SlowProgress Project Introduction

[SlowProgress]

I had a pretty good week working on the car. I received my Vintage Air Unit and Axles back from Moser. The rearend went together well and it was exciting to see the rearend all mocked up.



I was determined to get the car off the rotisserie and on the tires this weekend. I started getting organized Friday evening.



Everything went pretty well but I was surprised how hard it was to find all the little nuts and bolts. Even though they were all in bags and organized it took some time digging. Fortunately my son was around to help put in the rear axle. Not sure how much it weighs but it took some wrestling by both of us to get it in there. The front clip was a little easier.



By early Sunday afternoon I was able to roll the car out and take a few photos in the 102F weather.




It’s so nice to see the car on the ground. Of course I have to pull the wheels off to put them back in storage and eventually the whole things comes apart for paint. But I am glad to be back down on the ground to start on the T-56 tunnel mod and the Vintage Air installation.



I also had some fun with the GoPro and will post up a time lapse of this weekend. I know those things are corny but I get a kick out of watching the work happen fast. If only I was that fast in real life !!

[Vince@Meanstreets]

nice work. very clean.

[Spiffav8]

Great progress. It's looking super nice!

Thanks for the motivation.

[waynieZ]

I guess I'm corny too because like time laps videos too . Bring it on ! Nice job on the car it's coming along great.

[SlowProgress]

Having some fun.

[SSLance]

That was a cool video...if only things happened that fast in real life!!

Congrats on getting it back on rolling stock, even if only for a short time.

[HBRod]

Agree, it's a cool video clip. If only the car could be done as quickly as that video. Good progress. Great work and looking forward to seeing this build all the way to the finish.

Rod

[SlowProgress]

I figure if you are going to be lazy and not work on your car you should at least partially redeem yourself by purchasing a few needed components and also post a helpful tip.
I purchased a new power steering box from DSE and realized (through my own fault) that I would need a power steering pitman arm due to the larger spline diameter. Don’t ask me why I didn’t know that. Good news is that the correct arm for a 67 Camaro is available at the local O’Reilly Auto. Thanks to Pozzi’s website and some other helpful tips on line I was able to figure out that the long style pitman arm K6582 fits the 67 Camaro perfectly. Nice when your local shop has parts for your almost 50 year old car in stock.



A few photos of the new items are shown below. Most notably I was lucky to have a Tremec dealer in the area. Tom over at Amp Performance in Phoenix has all the Tremec goodies and the Quicktime bellhousing in stock. Now I know where to buy all the wiring harnesses, gears, housings, etc. in the future.




I also unboxed the other pieces from Vintage Air and Moser.




Next up fabricate the Vintage Air supports and put the transmission in to figure out how to get the tunnel mods accomplished. I am looking for a scrap LS block in the Phoenix area if anyone has one laying around. A friend has the plastic one but I was wondering if it would hold the Tremec T-56 Ok without breaking ?

[SlowProgress]

I didn’t get out in the garage Saturday because it rained two inches and I was chicken to open up the door with all the bare metal. I really need to get some primer on this thing soon !!!
I couldn’t decide whether to start on the Vintage Air install or the T-56 mock-up. Since the T-56 box was bigger and harder to keep moving around I decided to start there. I had been looking at the Hurst mount for a while and finally ordered one through AMP Performance in Phoenix. It seems well built !



My friend at work had this plastic mock-up sitting around and loaned it to me. Hopefully I wont break it in too many places. Also shown are the Dirty Dingo slider mounts. They seem well made, and are local so I decided to give them a try.



Also if you use one of these you will have to drill a hole to clear the input shaft because it is flat in back. The piece I drilled out looks like this and I used a 1.5 inch hole saw.




I supported the transmission and then hung the plastic mockup from it to prevent putting too much pressure on the plastic.



Then I installed the Dingo sliders and my original mounts on the plastic block and gradually lowered it in place. This is as far back as the setup will go but I think it looks about right.



Here is a view from below showing how the Hurst mount curves back to meet the T-56 tail mount. Also you can see I added another strap under the transmission case to keep a little pressure off of the plastic engine mock-up. It actually seems pretty strong, but I thought best to support it a little bit more.



I probably need to look into rear mounts. This poly mount used the two small inside holes. I need to figure out if there is a mount that will use the two large outside holes because it will be much stronger. That may be for the factory clamshell mount which I would really like to use to cut down on vibration. I will check to see if that will work with the Hurst rear mount.
I removed the shifter and taped up the hole before rolling it back. Overall, it doesn't fit that bad. Nothing touches on the top but it won’t go all the way back due to interference with the widest part of the transmission case. I still need to check that the engine is the proper down angle. It looks a little too far down which means raising it will put things even closer to the floor. I am not sure how much I will raise the tunnel yet, but somewhere around 1.5 inches looks about right so far.
One more view where I left if for tonight.

[SlowProgress]

I got a little done this weekend on the trans tunnel cut. I started by just making some rough cuts as straight as possible down both sides and drilled out the pinch welds to separate the tunnel top.





It is always so fast to cut stuff apart, too bad welding it in takes so long. My plan is to keep the console level and I had some strips sheared at 1.5 and 2.0 inches. I will use which ever size fits the best.



I made the cut slightly past the end of the console so the taper back down to the unmodified tunnel will be behind the back edge of the console. We’ll see how that works out. My plan was to cut a couple of slots forward and lift the tunnel up. But it is really shaped wrong and that didn’t work out.



So I trimmed it forward a little further and it is starting to look about right. I still need to cut a little more. Also notice I had to flop the tremec shifter around to come out close to the stock location.



I haven't decided whether to make a new forward piece or reshape the parts I cut out. I measured the engine angle and it is 4 degrees down. I am shooting for 3 degrees, so I will need to raise it just a little bit more. Probably take a few weeks to get it all fabricated, tacked in and finished welding. That is a lot of welding.
I am still undecided what to do with the shifter boot. The Tremec boot is too big for the stock opening which I was hoping to reuse. So I am thinking about ordering one of Brian Finch' adapters.



The only problem is that it is too nice to cover up with the stock console. So I may build one from scratch. I will sleep on that. I also decided I need to get headers and oil pan on order before I finish weld all this. It would hurt to find out something doesn’t fit after welding 12 feet of metal back in. I am looking at the Mast pan and the Kooks headers which are known to work fairly well with the Dingo Double-D billet mounts I already have. So, looks like next week will be pretty typical, fabricate a little and spend a little bit more !