I was really considering cleaning the Brat up some, then I saw the Speedhunters article and remembered how beautiful it was in current condition.

mikespeed95 wrote:I was really considering cleaning the Brat up some, then I saw the Speedhunters article and remembered how beautiful it was in current condition.

I'm gonna be that guy and say you should listen to your FOERST thought there... clean it up.

I have been thinking about it, but it IS a lemons car.

I should have the Camaro in the shop tomorrow. Derrick is moving his stuff in, my friend Garrett just got his stuff in, we have a 2nd shop, and I've got a bunch of other people really helping me actually want to do this now.

I'm really semi-lacking motivation because I'm pretty broke, but I'm gonna leave the brat alone. Picked up a spare drivetrain for $100 we'll build then set aside, other than that minimum maintenance only. It's a lemons car after all.

So I was at the shop doing something besides organizing today. Recently me and some friends got the shop next door as well, so now were at 2,000 sq feet. Been re-arranging and cleaning a lot.

Not today.

Well today, for about 3-4 hours. Built a ghetto wood tire rack, and organized the new shop.

Then to the American Icon in the making.

Over the last couple days and about 6-8 hours worth of work this is what has happened.

About 3-4 Days ago.


Then i dedided to glance at the rearend, remove the wheels, and gander at it. I bought a steering wheel at Game Stop from my awesome girlfriend, and it was twofer Tuesday at Double Daves, so needless to say, motivation to work on Camaro wasn't really there.



Then today. Met Derrick up at the shop early evening, and after my friend Jonathan helped clean up the other shop (it is finally all organized mostly, yay) he headed home, and I decided to start cracking on the Camaro. Removed the front clip, more body stuff, chassis harnesses (which are actually in decent shape and I like the simplicity of the connectors, may reuse) and the glass (40 year old glass is a lot easier to cut out!). Rust really isn't as bad as I thought. Still a bit sketchy but not a big deal. Was able to benchbuild and get a lot of ideas having the car down this far though, pretty stoked about it.

This is how I left it tonight after about 4 hours of on/off working on it. Most I've done so far.



I'm excited about this.

me to

Three, here.

Dale Earnhardt.

Little update on the Camaro, not anything huge yet, still stripping down.

Had to use the plasma cutter (which is soooo awesome) to cut an access hole to get to the subframe washer/bolt dealie, then got that off. Just been bench-building, and did a 60k service on my friends truck today.

Was tryin to shave some weight, and will be using an OEM Aluminum spindle with some custom control arms, gonna start playing with that tomorrow, as well as the rearend setup a little as well.

This rust is becoming a huge pain, finding all of it is annoying, also looking to take the tub somewhere to have it blasted, am extremely open to suggestions here.

Some pictarz, but not any huge progress.

Mostly bare tub:



Subframe, with rusted non removable bolts I have to cut out:


Will hopefully get some more progress made tomorrow. 'Tis coming along though.

This car inspired me to build one in Forza. Shit is FUNNN and has like... a trillion HP.
I hope the same for your machine!

We need to play Forza together. I've got some setups I'll send your way too. The Firebird works better on the 2nd gen stuff on the game.

Didn't get much done today.

Went to Woodlands with my friend Garrett, wound up doing this:


I got to take the controls a couple seconds after this picture, and I really wanna learn how to fly. Its friggin cool.

Spent the hour I was at the shop trying to remove 3 bolts that were stuck in the LCA's. Big hammer? Nope. Sawzall? Nope. Had to get pretty creative but eventually got the bolts out of the way and got the LCA's off. Gotta be up early in the morning so called it a night pretty early. Madman Derrick is still at the shop working on his super-overcomplicated headers for his silly little woman car.

Derrick is awesome, and had these laying around, which will wind up on the Camaro. OEM Aluminum Spindles, win. These are everything I could want designwise, and they're an OEM application. Win!


Gonna redrille the Vette hubs to 5x114 so I can fit my large quantity of Foose wheels off the 240 on here since they're awesome and free, then we're gonna start mocking up suspension stuffs. Plan is to run a 18x8 with a 225/235 up front and absolutely no smaller than a 275 out back. I'd like to run a 235/305+ stagger but theres no way I could afford tires for the thing as is, so I'll just run 275's for now.

Small progress. Not much, but progress none the less.

I also ate steak fingers at Wings N More today. +20 American points for me. STEAK FINGERS.

Got some progress made tonight.

Cut rust out with the plasma, now to get it blasted, and start patching.



Also had to cut some access panels to get the front leaf braket's locknuts, which were just spinning inside the unibody. Finally got it out, check out this cutting edge technology right here. 40 Year old rusty nuts kept getting caught in my sockets though was kinda annoying





And here's where we're at. Not one bolt left on the unibody. Need to blast/prime this thing, kinda wanna dip it but don't know where to go.



Gotta lot of work ahead here. Movin' along slowly but surely.

So said goodbye to the Camaro today for about a week. They said they wanted to wait till the weather was perfect to do everyting so I just dropped it and told them I wasn't in a hurry.



At the blasting place. Guy on the Tractor's name is Bubba. Bubba has a 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd gen camaro rotting away outside at his blasting place.




Bubba's office is an old school bus.



Bubba is my hero.

Whooa!!!

That is awesome, hahaha.

Isn't everyone in Teha$ like that?