Building my 1967 Camaro - retrospective - Episode two - mechanicals and interior

Episode one, purchase and bodywork.

Episode two, mechanicals and interior.

Episode three, final details and the finished car.

Bonus episode, LS conversion.

Double bonus episode, converting the 4L60e tailshaft housing to a mechanical speedo drive.

Triple bonus episode, the details leading up to the purchase of this car and what it meant.

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I'm taking the time machine back to when I built my 1967 Camaro convertible, now more than ten years ago. Today's episode covers the mechanicals and interior.

Before I went with the LS swap the motor was a mid-seventies 350:

I sent it off to the machinist but told him I wanted to put it together myself. So when I got it back my son and I assembled it:

Before the motor can go in the firewall and frame need to be pretty:

You'll notice that the body is still in its black original paint. It was still my plan at this point to simply upgrade the essentials without blowing the whole car apart. But painting the firewall and the frame is a "while-I'm-at-it" situation:

Now it's time for some new parts:

If I'm going to do the brakes, while I'm at it I might as well upgrade them to slotted and drilled rotors. I also put in 2" lowering springs, new ball joints and tie rod ends, the idler arm, and A arm bushings. Later I upgraded to a 1" anti-roll bar. All the bushings are polyurethane.

And it doesn't make sense to buy new tires for the stock rims when alloys are in the car's future, so out came the credit card for wheels and tires:

The steering box is a later OEM power box with a quicker ratio. I bought it from a local auto parts store, part number 276550. It requires fitting adapters to connect to original style flare fittings. It's a really nice box without the over-boosted feel of the earlier boxes.

While I'm at it I might as well clean up the gas tank:

And since I'm under the car I decided to paint up the undercarriage. After all, what sense does it make to put in a painted gas tank and new brake lines on a scuzzy frame? I spent a long time scraping old undercoating off:

I initially re-used the mono leaf spring with lowering blocks. But I soon upgraded to multi-leaf springs with a 2" drop. I never did anything to the diff except change out the fluid. I did have to buy new parking brake cables, shocks, and rear drums. 

I had a drive shaft someone had given me, and it was already the right length! So I brought it to Powertrain Plus in Belgrade and had them put in new u-joints.

I dropped the motor in, and it looks good:

I ran this set up for a few years then decided to upgrade to a serpentine system:

This is an OEM system I bought on ebay. It comes on tuned port injection (TPI) engines from the early 1990s, which makes is a no-brain bolt on. It even has provision for an AC compressor. This was a wonderful upgrade and is highly recommended.

Once the motor is in it's time for the brakes, radiator, exhaust, and wiring:

I also got a new heater core and blower motor. The booster, master cylinder, proportioning valve, and brake lines were all part of the disc brake kit I bought on ebay. The aluminum radiator is also an ebay purchase.

It's at this time I'm beginning to abandon the idea of a quick upgrade. This has now turned into a full-blown project. So out came the seats in order to paint up the floor:

I also decided to spring for an OEM tilt steering column. I found it and the brake pedal on ebay:

The wiring kit came from EZ wiring. They make a really nice harness for a much better price than Painless.

You might remember from the first episode that the car originally was a three speed manual on the floor. I changed to a TH350 because I want the wife to be able to drive it. The friend who bought my 1967 coupe wanted to upgrade to a 700R4 so he gave me the old (rebuilt) transmission. Lucky me.

Also from the first episode remember that I did a temporary paint job. But I also bought an upholstery kit and rebuilt the front seats so that I could drive the car. The temporary paint was just that: Temporary. So I did the bodywork and sent it out to paint. When it came back I put in the interior:

The console gauges are typical aftermarket temp, oil pressure, and voltage units that came in a package. They just happened to fit the holes in the gauge housing, and really look good. I bought the kick panels on ebay, removed the guts from the air vents, and installed speakers behind the louvers. The console came with the car, although it did not come from the factory with one:

So many of the little parts like door handles, window felts, emblems, seat belts, dash pad, carpet, door thresholds, locks, bumpers, gas cap, and dash knobs were purchased on ebay and also Rick's.  Convertible top was done by Mike Wood.

Next episode: Final details and the finished car.