Hello all, my first post, and an introduction for me. I am from Australia, recently moved to Houston for a short term work assignment. I bought a 68 Camaro coupe in Australia in 2006, which was wearing SS badges, Z28 stripes, a 2 inch cowl hood and a 396 bbc installed. I soon realized it was a put together job, running, and in reasonable condition as a driver, but needing a freshen up.
I had to get it ready for inspection for registration, and the rules for registering a left hand drive car in South Australia is that it must be virtually stock everything, exhaust manifolds, intake manifolds, wheels, brakes, everything. Pretty hard finding parts, and shipping stuff from the US is slow and costly.
I found a few problems - there was a big hole in the trans tunnel, like something had ripped through it, repaired with a piece of road sign. the rear frame rails showed the car had had a big jump, and the axle had hit them. Repaired them. Got the correct mounts for the big block and welded them in. Put new rubber (OEM style) body mounts, spring bushings. Dismantled the front suspension and re bushed and painted them. Put a front disc brake set from a GM car (1978 HZ series, single piston.) put on a power booster and new OEM master. Edelbrock dual plane manifold to replace a single plane Weiand. New Hooker headers and a 2.5 inch stainless dual exhaust system. Got it passed and registered.
It was good, but not great to drive, and left hookers in Australia are odd to drive, and not that safe in traffic. The wiring was old and I had a lot of breakdowns, followed by a tow, followed by electrical repairs.
So, this car was not a number matching, highly valued original car, or an SS, or a Z28, so the next step was obvious. I wanted a reliable car with much improved handling, that I could drive anywhere and get home.
Found a shop that could do all the work and went to see the owner to cut a deal for shop time and assistance with a right hand drive conversion, installation of rack and pinion steering, air conditioning, rebuild the engine, find and fix any rust problems.
Engine out, a lot of work devoted to the firewall, wiper mounts moved, a lot of cutting of the dash, measuring and moving of the steering column/pedal box. removed the drag link, pitman and idler arms, clean up and prepare the front clip. Lot of re-wiring. Selected new covans dash with 6 instruments from Autometer to fix the lack of gauges in that model.
Engine - heads were rebuilt at an engine works with new valves, springs, roller rockers etc. New bearings. Pistons were tight and good, so it was reassembled with new Comp cams XE 274, new lifters. new timing chain and gears, edelbrock aluminum water pump, March front serpentine pulley system, with new AC compressor. Made new pressure lines for the steering rack/ps pump,new brake lines.
Lot of replacement metal for the front and rear window areas, cut, fitted, welded in ground down, smoothed and painted. New glass front and rear. New passenger (now drivers side) floor panel, due to rust. New inertia reel seat belts for the front. Remote locks, new stereo.
I had to leave at that point, almost completed, for this new job. The shop finished the job, and it got through registration inspection WITHOUT A SINGLE FAULT. Unheard of in Adelaide, to the point the shop has the inspection sheet framed on their wall. haha.

sorry for the long post. I have just finished purchasing a bunch of stuff for Phase III of the Camaro's future, and it is being assembled for shipping next week. I would be happy to share the plans if there is any interest.

I enjoy the posts and people on this forum and look forward to being a more regular contributor. I am not a mechanic and am not the big expert an anything. I do really love the first gen Camaros, they are about the coolest car built, in my opinion. Even though mine had very humble and ordinary beginnings, I wont be trading it for anything. I am going to keep 'fixing' it until I run out of energy, interest or money.

Les

 

Sounds pretty cool, lots of work involved. DO you have photos of the right hand conversion? That would be cool to see I think.

 

you know, I hardly have a picture of the whole build. It was not really that kind of shop and I was stupid to not document it. The shop was very much a Ford/Mustang shop, and the Chevy was an unusual item. Took about 8-9 months, notfull time. I did a lot of other work there, to gain some knowledge and experience in general mechanics, servicing, welding, machining, and some body work. It was well worth it, as apart from paint, I am ready to do most things now. Probably not building engines from start to finish, but all the drudge stuff. like decoupling and prep, dismantling and some assembly. I am yet to fully torque and seal an engine, but I have done enough to keep out of trouble.

Next is the truck arm suspension and front and rear suspension, brakes, seats and a few other things. I will be sure to get plenty of pics.

Les