The Camaro Club (UK)

I thought I'd finally post a full build and history thread on my Car, as it's been a bit of a journey to say the least, and I've included quite a few of the trips and events I've done, as most mods have been with the next run, drive or trackday in mind, so sorry if you've seen some of the pics before.

Also apologies if it gets a bit boring and long winded, but hopefully a few of you may find it a bit interesting..(or just some of it )
I'll update, as like most of us, it's a work in progress, and mine is very much a development mule.

After selling my 86’ IROC in May 2000, I always thought I’d end up with another yank car. I had just sold my old work van, so had a space on the drive and a smallish budget for a fun weekend car/project. Initial ideas were a smallish 2 seater like an Alfa Spider (the proper 70’s/80’s one), MR2, another Manta, or similar… never really thought about Camaros again….. however, a random Ebay browse at the end of January 2004 brought up a well used green 1977’ LT Camaro. No bids, low-ish start price and only about 60 miles away near Northampton, so I went to view the car, quick test drive and left a deposit and picked it up a few days later…

It was MOT’d, and ran OK, but it was a bit rough around the edges. I was told it was a 383 stroker, it had a B&M shifter and 2500 torque converter. I suspect it had had a rear end smash at some point as it had a complete fibreglass rear end. Inside were filthy white vinyl seats and door panels, which were beginning to fall apart, with a brown dash and cream headlining, so looked very mismatched. It sounds like it had seen some drag strip runs, as I found a 14.00 second timing slip in the glovebox.

I took it to Autopontiac and ended up spending way more than I hoped, as it needed the very worn ball joints, and steering bits – centre link, rod ends, idler etc all replacing, and whilst there, rebuild brake calipers, rear trans seal..
Quick oil change and a set of new tyres on the American Racing rims and that was it, I had my weekend cruiser.
Idea was just to drive it as is, and not spend much more on it.



Being an old car though, the seals leaked, and the car smelled damp all the time, so I bought a complete set of weatherstrips from NPD, doors, boot, rubberstops and fitted these. The interior also as annoying, the seats were rotten and falling apart and still smelled, so I found an Ebay bargain full grey fabric interior in good condition from a later 78-81 car, fitted up nicely. Dash and interior bits painted to match + new headlining.

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

As you can see, my budget cruiser plan wasn’t working too well, I’d been bitten by the improving bug.. …. again (thought I’d leant from my old van and Manta days.. apparently not). Some carbon fibre trim bits inside to match the nice CF wheel that came with car.




A few more minor repairs, rad mounts, timing cover seal, rocker gaskets, and a new non-smelly carpet and a few chrome under bonnet bits got added. I liked the idea of bigger 17” wheels and found another Ebay bargain of some ex-7 series BMW rims with tyres that had been on a 3rd gen for about £100 !!
Only other purchase was a new 2 ¼” exhaust system, as the existing noisy 3” exhaust, that had been weirdly fitted under the axle, just fell apart.



In spring 2005 I thought about getting the tired body fixed up, as a quick investigation for the MOT shows loads of the dreaded tinworm, and rust was showing through a lot , and the rear screen leaked a lot. I’d had a reasonable work year pre recession and I got a great quote from the bodyshop on the industrial estate I did some work at.
So July 2005 she went in for a rebuild.



We’d agreed on a budget beforehand, and they said they’d do the major work that was needed. It was a paint job with any major rust areas replaced, but but it wouldn't solve everything, as the value of the car just didn't warrant a full rebuild.

As you can see, lots of new metal added particularly in the doors, sills, and front wings.



The new lower front wing repair panels were fitted that came with the car, and fiberglass joins strengthened.



Rear window corrosion fixed.

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

They had the car for about a month, doing other smaller more lucrative jobs around mine.





Colour was supposed to be Jaguar Torquise, but I couldn’t find the name or code of the shade, so a snap decision ended up with Nissan dark pearl pink !!!!
My missus shat herself when I drove it home, as she was expecting a ”That bluey colour I’d told her about”..

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Just after the bodywork the TH350 Autobox went bang, for the first time, and had to be rebuilt along with the torque converter. Autopontiac got this sorted and back on the road in a few days.
About this time I’d joined up on Pistonheads, and been to a couple of meets, and tunnel runs. Realising my car was generally just quick enough and good fun, I couldn’t stay with the modern cars due to basic brakes and suspension. I still had the crappy rear air shocks, which just don’t work, except destroy the rear shock towers.



Whilst on a tunnel run the gearbox failed again, due to the torque converter falling apart. Autopontiac fixed it totally at their cost, as the guy who’d rebuilt it only months earlier had left the company, so no chance of getting their money back.
This is how it was driven for another 18 months or so, and I went to more meets and runs in the Camaro, with few minor upgrades to the lights, and new alternator, exhaust manifold gaskets, plug leads, HEI cap, plugs etc..




Winter of 06/07’ whilst back at Autopontiac getting a leaking gearbox kickdown seal fixed, and new headers fitted we discussed some suspension and brake upgrades to make it a bit more stable and fun to drive, and a plan was hatched. I went online and did lots of research, and ordered up Hotckis springs, full energy suspension poly bushing set, Addco front sway bar, solid tie rod adjusters.

All this was delivered and fitted, along with EBC drilled discs and Greenstuff pads, and new rear drums/shoes. A new Edelbrock carb was fitted along with fuel regulator/guage and also the Koni shocks I’d picked up from US Ebay a few months before. The results were great and the car felt so much more surefooted.

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

The gearbox failed again, and around this time I thought about a manual upgrade. I did all the sums and was trying to do it on the cheap but I knew I wanted a modern box and a 5 speed if possible. I bit the bullet and sent the car to Alders Automatics down in Sussex to fit a Roadcraft Tremec TKO 500 kit with hydraulic clutch, designed to be used in Cobra replicas with small block Chevy’s.



It meant sourcing new pedal assembly, new flywheel, starter, modified propshaft and bigger hold in the trans tunnel.

A few issues followed due to incorrect clutch cylinder placement meant I went through 2 clutches in a few months, which got fixed later by Dave Pollen who made a clever custom bracket. Conversion worked though and I was now manual !



More driving around and having fun.. This time at a big run finishing at Excel with some Dutch car nuts.

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

The manual trans also showed the engine wasn’t in great condition now, I was leaking oil from a few places and smoking a bit, and that lovely camshaft rattle was getting louder.

I’d bumped into a guy at the Ace who’d had an engine recently built by Dave Pollen who’d resprayed and serviced my old IROC, so I contacted him about a rebuild. The engine was removed and stripped, and found to be a 2 bolt standard 350, with some mildly reworked heads and a medium cam. Not the 383 I thought I’d had, but everything was very tired, and a full rebuild with performance parts was going to be into the £1000’s..

We did some quick sums and the dollar rate being around 2.1:1 at the time meant I could just afford to buy a crate 383 with ali heads and Dave would fit it. He kept my old engine and would rebuild it in time as part of the deal.

I bought a 460hp 383 stroker with Edelbrock top end kit from a company near New York called The Engine Factory. They seemed quite a cool company, and my friend had recently bought an engine for his '74 Corvette from them, so seemed a good bet. They send you update emails of the build to wet your appetite.



Within about 3 weeks my engine was built, shipped and at Heathrow, so collected and fitted asap along with new engine mounts and fuel lines.




Whilst at his garage Alston subframe connectors were welded in along with some floor repairs.

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

The change in power was immense and the car really felt alive now, but the clutch was slipping badly because of the increased power, the beginning of the clutch issues.



Around this time the interior went from grey to black as I found some nice cheap bucket seats (ebay bargain again) after sick of being thrown out of the standard Chevy ones. I found a black rear seat, and painted the interior panels black to match.



I also realized I may want to change the brakes to bigger at some point, and I as one of my BMW wheels had a slight wobble at speed, I chose to go BIG to 18’s. Quality German made ‘Rondell’ 058 style were bought in 18x8..5" and 18x10".



The centres painted black for modern look I always wanted, with some big 295 and 245 Toyo T1S tyres fitted.



Due to the rear Camaro offset being hard to match, at around zero, I had to use billet ali spacers with hub rings, and converted to metric studs, it works well (and still does).

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

I went to quite a few shows and little road trips now I had the go to match the show, and the car did it’s first trip abroad at this point, to Le Mans and ran with no problems, and did amazingly well on fuel too, with it’s very long 2.56 gears and 5th overdrive meant the French 130kph/81mph limit was just under 2000 rpm. Seen lurking here on the campsite guarding my tent.




Through new friends on Pistonheads I’d got to knew more people in the ‘fast-driving scene, and earlier this year I did my first trackday in my then daily driver, a Mitsubishi Legnum VR4…. And really loved it !!!
Having done a 2nd track day in the VR4 I booked the Camaro in for a day at Brands Hatch in July 2009, and whilst in for new bigger Headers at Autopontiac, Robin and Tom ‘track readied’ the car too from their vast racing experience.
For those that don’t know, Chevy’s suffer bad oil surge with the standard sump, so a very good high capacity baffled one is the minimum if you’re gonna throw it around a bit, or even better a proper Canton road/race trap door sump, which is what I had fitted.



Along with a geometry check, the accessory belts all aligned properly, as they throw off easily at constant high revs apparently. The harmonic balancer that came with the new engine was also faulty (a sign of things to come) so needed replacing too.


The exhaust I felt was stifling power a bit, and the new headers showed the restriction even more, so full custom 2 ½ “ stainless system was built by Longlife in Carshalton, using cutouts by Badlanz so I could run open headers to be really antisocial when I wanted, but keep it closed through the mufflers to not annoy the neighbours too much, and stay under most track day noise restrictions.

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

First track day came and it was great success with no breakages and brilliant time was had. It suprised a few people with how flat it cornered, and whilst I'm no Michael Schumacher, it wasn't too embarrasing. The Camaro had gone from a rusty green heap to become a sexy track car !!!





I went to few more shows, and then in mid September 2009 on the way to the Ford test ground at Dunton to attend a charity driving day with some friends my engine suddenly made some horrible noises and seized on the A127.
Trip back to Autopontiac and some investigation revealed a broken crankshaft ! The engine had covered about 2000 miles in about 4 months (mostly Le Mans and back) and one track day.



This was supposed to be a high performance quality engine and certainly wasn’t the cheapest I could have got. Many of the parts were cheap Indian castings, budget bearings shells, and other standard economy items. Luckily the Edelbrock RPM heads were ok. Only problem was, I’d booked a track day at Spa in Belgium of the success of the last one, which was only 2 weeks away 1st week of October.
Robin managed to work wonders and with Real Steel sourced a late 80's 1 piece seal block, and all the parts needed to build the engine to the spec the crate engine should have been. All the machining work was done by Real Steel who supplied Keith Black pistons, Eagle crank, GM performance rods, Clevite bearings, ARP bolts, Comp Cams lifters and all the other quality parts I ‘thought’ I had. This with the RPM heads, cam, intake and carb were fitted back together in record time, and thrown back in the car.



Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of the rebuild, but I picked the car up Saturday afternoon, and left for Belgium early Sunday morning with barely 50 miles on the new engine. The 300 mile drive to Spa would be the running in, which with 20 fast TVR’s as company it proved hard to stick below the advised 2500 rpm limit. After a hurried and messy oil change in the pits the track day was achieved against all odds, even if it was a bit daunting and very wet, it was a brilliant trip. High speed drive back to Dunquerqe was quite epic

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

I never really got a satisfactory result from The Engine Factory, who offered a paltry amount in compensation that I turned down in disgust.

The engine in friends Corvette also had problems, whilst luckily his crank didn't break, he's had to replace the fuel pump, distributor, alternator, and steering pump, all supplied with new engine..They also insisted the Edelbrock supplied carb didn't need a fuel pressure regulator, which we since found out it you most definately do.


I did more track days over the next 9 months, back at Brands and a couple of others.



I upgraded the brake pads, fitted a new mini starter after the old one split, new windscreen and some dashboard corner welding repairs (common rust issue), new battery, tow hook welded on.



I performed duties as a display car at Silverstone ISTS on the Gumball 3000 stand, we even got an hour of track time on the famous British GP circuit too !




Rolling Road day showed the engine did what it said on the tin, and made 430hp on the dyno, so not bad with the power steering pump, alternator and fan dragging, as it should be 460hp.



I was still wearing clutches fast I thought due the power of the engine, and having gone through about 3 by now, each one an upgrade, a new McLeod RST twin plate set up was fitted with a new flywheel by Mark at Dreamshack.



It’s quite a trick piece using standard flywheel, two friction discs, and special floater centre disc. I seemed to work and finally was capable of not slipping after only a few months.

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”