When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Originally Posted by amlv20
Great work! question, what gauge sheet metal did you use for your fire wall repair and what size flux core wire did you use?
That was quite a long time ago, so to be honest my answer would be a best guess at this point.
Think the flux core was 0.035". Think the sheet metal was maybe 16 gauge...??? I don't know sheet metal thicknesses off the top of my head.
I do remember calipering the metal, and stepping up to the closest thickness I could find at Lowe's.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Custom door panels ordered from Hawks. Arm rests are Big Al's Carponents with opener and light. Nice billet pieces. Wood block will be upholstered with Corbeau seat material to match front seats and custom backs, as well as center arm rest.
Last edited by dennisbernal91z; 02-15-2023 at 08:43 AM.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Those look pretty good! ...can I ask about the panels? When you say "custom" from Hawks, did you spec the materials? What are your thoughts on Quality?
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Originally Posted by dennisbernal91z
Corbeau seats! Getting close to test fit time so I can design the center console and door panels. Brackets DS didn't fit. In my opinion donor car they used to design them was messed up. My car, to the best of my knowlgde is straight and crash free. PS and DS dims match for mounting studs. Corbeau has a different dim for front DS spacing. This is wrong. After a call to them, concluded that drilling out mount hole for 2 holes by 1/16" will do it. It worked.
Which seat brackets did you use for your Corbeau RRX's? I have heard that Hawks suggests using the 4th gen. brackets, while Corbeau recommends the 3rd gen. brackets. I asked the sales rep. at Corbeau to measure them and the 4th gen brackets are 1/2" shorter. I am curious as to your thoughts on this.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
I used the 3rd gen brackets that they make for our cars.
I still stand behind my theory that their donor car they measured to make those brackets was messed up. Or someone made a typo/miss-measure. We are all human.
In the end the suggestion of drilling out slightly worked. No big deal. Quick spray paint prevents rusting over time.
Would order again. Quality is great for what you get. No "frills" seats that are made by a reputable company. I used to have some no-name seats and man, you get what you pay for.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
ACC carpet ordered thru Hawks. Added mass backing and loose insulation. Options added to make it feel more like OEM. Think it feels even better than stock. Holley discontinued their stainless long tubes, so plan be was these Stainless Works units from Hawks. The welds look amazing.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Finally getting around to adjusting the final interior panel. Glued fleece, resin already applied here. Then some short strand bondo. Followed by normal bondo. Aeromotive 15 gallon 340 stealth fuel cell Confirming the Holley duals slip fit connection installs onto the Stainless Works long tubes.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Final rough in of all the rear custom panels. Far from perfect, but with zero experience and all home made, more than happy with the outcome. 2 coats of high build primer and tossed the parts back in to take a look. Some minor touch ups needed here and there, but for the most part done. Hopefully next step is shooting single stage black. Want to sort out that filller panel behind the headliner first. Think everything stock is going to get hit with 80 grit, 2 coats of primer then single stage black.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Away from the car for a couple weeks on vacation and looking into some odds and ends to pass the time.
What are you all running for aftermarket axle housing breathers? Seem to be lots of opinions online.
My Moser 12 bolt had a small brass hose barb fitting. I had a tube on that and a small air filter years ago.
It worked fine but I think I tossed them during a garage cleanup. Want to know what I should pick up.
I also snapped the brass hose barbs off so I have extract that first.
The rear end will be its own mini project as I need to sand it all down to get the old POR-15 off of it and get it ready for some Eastwood Chassis Black 2K paint.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Originally Posted by dennisbernal91z
Corbeau seats! Getting close to test fit time so I can design the center console and door panels. Brackets DS didn't fit. In my opinion donor car they used to design them was messed up. My car, to the best of my knowlgde is straight and crash free. PS and DS dims match for mounting studs. Corbeau has a different dim for front DS spacing. This is wrong. After a call to them, concluded that drilling out mount hole for 2 holes by 1/16" will do it. It worked.
Great build up! What model # are those seats? Thank you.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Nice progress, I see you went with the hawks header for the blackheart duals and it fits the collector - any idea if there will be any fitment issues with the xmember/frame rails? or did hawks confirm that they will fit? I haven't gotten a chance to talk to Bruce about this yet but I would like to order the blackheart system, if it can fit with the hawks/stainless works headers!
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
No idea about final fitment. I am still wrapping up interior and then moving on to fuel system stuff before getting to that.
But from the images online and instructions, the Blackheart system mounts to the x-member with a hanger. So if any adjustment is needed, it would be between that and the collector, but I won't know for quite a while since I would need a motor in the car for a final check. Won't be ordering the motor till next year most likely....
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Just about done stripping the Moser 12 bolt clean to get it ready for a fresh coat of primer. Also fixed the stripped out vent fitting. Will post pics when I have some ones in primer.
In other news, gauges! (Dakota Digital) Took 7 months to get these, they finaly showed up! Down to the basement with the rest of the parts.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Finally working on the car again! Rear end is basically stripped. But painting will be too much work in a single day after work so I am breaking the job up into chunks. Eastwood epoxy primer. 2 coats.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Rear suspension trial fit has begun. Next is the exhaust trial fit and rear shockwaves (air bag over shock). This is all to ensure the fuel cell fits in just the right place with no clearance issues. Then I can fabricate a frame to mount the cell, before moving onto the front suspension.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Finally getting back to working on the camaro. Took a break to get married and get a new job.
Test fitting the Founders torque arm cycling the suspension thru its full range of motion and found it to hit the tunnel. Called Founders and they told me I needed to use the inner mounting holes with the Moser 12 bolt I have. I forgot to ask for a template of where to cut, but after some careful measurements, I think it came out great. This added a lot of clearance by the rear, but there is still significant rubbing up front, by the seat brackets. I hammered the floor a bit. Today I will fabricate a spacer for the front TQ arm mount to offset that a bit and see what clearance it gives me. Will start with MDF and if it seems promising, I transfer over to aluminum.
Pics of all that to come. Want the bags to be able to be resting on bump stops if possible. Good chance the wheels won't let that happen, but impossible to know now since I will buy custom wheels later.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Finally getting back to working on the camaro. Took a break to get married and get a new job.
Test fitting the Founders torque arm cycling the suspension thru its full range of motion and found it to hit the tunnel. Called Founders and they told me I needed to use the inner mounting holes with the Moser 12 bolt I have. I forgot to ask for a template of where to cut, but after some careful measurements, I think it came out great. This added a lot of clearance by the rear, but there is still significant rubbing up front, by the seat brackets. I hammered the floor a bit. Today I will fabricate a spacer for the front TQ arm mount to offset that a bit and see what clearance it gives me. Will start with MDF and if it seems promising, I transfer over to aluminum.
Pics of all that to come. Want the bags to be able to be resting on bump stops if possible. Good chance the wheels won't let that happen, but impossible to know now since I will buy custom wheels later.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
[QUOTE=dennisbernal91z;
Pics of all that to come. Want the bags to be able to be resting on bump stops if possible. Good chance the wheels won't let that happen, but impossible to know now since I will buy custom wheels later.[/QUOTE]
A note from my experience. Custom wheels are measured between the tire beads for size, but backspacing includes the inside bead. Example: I ordered 11 inch wheels with a 4/7 split, so I quoted a 7 inch backspacing, whereas I should have ordered a 7.5 inch backspace. With tires mounted, they are flush with the fender lip and will not tuck into the fender. A 7.5 inch backspace would have given me the half inch of clearance that I originally wanted. It all worked out for me because my springs are stiff enough to minimize wheel travel, but with bags you are going to want the wheels to tuck up under the fenders. I hope this helps someone from making an expensive mistake.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Originally Posted by dennisbernal91z
Thanks for posting about your experience. I am not 100% sure I understood the lesson learned. Need to think about it some more
It is a bit hard to explain, which is how I made that mistake. I'll try again. If you need a 10 inch wide wheel with 0 offset, you would order it with 5.5 inch backspace. With a 5 inch backspace, the wheel would have 1/2 inch of negitive offset, pushing the wheel outboard. The wheel manufactorers do not explain this, and they don't want to talk about offset, so you have to be very careful when ordering custom wheels.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
I am slowly looking around for options and really like billet specialties. But am on the fence. I want the car to look a bit crazy since it is just a show car, and think 21" rears would help but they only do 20s and 22s. 22 is too big, and 20s seem a bit small for the look I am going for.
Anyways, there is a good chance I will stick to 20s since I want my steering wheel to compliment my wheels and billet specialties sells nice steering wheels that match some of their rims. I like the Hydro, at least for now.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Cutting out some metal to see how much space is needed. Critical to have reae end centered at this time. Speeday rim simulator in. Just messing around.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Stainless dual Blackheart Holly exhaust test fit. Apart from the stock screws and hanger I needed this thing went in amazingly well. Not adjusted, just getting a general idea so I can fabricate the fuel cell cage for the Aeromotive 15 gallon cell next. Fun seeing stuff in the car, been too long.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Originally Posted by DynoDave43
So do those bags expand with air pressure, and if so, does the manufacturer give you a dimension for this?
Yes they do expand. Since taking these images I rigged up a test manifold so see just how mush wider they get.
The manufacturer said 4", but that was years ago and I forget if that was inflated or not. I installed my minitub way back in 2018.
Back then I asked exactly that and was told that 4" so that is how far in a cut for the minitub.
I can share pics of the inflated bags soon. They constantly change diameter. When the travel is maxed out, and the pressure is around 90psi, they are the thickest of course.
I am keeping them in as I start planning my fuel cell cage, but not at that psi. Maybe more like 50psi. You can watch them shrink as the air dumps.
When they are at their thickest, I can still slip a wooden ruler between the bag and the mini tub wall. Maybe a bit more. Not sure if this is enough, but will not worry about that now.
If it turns out more clearance is needed, then I will redo my clearance work, and add more. This will increase the chance that the rims could hit something when taking them off if the car is jacked up or something, so not high occurrence and too high of a damage risk.
But would be great to minimize.
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Just took a closer look at that last pic I posted. The bags are in fact inflated there.
Now that I have the rear of the car off my make shift rotisserie, and on jack stands, I can raise and lower the rear with shop air.
Only issue is geometry gets a bit out of wack if I go too low since the front is still being held up by my other make shift rotisserie.
Once the fuel cell is in, I will move onto the front suspension. Then I will be able to really test things out!
Re: My 91 Z28 build. 17 years in the making... Finally going to do this right
Beginning to make the frame for the Aeromotive 15 gallon fuel cell. Tubing is 1" x 1" x 1/8" thick. Welded all with my cheap little flux core welder. The cell is spaced away from the metal tubes with 1/16" thick rubber adhesive tape. This tape will eventually line the frame so there is no cell to frame contact. Throw back to the past. On the right is my old fuel cell cage made from angle iron. It worked, but I never liked how flimsy it was, and how the metal frame contacted the aluminum cell. The old design had the cell inert from the bottom and then get closed off with piece of sheet metal. New deign inserts the cell from the top, then the cage will be sitting on a shelf under the car, that it will be bolted to.
01-19-2023, 03:48 PM
