DING!!! It's Done!!!!!

So I walk into the shop and am greated by this sight! YEEEEAAAAHHH!!! FREAKIN' YEAH! The paint and repairs are completed. The car is all lined up for towing. And I have this earie feeling in my fingertips... like my hands are screaming to grab onto the wheel and drive! The paintjob is not perfect but better than basic. Maaco or 1 Day wanted about 1500 buck for a basic single stage paint in one color. This is what I got for a little over 1800! The base paint is called gunmetal gray metallic. It is a Saab paint that was available from 1999-2002. It contains black, white, silver metallic, violet, and blue. The stripes are a plain black. The clear was laid over everything so it feels seamless. The paint brand was called Matrix. Never heard of it... but they're giving me 3 years warranty on the paint and lifetime on workmanship. I'm quite happy for a last minute color change with limited time to choose.

Minutes Before Coming Home

So here she is at Vegas Customz while waiting to be placed on the flatbed tow truck. All fixed up, wet sanded, and polished. No cracks about the body gaps! I haven't finished tweeking them yet! Not a bad job for under 2 grand! As I had stated earlier, I had intended to paint it black. I had spent a little time blocking it but not a ton. I asked them to block it but didn't want to pay for extreme perfection... I just can't afford it. So the day I was leaving on a road trip they call me and tell me that they recommended against black. LAST MINUTE! I did a quick swing by the place on my way out of town and chose these colors in 20 minutes! Nerve Wracking!!!! A decision that I'll live with for years made on the spur of the moment... in minutes! I'm glad I went with their professional opinion. They did the best they could for the time and money and were very honest with me about it. They recommended a lighter paint color... a metallic. This is what I chose. I'm quite happy with it. When in doubt... listen to the pro doing the job. The camaro is quite impressive up close. Thanks guys for the good job.

The Blue Tones

I was quite surprised at how much blue and violet come out given some types of light. This is under a combination of daylight and halogen lights. This gunmetal gray changes all over the place. Oh... and this is also a partial view of the paintjob and finishing touches I did to the dash. It looks almost brand new. I couldn't be happier. Three years of slow knuckle busting torture through blazing summers and freezing winters! It's all coming together at the end so very fast! Finally some huge visual progress.

Love The Stripes

The painter didn't use a template. It made me nervous like you wouldn't believe! I gave him a copy of my 67 camaro assembly and installation manual. It had some pics with dimensions. I'm freakin' thrilled beyond belief! They came out great! And they're under the clearcoat making a beautiful seamless finish.

Correct Color in Light

This is a DANG good example of what the car looks like in direct light. It turns silvery.

Wheels Look OK

Well... I had chosen these wheels for 2 reasons... 1) they were cheap. 2) I thought they would look good with a black car. I'm glad they still look ok with the gunmetal gray. I'm still hoping that the rear end sinks a little after some useage... the hotchkis kit left it a bit tall.

Shiny!!!!

As I uploaded this pic my daughter looked over my shoulder and said.... OOOOOHHH... Shiny! She's right! Not bad for an $1800 paint job.

Z-28 Stripes Without Rear Spoiler

So I wasn't sure if I wanted to go the whole Z28 stripe thing without having a rear spoiler. I mean... they kinda go hand and hand. So talk about departing from the "norm". But I gotta say... It doesn't bug me as much as I feared. Actually, I think the car might of looked really plain/boring in gray without them. Oh... and there's no friggin' WAY I'm gonna drill holes into a stock trunk lid to add one. No... way...

Sandy Brown Tone?

So... the color has silvers, blacks, whites, even blues and violets. So where the heck does the sandy brown highlights come from?

What an Angle!

I'm not really sure what it is about this angle but I love it! This is a good example of what the color actually looks like in shade. At night it looks like charcoal (darn right near black)

NOOOOOOOO!!! WHY GOD?!!! WHY?!!!!!

These pics were taken on Friday with the cell. These are sneak peeks for what was supposed to be today's delivery of the car. Unfortunately they scraped up the lower front valence panel while getting it up on the truck. So back it went into the shop for repainting. Guess I wont be seeing it for another few days! Patience... give me patience!

Off To Paint!

Talk about a feeling of pride. I followed it all the way to the paint shop. It was like it was on display on a pedestal! Have you any idea how many heads turned in its direction? I laughed all the way down to the body shop.

Oh yeah... I bet you can't guess where I live from the picture.... HAHAHAHA!

Exciting Time

I'm not sure how to describe the moment when you've done all you can do and now you, in escence, hand it over to someone else to fiddle with it. It's like nerve wracking, exciting and scary all at the same time. For the last day or so, every time I've opened up the garage door... it's like something important is missing. It's like sending out one of your kids to a stranger's house for weeks where... who knows what will happen! In my case I've been working on the car almost as long as my daughter's been alive. It's been a fixture in my garage forever. And now it GONE! The garage looks HUGE!

The Next Generation Already Drooling

Here's the future owner of the Camaro already set to take it out for a test drive. Since the car came from my wife's side of the family, I think it will continue down the women's line... AFTER I'm done with it! When my son gets older... If money permits, we'll choose another classic for him when he's 14 or 15. So, hopefully it will be ready for him when he's ready to drive. I hope that if he puts enough of his blood, sweat and time into it, he'll treat it well instead of treating it like the proverbial first car junker.

What a Looker!!!!!

Say what you will about the 69 camaro... I still think the 67 & 68 are far superior in style and design. The 69 was MADE to look racey. The 67 and 68 just were... from the get go. Whether they were meant to be or not, they were just a killer design that took the world by storm. I'd like the rear of my 67 to be a little lower than this but there is something to be said about that classic hot rod rake. I hear, though, that with time the new Hotchkis suspension will settle down a little as I drive it more.

Hitting the Streets

Have you ever just thought... "am I EVER going to be done?" I can see the light now at the end of that tunnel. I like the look of the new hood on the car. I'm not going to cut up a perfectly good original trunk for a rear spoiler but I am gooing to add an origianl chin spoiler. Together with the cowl induction hood... man I just can't wait!

Trunk finally Closed

I havent's seen the trunk closed in... I don't know how long. By the way... the easiest way to align and install the hood is to tack it on loosely, shut it, align it so that the gaps are just the way you want it, then reach in through the tail light holes and tighten the bolts. Easy Peesy!

Rolling Out

The car is WHOLE!!!! Pulled out with all its sheetmetal and under its own power since it was taken apart the first time. The ride around the block was ... AMAZING! ... especially since it doesn't have a windshield yet. HAHAHAHA! Talk about feeling the speed!

New Hood Goes On

After having sat dormant in a box for almost 2 years I finally unpacked the NPD (National Parts Depot) hood and installed it for the first time ever. Gramps' old car just doesn't have the same feel anymore.

Shell's Body Work is DONE!!!!!!

So I decided to go for the solid paint look like the newer cars and take the look of the pro touring cars... though mine is not that advanced and powerful. In order to do so, I decided to remove all chrome and stainless trim items. So I spent weeks welding up all the holes for the trim screws and rivets, then applied Rage Extreme (bondo) and block sanded till the spray on guided coat showed few to no low/high spots. Soon it will be up to the paint shop to perfect my job and give it that coat it's been wanting for years now.

More Visual Progress!!!!!!!!

Today was the first time both fenders have been installed in over 3 years!

Epoxy Sealer

After a long week of sanding, blasting and stripping the front clip (with my wife's help- thanks babe!) I finally got some sealer primer on all the components. Plus I also undercoated the wheel wells.

The Calm Before the Storm

Here's the dash stripped of all components and primed over the original laquer with some primer I bought at the local auto body supply. I was so excited at this point. I looked so clean and fresh. Finally visual progress. Little did I know what was about to happen. OOOOhhhhh ... such wasted time!

AAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

You think these look OK?... Guess again. If you pay close attention you'll see what happens when two incompatible paints meet. Apparently, my original laquer dash didn't like being covered by my new epoxy auto primer... or maybe it was the fact that the primer was then covered by over the counter rattle can (spray) paint. See the wrinkles forming. By the time it was said and done the surface was as smooth as 20 grit sandpaper. So off I went to Home Depot at 10 pm for aircraft paint stripper. At least I experienced the thrill of fresh paint on the car for about 10 minutes. Live and learn. BUY THE RIGHT STUFF!!!!!!

Fresh Paint

Well... at least I now have a good idea of what it will look like when done.

Who's the Old Guy?

My wife decided to take this picture. She wanted to have a shot of what I'd look like in another 30 years. Seriously! I'm still finding filler dust in places I've never heard of before! Oh... and the little dust masks... don't waste you time. Use a full respirator or your lungs will be hurting for days. What a friggin' MESS!

Not Bad

It's finally starting to look like something! I love the fat look of the camaro rear end. You just don't see this kind of attention to design that much anymore. Thank goodness they're finally starting to realize this and these last few years have seen the resurection of the muscle car wars!

Countless Hours

I can't even begine to guess as to how many hours I've spent on this single quarter panel to get to this point. It doesn't look that bad in the pics but if you saw it in person you'd know... I have a LONG way to go!

POR'ed Floors

I'm really happy with the adhesion and final product after PORing the floorboards. With POR it's all about prep. It took me 2 hours to clean and prep the floors appropriately but there was no rust left after having used the recommended Marine Clean and Metal Prep. There was nothing but zinc phosphate left before I put on the coat and it adhered like crazy with very little runs. But again... I don't care. It ain't gonna be a show car... well... maybe local weekend shows just to hang with other car people. The only thing I wasn't able to get to was the areas under the seat pans... but I don't want to undo the factory welds just to get to them. And again... they didn't look bad at all under there.

Next is gonna be either finish the driver's quarter panel patch or sound deadener. Sound deadener is in the mail... but I haven't made up my mind which yet.

Trans Tunnel

Whatever the factory used to coat the floorboards, it did a fantastic job! The car had several years of sitting out by the beach in California with bad weatherstripping. The floors had gotten flooded multiple times. There was very little to clean up though. They were so solid and the original coating looked so new after I cleaned them up per the POR instructions that I just layed the POR right over it in the areas that didn't require stripping due to surface rust. That's why you can see the texture coming through the POR.

Rear Seat Pans

The rear floor pans came out great. They had the least amount of rust on them and the POR did a great job

Option 1

Decided to work on making my own backgraound for the blog. There is a severe lack of cool premade blog wallpapers. I'm leaning towards this one.

Option 2

This was my first attempt... well actually my first design. It went through about 100 attempts to get the size right for the screen.

Great Poster

Wanted to make this into the Blog background but the original image size was too small and would have ended up very grainy. Oh well. I'll just post it for posterity

Engine Upgrades

After being plauged with tons of problems due to a way too radical cam, I removed the racing cam and went with a moderate street cam that keeps my HP in the 300 to 315 range.
Original problems:
1- No vacuum pressure
2- No brakes because of low vacuum
3- Absolutely horrible transmission response due to wrong powerband for torque converter
4- Huge hesitation when you accelerate
5- Severe backfiring problems

The Changes

1- Spark plug boot covers- the boots were burning because they were so close to the headers. Plus the Taylor wire boots are HUMONGOUS! If they had been stock sized they would never have burned.

2- Vintage Edelbrock Torker Scorpion single plane air gap intake. Yes... yes... single plane. 3 reasons. A) It makes power in the higher RPM range and since I have a 2 speed Powerglide that I'm not intending to replace yet... well... that's where I'll live. B) It has a built in oil servicing neck that most new intakes don't come with and I need that because my original valve covers don't have a port... nor do I intend on cutting them up to make one. C) It was FREE... so bite me.

3- 750 CFM Edelbrock carb. I rebuilt it, tuned it with a kit and added an electric choke kit. The carb was 50 bucks plus what I spent for the rebuild and tunning kits and the choke. The carb came with the free intake. 750 CFM is a little large but since the secondaries don't open unless you're in full throttle and then only open on vacuum demand... odds are that my little 300HP engine won't be using all 750 cfm anyways. So it should be alright.

4- A newer larger air cleaner that will do for now. When I use up the first element I'll probably buy a high end cleanable... like K&N or something.

Modified Linkage

Just a quick shot to show the only 2 mods I had to make to the carb linkages having gone from my 2 barrel Rochester to the 4 barrel Edelbrock. Notice it was only a simple change to the Kickdown linkage and a re-routing of the throttle return spring. Now the spring hooks up to a loop hole on the thermostat housing.

A Quick BEFORE Shot

These two were taken so I can remember what it was I started with. Not too bad... just very dirty.

Under Driver's Carpet

SWEET!!!!! Not even a tiny speck of rust! Feeling confident now!

Under Rear Seat

SCORE!!!! No rust there either. This does NOT look like a 43 year old car's floorboards.

Under Passenger Side Carpet

Well... you can't win them all. On the up side, it's only surface corrosion... very very minor pitting, and then only in a couple of little areas.