Restoration

On this page, I will show all the steps of the car's restoration. I'm going to keep all of the in progress pictures up and just keep adding new ones. I think this will show the different aspects of the work on the car very well.

Pictures taken 3/19/06
OK, the 350 is now out. We pulled the motor on 3/19 and it came out just as easily as I had hoped. Now, I need to get the engine bay ready for the 396 which I hope will go in at the end of March.

Picture taken 1/2/06
I decided on a carburetor, I'm going to go with a Holley 770 Street Avenger. So, here is the carb which I will put in as soon as the engine is installed.

Picture taken 12/10/05
Well, I am getting close to finally being able to install the 396 into the car. I have managed to save all the money I need and now that school is out for Christmas I have some free time. So, the motor is finally going in.

I just bought most of the parts that I need to put it in as well as some engine dress up stuff to make it look nice. These pics are of the parts which include a set of March aluminum performance pulleys, Billet Specialities aluminum valve covers and breathers, as well as a set of Hedman Elite ceramic coated headers.

Picture taken 6/19/05
Although these have been installed for some time, I never got around to taking a photo of them and they really make my interior look better. If you look close, you can see that there is a new dash pad. My old one was cracked very badly and looked terrible. I chose a black dash pad instead of a blue one because when I replace the interior its going to be black. So, for right now there are a couple of interior colors, but it won't be like that for too long. I also installed the tachometer I purchased last spring. For you Camaro experts, you can see that it is actually a Z-28 tach (not an SS tach) but I liked it the best so I took a little "creative license" and put the Z-28 tach in it.

Picture taken 6/1/05
Well, I recently found a nice 396 motor that a local engine builder had aquired. He was selling this motor for $1900 and I was able to buy it for $1750 so I am very happy with that. It is a brand new rebuilt 396, it's a 1966 block. The engine specs are below:

396 2-Bolt Motor, Bored .040 Over
Factory Forged Steel Crankshaft
9.5:1 Compression Pistons
Comp Cams 270 Camshaft (Intake & Exhaust 224 @ .050)
Oval Port Heads with Upgraded Valve Springs
Performance Parts Aluminum Intake Manifold (Chinese Performer Copy)

It will have an HEI Distributor, and a Holley 770 Street Avenger carb. I probably won't be able to put the motor in until the end of summer because of a lack of extra money but I'll get it in soon enough. I may have to go with my little Holley 600 carb at first as well for the same reason.

Picture taken 5/13/05
Well, I decided the other day to buy a new set of pedals for the car. Basically, my worn out brake pedal fell off and I just felt like I should change them all while I was at it (since they were missing the trim anyway). So, here is a shot of the new pedals with their trim before I installed them.

Picture taken 1/22/05
I have made yet another minor change to the engine which is part of my "temporary plans" (see page 6 for more info). I have removed the Edelbrock air cleaner tin and put on a more stock generic looking chrome tin. I feel that it adds a lot more shine to the engine and makes it overall more attractive. I have also put a stock style GM 350/325hp sticker on the air cleaner. Of course, my car doesn't have 325hp (nor was there a 325hp 350 Camaro avilable in 1969) but I feel that it makes a nice addition to the engine's appearance.

Picture taken 1/15/05
One minor change to the engine has been recently made. I was given a cleanable K&N Performance Air Filter for Christmas (14"x3" round element) and I have added it. This will be the same air filter that I will use when I put the 396 in the car.

Pictures taken 6/11/04

I just finished installing the new console in the car. It looks great and all the gauges work awesome. Installing it was a ton of work with countless little problems coming up, but in the end it was deffinately worth it. I still have to put the tach in and finish some of the minor wiring.

Pictures taken 5/13/04

I recently I aquired an exact reproduction of the factory console, automatic floor shifter, and guages (purchased through Classic Industries). I also got a factory tachometer from the same company. I am currently installing these into the car.

Here you can see the bottom of the console has been bolted to the floor and the linkage is hooked up.

Here are the remaining components of the console that are waiting to be installed. There are a lot of parts that aren't in yet but most are little things

Here is the new gauge cluster for the console and next to it is the 8000RPM tachometer.

As you may have noticed, the car was originally a column shifter automatic. For now, I'm just going to remove the shift handle from the column and leave the "lump" on the column. In the near future, the steering column will be replaced with a factory column designed for a console shift car.

Pitures taken on 1/31/04 (Original Photos)

These are a couple shots of the interior and engine as they were when I first got it.

Page Index
Page 1: Main Page
Page 2: Interior
Page 3: Engine & Drivetrain
Page 4: Exterior
Page 5: Restoration
Page 6: The Plan
Page 7: My 1996 Camaro 3.8L