79 Z28 restoration & LSX swap

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:21:50 PM

I guess its time to start a project thread now that project is actually beginning.

The background on the car:

The first owner bought the car new in 79, sold it to the 2nd owner in 1980, who drove it until 1987 when he put it in storage to go to college. There it sat until 1997 when the storage place got broken into and someone stole the factory rims, busted the windshield and the drivers window, and stole an aftermarket tape deck (circa 1980), and speakers. I stored the car from 1997 until 2000, and tried to purchase the car, but the owner didn't want to sell. In 2000 he needed money to put an engine in his boat, so I bought an engine for $2000.00 and traded it to him for the car.

My plan was to turn it into a pro-street race car, and pulled the interior out to start cutting the floor out and tub it. I sold the stock 350 and pulled the front fenders off as they were crushed when the jack@$$ stole the stock rims.

At this point I got married, built a house, and started my own business, so the Camaro went back into storage until the spring of 2011, which is where I will pick things up.

The Car:

1979 Z28
silver w/orange graphics
carmine red interior
power steering
power locks
tilt
cruise
a/c
350/auto

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:23:33 PM

The car in 2000 when i purchased it. (notice the fender crushed behind the front tire)

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:29:49 PM

In January 2009 I had a guy slide through an intersection on ice and t-bone me, then push me head on into a tree in my 03 1500HD silverado with a 6.0 and totaled it. (this is where the LSX swap comes into play)

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:38:44 PM

Here we are in the shop with the 6.0 and the 4L80E installed just to test fit everything. I am using an adapter kit from musclerods. The kit has 0 motor mounts, trans cross member, and hedman headers with everything powdercoated. Everything fit perfect with no modifications!

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:42:50 PM

Here are a few more pics of the car. This is still factory paint.

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 08:50:00 PM

Pulled the engine back out, so we could pull the sub frame out and get it sand blasted. Me and two buddies at the blaster for 1.5 hours.

Next we will grind off all of the factory weld splatter, polish the frame, and paint it, along with all of the front end components. The 9 inch is not for the camaro, it is for another project, we just blasted it while we were blasting stuff.

lsx71 · 10-13-2011, 10:26:29 PM

Car looks good. Did you have to modify the old motormount holes in the subframe? I bought the same kit from brp hot rods and my holes on the subframe are too low, I have to elongate them upwards.

ctchap70 · 10-13-2011, 10:30:12 PM

Good story. Should be a awesome ride. If u need one, I got a ls1 intake from a 99 trans am for sale in swap meet that I bought then decided not to go lsx. Charlton

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 10:59:34 PM

Thanks. The holes in the subframe lined up perfectly for the motor mounts. The only thing that had to be modified, was new holes had to be drilled for the trans crossmember, but I think the directions stated that they needed to be drilled out. I talked to the owners of BRP a few weeks ago at LSFest, they seemed like real nice people, and wanted anybody that had issues with their kit to contact them and let them know so they could try to address the issue for the future.

OsborneConst · 10-13-2011, 11:18:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctchap70

Good story. Should be a awesome ride. If u need one, I got a ls1 intake from a 99 trans am for sale in swap meet that I bought then decided not to go lsx. Charlton

Thanks Charlton, I see in the picture I still have the truck intake, and oil pan on it. I do have an ls1 intake for it, and I also have a new CTS-V pan and pickup for it. I think I have all of the wiring pulled off from the truck that I need, but I still have the truck just sitting there in case. I have pulled of the DBW pedal, and will modify that after we put the new floorpans in, and build the frame ties. The computer is already reprogrammed for a baseline test, but I probably won't get that far until spring. ( I only get to park one vehicle in the heated garage, and I like to park the plow truck in there in the winter, and I cant convince my wife to park outside in the snow)

81forme · 10-13-2011, 11:44:12 PM

nice project. you must have on heck of a sandblaster to do all that in 1.5 hours, took me 4 hours just to do the frame last weekend. someday i would like to put a ls engine in mine but not at this point in the game so i will be following your build to see how it gets done. keep up the work and keep the pics coming.

2ndgenhunter · 10-14-2011, 12:45:46 AM

Sweet project you got going on there. Its going to be coll watching this unfold.

Good luck with it, Jamie

OsborneConst · 10-14-2011, 06:48:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 81forme

you must have on heck of a sandblaster

I don't, but there is a shop about 20 miles down the road that builds blast cabinets, and you can go in there and use any of there equipment. They have a 24 x 24 room that that you can use. You just put on a special upper body suit for protection and it has air being pumped into it, so you can breath and stay cool. You can have two guys in there ( there are two hoses). The hoses are about 1 1/2 in diameter with about a 1/2 " nozzle and the air compressor is bigger than my crew cab truck, and runs their whole building. They charge $35.00 an hour for 2 guys, which I think is really reasonable, considering it is their sand, and their mess. All you do is show up, blast, and leave.

74_Camaro · 10-14-2011, 12:36:45 PM

Nice project! Love the color scheme you have going, looks great!

mrvedit · 10-14-2011, 01:44:22 PM

The truck oil pans sits WAY too low on a Camaro. I scraped mine several times. (Even before I lowered the car.) You have to pull the engine to change it; so I highly recommend doing that now.
I use a CTS-V pan which still sits a little below the cross member. Many recommend an F-body pan to be safe.
I just posted pics of various pans on ls1tech.com (post #410 and #413) on a huge thread all about oil pans:

http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversion...l-pans-21.html