The CAM-Z: autocrossing a Z28

A Soft 8 Wheel will look very good in that car. Are you thinking black or gray?

I've moved before, and had companies accidently send me items to an old address. Somewhere in their computer it crept back out. I've had good luck with JEGS in the past.

The roll bar padding looks nice.

That factory dual snorkel air cleaner - is of great value. It also works very well.

Keep on trucking.

Had a bit of Monday morning down time at work so I took a stab at making a spacer for the steering hub. I had this bronze bushing laying around, so I gave it a go.

It's a little taller than I want it to be so I chucked it into my vise

Ready? hack and chop and hack and chop and hack and chop and hack and chop and hack and chop and hack and chop and hack and chop...

Gah... let's get on the grinder...

Yeah... that looks good. 'bout 4 thou over but I think that'll do the job.

Hey check this out...

Yeah. That happened. It was a beautiful and I made use of it, finally got the steering column back together and using my homemade spacer and parts from both the standard adapter and the quick release adapter got the wheel installed.

You don't know how good that feels. I sat in the car and made vrooming noises with my mouth.

Then I turned the key.

Then I got out of the car, hooked the battery back up climbed back in the car. and turned the key again.

She turns over, but won't start. Grumble... It was a great time to call it quits today. I've made such great progress.

I took a trip to the parts store and picked up a gas can and a can of starter fluid. I figure the car is probably either out of gas or the bowls are empty.

The other possibility is the coil wire, I disconnected it when I was rerouting the plug wires last week. It's possible I didn't hook it back up all the way. We'll try again tomorrow...

I'll drink to that!

Another slow day at work. Had a few hours downtime this morning so I took a stab at the radio delete plate. I started with a chunk of this...

Gearheadotaku, pay attention here. You've got a few chunks of this stuff.

Couple trips across the tablesaw to get it down to size.

Sketch out the shape of it.

I used a hole saw to get the inside curves

then finished it off with a disc sander. I was literally just guessing on the dimensions so I made a few of them. Hopefully one fits.

I got home and test fit them and luckily we had a winner. and a second one that would fit with just a little filing. So I mounted up a switch and gave the tech inspector something to scratch his head at.

That switch does nothing right now, but will eventually end up arming the 2-step system. The 2-step will be activated by a momentary switch on the shift handle, so I figured there should be a toggle somewhere.

It's amusing to me that that switch probably does the exact opposite.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

That's awesome!

Here's another shot of the switch panel with the trim bezel off.

Yesterday's stuffy nose turned into today's 100 degree fever so most of my today was spent in bed. around noon i crawled out to take another stab at the car. I really wanted to finish up the interior so I could get back under the hood.

We all remember this mess

I went through these wires one by one and culled anything that wasn't necessary. All the radio BS. All the terrible spliced in nonsense. this is just the dash:

Can you believe this car has electrical issues?

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Good you found this out now and removed the extra wires, rather than issues later

Not a lot of excitement here. The car was a no start the other day. I took a few minutes to try and get her running again.

She turned over freely so I figured it was either a fuel or spark issue. (I ruled out compression, if it blew both head gaskets while sitting there i was going to set it on fire) I'd recently rerouted the plug wires but did them one at a time, so the I couldn't have mixed up the firing order. I went over all the connections to ensure they were solid.

They were.

So fuel then. I haven't fut fuel in it since I bought it in November. I've fired it up a few times but that's it. I added two gallons of 93 to dilute whatever turpentine had formed in the tank. The clear fuel filter seemed clean, but contained no fuel. This is the first car I'd ever worked on with a mechanical fuel pump. It only pumped fuel when it was running. It won't run until it has fuel. It won't pump fuel until it's running. it won't run until...

That's a noodle scratcher. I got my hand on some starting fluid and sprayed it into the carb.

artist's rendition.

She fired up and chugged a few times, then died. I think I'm on the right track. A little more starter fluid.

Artist's rendition.

chug... chug... chug... chug... ROAR!

and roar she did. She fired to life and sounded great. I'd mended something.

artist's rendition.

check another thing of the pizzabox list. That leaves only three items:

Wheels and tires (on order) Electric fan controller Find the voltage drain

5 weeks until race day. I think we'll get there.

Progress!

I tripped over a large box with round corners on my way home from work today. it was my test wheel!

Excellent! It snowed this morning, but it was 50 degrees this afternoon so I got a chance to test the clearance.

This is the front, it's got about 3/4 inches to the strut bolts and the steering knuckle inside the wheel. plenty of space around the outside. In this picture the car is actually resting on a jackstand under the control arm, so that is at resting height.

Here's the rear:

The rear looks pretty good as well.

I dragged the wheel down to a local tire shop and had the rubber mounted but it started raining so I wasn't able to do a final test fit.

If the weather is ok tomorrow I will do the final test fit. If it fits I'll order the other 3. If not I will order the Hawks GTA reproductions and eat Ramen for the rest of the month.

We're getting there...

After work today I did a test fit on the wheel and tire combo. The rear was a great fit

The front looks pretty good too...

They're real close at full lock, might need a couple adjustments with a heavy-duty wackometer...

The other three will be ordered as soon as my paycheck hits my account. C'mon midnight...

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

That looks sick! What width wheel/tire did you go with?

It is a 17x9 Cragar soft 8 with a 275/40R17 Nitto NT05. It's heavy and not at all what I wanted, but I have to have 200tw, couldn't be smaller than 17 inch rim diameter and my club does not allow wheel spacers, it was pretty much the only combo I could run.

My paycheck just hit my account and it looks like my job shorted me about $300, so I might have to burn the factory down, but at least my wheels are on their way.

I put the one wheel on the corner my spare was on and planned on taking her for a spin around the block just to make myself happy. She's almost drivable, I still need to wire up the fan controller and install the new water pump, but a short jaunt around the block should be ok.

unfortunatly when I fired her up the other day, I left the battery hooked up so it was flat dead... Still have to hunt down that short...

In the meantime I've ordered an inline battery cutoff switch. I can limp this car through the first part of the season if I have to.

Those soft 8's look great! I'm in the PNW too... we mostly run with the PNWR Porsche club and the Bremerton sports car club. I'd never heard about rules banning spacers. Does that include bolt on ones too? I'm slowly building a S10 based 1955 Dodge pickup CAM truck that will definitely need bolt on spacers. Now I'm worried. Is this an SCCA rule?

I think it's just my clubs rules, but personally I agree. I've never been comfortable with wheel spacers.

I'm wanting to build my third gen for CAM-T, so this is VERY relevant to my interests.

We're 5 weeks from the season opener now. We'll see how it goes. Don't worry, I'll continue to update this thread as the season progresses.

The short list is:

Wheels and tires Battery cut off switch Thermostat housing Fan controller

The wheels and tires should be here Tuesday and I took a vacation day for Wednesday so they'll be on the car by next weekend.

I am concerned about the rear end. It's a 3.73 with a Powertrax locker. Gonna be fun trying to keep that thing in line, but I cannot afford to swap it yet.

One month. The countdown continues.

Got a shipment today.

Many boxes... the rest of my wheels and tires. They were actually supposed to come yesterday but I was in the shower when the Fed-up guy arrived, so he took them back to tacoma with him... Grrrrrrrr.

I managed to cram all the wheels and tires inside my Grand Prix and dropped them off at the tire shop. Finally got a cupholder that would hold my water bottles...

By the time I picked them back up it had begun to rain. Not to be deterred I put them on the car anyway. I've been waiting since December. Them bastids was going on the car today, come hell or high water.

The keen eyed among you will notice that the car is now facing the other direction. That's right, she moved under her own power. This is also the first time I've ever driven her. Hooray!

It was like 20 feet but it counts.

And what a difference a set of wheels makes. This car has been sitting in this spot since November. I've spent hours working on it. Nobody has ever said a thing. I put a set of wheels on it, half a set really, and everybody who walked through the parking lot had something nice to say. It was weird.

Next step is the cooling system.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Nice! It's amazing the attention a nice looking older car can generate.

They were probably afraid it was abandoned until you started making visual changes. LOL

I like the look off black wheels on a white car. I wanted these myself but I'm torn between the Soft 8 and the D window.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

BoostedBrandon wrote: I wanted these myself but I'm torn between the Soft 8 and the D window.

D-Window. Full stop.

I really wanted the D-windows and actually kind of hate the soft 8's, but the D-windows were on back order and I had a deadline.

D-window all the way.

Got home form work yesterday and the weather was great. 50+ degrees and sunny. I decided to take the car for a short drive. So I went looking for some 80's music.

No.

Berk no.

Yeah... that'll do.

With Slayer blasting, I pulled the car out of my driveway like a mustang leaving a cars-n-coffee. She's not straight-line fast, but has enough torque to kick the tail end out anytime I want. A blast to drive.

The test drive left me with two conclusions. 1) everything rattles. Everything. 2) I probably need to meet up with someone who knows what they are doing to help tune the carb and set the timing. For the first time ever I'm working on a car I can't hook my laptop up to... 3) I need a new driver's seat ASAP. The motors on this one don't work and it's all the way back.

Other than that. She ran like a champ.

After my drive I set about some minor jobs. You know, tying up some loose ends. got the roll bar padding finished up and secured.

Got the steering wheel fully secured with locktite on all the bolts.

I still haven't found the voltage drain but I did install an inline cutoff switch. I know I'm just kicking that problem down the road, but you gotta do that sometimes when you have to do that when you've got a deadline.

When I bought my Grand Prix it had a little decal on the rear window. Just something to tell the world I don't support terrorist organizations...

So I thought that the Camaro needed a little bit of nerd-cred as well.

If the weather holds up today I'll try to get a little more work done under the hood.

Rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle squeak rattle rattle rattle pop rattle rattle rattle clunk rattle rattle.

This is life with a third gen F body.