Our 79 z28 LS2 build
 

Didn't want to start this until we were into the project farther than we are now but since i have time I figured what the heck.

This is a project my father and I have wanted to do since his original 78 was totaled by my mom (drunk driver ran a red back in the early 80's) and he's always wanted another one.

Started off by buying a 81 Z28 from a guy on a local board that was supposed to be Cherry. Car turned out to be a pile of crap so were just going to get a few parts off it and scrap the rest.

Heres what we have. Original 1979 Z28 camaro. 350 with an auto. white with blue interior. Car is in pretty decent shape. front fender needs replaced on pass side, and there is some rust in the floor pans and in the pass side quarter extension. (pan and quarter patch panels already ordered)

This is how the car looked when we got it. the TT2's are off our 69 and are going to stay on this car with the addition of some new rubber.












Were putting the replacement panels in the next time im home so i will have some updates in the near future. We should have plenty of funding on this project so everything should be built right as im one of those guys that likes to get every last detail.

Here are our plans for the car.
Paint the body either a Dark Graphite Metallic, Viper Red, or Sonic Blue with 10% tint
Interior- leather ebony 02 T/A seats with mostly stock appearing all black interior. running the factory center console with some Aftermarket Shifter. All factory gauges. Car will retain the factory A/C and Heat

Going to do the usual LS2 swap with the Trans Dapt motor mount kit and a custom built trans X-member. Texas Speed Torquer V2 cam. TCI 3000 stall with a 4L65E and a Hurst HD2 shift kit. Dynatech 1 7/8's LT's with a full stainless Dynatech Musclemaxx 2.5" exhaust system (with the nascar style X-pipe). Factory 10 bolt with a detriot locker and 3.73's and a set of hotchkis lowering leaf springs (eibach's up front).

-6an braided fuel system, Aeromotive A1000 pump.

Frame, control arms, sway bars, etc will all be blasted and powdercoated. 4 wheel disc brakes, stainless brake lines, power steering/brakes.

We've got a large parts list made out and are ordering more every day as the funds are avaliable.

Building a clean nice street car that my dad can enjoy since i have my cobra. Should be done hopefully sometime around July or August depending on when i can get back to do some work on it. Thats all i got for now. Im going to take lots of pics. Enjoy

So far all we've done is got an OEM fender off our donor car, Purchased the quarter extension and the front Pan (need to cut the toe board out of our other car.

We've also got the LS2 and auto trans on the way out of an 06 GTO Donor car which I should hopefully have pics of in the next 2 weeks.

Also have the T/A seats but they will probably be recovered as the drivers seat bolster has some wear and is torn like most of the 98-02 seats are.

Heres some pics of our donor car.

Nice start!

Good color combo ;)

Be sure to get all the electrical components from the engine, the wiring, computer, and the gas pedal. The transmission has a seperate controller as well, and you need to make sure you snag it. If you miss anything, it will get expensive!
If you are thinking about using the stock exhaust manifolds, it will not clear the frame rails(tried that). But get them anyway as you can sell them

I run a part out business on the side of my day job so this was just another car we brought into the shop just for this purpose. I wasn't aware the auto trans ran a separate controller (tcm) but that is great news to know as the HPtuners file didnt have any trans disgnostics info proving your point :)

Were planning on running the dynatech LT swap headers as they have fit awesome on all the other swaps we've built so im banking on having no header fitment issues with this one.

Looks like we have very similar builds starting with exactly the same car.

Looks like a good car to build on. That are not all that clean anymore.

Alot of truth there. We originally wanted a 78 Z28 hard top but around the NE area our options were pretty slim. Everything I found was overpriced, and alot of what I found was just pure junk. Between the 81 parts car, and this 79 (both true Z/28 cars) we have right at $900 so I dont think we did all that bad on a platform to start on.

Welcome (great story)
Keep the pics coming...:cool:

We will take a ton of pictures along the way. No better way to make a work log if people can't see your progress....at least thats my opinion.

Does anyone on here have any experience with the dynatech musclemaxx exhaust system? I've only installed one and I never got to hear what it sounded like. It fit awesome, just curious how tame it might be. I've been back and forth between that or the pypes violator system :)

I cant wait to see this build and restoration. This should be mean.

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not a lot of updates yet. I was able to make it back home the past few days and parted out our donor car. motor/trans are out. Also talked to my body guy about getting the pans done so we can start disassembling this beast. heres the pullout

Ordered the TransDapt Motor Mount adapter plates (not the 1" setbacks), Energy suspension motor mounts, trans mount, and body bushing kit.

This should be enough for me to get the frame notched for the A/C Compressor before we tear the car down to start cleaning everything up for paint and new parts.