panel bond already out I got the mounting tabs done for the third brake lamp and bonded to the spoiler. Pretty happy with the fitment and I'll be able to wet sand the brake lamp to finial fit the spoiler and then finish it off with a smoked candy tint to help blend it in and not stand out.

Saturday I put the washers I cut on the spoiler and got the wicker bill bolted on. I only put two on for now, but I have 7 mounting bolts to spread out the load the air will put on it.




I also made the switch from the ZL1 lid to the LS9 lid so I don't need to run the adapter to make it fit the LS9 blower. That spacer was a 1/2" thick and put me within a 1/4" of the firewall.





I also picked up a ECM and mount last week so I started wiring after I got it mounted. I started with the pigtails I had already made for the knock sensors, trans temp, speed, throttle body, coolant temp, and O2 sensors. Then I went to work stabbing out the injector control circuits, coil control circuits, MAP, MAF, supercharger pressure, and a few others I'm forgetting. Once I get the rest of the sensors, injectors, and connector ends ordered I'll be able to finish up the harness and get it taped up. I ordered a heat shrink label printer, but it didn't make it in time, but should be here this week to play with.

Not a big update since wiring takes a lot of time and doesn't look like a bunch gets done. I have most of the wiring stabbed into the ECM now, just a few more to go once that color wire gets here. Since I changed plans from the LS7 to a supercharged engine I don't have all of the right connectors, so I need to get those ordered as well then I can finish the engine harness. Need to locate a place for a fuse block so I know what direction to run the power wires.





I picked up the Dymo 5200 printer as well to help keep things organized and clean. Its much better then tape tags with sharpie that get stuck together.




I also disassembled a 6th gen Camaro chassis harness to harvest the wire. Pretty sure I should have enough length and color options to wire in the Infinity Box system. A few hours worth of work saved me a few hundred in buying wire.

Since I'm doing wiring and its not that exciting I skipped posting last week. I want to get my wiring laid out now so I can build mounting brackets and such that way I'm not hopefully cutting holes or welding stuff once the car is painted. Once everything is in its place it will get taped in factory style abrasion felt tape clean and out of the way.

Lets start with the most boring, I did some more engine wiring. I have power wires roughed out to where I'm going to put the fuse block and I have one bank of coils done. I'm missing a color wire for the passenger bank before I can finish that side up (also a good reason to start my wiring now, I'll see what I'm missing).




I started the body side of the Infinity Box install by mounting the master cell, the InMotion cell (controls windows and door latches) and the rear power cell and getting the harness run in the general direction the wires need to go.






Then I started with the sub assemblies such as separating the master module inputs to where they should go. The power window switches mount on the center console so I have a main harness connector and then the switch harness so everything is easy to service should I need to take it apart.




The trunk harness is also roughed out and the heat shrink label maker makes things easy to know what does what when I get to the finial wiring.


Also part of the wiring is the Vapor Works controllers. It takes a min to figure out what goes where with this system, but its much simpler then it seems.

Thank you, I had a ‘67 before this car. I wish I kept it, but hind sight is 20/20. JCG restorations is a good shop here in Texas that just finished up moving here from California. He’s a pretty cool guy and came out to check my car out last weekend.

Pro-touring.com and lateral-g.net are two good message boards that can be good resources for you as well.