Taking a little break
I know some of my more ardent blog followers will find this disappointing, but I'm going to be taking a break from the Camaro for a while.
As for progress from the last update - the rear quarter windows have been installed (much harder than it sounds to get it right), and I've put the rear seats in. Windshield washer system is put together. Flywheel/clutch/pp, bellhousing, and transmission are all together and in. Fuel tank is fully in and buttoned up. Original driveshaft fits perfectly though it will need to get cleaned up and receive fresh U-joints.
Left on the to-do list:
- Fuel system
- Cooling system
- Power steering system
- Electrical system (alternator and gauges)
- Vent windows and door glass
- Front seats
- Exhaust system (headers and header-back system)
- Wheels and tires
- Odds and ends
Planning to get back to this late in the Spring or sometime in Summer. In the meantime, have a planned investment in infrastructure - an enclosed trailer, which I've never myself owned before, always borrowed. The timing should work out well, I can use San Diego's great autumn and winter to fine tune the car, so it is all ready to go for next year, instead of a big event like the SD Tour being its first outing.
If you've been following along some of the SCCA forums threads, you may have an idea what I'll be driving in 2012 instead of this. Some opportunities are too good to pass up!
When I'm back to work on the car, I'll put some notes up on Facebook and the forums I visit, so don't worry about visiting here every day for updates.
Engine finally in
Any movie that involves building a fast or special car usually has some kind of montage where the characters are rolling around on creepers, wiping grease and sweat from their brows, and at least at some point - lowering the hot new engine into the car. It's an exciting moment, one where the car goes from being just a shell or chassis, to the beginnings of an automobile. The body receives its heart.
Especially so in this case. The engine isn't just any small-block Chevy, but an accurate reproduction of the original 302 cubic inch engine found in the original '67 Z28.
It sits nicely in the engine bay, further back than you might think. These cars have a reputation for the big heavy motor hanging out past the nose of the car, but as you can see it's not really the case:
Front axle centerline is somewhere in the vicinity of piston #1. Could be better, but clearly not as bad off as something awful, like a Subaru. With no fan, shroud, and radiator in place, there's room to stand inside the engine bay in front of the motor.
Still looks pretty open in there, but there's lots still to be added. Cooling system, fuel system, headers, power steering, alternator, etc. You can see here the brake hard lines have all been run, that was the last thing I wanted to get done before dropping the engine in. Transmission *would* be in, but I'm missing one critical part (clutch fork pivot ball) needed for assembly.
Coincidentally I came across some neat dyno charts today of the 302, from back in the day. Credit for these goes to Jon Mello from the Camaros.org website, where I've done a lot of my research. These first couple pictures show the gains produced from some (not ST legal) modifications to the engine.
Interestingly, the engine gains very little in the midrange from the modifications - benefits come mostly above 5500rpm, where the engine would see little time in autocross (though plenty at the track). The baseline dyno in this series isn't terribly far from an ST legal engine - it uses the stock 4bbl carb (jetting unknown), dyno "service" headers, high-octane gas, but with a cheater cam and milled heads. Note the test date, February 3, 1967!
Here is another fun one, this from legendary engine builder Traco. The Traco team were a key element to Penske-Donohue success, starting with the Camaro and in many cars that followed. This is a fully built motor, likely representative of the power levels available in race trim back in those days. Must have been a hoot on bias-plys!
Still not going to say how my motor did despite it being an aspect of the car people like to speculate over quite a bit. It's entertaining to see even if it's not super relevant to the car's competitiveness. In fact, you might almost argue for wanting to have less power, if the results of Terry Fair and their super-beast Mustang are any indication.
Bits & pieces
Was recently reminded of a little passage from the book that seeded the idea for this project. Even though it's not from the Camaro chapter but the Javelin one, it describes well the phase of the project I'm in at present:
We started our first Javelin as a stripped chassis from the factory. We needed hundreds of other stock parts , though, such as hinges and brackets and linkages and thing, which are really quite a problem to order individually. For some reason American Motors didn't want us to strip them off another complete car as they were needed. After we had installed the roll cage and widened the fenders we had to have some pars to continue with, and none we coming. I was getting desperate, so I called the factory and said, "Look, you've got to give us a car to take odds and ends out of. We have to have parts now! So they agreed to loan us a car, on the condition that we would rebuild it as the parts we ordered arrived. I was promising anything at that point. We picked up a running Javelin at a dealership and it got stripped ... and stripped ... and stripped ... until it was virtually useless.
By the time we had the racer running the stripper was a pile of junk sitting in the corner.
Similarly, at this stage of the project, the Camaro is in needs of lots of odds & ends. The "kits" you can buy, to do things like the interior, don't include several parts they assume you're keeping. Things that aren't really wear parts, but that tend to get funky with 45 years of age. Don't want anything funky on this bird so everything is getting replaced or spruced up.
Instead of being able to turn to a fully-loaded "parts car" next door (which I could for a while when I owned two 240sx's), I have to get online and order the part. Work on a particular oart of the car proceeds, gets stuck because of a missing part, so I move to something else, work until stuck at a missing part, and when the day is done, put together an order for all the missing parts plus anything else I can think may be needed. Not the most efficient method of proceeding.
Despite this, the interior is progressing. Still waiting on the driver door window actuator mechanism to show up from backorder. Several of the other window components need to be thoroughly cleaned and either painted or powdercoated. Looking for replacement vent windows - earlier it appeared these were stocked by online retailers for a reasonable price, but it turned out not be the case...so now I'm stuck looking for the main chrome pieces to the vent windows.
Carpet and under-dash pad are in. Boo hoo hoo, weight from sound deadening. At least it's low I guess. New painted factory gauge cluster is in, wiring is about done.
This car will be getting the full DL1 treatment, as the 240sx did. Also have the Chasecam camera fully wired mounted up where the dome light goes. So many car videos are from bad positions - on the dash, roof, or on the front bumper. While better than nothing, these videos are only about 10% as useful as a video showing the driver's inputs. A vantage point that shows the road ahead in addition to the steering inputs from the driver is the best, it really gives you the right kind of perspective to understand what's going on, and how the car is behaving. Dome light should be a good spot in this car.
The back seats have been upholstered and are ready to go in, but they can't until the rear quarter windows have been fully installed, and I'm waiting on one sneaky trim piece to complete that step. Then onto the front windows, front door panels, headliner, and remaining trim.
Interior thus far
Making some slow progress on the car of late. Fuel tank is in, wheel dimensions are all measured out (wheel/tire story to come later), and the wiring is about done.
Here's the interior as of today-
Obviously will fix the Momo center cap rotation before all is done. 
Glove box is in, blanking panel for the center is ready. Hole for shifter is cut. You can see the carpet hanging in the back left, it needs to stretch out a bit before it can go in.
Still have much to do here. Have all new window mechanisms to install, can be arduous to get everything aligned. Gauges to do too, have a fun surprise in store there. Haven't really liked any of the gauge setups I've seen in these cars thus far. Mine wlll be different, if nothing else...
Transmission rebuilt
Got the transmission back today from Harold's Automotive in El Cajon. Like the rest of the car, it needed just about everything new - new second and third gears, new synchros, shift forks, and seals.
Made some marks at the input and output shafts to verify gear ratios-
As I suspected from the drive home (now over 1 year ago!) first gear is the tall 2.2, making this an M21 transmission, the standard unit in the '67 Z28. Apparently the M20 wide-ratio was available as an option. Might seek one out if ProSolo launches with this tall first gear don't work well.
The other thing it could be is the fabled "rock crusher" M22 Muncie. The M22 had a much shallower gear helix angle which made the gears stronger, but the transmission was very loud.
M20 and 21's have an average helix angle of 35 degrees, M22's have an average angle of 21 degrees. This one's definitely an M21:
Blast from the past
Got a call the other day from a fellow in Oregon, who was working on a 240sx, and found some paperwork with my phone number on it.
Turns out my car was bought by a family there, and the young man of the family has been campaigning it in their local drift series - winning all the events he's entered so far-
Car looks pretty good still, much as it did. Wheels and tires are a bit narrower, and it's got a cage. Still the same funky hood and Tire Rack sticker.
Too bad I never took it to Nationals - a 240sx won the SM Championship this year, I think my car could have won it too. Oh well! Happy to see it's getting some good use out there, and I asked the fellow to try to get the new owner out to an autocross to learn some real car control! 
UPS guy delivered an interior
Takes just a couple boxes, but here it is - just about everything needed for the interior. Only pieces not here are the rear seat frames which I kept (and powdercoated) and the front seats, which will be lightweight race seats.
Unboxed everything tonight, parts seem of good quality, most are even GM authorized as official replacement parts.
The bummer - UPS says the packages weighed a combined 133 pounds! Ugg. Oh well, that's just one of the differences between an STX and CP car.
Rear brakes and subframe connectors
Initial progress over the holiday weekend. Rear brakes (rotors and calipers) and subframe connectors got installed.
Before getting started on the connectors, decided to wax the underside of the car. Not that this is something I plan to do often (or perhaps, ever again), but it should help keep the underside clean, easy to wipe off any dirt and grime that lands there. With it all bare, this presented the last good opportunity for this extra protection before the car's underside starts to get "busy" with plumbing and other equipment.
View from the rear-
And from the front-
And here, post-installation:
Can see they were painted the same light gray used elsewhere...figured they'd stick out if kept their original color:
From the side:
And the back:
And the brakes. I bought these a while back. Decided to stay with a modestly sized rotor (12.19") as it allows for use of 15" wheels for the real vintage look, if the situation ever warrants. For autocross, these are probably overkill, while being a little small for track duty. Thinking I would like to run the car at the track a little bit some day, Laguna Seca and maybe Streets of Willow. With its autocross geared rear end, it'll only be good for about 115 in 4th gear, not enough for most tracks.
Compare to how things looked a year ago:
Another good thing about this kit, is there are several different Wilwood calipers that can mount in place with no other changes. Because we don't have the ability to use proportioning valves in ST, changing calipers is a coarse way of adjusting bias. These calipers are 4-piston, but one of the larger 4-piston units; if there's too much rear bias, I can go to a smaller 4-piston; if there's too little, I can step up to a 6 piston.
Made some big orders over the weekend, a complete interior is on its way, along with a few race goodies. Particularly excited about the battery; wish this one had been out for the last couple ST cars I built!
Back home at last! Phase 3 complete
Pat brought the car back home last night. Looks fantastic! Can't believe I've owned this thing almost a whole year now. I am extremely pleased with the work Pat did, and the timeline he was able to keep. The body and paint portion of this project was the one I feared the most. Heard so many stories of people getting their cars locked in "paint jail" for years, with bills piling up in the tens of thousands. Not here! He got the car done in 4 months, for the originally quoted price, which was about half of what some of the other big-name shops wanted.
The foundation is established, it's now up to me to get this thing put together over the fall and winter. Need to do all the wiring, install and plumb the brakes, the fuel system, install the driveline, cooling system, and interior. Tons of little odds and ends. I figure it's about 75% done at this point.
As for aesthetics, wasn't really trying to reinvent the wheel here. The one place I tried to get creative (the door handles) was really a mess-up. The brushed aluminum Fesler door handles are really nice looking, but they don't go with the stock chrome trim elsewhere-
Looks ok by itself, but alongside the other trim, not as much. Will probably just get a set of normal chromed pot metal handles.
Some more outside...since it may not see daylight for several months, tried to get a few with it in the driveway-
Here's a few inside the garage, its new home for a while-
"FEED ME A 302" I can hear it calling...
Compare to where it was a year ago:
Come a long way, still a long way to go...hope I can remember how it all goes back together!
Almost done with body and paint
Car should be coming home tomorrow, took a last trip to check things out today. Pat and team have done a really great job, in a really reasonable amount of time.
Great quality on the work. Paint looks fantastic, and the body lines are straight, with the gaps nice and consistent.
Fancy door handles installed
Engine bay minus the engine...
Still need to put on the spoilers - rear is going on tomorrow, front will go on later.
