Purple_92_SS's 1992 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Factory Options:

Air Conditioning
Radio
Heritage 92 Purple Haze Metallic Paint (Color Available only on 92's for the 25th anniversary)

Exterior Modifications:

Body Modifications :

Well, there were a few things that I decided to do when I started modifying the body of the car. The first bit was more of a what to get rid of, than what to keep. So I embraced the mod style called Shaving. Shaving is when you remove parts of the car, much like you would hair with a razor. In another words, to make the surface smooth.

Shaved parts on body are :

Shaved Nosecone, I removed Camaro Emblem.
Shaved Rocker Panels, I Removed the RS emblems.
Shaved Rear Bumper, I Removed the RS Emblem here as well.
Shaved Antenna off the passenger front fender of the car as well.
Shaved door Handles, and shaved door key lock cylinders.
Shaved front fender turn signals as well.
Shaved 3 Piece factory RS Rear Spoiler off the rear quarters and trunk deck lip.

After I was done removing things from the body, I looked at the car and decided I wanted to smooth the lines out a bit. So everywhere I took something off, I had to smooth it out.

Here are some photos of the body work in progress showing off the shaving and smoothing. Look for the things above that I mentioned I removed.

Things Smoothed Out on the body are:

Smoothed the rear bumper cover out, so as to not have that long line all the way across it.
Smoothed the ground effects on either side where the RS emblems were.
Smoothed the front nose cone where the Camaro Emblem Was.

That takes care of what was filled in. Of course things like where the door handles were and the front turn signals and antenna place we had to weld metal in to get a smooth surface.


The end result in my opinion is a smoother, less cluttered car. I really like the way that the absence of these things make the side profiles of the door and front fenders appear cleaner.


I then decided that I wanted a Hood. When I had purchased the hood in 98, it was pretty rare, now it seems everyone has them. The Hood is a American Sports Car Design (ASCD) '97 SS Style Hood. It's Air Intake is functional.

The Spoiler was my next decision. I decided that I wanted to run with something different after thinking about a 91-92 factory z/28 spoiler. A friend of mine had a spoiler that was off of his '97 Trans Am, and wasn't using it for anything, so I bought it off of him for $75.00. I had it mounted, and then when the car went into the paint and body cut the two middle pillars off of it, and smoothed them out with fiberglass to keep them from looking odd. I like the end result a lot.

Paint Work:

As you can see I have a custom paint job. The Color is factory Purple Haze. I loved the factory color so much I went ahead and had her resprayed with it by Richard Wrights Paint and Body Shop in Lexington, SC.

While I'm not totally satisfied with the paint job, for what I paid I suppose it isn't a bad job. After we blocked the car down and primed it and shot the main color, we went back and taped off tribal flames that extend down the doors on both sides. These flames and the front end were shot in House of Color Purple Pearl Mica.


A little while later I decided I wanted some custom Air-brushing added to the car. So the hood has a custom Skull Totem Pole airbrushed on it. It's located on the front of the hood and is painted like its being sucked into the air intake. I realize that not everyone will like this bit of artwork, but in my opinion, (which really is the only one that matters) it is just enough to really diversify the car from everyone else.

Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice at all but thats life I guess. I'll try to get better photos of it soon.

The Paint and body work was mostly done by Richard Wright's Body Shop, in Lexington, SC. Richard and his crew re-worked the body work, as a few friends of mine and myself had done the doors, antenna and front fender welding and body work ourselves. Along with filling in all of the emblems to boot!

The Airbrush artist that did them has been doing Airbrushing for over 10 years and he airbrushed one of the Motorcycles that Richard built that beat the guys from OCC at one of the shows in 2004.

Interior Modifications:

Interior Modifications and Creature Comforts :

I'll start with the basics. When I bought the car it was light gray, with cloth high backed seats in it. If you know 3rd gen's you know that I mean the cheap-o tweed non optional seats without adjustable head rests.

Now It has anything but that. I went off and put in a full interior swap. I put in black interior panels off of a '89 Camaro. Then I bought a full interior set of seats from a totaled '97 Trans-Am. I had believed these seats to be the Recaro's but upon further research I was wrong, they are just stock '97 Trans Am Leathers Seats. I choose to retain the back seat for now as well, but that may go in the future. The carpet is brand new and was a gift from my wife, which is Graphite Black / Grey from Year One.


Instrumentation and Steering

Swapped the stock RS 110mph Instrument cluster with a '91 Z/28's 145mph cluster. I also then painted the bezel a similar purple to match the rest of the car.

For gauges I retained the factory setup, but added a Macewen MotorSports silver faced gauge overlays. At the time of purchase I think I was one of the first that had the silver, as he had only made white up until then.

You may have noticed my Autometer dual gauge pod and gauges in the photo above. I decided that I wanted extra insurance with the motor, so I added the Gauge Pillar Pod with an Autometer ProComp Oil and Water Temperature Gauges. I not only like the way they look, but value their functionality. I also added an Autometer 5" super tach, located to the right of the instrument cluster. I haven't gotten any photos of that yet though.

Steering wheel wise I went with a classically styled Grant Aluminum wheel with Leather top wrapping. It gets a bit hot in the summer, but I love the look, and with the new z06 Wheels it matches pretty good too.

For safety and dress up I have added a Chrome Fire Extinguisher that mounts on the passenger side of the center console. I think it looks good, but more importantly adds to the safety of the vehicle.

You may also notice the purple shift boot. I made that a couple of years ago, when I was building custom shift boots as a part time job. It was fun, and heck, I learned how to sew too.

What you don't see is my overhead console. I added a '85 Z/28 Overhead console complete with Flashlight! I like the way it divided the headliner in to two sides. I also added a later model rear view mirror with Map Lights. It's the little things that count after all!

Performance:

Engine Modifications :

Original Motor : 1992 3.1 Liter V6, AC with 5 Speed Manual

Current Motor : 1988 350 Small Block Chevy v8 4bolt main with one piece rear main seal bored .030 over to a total of 355 cu inches. or 5.7 liters

Engine History : In 2000, My wife had just moved here and we had thought it would be cool to swap motors in my '92 Camaro to a v8 from the 6 cylinder.

I had met Phillip Rivers about a year earlier, and he had a good reputation on motors, and said we could do it, so we went ahead and did. It was supposed to be a 400sbc, but it ended up being just a 355. Once we got the motor in, I had to have it wired up, and all sorts of other stuff. It had a bad habit of running hot. Phillip and I had a sorts of falling out there for a while, and I hooked up with my neighbor Mark Inabinet. Mark is a motor guy from way back, and he lent his knowledge and expertise to me, teaching me as we rebuilt the motor to what I currently have now. Below is a listing of all that is in the motor currently along with any accessories and goodies:

TRW forged Aluminum Pistons
Forged Steel GM Crank
Edlebrock Stainless Steel Valves
Comp Roller Rockers
Comp Cams Chromealloy Pushrods
Edlebrock Performer RPM Valvespring kit
Comp Cams 292H Camshaft
Zoom "true" roller Double Roller Timing Chain
Edlebrock Performer RPM 70cc Aluminum Heads
Edlebrock Performer RPM Air Gap Racing Intake Manifold
Holley 750 Vacum Secondary Zinc Plated Carb.
Mallory Return Style fuel Pressure Regulator
Mr. Gasket Underdrive Pulleys
1993 Chevrolet Caprice Serpentine Belt Assembly
Chevrolet Chrome Tall Valve Covers
K&N Air Filter and K&N Air Filter Lid
Chevrolet AC Compressor Chrome dress up ring
Edlebrock Breather cap
Be Cool Radiator
Accel electronic distributor ignition
Accel HEI Ignition Coil
MSD 6AL Electronic Ignition
Melling High Flow Oil Pump
Edelbrock Victor Jr. Polished Aluminum Water Pump
Powermaster MasterTorq Mini Gear Reduction Starter
Hypertech PowerStat 160 degree Thermostat
Fel Pro Gaskets
Optima yellow Top Battery
2 16" Electric Fans for cooling (one push one pull)
FlowTech Shorty Headers And 2&1/2 inch Y Pipe Kit
FlowMaster 2 chamber Muffler
3" Stainless Steel Exhaust System from Y-pipe back
3" chrome exhaust tips

Suspension/Chassis:

Wheels & Suspension Modifications :

One of the very first things to happen to my '92 besides the window tint and stereo was rims. Back then 17's were considered Big, and 18's HUGE. So, here are my wheels and in the order of progression on being on the car.

Factory '92 RS Wheels and tires. 15" of Doughnut fun!
Chrome 17x8" Eagle Alloy's Series 077's. Loved these wheels.
Polished Aluminum 18x8 Eagle Alloy's Series 077's. Liked the look, just not as much as chrome. Thats primarily why these rims ended up on my '01 Z/28. I purchased these rims and tires from a guy on SCFYB.com, a local forum, for 250.00. Can't beat that with a stick!

Factory '01 Z/28 Wheels and tires. 16" painted silver. Not bad, but not big and not chrome.

18x9 up front and 18x11 in rear Chrome Corvette Z06 Wheels! Pay dirt! These are the big daddys! Sporting Nitto NT 555 285/35zr18's in the back and 265/35zr18's up front.


As you can see above, I went from the crappy stock rims, to the bigger 17's. Something about chrome I Love, but then I had to sell them. The reason I sold the old 17's was because they had adapters to bolt them to my wheels. The Adapters enabled them to bolt up, largely because of the offset I had thought. Well Lo and behold, Its also a different bolt pattern. So when I swapped my 3rd gen rear for the 4th gen rear, I kicked my rims out in the back 2 more inches on each side. This would have been fine if I could have lost the adapters, but I couldn't cause of the bolt pattern. Well that means sell the rims. At first I was going to put another set just like these on it, but after the poll here and talking with my wife, we decided on the chrome z06 rims.

The Z06 rims are wider, which will hopefully help with my traction problems that I have in this car. I also Like the look of them. I think the offset looks better than a flat wheel did on this car.

The reason for the '01 z/28 Rims on the car was while I had sold my old 17's I ran across a set of 18's with tires, only difference was the 18's were polished instead of chrome. I got them for only $250.00. That rocked. So, after purchasing them, I put them on my '01 z/28. I like the way they look on that car too, so Im keeping them on the z.

Suspension Modifications :

Suspension is a recent development for this car. I have been working on it off and on for about a year now. Almost everything has been swapped. Most of it is tubular by a company called Spohn, the rest is all energy suspension and TRW and KYB.

Here's the List of suspension mods:

Jamex 1 &1/2 inch drop sport springs
Precision Friction Brakes
Spohn Tubular Panhard Rod (Powdercoated Red)
Spohn Tubular Lower Control Arms (Powdercoated Red)
Spohn Hexagonal Tie Rod End Connecting links (Powdercoated Red)
TRW Idler Arm
TRW Inner and Outer Tie rods
TRW Center (DRAG) Link
Energy Suspension Tie Rod end Links (front and rear)
Energy Suspension Bushings
KYB Gas Adjust Rear Shocks
KYB GR-2 Front Struts


I'll try to get some photos of the suspension soon. It sits and rides like a dream now though! Love it! The money was well spent.

Drivetrain:

Drive-train Modifications :

Transmission Swap :

Original Transmission : Stock '92 RS 3.1 v6 5speed manual with stock clutch.

Current Transmission :

1987 Camaro IROC-Z T5 Transmission with a CenterForce Dual Friction Clutch and pressure plate. A B&M Ripper Short throw shifter was added to get you through the gears smoother and quicker. One Day I hope to swap it out to a 6 speed.

Rear end swap :

Original Rear End :

a '92 3.42 non posi 6 cyl drum brake rear end

Current Rear End :

a 2000 SS (LS1 Style) rear disk brake rear end with 4.10 Motive Gears and an Auburn Posi Unit along with a reinforced Cover.

Stock '00 Axles (for now)
Stock '00 Rear Rotors w/Stock Red painted PBR Calipers

Electronics:

Well at one time in its life I had an ass kicking stereo in her. My highest DB was 159.7 with full functionality to the back seat. It was off of two Kicker SoloBaric 15"'s and a Kicker XS100 Amp. I held the State championship title for over a year in the 100 watt class. Now however, I'm not as into stereo as I used to be. As long as it sounds good thats all that really matters. And well, lets face it. You can't hear anything over the motor anyways. he he..


Stereo & Multimedia Setup :

Eclipse 2909 head Unit
Kicker Impulse Titanium Domed Tweeters on the front glass
Kicker Impulse 4x6's in the front Dash
Kicker Impulse Mid Bass 6x9's in the Back Quarter Panels
Kicker Impulse 354XI Midrange Amp
All MTX Twisted Pair Wires
2 gauge Power wire, all MTX wiring
Yellow Top Optima Battery to run it all!


I'll Try to get some photos of some of this stuff next time I work on it. At least of the head unit anyways! still trying!!!

To-Do List:

Yank Motor out, replace bottom end with forged one.

run that until i get the $ up to do a full LS1 conversion in it. Dash, Motor, Transmission, and build the hell out of that.

repaint the engine bay, repaint the car. upgrade some more of the suspension. The list goes on and on.