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Into the Home Stretch
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After a week of enthusiastic real-world driving, the “Project Muscle” Camaro heads to the paint shop
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By Brian Wood |
It's been a long and often frustrating journey, as I've said so many times during the course of our “Project Muscle” build-up, but the end is now clearly in sight, and if first driving impressions mean anything at all, the “blood, sweat and tears” shed by Annette and Vernon Summer and everyone else involved over the last eight months have been well worth it.
As reported in the last installment of the project report, the car was picked up at the Summer's United Automotive and Diesel Performance Center in Aiken, South Carolina around the middle of June and driven the 120 miles to my home (through a torrential rain storm, by the way) in Greenville, SC. After just a few days, however, the re-born '79 Camaro was stricken with a case of “new car blues” when an electrical gremlin reared its head. Something was causing the battery to drain from a full charge overnight, and since the new alternator we had was set to charge only after the engine put out 3,000 rpms, we had a real problem on our hands. Considering how much work had gone into the wiring of the car's new components, there was always a chance that a dead short or a bare wire somewhere could cause a problem. And since the printed circuit on the old instrument gauge cluster was in pretty bad shape, Vernon suspected this was the culprit. Just to be sure, while I searched EBay for a replacement, the folks at CV Products custom-machined a new pulley for the alternator that would reduce the rpm requirements to something just above an idle.
The first attempt to get the car back to Annette and Vernon's was a major fiasco, with the car dying in rush-hour traffic and Roger Richards having to throw his body into the line of fire to push the heavy Chevy with its even heaver driver through a major intersection as impatient motorists voiced their displeasure. Anyway, after another all-night session with the battery charger, we set out again, with Roger following in the Competition Plus travel van. As fate would have it, halfway into the trip we ran smack into the big brother of the storm I had weathered on the way home the week before. Since the car no longer has a heater, the box being removed to provide clearance for the headers, the inside of the windshield quickly fogged over in the wet, humid conditions. Rolling down the window provided some cooling air flow, but it also provided the driver with a thoroughly good soaking in the process. Determined to sacrifice comfort for the joy of driving a true hot rod, I grimly motored on, until the battery started to die again!
To make a long story short, I drove the remaining 40 miles or so to Aiken in second gear to keep the revs up, and once the rain quit I drove as fast as I could to get to the shop before she died altogether. When I was a few miles out, I phoned Vernon on my cell and told him to open the doors, because I was coming in for a flaps-up landing. There's a real happy ending to this pitiful tale, however. I just told you all of that to underscore the difficulties often associated with melding a bunch of components from a number of manufacturers and making it all work in perfect harmony. Considering just how extensive our build-up was, I think we hit it as close to perfect as we could. After all, one measly bad wire, no matter how aggravating, is really a minor deal in the grand scheme of things. Today, all of that is behind us, and recently we went back down to Aiken and picked our mean machine up for the second time, and this time she's 100% ready to rumble, and rumble she does!
With just a week to spare between the time we picked the car up and the time when I wanted to drive it the 175 miles to Illusions Custom Paint and Great Art by Mark Brown in Bristol, Tennessee, I lost no time in putting as many miles as I could on the wicked little beast. I can tell you in no uncertain terms that this is one bad ass machine! The power the ZZ383/425 crate motor from GM Performance Parts puts out is unreal. It plants you back into the seat cushions with very little effort, and just keeps on making power. When GM said this engine provided big block power in a small block, they knew just what they were talking about! Of course, all the other great components we utilized have meshed beautifully to make our goal of recreating the power and performance of the great muscle cars of the past a reality. In fact, thanks to Annette's insistence that the car have just the right stance when it left her shop, our '79 Camaro now has a great nose-down posture that is very reminiscent of the great Pro Stock cars of the same era. I did a little research, and found a number of photos of the Camaros driven by the likes of Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, Warren Johnson and Lee Shepherd, among others, and except for the snorkel hood scoop, our project car bears a striking resemblance to these classics. In fact, with “Pro Touring” and “Pro Street” being popular looks for custom street cars these days, we may have just hit on an exciting new trend – “Retro Pro Stock.” Then again, we may not have started anything at all, but I really love the look. Thanks again, Annette!
As I said, I spent every free moment I had cruising around my local area, making noise, getting lots of admiring looks and just having a ball in general. The most fun I had was one night as I sat at a red light and noticed a gathering of Mustangs at the local Sonic drive-in. I'd like to say that I was strong enough to resist the temptation to flaunt my new Bowtie power in front of the hot pony crowd, but to tell the truth I felt no urge to restrain myself at all. A quick look around confirmed that no members of the local constabulary were lurking about, and when the light went green I brought the revs up and dropped the hammer, pounding through all three gears in a flash and making a clean, if extremely boisterous, getaway. With a look of total innocence plastered on my face, I backed her off and cruised up to the next light as memories of my youth came folding back. This is what it's all about, as far as I'm concerned. As I said, if first impressions mean anything, this is one hot ride. And it's very comforting to know that while the car itself is 25 years-old, everything else is brand new and bulletproof. The week I had the car at home passed by quickly, and now our feisty lady is in Tennessee, having made the three-hour trip up through the Blue Ridge Mountains with no drama at all. In a month or so, if everything goes right, Allen and Mark Adkins and the talented staff at Illusions, along with airbrush master Mark Brown, will have all the body and paint work done, or really close to it, and the final result of what was just a distant dream a year ago will be once and for all finished.
Once we get her home again, the car will be going to Atlanta to undergo some extensive sessions on the chassis dyno so we can see what kind of power we're putting out. Watch for video footage of those tests in an upcoming issue. Later, we'll be going to the eighth-mile track at Carolina Dragway for some more testing, this time under race conditions. Again, we'll be videoing all the action for a future issue. To close out the project, we'll be doing a complete recap of the build-up, with detailed lists of all the parts we used included. In the meantime, in response to the many inquiries we have received regarding this project and the components we used, all I can say is - go for it – it's a great way to bring that old hot rod back to life! For details on all components included in Project Muscle, check out the ads in CompetitionPlus, or log on to the following websites: GM Performance Parts – www.gmgoodwrench.com Moser Engineering – www.moserengineering.com United Automotive and Diesel Performance Center - www.annettesummer.com J.W. Performance Transmissions - www.auto2000.com/jw Auto Meter – www.autometer.com Flowmaster – www.flowmastermufflers.com Precision Coatings – www.headercoatings.com Moroso – www.moroso.com Competition Engineering – www.competitionengineering.com Pro-Systems – www.pro-system.com Mickey Thompson – www.mickeythompsontires.com Hurst/Mr. Gasket – www.mrgasket.com Goodmark Industries – www.goodmarkindustries.com Illusions Custom Paint and Great Art by Mark Brown – www.koolpaint.com Weld Racing Wheels – www.weldracing.com TCI Automotive – www.tciauto.com
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