1967 Camaro Project
 

I promised on another thread that I would post some pictures of my Camaro project that has been going since April 2006, so here they are.

I have owned the car since 1995 and have just been having fun with it. The car was running and driving fine, so I kept putting off the restoration until it really started to show some rust. I had a local company do a paint job and some body work on it, but they did a hack job. Either way, it was enough to hold the car for a few more years while I collected the rest of the parts that I needed to do this restoration. So, after 11 years of driving it and collecting parts, here is the restoration that has been long overdue.

Once the car was blasted we found that the rust was much worse than ever imagined. We ended up replacing every panel on the car with the exception of the hood, trunk lid, rear header panel under the rear window, the doors and most of the dash. Other than that, everything was replaced, including the roof.

The car was a drag racer when I bought it, so the numbers did not match. This is what I wanted so that I could make my own changes without destroying a piece of history. Here are some of the changes that we are making.

- Replacing the stock 327 with a Chevy 415 small block (525hp).

- Replacing the stock Muncie 4 speed transmission with a Tremec 5 speed.

- Replacing the stock 10 bolt rear with a ford 9 inch.

- Replacing the stock suspension with an air ride setup from Air Ride Technologies. The rear will receive a full 4 link setup.

- Adding sub frame connectors.

- Replacing the stock front sub frame with a stronger version from Martz. This sub frame will also allow the use of wider front tires.

- Replacing the stock steering box with a rack and pinion setup.

- Replacing the stock brakes with 4 wheel Wilwood discs.

- Installing mini tubs in the rear wheel wells.

- Adding a full roll cage, less the door bars. The cage is tucked up tight to the roof and, other than the hoop and cross bar behind the front seats, will not be too noticeable.

- Removing the rear seat entirely. We will be building a flat floor with some covered storage in it. Think of the area behind the seats of a late 60's Corvette and that is what we are doing. We figured that a seat would be a waste because it would not be accessible with the roll bar.

- Replacing the stock front seats with Mastercraft Baja RS seats.

- Changing the headlights to HID and all other lights to LEDs.

- I wanted to add some driving lights to the valance under the front bumper, but I wanted it to look stock. We tried to use a panel from a 1969 Camaro figuring that we could use the turn signal holes for the lights, but it did not fit. We ended up cutting the sections that we needed from the 1969 panel and welding them into the stock 1967 panel. Now we can add the driving lights and make it look like they were always there.

- Replacing the factory wiring with a setup from Painless Wiring.

- Replacing the factory gages with Auto Meter gages.

- Replacing the factory radio with something decent.

- Adding an air conditioning system from Vintage Air.

- Adding power windows.

- Adding power locks with modern keyless entry.

Anyhow, that is a list of the major changes. I know that you guys think that I am crazy, but remember that it took the past 11 years to collect all of this stuff. It should be an incredible car when it is finished. OK, enough jabbering from me. Here are some pictures.



This is pretty much how the car looked when I got it. I made a few changes to make it better for the street, but this is how it looked. I did put the trim rings and caps on when I put the stock wheels on the car. :D This picture was taken just after switching the wheels.

Here is the car after it was disassembled and blasted. The gray color is a primer applied to keep the bare metal from rusting.

I won't bore you with rust pictures, but there was a lot of it. Here is a picture of the rear quarters, trunk lid, rear header panels and the rear tail light panel removed. All were replaced except the trunk lid and header panel under the rear window.

Front sub frame and suspension mocked up. The firewall was also smoothed while it was easy to get to.

Rear suspension, roll cage and test fitting new front clip.

Here are the 1969 light rings installed in the 1967 panel. In 1969 these cutouts were used for turn signals, but we are going to use them to flush mount some driving lights.

Here is the exhaust system. It is out now with the headers being ceramacoated. These pieces shoud be back any time now.

Nice! I did a frame off on my 70 H/O GTO. It took me 4 years. I have a 1988 GTO Convertible now in the works. Keep up the good work !

WOW Will you are a busy guy with the Jeep and Camaro. Looks great see you soon for the race!!!!!

Here is the car at the painter. Notice how all of the seams from replacing panels were filled with lead instead of body filler. They are doing all of the prep work and final panel alignment before disassembling the car for paint.

Here is the front panel with the driving lights. It is ready to be sanded again in preparation for paint. The black lines under the car are from the body sealer used to seal up all of the seams. In the first picture you can see where the sub frame connectors were flush mounted into the floor to allow more ground clearance. In the same picture you can see where there are rounded cutouts (on each side of the trans tunnel) for the exhaust. This was done for the same reason. This will also keep you from seeing any of this stuff hanging down under the car when it is finished.

Here are some parts back from being powdercoated. The other pirctures are the underside of the body after being undercoated. The bottom of the body got an epoxy primer and paint before being undercoated. The gray areas of the undercoating are reflections from the camera's flash and the spots are from water drops on the camera lense.

Obviously there are a lot of steps and a lot of pictures not shown, but this will bring you up to date and give you the general idea of how the project is going. The painter started spraying the color last Monday and should have it finished by the end of this week. If I didn't mention it, the car is going to be hugger orange with white Z stripes.

Once the car comes back from paint it will be time for the final assembly!! The projected finish date is the end of May.

nice build!!, I like that your modifying it to bring it into the 21st century.......I picked up a 69 chevelle a couple of mos back that Im getting to work on........it is a 307 powerglide car and like you I dont want to cut up a piece of history......Im going to put a put a 5 or 6 yr old Late Model Stock car chassis underneath and channel the chit out of the body to get it right down there......
the late models come with A arm susp in front,quick change, huge brakes, 3 link in back, your choice of rack or stnd steering and all susp is fully adjustable.......as an obsolete race car you can pick them up as a complete roller for 3-5 Gs, I'll have to move the rearend back to get to the Chevelles 116" wheelbase but it can be done.......I'll cut the cage off it, drop the body down and reinstall a simpler cage.......Id like to have A/C and power windows too......probably around 500 or so carburated smallblock hp
heres a shot of my old 69 I had in 85 and a shot of a Nova that catches the vibe.....
hey did you use sand for all your blasting?, did you use any soda??.........doug

So you are saying that it is your turn to share some pictures, right? :D I would love to see them if you have any you can post.



As I said in the Jeep thread, now you know why the Apache is still just plain white! The paint job keeps taking a back seat to other projects. I am looking forward to the race. See you then.

That is going to be a fun project. Please post lots of pictures for us as you go along.

Like you mentioned about your car, I also picked up my car really cheap. I initially bought it for $2700 and it has been worth every penny. I had that much fun with it the first year!

The shop that blasted the car was debating between soda and sand, but I believe that they used soda. Evidently it is less abrasive than sand. I may have this backwards, but they used the less aggressive of the two because of all of the rust on the car. I guess it doesn't matter now because we ended up replacing the panels anyway.

WOW, that's great!

That takes me back to the early '80s. I did somewhat same thing to my '72 Nova, but just the body panels. New GM rear 1/4 panels, inner fender wheels, door skins, rear tailight panel. Rest of car was like new. I have some pics scanned on my other PC, I'll try to get posted. Had a couple of friends that did the same to their '71 RS, '73 Z28, 67'? RS. (headlight doors were kewl )

We were into the Car Craft Street Machine scene back then, right out of high school. Fun times!

us1, I am getting ready to do this with my all original 75 nova that as 14k original miles. My grandma bought it brand new in '75 and I bought it from her estate a year ago. My kids and I are looking forward to the project. Curious of where you got a lot of your parts, door skins, trim, panels, dash upgrades, etc. Pm me with any ideas. A buddy in town is a GM certified tech from years ago and he is excited to do all the mechanicals with me. Hotduck, that car is going to be awesome. Love the late 60's Camaros in general. Curious what you started with as your budget and how you are doing. Pm me and I would love to hear your ideas. Thanks Hammer

Originally a '72 Rally Sport. 307, 3 spd manual saginaw, man. steering and brakes I traded a $800 motorcyle for back in '79-'80.
Installed PS, PB, 350, muncie 4 sp over the next yr.

more. GF back then right in there every min during the work. Now she's my wife doing the same thing on the boat!

more. No comments on the shorts and socks! :)

Got tons more pics, but this is the basics.

That was along time ago.... '82. Grad. from HS in '81. The panels came from my chevy dealer. Still available OEM parts then. I think the panels all came in around $1000. Might be hard pressed to get any OE stuff unless someone has some NOS laying around. A friend of my brother had a '74 Nova SS that had the SS consol and dash with the optional SS tach and engine gauges. I traded him complete instrument cluster, floor consol w/gauges and complete wire harness for a set of rusted out headers and my parts. Poor kid. :evilb:


Sorry HotDuck for jumping in with both feet.

Oh hell no! You put the pic in you're going to get ripped.

Heres a couple of my sisters husbands car that we did a frame off on, I did all the paint on it.

Oh yeah and tuned just right he can drive it to the track and go in the 10''''''''s , no NOS

I have wondered the same thing! :D

With all of the prep work done, they finally started spraying the color. Here it is after the first shot of orange. The pictures are blurry because the guy holding the camera cannot hold it steady, but I will get some better pics later this week. They still need to spray the stripes and the clear, but so far so good.


Everybody please keep the pictures and stories coming. There are some nice cars posted here!

Might want to get him out of the paint fumes there Will :D :p :eek:

:D You might be on to something there, but the guy taking the pictures is not the painter. He still may be a little too close to the fumes though! :D

Is that Hugger orange?

Can't wait to see it finished, love the older Camaros. Maybe you can run it by the hotel for the races in June:D Looks like it will be awesome when it's done.

BTW, got any room at the inn for an old buddy:p Smitty tells me I gotta come up and do some work or something so I guess I oughta find a place to flop :evilb:

Yes. It is hugger orange and will have the white Z stripes.



I'll take you for a run in it when you get here. I will check on room availability when I get to work tomorrow AM and let you know. If you want to try to book something sooner, try our web site at http://www.commanderhotel.com. If it lets you book a room then the room is available. Just make sure you guys don't wait too long to book a reservation somewhere. Due to the race dates being right in middle of senior week (month), we are filling up quickly with the graduates and I am sure that other places will be the same way.

Nice build keep us updated, I have toy'ed with the idea of doing a 70 1/2 build with pro touring suspension and a LS7. :D

Will, great looking car! I'm glad I'm not the only guy with a boat and Camaro problem...

The race car is a vintage Trans-Am theme with a dry sump 358 and Jerico and way too much more... It's actually a '67 that was converted to a '68. The street car has a 427 with a 4 speed. I'm the second owner of both cars and none too creative on the paint...

Thats going to be a sweet ride! Here is my 69, it was a frame off resto, but we did it over 10 years ago. I am getting ready to redo the whole car again next winter. The car next to it is my dads 34 ford with a chevy 350.

you guys should check out www.pro-touring.com its the other site I hang out on......very technical.....great bunch of guys, no flaming, everyone real supportive of each other.

Cool stuff showing up here! I have a few more pics from this week. The sub frame has been partially reassembled and is back under the car, as is the rear suspension. They are starting to hang some of the body panels now, but they still have to stripe and clear the hood, truck lid and header panels. The car should leave the paint shop this coming week.

A few more.

nice work

if anyone is looking for some 67-69 parts let me know, my cousin has a buttload of them, a 69 front clip, tilt steering, lots of N.O.S...I'm also a goodmark distributer if I can help anyone out.

The car came back from the painter this morning and it looks great. Now the fun of final assembly can begin!