Here is the might Mullet Camaro...

Its a 1980 Z28 that I found in a wrecking yard. Its a factory T-top, 4 speed, posi car that was delievered to Scarborough Motors here in Toronto in early 1980. After getting the GM Historical documents, its actually 1 of 8 white T-top, four speed cars, that went to canada. Pretty rare...

Heres what it looked like when I found it at the yard...

It was pretty much complete but pretty rough. I decided to buy it when I opened the hood and saw the aftermarket turbo setup on it though!

I contacted the original owner (and the only other real owner of the car if you don't count the original leasing company that he financed it through, or the wrecking yard) and got the story on the car.

He was actually the owner of the dealership and every year he would lease the hottest car chevrolet made. It had to be a V8 and manual trans. Every year before that he had got a corvette, but in 1980, you couldn't get a vette with a stickshift unless you got the weak 305. So instead he bought the Z28 with its 350 and 4 speed. The car was already on the lot and nicely optioned, but he wanted AC and it wasn't quite fast enough. So with 15km on the car, it went off to be modified.

The engine was pulled and rebuilt. It was balanced and blue printed, and fitted with some TRW L2441 forged pistons, a Crane HT284 camshaft, Edelbrock Varijection water injection, Holley 800cfm caburator, and a Martin 350-1 Turbo kit. The interior got some nice leather seats to replace the originals, a GM racing steering wheel, Hurst shifter, and complete Pioneer stereo system with a Fosgate amp and Jenson 6x9's. Because of the water injection tank, the battery was moved to the trunk.

Now with a comfy cockpit, tunes and 6psi of boost perking thing up, the exteriors needed some help to bring it up to the rest of the car. The headlights were replaced with brighter H3 bulb lights, and a porshe style whale tail on a fibreglass trunk lid was added. Sometime later the car had a minor fender bender and was resprayed in its original white, but missing the side decals that came with the Z28 package.

The car was driven until it had 87,000km on the clock and then parked sometime in the 80's with engine trouble. According to the previous owner, it ran 13.2@104mph in the early 80's on its rock hard BFG street tires. Not too shabby. Easy 12 second car on slicks, or a better gear than its stock 3.08's.

The car was rough when I got it and the interior was pretty trashed

After I got it, I completely rebuilt the car. Its sitting in the body shop right now getting paint and body. I couldn't resist making some modifications however.

The T-top camaros were notoriously floppy so I took car of that first. The front subframe now has been fully seam welded and is connected to the rest of the body with some through the floor subframe connectors that are welded in. Aluminum body bushings also help stiffen the car, as does a custom 6 point roll bar with removable door bars and a beefy X brace that ties into the rear suspension mounts. I even added a camera mount. Hotchkiss bars stiffen the front. The car is now stiff enough that you can jack it up anywhere and the entire side comes up.

The suspension was next. It is running 650in-lb drop springs in the front from Moog, with a complete front end rebuilt with Polygraphite bushings, adjustable shocks, a tall spindle upgrade, 1.125" sold sway bar, and 1LE 12" disk brakes with cryo'd and crossdrilled rotors, and WPF 1.05F pads. The stock Z28 fast ratio box was retained. 16x8" iroc rims with 245/50R16 Toyo tires round out the front end.

The rear suspension is a WS6 8.5" 10 bolt rear with 11" disk brakes. Adjustable shocks and AFCO 175in-lb rear springs hold it in place. A 0.58" rear sway bar tightens it up a bit. 16x8" iroc rims with 245/50R16 Toyo tires are also on the rear.

The engine is the original still. It was bored 30 thou over and rebuilt. New TRW L2441 pistons were fitted with hellfire rings and the rotating assemply was balanced. A modern grind of the old Crane HT284 was found and installed in the car. The old heads were lightweight 624 castings that had no guides left and were badly cracked, so a set of early 186 castings were ported and setup for the turbos heat with stainless valves, hard seats, and sodium filled exhaust valves. A melling HV pump and TD performance trap door style road race oil pan was fitted to keep everything lubed up. The Martin turbo system was rebuilt by J&R turbos and reinstalled with an adjusable bypass valve. Its currently set for a safe 6 psi. It will run on midgrade pumpgas and still make over 300rwhp. At 9psi on 94 octane it put out 358rwhp and 501 ft-lbs torque at the wheels. This is about maxing out the smallish Rayjay turbo however. I am planning a 60-1 wheel upgrade if I keep the car.

The tranmission is the original iron cased Super T10 with a Z gearset - the 3.42 first gear. It has been rebuilt and fitted with a lakewood scatter shield, and Mcleod clutch setup on a nodular iron flywheel. The Hurst shifter that was on the car when I got it was fitten back to the fresh trans. Synthetic lube makes it happy.

The rear axle is a WS6 item with 3.42 rear gears (prefect for the high torque turbo) and a posi. Some synthetic lube keeps this one happy also.

The body is basically stock, and the whale tailis coming off. Its being replaced with a stock trunk lid and spoiler. Here are a couple of pics before it went into the body shop.

The body shop really messed up the car and I was forced to redo all the work, including having to install a new tail panel after they messed up the stock one.  I have sanded the car down to its factory primer, and after repairing all the issues in the body tub, its now been blocked twice and is straight as an arrow.  I need to re-install the front clip after aligning the doors and trunk, and then the entire car can be hit with high build primer and blocked out.

I have also picked up 4th gen leather seats for the camaro, and replaced the crappy glass trunk lid with a stock one.

This is one car that has been taking forever, and I can't wait to finish it, so I can sell it and make room for another car. 

  UPDATES - the body work is done and the car is for sale in primer.  No engine/trans, as I am keeping them for another project.  The car is very straight now, but I have completely lost interest in it.  I am slowly putting it together in my spare time, and just got the trunk lid, and rear spoiler on, but haven't aligned any of it yet.

Those 4th gen leather seats really look good in the car and are so much better than the original seats.

 I am slowly putting it together in my spare time, and just got the trunk lid, and rear spoiler on, but haven't aligned any of it yet.