Been off of here for a while .. so long I forgot my username and password

Its my last quarter at college and I take collision repair ..so Ive decided to pull my 91 Z28 out of the garage and finish her the way I wanted to

Built the 305 Vortec TPI in January, put new shocks and struts on, new digital dash ..

so now .. heres my plan for the next months work -

1) Ferrari "Daytona Nero" Black paint
2) New Bumper - DONE
3) Pull the front right wheel forward 3/4" - DONE
(was in a Wreck in 1995 (carfax) and wasnt fixed correctly, but now it is)
4) Full Poly Bushing set
5) New hood (looking at a cowl induction or stock RS hood right now)
6) New Dash Top - DONE (stock one was cracked)
7) Clear lenses on front / side lights
8) Full 3" cat-back exhuast (have hooker 3" y-pipe)
9) Hook up external egr supply (vortec heads need external tube)
10) New Windshield (has scratches on it)
11) Get motor Dyno - Tuned

and theres more, but thats most of it

here are some pics of the car, and what I have gotten done last week at college

 

ok .. found some more of the previous repair done on the car back in 1995 once I pulled the front clip sheet metal off

first found the rails on the top needed some welding and drilled out all the old welds and fixed them (the previous welds were not holding and all rusted up)

the proper way to fix a plug weld is a 5/16" hole and get GOOD penetration through both metal and then clean it up and self etching primer .. none of which was done before

so .. the red is what I fixed .. and the green is what didnt look exactly right to me when I was taking a break ..



now, when I started picking at that piece in green .. a big chunk of undercoating / bondo / glue came off and after cutting ONE (YES ONE) spot weld .. it ended up like this .. if I met the guy who fixed this before I'd slap him up side the head with the welder he used .. only one out of a couple feet of spot welds actually held

tommorow I am going to grind / drill out all the old welds and re-weld it the way it should be .. then it will be good as new, the sectioning job on the passenger side frame rail was done correctly but executed EXTREMELY poorly by whoever fixed it many years ago

then all the new welds will be dressed, self etching primer, then rubberized undercoating will cover everything to prevent rust in the future ..

 

oh .. also noticed a support / brace on the drivers side which is missing on the passenger side


does anyone have a camaro there parting out that would sell me one?

are they on all third gen camaro's? (might go to the pull-a-part yard)

is there supposed to be one on the passengers side?

 

Yes there is, I believe they only came on the later cars though, not sure exactly when they started but my 92Z has them... Good luck with the rest of the build.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

Got my frame fixed .. its REALLY solid now .. ended up taking it all back apart and cleaning off ALL the rust and old welds .. all the original spot welds are back instead of filled with bondo .. and all the seams are welded

and then I cleaned up and undercoated the front clip ... everything should be undercoated next week .. along with new poly suspension bushings, and primer








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oh .. also got another hood from a 1986 Camaro Iroc-Z

its in PERFECT condition .. no rust, dents, dings, or anything .. guy has kept the car inside all its life .. he got a cowl induction hood, so sold me his stock one for $100

and as for that ugly thing at the bottom of the radiator .. its made out of a ford tailgate .. stock one was missing, so I pulled the trim off my brothers truck and made it .. haha .. one of my friends got me a black piece of new sheet metal .. so I will be making me a nice new one pretty soon to go along with all the other new stuff

As for the ferrari black .. painted a test panel with that color yesterday .. looks HORRIBLE .. way to much aluminum flakes and stuff in it .. so I will be going with a straight black and putting on a good quality clear (3 coats, sand, 2 coats, sand, and buff)

 

Looks great! Nice to see people doing these cars the right way and not some backyard hackjob.So you're doing this at your school?

 

yea .. im paying .. haha

labor is free of course, just pay for materials and parts

and yes, im doing it at college

I take Automotive Collision Repair / Paint Refinishing .. I'm pretty much the top student (somewhat of a fast learner, and have a bunch of mechanical experience from all the other cars ive had / built)

I will be painting the car, and doing all of the work (except some of the body work like sanding all the old paint off will be done by other students to teach them, the work that cant really be messed up)

Did all the frame repair by myself this week, turned out better than expected .. made sure its really good incase I drop in a big block or lsx motor in later on .. lol

once it comes down to blocking primer, painting, wetsanding and buffing .. that will be all me .. haha .. me and the teacher are going to get this one show quality instead of the ussual "re-spray" job we do .. even though those look really nice too, but I want to hear at the car shows "damn thats a nice third gen convertible"

I'm only 18, but had about 15 cars since I was 14 .. everything from a taurus to a f350 to a original mini cooper to mr2's and now the camaro

there something I like about the camaro, and since I allready built the motor I'm going to finish up the whole car and keep it .. its the only car that hasnt let me down yet (only blew intake gaskets and it STILL drove me 50 miles home )

and to add to the "to do list" that purple tint will be coming off and some nice dark tint will be going on the side windows and top of the new windshield .. if only I could tint the rear convertible window .. hmm

 

looks like a good project man. keep us posted and good luck!! just one question, are you doing anything with interior?

 

yea, I will keep this posted till the end ..

I do have plans for the interior .. right now its a pretty good condition stock grey .. and I was hoping of either going black or red later on .. after I get it painted

maybe a red leather or something, havent really made my mind up yet .. but something will be done with it

after im done with the paint .. the only things what wont be new / finished will be -

interior (except the dash pad, digital gauges, and short throw shifter)
transmission (stock one is a little worn, so might go w/ a 6 speed)
hi-flow intake runners (have the edelbrock vortec tpi intake manifold)
roller rockers
3" flowmaster exhuast (from the 3" hooker y-pipe back)
get the car dyno tuned

and some rims / tires later one too .. probably a set of boyd coddington style or drag style rims


also, I want to put in a stiffer clutch when I do a transmission, put a new replacement clutch in with the motor but its too soft for the power ..

 

Looking Good man, Cant wait till i get mine in our shop up at school. Gonna be doing the same stuff. :-) except Im still in highschool

 

yea, got my camaro last year when I was a senior in high school

was a hit with everyone in the parking lot with the built 305 I got .. has a slight lope to it and a deep rumble from the flowmaster

good luck with your build, ive seen a couple nice ones in the last couple weeks from buying parts

there something else once you put some new parts and paint on 'em

 

That's cool, nice to see another Georgian here too! I'm in the GM ASEP program and my dealer has been a great place and I've been able to do a lot of work to my vehicles there after hours and such.

 

I'm a junior and Theres only one other kid with a camaro at my school (4th gen) but other then that everyone loves my car. Just got done with the new interior on it and now I'm about to start doing the bodywork on it. then hopefully another engine to be put into it.(low 25k mile engine) with the TBI also.. maybe a mild tuned port injection system into it and i'll be done with it. Then id have a 5 speed TPI :-)

 

yea, I just built up my stock engine 305 TPI 5speed

its a nice motor, got a comp cam, vortec heads, edelbrock intake manifold, aluminum pistons, hooker headers, new sensors, waterpump, etc

I just gotta get the thing tuned .. then the fun will really begin

when I was in high school, there was a v6 4th gen (ugly pos) .. and a really rough mid 80's RS camaro w/ a carb'd 305

really slow compared to mine for some reason (and mine is untuned) .. haha

 

how many horsepower you pushing? the problem with me is all i know how to do is bodywork. when it comes to engines, i have a general idea of what is going on but theres no way I could take one apart and put it back together.. the things i have no idea about is like the rods/pistons, and everything and how to make it precise. like overtightening bolts and stuff

 

An upholstery shop could install a tinted plastic rear window for you. Does the college you go to have upholstery classes? It's nice to see someone taking care of these cars. At the rate they're being crushed, they will be rare cars someday...

 

have no idea on any hp / tq numbers .. but with everything I did to the motor, the comp cams desktop dyno thing said it should be in the region of 320 hp / 420 lb tq

that seems a little high to me, but I'll find out in a month or two when it gets dyno tuned

as for the rear window .. I'll have to look into that .. my top looks nice and new, but the rear window is a little foggy looking

 

ok, been thinking about the color

original color is that blue .. but my friend said why not paint it the "lemans blue" that comes on the 2007 vettes ..

the blue looks really nice to me, so now im stuck between black or the lemans blue

what do ya'll think ..

here is my car last year, when I first got it

 

I would keep it blue. I kinda wish I had a blue car. The Vette you pictured isn't an 07 though. I'm not sure how it would look at a 3rd gen, but the Jetstream Blue from the new Corvettes is a phenominal color. The Indigo Blue Metallic off the older Trailblazers is a really nice color too.

 

Keep it original! btw Are you sure your car is originally blue? The engine bay looks like it may have been painted black at one time or either it was originally black. behind the tpi it also looks REAL black.

 

Adrians91Z28, GREAT freaking job man. Could I ask though - where did you find the digital guages? I've been dying to get ahold of some. I've been looking at camaro exhaust clips on youtube for months trying to figure out what flowmaster would sound best and ALL those guys have the digital guages. They look sweet.

 

I love the blue, that's my vote. Dam I wish I had my vert in high school. But then it would have been almost brand new.

 

glad you didn't sell it. Please keep it blue. I love blue third gens. since its a 91 Z keep the hood. You never see real 1991 92 Z vert cars. They look amazing in blue also. Look up BlueZee28 I believe it is on here. His car is a blue vert. like yours. Its amazing.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...html?highlight=

 

Definitely Black.... Black is just so bad ****...haha

 

I'd go with the newer vette blue, just to set it apart from the rest.

 

Yea, I know most of the engine bay is black .. I did that when I had the motor out b/c I was planning on black

I am positive the car is originally blue, ive sanded all the way to metal and it is originally blue, and resprayed blue when it was wrecked last

plus under the carpet, bottom of the car, engine bay, door jams, etc are all blue

was really set on black since it just looks badass, but that blue on the vette is nice and it would be like a spin off the original blue

oh, and the digital dash .. nordskog digital guages .. think I payed like $450 with shipping or something .. might want to order pretty soon b/c I ordered mine about this time last year and they get to you in january

something about they only make them once a year due to low demand and you gotta pre order them
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im going to keep the engine bay black no matter what color .. just so it stays "clean"

seen a few red ones lately when I bought some parts, the engine bays are all black .. guess I think it just looks a little cleaner .. I will be painting the rest of the bay again with black basecoat / clear once I get the car in the booth in a couple weeks (right now its just spray can black from the auto store)

going into primer next week

 

oh and the hood .. bought a stock 86 iroc-z hood (with the louvers) that is in mint condition .. and I mean MINT .. haha no rust, dents, dings, etc

I still got my old hood (reproduction from the wreck it was in) and took the blisters off .. going to paint them as well as the louvers so I can put either ones on

................................

put up a picture of the jetstream blue .. looks good,closer to stock, but its a little too light .. and in some pics its darker .. might need to take a trip to my local chevy dealer .. haha

 

"oh, and the digital dash .. nordskog digital guages .. think I payed like $450 with shipping or something .. might want to order pretty soon b/c I ordered mine about this time last year and they get to you in january" Thanks for the great tip!!!

 

http://www.obbnmotorworks.com/gauges...sh_panels.html

thats where I bought mine .. guess there $500 now, that seller is pretty good .. called nordskog every couple weeks since it took so long to check up on when I should expect it .. mine took till january since some of the red LED's didnt pass inspection so they were waiting on another shipment of them

the dash is a nice piece, very high quality and nice .. ALOT better than paying $600 for the dealer to "fix" my stock cluster (you have to take apart you old one, and grind out some stuff, then I hot glued my digital board in place)






put mine in with the new motor .. .. 3020 miles on it so far with no problems .. very easy to wire up, just splice into the stock harness and I did mine where you can still clip in the stock cluster later on if someone wanted to go back

 

saw a LeMans Blue Vette earlier today on the road ..

kinda like that dark blue, dont really like the lighter blue (but I need to see it in person)

so I guess I'll spray out a panel monday with black, and LeMans Blue and see how they look ..

Either way I go, the clear is going to be shiny as hell .. doing 5 coats
(3 Coats, Wetsand, 2 Coats, Wetsand, Buff)


Was wanting to tint the windows darker, the windshield (top 6" or so), and put the black shade things that velcro on to the tail lights (are they illegal, b/c they look badass)

 

http://www.musclecar-evolution.com/f...176#post127176

in these thread there are some pics of the Jetstream blue vette.

 

Jetstream is not as dark as your stock blue or the Lemans Blue. To get the best idea, you should definately make a trip down to the dealer, it looks fantastic in the sun. Here's one picture of it:

 

I dont know .. think I saw a vette in that color the other day, looked really dang nice when it passed me

Black just looks a whole lot more aggressive ..

think I'll either go with LeMans Blue, or Black .. dont really want a light color

is that Jetstream blue the same as the new ZR! corvettes ?

EDIT :

looked at some other pictures, actually jetstream looks like a pretty dang nice color .. I'll spray out a panel or go to the dealer monday ..

why does this have to be such a hard decision .. haha

 

Yeah, Jetstream comes on the ZR1. I would stay blue, Lemans is a nice color too.

 

I think im going to go 2007 Vette LeMans Blue .. its not light like the Jetstream, and not as dark as black, but its BLUE

guess yall talked me into keeping it blue, was second guessing the black since its not the original color .. and it kind of hides the shape of the car and is a little hard to keep nice looking

the blue that came on my camaro, even when dirty, looked clean ..

so I think LeMans Blue it is .. in the shade it looks black, and in the sun its blue

 

messed around with photoshop a minute ago and got this ..

I'm liking the dark blue look .. what do ya'll think

 

I vouch for keeping it the original color. I don't like dark blues on third gens.

 

I have always liked dark blue on Camaro's myself. Black looks great on T/A's though...

 

Talked to the Sherwin Williams Rep. today that helps us out with paint / materials at college .. He is mixing me up a custom black that he said is going to be BLACK .. he mixed up a little bit on a paint lid and it makes straight black look brown and milky (we got a mixing machine at college)

so its going black, not changing my mind .. paint should be mixed up and here sometime this week (or early next week)

hoping to have the body painted next week, then I'll do parts and start puting them one

doing 3 coats of base, 2 coats clear, sand, 3 coats of clear, sand, and buff ..

should look really deep and shiny ..

as for today, only had my phone camera (pos) so only one pic came out decent .. started installing the poly bushing kit I got (energy susp.) .. im also cleaning up all underneath, undercoating it, and spraying suspension pieces high heat gloss black

got half the rear done and it looks awsome .. should have the whole rear done tommorow .. gotta go to summit and pick up some rear sway bar bushings / end links (only ones im missing from being all poly)

 

Got my brothers camera back

finished the rear suspension up .. looks NIIIIICE .. camera doesnt do it justice





what I got done yesterday



its looks alot better in person




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oh, and if anyone was wondering .. the rustmaster is coming out once I get a 3" cat back

and all the bottom of the car will be undercoated black like I did around the rear axle

 

You ought to upgrade to some LS1 disc brakes while you're at it

 

I'll have to add that to my "to do" list after I paint the car ..

right now im pouring all my money into the paint / suspension ..

this is my list so far -

Paint (gallon) - $200
Clear - $100
Primer - $50
Dashpad / Bumper - $50
Hood - $100
Bushings - $200 (w/ paint)
Materials (sand paper, etc) - $100
Windshield - $205 (approx)

so thats $1050 .. and im sure i'm missing some stuff

brakes will go along with

3" exhuast
High Flow intake runners
Tuning
Rims / tires
Interior
etc

 

Lookin good Adrian!
Can't wait to see this BLACK!

 

I can't wait either .. the sherwin williams guy has mixed up many one-off colors for the college before .. told him I was going to get Sikkens Black (a REALLY deep black) .. but he told me he could mix it up using SW products (a little cheaper than Sikkens) plus he gives us a really attractive discount

showed me using our PPG mixing system .. started off with a jet black (slightly darker than standard "toner black") and added a drop or two of some other stuff and it made the "toner black" look brownish / milky

the "toner black" is what most of gm's trucks are painted with .. along with the majority of black cars today (some mix with a little white or yellow)

I'm going to try and get atleast the body in paint next week, im priming it tommorow and the blocking will begin untill its PERFECT

body is nice and straight right now, so shouldnt be too much work to block it out straight (had to remove 2 layers of paint)

 

Looking good. I wish I had taken some courses like that. Black is great but you should have kept it original. I am an original junkie... But I am also a fan of black and blue...

 

yea, I like to keep my stuff original .. but my camaro has to be an exception (keep my mr2's as stock as possible)

I kept all the original parts for the motor when I built it (heads, intake, cam, etc) .. and didnt mollest the wires for the dash

so when I mod something I try to keep it from being "Irreversible" .. paint to me can be changed any day ..

try to look at it as if I'm fixing what the last guy did, there was a bunch of paint on the car and it was flaking and cracking off ..

heres the coats that I sanded off -

1) Stock E-Coat
2) Stock Base
3) Stock Clear
4) Primer
5) Base
6) Clear
and in some spots another layer for the racing stripes that were on it

so took all that back down almost to metal and starting over, and doing it right

I would go blue if the car was HIGHLY rare and desirable and it would hurt the value .. but in this case its probably going to help the value right now

who knows maybe in 10 years I'll paint it blue if I still got it b/c then it will be worth some $$$$

 

Good point and you are def. doing it right. Irreversible is bad. I did that on the corvette. I upgraded the stereo which required me to rewire the entire car, well foolishly I didn't leave the factory stuff hooked up too so if I ever want to go back to stock... I have to rewire it again to us the factory amp. If I was smart I would have just run sister wires and left all the factory stuff inplace so all I had to do was swicth out the head unit... oh well hind sight is 20/20. I won't make that mistake again.

 

I'll trade you all my cars for your vette

1989 Supercharged MR2 (fully restored)
1991 Mr2 Turbo
1991 Camaro Z28 Convertible
1998 Range Rover 4.6 HSE

haha .. I've always loved how black vettes look .. the ONLY color I'd get one in

someone told me the c5 vettes are good in the bottom end, but the c6's are alot faster in the top end ..

probably grab one once I turn 25 .. only 7 years to go

 

Yeah, Corvettes are the ****. I WILL own a 08+ C6 one day, it doesn't even have to be a Z06. I'm VERY interested in the new Camaro though too, we'll just have to see how the handling compares to a Vette.

 

Thats a tempting deal, you have a nice collection going but.... ummm, no!

As far as the C5/C6... I had both, 2000 now the 2007. (with a 2004 RX~8 in between) The C6 is hands down superior in all aspects. Don't get me wrong the C5 was a good performer but the C6 is quite impressive. Now maybe that is because I went from the RX~8 (which was not too fast/quick but man did it take the twisties...) to the C6 so maybe the C6 just seems that much faster... who knows.