Day 2 67 Camaro restoration

[Chuck_Burg]

At home my buddy and I disassembled much of the car. Removed bumpers, grill, lights, lower valance, fender extensions, headlight buckets, interior, side glass, weatherstrip etc. Carefully photographed the way things were before taking them apart. All hardware in labeled bags. After removing the original carpet I thought it was especially unique to see the factory sound deadener in such good shape. Will definitely be putting it back in. Car is off to the shop on March 30th 2019. Let the real fun begin

[Chuck_Burg]

We left off with the car on the way to the shop. I work at Toyota dealer in the L.A. area and the car will be painted there. People often laugh when I tell them my cars get painted at a Toyota dealer... If you have connection in the paint business you may as well capitalize.

As you can see we removed almost everything in the engine compartment. The body work will be performed on the frame. After the car is painted we will remove the front end sheet metal and restore the frame. The undercarraige doesn't need to be repainted. There is a lot of original overspray on the underside which I intend to preserve. The floors just need a good cleaning.

I'm pretty sure these fenders have never been removed. Look how great the original Granada Gold looks on the body behind the passenger fender.

Unfortunately, the car was stored under a tarp for several years. This caused light rust to form under the paint on the horizontal surfaces of the car. This will force us to bring the car to bare metal, rather than just the original primer. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture of the roof. This car is mostly original paint, has had some spotting here and there... my guess is around 70%-75% original paint.

[Chuck_Burg]

The passenger door had a pretty gnarly dent stuffed with bondo. If you look at the picture of the car on the flat bed you can see it. Someone, probably in the 70s" stuffed it with bondo and tried to spot in part of the door. Of course the paint is 2 tone. You can see the original black etching primer, the red primer, the original gold paint, then the gray primer, then the newer gold paint.

Unfortunately I'm not the person responsible for the metal finishing in the pictures. I'm lucky enough to have a coworker who knows how.

[Chuck_Burg]

NO matter how solid and rust free your Camaro is, there is always the Achilles heel, or the rear window area. This car probably had a rust hole for some time as I noticed water stains on the package tray. What did the original owner do to solve the problem? Add some silicone, some more silicone, and some more silicone. That will surely stop the water! The rear window was never removed from the car. They just siliconed everywhere between the sail panels and the glass. Needless to say water still came in near the roof and dripped down which made matters worse because the water couldn't evaporate. After some welding and a few patch panels it's back to being rust free

[jbtech]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Burg

Unfortunately I'm not the person responsible for the metal finishing in the pictures. I'm lucky enough to have a coworker who knows how.

Nice! Can they be my friend too?

[Chuck_Burg]

For the heart of the beast I visited Jim VanGordon of VanGordon Racing Engines in Upland, CA. We discussed various ideas but ultimately decided on a pump gas 496. Started with a solid 512 block and good pair of 781 oval ports. Jim assured me the 781s would be the way to go after his partner and legendary Blown Fuel Altered pilot, Mikio Yoshioka, did his magic to them. He drove the Stone T altered back in the 60s. NEAT STUFF!

Eagle rotating assembly and Mahle pistons make up the rotating assembly. The squeeze came out to 9.8:1. Valve timing is controlled with a Comp roller with .615" lift on intake and exhaust 240*@.050 intake and 250* @.050 exhaust on 112LSA. The old school Torker was a nice eBay find and was ported and port matched to the 781 heads. MSD dizzy and coil for the ignition and an 850 DP Holley tops it off.

Engine was ran on a stand but not dynoed. We will strap it to the chassis dyno at a later date.

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Burg

For the heart of the beast I visited Jim VanGordon of VanGordon Racing Engines in Upland, CA. We discussed various ideas but ultimately decided on a pump gas 496. Started with a solid 512 block and good pair of 781 oval ports. Jim assured me the 781s would be the way to go after his partner and legendary Blown Fuel Altered pilot, Mikio Yoshioka, did his magic to them. He drove the Stone T altered back in the 60s. NEAT STUFF!

Eagle rotating assembly and Mahle pistons make up the rotating assembly. The squeeze came out to 9.8:1. Valve timing is controlled with a Comp roller with .615" lift on intake and exhaust 240*@.050 intake and 250* @.050 exhaust on 112LSA. The old school Torker was a nice eBay find and was ported and port matched to the 781 heads. MSD dizzy and coil for the ignition and an 850 DP Holley tops it off.

Engine was ran on a stand but not dynoed. We will strap it to the chassis dyno at a later date.

Very nice! I loved my Torker 2-0 on my Nova back in the day...1971 402 9.8:1, Crane Fireball cam, 3310-2 Holley

[L_e_e]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Burg

For the heart of the beast I visited Jim VanGordon of VanGordon Racing Engines in Upland, CA. We discussed various ideas but ultimately decided on a pump gas 496. Started with a solid 512 block and good pair of 781 oval ports. Jim assured me the 781s would be the way to go after his partner and legendary Blown Fuel Altered pilot, Mikio Yoshioka, did his magic to them. He drove the Stone T altered back in the 60s. NEAT STUFF!

Eagle rotating assembly and Mahle pistons make up the rotating assembly. The squeeze came out to 9.8:1. Valve timing is controlled with a Comp roller with .615" lift on intake and exhaust 240*@.050 intake and 250* @.050 exhaust on 112LSA. The old school Torker was a nice eBay find and was ported and port matched to the 781 heads. MSD dizzy and coil for the ignition and an 850 DP Holley tops it off.

Engine was ran on a stand but not dynoed. We will strap it to the chassis dyno at a later date.

You are gonna be happy with that combo, it makes for a great street engine.
I did a very similar build, except 12.5:1, NOS ZL-1 9180 cam and with the Angelucci ported 781's it RPM's like a 2-stroke weedwacker and makes power from idle to redline.

[Chuck_Burg]

We are making progress! Trying to keep up with Dave's Crusty Cuda
We sanded the original paint off using a DA with 80 grit. We then sanded the entire body with 220. I also removed all the seam sealer on the firewall and replaced it with brand new seam sealer and replicated the factory installation method (stiff brush) haha! My PPG rep told me about a metal cleaner and neutralizer call SX579. This stuff is killer!!! Spray your bare metal and it'll make it look like an anodizing job gone wrong! He said this would be the saving grace for the pesky rust under my paint due to the original owners tarp preventing moisture from escaping.... He also supplied us with the two part epoxy primer and hardener. Primer pics soon! This is where I'm at in the build, it's now up to date for all you to follow. Thanks for the support!

[Xplantdad]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Burg

We left off with the car on the way to the shop. I work at Toyota dealer in the L.A. area and the car will be painted there. People often laugh when I tell them my cars get painted at a Toyota dealer... If you have connection in the paint business you may as well capitalize.

Absolutely, my Nova shown above was painted at Hardin Oldsmobile/Honda when I worked there. The gold Nova shown below....was painted at Santa Ana Nissan!


Both paint jobs came out awesome-and were super cheap(and involved buying a few cases of beer!) . The body and paint guys loved both cars...as they were something different and cool!


Going to enjoy following along on this build. I believe I've seen and taken pics of your blue Camaro at the Sunday show on Seventeeth in Santa Ana?


I would go with Dave Lindsley (I sure do miss him)...