I know you’re probably tired of my constant blogging – the incessant updates, trivial and revelatory both. Well, here’s another one, just 2 or so months on the heels of the last! Get ready, it’s not a doozy!
Well, the Camaro is back to Secret Location B, which might look a lot like my carport, if I showed you a picture.
Since the return, we’ve taken on a few projects, some more painful than others. Michel and Jon got the grille installed, and all the lights and such. Grille is a colossal pain in the ass – it’s a fancy billet job, and between the nonexistent instructions and the fact that none of the included fasteners seemed suitable for the job, it’s been annoying. But it’s on. Mostly. HA!
I’ve got a picture of it, somewhere.
Whilst the car was on the lift for the rear suspension, Michel also got the new long tube headers installed. Much research into the best fitting headers for that car was done, and this paid off not at all. They were a bitch to install, and they still contact the steering box. Why is this so hard? They made about 54 jillion of these cars, and everybody wants headers… Why don’t they fit? Argh! We’re workin’ on that.
What else.. Oh, got the front suspension swapped out, the SpeedTech front coilover system is in place, along with the 13″ front disc brakes. Funny story there. The SpeedTech parts took forever to get (backordered) and the discs didn’t fit the hubs! Ha ha ha! Hilarious! Had to have the hubs turned down to make it all work. Swapped out the wheel studs while we were at it, for extra Snazz.
Part of this work was of course running all new brake lines, soft and hard lines both. Fun times! Plenty of work dicking around making up new custom hard lines, for the new braking system – since of course no factory lines really fit any more. And, of course, new parking brake cables to the new rear disc setup. Whoopee!
Did I mention that the vacuum booster for the brakes was leaky? No, of course not, we never speak to each other. Well, it was naturally crapped out, since that’s the way of the world with this car, so we swapped in a new one – a smaller diameter dual diaphragm job, to free up a little room. The old one had been cleaned and refinished, but was broken. Moron.
What else… what else….
Oh, a new radiator. The old one SEEMED fine, but really, is it as fine as a shiny new Be Cool job with an electric fan? No way, hombre.
Then, of course, on to wiring. Lots of wiring. So many wires. Still working on that now. We’re relocating the battery to the trunk, to make room for the new coolant recovery tank – using some of the freed up space for a new set of terminal blocks and fuse panel for all the new stuff.
Wires everywhere! Ready now to plug in the new Dakota Digital cluster, which is good. Still need to run the wiring for the power windows, and some other little odds and ends.
We’re gonna need an exhaust system. Probably. We ordered up a Flowmaster system, just to see how far off it would be. Answer – very. The rear suspension puts some new bits right where the factory exhaust should run. I’m leaning toward a side exit system, but I think Michel wants to run it out the back of the car. His car, so I bet his choice wins, ‘eh?
I’m sure I’ve forgotten things we’ve done over the last couple of months, but I’m also pretty sure you’re not even ready any more so…