putting a car back together. i wish i had more skills.
 

1969 Z28 CLONE.

my brother drove to Austin, TX and bought a Ducati. he brought along his GF, and my elderly mom. mom being mom, wanted to see family.

my cousin pulled my brother to the side and asked if i was ever going to come and get the camaro. reminder, it is in boxes, the body is parked transversely in the front of the garage, just taking up space. my cousin has had enough. :)

it's a partial Clone project in it's infancy. all of it is there. z28 parts and all. the "it's in boxes" part is daunting.

i KNOW what i want. i modern crate motor, AC, way better brakes, etc. he said the Muncie 4-speed is there.

i think i am going to fly to Austin in a few (with my wife) and see for myself what is there.

is this insanity? like the other thread..is this the cure for happiness? i'm no gas-monkey shop.. but this would be badass:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503069292.jpg

i would get the body work done in El Paso..where it is cheaper and my brother knows people.

don't you build bridges and stuff for a living? You got this!

That era Camaro is very cool looking IMO.

Nice! If that's something you want, go for it! That era of car is dirt simple, and there's only about 10,000 books and websites dedicated to restoring Camaros. Plus you can get parts at every auto parts store on Earth, and they just about give them away.

I knew a guy who had a '69 Z-28 clone that was seriously one of the nicest street driven hot rods I've ever seen. I'm including Porsches, exotics, everything. Haven't seen him in years but ran into one of his buddies the other night and thought about asking him if he's seen Darren, (guy w Camaro).

It was black w a white stripe and had a well-tuned 427 w 4-speed and 12 bolt posi w good street gears. Racing seats and harness, aluminum roll bar, nice gauges, etc., etc...

LAPD would pull him over just to ask about the car and drool. It was seriously quick and set up for handling w modern brakes. That thing would just rip your head off in the passenger seat.

Just food for thought. :)

at least check it out

So many options to put one together, lots of OE to all custom bits work from various years/models.

It's not mentally challenging, it's the unwritten little things- skills you need to make it all fit together. Fit and finish stuff, and fixing years of PO butchery.

Pisses me off the most about working with domestics, you can buy brand new stuff, for a car or engine that has been around for 50+ years, and the stuff still fits wrong.

Headers come to mind.

You need determination and effort. If you leave unfinished projects, then maybe this isn't for you.

rjp

Hell Vash, you DO have skills. Just maybe not in wrenching, body, and upholstery work.

Bound to be a gas monkey like shop near Austin...Texas is big on Muscle cars. Find one and turn 'em loose. Join a Camaro forum, and have fun!

(edit) You might check out this Texas shop...they've built some amazing high end cars. Have a large checkbook balance, tho...;)

https://vorshlag-store.com/

What's the question here?

Go get it.

You can fly straight into Austin but if you fly into DFW stop by for a beer on your way through.

If you don't want the car tell me where it is, I'll go get it this weekend.

Then there is this guy:
 

Came out of one of my lunch spots downtown recently and saw this. Hmmm, cool. Ratty '69 Camaro being driven. Then a double take. Z-28 badges. Ok. Closer inspection... could it be a real one?

Owner comes out and sees me eyeballing his car, I start conversation to assure him I'm just admiring it. Yep, it's a real Z-28. He's had it for years and it was his brother's before that. He has the original 302 on the shelf, (worn out), and a built SBC in it now. All original parts on shelf, lots of upgraded stuff on the car.

The owner is a young Latino guy, (at least young compared to me) :), I ask if he worries about it getting stolen and he tells me that he lives down in the 'hood where no one has a clue what it is. Everyone just thinks it's an old POS car. Lol...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503072499.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503072499.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503072499.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503072499.JPG

These aren't that complicated. Nothing that you can't do.

Do you like a project? Some folks prefer the project to the finished product. I've seen plenty of folks finish a restoration, drive the car a couple of months, sell it and then buy another project. I prefer driving them.

I supposed if I had the space and time and money, then it might take something like this on. It's something that you probably need to not be in a hurry to see complete.

Still, if you can get a really good deal on it, and you won't be pissed if not EVERYTHING is there, then go for it.

Wow, super cool. Looks like the original dual quad crossram top for the 302 intake was changed to a single quad which is probably not a bad idea.

Dead simple car. Go for it.

That is actually Smokey Yunick's cheater manifold he designed that matched the performance of the tunnel ram. That's what he told me. It's definitely a really SY piece.

car is literally held together with an assortment of self tapping screws and 9/16 coarse thread bolts almost everywhere. Not hard at all.

rjp

Think of it as going together one piece at a time.

Is there a more popular muscle car than the '69 Camaro? I doubt it.

(Mustangs don't count, those are pony cars. Yuuuuge difference)

There are so many parts and so much information on those cars that the most incompetent maroon could put together a pretty nice example. You are not that maroon!

Do it!!

(I love that clapped out Z/28. I would totally be proud to own that car!)

That's how Johnny Cash did it.

lol!

Skills you got.
Time is the killer.
It will take FOREVER!

Mustang and Camaro are both pony cars.

Stock Z-28 302 dual quad crossram manifold
http://www.vintagemusclecarparts.com...ram_intake.jpg

Put on some soft shoes and kick it in the side.
Spit on it. Turn around and fart on it. Piss on it if you wish.
You can't do much more harm than the last 50 years of nature has already done to it.
It's just an assembly of stamped sheet metal, on top a simple box of steel, with bolts holding it all together.
It rolls on connected moveable inflated rubber circles bouncing on a bunch of parts to soften movement from the person in the box.
Pieces of rubber or other mater sometimes separate the parts.
On most others, the connectors have to be tightened like so.
It's as expendable as the tens of thousands already run into something crushed into squares and made into other things without a second thought.
It's just some metal piece of crap.
Put on music and get to work.

(Hint: I'm also talking to my lazyself)

Do it!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503086104.jpg

However I feel your pain, any 'project"' car for me has to be a driver or I will get overwhelmed and just let it sit.

When I had my Miata my rule was if I spend more than half a day under the car and I could not see the end in sight I would put it back together and drive it to the mechanic.

Do you have mechanically inclined friends? Invite them over on the weekends for a BBQ and wrenching party? (I know that would be A LOT of BBQ'in to get a project that big done)

Hmmmm

1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS clone | eBay

1969 Chevrolet Camaro

There is a car in his pic but I haven't found it yet.

1969 Chevrolet Camaro | eBay

I think you get the idea.

This thread reminds me of the day I hauled my second 912 home and finally got it parked in the driveway. I sat there looking at it from across the street as I'd gone over there to take a picture of it and the house. I thought to myself "What the he!! have you got yourself into now?"
All I had to do was swap the whole drive train and most of the interior from the one already in the garage to the one in the driveway. Piece of cake. My brother put the one in the garage together by himself, I've got a willing teenager to help me with the heavy stuff. All it took was some planning and execution of said plan. Write the plan, work the plan. Check lists help.
If I could plan how to build a satellite I sure as he!! could do this too.

If I had a dollar for every internet story I read about a guy who went back to his family's place only to find his car gone, I'd have enough for a pretty good dinner out.

Make your intentions clear, and get that out of there before it is too late. Sell it or put some cash into it. Right now it is taking up space in two places, and one of them is your mind. Why not be honest with yourself about time and budget, and see if you can line up some locals to make that sucker run.

One of the guys here started a 3.6 conversion, and had one of teh big guns here finish it for him. No shame in that. How bad do you want it ?

Tip. Make it run before you paint it.

You couldn't ask for a much simpler car to restore. Having said that, I thought my '47 Dodge truck would be simple - flathead six, three speed, doesn't even have a heater. What tripped me up was little things, the body work, and interior. I would hire body & paint, glass, and interior done and do the mechanicals myself. Wrenching is way more fun than sanding. What kind of shop space do you have?

I had the same thought... growing up my family was a GM family... Oldsmobile for dad and Chevy station wagon for mom. Dad had me do some of the maintenance on them (mostly the Chevy because that was the car I drove the most).
I was a teenager with very little experience and still managed to do brakes, shocks, water pump, even the rear end (after I bent it street racing).

Shop? Nope. Just a very vanilla two car garage. I am gonna bend over backwards to not displace my wife's car from the garage.

I would get the body and interior done in my old home town; El Paso. Just much cheaper. I'm gonna reach out to all my hot rod friends back there. Then fly to Austin to suss it out next month. No sense speculating from here.

I would love a project like this. I hope it works for you, Cliff.

If I were to get rid of my 911, that would be the car that would replace it. I LOVE that year Camaro!
It's on badass looking car.

Cliff, what a story. Go have a look, what's there to lose?

How about getting it done in Mexico? I had thought about painting my dirty old truck down there, but decided to just sell as it is. Well, I must put an ad out there first. Its been more then 6 months and dragging my tail doing nothing about it. Now it just sits. I know if I came across a project like that, I WILL NEVER finish due to work, family and lack of will and knowledge but I am sure the process is fun. I am in the middle of building up a 72 from a bare body with motor and tranny in pieces. All I did was help fit a couple of items when I visit. No way I am going to finish.

I can help you out, Jeff. :D

Good for you. Somehow this will work itself out.

As long as there is little or no rust they are simple. I have done two early k code Mustangs and they were as simple as pie.

Every part imaginable is available. Stock or retro mod.

Vash,
Go for it, there is nothing magical about putting one of these together, plus there are parts galore for them. The hard part is when you try to modify something and have to re-engineer to make it all work and fit. Right now I am finishing up a Unimog that is so modified, that it is taking me years to get it together, as everything is being changed, (i hope for the better). This is my own truck, so I am making it the way I want. If it was stock I would have been done years ago with it. So if you don't go crazy, you could have that together in a few months after the bodywork is done on it.