Well....decided to start working on "The Project".

...The car was last plated 8 years ago. I used to drive it up and down the road to make sure it was running while I worked on the house.
....4 years ago the fuel pump went, so I pulled her into the garage and put the cover on it and let her sit.

Started collecting engine, suspension and interior parts 18 months ago..

Finally decided it was time to start working on her to get it running for next season.

1st Step - Took her to the shop and removed the old motor...


Here is my new "lowrider look"


The old engine...you can see the nose crack where the tow truck did a hit and run.


"Someone" wanted the old washer and rad fluid containers...you can see the original colour.

 

About time you got started

 

Rad and A/C gone


Accessory belt and brackets coming out


Engine coming out

 

Well....how does it look now

 

FINALLY.....now to bring it home and give the engine bay a good clean


The engine gave up a brave fight.....broke 8 bolts taking out the motor and trans including ALL tranny crossmember bracket bolts, header flange bolt on BOTH headers and broke a few accessory bracket bolts. ops:

 

hey man glad to see the project finally getting worked on. Car looks great man and i cant wait to see it done. What are the plans for the car?

 

Hey Matt,

Swapping in a 305 TPI (with an LT1 cam) and headers...for now. Heads will get a pocket port, gasket match, valve job and new springs. Motor came out of an IROC with 35,000 miles

Have a rebuilt 700R4 going back in with all the goodies in it (corvette servos, shift kit, stall, etc).

Also, restoring the interior. Almost every panel and switch will be NOS (brand new). I've been collecting interior parts for the last 18 months. So far the interior alone has cost me $2,600.

After that I'll need some tunes

Car has less than 80,000 miles on her. I haven't driven the car for the last 4 years (since the fuel pump died). So, just to drive it again will be sweet.

New engine.

 

Nice lookin rs man a perfect project ya got going there good luck.

 

More progress...been trying to remove the old wiring harness. A few harness bolts have been giving me %@!$# hard time. Tried WD40 and soaking them in CLR but no luck yet. Won't budge with the hand tools.

Had to give the interior a really good clean

 

Decided to tackle the upper console and lid. Bought an NOS upper console on ebay. Unfortunately the console came without any precut holes for the power window and hatch switches.

So.....out came the dremel. I used a micrometer to ensure all the measurements were the same so it looked like it was bought that way.

Switch holes marked out and top precut


Finished product


Decided to do a custom real leather console lid cover. Started with a NOS lid I purchased on ebay. Sent it down to the gentleman who does custom embroidered lids for the corvette forums. We had to play with the logo and colors a bit. I had the "THE PROJECT" color stitching match the color of the car.



Mock up - lid on console


Also, cut out the bottom of the TPI intake base. I'll be making a home made ram air set up as soon as I visit "Home Depot" The Hawksthird gen one goes for $100. I'm aiming for less than $20.00 :twisted:

 

hey man lookin good. I love that console lid. how much was it to get it custom? I wish i could think of somthing like that alsmost a nickname for my car thats killer. -Matt

 

Hey Matt,

Thanks.....the lid work cost me $240. Remember I am in Canada so shipping charges are a lot for me. The business is in MO. Also I paid to have the disk created for the logo, so if you want the logo on your lid it should cost less.

Instead of "THE PROJECT" why not have CAMARO and the logo on top like mine...just an idea

Here is his email if you are interested X94406Runner@aol.com
His mane is Chris.

 

One of the guys in the club was looking for a good set (his were BROWN!!). I said I was changing mine to smaller ones as I need the space ......next thing I know they're gone.

 

thanks for the info if i was to so somthing like that id get like IROC-Z or somthing.

 

was the old engine trashed or something? Just wondering why your swapping a 305 for a 305, congrats on getting started! Looks like someone lazy painted the engine bay black, they didnt even remove the fluid jugs!

 

Switching from a 305 TBI to a TPI motor (with a LT1 cam) expecting to put about 210 - 220 hp to the wheels.

Car had a color change from dark red to blue. They didn't do a great job of hiding the red in the engine bay.

 

i would seriously reconsider your cam selection...the lt1 cam is only very slightly bigger than the l98 cam, which is the same cam they put in alot of g92 packaged lb9 cars. if you're stuck on a production cam, look into the zz4...you'll need to do tuning to get maximum performanace out of any cam anyhow, take a little more advantage of some better cams....

 

Funny you should say that. I have a new ZZ4 cam sitting here. I was going to put it in but then I'd need to do some head work (ie screw in studs, modify the pockets for bigger springs). I didn't think it was worth spending the money to modify the stock heads to accomodate the cam.

The LT1 cam was a comprimise and the price was right ($30). I picked up new ZZ4 springs, locks and retainers to ensure everything goes smooth.

I'll drop in the ZZ4 cam in a few years when I pick up some 305 Trick Flow heads and higher stall. Right now I just want to get it back on the road next year and enjoy driving it.

And yes, the L98 cam went into the manual tranny LB9 cars. My 305 came out of an auto car so the cam is smaller.

 

you don't need to go with larger diameter springs...the zz4 can be controlled easily enough with an isky D935 spring. if you're pocket-porting the heads, then having the guides cut for more clearance isn't hard or much more expensive. the zz4 camshaft isn't so wild that you need screw-in studs either...

i'd seriously reconsider, and talk with a few engine builders or call comp cams or isky or whoever...there are inexpensive solutions i promise.

but again, i understand just wanting to enjoy the car...that's why my little 305 went back in the car after the catastrophie with my 350 instead of fixing my big motor...

 

I heard you spent almost $2,600 just on the interior Is that true?

I saw an NOS lighter on ebay for $30.00

 

Looks like you got your work cut out... What color are you going with? Back to original or sticking with the Blue? Be a tough call for me, I like both colors very much, if original is the dark red. If it was regular red, nix that.

 

Yup it is indeed true. I got carried away with wanting the interior to be NOS pieces.

Oh yea.....I bought that $30.00 lighter also

My car was dark red metallic to begin with. It's a really nice color, but I'll probably stick with the blue as it looks great on the car and is not a color you see every day. I know of one other Camaro on this board the same blue as mine. Oddly enough he saw a Camaro at a show painted "Corvette blue" and copied it....hmm...might have been mine he saw

 

Correct me if I am wrong but you car is damn close to the color of mine, a factory color... not that rare... and since you don't see clean third gens every day, any color could fall into the "don't see every day" color"



Maybe a different hue but looks close enough, I loike it none the less. I am very biased towards the blue. Best color with the dark red metallic being second. Not a fan of black, red or white on the third gens.

 

care to share what's going on with your dash shell? i see that you've got some custom speaker enclosures on the door panels, so i'm curious to what you've cut a huge hole in the dash for.

 

Actually, my colour is "Admiral Blue". It's a color only found on the 94-96 Corvette. Close to the Camaro blue but not the same. I've only seen a handful of vettes painted this color.


I used to compete in IASCA (car audio competition). I used to have two Audio Control EQT equalizers in the dash as well as an Audio Control ESP-2 sound enhancer. I cut the dash to house the components and had a custom panel made to hide everything. The doors used to have two 6.5" mids. I had around $20k in car audio in her when I competed.

 

YES... funny you say that but now I remember the color and yes, very few. side note... my dad was looking to get a new corvette in 1995. We went to this dealership that had every available color/style including a few ZR1s in stock on the lot...

He narrowed it down to to cars, Admiral Blue (1006 were this color in 95) and Dark Red Metallic (1437 were this color in 95)... I pushed for the Torch Red ZR1!

He went with the DRM since the AB was too close to the color of the IROC!
----------

20K in the stereo I hope you are going back to original... thats just IMO but 100% stock is for me...

 

It will look "somewhat" original.

I'm designing a "stelth" looking sub box and keeping the new stereo to under $3k.

 

Got out today and did a little cleaning on the car while my shoulder was still working.

Old 3rd brake light. Painted the license plate holder a while ago with black tremclad.


Decal installed. Also lens cleaned with Mothers PowerPlastic.



Old front marker light


Look a lot better with the Power Plastic and mini ball. Cordless battery died half way through. Still looks a LOT better though.

 

looks good. i was working on my car today as well. are you not using the aftermarket lens you have for the front?

 

I am. I just wanted to clean up the stock lights for the show in two weeks. I'll be adding the NOS grille and clear side marker lights as well for the show.

On the weekend I'll give the marker lights another pass with the mini powerball and Mothers cleaner.

 

Here are some of the small NOS parts that will be going in during the "live interior build" at Motion Custom Car show next weekend.

We have new power window switches, power hatch switch, parking brake handle, rear coat hooks, emergency flasher button, wiper arm (w/ delay), fog light switch, cigarette lighter, dome light cover, rear hatch light cover, interior screws (& clips), retainers & new white glow gauges.

 

Are all the parts NOS? I didn't think any of these cars came from the factory with white faced gauges, and I thought the gauge faces were actually part of the cluster, not overlays

 

The white gauges were aftermarket from ebay and fit over the factory gauges. They glow either blue or green.

 

Ah ha, cool. How do you control what color they light up, colored bulbs?

 

Looking good. I'm really liking how its all coming together.

 

Thanks


There is a little control box (about the size of your thumb). The box has two sets of wires. One set for the gauges to plug into and one set to power the box via the factory harness.

It has a little dial so you can choose the colour. Blue or green.

 

Installed the NOS Z28 grille (from hawksthirdgen) and the flip down license plate holder (from summit racing).

Going to paint the engine bay in the fall. At the same time the chin spoiler and new front bumper cover will get painted and installed.

 

Well.....the car is leaving tomorrow to go to Motion Car Show in downtown toronto. We are doing a "live interior build" and trying to make the build interactive with the public. All the NOS parts I've been collecting for the past 18 or so months will be getting installed over the course of the 3 day show.

Friday will be the teardown. Everything will be taken out (stripped down to the metal) and the interior will get a layer of Dynamat Extreme (trunk area, floor and sides).

Saturday will see the dash removed (and replaced with a new one), heater core swapped out and some centre console wiring issues resolved. Also, the rear carpet will be swapped out for a new one and the front carpet reinstalled.

Sunday will be spent installing and NOS rear panels, NOS centre console, shifter plate, console lid and switches. New seats going in as will and finish up everything. At he end of the show it WILL be a new interior.

A few pics of all the NOS parts I've collected. I think it's safe to say that I doubt you will see this many NOS black parts together again. The only parts that are not NOS are the door sills and rear trunk panel. Everything else is NOS.

 

Here are some pics from the "live build" so far......

On the way to the show


Laying down the Dynamat Extreme on the back half of the car. 9 sheets (36 sq.ft.) were used. The front drivers and pass. floor were Dynamated as well Two layers were used over the pass floor hump to help with vibration and noise from the cats. Behind the rear seats got the treatment as well.

 

Out comes the dash. We also took the opportunity to swap out the heater core and clean up the wiring (remove old electrical tape and retape the factory wires together) as well as a GOOD clean.



New dash is in. All the parts (upper console, shifter plate, power window and hatch stitches, bezel, console lid) are NOS (brand new). We also changed the delay wiper arm and hazard button with new ones. :shock:



New white gauges. I used some Mothers Plastic Polish to clean the clear gauge face and bring it back to new.



Powered up 8)



Will post more pics when we finish the interior today.

Would like to thank Dave (the white bandit) for helping with the Dynamat (it was very much appreciated) and Chris (Sunny) with the teardown. Also would like to thank Ross for helping the the heater core, wiring issues and electrical.

So far it is becoming a CCFBG team effort

 

doing some great work man, keep it up and keep posting those pictures!!! I love how its turning out! -Matt

 

Here are the panels installed and seats roughed in (I still need to swap the seat tracks). A few panels didn't line up properly so I still need to massage them, install the clothes hooks and install the panels that go under the dash.

All in all we got a lot accomplished over the course of the show. Thanks to Steve S. and Dan for their help with the interior on Sunday

Thanks to Nick for the Disco ball. 8)

 

Few more pics of the finished interior

 

Huge improvement!! Ill bet that was fun putting your new interior in during the show.
Just noticed that you seem to have solid plastic where I would normally see sail panels. Was your car a radio delete? Dont usually see many of those.

 

wow that looks awsome!!!

Is it hard to remove the licence plate thingy? lol

 

he put in nos panels so im guess theyre a cut them yourself kind of deal

 

The interior is looking real good.I like those gauges too.

 

The panels are NOS and that's how they came. I kept some old panels and cut out the speaker part to use as a template in case I want to put in rear speakers and attach the original sail panels. The NOS pieces also have an inprint for the clips for the roller shade. I'll probably put the roller shade in later.

Thanks...the license plate holder is secured in with two bolts dripped in thru the underside. It can be removed in about two minutes with a socket.

I bought it from summit. It also comes as an electric version if you want to impress the crowd.

Thank you. I picked up the gauges on ebay for about $30.00

 

That all looks great IMO. I'm really liking what you're doing with the car and I think its great that you're taking the time to take all the great pics and document the transformation not just for your own records but for us broke #@$#@#@ that can only dream of being able to do a teardown like that.

Only question is: Why use all those NOS parts if the seats, gauges, and part of he door panels are custom? Not trying to nit pick just curious. Either way, like I said before the car looks amazing. Two thumbs up!

 

Lopedawg......truth is, after I finished competing in IASCA (car audio) I noticed that a few panels had scratches on them. and I went looking for replacement panels. I found 3 panels in Ohio (6 hours away). The panels turned out to be NOS!

After buying the panels and driving home, I thought to myself that I should replace the pw switches. I went looking for some and again started thinking about getting some NOS ones (mine had no white picture on them).

After that I just thought to myself "why not restore the interior with NOS (snce I was almost half way there)", so I did. The custom touches were for my own preference but once I started hunting for NOS I jsut kept going until I had everything (kind of got carried away). The panel that covers the rear hatch motor is not NOS but it's a 9/10.

I've always tried to keep to a monthly budget on buying parts or having work done. This way I stay involved and I don't go crazy with the spending