69 Camaro B/S

[J&S Racing]

Thanks for the advice on the bellhousing. I spoke to Fred at McLeod and he thinks the spacer will help the counter weight finger issue but it will still need some machining for the fork. When I get it back I'll also check the input length at the pilot bearing and zero it out.

So about 4 years ago I was offered a good deal on s/c dragster. Actually paid less for it race ready than the stockers 396 lol.

Few weeks ago I had a decent weekend at our tracks program. Saturday I had the bye into the final but a electric problem shut me down pulling up to the water. Sunday I went red -.001 in the 3rd.

This Saturday it came together and I got my first win!!! Sunday I almost got to race my old man in the final but he bowed out in the semi. I ended up loosing the final by two thou.

I have a few weeks before our next race so hopefully I can get something done on the Camaro. Think I'm gonna tackle closing up the rear seat and package tray area. Might try Todd's trick and burn some holes in the carpet sections.

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Congrats on the win in the digger!

[NHRA 303]

I bought the same bell-housing the spring. I was first concerned with the lever clearance too. I saw that there was only about an 1/8" of clearance. But when the levers are under centrifugal force. They will move forward, towards the block. Not the transmission. Been running it since May without an issue.
As for the fork clearance. I shortened the pivot ball bolt. Youll just have to lengthen the bell crank rod to make up the difference. Pretty sure i set the fork so it sat parallel with the front face of the transmission. And still had about 3/8" clearance for the levers and throw out bearing.

Hope this helps,
steve

[J&S Racing]

Thanks Steve.

I installed the spacer last night. Definitely helped with finger clearance Hopefully this weekend I can find some time to re check the fork. Sounds promising if you got yours to work.

I've been super busy with the dragster but I did find some time for the stocker.

The last pieces for the door panels showed up.

I got lucky with the rear panels, I didn't have them when the cage went in. It's a tight fit for sure. They still need some tweaking to match the fronts but there close.



After the seat covers went on I felt like I was sitting a bit higher than I wanted. I ended up bringing the rear of the seat down on the mounts and ran the bolt down through the seat and both brackets. Not only did I score little over a inch now everything seems a lot more solid.

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Getting there. New door panels look sweet.

[larrylomascolo]

Originally Posted by Nmbr1GMfan

Getting there. New door panels look sweet.

wow x2. from what supplier ?

[J&S Racing]

For whatever reason I've always got my parts from Rick's camaro.

The panels are PUI platinum. I gotta say there super nice but there's 1 thing that bothers me, if you look above the camaro emblem they put the seam of the trim right there. Why would they not have put that at the bottom?

I'll get a quick update in as there won't be any for a few months but then it'll be final assembly time!

I started checking for alignment of the bellhousing. While checking the parallel I was having issues seeing the dial when it was at the 12 position but noticed the needle was going positive as it got close. I wasn't happy with the powder coat on the bell so I decided to sand it off on the mating surfaces. In the mean time I checked the depth of the input shaft into the pilot bearing and fell short with the 1/4 block spacer. I pulled the spacer and measured it and found it was got .010 thicker from the dowel holes to the top. I've decided to send the pressure plate back and have the fingers replaced to the new style and not use a spacer at all..

I made a stop to get a quote on putting the nose back together and painting a few things but ended up making a deal on RE painting the whole car... I gotta pull a few more things off and I should hopefully get it to the shop next weekend. I just hope this doesn't turn into paint shop prison!!

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Progress is good! Good luck in paint, hopefully it'll be an in-n-out process.

[J&S Racing]

Managed to get the back seat / package try area closed up before it left for the body shop. I scored some .040 aluminum scrap for cheap. Came out OK, thankfully it'll be covered with carpet. Still need to run a bead of fireproof caulk.


Things are rolling surprisingly smooth at the body shop. Ended up adding a few things on while it's there.


Someone did a horrible job patching this before. Need to be cleaned up.


It's really been aggravating me where the meat stick that did the cage cut the dash and the mess he left me with. Along with a hole someone cut for gauge wires I decided to have the whole thing replaced.


The plan is to start laying color next week........ if I can decide on a color lol

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Progress!!!