TEGGSRB18C1's 2013 2SS/RS 6MT life long build
 

Wow, it's hard to figure out where to start with this. I guess the short version is that I have wanted to be a part of this community since I first saw the spy shots of the 5th gens back in 2008. I knew, even through the camo wrap, that I wanted on of these cars. Fast forward 10 years through divorce, losing my house and basically starting over from scratch, I finally put myself in a position to buy the car I've been dreaming about: this 2013 Camaro 2SS/RS 6MT.

After years of watching Autotrader, Car Gurus and this forum I found this one sitting on a Dodge dealership lot on the outskirts of the Philly area. 15,010 miles, one owner and almost every option I wanted (minus 1LE) the black, 2013 model year, 6 speed and no sunroof were non negotiable. I was willing look at anything under 35-40K miles, this one being only 15K pushed the 1LE dream away though, this was as close as I was going to get to perfection.

First test drive 08/13/18, two days later I signed the paperwork.

From there I started collecting parts. Being that I wanted this car so badly for so long, I knew exactly what I wanted. For years BAD DAB's black SS was the screen saver on my phones, his build is almost exactly how I want mine to look.

Sparks Restoration "SS" badges. These are discontinued, I picked up one of the very last sets from Sparks themselves to go along with this OEM GM Heritage Grille. As many of you know this is discontinued as well. I had a hell of a time tracking one of these down as I found one in Washington state but the dealership found the grille was damaged before they shipped it out so they referenced me to a Chevy dealership in Sacramento CA who sold me this one. They almost didn't though, you can't see it in the pictures but the grille is covered in a strange almost dust looking residue that does not come off. The parts manager almost refused to sell it to me, told me he was going to send it back to GM as a defect....I damn near had to beg for him to sell it to me as I had no idea where I would find another one. He broke down and sold it to me at cost.

When I purchased the car, the dealership said they did a "full service" on the car which made me cringe. I would've rather they not touched it at all knowing that they just threw whatever crap they had laying around into it. One peek under the car and I could see the MOPAR oil filter hanging off my LS3, lord only knows what oil was in there. The fix:

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As before, been lurking on here for a while so I already knew about the ZL1 addons jack pads, picked up a set before the oil change. Also grabbed a set of the Deluxe Rock Guards for the front as well. Their rears are a little funky if you've ever seen how they mount to the rear bumper so I decided that I'll probably get a set of OE ZL1 rear rock guards soon.

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Got her out of the storage unit, snapped a few pics, brought her home to start doing the work....then tragedy struck.

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Can't wait to see what you do with it!

While jacking up the car, I could tell something wasn't right. The car was going up very slowly and the jack started leaning towards one side. So I lowered it back down, re-positioned it and started bringing it back up again...then the worst thing I could imagine happened, the jack slipped off the ZL1 Addons lift pad, crushed the side skirt and it turn bent the fender.

I turned around, cursed a bunch and tried to wake myself up from this terrible nightmare I was having, but alas, this was real life. The damage:

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So, I moped about it for about a week and then started researching parts, prices and the best body shop I could find in my area, then starting collecting the pieces.

All parts are OE GM, side skirt with new weather stripping, clear bra protection pieces and CAMARO emblem for the fender. The body shop thinks they can straighten out the fender but if they can't I told them I'd get a new one to them asap.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psc2vffhdb.jpg

Now, I wasn't planning on doing any kind of paint work on this for a long time. While I was collecting parts because they were discontinued, that didn't mean I wanted to put them on right away...well that changed real quick.

If the car is going to be at the body shop getting the fender and side skirt painted, might as well do the heritage grille and emblems right along with them. The front bumper was also not in the best shape for 15K miles either. She ate a few rock chips and as you can see below, the previous owner must've had one hell of a driveway.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psz2utpok9.jpg

Since the whole front end is going to be off the car, might as well change out those god awful amber side markers. I really like the body color matched Oracle side markers but their prices are absolutely ridiculous and from doing research on here, their reliability is spotty at best. Kinda cheaped out here but I think they'll blend in with the car, these are ebay "IJDMTOY" smoked LED side markers. If they fail, I'm out $30 vs what $250+?

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While researching the SLP mailslot cover, I accidentally came across an auction for a small stock of old SLP spoilers, but these weren't what they claimed to be on the box. They're actually the last of the ZL spoilers (btw, as of 02/28/19, the seller still has 9 of these in stock)

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So this is where everything is at right now. I have boxes upon boxes of parts sitting all over my garage. The car is scheduled to be dropped off at the body shop the week of 03/18. I couldn't stress to them enough that I didn't want a rush job, I didn't want "hooked up" on the price...I want it perfect, better than when it rolled off the factory line and I was willing to pay for perfection.

I have some small prep for them that I need to get done and I'll post pics as that comes up throughout the next 2 weeks.

Welcome to the Addiction TEGG.

:headbang: keep the updates coming

Getting some things ready to go on the car, I did some searching on here about the Sparks SS emblems and unfortunately there are quite a few posts about how poorly these age. So in an attempt to preserve them I spoke to some people about clear coating them, clear powder coating them or possibly using a chemical coating....none of them panned out and most of them just referenced me to protecting them the best I can with standard detailing products.

Being that this car spends its life garaged and only sees sunny weekend afternoons out, I think their largest enemy would be hard water from being washed and not dried fast enough.

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And yes before anyone asks, I'm not just doing the front markers. USPS lost the rear ones and now I'm having to go back and forth with the ebay seller about it. I'll have one more update before the car leaves for the body shop in a few weeks.

Great thread and attention to detail. Plans for wheels and a drop?

Plan is to keep it pretty simple, I had all these big plans for it but I picked up such a clean example that I don't really want to mess with it all that much.
Thank you!
Will do!
Thank you, yes I'm thinking about 1.0-1.2 drop and I'm always on the lookout for a set of OE ZL1/1LE black 10 spokes, re finish them if need be and go with the ZL1 tire sizes, probably Nitto NT555 G2's. ZL1 brake setup and I think that'll be about it.

Last update before she leaves, de badged the trunk. I'm sure the body shop didn't need that done but eh, figured I'd knock it out. I know that some folks on here prefer the clean, no emblem look but I think it looks kind of weird. Of course like the impatient child I can be, I ran upstairs and grabbed the rear Sparks SS badge to see what it will look like on there. No pics of that because I was terrified to drop it.

Unfortunately even after it comes back from the body shop its going to look like this for at least another month or so. I'll ask the painter how long he wants me to let it cure but after that I want to do a full paint correction on the car (has small swirls and scratches), then put on the ZL1 rock guards, rear marker lamps and the SS emblem.

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Wish this was more of an update but alas, just a sad picture of the car sitting in the back lot of the body shop waiting for its turn to go in. I made a very stupid mistake by tellling them to "take your time" because it hasn't moved from this spot in a week.

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