Building my 1967 Camaro - retrospective - Episode three - final details and the finished car

 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.

-----------------------

This episode has a couple of construction details, but it is mostly a photo gallery of the completed car. 

The evolution of the completed car includes the LS conversion:

and the addition of rally stripes (See below). I also made a couple of modifications, like trimming the rear wheel lips to stop tire rubbing and adding frame connectors: 

I recycled the exhaust kit from when the car had the 350 engine. After the LS went in the exhaust pieces sat on the shelf in my shop for a year and I used a pair of purple hornies as temporary mufflers. The original headers I bought for the LS hung down too low, within a couple of inches to the ground, so I really couldn't drive the car, let alone adapt the exhaust system to them.

So once I got fed up enough I bought a new set of "shorty" headers from ebay:

This was a much better arrangement. It's is a pretty nice kit and includes all the pieces needed for an install. The spark plug wires are clear of the pipes and the left side goes in right past the steering box and stays wide of the transmission.

But because they are shorties I needed to modify the exhaust:

I tucked the exhaust up close to the floorboards, then made a turn up and to the center, entered the frame tunnel above the floor brace that convertibles have, and installed the mufflers in the two recesses in the floorboards under the rear seat and just forward of the rear axle. I decided not to continue over the axle because I did this with my previous Camaro and there is just not enough room around the leaf springs. So I terminated in front of the axle with some stainless steel tips.

Once they were tack welded I removed them to finish the welding:

Then some paint:

And here they are installed:

That is the ground clearance I needed! You can see one of the purple hornies on the floor. And you can see the convertible's floor brace. It's a tight fit.

And the interior:

And the convertible top:

I don't have a lot of pictures with the top up, because it's a convertible... you drive a convertible with the top down.

Here's the completed car, without rally stripes:

My son got me a gift certificate for Christmas 2019:

Ran out of gas one fine summer day, but it's a good view of the stripes:

The stripes are applied like a wrap, not painted. Since the car is not out in the daylight day after day, the stripes should hold up. And four years in they still look good.

So this concludes my Camaro build.  The final three episodes to follow: The LS conversion and the modification of the 4L60E transmission to accept a mechanical speedometer drive, and the concluding episode, an essay regarding the noble tradition of building cars and the legacy they create. This essay includes a description of the inaugural drive of the car.