1981 Camaro - C-Prepared Build

loosecannon wrote: Put a Roots style blower on it, sticking out of the hood with the big cogged belt spinning away. Ok, I regained my senses now, carry on.

And hope I don't have to turn right...

My hands still vibrate and my head still hurts... 5 hours cutting, grinding, and smacking things with sledge hammers yesterday.

But, the new upper control arm mounts are tacked into place. They are lower than stock, and I set them about a 1/2" back. All told, that should give me much more caster and a better camber curve. I've order a caster/camber gauge from Joe's Racing that mounts to the wide five hub, so I can confirm that I'm getting the numbers I want next time and burn them in.

Side question - does anyone have a good way to clean anodized aluminum?

Anyway, here is a before shot:

And now the afters:

Don't worry - once I confirm my numbers are good these will get braced up so they don't lay down.

I'm super close now to moving the chassis to my friend's place to have the final welds done (and old, bad ones fixed). After that, we start paint and assembly. I swear I see light ahead.

Have you seen the adjustable upper control arm mounts here?: http://www.ubmachine.com/upperarmmounts.html

They are also great for many other race car fabrication parts

loosecannon wrote: Have you seen the adjustable upper control arm mounts here?: http://www.ubmachine.com/upperarmmounts.html They are also great for many other race car fabrication parts

I had not! Those are crazy. Maybe for the next phase of the build. Thanks for the link!

I meant to ask where did you get your fender flares from?

Frankenmaro wrote: I meant to ask where did you get your fender flares from?

I bought the flares used from another member on my Camaro forum, but I believe they are from http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com

Another racer recently ordered full quarters from them and they appear to be the same deal.

In reply to Gimp:

Thank you so much!

Gimp wrote:

Frankenmaro wrote: I meant to ask where did you get your fender flares from?

I bought the flares used from another member on my Camaro forum, but I believe they are from http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com Another racer recently ordered full quarters from them and they appear to be the same deal.

I can't beleive that site is a) still around and b) does not appear to have been updated since 1997

In reply to DILYSI Dave:

I think blinking was banned in 1999. If the site were from 1997, it would definitely be blinking.

i will say this, there's something for everyone on that site. They have my 944 covered!

Good on you, Gimp, for looking past horrific web design (even in its day) to get what you needed!

CrookedRacer wrote: i will say this, there's something for everyone on that site. They have my 944 covered! Good on you, Gimp, for looking past horrific web design (even in its day) to get what you needed!

As a web developer I'm just glad the site wasn't a spec sent by a client!

Gimp wrote: My hands still vibrate and my head still hurts... 5 hours cutting, grinding, and smacking things with sledge hammers yesterday. But, the new upper control arm mounts are tacked into place. They are lower than stock, and I set them about a 1/2" back. All told, that should give me much more caster and a better camber curve. I've order a caster/camber gauge from Joe's Racing that mounts to the wide five hub, so I can confirm that I'm getting the numbers I want next time and burn them in.

That's one job where a torch comes in very handy. The control arm mounts come off in seconds and you can just cut a circle to remove the upper shock and spring mount. Then it is much easier to beat the sides of the frame rail into place.

In reply to Wall-e:

Now you tell me...

you need torches? we can fix that.

Knocked out a little bit more work (mostly grinding, so not very exciting), but it was all in prep to get the car ready to move to my friend Larry's place to have all the finish welding done.

Here I am, not being very smart, since if I moved the level I probably wouldn't have sparks shooting me in the face.

In order to do that I did need to confirm a few things, so I reassembled the front suspension and measured camber and caster. I'm happy to report that everything is right in the range I was hoping for, so the new upper control arm mounts are a success!

The grinding in the previous picture was to fix some clearance issues between the steering column and the newly relocated upper control arm mounts. We will have to finalize these one we get the driver controls in place, but it works for now.

I was off working in the corner, and my buddy Larry seemed to have a different idea for a power plant than I have in mind. I guess he wants me to go to E-Mod.

Hopefully the next batch of updates include the car getting loaded on to a trailer and moving to a new location. Stay tuned!

Looks great!

What type of bushing is in that upper control arm?

tuna55 wrote: Looks great! What type of bushing is in that upper control arm?

It's all solid stuff as far as I can recall. It does have grease fittings, but no rubber or poly to be seen.

Any updates so far?

Frankenmaro wrote: Any updates so far?

Not too much. My wife and I sold our house and now we are living in my mom's basement, which makes the fact that I'm a computer programmer really hit home.

We did take a bit of a loss selling our place, so we are in "fund collection" mode right now, but hopefully the Camaro has a home of it's own soon.

The other thing holding up process has been the fact that the car is in PA and it's winter up there. I'm hoping to get there in the next few weeks to make a little bit of progress.

Thanks for the interest!!!

Awesome project! Looks like this thing will be a beast when it's done!

Oh gotcha. Hope the collection goes well and find a suitable place . My friend was just up in PA and said they got 3 inches on Monday. Hopefully winter will end soon and people can get on with our projects lol.

Been a while since my last update, but a lot has been going on. My wife and I put our townhouse on the market, and we finally sold at the end of January. We have yet to find a new house, so we are currently living with my mother. As fun as that sounds, the good news is that we can bank some money and I can finally get my own garage.

I did manage to get up there yesterday and do a little more work. I installed the 1x2 diagonal in the back of the rear suspension structure, and then fabricated a mount for the 5 gallon fuel cell. It still needs straps, but I'm really happy with how everything turned out.

The node in the upper right was very interesting to make, as there are quite a few bits of tubing coming together there.

The mount was made with 1x1 angle iron and some flat steel. There is some room between the cell and the mount so I can add some rub strips later.

I had to make sure to leave room for the lower sump.

Hopefully soon the car goes to my buddy's garage for final welding, and when it leaves there I hope to have a permanent home for it!

Just a small update. The car is moving to my friend Larry's place to get the chassis finish welded on Memorial Day weekend, so I have to finish making all the tubes, etc.

I busted my ass on fitting probably one of the most complicated tubes. I don't want to talk about how long it took me, but the fit is pretty decent.

This is my favorite picture...

While I spent the afternoon working on one thing, Kate managed to get the front rotors and caliper brackets on, get the new wheel on the quick release, and she fabricated a seat mount. I'll have more pictures of that stuff next time when we get them a little more finalized.

I love jungle gyms...

Post is worthless without an update of this picture.

Looking good!