Under construction

Of interest to Camaro owners are these two sites www.CamaroRS.co.uk and

The car is a 1989 305 Camaro RS with auto and overdrive, imported from Florida in 1996. It is all stock except for the exhaust, which effectively is a straight through, having had all the US emission baffles removed from the rear. It's had a respray since landing in the UK and is A1 on the outside and underneath, just needs the interior tarting up with some new seats.

The radiator failed a few days after buying it, so I took the opportunity to clean up the front of the engine bay whilst I waited for a replacement to be shipped. I'm not looking to go overboard on the cleanup, just to get it to a nice and tidy stage.

Looking forward in the summer to running it down a strip or getting it on a dyno, as I can't believe there's only 170 horses under the bonnet. (That's what the manual says with a stock exhaust). The thing is almost impossible to drive in the wet other than in a straight line.

Dropped in the new rad a couple of days ago, and she cranked up first go after 3 weeks without charge. A quick run out to get up to temperature, and back under the covers until the weather improves.

Putting the car under cover for a few weeks allowed me to do some degree of engine bay "detailing" (i.e. general cleaning, but not the absolute enthusiasts version of detailing), see the before and after photo's. There has been some serious amount of old toothbrush and gunk work gone on under that hood! New hood and trunk struts seem to have been a common problem associated with 3rd Gen Camaros, so those have been replaced. The interior has had a very detailed clean, but still needs new cloth and carpets to make it tidy.

A few more pictures from the meet on Saturday in Meriden, the weather actually held for us but sadly not as good as the weather in the above pics.

I have hopefully completed the non-mechanical mods for this year. (I'm thinking of big valve heads and some trick headers for next year, must do some research.) I've spent a small fortune on parts from the states, including : Seat covers, hood and trunk struts, seat belts, all new door seals, these items being typical for replacement in 3rd gen. Camaros . I've also had the car up on ramps to change the spark plugs (a whole day job!!), and whilst I was at it, I re-applied wax oil under the car, the doors, hood, and tailgate. Did all the grease points whilst I was there. £30 worth of synthetic oil also went in. Given the recent good weather I've done way too many miles, about 1,000. I hope plod wasn't about recently on the A38 up towards Burton, as this thing was bouncing of the rev limiter (for about 2 seconds before I let off) in top, and screaming for more...Fantastic run out

I can also recommend that changes of spark plugs and or seat covers should be treated with extreme caution. The seat covers only taking marginally longer than the spark plugs!

Had an embarrassing run out from the car park at Billing, due to large puffs of smoke from the exhaust. Had noticed this on start-up, but it wasn't a big deal, normally burning off after a few hundred yards. I decided that I'd better the valve stem seals replaced, and at the same time replace all the top end gaskets for good measure. Martin at Red Box entrusted to the deed. Had one of the sucking through teeth phone calls, I definitely had shot stem seals, but I also had a cracked head. This was contributing to the smoke as I was also burning water in one cylinder.

Very fortunately managed to pick up an '88 305 head second hand within a day, and this was fitted. I couldn't resist painting up a few bits of the engine whilst they were off, and here's the finished result.

Over winter this car has had a bit of a spruce up and is looking even tidier, i have some shots of the car in the dark with the neons but unfortunately the web doesn't do it justice, you are going to need to see them in the metal.

Had a coming together with another car in the last couple of weeks, and managed to get the third party insurance to admit liability and agree to my nominated garage within 3 days. I Managed to source the replacement panels from Oldcott Motors (Stoke On Trent) the next day, and arranged the re-spray with Bromford Autos (Erdington, Brum) for the following Monday.

By sheer co-incidence, Karl and his wife Lisa who own and run Bromford Autos, also sold me the Camaro about 18 months ago. So, I replaced the wing (yes, I did that bit), and took it to Karl to spray the wing and blow over/blend the other panels. They sent me some "here's how it's going" photo's, and I could see paint on the masked areas around the rear lights. So I'm thinking.....that's a bloody long blend in from the front wing! It transpires that the colour blend wouldn't quite match (not that you nor I would have noticed 99.99% of the time), so he sprayed the whole car! What a top geezer!"

A new car to the club is this Camaro, the car is new but the owner is one of the founding members and owns the grey Chevette.

I must confess I don't know too many details on this car but it is in excellent condition, looking and running perfectly. I think the graphics help to make the car, although lets face it ChevyV8s are hardly the quietest of engines!

Sneak Preview .... it's black... it's mean and it goes for quarter of a mile ....