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My 1979 Camaro Z/28 :
This is where im going to document the buildup of my camaro.
I purchased this car in 1998 to work on for a school project that then the schoolboard
decided they didnt want me to have that as a project! So i built it up anyhow, but the day after i finally finished working on it, it was involved in a car accident.
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Heres a pic of it when i first got it, not many mods done to it yet.
This was right after i got it and it took 3 days straight of scrubbing with kerosene to take the tar off the side from road work....repainted the wheels and replaced the broken grill with a new one and a Z/28 emblem from a 1969 camaro Z/28, looks sweet!! |
During the winter of 99-2000, i built the new motor for it...
I built it at my neighbors garage, he also supplied me with the motor for and assisted me in the buildup with his smallblock exspertese. This motor had the stock pistons reused but I think one of the pistons broke shortly after breakin. will find out when i tear it down to use the intake/headers/etc.. for the new motor. |
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Thats my brother in the background waitin for me to take pics of his 1969 chevelle....
The engine is a Small block chevy, 350 ci with standard bore cylinders and standard. Stock dished 9:1 pistons, the block is from a 1974 caprice police car and has 0.001" deck height, extra stock oiling holes to spray oil from the mains to the cylinders, and the crank was stock balanced along with the flywheel and pullies.
The heads are 1969 307/327/350ci castings with 70cc combustion chambers and ported exaust ports and seem to flow very well, which later i found dont flow so well :)
It also has an Edelbrock aircleaner, Edelbrock 750cfm carburator, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, Accel super coil and wires, Crane Cams torquer cam, Flow Tech headers, and a few other things i forgot to mention :) |
Workin on the pics, in the meantime im gettin shots of the intake goin on.
I put the intake on before the snow thawed, i couldnt wait, took 3 days to get it out from behind my house in 2 feet of snow, towed it with the ranger :)
The Edelbrock intake is awesome, it cured all my cold start and backfireing problems i had with the stock cast iron intake and adapter plate. you can really hear the secondaries kicking in. its a nice piece.
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My Flowtech headers.
I have a set of FlowTech headers installed on my camaro, the work really well and fit like a dream, no hammer or anything to get it in, didnt have to raise up the engine either. They slid in from the bottom up. Only problem is now i need shocks in front to keep from bashin them off the street when it gets bouncin around here. |
This camaro is now totaled...
August 2001 i decided that since it was a nice warm 78 degree day that i would drive my camaro to school since i only had one class that day. I stopped to fuel up before i went over the mountain, aired up my front tires, checked them all since the car is so heavy it likes to have 100% correct tire pressures at all times, handles better.
Went over the mountain to the other side and through the little town of Martinsburg Pa, only about 10-15 miles from my house, i was on my way to Pennstate University in Altoona Pa to school. As i was exiting the town of Martinsburg i had to stop because the guy in front of me stopped due to another car pulling off the road. Then i heard it, screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!!! BASH! A guy in a full size chevy truck smashes into the rear of me, he hit a parked car!
Turns out the guy was speeding and he swerved around another car so he didnt see me sitting there untill he made it around the car.
I put 4500 into this camaro after the initial purchase price, his insurance company, Erie insurance, only gave me $1,000 for it since i couldnt prove that there was any work done to the car. They wrote it up as being stock! After fighting with them for a couple months i bought another 79 camaro, but a T-top this time.
Oh yea, i didnt go to school that day since i had to walk to the other side of town to call for a ride and then get my car towed away. i was thrown into the dash and smashed the steering wheel and dash to pieces and ended up in the back seat. I was the first one to get out to check on everyone else, he didnt bother to see if i was alright, he just sat there in his truck. his daughters were in with him and one smashed the front windshield with her head. after i argued with him about it he finally took her to the hospital to get checked out.
The trunk of my car is pushed up into the back glass, the trunk floor was bent so they totaled the car.
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The T-top Z...
I hope to have pics of this car up soon, i have done a lot of work to it, motivated by me being ticked off due to the fact that all my years of work on the red Z went down the tubes.
I had to weld in new floor pans since the stock ones were completely gone cuz the T-tops leak, the rest of the car is in VERY good shape, the body is VERY solid and rust free. By the way the car looks and the way its aged i would say it was stored a lot and driven for summer weekend fun. the motor and drivetrain are all stock and show signs of being stored or sat in the sun for long periods.
After the floor pans were in, i installed brand new year one carpet, a new black dash and rounded up or painted up the rest of the black interior. since my seats were red and the black ones from the red Z werent that great i went and blew some cash on a set of 1995 Z/28 camaro seats, front and rear. i then retrofitted them into my 79, it looks killer and fit your butt like a glove! they are grey/charcoal
If anyone wants to know how to install them just drop me an e-mail.
After i got all the interior work done i started the bodywork and its now sitting in the garage waiting to get sprayed with black paint, basecoat/clearcoat. Took about 2 months of all my spare freetime (when im not fighting fires) to get all the bodywork done. sprayed once and had to resand again due to scratches showing through the black.
I got Energy suspentions Polyurathane bushings for the entire suspention that will be installed as soon as i get it out of the garage painted.
Im putting in new front Z coil springs and rear leafs with new Z antisway bars.
Subframe connectors should be on the way soon too.
The tires are on the stock Z rims and are 255/60/15's all the way around.
The motor and drivetrain..
The motor is a 355 smallblock, 4-bolt main, Flattop pistons on stock rods, Extreme energy 268 grind cam, Edelbrock performer rpm Intake and Edelbrock performer rpm 750cfm carb, same setup thats on the red Z's motor. Same headers, ignition. The heads will be a set of Fully Ported '882' casting heads with screw in studs. Should be making power in the 378hp-412ftlbs range. all in under 6000rpms. while holding 380 ftlbs from 2500rpms-6500rpms
The transmission will be a TH-400 from the red Z with a B&M 2100 stall torque converter, the Rear is the stock 3.42 rear with a posi.
I hope to have this car done before the snow flys. we'll just have to wait and see.
I doubt the drivetrain will be in before snow though.
Hope to have pics up soon.
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