Sean's 78 Camaro Z28

[1evilregal]

now that I've had a chance to change my pants, I have to say congrats! the car looks beautiful, and although the paint turned out perfectly, just remember that the best paint in the world won't be that way without great prep work!


if I were you or your brother, I'd probably be like Clint Eastwood' in "Gran Torino".... sitting on the porch, having a beer, and thinking "ain't she beautiful!"

hope you guys get years of enjoyment from all the years of hard work!

 

[DRIVEN]

That car is spot-on perfect in execution. I wouldn't change a thing and I'd definite not change the wheel color. They rarely get much love but those late 2nd gen cars were one of the first "cool" cars I remember being aware of when I was very young. The T/As got all the press but I was always partial to the Z28s. You guys did a superb job and should be very proud. Feel free to post a few hundred more pics. No one will think you're bragging.

 

[Texas82GP]

I'm glad you kept that wheel. I don't think that wheel was used in any other brand and it's great to see the original wheel in the car, especially in the condition that wheel is in

and I just noticed something, the rules of the road in my part of the world are that you have to have the shift pattern for a standard either on a decal on the center console or the shifter ball. I guess where you are you can go incognito. ....😀

Steve, I think the wheel is Z28 specific and was only used in 78 & 79. We wanted the interior to look pretty stock so an aftermarket wheel wasn't the right fit for us. I think the wheel is original to the car so its nice to see something survive and stay with the car. We're really happy with how it cleaned up. Perfect? No but very nice for its age. On the shift pattern, it's not a requirement for vehicle inspection down here. There is no pattern on the ball since the pattern was on the shift plate on the 3rd Gen Camaros. I never really thought about the fact that it doesn't have a pattern but I like the 'incognito' look.

wow, what else can I say.....🙂

Thanks buddy. I'm glad you've enjoyed the thread and like how the car is turning out.

C'mon Jared geez....final assembly anticipation- pretty sure my nails are gone lol!
Beautiful car...that guy did a great job! I wish i lived closer....i woulda had my cutlass painted and on the road by now

Thanks Scott. I wish you lived closer too. I love this forum and I love that I get to visit with all you great guys on here. I wish you all lived closer so we could meet face to face. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the guys on the Route 66 Cruise in September. I'm looking forward to seeing your Cutlass painted and seeing you be able to put it together. Crack the whip on your guy!!!

let me be the first to say G.R.E.A.T J.O.B

and I was never a fan of 2nd gens but this one is NICE ! LOL

Thanks for the kind words. I've always liked the 2nd Gens, especially the early ones and the late ones. I was never a big fan of the 'big bumper' 74-77 era cars.

Love this build! Although it makes me wish I'd saved mine to present the same way, the payoff is quicker. 😛

Thanks for the kind words. I really like the work you are doing on your Malibu so your feedback means something to me. I kind of wish I had done a build thread as we built the car but I wasn't really into forums back then. I discovered the forums along the way doing research and was always just a lurker until I joined this forum in 2015. I'll tell you, it is a time commitment to document an 11 year build. I'm guessing I have at least 15 hours into this thread. I admire Donovan's approach to come in right after doing the work and document the progress. That's dedication.

Unbelievable and it's better than what came off the showroom floor. I see that you have a front plate in Texas that disturbs the view of the front of the car. We have the same idiotic problem in Ontario

Thanks Steve. I really appreciate the positive feedback. We are really happy with it. Yeah, a front plate is a requirement here in Texas. I'm used to it since it has been a requirement my entire life. They do look like an afterthought on this era Camaro, and on our GP's for that matter. We can take pride in the fact that the front plate is on there absolutely correct. It was tough to find some of the correct hardware. There is an angled spacer that goes between the plat holder and the bumper cover and it was very tough to find.

Hahahaha! Thanks buddy.

Damn that looks good!

Thanks Chris. I appreciate it.

Looks awesome Jared! You guys did a fantastic job on this car! It certainly looks like you guys found the right guy to lay down a paint job like that!

I've really enjoyed the build on this car...thanks so much for sharing it with us! Can't wait to see some work on your GP

Thanks Kevin. As I've said before, the fact that you guys have enjoyed the thread makes it worth posting it. We are really happy with the car and he was definitely the right guy. No paint jail. He did what he said he was going to do. He sent us pictures every week so we could document that part of the build. He's a great guy.

I'll probably get back on the GP in the fall. It's just too hot over there in June, July, August and early September. Think of it as your winter with an unheated garage.

Jared
Stunning my friend, simply stunning.

I'm glad you guys found a painter worthy of all your time, effort, and hard work over the years. That's never an easy decision.

The colour is fantastic, I especially love that one of the hood out in the sun. Incredible.
I know you commented earlier on having a discussion about painting the wheels to match... Just my opinion, but I wouldn't on that car. The grey nicely contrasts and offsets the blue. It looks killer the way it is, I wouldn't change a thing.

Many congratulations to you and Sean. You guys more than earned it. No go out and help him drive the wheels off that thing, to help get you fired up on your GP!!

Donovan

Thanks Donovan. With the kind of work you do, your praise really means something. It was really tough for me to turn the car loose but I had a good feeling about Justin from the time I met him. It's a relief that he did a good job, in a timely manner and that the car turned out so well. We're going to work through the punch list but Sean is already enjoying the car and that means everything to me. He's spent so much money and we put so much time into it. I love seeing him enjoy it.

now that I've had a chance to change my pants, I have to say congrats! the car looks beautiful, and although the paint turned out perfectly, just remember that the best paint in the world won't be that way without great prep work!


if I were you or your brother, I'd probably be like Clint Eastwood' in "Gran Torino".... sitting on the porch, having a beer, and thinking "ain't she beautiful!"

hope you guys get years of enjoyment from all the years of hard work!

Thanks for the kind words and positive feedback. We were really fortunate to be able to buy NOS quarters for this car at a reasonable price. That helped a lot on the prep work. I love 'Gran Torino'. Great flick. Every time we get the car out of the garage or roll up the door, it is a little surreal that we are looking at the same car that we started with and that was just an empty shell at one point. I'm looking forward to years of car shows, cruises and just enjoying the car here around town.

That car is spot-on perfect in execution. I wouldn't change a thing and I'd definite not change the wheel color. They rarely get much love but those late 2nd gen cars were one of the first "cool" cars I remember being aware of when I was very young. The T/As got all the press but I was always partial to the Z28s. You guys did a superb job and should be very proud. Feel free to post a few hundred more pics. No one will think you're bragging.

Thanks again for the kind words. We're really happy and I am proud that I could help my brother build the car he's wanted for 30 years. I have to give him a lot of credit because he did all of the ugly work. The blasting, the grinding, the sanding, the scraping. I helped him with parts selection, research and the welding. It truly is his car. The consensus seems to be to keep the wheels grey. Nobody has said paint them blue yet. I couldn't agree with you more on your point regarding the TA's/Camaros. I think Sean wanted a TA when he found this car. I've always thought these late 2nd gens were a styling masterpiece and that it was a shame that they were basically gutless. We took care of that with the 6.0

Thanks everyone for the likes and the positive feedback. It means a great deal to me.

 

[Texas82GP]

I added a poll on the wheel color. You guys vote and let us know what you think.

We made a little progress on the car last week. We got it up on stands and tightened up the emergency brake. Our initial adjustment was a little conservative and there has undoubtedly been a little bit of wear on the rear pads. I think the adjustment may still be conservative but you have to be careful since if you get too tight on the adjustment, the rear brakes will drag.

We also installed the hood pad. That was fun since the car hasn't had one, all the way back to the mid 80's. Here's a pic of the hood pad installed....

 

[LOCOGOMEZ]

WOW.... This is a great build. That color came out nice. This is a good start to finish thread with a lot of pictures. I just wished I had the time and especially space to do that kind of work. Hopefully here sometime in the near future I will have my OWN place to be able to. Great job again!!!!

 

[Texas82GP]

Moving forward, I'm gearing up to work on the tune. Most of the time when you start the car with the engine cool it runs perfect. After it warms up and you cut it off, when you re-start it, it doesn't want to idle.

 

[Clutch]

All I can say is wow!

That's probably the nicest 78 Z/28 on the planet

 

[Texas82GP]

WOW.... This is a great build. That color came out nice. This is a good start to finish thread with a lot of pictures. I just wished I had the time and especially space to do that kind of work. Hopefully here sometime in the near future I will have my OWN place to be able to. Great job again!!!!

Thanks! I appreciate the positive comments. I know how you feel on having space. I live with my brother and sister-in-law. Our house has a three car garage and the third bay is walled off for the Camaro. We initially walled it off to close it in to plastic media blast the shell and left the wall up. A lot of the work on the car was done in that bay and its tight. My car is in a 10'x25' storage because there is nowhere for it here. We're thinking about moving a little farther from Houston and getting a place with a shop or building a shop. We'll see. It is inspiring to see what some of the guys on here can do with a one bay garage or just the driveway.

All I can say is wow!

That's probably the nicest 78 Z/28 on the planet

Thanks man!

 

[Texas82GP]

Moving forward, I'm gearing up to work on the tune. Most of the time when you start the car with the engine cool it runs perfect. After it warms up and you cut it off, when you re-start it, it doesn't want to idle.

I intended to post more on this but it was time for Father's Day so I put the phone up. I'm gearing up to work on the tune. Part of that is downloading the latest version of the EFI Live onto this laptop and downloading the latest version of the firmware on the hand held. I'm not Mr. Technology so it truly is just work for me. Beyond that I'm gearing up to be able to make decent videos. I think if I can document our drivability issue with both a video and a data log, it will be easier for the tuner to see what the car is doing. I also just want to be able to post decent videos on here to show you guys what we're working on or how its going. I posted my first video in another thread last night. It's ok. I learned a lot. I'm unsatisfied with the audio so I ordered an audio recorder to improve that situation. Maybe I bought the wrong camera but you have to learn somehow. Once I get decent audio quality I will post a video in this thread of the Camaro starting up and idling. It sounds pretty killer. I don't want to water it down with so-so sound.

 

[malibujustin]

Jared, I have enjoyed the build. Great pics and descriptions. The camaro has turned out awesome. Some old and some new. A great mixture of both on it. Sean, your dad, and you did great work. The painter did very well too. Hope that the car gets enjoyed for many many years to come!!!