- Parking brake... Ugh! You would THINK that would be an easy thing to hook up, right?
Well, with the Currie 9" rear end and the Wilwood brakes, it's not so easy. Thankfully,
I had read an article in Camaro Performers magazine about installing the rear Wilwoods
on a First Gen Camaro. They used parts from Gennie Shifter to do the install. So, I
called them up (quite a while ago, I've had these parts a while) and ordered the pieces.
Yesterday I finally got around to installing it. Actually, it's not that bad of a project, but it took me about 3 hours to do it. And when I was done, the stupid cable from the factory brake is all spooged up, and doesn't want to release when you pull the handle. Figures... But the kit is installed and seems to work. You have to mount a small bracket to the floor, and you cut the threaded portion off the stock cable to put an adapter on the cable. Once I get the stock cable to clow more freely, I'll be in business.
- Speaking of brakes, I haven't really documented my ordeal with my rear brakes yet. You're lucky! :) I've been through all sorts of crap trying to figure out what to do. The problem is that the Wilwood calipers both mount on the rear of the axle, and with the staggered shocks on the 2nd gen, the driver's side shock housing is about 1" from the hole where the brake line attaches. I can't bend a hard line close enough to be safe, so I'm trying to install a stainless braided soft line. Took me forever to find a banjo bolt to do this with, and then the banjo is too long. So, now I'm trying to install an AN 90 degree fitting. This looks like it's going to work, but then I received the wrong line from Summit (not their fault, it was packaged wrong at Earls). This has just been too much fun! :\
- Optima Battery. Well, I purchased the wrong one... I didn't realize that they made one with a square base and one with a rounded base. I ended up with the square base, which of course doesn't fit in the DS&E bracket. So, I ordered a 2nd one. It fits just fine and looks really nice in my trunk! :)
- More painted Saturday! Woo hoo! Everything is now red except the hood and the passenger's side front fender. We sprayed a lot of brackets, the spoiler, nose, etc. It was good to see more things finally take shape!
- One last thing... I've decided to resize my passenger side rear wheel. I'm going to give it 1/2" MORE backspace to tuck it into the wheelwell better. I will probably end up with about a 3/16" spacer to move it back out slightly, but this is the only choice I have given the rim widths I'm dealing with. I can't thank Jeff at Group A Wheels enough for all his help with this! I'm going to ship it off this week...
