Messages

1

Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: December 03, 2012, 10:54:56 AM »

I don't think it has been run in any racs since its "restoration", just display events. I have been able to see the car since it was done but would be very interesting comparing some of the "then" and "now"photos especially some of the more heavily modified areas. Still haven't found my file with the built sheet copy.
I was of the belief that Bryan bought it from a dealer in Shepparton and then converted it to a race car.

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 15, 2012, 11:09:40 AM »

I have dozens like these but I think everybody get the overall view of the condition of the car.

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 15, 2012, 11:07:46 AM »

What a shame.

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 15, 2012, 11:05:55 AM »

More Bryan Thompson car from 2003

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 15, 2012, 11:03:06 AM »

I finally got around to doing what I have promised people many times before. I have scanned all of the photo's I have of the Bryan Thompson car as I viewed it back in 2003 with the intention of buying it for one of my clients at the time. As you can see, other classes of racing have taken their toll on the car and there was not much left of the main boby shell. The original motor that Bryan ran was for sale seperately in Tasmania, the gearbox's where abouts was unknown, and the 12 bolt disc brake rear end was also somewhere unknown but believed to have been fitted into a Ford Transit camper van of all things. The owner still had the original doors from the car but no other steel panels, just the fibreglass you see here. The original subframe along with all of the panel cut from the main shell had been taken to the rubish tip decades before.

I approached CAMS (Confederation Against Motor Sport ) to start the process of obtaining a Certificate of Description so that the vehicle could be restored and raced again. While the amount of work required was a daunting task, I was prepared to do it and myu client was prepared to pay for it, but CAMS advised that there was no enough of the car to enable them to issue a Certificate. As a result my client went cold on the idea and as I didn't have the money to purchase it myself, it stayed where it was.

I spoke to Bryan before I went to Tasmania to check out the car and he gave me some very good information on the car from his file that he had kept all these years. Somewhere I have a copy of the broadcast sheet and the Protector Plate and from memory the car was originally a Z28. When I find it along with some photos he gave me I will post them aswell.

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 15, 2012, 11:01:52 AM »

Some more of the Bryan Thompson car.

7

Restoration / Re: What is the best after market sheet metal?

« on: October 01, 2012, 09:28:12 PM »

I think I might start looking at repairing what I have got. The price of the panel isn't the issue and I would be happy to pay the money if the thing had all the right profiles and only needed minor adjustments to suit the car. When I need to add freight to Australia they become expensive if the quality is poor. By the look at some of the photo's posted, there will be less work to make sections and weld them in and file them up.
I don't understand why as consumers we allow manufacturers of these and a lot of other parts to make them to such poor specifications and standards  and then simply complain about them. We should stop buying their parts until they manage to get them right. I know that EVERY panel will need some work before they are fitted including NOS ones, for a multitude of reasons, mainly they are 40+ year old mass produced cars that didin't have the processes and techniques they do today. I fthese parts are licensed by GM then I would think that they have examined them to asses the quality of them before giving their approval.
Never the less WE choose to own them and restore them, and have opinions of what should happen.
Maybe a pair of NOS ones will turn up at a realistic price.

8

Restoration / Re: What is the best after market sheet metal?

« on: September 30, 2012, 09:31:07 PM »

OER and AMD both appear to be licensed by GM. Whats the difference or are they both made from the same tooling. I need to replace both rear quarters on my convertible. There was a thread here some time ago questioning wether they had the correct door pillar stampings that look like an old telephone hand piece. Are either correct in this respect these days?

9

Restoration / Re: Tie Rod ends and sleeves

« on: September 27, 2012, 09:23:14 PM »

Hans, Looks like you have gone to a lot of trouble to get things 100% correct and it looks fantastic. I can't help but noticing the zinc plated nuts that you have with the tie rod ends and the lower control arm bolts. On my two 67 cars and the pile of spares I have, (68 & 69) all of the nuts appear to be grey phosphate. Is there a difference through the years?

10

Restoration / Re: Spindles - re-usable or not ???

« on: September 26, 2012, 12:09:30 PM »

On every car I have restored, I have had the spindles crack tested and found more than 70% are cracked right behind where the outer bearing sits. I would highly recommend that you do this as when they break the damage is enormous.

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6-cylinder Camaros / Re: Front Swaybar

« on: September 23, 2012, 12:04:55 AM »

My car is 02A and is a LA built car. I have since purchased a 6cyl Convertible that is 03C and it has a sway bar.

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Trans-Am Camaros / Re: New Zealand/Australian Camaros And Firebirds

« on: October 08, 2011, 09:33:34 AM »

I chased this car for a fairly long period about 10 years ago and also looked at buying Bryan Thompson's car. I searched through a heap of old Racing Car News magaizine's and found a for sale add in the back of a 1977 edition. Lakis Manticas owned it in Sydney, so I called him and spoke to him for quite a long time and established that he couldn't rememeber anything about who or where it went to. I have searched since in many different magazines and have found no trace of it.

I also spoke to Wayne Mahnken, Jonnie (Popsie) Walker and  Ken Hastings and we just ran out of places to look or cars to follow up.

13

Maintenance / Re: 68 Power disk brakes problem

« on: November 17, 2010, 09:58:01 AM »

I looked back through all of my notes on these calipers last night and found some information on all of the different "brands"of stainless sleeved calipers I have used. Some of them "professionally" resleeved and some new sleeved calipers ,I found that 'some of the sleeves had upto 0.008" ovality and 0.004" taper on them. While this dosen't seem a lot it affects the preload on the seals my nearly 15% and further aggrivates all of the issues we have collectively identified here.

14

Maintenance / Re: 68 Power disk brakes problem

« on: November 14, 2010, 10:48:18 AM »

Ed,

While we are waiting for Monaroman to come back in,

Having used around 50 sets of this on Historic race cars, I also went accross to using O Ring style seals 10 years ago but I found a number of issues with them. The O ring's have significatly reduced seal retraction properties, and if they got cocked, they would actually stay that way until physically corrected,and would also acutually leak under high pressure even though the seals were in perfect condition. They always left the rubber residue you have and found all of these  to be inherant design problems  of using a O ring in this application. I ended up replacing every one of the O ring stlye pistons back to lip type pistons and seals as a warranty and safety concern. For all but severe race conditions, the piston design with the original style lip seals are by far the best combination as they are a true hydralic seal. In severe race applications we converted the caliper to have seals in the bores ( like 95% of calipers on the market) and made new heat treated, centreless ground, stainless pistons. Once we did this, we NEVER EVER had a problem of ANY description.

Regards
Alastair

15

Maintenance / Re: 68 Power disk brakes problem

« on: November 11, 2010, 11:52:49 AM »

Monaroman sounds like an Australian?? 

You stated that you are able to get a solid pedal with the vacuum hose disconnected. If this is the case then it's doubtful you have a seal problem with the calipers or air in the lines. Both of these issues will give you a spongy pedal regardless of wether the booster is connected or not. If you had a brake hose that was damaged internally, you will usually get a solid pedal all of the time as the hose is either stopping fluid going to or from the caliper. If it is stopping fluid going to the caliper then you will have a solid pedal and no (or significant reduced ) brake on that particular side. If it is stopping fluid coming back you will find the brakes sticking on, on that particular side. If it was damaged and bulging, then again you would have a soft pedal all of the time.

Get a vaccum gauge and check how much manifold vacuum you have. For it to work nicely you want around 22 - 24" of vacuum. . If the vaccum is very poor then you will get a odd sense of the pedal being what appears to be spongy. If you are concerned about the vacuum line, it's worth about $7.00 for a new length nad the check valve is very common and is available at any auto parts store

If you are an Aussie, call me on 0408 CAMARO and I'll discuss the issues.