Not sure what the "mm" wire is Rob? I remember reading a footnote about harnesses having this black & yellow jumper wire between the wiper and motor and recall it's so the motor see's high speed before the low speed will work or something like that. My memory isn't what it used to be.

Looks real good Graeme!

I Love this car! Great build, can't wait to see it hit the streets.

Sorry I meant that wire is very short in length, ie one less millimeter and it might not work ;(

Yeah...I was surprised how tight it was and commented on that to a buddy who's been helping me work on the car. Installed a new harness on my Nova and thought the same thing on another harness from Lectric Ltd of Illinois.

Been nibbling away at more work on the Camaro the last couple days. Also managed to sneak down to Montana on another parts run where I picked up some NOS rocker spears, NOS trunk seal and also picked up a minty set of NOS window felts yesterday. We got the front sway bar installed (forgot to powder coated it earlier) and installed a few more brake parts including some original e-brake hardware that was phosphate coated. Today we changed out the rear quarter window channels as the originals were not up to par.

While at it we then swapped out all the window felts as the repro stuff was horrible. Headlamp trim was completed today and the car's now ready for front and rear bumpers. On tomorrows docket, we'll finish installing the heater core, bleed the brakes and button up a few little things under the car. At that point we're ready to drop the freshly built 302 into the car and get the transmission and shifter mounted up. Before long, the console will be going in, the carpet will be trimmed and the rest of the interior can start going together.

boogity boogity :3gears:


https://i.ibb.co/swZp1Jx/IMG-3774.jpg
Headlight bezels restored

https://i.ibb.co/9cvvH04/IMG-3777.jpg
NOS Rocker Spears

https://i.ibb.co/7NHpCWY/IMG-3780.jpg
NOS Window Felts

https://i.ibb.co/jvdfRbr/IMG-3783.jpg
NOS Trunk Seal

Finished up installing the heater core this morning, rebuilt & installed the reverse lockout onto the frame, got all the ground straps installed, restored the e-Brake pedal assembly and started bleeding the brakes. Son #1 show up to help with the brakes and became the pedal man for an hour or so tonight.

https://i.ibb.co/ZNYYBgZ/IMG-3792.jpg

Trying to stay on this car and get it finished for it's 50th birthday in about 3 weeks. Found a decent original radio and speaker earlier today and got that installed before I finished bleeding the brakes. With all the little things now completed under the hood, it's now ready for the engine which is going in tomorrow. Did I mention how much fun it is to finally have this car going back together. I don't know why I waited so long?

https://i.ibb.co/R9JNZh7/IMG-3796.jpg
Original 69 AM Radio w/ 10 ohm speaker. Tested and it all worked great.

https://i.ibb.co/JnkCyqJ/IMG-3798.jpg
Installed the radio and the speaker which finishes up the dash work.

https://i.ibb.co/0FF7TmW/IMG-3804.jpg
Bled the brakes, installed the last speedo clip in the tunnel and tied up few loose ends.

Looks like we've turned the corner with assembly of the Z/28 now. Engine was primed yesterday and installed late in the day. The transmission will be going in next followed by a Gardner exhaust system. With the dash and instrumentation also complete, we'll soon install the console and start to button up the interior. Progress is coming along nicely considering the assembly started a mere 5 weeks ago. Couple more pics...

https://i.ibb.co/jwVJNsg/IMG-3824.jpg
CE Coded 302. Balanced & Blueprinted top to bottom.

https://i.ibb.co/NmKyh77/IMG-3865.jpg
Installed into the car with exhaust manifolds in place

Looking great! Just for curiosity sake, why did you install the motor separate from the trans?

I use a Macs engine pivot (tilter) that bolts to the carb studs to lift engines. The thing really is slicker than snot for dropping engines down and positioning the mounts to drop right on. Adding the trans increases the load on those 4 studs and although this rig works awesome, I'm still a bit concerned about having it pull the carb studs and dropping an engine.

With the car being assembled and painted, the risk of it dropping it while going in over the front of the car has the potential to be catastrophic. Hence the reason I added the chain yesterday (as a safety). Adding the transmission weight onto those studs increases the chances of something failing so I have been putting the transmission in separately on the last 3 motors just to be safe. It's not hard to lift the transmission in and then add the rear mount after the fact.

So with the engine now resting in place, we have since connected the clutch, installed the transmission and aligned the 3138 shifter with linkages. Today we cleaned up the original console, made the required carpet cuts and got the lower base installed with the wiring and oil pressure line in place. The console top was set in place near the end of the day and further cuts were made for the seat belts and seat tracks. I'll be finishing up the console, carpet and seat belts over the weekend with the rest of the interior to follow early next week. A mere 21 days left before the cars birthday and original shipping date of May 9th. Crack goes the whip.

https://i.ibb.co/8DskCCy/IMG-3888.jpg
Rebuilt Muncie M21 Trans with 3138 Shifter and Linkages

https://i.ibb.co/tm0qSrH/IMG-3896.jpg
Mounted up but can't find the right bolts for the linkages. They're around here somewhere...gotta find them! (temporary bolts are in place for now)

https://i.ibb.co/bzKyN3r/IMG-3898.jpg
Buttoning up the rear cross member and the transmission mount. Linkages are working great!

https://i.ibb.co/mSqR7yX/IMG-3899.jpg
Using many restored original fasteners for this drive line, courtesy of Rich (Enoch)

https://i.ibb.co/WHvXyQX/IMG-3913.jpg
One of my employees (Keith) helping me out as he cuts the carpet holes.

https://i.ibb.co/5KsYPHb/IMG-3942.jpg
Original console and gauges cleaned up and installed.

https://i.ibb.co/V2qW8LK/IMG-3943.jpg
Looking good for a 50 year old piece, and so is that un-restored shift handle.

https://i.ibb.co/dcfWDXQ/IMG-3869.jpg
The Z/28 is starting to look like a car again. Won't be long now. Tic Toc

Looking good Graeme!

That's going to be a sweet car!

Love the Rally Green. I'm a fan of the less common colors

👍🏻

Dang Graeme - she is looking FINE!!!!:3gears::3gears::3gears::3gears:

Car looks fantastic! Great job by all!

Looks great!

As expected, very nice Graeme!:biggthumpup:

Been working hard with the interior the past few days while sorting out what seats to use in the car. I have a restored set of seats with new covers and an original survivor set but I'm really struggling between them as both have their +/- issues. A little more adjusting of the door panels is required but these originals are definitely going in. While back and forth with seats, we're also prepping bolts and hardware for the engine peripherals. Today we'll install the smog system, alternator, power steering, clutch fan and fuel lines.

https://i.ibb.co/2tJRXk5/IMG-3984.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/txp7GY7/IMG-3964.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/pZHL4yk/IMG-3971.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/C5pYBQR/IMG-3993.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/NN7HsXJ/IMG-3994.jpg

Great stuff Graeme! :)

Resto porn!

So true Tim. Kind a like you guys with all these new shops being built. :grin:

Interior is almost done here with one door panel to mount after I reinstall the drivers mirror. Aside from a couple little things in the engine bay, we're almost ready to put the hood back on. First I have to add the carb linkage, mount the breather and put a battery in it. We will then shift to finishing off the Gardner exhaust before it goes out for a quick alignment. Next week it'll be fired up and tuned so I can start with some initial shakedown runs to work out any bugs with the car. I'm excited to hear this one run after its been sitting here for so long.

https://i.ibb.co/RYg1tFB/Right-Seat.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0GYhgwb/IMG-4110.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/c6whyyg/IMG-4111.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/xh7nCvQ/IMG-4112.jpg

And before anyone spot's that goddy repro rad cap, I have a good original around here somewhere but cannot locate it at the moment. Putting that on there really bugs me but it'll have to do until I can find my original cap. :D

Car looks great!

I also use that Macs Pivot Plate and love it!

One thing about how bolts and studs work...

Preload on the fastener = (torque)/(K*nominal diameter), where K is thread coefficient.

0.2 is a good K value for steel-on-steel. The higher the thread coefficient, the more thread friction we have. Let's say steel on aluminum is 0.3 (a wild conservative guess).

Let's say we have no gasket between that pivot plate and the manifold, so it is a rigid connection (the best way to use this plate). Let's also assume that we tighten the bolts holding the pivot plate to 15 ft-lbs (180 in-lbs). Let's calculate the preload in ONE of those studs / bolts:

(180)/(0.3*0.3125) = 1920 lbs.

That means that just ONE of those bolts has a theoretical preload of 1920 lbs. Four bolts would have a total clamp load of 7680 lbs. Until you exceed that clamp load, the fastener and threads do not actually see any additional load. If it doesn't pull threads when tightening the fastener, it's not going to load the threads more until you exceed 7680 lbs. Of course this assumes straight tension, and a completely rigid plate. Still, there is a ton of room for error here.

I used my Macs pivot plate to install an iron head BBC and TH400 in a Friends '70 Cutlass. No problems at all. As long as you tighten the bolts first, your chance of pulling threads is zero. 7680 lbs of clamp load also generates a lot of frictional force to keep the plate from sliding around and generating any side shear loading on the bolts.

Just throwing this out there for other guys nervous about carb plates.

The hooks the factory used to hoist the engine are attached using only one manifold bolt each.

Installed the Gardner exhaust today and gotta say I like how well it fits. Finished off a few other loose ends and installed the breather ahead of the cowl hood which will go back on after we fire the car up Monday. It also gets an alignment next week and should be ready to roll on on it's birthday (May 9th) which marks 50 years from the day it left the Norwood plant. More on the car when we get it fired up next week.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day to all the ladies and wive's out there.

Amazing work! I'm drooling all over here on this build!

FYI- mothers Day is next weekend... had me worried for a Sec.!

LOL...I thought it was this weekend until I just looked at the date. Can you tell I've been busy...don't even know which day it really is. :biggthumpup:

Beautiful and great progress

Thanks :biggthumpup:

We rolled it outside tonight and fired it up. No leaks other than a couple exhaust joints that we need to torque down. Ran it for a few minutes and backed her in for the night. Alignment and tune up tomorrow and then we can put the rear guards on, button up the hood and mount the Endura bumper. Shake down runs are right around the corner here. And it'll be ready for it's birthday as it was built 50 years ago this week and shipped out of Norwood on the 9th of May, 1969

https://i.ibb.co/ZWjcDJK/IMG-4198.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/wCyqzwN/IMG-4201.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5GjJckR/IMG-4203.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/PxkBX0t/IMG-4208.jpg

Wow...nice work!!!!!!

Nice birthday celebrations coming up.
Having seen your test run stand, just curious why you didn't run the engine out of the car first?

Looks great. You sure do work fast.

I ran this motor on the run stand a little over a year ago, but with the 186 style aluminum heads on it from Trick Flow. I then took those heads off for another build and recently put the factory iron 186 heads back onto it before installing the motor into the car. The cams already been run in.

Got the front bumper mounted up today, installed the hood and ran through all the hoses, connectors and exhaust system once again. Everything is torqued to spec and we treated ourselves with a nice little cruise when all the work was done.

Looks great....Joe

What a great job! One of my favorite colors. It sure would look great sitting next to my silver Z.

If I had a fraction of your skills..............what a nice job.