demonspeed's 2002 SS #7146 "journey"

[OffseT]

Those are good speakers, not sure if they are any better than Monsoon, Never had the factory stereo to compare.. but should be interesting to see whats in the rest of the car.

[demonspeed]

Finally got my brakes on. Power Stop rotors & pads -- $165 shipped for all four corners! I would have liked to done something a bit better, but I wasn't planning on brakes yet. Economy vs. desire, and economy won out for this one.



I also cleaned ten years of grime off the wheels:

Before:


After:


Also polished them. By hand. I need to pick up a powerball for the next time I do this!

Before:



After:



I would have liked to invest some more time on the calipers. They need a good cleaning and painting, but I simply lack motivation for them at the moment.


Please note: Uniroyal all-seasons are not a good idea for your Camaro if you enjoy any sort of spirited driving. Actually, any brand all-season is a bad idea. Fortunately, I didn't spend my own money on these tires as they came with the car; however, I am going to need to do something about them.

[xXSilencerXx]

Those wheels cleaned up real nice!

[demonspeed]

Yes, I'm quite pleased. They looked worse in person with what appeared to be hideous, imbedded water marks, etched in dust, etc. When I bought the car I figured I'd need a new set of wheels just because of how bad they stood out. While I still want a set of ZR1's, these will do just fine for now. I also figure that I'll be able to sell them now that they look alright.

[insidethreat07]

What I put on my car
http://discounttires.com/product_det...E=&prodID=6770

[demonspeed]

I'll probably run those on the fronts with the R's on the rear. However, I'm interested in the new BFG's as well. These tires are like new, so the Camaro will probably wear these Uniroyal's until next spring. Ho hum...

[ndtguy]

Looks good Steve! Is that the silver metallic paint from Autozone?

[demonspeed]

On the rotors? It sure looks like it. The rotors were made in China, so who knows how long their "coating" is going to last on the centers.

[ndtguy]

I was asking about the rims, but looking closer, the rims aren't faded like mine were. Sometimes living in the desert sucks.

[demonspeed]

Oh, no, they are definitely untouched. The clear is great except on one rim there is a little spot on one of the spokes where it appears to be gone. I'm guessing something nasty sat on that particular spot for some time. It shouldn't get any worse now that I'll be keeping up with their care and not putting it through four seasons.

[demonspeed]

Got some pictures on Sunday. Nothing spectacular - just glad to have some new ones.

[xXSilencerXx]

That car looks great for the age and miles. I wish my paint on the TA still looked that good. :( I-95 demolished the front end of it over the years.

[demonspeed]

Thanks! It would look a lot better if I had an orbital, but alas, this was all clayed, compounded, polished, and waxed by hand. Someday...

[ndtguy]

Looks great Steve! When are you going to get the SLP/Eibach springs? Go ahead, take the plunge first, I'll wait and see.

EDIT: What type of products did you use to clean up your car?

[demonspeed]

Next weekend the suspension overhaul is supposed to happen. I can tell you've been chompin' to get some pictures and feedback on the spring/shock setup!

As for the products, I decided to give Meguiars a shot with this car. Their clay kit, and Ultimate line: compound, polish, paste wax and wash gel. For the wheels, I used Mothers wheel polish. I simply never got on the bandwagon for Zaino or Adams.

[ndtguy]

Same here Steve.( bandwagon on zaino or Adams). I found a really good set of products out here at cars and coffee. It's called gloss-it. I tried their evolution polish and concorso sealer. I used the recommend application pads(which BTW, are very comfy for your hand....egro ftw!) And the car just pops now. I got a lot of compliments since and best of all, the stuff was super easy to use. I will admit, it is a professional grade, but damn does it look great and is easy to work with.

I still use meguires clay bar, car wash and interior retailer. For exterior detailed, I use gloss-it detailer. It can be used on paint, plastic and even windows(yes windows and it kicks ass).

[demonspeed]

I'll be honest that I prefer Mothers clay over Meguiars. I'm guessing it's a bit more abrasive.

I've never used Mothers for the interior, but I like the new stuff Meguiars has as it doesn't leave any residue - and I absolutely HATE anything that is shiny.

I also had great luck with Mothers three step in the past, but decided I'd give Meguiars a try. Their Ultimate paste wax goes on sooooo easy, but it doesn't last near as long as a carnuba or the Mothers. It doesn't really matter with the Camaro since it avoids rain like the plague, but it's kinda annoying on our DD's. However, since it's so easy to apply and remove, it's not that bad.

As for your gloss-it, it must be good as it's very hard to get white to pop. My old white SS always looked clean, but it never popped.

[xXSilencerXx]

I feel your pain, I don't have a buffer and did a full detail on the Camaro a few weeks back. It was all Meguiar's stuff, and I was happy with the results, but I may have to try what ndtguy uses since it sounds like it work well on his white car. I've never used anything but Meguiar's so it'd be nice to try something new.

[demonspeed]

While my intentions of filming this had nothing to do with adding it to this thread, I figured it's worth sharing. It is only accessible through the link (not public).

This is just a roll out of a parking lot (5mph?), side-step the clutch (1500rpm?), and run to 110. You'll notice I paddled the gas a little at the top of first due to spinning.

http://youtu.be/C11-fkRd3t4

[ndtguy]

Nice shifting Steve. What tires are on your car?

[demonspeed]

Uniroyal all-seasons. Came with the car and are essentially brand new. Wish I could sell them, but I can't imagine anyone wanting crummy all-seasons for a car like this!

[demonspeed]

My SLP Bilstein/Eibach install happened Saturday at UMI. While UMI does not really do installs, I've known Ryan for over 16 years Jerry has been with UMI well before it was even UMI, and I was introduced to him in 2003. He's a huge asset to the shop, and does a ton of the hands-on tough stuff. He did 99% of this install, and all on his own time.

While everything I've done so far has been smooth sailing, this install did not go as expected. If anyone can take any advice from me, please heed my warning: be sure to have strut mounts when you change your shocks/struts/springs. If you don't use them, then return them. Just have some before you start your install. KYB, Moog, Monroe, and many other "no-name" brands make them. *EDIT: ACDelco 501-148 (left) / 501-149 (right) - reliable GM quality at the aftermarket price.

While my car only has 67k miles, the sleeve in the strut mounts were seized to the top of the strut. Jerry was able to get one side loose with some "finesse," but the driver side would have none of it. Had we not done this at UMI, I would have been screwed. Fortunately, Jerry "engineered" a solution, so all is well. However, it was a complete waste of 5 hours. Had I had new strut mounts, we could have saved a lot of time and aggravation.

All we were able to complete, aside from the shocks/springs, was a strut brace

Here is Jerry taking stuff apart (you can see how I paid him in the bottom-right):



Here's the ugliness that awaits any of you who haven't yet changed your struts (unless your car has lived in a bubble):



The underside was just as nasty. With a little love from an angle grinder, I cleaned them up as best I could:



I hit them with some rust preventer in black, so hopefully it will keep things clean for a few years.

Here is everything back together:



Strut brace:



Unfortunately, I'm going to keep the suspense up as I've not yet taken any pictures post-lowering EDIT: pictures added post 52. It appears to be about an inch lower, though. The ride is much tighter than the factory deCarbon's, yet not at all harsh. It feels significantly more confident, and any floatyness is gone. I've never driven a Strano/Koni car, so I can't compare to what is the apparent 4th gen benchmark, but I am very happy with the results, especially for the driving that I will do (if I make it to a road course even once a year I'll be lucky).

I'll be doing a be doing a better write up on LS1tech once I do get the pics and some more time with everything. I must say that had it not been for Jerry, the bad situation would not have been turned around. I'll try to get pics up later this week.

[ndtguy]

Nice to see the two pics at work. I will have to wait until I get home to see the others. Like your car, my car rides a bit tighter and doesn't have the bounce-everywhere thing going on now. I wish we lived closer so we could compare the difference there is in stock springs vs the SLP other than a 1" drop.

I'm looking at your sway bar bushing, just wondering, but is it on correctly? Also, did you do the body bushings in poly also? If so, was there any improvement over the stock rubber bushing and how much?

Thanks!

[xXSilencerXx]

That's cool that you know those guys! My car is full of their products.

My strut mounts were the same way. I had to buy new ones to finish the install. My problem was that the nut on the top of the strut was so rusted it either stripped or broke off, and the strut mount was rusted to the strut so it didn't even come off when the nut broke. I end up cutting the shaft on the struts to get the spring seat since that was the only part I need to finish.

[demonspeed]

Originally Posted by ndtguy

I'm looking at your sway bar bushing, just wondering, but is it on correctly? Also, did you do the body bushings in poly also? If so, was there any improvement over the stock rubber bushing and how much?

My stock end links were junk, so Jerry just cut them out and replaced them with the end links from their sway bar kits. I'll be doing their sway bars, but we ran out of time. I'm not sure I notice any difference or not, though.

Originally Posted by xXSilencerXx

That's cool that you know those guys! My car is full of their products.

My strut mounts were the same way. I had to buy new ones to finish the install. My problem was that the nut on the top of the strut was so rusted it either stripped or broke off, and the strut mount was rusted to the strut so it didn't even come off when the nut broke. I end up cutting the shaft on the struts to get the spring seat since that was the only part I need to finish.

I wish I would have taken pictures of the carnage trying to save the strut mounts. What you explain is what we had to deal with. You can see in the pictures of the a-arms how nasty it gets under the strut towers, so it's no wonder they get rusted to the shaft. Since the deCarbons were going in the dumpster, there was no problem cutting the strut piston shaft with a cutoff wheel.