Hello all, I've been lurking for a few days and wanted to say hello and start documenting this project. I'll start with the quick back story:

In October of '72, a year before I was born, my mom bought a midnight blue '69 Camaro, her dream car. It was a base V8 with no distinguishing features and virtually no options - 327, 2bbl, vinyl top, standard interior, AM mono radio... At some point when I was a kid, it had carb issues, some suspension issues, and had been smacked pretty good in the rear quarter and 'fixed' by Earl Schieb. It got stuck under the avocado tree in the back yard for a while, then under a walnut tree at a rental house my family owned for a while longer - around 20 years, all told. I found out recently that they had planned to give me the car for my 21st birthday, but decided against it because they figured (rightly) that I would have begun pouring a good portion of my resources into trying to get her going.

Then, in 2000, we were selling the rentals and my dad and I figured out that we had to crap or get off the pot. There was no avocado tree at their new house, the tenants at the old house weren't going to tolerate an old junker, and there was no way to justify having it in the garage in the condition it was in. We made our decision and took the plunge. We had it towed to my apartment, where I pulled the motor and trans, separated them, and scraped what was left of the vinyl off the roof to make sure we still had one. There was a bit of rust in the typical spots, non in the really bad ones, and a workable engine.

We had the engine rebuilt and bored .030 over (it's now a 332 or 333 if you want to get technical) and put some new corvette heads on it with a fairly mild cam. We swapped the steel-cased Power Glide for a rebuilt aluminum TH350 with a mild shift kit. We did a front brake conversion, all the bushings and such all around, shocks and springs, new rear brake drums and shoes... basically got her road-worthy. We did all this on a tight budget and schedule, and got the car running and registered with vanity plates, and sneaked it into the driveway for mom on Christmas morning. She didn't know what hit her.

They drove it for a while, but never prioritized completion of the project, and after a couple of years, registered it non-operational and let it sit in the garage. That was late 2002, and we never got to any of the cosmetic restoration, interior or exterior.

So, dad died in September - esophageal cancer. He made some pretty bad financial moves later in life, but managed to hold on to enough so that mom could afford 24 hour in-home care after her major heart attack in January. Just as the cardiologist predicted, she lasted six months - almost to the day. With what little there is left in the estate, I've gotten the project going again, and Professor Cindy's '69 Camaro is back on the street.

It is a testament to the great work done by a friend of the family, Pete from Pete's Rod and Custom here in Orange County, CA that the car, after 10 years in the garage, has run like a champ for over two weeks now daily driven in 90+ degree heat with nothing more than a carb and fuel line blow-out and a rinsing of the tank, plus a quick electrical fix. I had the car a the alignment shop this morning - it needs new control arm bushings and a few odds and ends, but all in all, not too bad. It just gives me an excuse to put in those tubular a-arms that were too expensive 12 years ago. I also had a dyno tune done since we were running the Performer with all 'out of the box' parts. With some new metering rods and springs, it came in at 211 RWHP with a beautiful, flat-as-a-pancake torque curve peaking at 246 lb-ft at just under 4k RPM. It makes 230 lb-ft from 3500-4750 RPM. We had, of course, estimated our numbers might be a bit higher (I think I remember some talk of 'close to 300 HP at the crank'), but I am happy with the performance for the moment.

Anyway, there are many pics to follow, but here is the tentative schedule as it stands:

Tomorrow/Wednesday - Have Pete fix the leak around the trans dipstick tube and inspect the brakes. Pick up Chassis, assembly, and Fisher Body manuals and a few other odds and ends at Classic.

Next Week - Get the speedo cable sorted. Pick up parts from Classic, start install of complete electrical harness from AAW plus Klassic Keyless, Vintage Air A/C, and Retro Sound Model 1. I'm planning on around 3-4 days for the electrical because I plan to put in 10-12 hours a day, but do a bunch of cleaning and fixing as I go. I figure a day and a half for the A/C and a half a day for the radio and speakers. I'll have some help for part of the time. I need to replace the dash sheet metal while I'm in there, does anyone know if it bolts in or welds in?

The Week After - Get the car over to the alignment shop again for repairs - and some upgrades TBD based on some financial news I'm waiting on. Get it to Pete's to fabricate some rear seat belt mounts.

So, we'll see how it goes. Pics and updates to follow, plus a video link of the middle of three dyno runs during my tune this morning.

 

Great story. Can't wait to see pics. The dash welds in place. We had to replace the one on my 69 also.

 

Thanks for the info - I guess it will have to wait until we tackle the metal work. So here are some pics from when we dropped it off at Pete's. I had scraped most of the roof and pulled the motor and transmission, separated them, and sent them off to their respective shops.







Here's the rust repair around the rear glass



And here she is now, mechanically pretty solid:









but still pretty rough cosmetically.

Here's the dyno sheet:



And my pollution control certification:



Anyway, I start the electrical tomorrow, I'm going to read the instructions for the first couple of kits tonight. Classic doesn't stock the A/C system, I'm going to have to see if I can track one down someplace that does. I also forgot the power door lock kit and the under-hood light, but I'll just head back over to classic next week sometime. I'm sure I'll have broken something by then

By the way, we figured out that we ended up with 882 heads (truck, smog, big chamber) which brought our compression down to 8-8.5:1, which is why we didn't make the power we thought we would. I'm looking into possibilities... I hear the 882 makes a pretty decent head for nitrous

 

Well, I've had so much to do, I've only been able to put in about 10-12 hours so far, but what a difference the first day made!



By the end of the day Tuesday, I'd gotten all the main routing done and gotten the old harness out:



And the Engine Harness started:



Yesterday, I got the front light harness (almost) done. The terminals on the main headlight ground wires are not big enough to fit any of the chassis screws in the area, so I'll pick up some bigger ones this morning. Then, I'm off to get a new alternator so I can get rid of this mess:



and have a bit more juice for the A/C, stereo, amp, and power door locks. I'm hoping to put in 8-10 hours today and get the rear lights done, finish the engine compartment, and wire all three gauges. I had hoped to put a new panel and AutoMeters, but the money just isn't there right now. I picked up the tach and center fuel gauge and called it a day.

That reminds me, do you guys think anyone would be interested in the takeoff parts from this project? I've got a steel-cased PowerGlide, the original intake manifold and (Rochester?) carb, the harness (which was working just fine with stock stuff), the fuel gauge (right side large), and an almost brand new externally regulated alternator.

Anyway, I gotta call the local shops to see if they stock the alternator I want so I don't have to drive 20 minutes to Classic. More updates this weekend!

 

Very very nice.

 

As far as that "mess" you plan on getting rid of; the top one is the voltage regulator, and the bottom one is the horn relay which stays. Maybe you knew that already, just thought I'd throw it out there.
When you get a chance, PM me about what you're looking to get for the gas gauge and harness.

 

Thanks a bunch. I know usually the horn relay would stay during an alternator swap, but the kit I bought actually replaces the horn relay and relocates it under the dash.

I got stuck on other things yesterday, and only got about 2.5 hours in. Got the headlight grounds in and finished the last couple of connections in the engine compartment and zipped everything up. I'll get pics today. Now I can take the car down off the jack stand and do the rear light loom.

Also, I was just thinking that it would probably be a good idea to get my window felts and weatherstripping on before I put the power door locks in in case it rains.

 

Well, I've had no time to post this last week, but I've gotten a ton done. I finished the wiring job late Sunday night, but had no time on Monday, so I buttoned everything up on Tuesday morning.

Funny thing - I went to test the work Sunday night, and I put the battery back in the car and popped the cables on. And... nothing. No headlights, no flashers, no crank, no nothing. I was crushed. I was up even later wracking my brain. I woke up in the morning and remembered instantly: I had just finger-tightened the main harness connection at the firewall a turn or two to keep it in the right place for routing assuming I would be pulling it off and putting it back on over and over to solder and route and such. I got dressed, drove over screwed it in, reconnected the battery, and got a spark. And headlights. Why are the headlights on? Right, you never turned them off last night. Good. Flashers? Check. Tail lights, reverse lights, signals, brake lights? Check. Idiot lights? Check. Crank, start, run? Check.









I got to put an hour into the stereo system, but I ran in to some snags. I could have sworn the package tray was cut for 6 X 9's, and bought some. I got them back to the car only to find it was actually cut for 5 1/2" speakers. "Fine," I think, "I've got a cutoff wheel, this is no problem." Well, I have a cutoff wheel, but not enough compressor to keep it spinning. I spent an hour and only got half of one side done. The guy at the shop where I bought the speakers is going to finish the job (and pop the speakers in) for $25. Done and done. I did get the stereo roughly mounted without the bezel and tested, and got the wire for the 6 X 9's routed back to the trunk and under the dash. No photos of this yet, but it's not done.

Wednesday I had a nice conversation with one of the guys over at Global West, and ended up changing my game plan a bit on the suspension. On Friday, Accurate Alignment in Orange received:

1 pr Tubular Upper Control Arms with Del-A-Lum bushings
1 set Lower Control Arm Bushings (Del-A-Lum)
1 set Front Springs
1 set Rear Shackle Bushings (Del-A-Lum)

We grabbed the idler arm and lower ball joints locally.







So, now I just need to get the stereo install finished, get the A/C in, and put the new dash pad on and the rear seat back back in, and then I can start worrying about getting a bit more power out of the engine...