Thread: 1971 Camaro RS

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Nice; 5.3s are great little motors.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I put my front spoiler on it to see what mods need to be made to get it on. I also found a RS emblem I liked and will be adding to the grill. The next big project was to install solid interlocking body bushings and sub frame connectors. I sourced them from global west. I got a surprise when I went to put the front left radiator support mount in. The mount was ripped off the support and the sheet metal was resting on the frame. I drilled out the old spot welds, added some other holes, and welded it back on the core support. This thing should be good and solid now.

When I was prepping to remove the interior for welding the sub frame connectors in, I noticed the back window looked like it had been leaking. I removed the top piece of trim and I literally pushed it out. I had a friend come remove the windshield.

I'm pretty sure neither piece of glass has been out of the car, ever. You can see who ever painted the car masked off the trim, got into it with the sander, and shot it with it on. Not a big deal. I was just nervous there would be rust holes under the glass from these leaking. I was surprised to see the windshield butyl tape still had a great seal and was not leaking.

I'm thinking you're not old enough to have an RS Camaro and should really have my Impala instead. Let me know when we can work out the logistics of meeting some place to trade! Just trying to help, ya know?

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

I'm thinking you're not old enough to have an RS Camaro and should really have my Impala instead. Let me know when we can work out the logistics of meeting some place to trade! Just trying to help, ya know?

Hmm, no. Maybe for the 57. I sure hope I can get this thing running soon.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Hmm, no. Maybe for the 57. I sure hope I can get this thing running soon.

Design changes on the '57, I'll update you later when things get finalized....

Wow, you've been busy. I'm glad that the rear window and windshield area's were solid, I remember my old 71 windshield pushed out with little effort as well. I guess I sold it too you too cheap and I'm sure you can't live with yourself because of it so I'll assume the remainder of the money with be in the mail shortly What happened to your 40 ? You didn't sell it for parts did you

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Wow, you've been busy. I'm glad that the rear window and windshield area's were solid, I remember my old 71 windshield pushed out with little effort as well. I guess I sold it too you too cheap and I'm sure you can't live with yourself because of it so I'll assume the remainder of the money with be in the mail shortly What happened to your 40 ? You didn't sell it for parts did you

Too cheap? LMAO. I did sell the 40 to pay for parts for this thing. How'd you know?

I've been working on this off and on when time allows. Life keeps throwing wrenches in my plans. First it was get something ready to drive down for vacation and then fund it. Then we get back and our basement floods while I'm trying to get stuff ready to take to Good guys in Des Moines. The Saturday night of Good guys Des Moines/central Iowa gets pounded with rain. 10" of rain in Ankeny, Urbandale and Johnston. We got 5"+ and our basement flooded again. The 72 also had some turbo/air issues just as I pulled into the Iowa State fair grounds with our camper. The day after goodguys the wife's mini van peters out, so I give her the trusty F350 to drive because it has good AC. I start driving the Excursion again and the front Rh caliper was stuck. I got that fixed and the lawn mower crapped out. One thing right after another.

Ok, I'll quit crying. Oh wait, there's another hiccup in the Camaro's plan. I decided to put a cam in the 5.3 while I had it out. That bit me too. I'll get to that.....

I used a wire wheel and got the front and rear glass channels cleaned out and painted them with rust converter paint. I also did the top of the trunk floor, and the package tray area. One Saturday my brother came over and did the bottom of the trunk floor and started cleaning the gas tank up.

I did find a rust hole on top pf the dash. I repaired it but didn't have time to get the body work perfect because the glass guy was coming the next morning. He showed up early on a Saturday morning. We got the front and rear glass installed. I pushed it outside to let them cure and I began putting on my Z bar. I got the z bar installed along with the 4 speed pedals, and cut the floor for the 4 speed shifter. I bought a floor shift tilt column but it got dropped and damaged in shipping so I still have to see if I can repair that column.

I cut the factory flanges off the LQ9 exhaust manifolds because an ear on ear one was touching the frame. I welded on v bands instead. I got the exhaust ran to in front of the rear axle. I even added an H pipe and it has a v band to help installation. I put flex joints after the down pipes too to help eliminate rattles and stuff. I steamed/power washed the gas tank, cleaned off the old rubber isolation pads, made new and painted the tank. I also installed a new sending unit and o ring that stuck the tank back in place. For nor I'm going to run an external pump until I go to the turbo.

My beautiful 7 year old daughter kept wanting to help me so I let her remove the front grill and trim stuff while I was working on other things. Clint, my oldest son vacuumed the floor while it was outside.

Now for the 5.3 situation...... I pulled it apart to swap the cam out. Shouldn't be a big deal right? Um, yeah.... I started pulling lifters out, a few were hard to get out. As in I had to wiggle them and turn them to get them out. This was mainly due to me power washing the engine after I pulled the heads and only put 6 bolts per head back in. I finally got the cam ready to pull out and slid it out. I then popped the rear main cover off to find the rear 2 cam bearings looked horrid. Taking a second look, they all looked no bueno. Just the top side, not the bottom.

I called the machine shop, the guy laughed but agreed to replace them with my rods and pistons still in. They did a great job but misquoted the job so it cost about $100 more than they said. That sucked but I got it back and put the cam in. New timing chain, oil pimp, rear main plate and seal, put the windage tray and pick up tube in, and finally had a complete short block. A while back I picked up a set of 862 heads that supposedly just had a fresh vlave job completed on them. I was skeptical and tore them down. I was very happy to find that all the valves had been replaced and they did in fact do a valve job on them. Since they had been ran I lapped the valves and then installed my new valve springs, locks, and retainers. I also replaced the valve seals for peace of mind.

I forgot when I yanked the 350 from this that I found another rust spot on this car. It was in the firewall by the HVAC box. Yeah shoot. I cut out the worst stuff and made a patch and welded it in. I got my AC delete plate and instead of painting it firewall color, I scuffed it and cleared it to try and make it looked like brushed aluminum or stainless. I primed the back side so hopefully the front side doesn't rust.....

Sooo what have you been doing in your spare time Ryan

Nice progress and great to see the kids involved.


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Don't forget to sleep LOL. When I was looking for Camaros I passed up several of them because they didn't have Factory air, now here you go and rip it out and put a plate over it LOL.

If you think you Camaro is (was) bad you should have seen my 68 rust was every where. Your doing it right good job

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Don't forget to sleep LOL. When I was looking for Camaros I passed up several of them because they didn't have Factory air, now here you go and rip it out and put a plate over it LOL.

My thoughts are this: I have to replace all the lines, condenser, evaporator, have the POA valve rebuilt and set to 134a pressure, the outer box is broken, the inner stuff is very brittle from being in AZ. The wiring was/is melted to some control cables behind the dash too. So either spend money on finding nice OEM stuff because the repop stuff doesn't fit, or just bite the bullet and buy vintage air for it. That's my plan. I got the bolt on plate so I'm not technically altering the body much. If I ever wanted to put factory stuff back I could. The main reason I had to ditch the HVAC box was it had an ear that hung out behind the RH head and the head was hitting it. So bye bye broken stuff and now I have to save more money.

Originally Posted by cffisher

If you think you Camaro is (was) bad you should have seen my 68 rust was every where. Your doing it right good job

Oh, this one is not bad. It does have some weird rusty places but nothing like what I've had in years past. This was one of the high lights of getting this car was how solid it was. Finding anything solid this old in this area might as well be up there with winning the lotto.