I sold my 6th Gen Camaro SS 1LE. I loved the car and it was incredibly capable, but I like wrenching and improving and its pretty hard to improve and very expensive. I couldnt shake the feeling that I always had more fun in my old 4th Gen. I had gone through the suspension/interior/paint/transmission and put a huge cam in it, and it was a riot. So after it sold I started hunting for one. The 93-97 Fbodys are getting pretty thin on the ground. There seems to be only two types, super nice expensive ones, and super ratty cheap ones. It seems like all the drivers have been fixed up real nice or they slowly slipped to terrible condition. After about a month of looking at basketcase after basketcase AnthonyGS messaged me on the forum. Said he has a 96 SS that was pretty clean with high mileage and it nice but not completely sorted. I agreed to buy it and on the second try I was able to meet him in Louisianna to pick it up. Outside of traffic the trip was pretty much problem free. I got home about 9 and he had mentioned it was straight water in the cooling system, so I drained a gallon of coolant and put some concentrate in it and went to bed.
Here is the first picture of it the next day in my driveway.
I sent this picture to a buddy of mine and he said my driveway looks like a senior engineer's from the late 90s.
I havent really gone over the car completely. Obvious things are its had a decent respray, I forgot how small the stock LT1 brakes look behind 18s, check engine lights on for EVAP, and a little bit of interior is apart from AnthonyGS doing the ignition switch.
We have some really bad weather rolling in, so I wanted to get it in the garage, so I had to clean up the garage. Here is a shot of the extra parts it came with.
The original ZR1 SS wheels. Its what I ran on my old 4th gen, so Ill probably swap back to them. The original SS airbox, its broken, like most of them, Ill hang on to it and see if it can be repaired and if I feel like it, car has an RKsport ram air box that looks like the original but it stronger. C6 brake swap, with calipers and brackets, hoses, pads and rotors, I may go more aggressive on the pads, we'll see. Global west decoupled torque arm, I looked into the unabalanced engineering setup about a decade ago, but other than that I know nothing about these. Stock rear bilsteins, and new front Konis, Konis are already on the rear. Ill probably hang on to the original Bilsteins, have them rebuilt and throw them in a box on a shelf eventually. Car already has BMR springs and aftermarket sway bars, but I cant remember which ones, and GM C6 Z06 wheels. More importantly it has the LT1 SS hood, which is getting harder to find, lots of people are doing the LS1 scoop on an LT hood, LT1 SS spoiler which was discontinued from SLP in like 2006, and only RKsport repops it last I looked, and the 2OTL exhaust which has been discontinued for about as long, but nobody repops and is very sought after. The TBSS wheels didnt come from AnthonyGS.
Got it in the garage.
Thats where its going to sit until we get through this cold front.
This view made me considerably happier than I expected.
First plans are probably just to sort it. Anthony said he has already done all the fluids except diff and coolant, and even gave me a little bottle of Delco brand limited slip additive, so Ill do those. Ill put the interior back together, get the headliner recovered, and the small tear on the drivers bolster repaired before it gets worse. I think it has a brake light and check engine light, so Ill take care of those. I want to clean it up and ceramic coat it. After that Ill probably just start driving it and see what pops up. Obviously Ill put Konis and the brake kit on, but I need to verify the C6 setup fits under a 17, I know the C5s do but the C6 swap was just getting more popular when I sold my last one. Ill probably get some Lloyds mats. I am considering wrapping the mirrors and top in black, which was more common on the standard Z28s, Ive always liked that look more, but the all red is growing on me, so I dont want to do anything irreversible.
Longer plans is probably to imitate my original build and put a big ole cam and a bunch of gear in it, that thing was riot on the street. It will mostly be a street car, with the occasional trip to the drag/autox/track. If the engine ever lets go, Ill build a 383/396, but it will stay NA and have decent manners. I really regretted selling my first one, even after replacing it with a vette/multiple generations of miata/6th gen, so I expect this thing will be with me for a long time.