The Story of My 94 Z28 - Lots of Pics

[SchaefZ28]

Disclaimer: LONG story LOTS of pictures!
Posts 1 & 2 are the history of everything leading up to what I have been working on this summer.. This will also serve as a build thread for all the changes I am in the process of making right now ;)

Well, I guess I will start with some back story on myself and the car. I bought it back in March of 2006 when I was 18 for $3000. It was my first real car, and I was loving it... Talk about a HUGE step up from the '89 Taurus I had been driving! It had 143,000 miles and was completely stock with the exception of the Moroso cold air intake. It needed a few things that my dad and I replaced right off the bat: 4 new tires, ball joints, fuel pump, a piece of window trim, a clip on the driver's door switch, and we went ahead and did an oil change and changed the transmission fluid for piece of mind.
Here are a couple pics shortly after buying it, and cleaning her up a bit.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_1592.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/2007misc002.jpg

I really did not know much about cars before I bought the Camaro, much less how to work on them.. Pretty much everything I have learned is from my dad, or by spending countless hours reading forums and other articles on the internet. I have a great sense of pride in knowing that all the work that has been done on this car was performed by my dad and I, and I surely couldn't have done it without him. So, THANKS DAD.
Speaking of my dad, later on that same year, my parents bought a beautiful, '02 pewter WS6 TA, with about 17k miles.. It was (and is) in mint condition, with ebony leather interior, and a 6 speed manual. I had never driven a manual before, so every once in awhile I would get to drive the TA somewhere with them, and I slowly got the hang of it.

...After driving that, my old auto Z28 started to feel inadequate..
I didn't have a lot of money laying around, so the only thing I did to the car for the next few years was normal maintenance stuff. The clear coat began to flake off the driver's side fender just a few weeks after buying it, and it slowly got worse and worse. Currently, there is almost no clear on the fender, the door looks terrible, and there isn't much clear left on the hood. I also had an area of paint about the size of a softball break off of my front bumper after hitting a raccoon.. So needless to say, I have been wanting a paint job for a long time.

It was about the summer of 2008 (I think) when I was considering selling the car so I could buy a different f-body, with a 6-speed. I was tired of looking at it, and the automatic just wasn't doing it for me anymore. Then when I got home from work one night in early September, I went to back into my parking spot, and I feel a big *thunk* when I stick it in reverse. It had the forward gears, but lost neutral and reverse.

So then my options were.. 1) sell the car for next to nothing. 2) rebuild the auto with a stall and shift kit. 3) do a T56 swap.

Within a couple weeks we had the parts for the swap shipped up from Texas from a member on here. We then spent the next 3-4 weeks doing the conversion in the garage up on jack stands. I got a great deal on a brand new Hurst shifter that the local GM dealer had in stock for years, and to go with that I bought a short stick from the ws6store. It felt great to drive it again after being down for so long, I loved my car again!
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3127.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3123.jpg

The stock clutch we put in during the swap didn't last all that long before the throwout bearing went out, and we replaced it with a used SPEC stage 2 clutch that I got from a member on another forum. I also got a starter from him to replace mine, since it wouldn't engage every time.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/specclutchstarter.jpg

I hated this clutch.... It chattered bad on slow take offs, and creeping through a parking lot or through traffic sucked. But I've managed to live with it so far for over 20k miles... lol.

The following winter my dad found a '96 Z28 a few hours away in Indiana, and we went over there and brought it home for $1500. The car was in ok condition, but it had some issues that needed attention. It didn't run, the previous owner said it just needed a fuel pump.. So we put in a new fuel pump, and it fired right up. My dad did some more work to it, fixing all the little issues until it was right. It was then sold to a local kid for a small profit.. but not until after I got the graphite leather interior out of it! The seats show some slight wear, but there are no rips or anything. The carpet was junk.. so new carpet was an order, as well as a recovered headliner. This was also the year I got a 98+ SS spoiler! It really makes the back end look much better, imo. I also swapped the smoked glass t-tops with the dot matrix style that were on my car. I like being able to see out of them rather than trying to look through a bunch of tiny dots.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3086.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3105.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3116.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3131.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3129.jpg

I also stole this little guy from the 96's throttle body, and hand polished it up!
I don't think I would spend the money on one, but it was free, so why not make use of it?
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3112.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Now that the first post has been approved by a mod I'll continue with the rest..

Little by little the car was starting to come together.. Man did I have some big dreams for it.. Patience and planning is the key!.

Now the winter of '09-'10 rolls around, and I have started to accumulate some exhaust parts down in the basement. The centerpiece being a brand new set of pacesetter ceramic coated long tube headers that I bought from someone on a local board for a good price. I picked up the Y-pipe, also new, from a different person on the local board. Both the magnaflow catback and the QTP electric cutout came second hand from members on another forum.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/exhaust1.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/exhaust5.jpg

Then finally I bought some Prothane motor mounts, ARP bolts, Felpro gaskets, and a bunch of band clamps from Summit to complete my installation.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/newparts.jpg

Here she is with the new exhaust setup in spring of 2010. Ground clearance is excellent at stock ride height!
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3595.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3593.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3592.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/100_3598.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/0911101416.jpg

I LOVED the new exhaust, and one of my favorite mods for sure is the electric cutout! It's pretty neat changing how the car sounds with just the flip of a little switch in the ash tray. :notme:

I also found these pictures of some other stuff I did at some point:
Polished up a Trick Flow elbow I got off ebay to replace my torn factory elbow. Here's a before and after, I did the inside too:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/trickflownew.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/trickflowpolished.jpg

This is the piece of the Moroso CAI that mounts to the body of the car to separate the filter from the intake tubing... mine was a rusty POS. So I scraped all the rust scale off, then sanded it down as best I could.. then fiberglassed over the whole thing. I had never worked with fiberglass of any sort, so this was a learning experience. I put in a lot of work, and I think it turned out great! Plus it will never rust again ;)
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/0413001207c.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/DSCF0638.jpg

Finished product:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/DSCF0648.jpg

I think the only thing I did to it this past summer was a HID conversion for my low beams (5000k), because I was tired of the terrible lighting, and I hated replacing a crappy light with another crappy light when it burned out. I will eventually get HIDs for the high beams and the fogs if I decide to put them back on. I do have 1le fog delete vents though, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/DSCF0901.jpg

Aaaand finally.. This last picture leads me to about March of this year. I am finally going to get it painted! BUT, there is a lot of stuff I need/want to do before it is all said and done. Here you can see all the insides of my car laid out on the driveway.. From what I recall, it all weight about 225 pounds.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0301121505.jpg

[Fastbird]

Very nice. Looks like it was a good car to start with at 3K and you've done a lot of great work to it.

[Badbird_96]

Nice I was waiting for the second post to comment lol

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks :) there is still a lot left that I need to post.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0531121852.jpg

This has been the resting place of my car for the past 5 months.. After pulling the interior, there was a lot of rust to deal with before I could get it painted. One hole through the passenger side floor board, the same spot on the driver's side was almost as bad. The wheel wells were by far the worst spots though.. Pics of all the rust coming up....
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1420.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1364.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1374.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1368.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1375.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1370.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1390.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0609121722.jpg

I guess I didn't take any pics of the wheel wells until we started working on them, but we had to replace a lot of metal.. At this point, I would probably be better off swapping my good parts over to a different car... but this car has a ton of sentimental value to me, and I didn't want to get rid of it. So me and my dad went to work on trying to repair as much rust as possible.

I sanded down as much as I could on the floor boards to find out where we need to patch in some new sheet metal.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/088.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/083.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/084.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Here is the passenger's side wheel well after some patchwork. You can see the large piece we had to cut out of the top.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/076.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/099.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/075.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/074.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1415.jpg

I don't have any pics of the driver's side in this stage, but it was nearly as bad as this one. Here it is with some self etching primer sprayed over all the bare metal. We had to make a new bracket to hold the wheel well plastic that covers the charcoal canister, since it was rusted beyond use.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1403.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1406.jpg

The rust repair took quite a long time, since my dad was doing all the welding, and it was hard to find time to work on it when it wasn't too hot out. Especially considering we had a two week stretch that was 100+ every day.. We were mostly limited to early mornings on the weekends, so it took awhile.. but definitely worth it. After tearing so much of the car apart, I decided that it must have had a pretty hard life. The driver's side quarter panel had been replaced, the driver's side inner fender has been patched, and the passenger's side rocker panel has a nice long dent in it from when a previous owner ran over a curb or something...

[SchaefZ28]

I guess before I get too far into this I should outline some of the goals I am trying to accomplish with this project..
1) I want to protect the car from any future rust.
2) I want to make it feel more substantial, quieter on the inside, less rattly, and just more of a nice solid car.
3) I want people to be able to look at it, and not believe it has over 200,000 miles ;) (sitting at 194k and some change right now)
4) I want it to look not stock, but still close to it. Tasteful mods that remain true to the car.


On with the progress pics!
Here is the few patches we made to the floor boards. The two larger ones are doubled up, since it is where the subframe meets the body. We cut out the rust, then fit a piece on the bottom layer and welded it in, then fit a piece to cover the hole in the floor board, and welded that in. Then button welded them together.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0618122001.jpg

Since we were basically done with the patchwork at this point, I started to scuff the remainder of the interior and hit it with some self-etching primer.http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0707120742a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0707121050.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0707121051.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0702121754.jpg

I also put down some regular primer where I was planning to put down some seam sealer, since it says on the directions not to use it on top of a self etching primer.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0702121957.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121846a.jpg

By this time, I had started in on the undercarriage..
It pretty much went in stages: Clean & degrease - wire wheel/grind whatever rust I could reach - sand - self etch primer - regular primer where I was going to use the seam sealer - seam sealer - two coats of Rust Bullet - top coat or two of Rustoleum semi-gloss black.
I'll start with some pics after I had started to clean it up some:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1394.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1392.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1391.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121846.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1393.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Now for some primer and seam sealer... I wanted to try to seal up any body seams and crevices where water/salt would be able to get into and cause corrosion.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121630.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121629a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121628.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121627.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121629.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121848a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121848b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121847b.jpg

I put some on most of the seams on the interior as well.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0720121502.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0720121501c.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121847.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121855b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0709121846b.jpg

Then I brushed on a good coat of primer on the interior.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0720121753.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0720121753a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0720121752.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Now that the priming and sealing was done, it was time to break out the Rust Bullet protective paint. It's supposed to form a solid barrier from the elements, and is also resistant to solvents. I can tell you that the latter is true, I got a little on my shirt, my skin, and the concrete.. that sh*t doesn't come off. It's a good thing I was wearing gloves, or I woulda had silver all over my hands for a week. :laugh:
So hopefully this is some good stuff.. It says to use two coats, so that's what I did. I only had one quart, which wasn't enough for two coats on everything, so the majority of the undercarriage got a double coat, except for the areas where rust didn't appear to be much of a problem - driveshaft tunnel, and up around the transmission. Sorry about some of the blurry pics, they were taken with my phone.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726121708.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1464.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726122017b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1466.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1467.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1470.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726122017a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726122017.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0726122017c.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Progress had been going pretty good, and it was finally time for the final layers of paint. I went with Rustoleum semi-gloss black for underneath, and a Rustoleum red for the interior. Not that anyone will ever see it... but that's besides the point.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0821121811.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0821121810.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0821121809a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0730121939c.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/117.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0730121939b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0821121812.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0805121604c.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0805121604b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0805121604a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0805121604.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

This almost brings us up to date on all my progress this summer..
I pulled off the sway bar end link brackets and the panhard bars, and sand blasted them, primed, and painted gloss black. If you noticed some of the new bolts in the previous post.. I replaced almost every bolt/nut/washer/screw under the car with stainless steel. $$$ but I think it was well spent.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0713121115a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0713121859.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0821121706a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0824121433a.jpg



Now for the fun part!
I replaced my old chattery clutch with a new stock replacement from O'Rielly. I hope it holds up good.. I was so tired of the Spec clutch, I just wanted something that would drive nice and smooth. I'm not making a ton of power, so I don't think I'll have a problem with it slipping, but we'll see I guess. I got the transmission put back in a couple weeks ago.

That Saturday afternoon I spotted something on Craigslist... A complete rear end with 4.10 gears for $200. I jumped on this and immediately contacted the seller. He said all the internals had been replaced, and only had about 7k miles on them, the housing and axles had ~135k. This was perfect, because I have been itching for some different gears - I still have 3.23's in my stock rear, which also has a leaky pinion seal. So on Sunday morning my dad and I drove over to St. Louis to pick it up.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0826121335.jpg

It needed to be cleaned up, so I ran a torch over it with a wire brush to get rid of the grease & rust scale.

I was planning on doing this while the car was away for painting, but I talked to the guy who is going to paint it and he has a couple other small side projects he needs to finish up, so it'll be a couple weeks before he's ready for it. No matter, that just means I'll try to get the rear cleaned up and swapped out before paint! Maybe I ought to look for an ls1 aluminum driveshaft too while I'm at it?

Here are some pictures of the car as she sits right now. No bumper covers or fenders, no interior except for the dash..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0823121345b.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0823121346a.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0823121345a.jpg

I will probably also get around to putting some undercoating in all 4 wheel wells before paint too. I think they do a pretty shitty job of undercoating at the dealer, or wherever they did this at. So I'm going to do my best to make it look good... I already sprayed some Rustoleum rubberized undercoating in the rear passenger's wheel well, but I was a bit disappointed in how it turned out. It's nice and black, but it's not as 'chunky' as I was expecting. Like it doesn't match the existing undercoating very well. So I'm going to try to find something else that will match better...

[SchaefZ28]

Here are some pics of my 'parts stash' I have in the basement :cool:

UMI 3-point subframe connectors I've had sitting down there for quite awhile, and an OEM hood from a 97 SS. (Thanks SoulReaver!)
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3853.jpg

I picked up another right side fender this summer to replace mine, since it is ripped along the bottom. Most likely happened the same time they mashed in the rocker panel.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3851.jpg

I also got another tail panel from the junkyard for pretty cheap. I'm going to have the white one painted gloss black.. that way I'll be able to change between black and red whenever I feel like it. Right now I think I'll be using the black one, with some stainless CAMARO inserts..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3850.jpg

My c5 z06's that haven't been on the car in a year..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3852.jpg

And here you can see the spare LT1 and all the pieces that go with it... just waiting to be rebuilt.. one of these days..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3849.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3854.jpg


I also cleaned up the new rear end while I was out at the house. I got it pretty clean, and now it's ready for some sand blasting.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3859.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3860.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Last Thursday I finally got the rear end sand blasted:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1655.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1657.jpg


Then primed:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1665.jpg


Then a single coat of semi-gloss black rustoleum. I'll eventually get 2 or 3 coats on there before I install it.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1666.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1667.jpg


And all of my parts showed up just in time for my birthday!
The TA cover is a present from my wonderful girlfriend.. :)
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1658.jpg


Also, here are a few pictures of the undercoating I did in the passenger side wheel well. This is with the rustoleum brand undercoating. I was disappointed in how thin it came out, but I guess I should have expected that out of a spray can. The idea is to cover up everything so it looks like factory. Hopefully the 3M Body Schutz I got will work out a little better.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1652.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1651.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1649.jpg

[noice]

Great job on the car! Lots of work, but at least you are getting the experience. I have a 94 that was totaled by some kids, so if you need any items for your car let me know, cause I'm giving the body to a friend at the end of the month.

[Chris]

Holy time investment! Car is going to be like new come time, and all the prevenatives awesome

Sent from my Galaxy IIIs via Tapatalk

[meissen]

Awesome work so far! Looking forward to seeing the future progress updates :D

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks guys. I have definitely put in a ton of time on it so far this summer, and it feels good that I'm almost coming into the home stretch.. I hope to never sell this car, so I'm doing whatever I can to make it last ;)

Noice, what kinds of parts do you have / are willing to separate from the car? I could use driver's side door switches (PW, PL & mirrors); stock bose speakers; and both brackets that hold the fenders & bumper on. Off the top of my head.. lol


Update: I did a little work yesterday.
Painted my rear swaybar - gloss black
Painted some misc. brackets
Sprayed some of the 3M Body Schutz undercoating --- THIS is some good stuff! It should cover those patches in the wheel wells with a couple of coats, and it matches the look of the factory undercoating very well! I'm going to order a couple more quarts, and hopefully that will be enough to finish all 4 wheel wells.

I'll get some pics the next time I'm out there

[noice]

Noice, what kinds of parts do you have / are willing to separate from the car? I could use driver's side door switches (PW, PL & mirrors); stock bose speakers; and both brackets that hold the fenders & bumper on. Off the top of my head..
It is a 94 convertible, I have have only removed the motor trans and 12 bolt. I sold all of the suspension and brakes. The interior is leather (dark grey). I have all the switches as well. How hard are the bumper mounts to get out? I can give you the mirrors and switches for sure. For really cheap, I have a bunch of stock parts that I just want gone too.

[SchaefZ28]

It is a 94 convertible, I have have only removed the motor trans and 12 bolt. I sold all of the suspension and brakes. The interior is leather (dark grey). I have all the switches as well. How hard are the bumper mounts to get out? I can give you the mirrors and switches for sure. For really cheap, I have a bunch of stock parts that I just want gone too.

The mounting brackets aren't too bad to get off. Mine are rusted to hell / have broken studs. I picked up two more from the junkyard, but didn't realize that the ones off a firebird are SLIGHTLY different until i got them home. Where are you located btw?

[noice]

The mounting brackets aren't too bad to get off. Mine are rusted to hell / have broken studs. I picked up two more from the junkyard, but didn't realize that the ones off a firebird are SLIGHTLY different until i got them home. Where are you located btw?

NW Arkansas. I'll take some pictures of what is on the car and you can let me know if there is anything that you can use.

[SchaefZ28]

NW Arkansas. I'll take some pictures of what is on the car and you can let me know if there is anything that you can use.
Alright, that sounds good.

Here's a pic of a little something I picked up today:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/ALDS.jpg

Stock aluminum driveshaft from an ls1 SS

[SchaefZ28]

Update:

I installed my TA cover today! It went on with no real problems. I took the stock cover off, drained the fluid, cleaned all the old rtv off, and chased all the threads in the housing to clean out all the crap. Then I installed the bearing cap stud kit, and used some red high temp rtv to make the new gasket. Put the new cover on, torqued all the housing bolts down, then finally torqued the load bolts to 5 ft/lbs & snugged up the jamb nuts. The only thing left to swap out the rear ends, fill it with fluid, and take it for a test drive.. up and down the driveway.. lol. The only slight problem I ran into along the way was putting on the e-brake line brackets. The kit includes a couple thick spacer washers and longer bolts for those two holes. Well, the thick washer was too wide to fit in the hole of the bracket, so I was going to put the spacer washer on first, then sandwich the bracket with a couple flat washers... I didn't think it would be a problem since it only calls for 25ft/lbs for those bolts, but the bolt ended up trying to draw down through the washer, ruining it. I'm going to get some grade 8 washers to make sure the bracket is secure before it goes on the car.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1686.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1692.jpg


And here are some pictures of stuff I did earlier this week.
Painted the rear sway bar
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1682.jpg

Painted the bumpstops, exhaust hanger brackets, and sway bar mounting brackets. And I also chased the threads to get them good and clean.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1691.jpg

Here's a few pics of the 3M Body Schutz undercoating I was talking about a few posts ago. This is only 1 coat in the rear wells and it covered pretty good. It will get another coat or two to really cover up the patches. Two more quarts of this stuff arrived today, so I am looking forward to spraying it. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town all weekend so I won't get to work on the car at all until next week sometime..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1675.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1677.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1678.jpg


Finally here's a better picture of the ls1 driveshaft, and comparing it to the stock steel one. The aluminum shaft was missing two of its U-joint caps when I bought it... so I picked up a new U-joint from O'Rielly's, $11, not too bad. Not really looking forward to replacing that, it sounds like a pain in the ass. Right now I just stuck the caps from my stock U-joint on there. It would probably work just fine like that... but it just doesn't seem like the right way to go about things to me.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1683.jpg

[SchaefZ28]

Update for today..

I used up the other 2 quarts of undercoating that I bought. I went through about a quart and a half on the front wheel wells, then did a little more in the rear... I am thinking 2 more quarts should be enough to get everything covered & built up just how I want it. That will have to wait until I get it back from the painter however, because I should be bringing the car up to him either tomorrow or thursday! :finger:

Right side:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1694_zps26619bf3.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1695_zps0942c3ba.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1696_zps2f0eb1d3.jpg


Left side:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1698_zpsefe57617.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1700_zps128d7e00.jpg

[popo8]

love the coverage of ur progress....


cherrish the time with ur pop.... ur a lucky guy having the opportunity to do this stuff.


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[SchaefZ28]

Yesterday: Car is all loaded up and ready to go! We fought the storms and I got the car loaded up with all of its body parts, and put on the car dolly. We put the SS hood in the back of the truck, and off we went to the painter's house! He is only about 15 minutes from my parent's, so it was an easy drive. Once there, we had to wait out some more rain but finally got the car into the shop.. I should have the car back sometime next month. Until then I might go up there to get some progress pictures every once and awhile.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0925121658a.jpg





I should have had the car there last Thursday, but I got everything put back together to take it for a spin down the driveway... and it wouldn't start. :doh:

After a couple attempts it started up, but the idle quality was terrible. My first thought was: "hey, someone stuck a cam in here while I wasn't looking! :laugh:"
It started smelling of gas and smoking a little bit so I shut it down. I looked around underneath the car, and noticed that the heat shield on the passengers side was wet. It smelled like gas.. Dad suggested I check some of the spark plugs, so I went back out to jack up the car, now a stream of gas poured out the driver's side header!? I pulled all the plugs, and a couple on the left side were wet, the rest looked ok. Initially I was thinking an injector was stuck open... It had been about a month since the last time it ran.

I turned the engine over by hand, and a good amount of fuel came out of cylinder #5, and the rest were dry. I cycled the key to 'on' to prime the pump a couple times, and turned it over a few more times. Now I had gas coming out both sides of the engine! Time to pull the fuel rail & injectors... I got all of the injectors out of their holes, and put paper towels under them. Then I had my brother turn the key on so the fuel pump would run. We did this a few times for good measure, and no gas would ever come out of the injectors. I turned the engine over again, and got lots of fuel out of the cylinders. What is going on?? I was lost on how fuel was getting into the engine with no injectors installed....

Just for kicks, I pulled off the intake elbow, held open the throttle body and looked inside of the intake with a flashlight while he primed the pump again. A stream of gas shot out from the right side of the intake! Surprised the hell out of me lol. So now I know where it's coming from, but why? I found the vacuum hose it was coming from, and followed it around the back of the intake to the fuel pressure regulator. Apparently the regulator crapped out in the past month of sitting. Not a big deal since we have a disassembled LT1 down in the basement.. I took the fuel rail off my car, and swapped out the regulator with the spare one. Hooked the fuel lines back up and did a test run to make sure it was good before putting everything back together. I didn't get gas shooting out all over the place, so we're good to go! I got everything put back together, and changed the oil and filter since I know there had to be some gas in the oil now.. and it started up and idled perfect, on the first try! That's always a good feeling ;)

FINALLY, it was time to go for a test drive down the driveway (1/2 mile). I tried to sit on a bucket, but I was either too far from the pedals, or way too close, so I gave in and went downstairs to grab a seat to bolt in. Man did it feel great to drive it again! The clutch is nice and smooth, just the way I wanted. I wished I could have drove it around on the road for awhile, but with no bumper covers or fenders, I didn't think that was a very good idea, plus it was starting to get dark. This was on Monday evening, and I called the painter to let him know I'd be there the next day. Now all that is left to do is wait, and tie up a few loose ends while the car is away.

[SchaefZ28]

No real news today. I am planning on going to visit the car this weekend though to take some pictures of the progress. I went ahead and ordered HIDs for my high beams and fog lights, so all my lights will match finally :laugh:

Here's a before and after pic of a couple brackets I found at the junkyard. They are for mounting the fenders/bumper cover, and mine were either rusting away or had broken studs.

Sanded:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/1004121430.jpg

Painted:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/1004121806a.jpg

*** I originally got a pair of brackets off a firebird, not realizing they were different until comparing them when I got home... so I have these brackets for a firebird if anyone needs them!

[SchaefZ28]

Paid a visit to the painter today. I wanted to take some progress pics, and write him a check for materials.
No work on the actual car just yet, but he's been working on getting the panels sanded down. There is a lot of stripping to do on the areas where the clear coat was coming off.

On with the pictures..
Front Bumper still has a little more work to be done. Some more sanding, and the two screw holes filled in for the license plate bracket.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3866.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3869.jpg


The two tail panels, the red one had clear coat issues to deal with. The white one will be painted black.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3872.jpg


The camera didn't focus very well, but this is the corner of my spoiler that was damaged.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3870.jpg


Driver's side fender has had almost everything stripped off it, the passenger's side was in better shape.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3882.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3884.jpg


Here's the rear bumper cover, it had a little bit of damage to it.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3885.jpg


Last but not least is the new hood. The damage to the corner has been fixed most of the way, it just needs a little more work underneath to make it perfect. The rest of the hood is in pretty good shape, just needs to be sanded the rest of the way.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3888.jpg


It was nice to see some progress on the car now that it is out of my hands. I've been waiting a long time for this, and it's finally getting done! :D He is hoping to shoot some primer soon, and have a coat of red down by next weekend, when I will stop by again.

[Greg08]

Your work with painting is spot on man. What equipment do you use?

[SchaefZ28]

Your work with painting is spot on man. What equipment do you use?

My index finger mostly :finger:

Actually the only work on the car I'm not doing myself is the body work and paint on the exterior, a local guy is doing it as a side job. I'm not sure exactly what type of equipment he has..

All the painting I've done (interior and underbody) was with a paint brush, or with spray paint. Nothing fancy. The undercoating I used a spray gun hooked to our air compressor. It's made to screw onto the bottle of undercoating, and it just siphons it out; very pleased with how it came out :)

[Greg08]

nice man! so you do all the prep work and give it to him for the coats?

[SchaefZ28]

nice man! so you do all the prep work and give it to him for the coats?

Everything before post #27 was done by me in my parent's driveway. In post #25 you can see everything I took off and loaded up in the car prior to bringing it to the painter's house. Now the car is in his possession and he did all the sanding in post #27 on the body panels. He's going to do all the prep and body work so he can paint it -- front & rear bumpers, hood, quarter panels, fenders, tail panels, etc. There is some damage to the right side rocker that he's going to fix. Then he's going to take off door handles, antenna, window molding, mirrors, and whatever else needs to come off before he paints it. Once it's painted and cleared, I'm going to go help him put the car back together and he's going to buff & polish it. Then I get to bring it back home and do more work getting the rear ends swapped out, putting the new shocks, control arms, SFCs on, etc, etc, etc.

[Greg08]

great! what color are you going with??

[SchaefZ28]

I'm just going to be staying with the factory red color

[SchaefZ28]

Ran out to visit the car today, here's a few progress pics:

Both fenders painted
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3894.jpg


Rear bumper painted
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3895.jpg


Red tail panel painted
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3893.jpg


Underside of hood painted
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3892.jpg


He was filling in the license plate holes in the front bumper when I was there, he's still got a little more work to do on it and the spoiler before shooting them with some primer. The extra tail panel is also in primer and ready to go, it'll get painted black whenever he sprays the black on the front bumper. Once everything is painted, all the body parts will get moved to the other garage so he can get started on the body of the car.. The long dent in the rocker panel needs pulled out, and there are a few small dents on one quarter panel that need a little love. Other than that, the rest of the car is pretty straight. ETA on completion is still about 2 more weeks... CAN'T WAIT!

[Fixxer99TA]

Damn, lookin good... keep the updates coming...

[bigz28man]

looking great man, your Z is coming along nicely. cant wait to the finished product. what are winter plans for it?

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks guys. I'm not really planning to do anything to it this winter, as I most likely won't have a place to work on it. Once I get it back from paint, I need to spray some more undercoating in the rear wheel wells, then I'm going to swap the rear end out, along with the new LCAs, rear shocks, and install my subframe connectors. Once it's able to be driven again, I'm going to work on installing some sound deadener before I put the interior back together. I'll most likely drive it until there is snow on the ground, then it'll get parked.. Once spring comes around I'll work on getting the front shocks installed. I'm still undecided on if I want to keep the stock springs or not. IF I do decide to lower it, I'll order some Strano springs, and an adjustable panhard rod when the time comes.

[SchaefZ28]

Well, I was really surprised today when I went over to the painter's to check up on the progress. He's ALMOST done! 95% of the painting is done, all he needs to do is paint the door handles & locks, then do a final sanding and buff everything. It's going to be some late nights over there this week getting everything put back together.. I should have the car home next weekend to spray a little more undercoating, swap out the rear end, and put on the rear shocks, LCAs and SFCs. :D :D

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3899.jpg


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3905.jpg


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3906.jpg


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3907.jpg


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3908.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3909.jpg


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3900.jpg


It was hard to get a decent picture of the rocker, but no more huge dent!
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/100_3902.jpg


I also mocked up my high beam and fog light HIDs to make sure they work while I was over there. :)

[bigz28man]

Hows your project coming along? Its looking great, its good to see someone else is at the same spot as i am with body work. Any new photos? When do you expec the car to be completed, mine should be done by next friday.

[SchaefZ28]

Yeah it's pretty cool that our projects are going on at about the same time, I have been keeping up with yours as well. I'm expecting to bring the car home this weekend, and be driving it towards the end of next week. I didn't take any new pictures when I was out there earlier this week. I started to reassemble the car while he was busy buffing it. I got both the fenders put on on Monday, and wired up my new HIDs for the fogs & high beams and tucked everything away so you have to look hard to tell it doesn't have stock lighting (when the lights are off anyways lol). Then on Tuesday I installed the front bumper, rear bumper, and tail panel. We also removed the stock hood, and took off the hinges and other hardware so they could be painted before being swapped onto the SS hood. He still needs to paint the door handles and locks, and do a little something with the area inside the hatch where the quarter panel meets up with the rest of the body, and buff/polish whatever he has left. If I don't hear anything from him today, I will probably go up there tomorrow to check things out. I'm pretty excited to get it back and on the road again..

[SchaefZ28]

Well I took a trip to to the painter's today. He had the door handles and locks painted and reinstalled. I reinstalled the marker lights and turn signals and a few other small things while I was there. Then I let it idle outside the garage just for the sake of letting it run, and snapped a few pics. We got the hood bolted on, but we're waiting for his son to do the adjustments to make it fit just right; since he's the one who always does that sort of stuff. Just a few loose ends to tie up and I should have the car back home later this week..

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3919.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3920.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3914.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3911.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3917.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3915.jpg

[popo8]

lookin good... thought I saw a gloss black berger in the pics.

[SchaefZ28]

lookin good... thought I saw a gloss black berger in the pics.

You did, it's just not on the car yet ;)

[gunters96lt1]

Wow this car looks awesome man!!

[popo8]

You did, it's just not on the car yet ;)

Gotcha.. so you have both??? Awesome...interchangeable...

[SchaefZ28]

Gotcha.. so you have both??? Awesome...interchangeable...

Yes, I picked one out of the junkyard and had him paint it black, because I wanted that interchangeability.. berger to stock in about 15 mins in the driveway :)
I am planning on using the black one once I get my emblems.. I'm leaning towards stainless CAMARO inserts, and '69 style Z/28 emblems for the rear and fenders, and a stainless/black etched nose emblem.

Thanks gunters! It's slowly coming together..

[SchaefZ28]

Brought her home tonight! :)

Work starts again tomorrow - hopefully.

To Do List:
Remove rear end
Additional undercoating in rear wheel wells, etc.
Paint stock rear springs
Install: new rear end
rear bilsteins
UMI LCAs
exhaust system
heat shields
all wheel well / under car plastic pieces
UMI SFCs
C5 Z06 wheels
DRIVE

Begin applying the sound deadener
Speakers?
Put the interior back together

Here's some pictures: (they aren't the greatest quality.. I'll use the other camera next time)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3931.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3930.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3924.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3922.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3928.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3929.jpg

[popo8]

Wow... Lookin real good.

So glad to see all these revived and refreshed ltx cars lately...


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[SchaefZ28]

Here's a few pics of the work I did this weekend. I didn't quite get as much done as I was hoping, but I'm still shooting to be finished up enough to get some driving time in late this week.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3933.jpg


Here you can see the area where the spring and shock sit into. I got both sides cleaned up and painted today. I also painted the springs, and the brake rotors..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3944.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3943.jpg


As you can see, there is some red overspray on my undercoating, so I'm going to spray some more to cover that up. I was wanting to build it up a little thicker under there anyways. Hoping to do that tomorrow.. but they're calling for rain.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3937.jpg

[popo8]

Movin right along man....


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[Badbird_96]

See basically what you have going on is what I've been planning for my z. I'm going to do a 97 swap as well as 6spd swap and full tube suspension with a watts link and the triangulated sfc and probably a sportline lowering spring setup.

Looks good and make me wish I could start tearing mine apart.

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks, and getting started is the hardest part! Did you get your abs inop light taken care of? I need to do that too, I've been driving around with no abs or cruise control for a couple years now.. lol.

[SchaefZ28]

No rain today, so I was able to get the rest of my undercoating sprayed today after work. Most of my time was spent masking everything off really good. I didn't want to get any undercoat on my shiny new paint..

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3949.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3953.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3956.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3957.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3958.jpg


I also got a package in the mail today :)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3959.jpg
Thanks to Roger at Emblem Pros, they look great!

[popo8]

At this point its def in the details... lookin fantastic

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks, I'm a very detail oriented person.. if you couldn't tell. :laugh:

[popo8]

Thanks, I'm a very detail oriented person.. if you couldn't tell. :laugh:

Its obvious... you thinkin about bringin it to the shoot out in 2013...( even if you dont race)

[SchaefZ28]

Possibly.. I think it'd be fun. I will just have to see what's going on when the time comes around.

[popo8]

Possibly.. I think it'd be fun. I will just have to see what's going on when the time comes around.


Id love to see this year as the biggest turn out yet.....

A lot , carshow, cruise full of the baddest LTXs around....

Sorry for the off topic, just want to see this thing in real life...

[Badbird_96]

A lot , carshow, cruise full of the baddest LTXs around....


And some not so bad ltxs lol hoping mine is h/c/I but with the possible new car I know where my time will be devoted lol and it won't be the z.

Oh and btw those emblems are sweet I think I need a set although a little different color oriented lol

[Neil350]

Looks awesome, a lot of work but it's a really nice car

[SchaefZ28]

So I did some work the last couple of days.. I got all the new stuff installed, and all the old stuff reinstalled. Then I put on my wheels, and finally got to drive it down the road.. The good news is that nothing fell apart, and everything seems to be working ;) The bad news is that the rear howls like a banshee. However it might seem louder than it really is since the only thing in my car right now is a seat and the dash :rolleyes: Regardless, I'm glad I will be laying down some sound deadener in the coming weeks.. I'll just have to double it up back there or something.

A few issues I have to fix still:
- Wire in a relay to fix the cruise/ABS INOP from my SS spoiler
- Figure out why my brake lights mysteriously stopped working
- Figure out why the rear corner lights & license plate light aren't working
- Re-download some tuning software and drag my desktop outside so I can correct the speedo (my laptop bit the dust)
- Figure something out with my right side SFC. The center mount isn't lining up half as good as it should be. (left side fits PERFECTLY) I emailed UMI about it Friday night, so hopefully I will hear something back from them this week.

Then finally wash her and install my new emblems...

Anyways, on with the pics!

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1739.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1741.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1744.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1742.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1753.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1752.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1751.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1750.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1749.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1748.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1747.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1746.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1745.jpg

[popo8]

Very nice!


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[Badbird_96]

Finish it finish it

[SMok3 Em A11]

Awesome work dude your hard work has definitely paid off.

[SchaefZ28]

Little update:

- Brake lights not working was a blown fuse -- Fixed
- Marker lights and license plate lights not working was a lose wire in the connector of the harness -- Fixed
- Just spent all of tonight trying to get the speedo dialed in. Best I could do using tuner pro rt was within 1-3mph of the gps I was using (tomtom)
- Wired a relay into the SS spoiler harness today too. My ABS light is off for the first time in a few years.. :claps:


Still to do:
- Begin laying down the sound deadener (it arrived today)
- Probably grind on the SFC to get it to fit

[96transformula]

Everything looks great man. Job well done so far and nice to see someone takin the time to do things the right way unlike most people who only half ass it

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks guys. Very rarely do I half ass anything :laugh:

I've spent the last few days scraping the glue off my back window. The tint had been slowly falling down from the top of the window, so I finally pulled it all off.

Yesterday I started to put down some of the sound deadening mat. I got quite a bit more done today, but I forgot to take pics.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3985.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3988.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3993.jpg

[popo8]

Keep the pics coming....

[SchaefZ28]

I haven't done a whole lot on the car lately, been busy with other things. I do have more of the RAAMmat bxt2 layed down, but I don't have any decent pics of it to post up. My goal is to go slow with the sound deadening and interior installation to try to eliminate as much noise, squeaks, rattles, etc that I can. Really thinking about the autotrix passenger window wiring kit while I have the door panels off as well..
I got all my emblems put on, and swapped the berger panel on too the other day. I think the only other thing I'd like to add to the exterior is a stainless "Hurst Equipped" emblem under the left taillight.. and maybe smoked turn signals eventually. I'm still up in the air on getting lowering springs or not.. It seems like the car looks much higher in the pictures than it does in real life :laugh: I do still have about another 250lbs to put back into the car.. and plus, I wouldn't do springs until after winter anyways.

Thanks to Roger at emblempros for making some awesome stuff for these cars..

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_3998.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4000.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4009.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4002.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4004.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4006.jpg

Work has slowed down on it lately since it's starting to get cold out. I'm finally getting around to doing some much needed (and admittedly neglected) repairs on the festiva this weekend to get it ready for winter. But I'll continue to update this thread whenever I get something accomplished!
;)

[SchaefZ28]

Well it looks like the weather has finally decided that it's spring... So it's time to start working on the car again. Fortunately, I have a new (better paying) job this year! Unfortunately, that means I have less time to mess with the car. But I'll get it done sooner or later.

Easter was the nicest day we've had so far, so I took the opportunity to wash up the car and stick on my new hurst badge.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/DSCF1784.jpg

Then tonight I put down another couple sheets of the raamat. I'm hoping to work on it for an hour or two after work on most nights..

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/102_4066.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/102_4062.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/102_4063.jpg


I'm also going to have to remember to take a few pics of a few other goodies I picked up over the winter..... ;)

[SchaefZ28]

I think I've got enough of the raamat on there, now I'm moving onto the ensolite. Going for as much coverage as I can get with this stuff, so it's gonna be tedious in some areas. I've got about half of the trunk well covered. I'll get some pics once I get a little farther along..

As promised, a few pictures of the goodies I found over the winter....
My seats are in pretty good condition. They don't have any tears in them, but they have some wear, of scuff mark, or something on the bolster. I found these in a partout, and for the price I couldn't pass them up, as they're as close to perfect as I think I'm going to find.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0217131615.jpg

I also scored a few more parts from the same partout.
A set of Hotchkis sway bars for a price I couldn't pass up. From my reading, it sounds like the rear bar is a little larger than it really ought to be, but I'm going to run it and see how it goes.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/2013040695211253.jpg

Pretty good deal on this adjustable panhard bar too. I went ahead and picked it up. I'm still on the fence about getting lowering springs for when I change out my front shocks. I think a set of stranos would be nice stance wise, but I'm looking for comfy ride quality above anything for right now..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/20130406_211338.jpg

I'm also pretty excited about the steering wheel I got out of that car too. Mine has 200k miles of wear on the top left side of the wheel, and this one is in really good shape. Unfortunately forgot to get a pic of it.

Finally, I got these bad boys from a member on here for a hell of a deal. Brand new Manley 6" H-Beam rods. They'll have a spot on the shelf for the foreseeable future..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/0130131931.jpg


I wanted to get some more done on the car tomorrow, but unfortunately I need to try to fix the turn signal mechanism on the Festiva. It broke when I was leaving work yesterday, so I was stuck holding the stalk in place the whole way home or it would hang down and the left turn signal would stay on .. ugh.. :( So this likely means a trip to the junkyard in hopes that they still have one out there. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a stalk that has intermittent wipers too! LOL.

[Noah's95z28]

Love seeing the updates on this car. Keep up the good work!

[popo8]

great update. .

im assuming u have an engine build planned for the future???

Any ideas yet?


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[Sahara54]

Awesome build. Can't believe I haven't looked at this in awhile. The new rear shot with the black berger is on point.

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks guys.

As far as the future engine build goes... I have no timeline for that yet. I have a complete LT1 torn down on an engine stand at my parents house. It had a blown headgasket and bent a rod. So I've been buying quality used parts here and there when I find them for a good price. So far I have an ARP head bolt set, 7/16" rocker studs, trickflow guideplates, and those manley connecting rods. It will most likely be 355ci, stock crank (if it checks out), forged rods and pistons, ported stock heads with a street friendly cam. Basically a fun street motor that I won't have to worry about breaking. Of course nothing is set in stone, so things may change.. but that's the idea for now.

[SchaefZ28]

Here's what I've done so far with the PS Ensolite. Probably used up about half of what I had. I might have to order some more, we'll see. I'm trying to get the large areas covered, then go back and fill in all the gaps.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4087.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4088.jpg

Would have probably got a lot more knocked out today, if I didn't have to fix the turn signal mechanism on the festiva.. BUT, I did find an 80's mazda 323 to pull the turn signal/windshield wiper mechanism out of. So I killed two birds with one stone.. It now has working turn signals aaaand intermittent wipers, hurray. Having 2 speed wipers (fast and faster) sucks.

[NuckinFutz93]

WOW! I'm loving your work and enjoying your updates! I'm fixing to do a complete restore on my 93. Glad You saved another Z28 and fixed it right! Great work!

[SchaefZ28]

Little update: I used up all of my PS Ensolite today.. I think I might order some more so I can finish up the doors and fill in some of the gaps i left. Here's a few pics..

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4099.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4099.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4097.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4097.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4105.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4105.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4109.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4109.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4111.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4111.jpg.html)

[SlickWilly]

Im surprised you didn't take the hump out.

[popo8]

How much weight has all that added.

great coverage tho.


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[SchaefZ28]

The hump?

I don't know how much all that stuff weighs, I'll have to try to get the car on a scale once it's all put back together

[SchaefZ28]

I just looked at the material weight on the website.. for how much I've used, I think a good estimate would be about 50 pounds

[SchaefZ28]

Yesterday I washed the car and put my speakers back in. By comparing my speaker harness with the one I pulled out of a 5 speaker car at the junkyard, I think it won't be too difficult to splice the 5 speaker harness into my existing one.
Pro tip: The 3 speaker bose cars have only one amp located in the sub box (which powers the sub), and have 5 pin wiring connector coming out of the box. The 5 speaker bose cars have 2 amps located in the sub box. One powers the sub, the other powers the sail panel speakers, and have 2 wiring connectors coming out of the box. One is a 9 pin, and the other a 2 pin (additional power/ground). I always assumed they were the same *shrug*.
Figured I'd throw that out there since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information on the 93-96 camaro bose systems..

I also installed my hotchkis sway bars lastnight. The install didn't go quite as smoothly as I thought it would, but overall it wasn't too bad. I twisted one of the stock endlinks in half, and the other side I had to cut off. Then there was a bracket on the front driver's side that does who knows what.. It was in the way when I was trying to get the stock bar off, then I had to cut a notch in it so it would clear the beefier hotchkis mounts.. Oh well. I have to say though, the bars seem to make a huge difference. I didn't get into any twisty roads, but I made a few sharp jogs on a country road to test 'em out. The steering feels much snappier and precise than with the stock bars. Maybe I'll do a little cruising today http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_driving3.gif

I also ordered some more PS ensolite from Raamaudio, and the autotrix passenger window hotwire kit & 4 locking lug nuts from the ws6store.. So I should be getting that stuff in the mail sometime this week.


Does anyone have any pics of a factory bose sail panel speaker? Specifically the wiring connector on it. Also I am looking to buy 2 of them!

[SchaefZ28]

I wired up the autotrix 'window fix kit' last saturday for my passenger side window. I can't say for sure if it made the window go up and down any faster.. It is however the same speed as my driver's side window, which I think this driver's side was a little faster before hand. Oh well, it certainly didn't hurt anything, and maybe I won't ever have to replace a window motor again... http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/gr_jest.gif The install went pretty smoothly, and I think it turned out pretty clean. Here's a shot of the engine bay connections. It'd hardly be noticeable if it wasn't for that inline fuse holder.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4133.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4133.jpg.html)

Got both the doors done. I got a very satisfying *clunk* when I close them now :nod: Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will try to fill in all the other little areas I missed inside the cabin.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4134.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4134.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4144.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4144.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4140.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4140.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

Got the rest of the interior put back together today! Feels nice driving a whole car again. :)

Here's some final pics of the ensolite before the carpet goes in.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4148.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4148.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4155.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4155.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4149.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4149.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4145.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4145.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4146.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4146.jpg.html)


And here's some pics I took today

Old dash pad came out in several pieces....
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4184.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4184.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4183.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4183.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4188.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4188.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4187.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4187.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4185.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4185.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4192.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4192.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4195.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4195.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4196.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994 Camaro Z28 Restoration/100_4196.jpg.html)

Now that it's back together, I do think it needs a little drop.. That will wait until sometime this summer though when I'm ready for another project. Besides, I just spent my strano money on some new golf clubs :cool:

Still need to give it a good wash and wax, tint the windows, and get a decent sunshade to protect my new dash pad.. Also make a shim for my right rear caliper, and fix my A/C.. It's like a never ending list isn't it?

[popo8]

Its always needing more.. but I gotta say... its like a BRAND NEW CAR!

[SchaefZ28]

Thanks! It's not perfect, and it never will be.. but all in all, I'm pretty damn happy with how it's turned out!

[383z]

Man, I just read and looked at every picture on your build and your making me feel lazy! lol Great looking work for someone that didn't know much about cars.

[Madman337]

Man, I just read and looked at every picture on your build and your making me feel lazy! lol Great looking work for someone that didn't know much about cars.

Have to agree with you there and I could use a tune for mine too.

[SchaefZ28]

Haha, thanks guys! Unfortunately not really any more updates on the car yet. I've been busy renovating a house.. I'm really looking forward to have a garage I can call my own!:finger:

[383z]

Haha, thanks guys! Unfortunately not really any more updates on the car yet. I've been busy renovating a house.. I'm really looking forward to have a garage I can call my own!:finger:

Yes, I understand! I'm starting to tear in to my car and its at a storage right now.

[bigz28man]

I love reading this tread, man you are always giving me inspiration to keep going with my projects. Like today for instance it's 25* outside and I'm insistent on getting things done on my car.

[SchaefZ28]

I love reading this tread, man you are always giving me inspiration to keep going with my projects. Like today for instance it's 25* outside and I'm insistent on getting things done on my car.

Glad I could be of some inspiration! I don't know how you have the motivation to do anything outside when it's this cold out lol. I can hardly remember the last time it was above freezing.. I haven't done anything with my car besides let it warm up once every week or two, nor have I made a whole lot of progress on the house since the weather has been so nasty. At least I finally have the car in the garage though. It only had to weather one of the snow storms outside this year.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/mms_picture.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/mms_picture.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

Rolled over 200k miles today on the way home!

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/200k.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/200k.jpg.html)

[popo8]

Nice!!!!

[07stuntin6r]

Sweet ride! Is the ensolite a sound deadener? Never heard of it before.

[SchaefZ28]

Sweet ride! Is the ensolite a sound deadener? Never heard of it before.

Yep, it was easy to work with too. I've been pleased with the results of the RAAM audio stuff. If I did something about my rear end whine, it'd be a pretty quiet ride..

[SchaefZ28]

So I walked out of work yesterday to find this...

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140822_175733.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140822_175733.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140822_175638.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140822_175638.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140821_174346.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20140821_174346.jpg.html)

To what ever spineless pile of shit side swiped my rear bumper.. Karma is a bitch, and I hope she bites you HARD.

[MeanZ]

Damn, that makes ME sick... can't imagine how you must feel. Sorry man!

[popo8]

Awww man. Sorry.

[SchaefZ28]

So it was brought to my attention the other day that I haven't updated this thread in a long time.. It's crazy how time flies & I can't believe I started working on this 4 years ago!


I did get the rear bumper fixed, but hardly drove the car at all last year. It needed front tires really bad, the brakes felt dangerous, and it was having an intermittent starting issue. Eventually it wouldn't start at all, and so it sat because I didn't have the motivation to get out there and work on it.


Late last fall I finally printed off shbox's optispark troubleshooting guide, and confirmed it was a dead opti. I went and replaced it with one off the spare motor after I disassembled it and cleaned up the rotor, contacts, and put some loctite on the screws.


Fast forward a little bit to this spring: I finally got new front tires - 275/40R17 Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport's, which I have yet to get mounted. I knew I would also need an alignment since my old tires were wore pretty unevenly.. so rather than paying for an alignment when I put the new tires on - then again when I finally got around to replacing the front shocks - I just decided to start taking stuff apart again.


Now I'm knee deep in a front end overhaul...
Here's the last time it will ever look like this!


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160403_115156.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160403_115156.jpg.html)


and all that stuff now out of the way
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160418_132644.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160418_132644.jpg.html)


The plan is to clean up my stock springs and reinstall them on my Bilstein shocks. I am going to cut a little off of them, just so it doesn't sit so goofy-high. I don't really want to lower the car more than ~1/2", or I would just get Strano's. Since the brakes suck, an upgrade is in order. After much deliberation, I'm going with the C5 conversion. It should fit under my wheels without any grinding of the calipers or requiring spacers, and will look good too.


Here's some before/afters of my upper A-arms and an extra set of 98+ spindles that I had picked up at the junkyard awhile back. They came out pretty good for just using a wire cup on an angle grinder. I was considering getting out the sandblaster, but I probably won't worry about it.


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_154032.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_154032.jpg.html)


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_154011.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_154011.jpg.html)


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_173031.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_173031.jpg.html)


http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_173047.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160417_173047.jpg.html)


I have new Timkin wheel bearing/hub assemblies and Moog shock mounts on the way. There's no play in the ball joints or tie rod ends, so they're just getting cleaned up & some new grease.


More to come as parts start coming in & I make a little more progress. Goal is to put some good miles on the car this year!

[SchaefZ28]

So on Thursday my new hubs came in from Autozone. As you can see, one looks great (green studs), the other looks like a cheap knockoff got put into a Timkin box (blue studs).. The iron casting was completely different, the hub itself was different, and not at all the same quality as the other one. They even felt different when you spun them. I was not about to pay the big money for Timkins and get stuck with a cheapo that might be toast in 5k miles..

I took them both back to the store, and after a little discussion, he put in an order for another one which I picked up on Friday. Thankfully it looked exactly like the other good one.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160421_182353.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160421_182353.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160421_182510.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160421_182510.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished this weekend. I fought for what felt like forever with the stock shock assemblies, trying to get everything separated. The nuts holding the top spring mount onto the shock were both just piles of rust, and they had to be cut off with my cutoff wheel. The first one came right apart after the nut was cut loose, the second was another story though. After removing the nut, the metal sleeve of the spring mount was still frozen to the shaft of the shock, no amount of prying was going to get it off. Finally we used a vise, a big punch and a 2 lb sledge to drive the shaft out of the sleeve.

Now that the spring/shock assemblies were both taken apart, I could clean up the lower spring mounts and determine how much I wanted to cut off the stock springs. I ended up cutting half a coil +1.5" laterally. So if the end of the spring was at 12 o'clock, I made my cut around 7 o'clock. This decreased the height of the spring by about 1/2" - from 14.5" down to 14". I also did a little sand blasting on the spring mounts and the upper A-arms.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160423_162844.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160423_162844.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160423_171451.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160423_171451.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_132939.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_132939.jpg.html)

Here you can see the poor condition of the top underside of the wheel wells, where the upper A-arms are mounted. I knocked off the rust scale and then cleaned it up with the wire cup on an angle grinder.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_113753.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_113753.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_113137.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_113137.jpg.html)


Then I primed &or painted everything:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162143.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162143.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162115.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162115.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_163029.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_163029.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162035.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162035.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162042.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162042.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162023.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160424_162023.jpg.html)

I believe I have everything ready to go to reassemble the shocks, but I'm going to wait a few days for the paint to fully cure. Should be ordering brake parts in the next couple days as well!

[383z]

Man, you're getting in there.
Out of curiosity, what type of paint are you using? I plan on doing the same thing while the engine in dropped out from the bottom.

[SchaefZ28]

Man, you're getting in there.
Out of curiosity, what type of paint are you using? I plan on doing the same thing while the engine in dropped out from the bottom.
On these suspension pieces I'm just using Rustoleum satin black spray paint.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[SchaefZ28]

Another relatively productive day in the garage. I flushed all the old grease out of the lower ball joints, upper ball joints, and tie rod ends; put both the shock/spring assemblies together and installed in the car with all new bolts, and did a little amputation on the spindles and applied a coat of primer. Tomorrow I'll get some paint on them and they'll be ready to go back on the car. Then I'll just be waiting on my brake parts to arrive. To be honest, the spring/shock swap was not fun. It felt like something was fighting me every step of the way. Glad that it's over though. Hopefully the front end sits to my liking. Also happy to report that the MOOG upper shock mounts fit perfectly, I've read about some people having problems with them in the past.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_125515.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_125515.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_141424.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_141424.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_181827.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160430_181827.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

Everything is in besides the rear lines!
I've also realized that finishing up this weekend is probably not feasible. I am going to paint the rear calipers red, both caliper mounting brackets & the kore3 bracket gloss black - unless I hear back from this place I called today to get a price for powder coating.

Does anyone have any tips on removing the piston from the bore on the rear calipers? I don't think I can get it powder coated without removing it, since from what I understand there is a rubber seal in there too. I tried compressed air, but it only moves it a hair.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_183141.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_183141.jpg.html)

and a couple mock-up pics to make sure it all fits.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_180305.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_180305.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_175838.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160504_175838.jpg.html)

I got both the rears disassembled tonight too.
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160505_193824.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160505_193824.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

Not a whole lot to report. Car won't be driving this week though, hopefully by next Sunday. I ended up getting a hold of an old neighbor who does powder coating on the side, and dropped off my rear calipers and all the brackets at his house yesterday afternoon. I already had the calipers disassembled, and yesterday morning I went to work on smoothing out some of the casting marks. One of the calipers was much worse than the other.

Before
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160507_095730.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160507_095730.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160507_095738.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160507_095738.jpg.html)

After
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160507_115651.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160507_115651.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160507_115715.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160507_115715.jpg.html)

Neither of them are perfect, but they're much better than before.

My rear brake lines also came in the mail yesterday, so now I've got all the parts I need. In the coming week I should be able to get all the lines swapped and the spindles back in the car in preparation for the brake work.

[SchaefZ28]

Well, I didn't quite get everything finished today. I spent all day in the garage, and I'm close. The brake lines were giving me trouble, and assembling the calipers took longer than I was expecting. I still have the front left stainless line to put on, and the rear braided line from the body to rear end. Then bleed the brakes, tighten up the front sway bar end links and make sure all the joints are greased up. Then go bed in the brake pads and schedule an appointment to get the tires put on and get an alignment done.

I picked up all my parts from powder coating yesterday afternoon. The red isn't a perfect match, but I don't think it will be noticeable on the car. All in all, lookin' good..
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_085936.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_085936.jpg.html)

Calipers assembled:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_115523.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_115523.jpg.html)

Obligatory front rotor size comparison:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_121511.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_121511.jpg.html)

Front:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_142250.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_142250.jpg.html)

Rear:
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_201238.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/1994%20Camaro%20Z28%20Restoration/20160515_201238.jpg.html)

[SchaefZ28]

Got the tires put on and an alignment done Saturday morning. Overall I am happy with how everything turned out. The brake pedal is hard and it feels like I could stop on a dime. The fender gap is pretty close to being even all the way around, which is what I was going for. The front could be just a hair lower, but I'm not about to take it back off just to trim another inch off the spring.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160518_185652.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160518_185652.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160518_194942.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160518_194942.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160518_185631.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160518_185631.jpg.html)

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160518_185621.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160518_185621.jpg.html)


Who needs a truck when you've got towels and t-tops? (actually I would love an old truck) I got a lot of smiles & funny looks while driving these two peach trees home!
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160521_121719.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160521_121719.jpg.html)

I'm glad the work is over for now, I've got a lot of other projects/things to move on to. As for the car, next on the agenda is getting the AC working again before temps start getting into the 90's.

[383z]

Who needs a truck when you've got towels and t-tops? (actually I would love an old truck) I got a lot of smiles & funny looks while driving these two peach trees home!
http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/SchaefZ28/20160521_121719.jpg (http://s372.photobucket.com/user/SchaefZ28/media/20160521_121719.jpg.html)

I'm glad the work is over for now, I've got a lot of other projects/things to move on to. As for the car, next on the agenda is getting the AC working again before temps start getting into the 90's.


WTF!!!!!!!

LMAO!

Thats freaken hilarious! That's one way to do it!