'78 Black Betty
 

Hey everyone.

I've been floating in and out of the forums for about 8 months now, and I've decided to start a build thread. I recently bought a 1978 Camaro for $2500, which came with 3 boxes of goodies. It came with a new center console, new chrome for the car, new seals, another heater core, new headlights/backlights/bezels, emblems, 2 sets of louvers, and a lot of interior panels. It was the only one in the area for sale, so the prices was the right. It has a 350 and a saginaw 4 speed, even though it's a California car. I was told it had a warped clutch plate and separated tires (I knew the tires were bad, but I barely made it home). I drove my new ride back to my campus apartment, which was about 100 miles. It was funny because I went to go pass my mom who was escorting me home, and she yelled at me to pull over. She said I was literally bouncing! Started back up and drove the rest of the way. In the whole process of getting it home, the vibrations and the bouncing shook my entire dash apart. Thank God I survived, it was pretty stupid of me to drive it that far.

After buying the wrong size tired, I got a cheap set of Firestones for the time being. This is what she looked like when I first got her:

Attachment 19552

Attachment 19553

About a week later, I was driving back to my parents house, which is about 30 miles from my apartment. I tried to downshift to pass someone, but I had no acceleration. Instead of pulling over, I just kept going. 5 miles from home, we have a hill that is about 1000 feet tall. There was construction, so I got stuck on the side of the hill. Once traffic started moving, I tried to put it into first, but I rolled back. I had to literally floor it to go 5 mph up this steep hill. Going through town, my top speed was 40 mph, and I literally rolled down my street. I knew it was the clutch, so I pulled it out and this is what I got:

Attachment 19550

It wasn't warped, it was missing. While I had the tranny out, I decided to clean everything up. Everything was coated with 34 years of grime.

Attachment 19551

Instead of taking my time and making sure I had the right clutch (then I did not know there were multiple sizes/splines etc.), I ended up buying 2 flywheels, 2 pressure plates, 3 clutch discs, 1 burned up starter, and 3 throwout bearings. Lesson learned. A month later, I finally got it moving again!

man that clutch was surely destroyed,cant believe it would even go anywhere missing that much,must have really wore some groves in the flywheel,yeah they have ones with diffrent splines,gotta make sure u get the right ones,glad to hear shes back on the road and running gain.

Nice camaro. Sorry to hear about the clutch!

I hope you got the flywheel resurfaced or you will get good at replacing clutches.

The flywheel looked like an old record, so I assumed no amount of machine work would do, so I just replaced it :p

Just got my edelbrock carb I snatched off of eBay. As soon as I'm done with my fishing trip, I'll update with pictures. Gotta rebuild it, first.

You'd be surprised how far a flywheel can be cut. Mine has been done three times since I have owned it. Glad you didn't waste a clutch on it anyway. I did that once. I thought it wasn't a big deal until my burnouts smelled like burnt asbestos instead of rubber.

Lots have happened in my life the last month or so, so the restorations have all been put on hold. I got married, moved, and started a new job and will be starting grad school in a month. I just hope I have time to work on Betty. I did, however, buy an 3701 edelbrock intake. I have this coupled with an edelbrock 1400 carb, though the jets are jammed in the carb body at the moment. Its funny because I have the intake, gaskets, and EGR valve adapter all in the back seat and my new boss commented about it. My dad is going to try to use his drill press and remove the jets without touching the threads, hoping to get my carb rebuilt. Just waiting on that to happen..