1969 Pro-Touring Camaro - ZZ69

[zappa]

So its about time I get it together and get a thread started on my car....I will try to keep the very very long story as short as possible without boing you to death but I figure its worth including a bit of background This all started when I came across a '65 Mustang in Quebec with an injected 4.9 and thought it would be a cool, reliable daily driver.....after going through the usual process I quickly realised that I could get a Camaro from the US for a pretty similar price so the hunting started...

Fast forward a few months, god knows how many cars I looked at in that time but the end result was that everything in my price range was lacking in one way or another, so I convinced myself to up the budget by nearly $15k....in doing so I became even more picky and struggled to find something I was happy with.

After basically giving up I came across an ad for a car I had loved but was originally well out of my price range, this ad showed the car for almost 15k less which was the very top end of my budget and seemed too cheap for what it was but I thought it can't hurt to give them a call and see what the story was.

Turns out the ad was a fake (someone copied the original + dropped the price to drive traffic to their site) and the original owner didn't even know it existed! The good news was he still had the car, the bad news was he wasn't interested in the price I had seen it for....and he had just taken it off the market and was preparing to take it to Barrett Jackson the following month.

After spending a ton of time on the phone with him over the following week I knew I wanted the car, in the family for 30yrs and he had 3-files detailing everything done to the car including all of the receipts and around 500 photos of the transformation. So I started juggling some numbers to see how high I could go and organised to have it inspected just to make sure everything was as advertised. The report came back very positive and only highlighted a few minor things it also had a suggested current market value. I managed to find out what it was going to cost him for the whole BJ Auction process and after taking that off his asking price we were pretty close, a short spike in the Aussie dollar and the deal was done!

I will save the rest of the story for another time but lets just say it took over 7mths to get here after getting stuck on the Wharf in the middle of the strikes.....not happy Jan!

So why is this in the builds thread? I will cover that in my next post, but for now here's the full rundown on the specs as it arrived:



Motor:

• Chevrolet RAMJET 502 EFI Crate Motor
  Concept One “Victory Series” Billet serpentine pulley system
  Custom Cold Air Intake with K+N Pod Filters.

Transmission:

• Tremec TKO 600 5 speed with .64 Overdrive
• Pro-5.0 TKO Shifter
• McCleod hydraulic master
• McCleod hydraulic throw-out bearing
• Lakewood bell housing

Rear End:

• Moser Ford 9” Diff
• 31 spline axles
• Detroit Tru-Trac
• 3.73 Gears

Suspension:

• Complete Hotchkis suspension - front + rear sway bars/end-links/sub frame connectors.
• Global West upper/lower powder coated control arms.
• QA1 adjustable coil over shocks (Front)
• DSE Leafs, QA1 adjustable shocks (Rear)

Steering:

• AGR quick ratio power steering box, Concept One Pump/Reservoir

Cooling:

• Ron Davis Custom Radiator
• Built-in SPAL electric fans + recovery tank

Fuel:

• Ricks Custom stainless fuel tank in HP internal fuel pump.

Exhaust

• Custom 3” twin stainless system
• Magnaflow mufflers

Brakes:

• 4-Wheel Discs
• Cross Drilled, Slotted Rotors
• Wilwood Master Cylinder + Proportion Valve.

Wheels:

• Front: American Racing 17”x 8” Torque Thrust with BF Goodrich GForce KD 245/45/17
• Rear: American Racing 17”x 9” Torque Thrust with BF Goodrich GForce KD 275/40/17

Body/Exterior:

• Painted in Dodge Viper metallic blue with silver stripes
• Custom fabricated “Factory” Cowl hood to accommodate RAMJET Intake.
• Carbon chin spoiler
• Fesler Billet Hood Hinges
• Marquez Billet Tail lights
• Marquez Billet Parking lights
• Detroit Speed halogen headlamps
• Custom mirrors

Interior

• VintageAir AC System
• Kenwood GPS + AV Unit
• Custom leather console with blue stitching.
• Power Windows/Locks/Remote control
• 4-point Roll cage with removable cross bar
• Corbeau GTSII shaved black leather seats with custom leather rear seat to match
• Corbeau 3” Harnesses
• MODO billet racing pedals.
• Gloss Black Detroit Speed dash with AutoMeter Ultra-Lite II gauges
• New dash pads
• MOMO 13.8” Leather steering wheel / Tilt steering column
• Carbon fiber sill plates

More to come soon.........

[Stealth 69]

wow - that's ticked about every box on the option list

Bloody good base to draw from - you must have some serious plans, as it seems to be ready to rock n roll already

[D4RKSIDE]

What ever you're taking off, can I have it?!

[zappa]

Cheers guys, yes it ticks all the boxes hence why I was keen to find a way to get it! I knew it wouldn't be perfect with that list of specs given I wasn't paying top dollar (don't get me wrong it wasn't cheap) but the line-up provided a great base. The car went through a 3yr re-build starting in 2008 and only clocked up 3000 miles since the build was completed.

When the car arrived I was very happy to find that it was pretty much exactly as described, straight after it rolled out of quarantine I gave it a fresh battery, added some fuel and it fired up straight away! I was very surprised considering it had spent more than 7-months on tour in a container!

So why its in the build thread?!

As soon as I drove it the list started in my head...things that weren't working or needed attention and while I knew there was some work to be done to get things to a point where I would be happy and before it would be ok for licensing, I didn't expect it to turn into a 12mth project.....Off the batt it was clear the interior wasn't given the same level of attention as the performance, it was looking a bit tired and unfinished, and even though it had a full re-wire it was clear there were some issues.

Introducing Mr OCD ...The hardest part for me with this car is remembering its to be driven and won't be perfect, and I have had to continually remind myself of that every time I start to get too picky.

The original plan was :

• Tidy up interior
• Fit new carpet, and lap sash belts
• Install new stereo gear
• Fit Aussie headlights

Then start the licensing process......LOL I was dreaming! Heres a shot of the car just after it arrived home and where it would remain for the next 12mths......





Just to confirm, the car is now 95% complete and most of the start of this thread will be covering the work I have done to this point and I will keep it going once its up to date

---------- Post added at 07:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:37 PM ----------

So after a quick look over and without pulling anything apart the issues list looked something like this:

• Central locking - Not working
• Alarm/Immob - Not working
• Stereo - Kind of working
• Front L&R Windows - Won't wind up all the way (stopped with about an inch left)
• No Hazard lights
• Majority of the interior lighting wasn't working (the main light worked intermittently)
• Console power source stopped working as soon as I plugged the phone charger
• No Neutral safety or Reverse switch connected on the gearbox
• There was a large battery leak to the point it would kill a battery in a day or two if left connected
• A heap of Earth issues and a packet load of wiring that needed attention in the boot
• The Corbeau Harnesses up front were past their expiry date so needed to be removed, the rear belts were the originals and were buggered.
• The dash didn't appear to line up correctly on the drivers side for some reason which meant everything else wasn't fitting well or was loose
• Cooling system needed a good flush

Annoying, but nothing that couldn't be sorted.



The biggest and hardest decision was to remove the Roll Cage, if left it it would have meant licensing the car as a two seater as the cage ran quite low over the rear seats which wasn't going to work and the decider was the fact that I couldn't install Lap Sash belts with it in place...



The problem was it was bloody welded in

[MUMBO]

Why don't you rego as 2 seater and put rear seat back in after it's regoed?
That's what I plan on doing if I ever get stickered for mine

[zappa]

Originally Posted by MUMBO

Why don't you rego as 2 seater and put rear seat back in after it's regoed?
That's what I plan on doing if I ever get stickered for mine

I did consider that but I bought the car to get out cruising and wanted the ability to take the lil ones with me, and when I sat in the back it was just flat out dangerous (and I'm probably bordering midget height status), if someone was sitting in the back even a very small nudge would be enough to seriously injur or kill them as the side of their head would hit the cage at eye level, it wasn't the best quality cage job either.

Too late now anyway, the car is around 90% complete now (i mentioned it earlier but the comment was easily to miss ) most of my initial posts on the thread are covering the last 12mths of the build as I held off posting when I was doing the work. Hopefully some of the detail might is of interest or can help others/new guys that are considering the same thing. Once I get the thread up to date I will just keep it going as the car progresses.

[Gambit]

Awesome. Great to see some good pics of it mate! Gotta say I like the interior. Either the pics hide it well or you are picky lol

[chevguy]

A smart man starts a project that's at this level. Very cool bud.

[Nev68]

What a starting point!
Glad to hear you got (mostly) what you thought you were buying.

Looks very nice.

[stinga]

.. n choice bro, interior looks sweet as too
N

[zappa]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Originally Posted by Gambit

Awesome. Great to see some good pics of it mate! Gotta say I like the interior. Either the pics hide it well or you are picky lol

Nath, I think its probably a bit of both, I took quite a few photos while doing the work so will try to get a few up each night

Nev, Yep I am definitely happy with what arrived, the car also came with the original log books/manuals, protect-o-plates plus two files loaded with all of the manuals, build details (inc wiring schematics), detailed cost summary and all the receipts plus a USB with a ton of photos.

[zappa]

So first up it was a matter of seeing exactly what I was in for to get the cage out, unfortunately it wasn't what I wanted to see...

First up the main hoop mounts inside were hard core welded into the floor and in a very difficult place to do any cutting without doing damage (to the floor and to the interior) so I quickly came to the realisation that the whole interior was coming out if I wanted to do this properly...

Floor mounts (average photo, they are at front of rear seats):


Then into the boot, after removing the boot mat it didn't take a genius to see there were some issues in here:


Firstly the plates were heavily welded all the way around so getting them out was going to take quite a bit of grinding/cutting and secondly all of the rust spots coming through the coating raised questions about the surface prep before it was coated....



So my new plan looked something like this:

1. Remove whole interior
2. Dont make any more plans until thats done

---------- Post added at 11:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 PM ----------

So the removal begins....out come the seats:

[Stealth 69]

I ended up removing my cage too (= air hacksaw and patience), for the same reasons (kept bumping heads on it) - although now am probably going to seek a bolt in option for track days

Keen to see where you go with it - Loving that Blue too, be great to see it in the flesh

[zappa]

Yeh I would prob still consider a bolt-in at some point too.

Seats and console out, I could never work out why the console was loose regardless of how much it was tightened but I soon found out it was just held in with a single bolt that went through the floor and had a giant washer and nylock nut attached in the tunnel...really unusual! Also found a small birdsnest of wiring and around 8 fuses (3-blown) under the console and behind the head unit...again it was a mash-up of power windows, a console power feed and a ton of other stuff.



Always worries me when I see tape being used


For anyone out there considering Fat Mat, keep watching and I will show you why it should never be used on cars.


It is a bitumen based product that doesn't perform well when its heated and/or cooled and in this case the application was average at best




Some big holes in the rear shelf


Not sure if anyone can see anything interesting in this shot? Take a look under the passenger footwell....That black tube is the AC drain, found it under the carpet where it was creating a nice damp area between the floor and the carpet!


---------- Post added 03-12-2016 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 02-12-2016 at 11:51 PM ----------

Considered a few options to remove the cage, first step I just cut the bulk of it out using a steel Sabre saw....that was the easy part, it cut through it like butter!

[JaseSV8]

Sensational!
If my car finishes at the level that your build began at ... I'll be a happy man.