Saving a Hugger Orange Z28RS

[meissen]

Was this last purchase from someone on MiFbody or had it been sold off to someone not on MiFBody and now Nick brought it back in?

[Darren]

and why the heck was every nut and bolt removed?

[JoeliusZ28]

Sounded like it was someone not on the site. The guy was planning on building a full on drag car, i assume it was tore all the way down for a cage and re-paint. IIRC the clear was starting to peel the last time i saw the car in a driving condition.

[white97z28]

Yeah the car has definitely been around. these are the owners as i know it
1. 99-03 46,xxx miles first owner unknown
2. 2003 dealer owned
3. 03-07 73,xxx [MENTION=305]Orange Terror[/MENTION] sale add from here: http://www.mifbody.com/vbulletin/sho...Z28&highlight=
4. 07-11 unknown miles (was told he blew trans and sold it to 5th owner broke)
5. 11-12 unknown miles Mike (mifbody member)
6. 12-14 No miles? Jonny (@superman09)
7. 14-15 no miles Jerry (purchased as roller and intended on building a full out drag car but purchased a c10 instead after stipping the HOz28)
8. 2015+ Me

I have tons of intentions on this car to restore it back to what it looked like in 2006. After further review i am missing way more stuff than i originally thought. I am going to tackle this in steps.
1. clean the body and undercoat and clean make the body perfect while i have it so far appart
2. Sandblast an undercoat complete underside
3. Finish smoothing out engine bay
4. have the whole body and pannels re-painted
5. clean/sandblast/powdercoat/paint all suspension and brackets.
6. build a perfect Hugger orange roller
7. Find/buy a salvage 99-02 camaro that i can use for all necessary parts engine/trans/all misc parts im in need of.

In between all of this i will be bettering things that i feel gm should have done. The brake lines will be ran so when the engine/trans/k frame come off the brakes don't have to. I will be removing the abs and installing a sjm line lock. The engine bay shock towers have already started to be welded and smoothed up so i will be finishing that up. im still pondering and have tons of plans in my head yet.

It is going to take me a while but i have a clean base to work with nothing has been modified on the body other than the shock towers and some holes in the rear floor pan for muffler hanggers. But im missing tons of parts that have to be found this is why i want to just buy another car that has not been taken apart.

Alot of the parts that came off were cannibalized, the brake line, the fuel lines, the Hvac box looks to be modified to remove a/c and put in a block off plate.

I am missing a lot of smalls and bolts. But the big things im missing are the front bumper, one of the front RS ground effects for the bumper, the mirrors, the crash bars, crash bar brackets, and the foam crash supports, the carpet, was missing seats but i have the cloth 30th seats from my old 97 that will work for now.

Good things tho are that i have the whole wiring harness from front to back, the whole dash, center council, door panels(leather), and all interior trim. the headliner is there but stained, all the seals, weatherstripping and t-tops. etc...

[white97z28]

And to top off my missing parts i went out and put the steering column and a seat in it so when we bring it back to my house from the storage unit its currently in i realized when the previous owner welded the engine bay with out covering the windshield so now i need to replace that because it has metal slag all stuck in it =/
7-7 tower1.jpg
7-7 tower2.jpg
7-7.jpg

[white97z28]

And i really want to make the underside perfect and i don't want to buy a one time use vehicle rotisserie. so i think i am going to build this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SXr...ature=youtu.be

[white97z28]

That car is quite the slut.

Yeah yeah yeah its been around but hopefully with what i do over the next few year erases the past 9 years of its life. lol

Youre not going to win this argument Nick!

I can try! lol

[Orange Terror]

Got an email that I got mentioned and see mifbody is available on tapatalk now so I can check in on my phone thank God because that is where I do 98% of my non work related Internet stuff anymore (I hate getting the laptop out after being on the comp at work all day).

Anyway, not to hijack the thread but I read post 34 mentioning me selling it and just about got sick. Then almost did again once I saw the picks. Several different words of profanity on the level of extremely offensive were then uttered under my breath as I sit here at my desk.

The condition I sold that car in, and being it was about 99% complete makes me disgusted this is what happened to it. So I'll poke my head in once in awhile to see how this is going for sure. I'm glad to hear the plans and hope they come to fruition. Goodluck and thanks for rescuing her...

Sickening, absolutely sickening.

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

[white97z28]

Got an email that I got mentioned and see mifbody is available on tapatalk now so I can check in on my phone thank God because that is where I do 98% of my non work related Internet stuff anymore (I hate getting the laptop out after being on the comp at work all day).

Anyway, not to hijack the thread but I read post 34 mentioning me selling it and just about got sick. Then almost did again once I saw the picks. Several different words of profanity on the level of extremely offensive were then uttered under my breath as I sit here at my desk.

The condition I sold that car in, and being it was about 99% complete makes me disgusted this is what happened to it. So I'll poke my head in once in awhile to see how this is going for sure. I'm glad to hear the plans and hope they come to fruition. Goodluck and thanks for rescuing her...

Sickening, absolutely sickening.

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

Jasen, It may take me 5 or more years because im going to tackle it slowly but your for sale add pictures are my push to bring this beauty back to life!! I wish i could have bought it in 2007!! Ill Tag you from time to time when the updates are more than just my ideas and actual progress.

[JoeliusZ28]

Jasen - good to see you back! i dont think anyone intentionally did the car harm. I know Mike had big plans for it and actually had the car in the 12s and looking pretty good on bigs/littles before he sold it. I raced him at Milan back then and he put a womping on me. Was kind of surprised when he sold the car. Jonny used it as a fab template but never cut it or anything. Thats just business and its service has provided many members here some awesome turbo kits. Sounds like the last guy had big plans as well but just bit off more than he could chew / lost interest. Anyway, it's in the right hands now Nick has done awesome work on his last two cars.
[MENTION=305]Orange Terror[/MENTION]

[Orange Terror]

Hey Joel, I just can't believe it got stripped like that, that post had some shock and emotion in it lol so I apologize.

I sold it so I can't be bitter. At least it didn't get cut up or sold for scrap. I'd love to see it when its done.

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[white97z28]

Hey Joel, I just can't believe it got stripped like that, that post had some shock and emotion in it lol so I apologize.

I sold it so I can't be bitter. At least it didn't get cut up or sold for scrap. I'd love to see it when its done.

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I am sure we will keep up with tagging you to keep you in the loop. My plan is to at least have it at the 2020 mifbody M&G. Not saying i wont have it done before then but that gives me a goal that i would like to reach.

[JoeliusZ28]

Definitely understand Jasen i wouldnt want to see my car like that either.

[c0ncEpT]

IMO that car was already getting pretty rough when I bought/sold it. Had been hit in the rear and front drivers fender. Clear coat was getting very hazy near all the edges facing the sun.

Although it was a good cruiser that I had basically no money into and it ran 12.teens @ 111mph like a bracket car. I actually wish I had never sold it.


I bought the car with a blown trans. Had the trans and converter gone threw. Ran it for a year with just bolt ons. Put the turbo kit on and realized the downpipe didn't fit. Let Jonny use the car for a few months as a template to fix all his downpipes for the 1st batch of kits he sold. Eventually Jonny just paid me to keep the car as a mock up car.

Glad to see someone is bringing it back from the dead.

[white97z28]

IMO that car was already getting pretty rough when I bought/sold it. Had been hit in the rear and front drivers fender. Clear coat was getting very hazy near all the edges facing the sun.

Although it was a good cruiser that I had basically no money into and it ran 12.teens @ 111mph like a bracket car. I actually wish I had never sold it.


I bought the car with a blown trans. Had the trans and converter gone threw. Ran it for a year with just bolt ons. Put the turbo kit on and realized the downpipe didn't fit. Let Jonny use the car for a few months as a template to fix all his downpipes for the 1st batch of kits he sold. Eventually Jonny just paid me to keep the car as a mock up car.

Glad to see someone is bringing it back from the dead.

I had no idea it had been hit. The fender on it now doesn't show damage nor does the frame underneath. The rear bumper is in okay shape but the crash bar is missing and the rear body doesn't show any damage. It defiantly has clear coat issues it will end up needing a complete re-paint. But for the amount i have into it so far i believe it will be worth saving