After throwing away the extremely wonky and crappy looking core support crossmember, it was time to make a new one. I got the frame back off its side, put the cab brackets on and dropped the cab in place. With that done, I levelled up the front of the chassis and hung the wings supported on wooden blocks. I then jacked the core support into position and moved it around till it all sat in the right place.

That gave me a position for the bottom of the core support so after lotsof measurements from different points on the frame I took it back out and got some scrap bits to make a guide. After hours of little adjustments followed by re-checking it all over again I was happy with the position. I tacked it all together so I had a reference to work off and had a cup of tea and a think. The ends of the frame were angled outwards (at different angles too), so after even more measurements I set about the 2×4 box section I’d bought to do this. Unfortunately the drop was too steep to do in one piece (I would have had to box the tops and bottoms of the angle) so that one went in the scrap box and plan B was formed. This was to notch out the end for a piece of straight box section to drop down. With it tacked in place, it was time to call it a day. Pretty pleased with it all.

I didn’t like the way the top of the old frame had been joined into the Camaro clip, it had been cut too short by the look of it and hammered down until it touched the clip. It didn’t look the strongest of joins to say the least. A couple of quick cardboard templates later, I cut out some pieces of box and welded them in place.

Next on the list was to repair the outriggers ready to put them back in place. They had been hacked about when they put the clip on as well, so I’d taken them off to straighten them out and repair the holes.

A little work with some scrap and the gas torch and they were as good as a fifty year old bracket gets I suppose!

I bought a brake pedal and bracket to fit a standard booster off ebay a while ago. The Camaro frame was in the way of bolting it in as it should, so I trimmed it till it would fit and then set about strengthening it again. I cut a piece of angle to fit and then welded it in place.

I don’t intend running a booster, so I drilled the bracket to fit a Wilwood manual master while I was at it. Not sure about how I’ll fix it to the frame yet as the bottom mount is covered by the Camaro frame. Maybe a long bolt, or just weld it in and call it a day.

With the frame on its side to work on, I could get to work on the spring pockets. I put the lower A arm back on temporarily, and bolted the Shockwave front shock to it. They were too wide for the pocket, so I cut all the way round the outer edge and folded it all back until they had a decent amount of space around them. Unfortunately I found the top spring retaining ring hit the top of the shock, so I had to open that up as well to give it some clearance. I’m sure it would have been an easy job with a plasma cutter or something, but it was hard work with a grinder and a die cutter. Nobody will ever see it apart from this pic, but I still did the best I could with it.

With that done, I inflated the shock with the air line and checked I still had enough clearance. It was a bit tight in places, so I opened it up a bit further then welded all the cuts up and smoothed them off. With one final test fit and inflation I was happy it would all be OK and pulled it all back to bits again, and turned the frame over. The re-shape of the transition and the pocket on the other side took half the time as I knew what I wanted to do and that was another job done.

I had decided that I should leave the bodywork alone for a while till it’s all back together and can be worked on properly, so it was time to look at the frame. I hated the way the front clip stuck out of the frame rails and wanted to blend it in properly. Before I went too far I double checked that it was straight as the piece I chopped off the front was so bad but luckily it was correct. I welded a piece of box section to the crossmember to hold it up on it’s side, and supported the other end with wood and set to work.

I marked up where I wanted the bend to start, then marked up the pie cuts and sliced them out with a thin blade. I put G clamps on the end, then heated the lined I’d marked with the acetalene torch until it glowed then tightened up the clamps until it was bent into position. Once it was cooled down I pulled off the clamps and tacked it in, then cut up one of the pie shaped pieces to fit in the gap between the rails. With it all finish welded and ground down it looked a million times better, and hopefully a bit stronger too.