1969 Camaro Z/28

[67pro-street]

Hello, I have been lurking on these message boards on and off for a few years now, but have never been much of a poster. I am starting back up on my project and decided now was a good of time as any to start a build thread and become an active member of the Lateral G community. By the way, I must compliment everyone on their builds, everything i have seen so far has been top notch!

I bought this 69 camaro (true Z/28) back in late 09. Tried locating original engine and transmission, but when the search came up fruitless, I saw the light and decided on a Pro-Touring car! I had a bump road on this car till now and it truly has been a money pit. I took it to the wrong builder who basically screwed me out of a lot of money and showed minimal results. Instead of letting the wallet gouging continue, i brought the car home and it sat for a year and a half as i was too bitter to move forward. Since that time, I tried to put the car back together myself and realized I was in waaay over my head. I have now found a new shop that is a night and day difference from the first one. They are going to take my hack job and make it right!

Initial plans were to buy an Art Morrison back half and then put an AME front subframe in at a later date. The shop that i am working with now deals with Art Morrison frames all the time and one of their customers had a Max G chassis they werent using, so I decided to go with that instead.

I would like to put a LS7 and 6spd manual transmission and paint it back similar to the original colors (Garnet Red with Black stripes). Here are some pics of the car when i first bought it.:lateral:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0392.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0393.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0394.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0396.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0395.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0397.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0408.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0407.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/IMG_0401.jpg

[67pro-street]

I took the car to a restoration thief (i mean builder...:_paranoid ) who I had met back in high school. He gave me a few pointers on a truck i restored back then. I had seen some finished cars at his shop and thought he seemed like an honest person. I would have been better off if I just gave the guy a big wad of cash and kept my car at home, but live and learn right!

When i took the car to the shop, my hopes were to have the quarter panels replaced, floor boards patched up where needed, trunk pan replaced, door skins redone and firewall smoothed. Well, he re-skinned the doors(which im now told are off and need to be redone), smoothed the firewall with a bunch of bondo, and more or less took the car down to its substructure (without any sort of jigging or support braces:thumbsup: ). Here are some pics of the car at the guys shop.

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180028.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180027.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180030.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180029.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180034.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180033.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180035.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here is a pic of the backside of the firewall. You can still see the factory "ripples", which just goes to show how much bondo was used in "smoothing" the firewall. :bow: :bow:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180038.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P6180039.jpg

Needless to say, once i saw the work and what he was charging for this "professional fabrication" I took the car home. I do realize that i should have taken the car home at the first sign of trouble, but i was young and put too much trust into this guy. haha, live and learn right!

Here is the makeshift frame he built so i could trailer the car home. This is how it sat for a year and a half while i was recovering from the shock:willy:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130197.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130196.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130198.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here is the Triangulated 4 link Art Morrison Frame I had bought for the project. Since i live in Washington, i was able to travel down to Art Morrison's fab shop pick it up. I must say, the guys over there at the shop are super nice people! I asked Brock, one of their salesman, if i could take a tour of the shop while i was there. I was expecting the usual no due to insurance reasons or something like that...But instead he spent the better part of an hour walking me through the shop and showing their fabrication process. I was blown away, to say the least. Their stuff is top notch!!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130191.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130193.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130192.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130195.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8130194.jpg

Once again, thanks to the guys at Art Morrison!

[Ron in SoCal]

Wow man. Sorry for your touble! Happens more often than it should. Hang in there dude. There's a couple guys here who have been through it and will tell you - in the end it's worth it. :thumbsup:

[67pro-street]

I figured i would show some pictures of the 67 Chevy i built in high school. These are pics taken before i sold it to help pay for a small chunk of that $40k piece of paper that says i have a degree in Mechanical Engineering:thumbsup: :thumbsup: (Well worth the sacrifice by the way, its always hard to "sound" sarcastic when typing...I dont want people to get the wrong impression here :)

It had a 4/6 drop, 383 stroker, 700R4 transmission, oak wood bed, and a sweet lime green paint job! I did all the work myself on this and it was the first time ever doing any of this, so the pictures hide all the imperfections that would never fly on the Lateral G board:hail: This was a great project and i will always love this truck, but it was a very low budget truck built on a high school persons bank account:thumbsup:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5563.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5564.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5565.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5566.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5567.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5568.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMG_5562.jpg

[frankv11]

sorry to see that happen , i went through something like that with my 64 chevelle so on my camaro i'm doing it all except for paint, besides 75% of the fun is building it. now your of to a good start,

[67pro-street]

So, back to the Camaro. Summer of 2011 I attempted to put the car back together. I still think if it was just one quarter panel, or just replacing the trunk, i would have been able to struggle through the process. But being that the car go all "kwinky-dink" on the ride home from the guys shop and was never jigged, i got to a certain point where i realized that i am getting these panels about 70% right. But when you put 10-12 panels together that are only 70% "right" you end up with a big steaming pile of...well, lets just say it wont smell like roses :D :D

I wasnt sure of the process to follow as far which panels need to go together first, so i put my "enginerding" skills to the test and made my best attempt. I think i am better off enginerding things on paper and letting the guys in the shop do the real work! (I work at a refinery up here in bellingham and get told that all the time!)

I thought i would start with the trunk pan, and then go for the outer wheel wells. Please dont make too much fun of me, but I would love to hear pointers from you guys. although i am not anywhere close to being done with this project, i know it will not be my last and you can never stop learning...

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8290209.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8290208.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8290212.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/P8290213.jpg

I tried to use jackstands and wood blocks to get the car level, before i started putting my truck pan in and the rear subframe. I cant stress enough how much it would have helped if i build some sort of "frame table" or jib and got that all square and level, then put the car on that. But alas, that ship has sailed and sunk before it left the harbor :willy: :willy:

[67pro-street]

Here are the pics of putting the trunk pan in. I only tacked it into place in a few spots since i was 100% sure that i wasn't 100% right. Its kind of like sex panther, 60% of the time, it works 100% of the time:unibrow:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA080253.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA080259.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA080262.jpg

I tried to fit up the AME back half to the trunk multiple times to make sure i wasnt getting things too far off. I read the AME installation instructions numerous times and the frame is supposed to "hug" the contours of the bottom of the trunk pan. This process, much to the dismay of that little enginerding voice in my head that kept telling me im botching this up, actually worked out pretty well...Despite how hokey the pictures look...

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA080255.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA080260.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA090265.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA090264.jpg

[67pro-street]

More pictures of trunk pan install...

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA090267.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA090266.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100269.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100268.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100272.jpg

In this picture, everybody can get jealous oggling over my bevy of high-end one-off metal working tools!! If anybody is interested, i can send them a list of the tools i used to create this "metal masterpiece"

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100270.jpg

[67pro-street]

So now i finally had my trunk pan tacked into where it meets the floor. I still had to keep it supported on the backside otherwise the whole thing would have flopped over and gotten my substructure out of whack. My next step was to weld the inner wheel wells in. since i have the AME back half and i want to go with some wide tires in the back, i also decided to use DSE mini tubs. My thought process was that since i know where the top of the inner tubs need to meet up with the substructure, i could set the top of the tubs in place first, and then lower/raise the trunk floor until it met up with the tubs "properly" I am using "properly" in quotes because i was guessing what properly was and i had also cut out the wheel tub area on my trunk floor to accommodate the wider tubs.

But hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? In my case, i must be a 95 year old man with cataracts in both eyes who's looking a mule and thinking its really Jessica Alba :D

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100274.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100273.jpg

PS, my cataracts must have been preventing me from noticing that i cut the floor in a square to meet up with the rounded wheel tubs. But hey, thats what Bondo's for right? To tell the truth though, i really did know i needed to round the corners on the cut, but just dont have the skill to do it properly :(

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA100277.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210283.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210282.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210292.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here is the patch panel i made to cover up the hole i created when i cut the trunk pan to accept the DES tubs. This is one of the very few things i am proud of to post amongst all the other builds on this forum. Although, even this patch panel looks like kindergarten work compared to what i have seen everyone else do...

And when I decided to go with the full AME Max G chassis and realized i had to cut out my back half, i cussed like a sailor for 30 minutes because i got overzealous with the welding and didnt just tack the frame in...So now the one patch panel I am proud of is now sacrificed because i cut into that to remove the frame. I didnt want to ruin that beautiful AME frame when removing it!!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210295.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210293-1.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210297.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210296.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210298.jpg

[67pro-street]

Now is about the time when i was really questioning whether or not i should continue this process on my own. but i was still bitter about the previous fabricator experience i had and hadnt gotten in contact with the shop that is now going to fix everything for me...so i pushed on and put the outer wheel tubs in.

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA210279.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220299.jpg

As you can see by the photo below, after a few bud lights, my work started looking acceptable:cheers:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220301.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220300.jpg

I had to take a break for the QC guy to come in and inspect everything. He didnt look to pleased, so i tried to butter him up with some food :unibrow: Unfortunately somebody else also tried to get in on the food action, but was quickly put in her place!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220309.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220304.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220306.jpg

Dont worry, she found something a little more exciting to occupy her time :cheers:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220319.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here are some cool pics i took when i went back outside after eating some dinner...I only say they are cool because they are taken far enough away for the car to look like someone respectable is working on it, not a hack job like myself!!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220312.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220311.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220314.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220313.jpg

Once again, if you would like to get a list of the specialty tools i have used in my build, PM me and i will send you a copy :lol:

[67pro-street]

Here are some more pictures of the car...just in case the horror movie you just watched isnt enough and you need some fresh ammo to help you have nightmares

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220321.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220322.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230324.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA220323.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230326.jpg

Damn QC guy came back. Had to fill his pockets with some sheckles before i could continue working..

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230325.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here's some pics with the trunk pan, back half, and wheel tubs installed. If you look past my fabrication skills and just focus on Art Morrisons, these pictures are pretty pleasing :D :D

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230329.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230331.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230348.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230332.jpg

I had to force the QC guy to get in this pic.

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA230328.jpg

[67pro-street]

Here's the straw that finally broke the camels back. I started to fit up the quarter panels, trunk lid, and rear tailpan. I first started off by rebuilding the door hinges and then squaring them up with the rocker, since the rocker had not been touched. at this point, i was not privy to the fact that my doors had not be re-skinned properly, so after failing numerous attempts at getting the sheetmetal to fit together, i pushed the car into the corner of the shop till this year. PS, any comments or pointers (good and bad) are welcome. As you can tell, i am very green to this stuff and any help i can get is always appreciated!!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA290359.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA290358.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300361.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300360.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300362.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300361-1.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300364.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300363.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300366.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/1969%20Camaro/PA300365.jpg

[454SSguy]

The project is def looking pretty good, don't beat yourself up to bad. And at the very least this thread will be entertaining, lol. Good luck and can't wait for some more updates.

[67pro-street]

Luckily i only used sheetmetal screws on this part, so the panels can be re-used. My new sheetmetal guy is going to start working on the car in June. He is going to rebuild the wheel tubs from scratch, amongst many other things. This was also the reason why i decided to go with a Max G Chassis. Since i still have so many flaws and since the Max G requires you to rebuild the floor, i figured that since i got a good deal on the Max G i would come out ahead by just having my metal guy start from scratch! I will post some updates around June once i take the car over there and he gets started!! I am finally starting to get excited about this car again, wish me luck:thumbsup: :lateral:

[67pro-street]

Here is a picture of a trailer i built from scratch, while i was letting the camaro rest from all her surgery... It uses C5x9 channel and 6k axles. Should be good for 12k pounds, but i may have over-enginerded because it weighs in a 2400 pounds, haha!! But it was a fun project to say the very least! And i got some good stick welding and mig welding practice while building it!! The pics only show it after it was all framed up, but here is to your viewing pleasure!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMAG0025.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/IMAG0024.jpg

Here are some pics of some vertical-up welding i did. I was pretty proud of how they turned out! Do you think i have enough weld metal in there though? haha, just joking, i used heavy C-Channel so i had to make multiple passes on all the welds. I cleaned the metal on each weld before making the next pass, and then i put doubler plates on all the welds for the main frame and cut holes for plugs welds, so i am pretty confident i wont be cracking any welds on it anytime soon!

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/PC310420.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/PC310422.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/PC310421.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/PC310425.jpg

[67pro-street]

more trailer pics...

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050662.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050663.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050658.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050657.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050665.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050664.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120669.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120668.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120671.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120680.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120677.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120678.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7120673.jpg

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/amansidhu68/P7050652.jpg

[tgvettes]

you must be kidding you could do sheet metal work on any of my projects any time.

Tonny