Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

This was interesting, after a long wait (supply chain issues from Holley Days 2021) we received a new Holley carburetor for our C10 build. It’s for the second engine that’s been waiting its turn at Fastlane Machine (Our first rule in government spending, why build one when you can have two at twice the price 489. :lol:). It’s an 850 CFM Classic with Electric Choke & Vacuum Secondaries just like the one I run on our K30. Well, that’s what I thought when I bought it but turns out Holley has changed that carburetor (the link below still shows the old carb). Materials, gold dichromate plating (not as good btw), main body, fuel bowls, wow you name it it’s a little bit different, reminds me of a gold Brawler carb. Is it a better carb, could be, it does have many updated features from the old carburetor.

https://www.holley.com/products/fuel.../parts/0-80531

Gave Holley tech support a call when we received it, they had no idea what was up and requested pictures. Below are some of the pics that I emailed them, my question was “Is this the end of the old-style Holley carb that I grew up with, is it no longer available?” :eek: To date, I’ve never heard back from them and last week I did bolt this carb on our 489 for a break-in, dyno-tune session. I don’t want to get too far ahead of the timeline but the carb performed very well out of the box with only minor adjustments and a secondary jet change. :clap:

So that makes 2 for Holley, what is pictured may not be what you get. 1st was the clutch disk that came with our Hays clutch (link) and now this carburetor. Good, bad, or somewhere in the middle I’m not really sure, time will tell.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=251

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

The exhaust is done, took a few pics outside coming home from the muffler shop.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Exhaust looks perfect in my book and just how I'd want to run it if it were mine.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Thanks Joe, I can’t wait to hear it!



Final installed pics before I started removing stuff. The exhaust needed to be removable so there are some hidden v-band clamps up high in front of the differential.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Getting exciting!

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

You betcha, it’s starting to become a car. ;)



Degreeing the camshaft, Mike is so close to having the short block done. Here’s the cam card for our Straub hydraulic roller (ground by Clay Smith Cams), it should be fairly street friendly and easy on valvetrain parts. Yes, I’m leaving some horsepower and torque on the table with our Winters (snowflake) heads, dual plane intake, cam, and carburetor choices. The old school L-88 type parts with a little modern reliability are what I’m after for this build. Besides, it’ll still have gobs (oh yes, gobs :lol:) of power for the street.
https://claysmithcams.com/hr-9202-7-...rpm-5800-6200/

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

The cam was ground with 3 degrees initial advance. Mike opted to pull that 3 degrees as you can see if you look at the pics of the crank timing gear and the 2nd pic installed. 3rd pic is showing the supplied oil galley plugs with weep holes. These are the last pics before the oil pan and timing cover went on, short block is done! :ww:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

A look at the exhaust system outside of the car, Tage really did a great job! He supplied a set of straight through Street Max mufflers as a lower cost Magnaflow alternative/knockoff.

https://www.jegs.com/i/AERO-Exhaust/...11259/10002/-1

The only thing I’m not a big fan of is the rear hanger placement, I would’ve preferred that he’d not gone through the trunk floor. :thud: In his defense and after spending just a few minutes looking at it I didn’t find an obviously better location either. At a minimum sending the bolts through the other direction would be better. I’ll probably put in a trunk mat so being flat would be better. Current thinking is to remove all the added nutserts (including 2 in the spring pocket areas), fill the holes in the trunk floor, and deal with it after paint. :cool: There’s got to be a better way to support the rear tailpipe extensions.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Another quick round of shifter fitting was needed. When we left off the 3-4 shift rod was just barely rubbing the inside of the tunnel in the 3rd gear position. That required removing the mockup motor and trans, shaping the tunnel a little bit more, and then trying it again. Glad it only took one round of this until I was satisfied. It does clear now but I’ll probably give that area an extra smack (for good measure) when it goes on the rotisserie for paint. :smoke:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Here’s something, the slots for the rear inner window felts (fuzzies) are not stamped out. I could poke fun about this virgin steel missing the fuzzy slots but, Mrs. 7dee2 says let it go. :baa:

After taking a minute to figure out how to cut them in without messing anything up. Ended up taking a small piece of scrap angle iron and drilled a 1/8” hole at a 45° angle. Then clamped this little fixture and with an extra-long 1/8” bit created the required slots, easy peasy.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Thanks for the updates...always good catching up on this build and watching the progress.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Thanks Joe, I’m enjoying documenting the build and appreciate your kind words.



Factory-style reproduction firewall insulation for the 1st gen Camaro is not the greatest these days (cheapo quality, thin crap). With that said I went ahead and grabbed what is available. I’m thinking in conjunction with a butyl type of product (Dynamat, FatMat, etc.) and maybe some jute, glued into the right areas should do it.

While everything was out of the way I stuck the insulation on the outside and marked it for future trimming. During this stage, I’m also looking for any holes that need to be filled (taped) and any missing ones (silver sharpie). Need to add a 1” hole below the wiper motor for the speedometer cable. This along with some clips gives the correct right-side speedo cable routing for a Muncie.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Good catch on the missing slots- would have been scary post paint

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

I can’t take the credit on that one, if I remember correctly a friend spotted it a while back. After getting a few suggestions from folks on how to remedy this issue, :splat: the fixture and long drill bit idea came to me. You're right that would’ve been a gotcha moment for sure.



The front clip is mostly back on the car and the car trailer is in front of it, what could this mean? Ha, Mrs. 7dee2 is having some car trouble is one reason, it’s always something. :rolleyes:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

The other (main) reason for the car trailer is that the Camaro has got another date back at Perks Auto Body for round #2. We still have some fitment issues that need to be addressed, front and back glass and the trim needs to be checked, etc., etc. and of course paint, oh yes paint. :bann:

I’m working to fit the front bumper to the car before it goes. Prior to hanging the front clip back on the car, it needed the frame horns straightened (earlier pics of both sides that were pulled slightly outward). The subframe bumper bracket mounting holes will also need some attention, especially the forwardmost holes. I took pics to reference the areas that’ll need to be filled when the subframe gets restored.

Earlier Van Nuys subframes are unique as they don’t have the large tie-down holes (comparison pic taken from http://www.pozziracing.com/first_gen...s.htm#Subframe), also fewer core support holes and the bumper bracket mounting holes are not slotted (no adjustment).

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Here’s what the bumper looked like, pretty straight and the gaps are close enough from side to side. New OER outer brackets fit, the OER inner brackets could have fit the OER (premiere) bumper better. When completely installed they do distort the bumper slightly, found the lower bolts were stripping on disassembly. Overall it works, perhaps with some bracket tweaking on the final assembly they could fit better, back in the box for now. :smoke:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Now I am gonna have to go put my 68 on the lift and look at the subframe. Its a LA built car and I dont recall seeing those holes. It probably has them but I have never paid much attention to that area of the subframe. I know its the original one to the car. It was never a point of looking, the car is a mid year car so it was fun figuring out what was stock or not as it has some mid year changes, but not all.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

It's an early 1967 thing so your 68 should have those subframe holes I’d guess. Congratulations on your truck of the year win, you got my vote. The rally wheels and red lines are a nice touch. :metal:



The heads are done, the only hardware reused were the new 2.25/1.90 (11/32” +.100 long) valves that they came with. As mentioned earlier these heads have had some mild port work done including removing the exhaust veins (links).

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=194
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=195

Decked block, milled heads, and now a new reproduction intake. Mike has the intake sitting right and is ready for the next step. :smoke:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

You probably guessed it port match was next. Our “Good to go!” 511 needs to breathe as well as it can with these old school parts (originally designed for the smaller 396/427). The reproduction intake needed a bit of runner work and Mike did a great job from the as cast version we supplied.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=197

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

The day came and the car is loaded up and taken back over to Perks for what is sure to be some big progress! :metal: You know, I almost cleared my to-do list with just a few small jobs left.

Ha, somebodies new Benz was photo bombing these shots. ;)

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

That’s Mrs. 7dee2’s new car sitting in the driveway from the last post, well new to us that is. It’s a CPO 2020 Mercedes CLA 35 AMG that just came off lease with a little over 13k miles. I’ll tell you what this thing has got so much technology hopefully us old farts can figure it out. :lol: Surprisingly it’s only supposed to be a few tenths slower in the ¼ mile than her last super sedan (13.4 vs 13.2 for a 2017 Chevrolet SS as per Motor Trend). She likes the fancy stuff, I like that it can get with the program when floored.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Back to the Camaro. Right off the bat before it even came off the trailer Chris & Kelly (Perks Owner & Shop Manager respectively) noticed that the right front seemed to droop a little. Once unloaded a quick measurement of the core support bared this out, the panel was ¾” shorter from top to bottom on the right side. My old eyes didn’t see it at first but I did once they mentioned it. :dohh:

Unfortunately, Don has moved on to other opportunities and won’t be working on the car this time. Everyone parted friends and the upside for us is getting a chance to work with Kelly (that’s him in the pics). Working for Perks Auto Body for 30 years Kelly’s developed an impressive skill set and his work is top shelf. He’s a perfectionist and the perfect guy to take over.

Here’s a quick catch up of the Camaro’s problem areas.

Right side panel fitment,
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=183
Right wing window,
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=232
Right door skin window opening, (aka, the canyon)
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=248

The first thing addressed was the lopsided core support, I had another earlier aftermarket stamping that came with our parts car. That one turned out to be closer and will be the one we use moving forward. While making this adjustment Kelly double checked the prior front clip work and made any corrections that were needed.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

With the fender out of the way, the poorly fitting right wing window and door skin opening were addressed. After some inner door modification, Kelly has got the wing window fitting better than ever! :clap: The lower part of the gasket was left out to help train it to close the gap as well. In addition, he cleaned up the front lower adjuster opening (incorrectly placed) that had required modification just to install the adjuster.

Closing up the door skin window opening required breaking loose the upper inner door structure and physically removing the bow. Removing the bow did result in a small dent that’ll be addressed down the road. I'll tell you we came so close to replacing this door and probably would’ve if we'd known for sure that it would’ve been better. The good news is that he stuck with it and is putting these problems to bed. :mm:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

:two:
Yippy skippy, hot dang our 511 is all done and here! Big thanks to Mike and Larry (Fastlane Machine, Orem Utah) for building it and taking the great assembly pics that I’ve been posting. Really pumped to see what it’ll do, anything north of 550 horsepower will be a win with this street combo.

Here’s what the Go Fast Math horsepower calculator thinks.
https://www.gofastmath.com/Horsepowe...wer_Calculator

Stage 2: Dual Plane High-Rise
Intake duration @ .050: 233
Tappet type: Roller
Dynamic compression ratio: 8.92:1 (best guess)
Engine displacement: 511
Cylinders: 8
Peak intake flow in CFM @ 28” of water: 320 (best guess also)

I need to grab just a few small items (distributor, plugs, etc.) and make an appointment with Kidd Performance for a break-in and dyno tune. Then we’ll see how close the calculator came to the actual figures.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Here we are 3 hours up the road at Kidd Performance in Twin Falls, ID. That blur in the photos is the owner Mark Kidd getting our motor ready for the break-in. Time to party! :five:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Oh man...looking forward to seeing the results! I know you're excited as well!

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Oh yeah, you betcha I’m excited! Turn up the volume and watch the videos it’ll be like you were there, it was a very cool experience. :metal:



The break-in is complete and no drama, motor acted as expected. Mark commented on how really clean the remote Clear View Filtration filter was, he says he usually traps a lot of junk, shop rag lint, bearing material, etc. so kudos to Fastlane Machine for such a trouble-free, clean build. Bonus, no leaks except for one seeping head bolt that self-healed itself with more heat cycles.

Here’s a bunch of short break-in and full pull videos, Mark was dialing in the tune (mainly jetting) the whole time.

https://www.youtube.com/@6dee7-7dee2

Break-in #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU6e45Ys_DQ
Break-in #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXWwPgcaegk
Break-in #3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEszC5iLJqw

Dyno Tune #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sajkNSklotQ
Dyno Tune #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtL_Fd0vMfo
Dyno Tune #3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiQc4uEgUCA
Dyno Tune #4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJSALZh7IY

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

That's a monster! Bet you were at least a little nervous the first time he took it up to 6K. I know I would have been. I'm excited for you. That's going to be so much fun in that Camaro!

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Man..that's killer..!!!!

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Thanks Rick, I was a little anxious at first but Fastlane just killed it, those guys are the best. Hoping to have as much fun as this old guy is in his V-Gate equipped Mustang, check out the grin on that man’s face! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8X1sld3zeAk

Thanks Greg! It's a really big motorvator to get our Camaro done. :lol:



It took just over 19 months of work, parts acquisition, machine work, assembly, and finally the break-in and dyno tune. Here’s the now truly “Good to go!” 511 back home all mummified from the trip. Had some wet weather for the ride home so Mark gave me a hand shrink wrapping and weatherproofing.

If you didn’t catch it in the final video here’s the dyno printout. Horsepower is just shy of 575 @ 5800 and torque is 590 @ 4600 on non-ethanol 91 pump gas. Yes, triple bonus points for naturally aspirated, pump gas and doing it with the old L-88 style parts. I’m very pleased, should make a reliable and fun street engine for the Camaro.

Ha, anymore powah and we might’ve had to start rethinking our transmission choice. I’ve heard and run across comments (link) on this cam grind saying It’ll show no mercy to manual transmissions. In fact, it is starting to get close to the recommended max of what our trans can hold (builder Paul Cangialosi when asked said it would do 650 ft-lbs). I’m sure it’ll be fine since this is a street car and it’s rarely going to hook up well enough to be a problem.

https://www.claysmithcams.com/hr-920...rpm-5800-6200/

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

That is awesome. Glad for the good break-in/dyno runs and the very stout numbers that it produced.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Thanks Joe, me too. It’s been a while (since last May) but I’m still stoked about the outcome. :metal:



Perks strips the EDP coating from the new panels in order to ensure proper adhesion with the BASF Glasurit products that they use. Chris is a stickler on this, no shortcuts.

It turns out that Kelly is a 1st Gen Camaro fan, he’s decided he wants our old parts car and jig. I can’t think of a better home and look forward to seeing what he does with it. It’s great having the space in the garage but strange to not have it around at the same time.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Would you look at that, our stripped down bare-naked Camaro has moved over to the Perks paint building! ;)

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

I’m staying tuned for the next exciting update!!!

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Looking nice

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

You know it, exciting times with the motor done and Perks making some good progress on the body!

Thanks Regan.



Bang, it’s gray now! Me and the Mrs.’s after seeing it in person all sealed up and ready for the first blocking. :ww:

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

I’ll quote Chris from the Perks FB page “How straight are brand new panels?”

https://www.facebook.com/PerksAutoRe...7186237427620/

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Got a new set of seat belts for the Camaro. My research (link) found 1967 is unique in that the standard configuration only came with 4 lap belts, 2 up front and 2 in the back, rather than the usual 3 in back. Also, the 67 Camaro was the only year with either the Fisher Body carriage or the GM release button in the standard buckle. The deluxe buckle came with the Fisher Body carriage only in 67. Our 55-year-old standard buckle originals have seen better days, but we only had 4 of them, and they did have the carriage buttons.

For whatever reason, some vendors lost or didn’t renew the GM License and now use a starburst on the release button. The OER set ordered came this way and Mr. Picky Pants (yep, that would be me :lol:) wasn’t having it. I did locate some carriage buttons from another vendor and swapped them out. In addition, a not so stock looking tag attached with white thread was just not going to fly either. Tags are gone, and the seat belts got a done stamp and went back in the boxes for later.

http://www.camaros.org/seatbelt.shtml

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

Made the trip down to Fastlane Machine to share the 511 dyno sheets with Mike & Larry. Found our second engine (“Why build one when you can have two at twice the price 489.” :rolleyes:) in process. Mike says he’s pleased with this core also and was working the main caps a little (stretched #3 the most) to fit the saddles better prior to the line bore process. They've set the bar pretty high with the 511, it’ll be interesting to see how our 489 for the C10 does.

The guys requested I bring them the tins for this motor next time. So, it’s time to pull the machine shop, traveling, dyno set of valve covers off. I lucked into this very lightly used chrome Moroso set off our local classifieds for $50. After adding some baffled grommets and the breathers they worked perfectly for dyno round #1, we’ll reuse all the hardware, rubber gaskets, etc. for dyno round #2.

Re: 67 Camaro Build
 

I was laughing a little at this, because I can confirm all of this from having a couple of 67 and 68's. I have always found the middle belt in the rear seat to be funny because I have never been able to shove 3 people in the back of my 68 and that middle area has really no spring or foam there. Your pretty much riding on the tunnel.

All the 67s that have passed through me all had the carriage in the buckle. I will say with that hokey tag on the belt, at least the put in the about the same area as the originals had their tags.

Love camaros.org. lots of great info and a decent forum as well.