Loosecannon's 1967 Camaro RS build

Casper rocks!!!!.....no engine setback at all ???? No firewall murder...you do intend to turn a wheel in anger eh(wink)???

I finally got the passenger fender all welded up so I can share the video. Click here to see video I'm now in the middle of getting the other side done and am happy with how well it's going. Obviously, it gets easier when you have done one already so the drivers side is happening a lot quicker. I love the new lines on the car and can't wait to get it on the road 

Trans Am fender vents or equivalent?....very well done ......Pink is getting jealous

759NRNG said:

Trans Am fender vents or equivalent?....very well done ......Pink is getting jealous

I have thought about it but have decided to have only a vented hood. I would like to vent the fenders but am not sure how to do it where it's guaranteed to look great. It takes many hours to make a fender and I'm afraid of taking risks with vents

Maybe you could make some (vents) out of vinyl just to experiment with and see how they look (at least a sticker version of them) 

I finally got around to fitting the new Tremec T56 Magnum transmission into the Camaro.  It bolted into the car without modifying the tunnel, just like the internet said, except that the transmission sat 3 inches too low in the back and was at too much of an angle.

I kept trimming the tunnel and lifting the transmission until it sat level in the car and it was obvious that I would have to build a new top for the tunnel. I got Metal Supermarkets to cut and bend a piece of 16 gauge metal and I trimmed it and welded it in place. Total time was 6 hours and I'm quite pleased how it looks. CLICK HERE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO

I have been working on one of the dreaded tasks on the car-panel gaps. The fenders and doors have to be mounted, unmounted, modified and repeat. I had to pick a gap width to go with and I chose 5mm or about 1/5th inch. The gaps were not consistent along the panel edges so metal had to be removed from one part and added to another. Panel Gap Video

gaps... of course...and to be expected......g'night

The worst part of any car build. The damn gaps

Watched the vid and left you a commiserative comment. You casually mention the need to remove panels in order to work on the edge of it or another.  You forgot to mention that every time you remove a panel, and then bolt it back on, you lose the reference to the gap you had before and are trying to correct for!  

The car is going to be awesome looking.

NOHOME said:

Watched the vid and left you a commiserative comment. You casually mention the need to remove panels in order to work on the edge of it or another.  You forgot to mention that every time you remove a panel, and then bolt it back on, you lose the reference to the gap you had before and are trying to correct for!  

The car is going to be awesome looking.

You are right, I thought about that after and didn't mention it. What I did was use specific spacers at all attachment points and scribed marks where appropriate. Neglecting this early in the process resulted in work having to be redone.

After watching a very exciting Formula 1 qualifying today, I spent 6 hours building door bars for the Camaro. I have debated doing this since day 1, I just wasn't convinced the effort and extra weight was worth the benefits. Ron Sutton told me I was leaving performance on the table if I didn't add them because the first gen Camaro's are so flexible. Anyways, I decided to go for it and am pleased with the results so far. I ran out of the chromoly tubing I need to finish them so I was only able to do the top bar on each side. I plan on adding a horizontal tube below the top tube but have to wait for Summit to deliver more of it. Getting the right and left side identical is really hard to do, even with careful measuring and planning, somehow the curves are never exactly the same. Having said that, they seem to be almost identical one side to the other and I'm proud. They are removable by pulling pins or can be bolted to be extra stiff and they tie into the frame, plus they don't weigh that much. I am shooting video but I can't wrap that up until I get the bottom bars done.

I really hope those ARE the seats you are using.  Lolz.

wvumtnbkr said:

I really hope those ARE the seats you are using.  Lolz.

My wife said the same thing, I think (hope) she was joking. I finished the door bars by adding lower bars to the top ones. I was prepared to add a joint in the lower bar that would permit easy removal but it turned out that I didn't need them. Strangely, the bars got easier to remove after welding in the lower bars. Somehow the heat warped them slightly the right way so pulling the pins is easier than it was. Click for video on how to build door bars

I have now tackled the flush mounted glass. The rear glass seems like it will work but the front is way off. Some people claim that using rubber spacers in the middle, then the glass will flex just enough to be flush on the sides....but I have not tested this yet. 

Ok, I tested the "bending glass" technique and it worked, here's the video 1967 CAMARO FLUSH MOUNTED GLASS

I sent the frame, suspension and differential off to powder coat and the parts just came back. What do you think?

That red is great accent for anything. Did I miss the plan for body color, or is that a secret? Either way, I love watching this come together.

In reply to 10001110101 : The plan is to go white with a black interior and red accents. The cage and frame match the brake calipers 

I always had good luck with POR15 on bare metal and when I looked it up online if you could paint over it, the answer was yes. So, when I welded new metal in, I coated it in POR15 to keep it from rusting. However, far too late I discovered that POR15 needs a rough surface to adhere to. This posed quite a problem because the car is supposed to get interior paint next week. I thought I found a solution in a device that introduced sand to a pressure washer stream. I tested it and it worked great so I went ahead and blasted off the POR15 on the Camaro. I needed to get more sand and by the time I got back, all the pristine metal had rust on it. I couldn't believe how quickly it happened. I have an art piece of raw metal in the back yard that has been there, unpainted for 6 months without any rust on it. But the new sheet metal was rusty in about an hour. Here's the video Mistakes were made Pic of the parcel shelf for shock value

Pretty sure that when you sandblast metal or even chemical strip it for that matter, the surface is left in a "excited" high energy state and it is just raring to hook up with some Oxygen.

This is why I blasted my '61 Apache dry.  I have heard that the water makes it much more gentle to the sheet metal, but the flash rust was a concern to me.  And wet sand tucked in places I couldn't get to or break out of later.

Had it blasted and epoxy primed again. Painter also did the roll cage while he was in there. Just look how phat that rear looks in the overhead shot

PHATT A$$ OHY !!!!!for those 385/20-19's you're running square bring it

In reply to loosecannon :

Back at Derricks I see........................