1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC Z28 - Rare California Edition
0
Mods
These are what the previous owner did -
KYB GR2 front struts, Hella headlights
I put on a new IROC cast alloy wheel
KYB GR2 front struts, Hella headlights
I put on a new IROC cast alloy wheel
Build story
I have owned a few 3rd generation Camaros over the years and had never heard of a California IROC as was browsing eBay and saw this for sale. It was a limited run of only 502 made and they came without hood louvers, decals or rear spoiler. Turns out they are pretty rare and I felt compelled to take on the revival, so I went to go look at the car and brought along tools to see if the motor would turn before bidding to win the auction and it did after moving the crank. I have been watching Junk Yard Digs on YouTube as my Dad told me about the channel as he heard about it. I am originally from Minnesota but moved to LA many years ago. The car had been sitting in storage since 1996 and the original owner passed away. He had a passion for the car and lived in LA most of his life as an engineer to which I share the same profession. I learned he was a German immigrant and found a lot in common sharing the same heritage, so I felt compelled to bring it back. He also had personalized IROC 9 license plates and an email called BowTie Motorwerks.
I had never tried to bring a car back but have worked on cars most my life and it was out of necessity growing up in Minnesota and not having much money. The build has been fun and have learned tons and the guys on ThirdGen.org have been a big help. All of this also inspired me to start a YouTube channel called RABBIT Motorworks, I named it after my first car which was a 77 VW Rabbit together with the previous owners Motorwerks. My wife who is a photographer has enjoyed learning and doing video editing along with my son so it has been fun for the family.
To start the build I had to start with the basics and buy some of the basics as the alternator was missing and needed a battery. Before I even got close to starting the 305 TPI motor I had to change the oil, plugs, cap and rotor then tackle the big job of taking the top of the fuel system down. This was difficult at first because I had a stuck bolt in the manifold trying to get one of the runners out, I was able to drill it out and use some heat to finally get the bolt out without any damage to the intake manifold. Then I yanked the fuel rail and injectors out to rebuild, I sent the injectors out to be tested and the internals done then cleaned up and replaced the fuel pressure regulator. Everything was covered with sticky orange fuel. I was able to blow out the front lines to the fuel filter and get all of the motor back together. Then I siphoned out as much of the 25 year old fuel out of the tank. I jacked the car up in the rear a good 2 feet, took a bit of mind calming to get under it at first. I started the big job of dropping the tank as doing this on a 3rd gen entails bringing down the rear end, undoing the exhaust system just to see the gas tank under heat shields. Getting the tank out and all the stinky gas was rewarding and rebuilt the tank with a fuel pump and new sending unit as the old one was froze. Then put it all back together installed the fuel filter, put in some gas and also had to make a fix on the transmission cooler line at the radiator so learned how to flare and bend tubing. Then I was finally able to try and start the car after many hours to ready it and my wife and I filmed it and it STARTED after a few tries! So happy that it was a success as lots of rust flakes came out of the exhaust and burned off a lot of stuff in the engine bay and the engine settled down and idled nicely. My wife and I were able to bleed the brakes together and then took it for a drive, it had the death wobble as the tires were flat spotted from sitting. I have new tires on it and packed the front wheel bearings and onto other projects on the car and just finishing buffing it out and looks great.
I want to thank Junk Yard Digs for helping me to feel inspired that I could tackle something like this project and also all the guys on the ThirdGen.org board as could not have done without them. This project has been something my son has been able to learn along side me and someday I will hand the car down to him.
I had never tried to bring a car back but have worked on cars most my life and it was out of necessity growing up in Minnesota and not having much money. The build has been fun and have learned tons and the guys on ThirdGen.org have been a big help. All of this also inspired me to start a YouTube channel called RABBIT Motorworks, I named it after my first car which was a 77 VW Rabbit together with the previous owners Motorwerks. My wife who is a photographer has enjoyed learning and doing video editing along with my son so it has been fun for the family.
To start the build I had to start with the basics and buy some of the basics as the alternator was missing and needed a battery. Before I even got close to starting the 305 TPI motor I had to change the oil, plugs, cap and rotor then tackle the big job of taking the top of the fuel system down. This was difficult at first because I had a stuck bolt in the manifold trying to get one of the runners out, I was able to drill it out and use some heat to finally get the bolt out without any damage to the intake manifold. Then I yanked the fuel rail and injectors out to rebuild, I sent the injectors out to be tested and the internals done then cleaned up and replaced the fuel pressure regulator. Everything was covered with sticky orange fuel. I was able to blow out the front lines to the fuel filter and get all of the motor back together. Then I siphoned out as much of the 25 year old fuel out of the tank. I jacked the car up in the rear a good 2 feet, took a bit of mind calming to get under it at first. I started the big job of dropping the tank as doing this on a 3rd gen entails bringing down the rear end, undoing the exhaust system just to see the gas tank under heat shields. Getting the tank out and all the stinky gas was rewarding and rebuilt the tank with a fuel pump and new sending unit as the old one was froze. Then put it all back together installed the fuel filter, put in some gas and also had to make a fix on the transmission cooler line at the radiator so learned how to flare and bend tubing. Then I was finally able to try and start the car after many hours to ready it and my wife and I filmed it and it STARTED after a few tries! So happy that it was a success as lots of rust flakes came out of the exhaust and burned off a lot of stuff in the engine bay and the engine settled down and idled nicely. My wife and I were able to bleed the brakes together and then took it for a drive, it had the death wobble as the tires were flat spotted from sitting. I have new tires on it and packed the front wheel bearings and onto other projects on the car and just finishing buffing it out and looks great.
I want to thank Junk Yard Digs for helping me to feel inspired that I could tackle something like this project and also all the guys on the ThirdGen.org board as could not have done without them. This project has been something my son has been able to learn along side me and someday I will hand the car down to him.