Talk me out of buying a 1976 w/ factory 350 & 4 Speed

[zlathim]

Originally Posted by Vegas Bound

Late 2nd Gen is ugly.

Ha Ha. Where were you before I bought the car?

As far as being ugly, that is subjective. I'd much rather have a 2nd gen than a 3rd gen, just going by looks alone and my own personal preferences. My son is happy with the car and to me that's all that matters.

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by zlathim

At this point, everything is on my list. We are replacing lots of safety stuff right out of the gate. Steering components, ball joints, brakes are all headed my way via UPS. Seat belts are a safety item. I'll be sure to inspect them well before I reuse them.

I have no idea of the cost, but those are over 40 years old and have been sitting in a damp interior.


On another note:
The floorboard brought me a laugh.
My first work truck, a '68 C30 stake bed. By the time I got it it was pretty beat. The floorboards finally fell through so we had to sit with our feet on the frame rails.
We are on a job site and they are removing all the street signs. They take them all apart and stack them up.
So I ask one of the guys what are they going to do with them? Recycle, he answers. All new signs will be installed. So I point to one and ask, how much? He says, take it. So I grabbed two, my eyes were close enough that they fit with only a small bit of ball peen.
We had to we test it so I drove through some deep water and it spit up around the edges instead of into our faces. High-fives and busted guts. And no seat belts!

[Vegas Bound]

Originally Posted by zlathim

Ha Ha. Where were you before I bought the car?

As far as being ugly, that is subjective. I'd much rather have a 2nd gen than a 3rd gen, just going by looks alone and my own personal preferences. My son is happy with the car and to me that's all that matters.

I agree, 3rd gen is the worst, late 2nd gen is next, then 4th gen.

[Iron Lung Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Vegas Bound

I agree, 3rd gen is the worst, late 2nd gen is next, then 4th gen.

I think the 1978 Z28 is one of the best looking Camaros ever.

[George-CZ]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

I think the 1978 Z28 is one of the best looking Camaros ever.

Amen!

Zlathim: I envy a little bit.
I've always wanted a 2 gen. Camaro in the 4sp. manual.
Unfortunately ... I have a TH350.

Good luck

[zlathim]

Thanks for all of the comments, guys.

We did some more work to the car over the weekend. We installed new brakes on all 4 corners, shocks, upper and lower ball joints and all of the steering components.









The PO installed the shiny new gas tank that you can see in the second picture, which I am very thankful for. Sometimes those old fuel systems can be a rusty nightmare.

Zach's uncle (my ex-wife's brother) gifted him $1,500 to put towards his car. I am advising him to use it as a starting point so he can eventually save up enough to have the car painted. There's still a lot of work to go before we get to that point, but it's cool to know that he can get it painted eventually.

[George-CZ]

I also started upgrading...
Who among us cursed more of the rusted bolts?

[zlathim]

That's an awesome set-up George!! Great looking car too!!

Yes, rusty bolts and 40 year old cars seem to go hand in hand. I make the boy do all of the grunt work though, so I haven't been affected too much... lol

[George-CZ]

Originally Posted by zlathim

That's an awesome set-up George!! Great looking car too!!

Yes, rusty bolts and 40 year old cars seem to go hand in hand. I make the boy do all of the grunt work though, so I haven't been affected too much... lol

Thank you Zlathim
I sweared like the pagan.
Especially at the rear springs.

Chassis excellent, but too low on the street.
So I adjusted the height to my needs.






I think the result is good.










Camaro is decent lowering and drive it is absolutely amazing!
I'm just wondering when the polyurethane silenblocks will creak

But enough about my car. This is the thread of your son

[Cheap Guy]

Originally Posted by George-CZ

I also started upgrading...
Who among us cursed more of the rusted bolts?

This is way cool! Did you think of going to rear disks if possible?

Keep up the good work guys. I’m loving this thread.

[George-CZ]

Originally Posted by Cheap Guy

This is way cool! Did you think of going to rear disks if possible?

Keep up the good work guys. I’m loving this thread.

You mean disc brakes..?
I haven't thought about it yet.

For the time being, I needed to build an adequate chassis for a powerful engine. ...quite annoying discovery that the engine is faster than the chassis.

So... To my existing brakes, I added a new booster, master cylinder and new discs, pads, drums, brake shoes (viz. photos).... all is new.
Perhaps it will be enough

[zlathim]

!!DISCLAIMER!! I am not a body repair specialist. This is kind of out of my wheelhouse. I can weld (my welder friends will argue that point), and I can pound on sheet metal until it lines up well enough to weld together, so I thought I'd give it a whirl, unsupervised. Read the following with that in mind.


We finally addressed the rotting floor in the Camaro. Here is the rotten floor panel we started with, after having having removed the carpet:



First we cut out the cancerous area. You can see that there is a sub floor body panel underneath. This is the LF body mount, so it needs to be reconnected to the new floor panel:



Here is the floor that I cut out compared to the new $70 chinese panel that I bought. I didn't need to or want to reove the entire panel, so I layed it on top and started the process of triming the panel to fit the opening in the floor:



I started out cutting the piece out way bigger than it needed to be. It was a process of trimming and fitting to get it just the right size for the opening I cut out.

[zlathim]

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here is what I got.

I didn't get a picture of the final trimmed opening in the floor, but here is the rough cut panel fitted over the opening:



Here is the trimmed panel all welded in. It is stitch welded along the perimeter, but I also welded rosettes into the sub floor body mount panel that I mentioned in the previous post. The rosettes are the circular welds located mid-panel.



Here it is after repairing one small portion of rusted steel on the DS rear floor, grinding down all of the welds, painting all of the exposed steel and applying the one piece of dynamat I had left over from a previous project.

[George-CZ]

Originally Posted by zlathim

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here is what I got.

I didn't get a picture of the final trimmed opening in the floor, but here is the rough cut panel fitted over the opening:



Here is the trimmed panel all welded in. It is stitch welded along the perimeter, but I also welded rosettes into the sub floor body mount panel that I mentioned in the previous post. The rosettes are the circular welds located mid-panel.



Here it is after repairing one small portion of rusted steel on the DS rear floor, grinding down all of the welds, painting all of the exposed steel and applying the one piece of dynamat I had left over from a previous project.

If I lived in the same town, I'll help you with welding.
I like this job.

I'm doing this at work now.


Nice job.
I'm still following this section.
Keep it up