Well this will be my project log for my new baby, It's an 81' camaro z28

Its in pretty good shape, no rust no dents and the plastics are decent. I also have all the trim and most of the interior.

the majority of work will be fixing some previous owner mistakes, and putting everything back together.

on to the pics! dont have many right now but the car is home and in the garage. I got to drive it, something is up with the shifter.. it seems like its PRND1..I'll need to look into it. it should be PRND21.







all in all for $1500 I don't think I could have gotten a better deal.

My plans are as follows, refresh the interior, replace all seals, work the motor over, cam, intake, carb, exhaust, and heads. then eventually paint, thinking white with black trim and accents.

I also think it has a handling kit, the springs are stiff and its got huge sway bars. could just be the Z28 handling package but i cant be sure.



I have many questions, and I don't want to spam the forum so i'll ask most of my questions here. for instance, what size and thread is the steering wheel nut, and same question for the lower seat belt bolts..

 

How is your oil pressure, is there a gauge? With no valve cover on, and the way you were goosing the throttle, you should have had oil squirting all over, and flowing onto the exhaust manifold. I didn't see any. How do you get the doors open with the window up, no poppers?

 

Its wired for poppers and everything is there, I just need to get a new control box so I can have a remote... and probably go through the wiring I'm noticing there's alot of stupidity worked into this car.

I noticed the oil pressure issue as well, its been sitting with that valve cover off for 2 years. I think it just needs a flush and maybe the push rods cleaned out... worst comes to worse i throw a new oil pump on it.

 

That was my first concern when I saw it started up with no valve cover! I expected to see oil flipped all over the manifolds and inner fender when it ran! I wouldn't run it until you figure out if it's plugged oil passages, low pump pressure, or bad bearings. Something is restricting oil flow to the top end and needs to be addressed.
But that's a heck of a good price for what you got!

 

Pour some oil over the left rockers to coat everything, and run the engine shortly like you did before. Then pop off the right side valve cover and see if oil is getting up to that side. If so, you have a blockage just on the left side, possibly clogged push rods.

 

where do you guys go for parts? i tried classic industrys and they want WAY too much for shipping. $60 for some headlight retainer rings and mount screws.. and they want $120 in shipping.. screw that

 

Look for used and new parts on ebay. Maybe you'll get lucky and find what you're looking for.
Or craigslist, if by chance someone is parting out one like yours.

 

I went the same route; mostly used parts from local yards and CL, for what little I needed. For new parts I used National Parts Depot. I'm sure your location will always be higher shipping than we have down here in the Conus.

 

I found a site with decent shipping, Camaro central. got all my headlight mounting hardware for about the same ammount of money and on $13 shipping.

i sorted out a small issue today, my rear lights were acting funny... my right turn signal would flash both my reverse lights.. turns out the tail light harness was plugged in backward. there is also a couple bad sockets in my harness so i bought one off ebay $29 and $8 shipping. depending on the condition it might replace mine or be used as parts.
thanks GM lol my fuel level sender still doesnt work. going to have to look into that.

i also orderd a bunch of stuff for my car including the door popper control box and some other stuff.


i get paid in a day or so and i'll be buying a holley 600 with electric choke. and at the same time im going to do a tune up and maybe an accel super coil.


there happens to be a guy in my area that has parted 25 F bodys.... i just wish he would answer his phone.

 

Napa carries the sockets in a variety of types, and cheaper than anything you buy on the internet. The sockets on a 2nd gen were used on thousands of other GM models, so they are standard. I bought replacement sockets for my car to make the inside lights on my '71 also work as brake/light/turn signal and they were only about $6 each. Just need to take an old socket in so they can match them in their catalog.