Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Most of us in this hobby are "pollinators" we flutter from one project (flower) to another.
AAAAAnd we have lots of flowers. (projects)
It is genetic!!
Go Mitch Go!!!

Karl

Did you remember to replace the valvet cover gaskets? I’m excited to hear it run.

Well, last night I realized I had my head up my derriere by putting the 4 speed in the car...I SHOULD have returned the pg to hold the engine and left the 4 speed out so I can swap cases when ever...

So today, I went backward for an hour, but now have things in the right order. 4 speed back out and pg back in.

Chris, your core is ready. Let me know when you want it.

Camaro pushed forward to make room for the Silverado drop kit install.

Larry Lucast wrote:

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Look at all that shop space looking for something to fill it.

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 About the second week of January, there will be pieces of that Camaro all over the floor...

Next week, I will install a 2"-4" suspension drop kit on my truck. Tired of having to jump up like a munchkin to get in it. It sits that much higher than my 2000 did for no obvious reason.

jim larson wrote:

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I have a 70 Muncie case in the garage.  When the guy from lakeVillegas’s rebuilt my 4 sp, he replaced the case with a 66 Muncie case.  A previous owner had flipped the  shaft for some reason and the rebuilder said it would leak if the shaft was installed correctly.  Since then I think I have read that they can put in a new type of seal. It’s collecting dust, you can have it if it would help you out.

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 Thanks Jim,  I do have another case too. Hopefully, the shaft was never driven in from the front on this one. There is/was a guy out near the East coast somewhere who used to bush the case to eliminate the leak there, but I don't know if he is still doing it.

Finally got back to the Camaro today. I installed most of the stuff for the engine swap, just to get it off the floor and tables.

Then I pushed the car into position, and put it on risers and jack stands.

I wasn't sure how far I wanted to get involved today, so I just started with spraying all the fasteners with JB 80 to aid disassembly and removing the e-brake cables. That went well and I ventured to the lower shock bolts. They spun right out. The brake hard line to flex hose argued a little, but eventually came loose and the next thing I knew this happened in an hour...EVERY bolt came right out without a fight. This is a CA car and it is very clean underneath.

Seems I'm quite "committed" now...

Torque box for the front spring mounts...

Frame rails.

Fuel tank and trunk floor facing forward.

THIS is the major reason for the rebuild..Salt air rusted thru the rear window channel, got in the trunk and destroyed the floor. There is also the usual rust around the rear wheel openings and the tail panel and right rear quarter have been sectioned in from a rear end collision early in it's life. All of these things will be removed and replaced.

Just needs a little "dingin"

Remove front clip, stub frame assy.
Rotisserie time!

Just a little "project creep"

67 is my favorite year.

Let's see,
Fuel line, Brake lines to booster, unplug wire harness, ground wires, etc.
Eight bolts for front clip, plus 4 hood bolts if desired.
Six? on stub frame.

Then when the floor is done it does not have to come apart again.
Just sayin.

Love Ya, Man,

Karl

Only original drive train component left on my Camaro. 3.31 12 bolt open, assembled January 24, 1967. Build date on the trim tag is 3rd week of Feb. As far as I can tell, this axle and spring assembly have never been out of the car in 51 years...





1 piece trunk floor and left frame rail. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the frame rails on this car, but I bought a '68 floor for the staggered shock arrangement and the rail is different to accommodate that. After looking this over closely, I wish I had bought the '67 floor and could leave both rails alone. At the time I bought this, I was thinking the frame rails were rusted...







After removing all the exhaust hangers and looking closely, I found a kink in the right rail from the old hit in the right rear corner. I measured the 2 rails at the shackle mount to the floor and the right side was down 3/32 from the left. Maybe not an issue and that could be just the floor, but I wanted to tap as much of the kink out as I could.





I cut a hole in the floor over the kink with the plasma and proceeded to tap and pry on the damage. The inner rail was kinked inward too and I managed to get it all fairly good. I may work on it a little more after the floor is completely removed. Now the right side is 1/32 higher than the left...







I also removed the center tail panel brace and trunk latch, but the camera decided to die right then. After working a while longer and getting started down the 1,000 spot weld road, the battery had recovered enough for this pic. Gonna have a little work on the inner wheel house too, but nothing major.

Been picking away at the Camaro. I drilled out the spot welds for the back seat yesterday, all bunched up behind the bucket seats. Today, I took the buckets, console and carpet out. MUCH better for working in there and less things for sparks to damage.



All the grey is epoxy I put in there 12 years ago to fill rust pits. this is the worst of the entire floor.  I'm going to replace this pan.



The other side has some pits. I'll see if I can salvage enough of the left side to section this area. If not, I'll make a piece. I'm not going to buy a whole pan for a small section.



This is the factory "traction bar" plate under the right side of the rear seat. About mid year of production Chev tried this as a way to reduce the crazy wheel hope these cars had. All the SS and Z28 cars got this bracket, but since mine was built with a non-posi rear and a powerglide, it didn't get the under floor bracket or bar..:(



These studs would hold another plate underneath that the bar would attach to.



All the 12 bolt axles got the bracket for the bar. I will get the under floor plate and a bar to complete the missing pieces. I'll also go to a 3 leaf spring to help eliminate spring wrap and hop.



Onto butchery... I cut windows in the tail panel to drill out the spot welds holding the inner structure to the frame rails.







Once that was done, I got out the plasma....gawd I like that tool...



I was going to follow the outline of the tail panel, but the trunk drops are strange on this car and curve all the way around to the back and I didn't want to cut the one on the left yet. I will use as a template to rebuild the right side that is badly misshapen from a few crashes...



Between the spot weld drill and the grinding stone, I managed to get the tail panel off without too much damage to the quarter panel flange. I may end up replacing this q-panel too, but for now I need it as an example.



Used the stone to grind off the spot welds to remove the last of the trunk pan weld flange from the drop. It was tight to get the drill in and this way I don't drill into the drop at all.

The right lower quarter and tail panel had obvious bondo applied. This is the same side that the quarter skin was installed, along with 3/4 of the tail panel replaced...it is seamed in the left tail light... Obviously, the car had been hit in some manner again later and Henry Handyman just filled the dent with bondo...











This piece is very near 1 INCH thick...



The camera battery decided to die right here, so I didn't get "in progress" pics of the next steps. I pounded out the dents in the quarter and tail panel to relieve any stress before I cut out the rest of the junk. You can see the remnants of the original tail panel that they just beat back out of the way to install the replacement panel.



The elliptical piece is the trunk drop that no one attempted to straighten when doing the original repair.



Thankfully, when I cut the rest off the quarter, nothing shifted or sprang from tension.



The new valance panel clamped in place. Fit right in...



I was concerned about the flange angling up at the back, instead of following the frame rail.



Comparing it to the original, it should angle up.



It even follows the original, left drop profile nice enough.

BLyke wrote:

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"Henry Handyman just filled the dent with bondo..."
Hi Mitch,
You may have just identified the PO of my 71?

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 Oh, there are far more than just 1 Henry Handymen around. My car came from California.

BLyke wrote:

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Do they reach it in a class, or is it something thy come by naturally?

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 You know the saying..."you can't make this stuff up".

I don't think they can teach this level of "bodywork" in a class either, it has to be a natural talent..

I was hoping to get right back on this after I returned from TX last week, but between the weather and my son's car needing repair, I still haven't touched it.

The new floor and right q-panel should be here tomorrow or Monday, so I need to get past the distractions and back on this.

Then I would need the spring re-locator kit to move them inboard as well. This could turn into a complete, years long snowball, for all that could be done and I want this as a driver again this summer, so.. it all goes back stock. I have 255 tires under it now with clearance so I'm good with that. 8" wrinkle walls fit nicely, if it needs to get serious about traction.. I'm many years and tens of thousands of dollars behind you guys already to get serious about auto-crossing. Knowing myself, I wouldn't be happy being in 15th place out of a 20 car field...

I do have a complete Global West front suspension for this car, that has been sitting in boxes for about 6 years now. That is the subject of the March tech session. I want that, and the power disc brake conversion, on the car this summer too.

Lots of work and major changes scheduled and already underway. Hopefully all this will be completed by mid/late May so it is on the road again, after sitting for 3-4 years.

Then it will be time to get Andrew's car back for the final floor replacement and seam sealing/paint/carpet...

What is this "retirement" thing people speak of...

I marked the frame rail flanges and gave the floor the plug weld hole measles.

Drilled 56 holes and punched another 52 with the air punch. wheel house flanges sanded and weld thru primered.

I was thinking it was close to sliding back in but remembered it didn't come with, or have attached, the shock mounts, so I dug those out from my previous floor and got them set up to weld on.

The lower reinforcement plate on the right side was off enough to prevent the shock from going in, so I had to get the reamer out and make the hole large enough.

OK, we're past that temporary set back, now what ?? The right side mount was drilled but not tapped...

Go dig out the tap and die set and get some threads in the mount. Fortunately, the hole was the correct size for the 5/16-18 tap to thread right in.

I was going to get the welder and be done with this step, but remembered the floor didn't have a strap for the spare tire J-hook, so dug out the old floor to remove that strap and get on the new floor.

Ready to weld on.

I did weld on the mounts and straps and shoot a little paint on. While I was waiting for that to dry for a photo, I got distracted and my short term memory forgot to take a pic...

Forgotten pic of the spare tire bracket and 1 of the shock brackets, just to prove I dunnit...;)



After looking at this swiss cheese, I cut it all off. The replacement has all that material on it, so I'll use it.



Sucks this pic is blurry. I kept trimming until I had that sucker right where I wanted it. The rest show that I still retain a little OCD when fitting parts....:D







I made a cut in the area at the bottom of the upper c-clamp to move the new inner to the outside for welding to the original. There was no room inside the car to do a decent job of that.



I gotta say, this piece lined up very well for a repro.



Then I was reminded I needed to weld up the cuts I made in the right frame rail with the plasma....danged fool... I also welded shut all the holes in the side of the rail from past fails with an exhaust hanger. I think the original got ripped out in the crash and there have been a few replacements over the years.





Before...



The 2 holes are correct for the hanger now.



Then I ran the disc sander over the rail flanges to prep them for welding... and called it a day. I did spray a good coat of rust converter on the rear seat brackets to dry.

I was having a hard time getting the floor/frame rails to stay centered to weld, so I ended up using a big clamp to pull them over to the left a little. Checked the gauges and everything was in line, so I welded the floor to the rails.

I worked from the back to front, hoping to gain a little slack to pull the lazy pan down to the rails. I did gain a little but needed a few clamps to pull it down tight,

These were fun, laying on a creeper, welding overhead.

With most of the right inner house in the way, I couldn't get more than 1 clamp on and it didn't pull the floor down much. I had to hammer form the rail up to the floor to weld.

All the way across the cabin floor flange too. It's part of the car now.

Larry Lucast wrote:

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Oh Bruce!! Grip on things??

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 I think he was making fun of all my vise grips... 

I think you are catching up to me and may soon pull into the lead.
Always like to see your updates as you have been doing these things for a long time and have a bit of repetition going for you.

Friday, I pulled the rest of the front clip off.



And Saturday, many club members participated in helping remove the front suspension..... and engine.....and then we went all in and dropped the sub-frame for powder coating too...