6/26/00

Well, I guess it's about time that I finally started some real work on the Camaro. As noted in the main page, I bought the car in November '99. Up until the end of April '00, I was working on a kit car I was building (web site). My wife and I agreed, when I bought the Camaro, I would not start work on it until the kit car was finished or sold. I sold the car in April and May 1st, I started ordering parts for the Camaro. I had been researching what I wanted to upgrade, even before I bought the car. With my plan I started out.

First to order was the Baer brakes and rear suspension parts from Steve Spohn. I ordered the Bilstein struts and shocks, Global West Del-A-Lum front bushing and steering brace, Hotchkis steering couplings and Moog steering components and ball joints. Also in the mix was a B&M Mega Shifter, BMR three point strut tower brace and GM aluminum driveshaft. As I waited for these items to arrive, I took note of what other misc. items I would need. Soon parts began arriving and were piling up in my garage. The brakes came in at the end of May. The rear suspension parts were due about the same time.

Well, this is when things started getting weird. My items were shipped on May 26. I should of had them June 5th. Nothing showed. I called UPS on the 6th to see what happened as I was tracking it on their web site. It showed that it left PA and arrived in IL on the 30th. From there it never moved. After a lengthy talk with UPS, they said the shipper would have to start a trace. After contacting Steve, the trace was on. They had until the 16th or they would right off the items. On the afternoon of the 15th, a box showed up at Steve's office. It was my parts. Apparently the box was damaged and UPS could not read my address. The next morning UPS Faxed Steve, telling him they could not find the package and would right it off. These are the same people who dropped it off the night before. Steve inspected everything and reshipped them out the following week. I received my parts almost a month after they were shipped. Gotta love UPS...NOT!

During this time of waiting for UPS, I decided to check out a romor that I had heard about. Apparently the Baer brakes space the wheel mounting surface out an extra .5" wider then stock. I started thinking of what problems was I going to have with wheel offsets. I pulled off one of the front wheels and started to do some measurements. Sure enough, the mounting surface is out by a half of inch. Now the search was on to find wheels. I had started looking at what I wanted back in May. I had to put on 17" wheels to clear the brakes and I wanted to go to a 275/40-17" tire all around. Many magazines and people have done this combo so I knew it would fit...on a stock car. But what about the extra width of the brakes. All the wheel companies had correct offsets for a stock setup but no one has been able to tell me if any of these wheels would work fine with these brakes. I had decided on what wheels I wanted and was ready to order them until I did the measuring of the brakes. Back to the drawing board. I know I can have custom made wheels built in the offsets I want but it does raise the price up and everyone was talking 6-8 weeks build time. No one has been able to confirm what sizing and offsets to use. Baer said they just did one a couple of months ago that they used "stock" type offsets. I have gotten many conflicting reports as to what works and what won't. Since once you custom order wheels, you are stuck with them if they don't work. This is a very big decision and I don't want to make a mistake.

On the 25th, I started to disassemble the rear suspension. I welded on the lower control arm relocation brackets and installed the lower control arms (LCA). I also found that I am going to need to replace the rear calipers. During the next week I will finish installing the panhard bar, torque arm and shocks. Maybe even get the driveshaft in. You may have noticed that I have not mentioned new springs. I am going to try everything out with the current springs as I like the way they ride and I already scrape enough things as it is. If I don't like the way it handles, then I will replace them at that time.

I guess this is it for now. I will try to update this every week or two. Don't forget to check out the new pictures I posted. I will add to them as I take more. Thanks for visiting and good luck on any of your projects.

8/30/00

Well, it's been a while since my last update. Man has it been a wild ride. First, the car is back on the road. Woo Hoo. I have done a lot of work since my last update. I have installed all the rear suspension components. This includes the Spohn torque arm, LCA's, panhard bar, LCA relocation brackets and Blistein shocks. While I was at it, I also added an aluminum drive shaft from GM. I also finished up the front suspension. This includes Global West "wonder bar" brace, Del-A-Lum A-arm bushings, Moog ball joints and Bilstein struts. I still have to replace the steering items (i.e. tie rods, center link, etc.). I got the new Baer front brakes mounted and installed new Baer rear rotors and AC-Delco rear calipers with Raybesto's Brute Stop pads. Topping this all off with a set of steel braided lines. I also added a BMR 3 point strut tower brace to help stiffen up the front end. I finally made my choice for wheels and tires and after some test fitting here is what I went with. These consisted of ROH Snyper wheels in 17x8" with 4.5" back spacing front and 17x9" with 5" back spacing rear. These were fitted with Yokohama AVS Sports in 245/45-17 front and 275/40-17 rear. I really wanted the 275's all around but without custom offset wheels, this was not going to happen. As stated above, the Baer brakes spaced the wheels out approx. .5" more then stock and with the wider tire, it would hit the lower corners of the fenders.

Now the reasons I haven't update this page more frequently. At one point I had really thought I was going to burn this car to the ground! This has been the most frustrating car I have ever worked on. Here are a couple of things I dealt with during this build up. My biggest headache was with the drivers rear brake system. After I had started working on the car, I have determined that at some point, the axle or wheel and car parted company. You can see where the mounting for the shock has ground on the pavement. Also on the brake caliper. The drives side axle is not the original one as it looks very new compared to the other side. The e-brake cable bracket on the caliper was missing and the cable was zip tied to the panhard bar. Hummm. OK, I'll just go to the dealer and buy the parts I need. Well guess what? The e-brake bracket is discontinued and they could not track one down. Great! I get the number of a auto recycler that the dealer uses when looking for parts. I call them and they finally locate the part. I go down to pick it up and guess what? Your right. It's not the right part. This is only on '89-'92 F-bodies and this rear caliper is from an '88. This is after they told me it was from a '91. I contact a friend (IROCZDave) who sells 3rd gen parts. He manages to locate what I needed. OK, I am stoked. I start to assemble the drivers rear brake and notice the mounting cage is not parallel to the rotor. Hummm. Looks like the mounting bracket is twisted. Well, I shim the cage and reassemble everything and bled the brakes. Alright! Well....I spoke to soon. As I was checking everything, it seem liked the rear brake was dragging. After playing around for a couple of days, my friend Chris, bought a pyrometer. We would run the car and then check the temps. They were normal so I guess everything is working correctly.

The next PITA problem was the starter. My old one was going out so I thought it would be a good time to replace it with a high torque mini starter. I ended up buying a GMPP one from the dealer. They said it should work and the instructions said for any Chevrolet small block engine. I finally get it back up on the ramps to pull out the old one. 1.5 hours later it finally came out! I tried everything to remove it without having to loosen the exhaust pipe. I finally relented to this fact and loosened it. I finally get it out. OK, the hard part is done or so I thought. I go to mount the new one and find the cut out to clear the oil pan rail is not far enough in. No problem, I' just trim this back. I then remount it and find the pinion sits about a 1/4" to far in, in relation to the flex plate. What?! Either the flex plate is bigger, the starter mounting location is different or the starter holes are in the wrong place. I found if I drop the starter down about 1/4" it would line up correctly. I had to wait until Monday to buy the metal flat stock and I made a spacer to shim it down. I did this and so far it is working great. No more hot start problems.

Well, I could go on about other problems but I don't want you to fall a sleep. I have only had it back on the road for about a week and I am still braking in the brakes. I have pushed it some and I can tell the handling and braking is awesome. Once full broken in, I will really be able to push it. Also, I don't know if it was the new wheels and tires or the drive shaft but I took it up to 115mph and there is NO vibration. Before I would get a bad vibration starting around 85mph that would not go away at any speed above that. I really makes driving the car enjoyable. Also, since I did not change out the springs, the car does not ride much different in terms of harshness. It feels tighter and more firm but very comfortable. Overall it's a two thumbs up! Once on the track or mountain roads, I will see how the overall handling is.

I know the above problems don't seem like much and in there own right, they are not, but add all the little problems, shipping delays, lost parts, etc. it really adds up to a lot of crap. It seems like everything I have done has had some type of problem. Well that's it for now. I still have more to do and I need to get some updated pics. I didn't take as many as I would have liked but I working out problems and not thinking about taking pictures as I went. Thanks for your time and check back soon.