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Ok so I did the intro thing a week or so back, posted a few pics of my fleet. Said I'd get a build thread going. For my own sanity (and others) I'm going to keep it in one thread for the three cars....and the K5 since there was some interest in that too.
I'll start off by saying that I never intended to document much of my progress on the cars. So the first couple posts are going to be random pictures from the last couple years. I'll try to describe each one give a time frame.
In case you missed it, I've got a small collection of F-bodys. A 1978 Trans Am, 1982 Z28 and a 1997 Formula, along with a 1976 K5 Blazer and 1999 Lumina that the wife drives. The 78 I got as payment for doing some work for a friend on his 2nd gen. The 82 I picked up cheap and didn't even want at the time. The 97 I bought from some kid who beat it and put it away wet...still think I payed a bit too much for it. The K5 is normally my daily driver and the Lumina is just a decent reliable beater (3.8 FTW). I'll also toss in some stories/pics of the parts cars I've gotten to help finish mine.
I"ll start with the 82, since I think I have the most pics of that one.
I picked this one up through a guy (Ed) I know from work. It was his friends sons project that never got off the ground. One day he says to me "You've got a Camaro right?" I told him yeah I did. "Well now you've got two, pay me back when you can." I wasn't even looking for another one, this one would actually be the third one (of many) I brought home. Went and looked at it the next day. It was an 82 Z28, Crossfire/auto car. Body was real solid, no motor or transmission but the Crossfire intake and parts were in the passenger seat. Interior was near perfect. Worst part was someone cut the drivers floor out and the spare tire well. Looked like they had cut the floor out to get the transmission crossmember out. I figured it was worth the $350 I now owed Ed so I loaded it up and brought it home...stuck it in the back yard and let it sit. That was around July 2005.
Winter came around and I decided to finally do something with it. Pushed it into the garage and started gutting it, was going to build a drag car. Everything that wasn't needed got tossed up into the attic. Hvac, plastics, wiring, interior, etc... Cut the floors out, actually just the passenger side since the drivers was no longer there. Ordered some pans (talk about sticker shock on those things). Best I could tell they all came from the same factory in China so I ordered from my local Napa to avoid paying $99 shipping on them from Classic. Came in and they actually fit really well. Had to trim some more in the car to get them to sit down correctly, was very pleased with how they came out when it was all said and done (especially for my first time doing floors). Next up was a roll bar, because race cars need bars. Ordered a Competition Engineering 8pt kit through Jegs. Think I had to pay a $49 delivery fee or something like that. If you've never bought a roll bar, with the exception of the main hoop, it could probably be shipped UPS or FeEx pretty easily. Mine came in a 48' "YELLOW" trailer. Looking in there when I was helping the driver get it off.....it was the only thing in the entire trailer. Got going installing it, took my time and measure a ton. Borrowed a friends chop saw to notch the tubes, still had to finish fitting them with a grinder/flap wheel. Now I'll admit the some of the welds don't look the best but I'm confident in them. About this time spring was rolling around and the first Midland swap meet of the year was coming up. Perfect time to look for some parts. Ended up with a 1974 454 block (later found out it was bored .060 over), forged crank and some 781 heads. Brought that stuff home and stuck it under the bench....where it still sits to this day.
Car found its way back outside for a year or two while I played with other vehicles. Never really had the motivation to work on it, almost like I didn't want to. One day while walkin though the junkyard (Hoopers) I spotted a clean 88 SC Camaro. No motor or trans, but it had the two pieces of ground effects that go behind the rear wheels, one of which I was missing for the 82. I've know the owners of that place for years figured I'd get a good deal on the ground effects. Asked how much for the gfx (wanted the entire set, couldn't bring myself to mix/match). $200 Mikey said. Thought that was kinda high, I asked how about the entire car, assumed I could take what I wanted and scrap the rest. $250 he said....Sold!. Got the car home and started looking it over. Found receipts for every time maintenance was done, gas put in, mileage logs. This car was babied and rust free. I just could cut it up. Only thing wrong with it was the interior smelled like coffee. So the car I bought for one piece in particular I wasn't even going to use. Tossed a quick paintjob on it and sold it for a healthy profit. It came across craigslist not too long ago actually. After selling that one I had some money to play around with. Decided to use it on the 82, as my other Camaro (83 Z28) was getting too rusty underneath. So I had a parts donor for the little parts no one ever thinks about. The 83 was only in ok shape when I got it. Used it year round for a couple years. At some point I cloned it into an Iroc. Gfx, interior, wheels. That's where I got my nose/rear/gfx for the 82.
So I was down to one 3rd gen and a shit ton of parts. Pushed the 82 back in the garage and blew it apart. I mean everything came out, if it had a bolt holding it on it was taken off. Being a single guy living with another car guy, most (ok, who am I kidding...all) of the parts got scattered around the house. That soon changed when I met my girlfriend/future wife. All the parts got shoved into an extra bedroom. Eventually that wasn't good enough because we "needed the room". So I had to get busy on putting the car back together as progress had all but stopped when I met her (funny how that happens). And for the record.....the extra bedroom where I had everything is still empty. In fact I've got my 18x10's and the factory wheels to my 97 in there now. Did the remainder of the body work, couple small rust spots, door bottoms and the area behind the drivers mirror. Painted it a navy blue. I actually wanted a really deep almost blue/purple red...but somehow I came home with blue. Idk how that happened but it did. Only painted the car body at the time which would cause me some problems down the line. By the time I got around to doing the doors and bumpers about two years had passed. As a result the colors are a hair off, everyone that has seen the car says they can't see it. But I know it's there and it bugs the crap out of me. Every time I look at it I can see the different shades, it'll probably get worse as I haven't done the hood yet either. I've contemplated doing a scuff/shoot of the entire car once I've got all together but don't want to do a half ass job and don't want to take it all apart again.
By this time I realized I wanted a more street friendly car. So a full interior was going back in. I used the carpet from the 83 (which actually came from an 88 Iroc I parted). Pulled the sound deading (remember....race car!) and power washed it. Looked as good as new. In fact it was better because it actually fit the floor and was cut for the seat rails. And being that I didn't spend a few hundred on it, I didn't feel bad about cutting it to get around the down tubes on the bars. The plastic I mainly used the original 82 stuff, although I do have 3 other complete black interiors and a blue one up in the attic. A good scrubbing was all that was needed to clean them up. Had I know I was going to put the plastic back in I would have probably done the roll bar a little different around the B=pillar, but oh well. What I came up with was to cut a slot into the plastic, doesn't look too bad. I test fitted an extra piece just to be sure I'd work and I wouldn't screw up a black one. Decided against rear seats. Put in a nice set of 4th gen manual seats up front out of a 94 Formula I picked up cheap.
Found what I thought was a decent 86 Camaro. I'll go into details later on that one, but the only thing decent I got from it was a good/crack free dash pad. I'm going to try my best to keep it that way too....since it cost me $350.
More in the next post. Feel like I'm rambling...so I'll add some pics.
I'll start off by saying that I never intended to document much of my progress on the cars. So the first couple posts are going to be random pictures from the last couple years. I'll try to describe each one give a time frame.
In case you missed it, I've got a small collection of F-bodys. A 1978 Trans Am, 1982 Z28 and a 1997 Formula, along with a 1976 K5 Blazer and 1999 Lumina that the wife drives. The 78 I got as payment for doing some work for a friend on his 2nd gen. The 82 I picked up cheap and didn't even want at the time. The 97 I bought from some kid who beat it and put it away wet...still think I payed a bit too much for it. The K5 is normally my daily driver and the Lumina is just a decent reliable beater (3.8 FTW). I'll also toss in some stories/pics of the parts cars I've gotten to help finish mine.
I"ll start with the 82, since I think I have the most pics of that one.
I picked this one up through a guy (Ed) I know from work. It was his friends sons project that never got off the ground. One day he says to me "You've got a Camaro right?" I told him yeah I did. "Well now you've got two, pay me back when you can." I wasn't even looking for another one, this one would actually be the third one (of many) I brought home. Went and looked at it the next day. It was an 82 Z28, Crossfire/auto car. Body was real solid, no motor or transmission but the Crossfire intake and parts were in the passenger seat. Interior was near perfect. Worst part was someone cut the drivers floor out and the spare tire well. Looked like they had cut the floor out to get the transmission crossmember out. I figured it was worth the $350 I now owed Ed so I loaded it up and brought it home...stuck it in the back yard and let it sit. That was around July 2005.
Winter came around and I decided to finally do something with it. Pushed it into the garage and started gutting it, was going to build a drag car. Everything that wasn't needed got tossed up into the attic. Hvac, plastics, wiring, interior, etc... Cut the floors out, actually just the passenger side since the drivers was no longer there. Ordered some pans (talk about sticker shock on those things). Best I could tell they all came from the same factory in China so I ordered from my local Napa to avoid paying $99 shipping on them from Classic. Came in and they actually fit really well. Had to trim some more in the car to get them to sit down correctly, was very pleased with how they came out when it was all said and done (especially for my first time doing floors). Next up was a roll bar, because race cars need bars. Ordered a Competition Engineering 8pt kit through Jegs. Think I had to pay a $49 delivery fee or something like that. If you've never bought a roll bar, with the exception of the main hoop, it could probably be shipped UPS or FeEx pretty easily. Mine came in a 48' "YELLOW" trailer. Looking in there when I was helping the driver get it off.....it was the only thing in the entire trailer. Got going installing it, took my time and measure a ton. Borrowed a friends chop saw to notch the tubes, still had to finish fitting them with a grinder/flap wheel. Now I'll admit the some of the welds don't look the best but I'm confident in them. About this time spring was rolling around and the first Midland swap meet of the year was coming up. Perfect time to look for some parts. Ended up with a 1974 454 block (later found out it was bored .060 over), forged crank and some 781 heads. Brought that stuff home and stuck it under the bench....where it still sits to this day.
Car found its way back outside for a year or two while I played with other vehicles. Never really had the motivation to work on it, almost like I didn't want to. One day while walkin though the junkyard (Hoopers) I spotted a clean 88 SC Camaro. No motor or trans, but it had the two pieces of ground effects that go behind the rear wheels, one of which I was missing for the 82. I've know the owners of that place for years figured I'd get a good deal on the ground effects. Asked how much for the gfx (wanted the entire set, couldn't bring myself to mix/match). $200 Mikey said. Thought that was kinda high, I asked how about the entire car, assumed I could take what I wanted and scrap the rest. $250 he said....Sold!. Got the car home and started looking it over. Found receipts for every time maintenance was done, gas put in, mileage logs. This car was babied and rust free. I just could cut it up. Only thing wrong with it was the interior smelled like coffee. So the car I bought for one piece in particular I wasn't even going to use. Tossed a quick paintjob on it and sold it for a healthy profit. It came across craigslist not too long ago actually. After selling that one I had some money to play around with. Decided to use it on the 82, as my other Camaro (83 Z28) was getting too rusty underneath. So I had a parts donor for the little parts no one ever thinks about. The 83 was only in ok shape when I got it. Used it year round for a couple years. At some point I cloned it into an Iroc. Gfx, interior, wheels. That's where I got my nose/rear/gfx for the 82.
So I was down to one 3rd gen and a shit ton of parts. Pushed the 82 back in the garage and blew it apart. I mean everything came out, if it had a bolt holding it on it was taken off. Being a single guy living with another car guy, most (ok, who am I kidding...all) of the parts got scattered around the house. That soon changed when I met my girlfriend/future wife. All the parts got shoved into an extra bedroom. Eventually that wasn't good enough because we "needed the room". So I had to get busy on putting the car back together as progress had all but stopped when I met her (funny how that happens). And for the record.....the extra bedroom where I had everything is still empty. In fact I've got my 18x10's and the factory wheels to my 97 in there now. Did the remainder of the body work, couple small rust spots, door bottoms and the area behind the drivers mirror. Painted it a navy blue. I actually wanted a really deep almost blue/purple red...but somehow I came home with blue. Idk how that happened but it did. Only painted the car body at the time which would cause me some problems down the line. By the time I got around to doing the doors and bumpers about two years had passed. As a result the colors are a hair off, everyone that has seen the car says they can't see it. But I know it's there and it bugs the crap out of me. Every time I look at it I can see the different shades, it'll probably get worse as I haven't done the hood yet either. I've contemplated doing a scuff/shoot of the entire car once I've got all together but don't want to do a half ass job and don't want to take it all apart again.
By this time I realized I wanted a more street friendly car. So a full interior was going back in. I used the carpet from the 83 (which actually came from an 88 Iroc I parted). Pulled the sound deading (remember....race car!) and power washed it. Looked as good as new. In fact it was better because it actually fit the floor and was cut for the seat rails. And being that I didn't spend a few hundred on it, I didn't feel bad about cutting it to get around the down tubes on the bars. The plastic I mainly used the original 82 stuff, although I do have 3 other complete black interiors and a blue one up in the attic. A good scrubbing was all that was needed to clean them up. Had I know I was going to put the plastic back in I would have probably done the roll bar a little different around the B=pillar, but oh well. What I came up with was to cut a slot into the plastic, doesn't look too bad. I test fitted an extra piece just to be sure I'd work and I wouldn't screw up a black one. Decided against rear seats. Put in a nice set of 4th gen manual seats up front out of a 94 Formula I picked up cheap.
Found what I thought was a decent 86 Camaro. I'll go into details later on that one, but the only thing decent I got from it was a good/crack free dash pad. I'm going to try my best to keep it that way too....since it cost me $350.
More in the next post. Feel like I'm rambling...so I'll add some pics.
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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