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14 Apr 07 1980 Camaro Dragster |
| Not much to look at....
I have not really decided what we are
going to to do with it, street racer, hot rod, bracket racer?
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BEFORE
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AFTER
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Not a kit car either.
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5 July 07 Camaro
Interior |
| Still not much to look at,
but we are finally getting started on it. We gutted the
interior. |
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| The floor pans are worse
than I hoped but better than I expected. A few holes on
both sides. |
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| Removing the dash is next.
I wanted to get the car under cover, but there was no way
its going into the shop until its cleaned up a little.
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And you
thought the car was a total beater. Supposedly, the engine
was just rebuilt. It’s a 385 (bored and stroked 350)
with a polished "Hurricane" intake made by Professional
Products with a 750 Speed Demon mechanical secondary carb
fed by a Holly mechanical fuel pump. It has the Chevy “Double
hump" cast heads (great in their day) with 2.02 int. 1.60
exh. Valves, Comp screw in studs & guide plates, Comp push
rods, .550 lift springs with Comp retainers and locks with
Proform 1.5 ratio roller rocker arms. The cam is a Lunati
Bracket Master II hydraulic flat tappet cam .515 lift- 246
duration. The bottom end consists of a 1969 2 bolt block,
Eagle "SIR" rods, Keith Black Silv-o-lite dish pistons (9:7:1),
Melling High Volume oil pump and a Moroso 6 qt oil pan.
Some dress up goodies include billet aluminum pulleys and
a chrome Power Master alternator It has a performance
HEI distributor w/ 65,000 volt coil and clear cap & rotor.
The wires are 8mm Taylor wires. The trans is a
350 turbo with a
Boss Hog
"STREET
BANDIT" 2800-3200
rpm stall converter, # 47013.
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While these particular engine parts would not have been
my first choice, they will
do for now.
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| Out it comes, gonna take
off the intake, oil pan, and maybe the heads to give it
a visual inspection. Will probably have the trans rebuilt
while its out.
Gotta get rid of the Home Depot bolts too. |
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Well it looks like a torque
converter. If you look closely you can see the number
47013. |
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| Some more rust under the
radiator, but really the engine compartment does not look
bad at all.
Top
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21 July 07 Camaro
Disassembly |
| I removed the front clip
and radiator core support. I need find a core support to
replace the crunchy one. |
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| 5 Aug
07 Radiator Support |
| After calling half the junk
yards in the United States, I located a core support that
was in reasonably decent shape. It had been hit, but the
bottom half was still in good shape, so I proceeded
to graft them together to make one good one.
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Rather than drill out each spot weld and
take it apart in sections, I just loped off the bad area
and welded on the good sections.
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| The bottom end is in good
shape, the bores looked good and if you look closely you
can see where it was clearanced for the stroker.
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| 18 Aug
07 Dash |
| Disassembly continues. Here
the dash has been removed, not too much more to take
apart before we can actually start doing something constructive. |
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| 26 Aug
07 Oil Pan |
| I replaced the beat up
Moroso oil pan with an eBay Special.
Here the clearance from the bottom of the pan to pickup
is checked. Its about 1/2" with the gasket and the pan tightened
down. |
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| 28 Oct
07 Drivers Side Floor |
| The old rusty pan is cut
out, carefully going around the cross brace.
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You want to make sure the care
is somewhat level and supported properly before
cutting out the old pan -- its not too critical
here as we are only removing a small portion of
the floor. |
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| The spot welds that hold
the pan to cross brace are drilled out, and remaining welds
are ground flat. Here the inside of the brace has been cleaned
and painted with a rust converter paint. |
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| The replacement pan is fit
and tack welded in place. The seams are lap joints, not
butt welds. |
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Note the replacement pans does
not come with drain covers, seat brackets, etc,
you must reuse the existing brackets. It also
lacks the holes for mounting the seat. |
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| Before and after. The welds
on the new pan will be knocked down before painting. The
joints in the underside of the pan still have to be welded,
I'll do that later. |
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| 10 Nov
07 Engine and Floor |
| Engine has been cleaned up
and painted. All the aluminum bits have been polished, ditto
for the chrome ones. |
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| The headers were sandblasted
and painted with POR hi-heat paint. |
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| New
valve covers, oil pan, distributor cap, and air filter
add to its looks.
Top
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| Replacing the passenger floor,
this side is a little tricky, in addition to the floor pan,
part of the firewall is rusted away. The area around the
torque box is solid though - thankfully. I have not
been able to find a patch panel, so it will have to be fabricated.
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| The old rusty pan is cut
out, carefully going around the frame mounting brace. The
spot welds are removed with a spot weld cutter. |
| The rusty pieces
have been cut out and the remaining areas cleaned
up before painting. |
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| Everything tack welded in
place. I still have to make a curved piece for the front
inside of the toe board.
I used a seam roller to roll the
beads in the toe board patch. They closely match the factory
beads.
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| The completed toe board along
with a "before" picture. |
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| 20 Nov 07 More Rust |
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| Another hole in the rear
quarter panel. Older Camaros are notorious for rusting in
this area because the window channel traps moisture and
dirt. |
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| The patch is
not overlapped as the floor pans, here the idea is to get
the filler metal to lay flat and match the original body
contour as close as possible. |
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| A minimum amount of body
filler will be required to shape the channel and smooth
the area around the patch. |
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| More patches around the heater
core and ductwork.
Top
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| 2 Dec
07 Off to the Media Blaster |
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| 3 Feb
08 Media Blaster |
| Beating on the body for an
hour with a rubber mallet to knock out the loose sand also
knocked out other things, such as 3 old shotgun shells!
Just my luck -- too bad it wasn't a long forgotten stash
of cash. |
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| Tools of the trade. The Rust
Converter was poured into holes drilled into the rocker
panels. It was also poured into the quarter panels along
side the trunk. The seam sealer was used on all the new
welds. |
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| It toke two full days to
clean out all of the sand from the various nooks and crannies.
Top
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