Finally:




Its been 19 months since the last time I drove the car. Keith at Ice Nine Customs is going to be doing the squirting. http://www.iceninecustoms.com/

Congats! I never thought you were going to finish tig welding the cage...

Can't wait to see this thing finished.

Me either


Me either

Congrats Stan. You've put alot work in the car, and it will show.

VERY cool!

Nicely done!

Typical....all that's left is an oil stain... lol

I guess I have to actually go back to work on mine now.

I need to thank John (Quasar) for his help in delivering the car yesterday. He came over with his truck and trailer, and we sweated our balls off pushing the car on it. Then the drive to Ice Nine Customs.

Pushing the car on the trailer wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be. The car seamed to weigh nothing without the engine, trans, driveshaft and pretty much everything else removed. The front fascia, fenders, and doors, wheels etc were basically just 'resting' (a few bolts holding them on) on the car, but everything else is stripped off.

Yeah, like many of you eluded to, it was a big day for me. I've owned the car since I was 17 years old back in '97 and the paint was never that great so I've always looked forward to the time when I could get it painted. The past year and a half I've been working on the cage project along with the hardtop roof conversion and lexan etc. I have way more time into the car than it will ever show (much of that is because I'm slow, yet particular in my own ways). So needless to say I'm very excited about getting the car back with nice paint, putting it back together, and then running the piss out of it Hopefully I can get it back together in time to drive it late this summer or fall, then avoid the temptation to tear it apart again this winter (jackass!)!!

I'm doing something quite a bit different than what I've seen anyone else do. I love AIX cars but I'm more 'car guy' than 'racer'. That means I like the bad ass-ness of the race car and I love track days but want the finish and attention to detail of a nice (not quite show) car and it will be street driven. I want it to be nice, but I don't want to be afraid to run the piss out of it; 2 things I realize don't go together so well. We'll see how that works out.

From what I've seen and talked to Keith at Ice Nine Customs I have complete confidence in what he does. In my obsessive compulsive ways I think I'd be nervous giving the car to most shops, but I have no reservations giving it to him. I'm sure I'll be happy with what he does for me.

I'm excited to see it in paint. It's about time the car had a nice coat of color.

Is he going to pull the front fenders and bumper cover off for painting? You'll feel a whole lot better about installing the drivetrain if those are safely tucked away somewhere.

Alan that is a great tip. I told Austin I'd help him put the car back together, and he said if I was going to help I had to take my pants off. Something about belt buckles or something, I dunno I felt kinda wierd after he said that.....

Heh, good idea! Get yourself a lot of old blankets and use them regularly. I'm _slowly_ putting together our SVO restomod, and spend almost as much time laying out the blankets and towels to cover shiny, unscratched paint, as I spend putting parts back on the car.

Take pictures when its fresh. Forget the blankets, the first scratch is the hardest. After the initial dent or ding or scratch you'll be okay

Howdy,

Its been super cool to see the progress and follow along from home on this. Can't wait to see it painted, even though I'm more of a "wash it? What?" kinda guy.

Mark

Fresh paint and good body work is a body contact magnet. After a tip from a fellow racer, I key it myself and put a sticker over it.

Years ago I had the LF fender repainted and as I was putting the hood back on (in a hurry) I dropped the ratchet right onto the freshly painted fender

I'm not sure what's the higher risk, damaging the fenders and fascia while putting the engine back in, or me damaging the fenders or doors while trying to put them back on myself.

I've 'dumbed' the engine bay down considerably and I'll be putting the engine back in with the accessories on, so hopefully I don't spend too much time under hood. And if my paint guy scratches anything while putting the fenders and fascia back on, he gets to fix it. If I scratch it, it’s on me. And he was going to 'line everything up' real nice.

But I totally see the other side of this. Or just scratch and be done with it.

As it sits at the sand blast shop. Ice Nine Customs is just across the driveway.




The entire engine bay will get sand blasted just because he says that it is easier than trying to sand the little spots and de-grease. A couple other spots on the body will be blasted, but most of it is already sanded and filled.






I didn't show this before, but I modded the tunnel to move the Jerico shifter rearward because of the driver seat moving back about 8". While I was at it I decided to add clearance for the shift rails all the way forward since it was pretty tight. And since Randy did I figured all the cool kids are doing it so..





In person the body work looks excellent. I can't wait to see it all one color.

Neat! So what color will it end up with?

Factory red on the outside.

The engine bay and interior will be gray to keep it easy to clean and touch up. I picked out a color of Krylon spray paint that I liked and gave that to the painter. He is going to match it. This way I can always touch it up without getting special paint.

As he said he is going back with stock bright red outside, but we all need to unify and convince him to put the IROC-Z badges and belt stripe back on the car. He is a loser and doesn't want to do it but I think it would be awesome. He doesn't want to be "labeled" and he feels the IROC-Z moniker is too redneck/hillbilly/white trash. With the correct stance and with the mods he has, I think those labels will be pretty far from anyone's mind. I've met lots of new guys over here in South Bend and regardless of thier tastes, no one makes fun of me about it, frankly it's quite the opposite...

Put the decals back on it!!! Heck, I wish I had an IROC. Instead I have to envy yours. Remember that my car came with the "wannabe F40" rear wing and tack on ground effects (which I even sorta liked, but the IROC body is much cleaner looking).

Yeah, Stan, you drive a 3rd Gen. You've ALREADY been labeled!! Might as well make it look good. Just keep the mullet tucked under the helmet, and remember to use regular jack stands instead of cinder blocks when working on the car in the pits, and you'll be fine.

Funny I just passed through Detroit yesterday and seen a hooptie up in the air resting on stacks of slab stone.

There's no way in hell IROC decals are going back on. What's that stand for any ways?

"Italians Racing On Crack"?
"Ignorant Retard Out Crusing"
"I Reek Of Cologne"
"It's Really Only a Camaro"
"I Run Over Critters" (this one applies to Jeremy the Hillbilly, ROAD KILL BABY!)




You proudly sport the IROC name and look at you:


nuff said!

Who the heck gives the thumbs up to a TBI engine????

Answer: A HILLBILLY!!!!

Put the IROC decals on. The only time I was ever referred to as a hill billy was from friends giving me shit. Everyone around here is more intrigued with my car because it is an IROC and when I tell them what I've done to the car and what I use it for they think it is even cooler. People will think your car is even more awesome. DO IT!

Italian Retard Out Cruising.

If you bought an IROC, I think it came from the factory with a gold chain and some hair gel in the map pocket.

If you full-size the picture you can even see my Elvis style side burns in that pic!

That was last winter just before we installed the venerable L05 into Jrcook320's truck. We were just goofing around and that picture was shot. That TBI motor is a real stomper with all the ultimate TBI mods, fully ported swirl port heads and a mild cam. It now has headers too. It is in a 5spd truck with 35" swampers and it will turn them over on dry pavement amazingly well! LOL

Austin if you don't put the IROC badges back on you're going to look like all the other emo kids driving around clapped out RS's

That's fine, It will have the sleeper look

The car will look too plain if it's all just red. The IROC badging helps break up the color and makes it more appealing.



Why grey? Is it about the heat? I would think black would look a lot better.

I did my interior in grey because it's a bit easier to spot cracks in the chassis. I was going to use grey or an off white color. We got grey paint for free from friends at a body shop, so mine is grey.

I support Austin's decision to paint the guts gray. He's looked at many race cars of various colors and gray seemed to be the best combo of looking good, easy to clean and durable. This is a subjective thing that he put a lot of effort into.

Also the car will likely get sponsorship decals and door numbers of some kind in the future which should break up some of the red. I've seen pix of the car all together with spoiler and wheels and all and it looks fantastic. Way nicer than anything he should be allowed to play with anyhow...

For the reason Jeremy mentioned. Also, easy to touch up. Red fades and never seams to color match well.

I always thought I'd do red everywhere, but the reasons mentioned made me want something lighter. Seeing pictures of this car pretty much made my decision: http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showt...ighlight=Camaro

I guess that makes sense.

Alright Austin, updated pix or ban!!!!

I second that motion

I might get out there to see it tonight... He said it is fully primed.

I was looking at new door weatherstip last night... Damn that stuff is expensive. I looked at:

Hawks Third gen
Year One
A1 Auto (or is it 1A?)

Anywhere else? Do I need to get GM stuff or is the aftermarket ok?

If they are still around, check with Classic Industries. They used to (as far as I could tell) buy up old GM stock as they pulled part numbers from their catalog (after the mandatory 7 years passed for stocking parts) and they were selling manual conversion pedal kits, etc. They may have weather stripping, it's worth a shot.

Check Rock Auto. I bought a set for my old '88 Buick from them. Metro Seal I think was the brand. It fit welll and still work great. 15 year warranty also I think. I bet they make some for 3rd gen Camaros as well. Price was decent, I think they ran a bout $70 a pair ( I have a 4 door).

I have softseal and the 2 parts I've used so far seem pretty good, hatch seal and door bottom.

RockAuto has them for thirdgens too, they started carrying them after I bought mine.

all the aftermarket 3rd gen door seals that i have seen, and used, don't have the plastic inserts like the factory ones. the screws just go through little foam tabs. Kinda crappy IMO. they work, but leave some to be desired. I would prefer GM ones.

The ones I installed on my car (not a 3rd gen) installed exactly like factory. All the little plastic push pins were pre-installed and lined up perfectly with the existing holes in the doors.

im referring to the screws at the top of the seals, at the top corners of the doors. the large molded foam ends have plastic inserts in them, covered in foam. so the screws have something solid to go through, not just foam. the push in pins for the rest of the door are there and have always lined up.

Ok ok


The first time the car has been one color since 2004.

More here: http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o33/StanIROCZ/Paint/

He covered everything in Epoxy primer, then the body in build up primer. He's taken very good care of it. No overspray, I can't find any spots he missed, I can tell everything was cleaned very well before he sprayed it. I told him not to bother with the K-member but he did it anyways. I never told him to do the SFC's, but he noticed they were bare and sprayed them. He sprayed the tunnel farther back than I could see. It looks very good.

I just added up new door stuff from there: $626 (and I could spend more). yikes, is it too late to gut the doors?

Yes, it is expensive. On my 87 formula I ordered some aftermarket stuff that I *think* was branded Metro, and it didnt' fit in the t-top areas AT ALL. I ended up buying the GM stuff which was $700 back in 2001. I'm going to be doing it again on another third gen and I think I'll try aftermarket again because of the cost... I will say this, the GM stuff on my `87 doesn't leak after 9 years. From what I've been told, the install makes a lot of difference on the t-top cars. You shouldn't have that much issue with a hardtop car.

Todd,
This brand I assume:
http://www.metrommp.com/

~$215 from Rockauto.com versus $625 at Classic Industries.

yeah, I'll give that a shot first. It'd have to be pretty bad for me to decide its not worth it and spend 3x that for the GM stuff.

And since I have lexan windshield and hatch and no carpet, I don't need perfection. But I'm sure it will leak less than when I had T-tops.

yup...thats the stuff. I'm sure I have pics somewhere at home but the issue I had was that I had to stretch it a LOT to get it in the right places. Once I glued it down, the rubber pulled and distorted. Since I was trying to fix the leak that had ruined the carpet and floorpan, I wanted to be sure it sealed. The hardtop cars have far fewer corners so you'll probably be ok.

Pics from Keith today:






A-pillars will be painted flat black to block the windshield glare (thanks to Blaine for that idea) and color and clear on the outside early next week.

I'll get the chassis back on Wed and he'll keep the rest of the body parts because he needs to finish them. 1MeanZ is coming up Friday next week to help me put it together and the goal is to be doing hot laps around the block by Sunday.

Then I need to either drive or trailer it back to Ice Nine Customs to assemble doors, fenders, hood, facia, etc and wet sand. I have a Sept 18 even that I'm trying to make so it is going to be a busy couple weeks!

No TPIS 422, but my lil ol Gen I tree-fitty is ready to go back in the car with new accessories:

KRC PS pump and tank
custom machine from billet alt bracket
Jones Racing small crank and WP pulleys, and misc other hardware including the big nut at the front to put a wrench on to turn the crank for adjusting my hydraulic (ha!) valves. Jones makes some nice stuff BTW.
The big crank pulley was made by me from the original smog pump pulley + some lathe work + welding + some more lathe work
Edelbrock water pump

If you notice the belts are ~2-3" farther rearward than stock gen one set-ups.

All in all this was one project that went out of control and I spent way too much money on.