My 69 Camaro Pro-Touring build. Updated 9/30/14

[Sting]

Hows the insurance on a old skool muscle car anyway?
I would love to own a car from the 'muscle' era, but I think here in the UK they are expensive to insure.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Hows the insurance on a old skool muscle car anyway?
I would love to own a car from the 'muscle' era, but I think here in the UK they are expensive to insure.

After years and years of research, trial and error I finally found a fantastic insurance company. Hagerty!!!
When I was thru Progressive I was paying over $150 a month just for the Camaro. And that was if I only insured it for $10,000.
Now I have Heathers 67 Mustang and my 69 Camaro combined at $20,000 worth of value. I only pay $30.00 a month TOTAL for both cars!!!! And thats full coverage too! AND we are both covered. Impossible deal to beat. If you have an old muscle car or collectors car switch to Hagerty!
This year I am upping the total value between the cars to $25,000-$30,000.

 

[BMWteamPTG]

CAMAROBOY69, if only i had the money, id drop by the track and race around with you guys. i have a buddy whod lend me his chevelle without a problem but since im in school and have no money, guess im s.o.l.

have some fun tho man. cant wait to see the complete list.

 

[72ElCamino]

I think I have looked through all of your pics and your camaro looks amazing. I would have to say you probably have the sickest looking camaro I've seen. And I love the primer too . Although I really am curious how the heck you have a new trans am interior in that thing. How did you fit all the connections and what not? You had to have had a huge amount of hours in that thing, unless you found some kind of kit to do it? Also, the exhaust looks great, and not knowing where the rear plate goes on a 69 camaro, it looks stock. Goodness it sounds beautiful


Edit: wow, I just noticed how low your mufflers are!.. haha I see why you dodge the speedbumps now..

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

CAMAROBOY69, if only i had the money, id drop by the track and race around with you guys. i have a buddy whod lend me his chevelle without a problem but since im in school and have no money, guess im s.o.l.

have some fun tho man. cant wait to see the complete list.

Spectators are free so if you decide to go it wouldnt cost a single thing. I could even take you for a ride since I get passengers this year.

I think I have looked through all of your pics and your camaro looks amazing. I would have to say you probably have the sickest looking camaro I've seen. And I love the primer too . Although I really am curious how the heck you have a new trans am interior in that thing. How did you fit all the connections and what not? You had to have had a huge amount of hours in that thing, unless you found some kind of kit to do it? Also, the exhaust looks great, and not knowing where the rear plate goes on a 69 camaro, it looks stock. Goodness it sounds beautiful


Edit: wow, I just noticed how low your mufflers are!.. haha I see why you dodge the speedbumps now..

72 elcamino. Thanks for all of the compliments. They are really appreciated coming from you since you work on your own car too and you can understand all of the hard work involved in trying to do something original. The new trans am interior actually wasnt that bad at all. Probably one of the easiest upgrades in my car. I was the first to do it so no there wasnt a kit. Just like I am the first to do the rear end like that. No kits available. The dash was a little harder but still not that bad. I can install a 4th gen dash and console into a car in only 6 hours. I just did it for my buddies 70 camaro. The front and rear seats are all almost a direct bolt in. The 6 speed T-56 transmission was my favorite upgrade.
THe exhaust has been that low for the last 3-4 years that I have owned the car. The only times they hit is on speed bumps. The camera shots make it looke really low because I set the camera right on the ground to take the pics. It is reallly low though but not terrible. I have around 2-3 inches of ground clearance. Not much but its enough. Thanks again for the compliments and I look forward to more pics and progress updates of your car. 👍

 

[72ElCamino]

Thats neat. Too bad we dont live closer.. I would love to put a newer era dash into the el camino.. but wouldnt know where to start. You said you had trans am seats in their also? Where did you find these at? I am in the process of trying to find bucket seats to transplant into the el camino but havnt had any luck.

anyways... going off your topic their.. what are your next mods to it? and where is the picture of you engine man.. I wanna see that. Is it a 4 bolt main? Also how did you run the transmission? is their a bellhousing that will bolt on a 6 speed? and is the clutch linkage or the whole hydrolic slave cylinder deal? Just out of curiosity.. im not sure if you have answered that before.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Thats neat. Too bad we dont live closer.. I would love to put a newer era dash into the el camino.. but wouldnt know where to start. You said you had trans am seats in their also? Where did you find these at? I am in the process of trying to find bucket seats to transplant into the el camino but havnt had any luck.

anyways... going off your topic their.. what are your next mods to it? and where is the picture of you engine man.. I wanna see that. Is it a 4 bolt main? Also how did you run the transmission? is their a bellhousing that will bolt on a 6 speed? and is the clutch linkage or the whole hydrolic slave cylinder deal? Just out of curiosity.. im not sure if you have answered that before.

I bought my front and back seats including fully functional 3 point seat belts off of e-bay. Even the rear seat belts are 3 point just like a 4th gen.
Since I have my race event in about 2 weeks, I am currently in the process of several major mods. I am converting from manual steering to power steering which is more involved than I thought. Lucky for you, you already had power steering. To do the conversion I needed a power steering box, a power steering pump with 2 return nipples because I am also hooking up a Hydraboost, need the power steering brackets and I need the PS press on pulley. Whew lots to do. On top of that I am converting the brakes to a Hydratech Hydraboost system. It uses the power steering fluid instead of running off of the engines vacuum. Truly the best brakes in the world.
Right now I have the Hydraboost, PS box and PS pump. All I need now are the brackets and the pulley and the conversion will be ready.
My engine is compartment is very very ugly. Yes its a 4bolt main 383 stroker.Approx 400hp / 450lb torque.
The 6 speed tranny came with the bell housing I needed. It is a LT1 style tranny with Viper internals to get the gears I want. I had to buy a different crossmember and a hydraulic clutch slave cylinder set up instead of the linkage. I also needed a new clutch and flywheel that I bought from Centerforce. Dual friction. If you ever get the money this conversion is the best thing you can ever do to your car. I can get 20mpg on the highway with my Camaro. You had lots of great questions and I dont mind answering them at all. 👍

 

[72ElCamino]

So if your car didnt originally have a brake booster so your installing disc brakes too? Or you have disc brakes in the front, you just wanted to go to a better brake booster? No rack and pinion attempt? im suprised.. you fit a viper tranny, and all this and arnt going to try to fabricate rack and pinion? What kind of steering box is it? a tight ratio one? I too am looking for a tighter ratio than the one that is on it. I dont know if that is possible or not though. I wanted to do a bunch more mods to my car but good old dad says "if its not broken, dont replace it" sort of deal.. which sucks.

back on topic again, good luck with all the new mods, Hopefully it will all be smooth sailing putting everything together. You have to keep us posted with pictures and what not.

Edit: what does the hydroboost mount to? the frame? or the steering box or something?

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

So if your car didnt originally have a brake booster so your installing disc brakes too? Or you have disc brakes in the front, you just wanted to go to a better brake booster? No rack and pinion attempt? im suprised.. you fit a viper tranny, and all this and arnt going to try to fabricate rack and pinion? What kind of steering box is it? a tight ratio one? I too am looking for a tighter ratio than the one that is on it. I dont know if that is possible or not though. I wanted to do a bunch more mods to my car but good old dad says "if its not broken, dont replace it" sort of deal.. which sucks.

back on topic again, good luck with all the new mods, Hopefully it will all be smooth sailing putting everything together. You have to keep us posted with pictures and what not.

Edit: what does the hydroboost mount to? the frame? or the steering box or something?

My car had a stock brake booster but it has been bad for years. Even when I raced last year it was bad. My front has disks from the factory. Rear has drums.
The hydraboost replaces the brake booster and it runs off of the power steering fluid instead of engine vacuum. Hydraboost is the best set up in the world that you can run for brakes. Lucky for you I actually took some pics last night of the hydraboost install.
Yes the steering is a quick ratio box. I actually got the steering box bolted up last night. I bought aluminum brackets and an aluminum pulley for the power steernig pump. Should be here today.
Here are some pics that might clear up some of your questions about the hydraboost. I still need to tuck all the wires away and clean up the engine compartment but I will do that once I get all this power steering bolted in.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Well finally some GREAT news!! Got all my parts installed for the power steernig conversion and the Hydraboost install last night and actually took the Camaro for a ride!!! Holy crap I have never driven a single car in my life that stops as good as my Camaro!! Not even my 1996 Formula with full disk brakes or a couple of the C5 Corvettes that I drove stop this good. None of the 4th gen camaros or firebirds stop this good. Massive difference with the Hydraboost set up. Words cant explain the difference in my car now. The brakes almost thru Heather and I into the windshield! To top that off I have to try and get used to the killer power steering. Its seriously like a whole new car. I honestly see no reason to upgrade my brakes any time soon at all. It works so well with stock brakes. I might throw disks on the rear eventually but not for a while. The angle of the PS pump doesnt seem to be a problem yet but I will see how it does on some hard cornering within the next few days. I still need to put some miles on the car to break the Hydraboost in properly.
My bolt in fire extinguisher also arrived last night. Only a few things left on the list before the race event next friday the 14th.

 

[72ElCamino]

awesome man, I bet it makes a huge difference if your brake booster didnt work before. I hate bleeding brake lines though so i bet you had loads of fun with that. Did you have anyone help you? because it would have probably sucked if you didnt.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

awesome man, I bet it makes a huge difference if your brake booster didnt work before. I hate bleeding brake lines though so i bet you had loads of fun with that. Did you have anyone help you? because it would have probably sucked if you didnt.

Thats the beauty of this Hydraboost. It just goes behind your master cylinder so I didnt have to bleed brakes at all.

 

[72ElCamino]

haha, well i bet you loved that. I just remember the horrors of trying to bleed the brakes on the el camino. You said something about the angle of your power steering pump...? What happened there? did the pulleys not correctly align or somethign?

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

haha, well i bet you loved that. I just remember the horrors of trying to bleed the brakes on the el camino. You said something about the angle of your power steering pump...? What happened there? did the pulleys not correctly align or somethign?

I bought the pulleys and the brackets from March. Somehow they gave me the wrong top bracket and that put my PS pump on at least a 45degree angle. I dont know if I have enough time right now to get the correct brackets so i will just run it the way it is for now. Then after the 14th I can look around for the right one.

 

[72ElCamino]

is it a serpentine system? anyways, its at a 45 degree angle, that has to be close to hitting the water pump no?

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

is it a serpentine system? anyways, its at a 45 degree angle, that has to be close to hitting the water pump no?

Not serpentine. V-belt. It is angled the other way. You know how yours is straight up and down. Mine is angled away from teh engine 45degrees. It still works but I think if I take a few corners on the track hard enough that the fluid might come out. I will test it before I get to the track. I will take it into a vacant parking lot and take some sharp turns.

 

[Powripper]

WOW, I just listened to those exhaust vids! NICE!
I thought my car sounded badass!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

The next event is this friday!!!!
I am soo excited and scared at the same time. I got a lot done on the car over the weekend so its time to update the list. I still have some things to do but I should get them all done on thursday since I am taking thursday and friday off of work for the event.
Must do list
1. Finish running exhaust out the back side by side like a Lamborghin--DONE
2. Install Hydraboost and run all lines to Power steering set up--DONE
3. Install power steering gear box.--DONE
4. Install power steering pump onto engine including brackets and belts--DONE
5. QA1 shocks in the rear--DONE
6. DC Control--DONE
7. Fire extinguisher set up inside--DONE
8. Finish welding brackets for fuel cell--DONE
9. Driveshaft loop--DONE
10. Heater core-DONE
Want to do list
11. Sub Frame connectors-Not enough time
12. Flush and replace the T56 6 speed tranny fluid
13. Tow shackle for front
14. Move inside mirror up higher to clear camcorder
15. Aluminum closeout plate
15. Install Wilwood H compound pads on front
Powripper,
Thanks for the compliments on the exhaust.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I dont even know where to begin so I will just randomly babble on.

The Hydratech hydraboost worked perfect!!! Even after each 20 minute session I never had a single problem. I had to add PS fluid because it would come out of the PS pump cap but thats not a big deal and its no ones fault. The rear QA1 shocks were very very nice. I set them to 5-6 on the track and they did real well. 5 on the highway is perfect too. They ride soo nice. I need to get some for the front for sure.

When we got there the track was wet from rain. Then it dried just in time to rain again a few hours later. It rained off and on a couple times.

My car did fantastic. I was allowed 1 passenger at a time so I brought practically everyone out with me. I took it easier than I did last year because I had passengers. Heather went for the first ride on the wet track and my mom was the 2nd person that went with me. Then her brother went a few times then heather again. It was really cool having passengers out there. Even though I was taking it a lot easier on the car it still was way more fun with passengers.

At lunch time we were allowed to load the cars up with as many people as we wanted but could only go 20-30mph. Still really cool because I brought my 2 year old nephew and all the other nephews and nieces with me. At one point I had over 7 kids in my car. And it was great to seee the back 3 point seat belts put to use. They all loved it.

There was a 65 Mustang there that really shocked me. It was the original red faded paint job like heathers used to be. Now listen to this part about that mustang. I get out onto the track and see him behind me quite a ways. I look again and hes right on me. I thought wow! So when he got close enough I let him pass. It was very quite. Not too much longer he blew his radiator and was off the track . So after the race I try to find him in the pits. I look the car over and it looks like a normal mustang with a few dents and original faded paint. Then I look inside. 5 speed manual tranny!! Then.........the engine. DANG! Brand new Mustang engine. Not sure of the year engine but it was from a newer mustang. THen to top that off it is supercharged!!!! Heather said "Holy crap thats a sleeper from hell" lol I only saw him on the track a couple times because he was having a lot of bad luck. I got video of him passing me which I will post eventually. I also have some pics to post.

My friend had his SRT Neon out there and we had a fun battle for a few laps. I caught up to him then eventually passed. After I got stuck behind a car or 2 he caught up again and I let him pass. It was great fun and all on video too. I have a new respect for those SRT Neons. They handle better than I would have imagined.

Here is the best news of the entire event. Heather had sooo much fun and she really really wants to bring her 67 Mustang to the next event. We are going to try to bring it to the upcoming event on June 30th at Grattan. It is not fast at all and only has a 6 cylinder but she will still have fun since you dont need a fast car to have a great time out there.

I will post some pics and videos eventually of the vipers, open wheeled cars and all the other cars out there.

Just wanted to thank Dennis Lex(DLEX) for setting this up and I look forward to future events.


Couple teaser pics from the friday event at Gingerman. I will post more pics when I get them all hosted.
4-14-06

 

[skip0110]

Sounds cool CAMAROBOY 👍 Bet you had tons of fun

I'm thinking the Mustang had a Cobra engine, even if it was just an old 302 that was supercharged, 300-400 hp is a very reasonable expectation from it and I bet that guys surprised quite a few people...

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Sounds cool CAMAROBOY 👍 Bet you had tons of fun

I'm thinking the Mustang had a Cobra engine, even if it was just an old 302 that was supercharged, 300-400 hp is a very reasonable expectation from it and I bet that guys surprised quite a few people...

He would have surprised more people if he actually got thru an entire lap. I was disappointed to only see him get half a lap before somethign broke. This happened both times. I am trying to get ahold of the driver of that car to find out the specs of that engine. Those 65-68 mustangs are extremely light so even if he had 300-400hp it would be an extremely fast car.
Heather actually made the joke about dropping the V8 from my Chevy truck into her Mustang and I just had to say no. I could easily do it but I want her to start out with the slower car and work her way up. My truck engine has somewhere around 275-300hp

 

[Jim Prower]

Say, has that thing been painted? (too lazy to look back, can't tell form the avatar) I'm thinking Penske Sunoco Blue...it seems your car is about as fast!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Say, when are you getting that thing painted? I'm thinking Penske Sunoco Blue...it seems your car is about as fast!

My car isnt that fast. I would really really like to try to paint it at the end of this year after the Woodward Dream Cruise event in Detroit. As soon as I get back from that I am removing the engine, tranny, and tearing the entire car apart so I can paint it.

 

[Jim Prower]

My car isnt that fast. I would really really like to try to paint it at the end of this year after the Woodward Dream Cruise event in Detroit. As soon as I get back from that I am removing the engine, tranny, and tearing the entire car apart so I can paint it.

Cool! going to Woodward! I'll probably get over there someday, though not this year.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I just added a couple teaser pics to post #229 from the 4/14/06 event at Gingerman raceway. Vipers, Corvettes, Lotus Elise......

 

[Jim Prower]

What motors did those little green-and-silver Prototypes have? Do you know?

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

What motors did those little green-and-silver Prototypes have? Do you know?

Not sure exactly but it was some 4 cylinder.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Here are 2 pages of pictures from the Gingerman event on 4-14-06. I will try to get some videos up in the near future.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Havent updated this thread in a LONG time. I have been doing a lot to the Camaro lately but I will keep this post simple and just talk about my recent LED / SMD conversion for the exterior lights. Much brighter and uses a LOT less energy.

Rear lights are LED. Each bulb has 30 LED lights. 18 LED lights facing forward and each is surrounded by 12 more LED lights. 30 LED lights per bulb x 6 bulbs. 180 led lights.

I had to completely modify the rear brake housings to hold the 180 LED bulbs. Involved cutting the back off then screwing and gluing on 16 gauge steel plates. The slotted holes were cut with a plasma gun and dremel so the bulbs would fit perfectly.

Each side marker light has 1 bulb but each bulb contains 5 SMD lights. The rear side marker lights and rear tail lights are 100% complete. Wiring is all soldered, shrink wrapped, and tucked away. All the old plastic colored lenses on my car have all been converted to clear to match the rear tail lights.

Currently working on the front now. When I finish the front of the car I will post more pics.

Build process for the brake lights

Final pics

So here are the pics of the rear brake lights and rear side marker lights.

 

[Fazerfan]

LEDs are very good choice. Also is that the final car color?