67 Camaro Build

[7dee2]

Some polished Ansen valve cover spacers (link) arrived. Man, this stuff looks so good, can I really bring myself to punch holes in the covers to mount the old M/T breathers? Yep, of course, that’s why I got the breathers and then the valve covers in the first place. I need to gather the hardware and make some gaskets as well as decide if they’ll be functional or not (functional will mean they’ll probably leak), here's a pic of what the functional gasket would look like.

https://www.ansenvalvecovers.com/col...acers-polished

[7dee2]

With the steering column rebuilt (and building up some guts to punch holes in the M/T’s. ) my attention has moved back to the Hurst Ramrod shifter collection. My goal is to build as close to a NOS shifter as possible for the Camaro. The first step in that process was to disassemble our original mockup shifter. Here are some pics of the order and orientation of the different shifter plates for reassembly.

[Lost in the 60's]

I found this thread about 1.5 hours ago and I didn't read every page...
Sooo, after all the time, frustration, expense and work, do you still think the new body was worthwhile ?
This is my '67 ss/rs about 1 year ago. New left quarter skin, 1 piece trunk floor, extension panel, NOS right quarter and tail panel.

[7dee2]

I’m glad you found our thread, you have a nice car Lost in the 60’s! That’s a good question, I’ll say that everyone’s situation is different (as in the quality of their donor, or lack thereof, skills, finances, etc.). Just like everyone’s end goal can vary greatly as well (driver, racecar, restomod, show car, etc.). In our case, the new body has not been a cost or time savings really. I’ll also add there isn’t much of the original car going into the new car either, I made a list (see pic).

Now some good points, there’s absolutely no rust anywhere in our shell (that’s a biggie. ). I believe it’s put together as well, perhaps even better than an original body (more spot welds per foot, etc.). The mini tub installation is top notch and was installed prior to the quarters going on which isn’t always the case for a modified original car. Thanks to Perks Auto Body (Don, Kelly & Chris) the fit and finish are going to be as good or better than a brand-new car (more on this to come). I think it’s cool that this route is even a possibility so yes, for me it is worthwhile.




And the rest, down to just the stick and trigger assembly which is pretty straightforward. Remove a self-locking nut and pivot pin and the lower trigger assembly will disassemble.

[7dee2]

Here are our three recently acquired shifters with the one on the left being an early style. As previously mentioned, the earlier one is in great shape and will be left as is. An early version is easy to spot as the reverse lever is flat not round. Also, they are riveted together and I think might’ve come loose over time. Later versions got the welded tapered round bar lever.

In the same picture of the reverse lever rivets, notice the chrome stick on the right has been repaired (or customized) and the threads are much larger with a finer pitch than the original. Folks could slam the shifter so hard that they would bend or break the top right off! This particular stick will be replaced on the reassembly of this shifter.

[7dee2]

Another small difference is the pull-up trigger lever, weld vs a roll pin to hold the two halves together. With all three shifters being disassembled let the cherry-picking begin.