By Tommy Parry
This ‘67 Camaro isn’t the first impressive car in Scott’s collection. His first ambititous build was a Factory Five Cobra with a Coyote crate motor, a TKO-600, and an IRS drivetrain. Following that, he completely restored a 1979 Porsche 911.
Though he likes to jump in over his head and learn as he goes, these builds have all turned out surprisingly nicely. The resulting confidence has inspired him to take on a new challenge with this Camaro, a much older car with a much more extensive build list.
The plan included a Roadster Shop chassis, DSE mini tubs in the rear, a 500-horsepower LS3 crate motor, and a T-56 gearbox. While he was waiting the 4 months before the chassis showed up. He started putting some of the parts together then removing the front subframe and rear suspension. The attachment bracket for the front of the leaf springs on both sides required some bolt cutting because 2 of the 3 J-nuts on each side broke when he tried to remove them. Thankfully, this was nothing that a little penetrating oil couldn’t handle.
Getting the tubs in required he first identify the spot welds he needed to cut out, then he removed the old seam sealer before he started designing the templates needed to mark for cutting. Once he got it in there, he coated the trunk with the black textured Raptor liner.
“Cutting up a car this nice seems a little crazy, but it made sense financially,” he reported. This is because the level of shop involvement with the previous cars’ paint and bodywork—things he didn’t want to try—cost him a great deal. For that reason, he thought about moving the starting point a little further forward with this Camaro. “I thought to myself, ‘If I buy a car that doesn’t need paint and body, I could save myself time and money in the long run. With that in mind, I found a very nicely restored car.’”
Around that time, The Roadster Shop announced the chassis was ready and on its way. Scott took this as his cue to order the following: Dakota Digital gauges, a Cold Case radiator and dual cooling fans, McLeod 3-pedal conversion kit, Master Power Brakes brake booster and master cylinder, and Baer brakes. Along with those came an Ididit steering column, a Billet Specialities steering wheel, a Roto Fab cold air intake kit, a Kicker sound system, new taillight housings and lenses/gaskets, an American Auto Wire wiring harness, Morris Classic belts, and Corbeau RRX seats.
Anticipating the arrival of these goodies gave him the energy needed to push through the less glamorous phases of the build, like dealing with the car’s underside. The undercoating on the car was decent, but not good enough to satisfy Scott. Quickly, he got to work with chemical stripper, an angle grinder, and a wire wheel. After spending hours in the hot shop underneath the car going to town getting it all off, he was about ready to put this build on the back burner for a month.
After that, Scott modified the rear seat to fit around the DSE mini tubs. He stripped them all the way down to the shell because he was concerned about the fire potential with only partially removing the materials. Following that, ordered some of the matching material to go with the front seats from Corbeau and dropped the rear seat and material off with the upholsterer.
He then lowered the body down towards the chassis looking to check fitment before realizing he needed to remove one of the old brackets on each side from the frame rails.
This past week, he bolted up the transmission and bell housing—something which went more smoothly than imagined. Currently, he’s waiting for a remote bleeder kit for the hydraulic throwout bearing to arrive, but he wanted to go ahead and get the motor in place so he could see how things are fitting. Thankfully, things fit nicely.
Scott’s just getting underway with this incredible, determined build. To stay up on this Camaro’s development, keep an eye on this page.
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