Project Car: 1969 Camaro Overhaul

One of the current projects in the HzEmall shop is a classic 1969 Camaro RS. We're re-doing almost every aspect of the car from the wiring to the upholstery, adding air ride, and dropping in an LS2/6 speed motor/tranny conversion. It's going to be quite an overhaul, but when it's finally complete, it will be well worth it. Here's our victim:

We'll have some better pics for you when the job is done!

Center Console
When we got the car it had a GTO console in it, but I can’t even really begin to describe how poorly it was installed...it wasn't pretty. Anyways, it had to be fixed, so we added it to the list.

Here's the before (and yes, that is carpet wrapped around the front, and yes it looked like he trimmed it with a sawzall).

Make sure to check out the rest of the build after the jump. You won't be disappointed!

in the forums!

The console didn’t fit right; it was too wide and was digging into the seats and damaging the leather. IT was a good shell, so we decided to keep it and just modify it to work for our purposes. We removed the console and cut 1.5″ out of the center of the entire console.

We then used pieces of ABS and riveted the console back together and molded everything together. Notice how the top trim of the console curves up to where the dash would be in a GTO, this just won't work for our install.

So to give it an OE-look, we added to the front of the console to round it off and modified the trim panel to flow with the new front instead of "up".

We also removed the power window switches from the doors and rear panels and relocated them to the console.

With it almost finished we wanted to get some pictures of it. The two small holes are for the door pop switches and the large hole is for the Sony marine controller. The client really liked the OE silver accent that came on the console from the factory, so we kept it. At this point we still have to clear coat the console and flock the storage compartment but it’s almost done.

Here the console is almost finished. We just have to modify the mounts for the console then flock the storage compartment under the armrest.

The Doors
The doors were pretty plain-Jane and just would not match our upgraded interior design.

Before

We already re-located our window switches to the new center console, so something had to be done to the door anyhow. So we decided to make all-new panels!

The Beginning

We wanted to add a little shape and contour to the doors to add a bit of a modern flair to the interior. This all I can show you of the doors so far, but we'll keep you updated on the progress! We'll get to the front stage speakers soon. The mids will be installed in custom kick panels with the tweeters in the doors.

Rear Seats
The car came in with 2006 GTO leather seats (as well as many other GTO parts). The person that installed them used some back straps and drywall anchors to hold them in. The seats had this large "hoop" section on top that the headrests slid into and kind of looked the seats were wearing a Hans racing safety device. However, the "hoop" actually stopped the convertible top from folding down properly. We took the seat apart and removed the hoop and refinished the leather on the seat. We also modified the seat's entire metal frame so it could be mounted safely and securely. To prepare for our install, we also removed the seat's center section to accommodate the future home of the subwoofers. By modifying the metal frame, the seats are lower, sit a bit further back, and added more room for the woofers.

Before:

After:
Notice the headrests are not longer "hooped" around the headrest.

Rear Side Panels
When the car arrived, the rear side panels were really hurting. The panels were made of three separate parts and secured with several visible chrome screws. This just wouldn't do.

Before:

After doing some panel repair:

We joined all three panels together and added a baffle for a future speaker placement.

Next, we took our creation, covered it with fleece, fiberglassed it, did some sanding, filling, more sanding, and a bit more filling and sanding until we got our desired shape. We plan on adding something else to the panels before calling it "done" so it isn't just a big molded vinyl panel. We'll probably add some billet inserts or something to match the theme of the car.

We also started to layup the fiberglass for the subwoofer enclosure and rear center console that will live between the rear bucket seats. The car was prepped with painters tape and plastic sheeting to protect the paint and panels from chemicals and debris.

The first few layers of glass and resin were applied.

 

Once our base was set, we started framing the subwoofer box between the rear seats. It will house two 8" woofers firing against the back seat sheet metal, and will port out the bottom/front of the console/enclosure.

 

Audio
Component-wise, the system in the Camaro will be rather basic. NO fancy 5.1 surround sound or LCDs everywhere. This is a classic car, and flashy just wouldn't match the theme. The source side of the system consists of the Sony CDX-F50 Marine deck, a 10 disc changer, iPod module and the Sony Marine wired remote control. Everything but the iPod and the controller will be mounted in the trunk. The system also features Morel speakers and Zapco amplifiers - nothing but the best for this project. The only thing we haven't decided on yet is the which subwoofers to use. We were going to use four of Focal's amazing 5" subwoofers, but since we modded the rear seats and gained about 4 inches in the center, we be able to squeeze a single 10" or two 8's in there. Since it's a convertible the subs have to be able to belt out some bass in order to compete with the open air, and the system had to sound good playing any genre of music.

Here is the trunk rack we welded up to hold the deck, changer, multi-source controller module, and it also gives us a a place to strap up the excess cables.

Everything wired and mounted in the rack. As always, we used molex plugs on the power wires for easy servicing.

 

The Trunk
While we wait on the doors, let's focus back on the trunk. Since we're essentially restoring and updating this classic, we replaced the old wiring, sockets, housings and everything in between in the trunk.

We'll be adding an alarm to the car as well, so naturally we wanted to make sure the trunk was protected. We needed to install a pin switch in the trunk (this triggers the alarm when the trunk is opened), but we didn’t want anything visible to detract from the clean look we are shooting for. We used a small "micro" switch and built an ABS mounting plate to hold it. When the trunk hinge is closed all the way, it makes contact, but if the trunk opens as little as an 1/8 of an inch, it will trigger the alarm.

We got the Modo Innovations Electric Trunk Release kit installed.

We've securely mounted our rack system in the trunk.

Air Ride
The Camarp also came to use with an air ride suspension system pre-installed. However, the air ride tank, the solenoids, and the compressors were all mounted to the floor with drywall screws(!!). This was completely unacceptable so we welded up a frame for the compressors and solenoids out of 1/2″ square tubing. We welded flat bar to the rack, then drilled and tapped the bars for mounting everything.

To finish it off, we sprayed the rack with an epoxy coating from Eastwood called "Satin Black Chassis Paint". We bolted the tank to the floor and then secured the tank to the rack.

Amp Rack & Power
Next up was the amp rack. The car has some issues with the trunk sealing properly sometimes, so we wanted to make sure that if water should get into the trunk, none of the equipment could be damaged by water. Traditionally we would make amp racks from MDF, but if water gets into the trunk MDF won't last very long. We used more 1/2″ square tubing and welded together an amp rack, then welded flat bar to the rack for mounting the amps.

We added a top section to the rack and welded mounting mounting tabs to the sides so it can be secured to the trunk floor. Like the air ride rack, we sprayed it with the Eastwood Satin Black Chassis Epoxy Paint.

The amp rack is bolted to the floor of the trunk using thread inserts and stainless bolts/washers.

We also relocated the battery to the trunk, housing it in an aluminum frame, and securing it to the trunk floor with thread inserts. We welded up a simple bracket for a Streetwires combo fuse block, and drilled and tapped it to the side of the battery rack.

Like all the other racks in the trunk, we coated our "power center" with the Eastwood Epoxy Chassis Paint. We made sure to mount the heavy duty relays for the compressors out of the trunk hinges. We also mounted the main ANL fuse for the car's electrical system back by the rack for easy access.

Well, now you're caught up on the progress of this project and we'll continue to keep you updated. We've also got a few other projects in the bay that we'll share with you, so keep checking back and let us know what you think!

Tim Baillie is owner of HzEmall Customs in Surrey, BC, Canada, a high-end custom shop that believes attention to detail, quality and integrity are the key ingredients to success and happy customers. "HzEmall" is a play on words "hurts them all". Hz is an abbriavation for Hertz (hurts) which is the unit of measurement for speaker frequency. Click on teh banner above to see more HzEmall's works, get details on their shop, and to check out the company blog.

Comments

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[eldorr pallais]

hi guys, it's fantastic how you renew cars... i have a bmw 325i 1992.... would you let me know how i can be selected to fix my csr with you guys... my older brother brought it from california to nicaragua and then he gave it to me... i tried to fix it but i couldn`t because i can't find some parts and they're to expensive... i got problems with the shocks and air flow sensor or mass air meter sensor... and i think the transmission is getting brokd or i do not know if it's giving me problems because the sensor that i told you before. thanks for all... good luck