SCCA Camaro

Dad and I also pulled the Muncie off to put a new clutch in.  Our second pleasant surprise the car had in store was a Fidanza aluminum flywheel.  I had it resurfaced at Ted’s Machine Shop for a very reasonable price and then purchased a generic clutch from NAPA auto.  We also located a Muncie rebuild kit that had new seals and gaskets to stop the leak.  Removal of the valves covers revealed another nice surprise—Comp Cams 1.52:1 roller-tipped rockers.  However, an inspection revealed why we heard some valvetrain noise—many of the pushrods were damaged, some of them with jagged ends stabbing into the rockers.  Ted’s came to the rescue by selling me a partial set of hardened pushrods and Dad and I replaced 6 of the 16 pushrods.  We also needed a new starter, as the one on the car only occasionally worked.  I decided to keep the starter motor housing as it fit the block and scattershield particularly well so I purchased a new starter from Cutter Chevrolet (from my man Spencer who recently moved on to a job in a body shop).  Then I transferred the innards of the starter motor over to my old housing and returned my old innards in the new housing back to the Chevy dealership for my core charge.  A rear end rebuild was in order as well, but what gear to use?  Some research was in order.

Once the subframe was out we cut it up according to the DSE instructions and then welded the new upper A-arms mounts in for the shocks.  We did a little welding of some of the seams on the subframe and ground it smooth in a few places before taking it to the powder coater.  If I had it to do again, I’d have welded every seam on it and ground the entire subframe smooth, because some of those factory welds looked pretty nasty when it came back.

Dad had recently retired and in addition to being an old drag racer was formerly a master welder so I relied heavily on him to get started.  He visited for Christmas of 2004, by which time my delivery from Detroit Speed and Engineering had arrived, and by January of 2005 we had started in earnest.  We decided to pull the front clip off the car so we could pull the subframe out from under the car more easily.  I borrowed an engine hoist and before I knew it Dad was removing and handing me bolts as fast as I could bag and label them.