bfurches

There are a few photos of my car lurking around these pages from when I first picked it up and brought it home a few months ago...but I figured I would share what I am doing to it now...

White 95 z28
-Originally an automatic car
-T-Tops, Power Windows, Power Locks

To start off...I picked up the car a few months back as a rolling chassis....only it wasn't really rolling lol. there was no motor, no trans, no rear end or suspension, and barley any interior. The car was really a basket case, however it had a LOT of potential. Someone had taken the time to mini-tub the car and install the Wolfe Racing 6pt. It also had a Glasstek 4" Cowl hood, and newer paint. The car was straight, no rot and a really good platform to get me rolling on a badass street/ strip car.

It was a project just getting the car home. I brought a stocker posi rear just to loosely bolt in so I could roll the car up onto the trailer. My buddies were kind enough to lend me there respective vehicles (one for the trailer, one for the truck lol). After tossing the rear end in and getting the car loaded up, this is what I had...






The paint job is not perfect, but it looks pretty good. The white has a slight silverish pearl in it. I'm not a huge fan of graphics and etc, but the hockey stripe actually looks really nice in person (probably helps that its actual paint and not some fruity sticker). Someone also spent a LOT of time lining up the Glasstek hood. I was very happy with the work, especially for a street/ stripper.

After contemplating for a few weeks which direction I was going to run with the car, I started to dig into her. I had slowly been acquiring parts and had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to be...so I tucked her in the garage and got to work...



First thing I did was get the car stripped down. That meant that the interior all had to come out (...what was left of it anyways), rear end had to be dropped, k-frame had to be dropped, and the nose had to come back off...

bfurches

I knew that I wanted the car to be pretty fast...somewhere in the low 10 to high 9 second region. With that in mind, there was a lot that could be removed, lightened, or replaced...and that's where I started. The upper radiator was notched and modified to accept a traditional stand-up radiator. Inner fender skins were removed for weight and ground flush. What was left of the HVAC system was removed. Crash bars were removed from the doors (yes I spent 2 hours on each side unbolting them. I refused to hack up the bars and take a chance of screwing up my doors). I even fabricated an aluminum block-off for the HVAC opening in the firewall.








...As for the parts I have accumulated, here are a few...

UMI body mounted adj torque arm


But i HATED the red (bought it used)...so I had it stripped and powder-coated black

bfurches

UMI chromoly adj lower control arms (also had these redone in black, but no updated photos yet)


Spohn solid motor mounts ....can you guess for what kinda motor


Moser ford 9" rear, Strange "N" case, Moser spool, 31 spline axles, 4.10 lightweight gear set. I dont have any updated photos...but this is in the process of being narrowed, then will also be getting powder-coated black!


The rear is getting narrowed to clear my new rims and tires. They are 15x12 Weld Pro Stars with 29" Hoosiers. Here are some mock-up photos...



I am rewiring the car from scratch with a Painless 12 Circuit "pro street" fuse box. I mounted it on the hump closest to the firewall of the transmission tunnel. This will allow quick acess without having to bend over the door bars on my back lol. I am going to make two quick release side panels to completely conceal it with the dash in place.


My shifter is a B&M Pro Ratchet. I love this thing and have used them in several builds. You will notice its mounted in a Firebird m6 console. I also built a custom aluminum cover for the console and wrapped it in black vinyl. It looks perfect in the car!

bfurches

I wasn't happy with any of the off the shelf Battery boxes, so I built my own and had my chassis guy tig it together.




It is going to have a tinted plexi cover which I will post later. I am going to send it out to get coated black. Here are a few photos of the area where the batt box will mount and the disconnect lever...

bfurches

For the interior, I am running black leather firebird seats, converted to manual tracks for weight. I had a set of seats that were in really rough shape from a parts car...but the interior shop right up the street from me does amazing work!



I also picked up some light-weight carpet. Similar to the "Ozite" stuff or whatever its called lol, that a lot of the drag guys on tech use. Its not super thin like speaker box carpet, and will hold up pretty good...


The car is getting a firebird dash for sure. I love the look of the gauges mounted in the vents...however I have yet to decide what I am doing for door panels. I have a passenger side leather trans-am door panel...but I might run with my Camaro ones instead...

bfurches

I am running an OEM ls1 k-frame, but I wanted to take some extra weight out of it. I started by swapping the stock cast-iron engine mount stands, to the lighter Spohn solid mounts (this alone was good for 10lbs). I also cut out roughly 3lbs of excess metal from the frame. Finally, I swapped over to the ls1 rack and steering shaft. I decided to run the rack "manually" since I am running 15x3.5 up front, so I looped the rack.






I am running my motor carbureted, therefore...a LOT of y cowl area needed to be removed





so now I have to do my finishing work. It all needs to be ground down, then new flat sheetmetal welded back into the firewall.

slowride94z

I like this. It looks as tho you have thought it out.

TUNDRKYS

Do you do any of this kind of work professionally? or are you just rich with a lot of time on your hands?

You said you already had a bunch of parts..... did you know for a while you would be building a Camaro, or will these parts go into any car?

bfurches

LOL...no I am FAR from rich. I am 23, I have a 4 year old son, and I have a house...so I dont have a ton of time either!

I do however work in the trade...I have been a mechanic professionally since I was 17, so that has certainly helped me out a lot. I do the drag racing thing as a hobby, and I have been fortunate enough to have some really great friends that have been in the game way longer then myself.

As for the parts....I had a lot of stuff from previous projects that were more then less "universal," (for example, my shifter, a1000 fuel pressure regulator, race prepped transbraked th350 and etc...). I also do a lot of trading and hunting for used parts to keep overall cost of the projects down. This is far from a "credit card" project, and thats why you will notice, anything I don't need to buy...I make lol.
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Small update on the car.
I talked to Megan at Spohn today who is VERY knowledgable and helpful. She set me up with a front set of Strange single adjustable coilovers with the matching springs, and I should see them by the end of the week! Very excited to get the front end of the car back together and on the ground!

Also...here are some photos of the transmission when I built it last year. This tranny was behind my 4200lb caprice and I had GREAT results with it. Its a fully race prepped th350, Art Carr manual reverse patteren valve body, trans brake and all! This thing should be perfect in my little Camaro...aspecially if I can get the weight right where I want it to be (3200lbs)...

bfurches

The Strange front coil-overs arrived! Now that I have all my suspension parts, I can try and get the car back on the ground! Finally lol...


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I ran into some free time this past weekend, so I decided to haul *** and get as much done as I could.

I mainly concentrated on the hatch area. I wanted to get the battery box all test fit and mounted, battery shut-off setup, take measurements for the fuel cell and etc.

I started with the battery box. Everything was setup based off my Optima Red Top (heavy battery, but I do enjoy them). I fabricated a battery tie down that also doubles as one of the mounts for the box tucked into the wheel well on my plate. Here are a few pics, plus the tinted plexi cover...





Next I test fit the inner interior panel which conceals the battery box, however displays the nice battery shut-off assembly I built. Once again...I hate buying stuff, so I just built a setup instead. I am pretty proud of the bracket for the switch I made from scratch lol! I also built the arm which runs through the rear panel, and I even turned down the **** which is a standard cabinet **** from Lowes. Nice cheap way of building an attractive assembly.






...After all those goodies were figured out, I had to pull everything back apart (including all the interior panels to get ready for the carpet.

bfurches

But my final task of the weekend before I could begin laying down carpet was to cut out the t-top well and built my fuel cell which will reside in its place. I ended up building an aluminum cell which holds 15 gallons. Its sumped and baffled. Still needs some finish work, but here is what I have so far...





Once I get the sending unit and fill cap in, I can get everything mounted up and have the last end cap welded in. Props to Brian for doing an awesome job on the tig welding of my cell!
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I cant wait to see what this weekend brings

FASTA**z28

out im agawam doing a 383 t build myself if you ever wanna get up
!! let me no