Sean's 78 Camaro Z28

[Texas82GP]

Sean and I did a little project on the Camaro a few weeks ago. He has been working from home for five to six weeks now. Most of when the Camaro gets driven is when he takes it to work so its done a lot of sitting lately. I bought him a Battery Tender Jr. We decided to hard wire it to the car so he could just pull the car in the garage and plug in without having to open the hood. We started by figuring out where we wanted the end of the harness to live, how we were going to route it and how long it needed to be. We ended up extending the harness and we also put it in Powerbraid so it matches everything else under the hood....

We glued a magnet to the end of the harness with weatherstrip adhesive and decided we wanted to the end of it to live on the front wheel arch lip of the lower fender extension on the passenger side. It is easy to reach in and grab it from here....

We routed the harness through the core support following a bumper brace and then it comes up between the battery and the radiator. We just tied it to the front light wiring. It turned out to be a pretty clean install...

And here it is. Plugged in and snug as a bug in a rug.....

 

[sportriderOK]

Do you remember how spendy is was? I'm getting tired of buying batteries. I joke that my Ninja gets 2 rides per battery (because I generally ride once a year!)

 

[Texas82GP]

Do you remember how spendy is was? I'm getting tired of buying batteries. I joke that my Ninja gets 2 rides per battery (because I generally ride once a year!)

Ken, it was like $25 from Amazon. We had everything else (spare wire, powerbraid, heat shrink solderless connectors on hand). It's good to hear from you. I hope you are doing well.

 

[pontiacgp]

please keep an eye on the Battery Tender...

Bad luck

My friend just lost is 70 442 to a fire - of all things it was the battery tender.

gbodyforum.com

 

[Texas82GP]

please keep an eye on the Battery Tender...

Bad luck

My friend just lost is 70 442 to a fire - of all things it was the battery tender.

gbodyforum.com

Thanks Steve. I've worried about that. I did a Google search and didn't find reports of fires from actual Battery Tenders but have heard some bad things about other brands. The one I bought had very good reviews....

 

[Texas82GP]

Posting to keep the thread from auto-locking. Not much to report. We had a water pipe break in the attic over the car back during the artic blast. The car got wet but thankfully we caught it pretty fast and the sheetrock didn't come down on it. We're still fixing the sheetrock where we had to cut it to repair the pipes so the car is over on the main side for now. We haven't had many places to drive it lately but it continues to perform nearly flawlessly.

 

[scoti]

I love the build. These 'later' 2nd GEN f-bodies are really starting to see traction in their values + desirability for high end builds.
You guys did an outstanding job on this one.

 

[Supercharged111]

Water heater in the attic I take it? I put a Power Sports battery in my Z06 back in April and wanted to keep it alive. Every week or 2 I plug it in overnight, but no longer. For some reason my maintainer killed the first battery when I left it plugged in a few days with it 6 months old. I got it warrantied and changed my ways.

This was the best I could dream up. I'm not in love with it, but it works. I'd like to replace the cowl at some point too so can abandon this in the future if my imagination decides to cooperate.

 

[Texas82GP]

I love the build. These 'later' 2nd GEN f-bodies are really starting to see traction in their values + desirability for high end builds.
You guys did an outstanding job on this one.

Thanks! I really appreciate you saying something nice about it. I wouldn't trade all that time with my brother for anything. Yeah the 78-81 or "Disco" cars have never seemed to be regarded as much, I guess because of the lack of power when new. I always thought they were sharp cars.

Water heater in the attic I take it? I put a Power Sports battery in my Z06 back in April and wanted to keep it alive. Every week or 2 I plug it in overnight, but no longer. For some reason my maintainer killed the first battery when I left it plugged in a few days with it 6 months old. I got it warrantied and changed my ways.

View attachment 169621

This was the best I could dream up. I'm not in love with it, but it works. I'd like to replace the cowl at some point too so can abandon this in the future if my imagination decides to cooperate.

So far, we love the Battery Tender Jr. We have one on the Camaro, one on the Galaxie and one on the Roadmaster. They say not to drop them, so maybe that's a thing. Also, in this case, I think the brand really matters. I looked at the reviews pretty hard and couldn't find much negative on them.

 

[DRIVEN]

I love the build. These 'later' 2nd GEN f-bodies are really starting to see traction in their values + desirability for high end builds.
You guys did an outstanding job on this one.

Agree 1000%. I've had a soft spot for the late 70s Z/28s since I was a little kid. My brother and I got a car hauler for Christmas one year that had a red Bandit T/A and a yellow Z/28. I never really got into Trans Ams for some reason but always loved the flares and hood scoop on the Z/28. That stupid toy really left an impression.