Cascade Crew

[aaron_sK]

Must be a circus in town, what is this...



-Mirrors:

You guys are gonna hate it, but I sanded and primed those mirrors:

Three of the four nuts froze at the junkyard, causing the studs to spin out of the mirror housing. I bought some stainless steel bolts and dipped them in JB Weld, then threaded them into the mirrors. After the epoxy dried I cut the heads off of the bolts and rethreaded the tips.


They are totally getting a flat black topcoat and going on the car:



-Frame bracing:

I don't know when exactly the changeover was for GM to add frame bracing to these cars. I know it started on the higher models and went down. For instance Bondo Bucket was an '85 Z28 and had full bracing, Banana was made in the same model year but is a base model and has no bracing. The car I robbed the braces out of at the junkyard was an '87 base model and it had full bracing.

Regardless, the '85 crossmember has holes drilled but not tapped. The frame also has the proper holes in it, and even has the backing plates welded in, but not tapped. Easy fix though:



Shiny! (Or rather matte and not shiny in this case )



-Springs:

Keep falling out of my cars... geez:


Stock '85 SC spring next to Z28 spring cut half or 3/4 coil (note difference in diameter):


A quick video of how to pop springs out safe and cheap using a good chain. If you haven't pulled springs before you can't really appreciate the sudden release of kinetic energy:

http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s131/aaron_sK/85SC/project_1/?action=view&current=camaro_project_2084.mp4

Note my highly technical spring removal tool, which is totally not just a pickle fork slid inside of a steel pipe.

All out:



-Motor mounts:

Have copper washers on the nut-side for some reason...?



-Engine bay paint:

Scraped and sanded:


Degreased and masked:


Primed:


Topcoat:


I went for gloss white instead of machine gray this time. I liked the gray, but it was a little too green for me. I didn't want to use it in the passenger compartment, and I wanted to use the same color there as under the hood, so it all ended up white.

I'm displeased with the final topcoat. I had a nozzle go south on me and spit droplets of paint everywhere. I blended it in with the last remaining can as best I could. I will have to wait for it to dry to tell if it needs a scuff and another topcoat or if it's okay.

[Schultzy89GTA]

ohhhh Nice progress! Looking good

-Schultzy

[RSFreak]

That white engine bay will look great with the black outside.

[chevymad]

Ya.. those white seams will glow in the dark!

[flea]

It'll look like a Tron-mobile

[QwkTrip]

You going all white on the car?

I know that's a border line "Here's your sign" award question, but I will risk it instead of wondering.

[iansane]

Not to be nitpicky, but as soon as you align the front end you're going to find some bananananer left. Why didn't you pull the strut mounts?

[aaron_sK]

[iansane]

[aaron_sK]

[RSFreak]

[aaron_sK]

My unaesthetic build continues...

I asked her for water...
she brought me gasoline...

Fuel tank hijinks:

Things continue to fall out of the car. This tank came out no trouble at all. Must be because I lack an engineering background...


The filler tube tank I got from Mike way back when had a bent flapper that wouldn't close, and the threads on the end of the neck were a bit wonky. My stupid ass figures "no problem!" so I reach for the chain cutter and whack the neck off, intending to swap it with the neck off of the old tank. Then I suddenly remembered why that's a really stupid idea:


So I sat there looking at the two tanks and it occurred to me that the tank from the old GTA was actually kinda dented and beat from being kicked around the floor of the several shops I've had since I got it. It was actually crushed down on one side from me setting something on it at some point.

It also occurred to me that the tank I had just pulled was in nice shape except for having a filler neck that was bent down by someone trying to swap the pump without dropping the axle far enough (thank god they didn't cut a door).

After looking at it a bit I fixed myself a quick filler neck fixin' tool out of some exhaust pipe that Paul had left at my shop:


Perfect alignment:



Gaskets:

The gasket that comes with the Racetronix kit (right, ignore the cut) is a super cheapo crappy one. It had swelled up while installed in the other tank and would not go back in. The GM unit (left) is lined with a wire and has nice alignment tabs. They want almost $17 for it though!!!



Tank vent:

While the tank was out I cut the vent line with my peanut cutter and rerouted it up:


With the tank vent rerouted I removed the hard vent line from under the car, then ran a 1/4" Wix filter above the filler neck:


...and routed the line out through a hole in the gas door liner:



Axle:

The axle prep and installation was a fairly boring affair so I didn't take pictures, save for this one of the new suspension goodies thanks to Paul and Mike:


I will let them settle before I decide, but I think I may need to take another quarter to half coil off of Paul's springs. I am not running any rear stereo or upholstery and this thing sits high:



More paint:

I apparently cannot go an entire day without painting something, so I pulled the strut mounts to make Ian happy and touched up a few other spots:

[Twilightoptics]

No stereo for me either. Just a battery. Which you'll have at some point. Plus get fuel in it, and the engine in it, and everything assembled and driven before you decide. Even weight in the front will bring it down some.

[aaron_sK]

Indeed. I'm in no hurry.

I was shocked at how much the car came up when I gutted the interior. I did not weigh all that came out (went in with all the other dump run crap) but I would guess several hundred pounds.

[Twilightoptics]

And subframe connectors with dual bracing.

[RSFreak]

[chevymad]

Aarons a carpenter right? Why did I suddenly have an image of 2x4 subframe connectors....

[iansane]

[aaron_sK]

[Alphius]