1996 Camaro Z28 LT1 Project

[98blackbeauty]

Peter did he leave a new address, he worked out of the barns to the right side, behing that house. Phone number I had was 586-764-2554 and to reverify that I gave you correct address I had 21909 29 mile road. Let me know if you find him.

[alone_and_insane]

that's the address I went to. the people there said that he moved to a place a couple miles south, then to a place a couple miles north, but couldn't tell me exactly where. None of my attempts to reach that phone number have been successful.

In other news, I took the car in to get the front end aligned (the new spindles threw it off). I signed the paper, left the car, and was on my way, then not 10 mins later I got a call saying that they can't align it because there's so much play in the rack. Which is bullshit, because I just got the car aligned in May without any issue. So I spent $27 for them to take one look at it and tell me they can't do the job. So I took it to a place that I saw on the way to the first place, and their price was about twice as much. It's sitting there now, hopefully they can actually do their job. If I come out of today minus $80 with no alignment I'm gonna be ****ing pissed.

[alone_and_insane]

so the second place couldn't do the job, but they didn't charge me like the first place did (so I only got screwed out of $27 today). What they did tell me, however, is that the car needs well over $700 of steering work (new rack and pinion and power steering flush), and I was like not for that price it ain't happening. I just don't understand why these places all of a sudden tell me these things when the car has been aligned twice in the last year and a half without any issue.

I hate the feeling that no matter how long I work on this thing, no matter how long I deal with it and how much money I put into it, it will always be a piece of shit.

[alone_and_insane]

so I'm back home for Christmas, time to do stuff with the car. Starting with:

http://www.mifbody.com/vbulletin/sho...459#post707459

I also bought new upstream O2 sensors, so hopefully that will take care of the problems I've been having with those codes. Also, idk if I ever said anything on there about it, but I re-installed the stock springs in the back, because it rode too rough before and I thought the back sat just a bit too low. So now I have a bit of a rake going on, but maybe a little bit too much of a rake. I'm considering trimming a little bit off the rear springs to lower the back just a tad.

Also, I really want a black aluminum radiator cover, but I can only find polished ones on the internet. Anybody have any idea where I should look?

[alone_and_insane]

So I've got some photos to show some of what I've done to the car most recently. First, pics from that accursed LS1 brake swap.

First, the bolt that just wouldn't come out:


The paint booth:


The old hardware:


The new hardware:






Also, I put the stock springs back in the back, I just thought the rear end sat too low with the Summit springs. So, here's the new stance:


I think it has a bit too much of a rake to it...what do you think of trimming some off the rear springs?

Also, the body damage got repaired:


And I used some of the insurance money to get a new OEM front bumper:

[nascarnate326]

Car looks good!!!!

Do you think you could have used heater hose to get the back to come up a bit with the summit springs?

Body panels/paint looks great.

Hows the stopping power of the LS1 brakes?

[sman]

Car is looking good! These green cars always get under appreciated, I really like the color.

[alone_and_insane]

Do you think you could have used heater hose to get the back to come up a bit with the summit springs?

??? Never heard of anything like that. could you explain?

Hows the stopping power of the LS1 brakes?

To be honest, I haven't really pushed it at all since the install, at least not enough to notice a significant improvement.

[98blackbeauty]

So what did you do with the Rack and stuff that they said was bad? You know most of these places make up shit because salesman works on commission. I was told Tie rod ends were bad, they wanted 200 to replace them, I said no thanks went to Reilleys got 2 for $27.xx put them on myself then took it back and they did alienment. OBTW did not notice any play before and after I replaced tie rod ends.

Your cars stance looks good with rake! but I'm kinda old school.

[kammi10]

??? Never heard of anything like that. could you explain?

the heater hose mod is where u take rubber hose and go around the top coil of the spring instead of use the big rubber isolator from the factory. you may want to try that with these new springs and it will lower the back end just a tad and will make the car look much better

[alone_and_insane]

So what did you do with the Rack and stuff that they said was bad? You know most of these places make up shit because salesman works on commission. I was told Tie rod ends were bad, they wanted 200 to replace them, I said no thanks went to Reilleys got 2 for $27.xx put them on myself then took it back and they did alienment. OBTW did not notice any play before and after I replaced tie rod ends.

I haven't done anything with the rack/pinion at all.

[mcalus]

I like the stance! Personally is throw the springs on the rear then work on lowering the front.
Have you seen GM high tech performances STi killer? I love the stance of it.
Any plans for a set of wheels?
The paint work looks good!

[alone_and_insane]

I like the stance! Personally is throw the springs on the rear then work on lowering the front.

yeah, that would probably make more sense, but I bought a set of used Summit springs from another member on here and installed them earlier. The rear just sat a bit too low for my liking (looked like it was lower than the front), and the ride quality was awful. the thing just crashed over bumps, I felt like the commute to work was making my car fall apart. so I ended up putting the stock springs back in the rear.

Any plans for a set of wheels?

hmm...maybe the thing I gotta figure out still is tires. The rims I'm looking at are 17x9.5, so what size would be best? I kind of want to do a staggered setup, but I know that would be difficult with the same width rims front/rear.

Also, if anybody knows already what I plan to do, don't spoil it for everybody else!

The paint work looks good!

thanks!

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I run 255's on an 8" rim, 275's would be the best way to go. Or 295's rear if wanted to go wider in the back...but you can't rotate w/o popping the tires off the rims if you picked uni-directional tires. The 295's will be most I would go on a 9.5" rim

[nascarnate326]

IMO stay with a 275.