Blue Collar Engine Compartment Makeover

Today on muscle car, we're spraying our way to budget beauty project. Blue collar is gonna look good under the hood and sounds sweet in the seat. Thanks to some low buck spray on. See how the first gen Camaro went out in style with a loaded Z 28 rally sport.

And here are 455. Fire up for the first time.

Hey guys, welcome to muscle car. A blue collar buick here has turned into one of the most popular builds we've ever done on the show and it doesn't even have an engine yet. But today we're gonna fix all that. There's just one small problem.

There's a whole lot of ugly called an engine compartment that needs some serious attention,

but the rest of this old century has come a long way. We dropped on a new lid

built a buick 455 to give it some muscle and put a shift kit in the 350 turbo. Then we gave it some smooth new door handles, lightened up the bumpers, designed some one off tail lights and freshened up the suspension and brakes. You know, there's few things as disappointing as popping the hood on a nice ride and finding a big old mess of wires, shabby brackets and rust. It's kind

like finally scoring a day with that hot chick and then finding out she's really a dude. We're not gonna let that happen with our Buicks. We're gonna completely make over our engine compartment. Since this is a budget build, we gotta do all we can to get the most bang for our buck. And this is one area where a little bit of cash can go a long ways. First step is to get rid of all the useless junk. Starting with these small block Chevrolet mounts.

Somebody worked awful hard to weld in these mounts using nothing more than a 12 volt battery and some wire hangers at least that's what it looks like. But if that fresh 455 is going to find its new home. Hey, man, they gotta go

with the scrap metal out of the way. The rest of the smaller parts can be pulled to make it easier to clean for prep and paint.

Be careful removing this stuff. Parts you may think are easily replaced. Could be harder to find than you think.

Hey, Rick, you ready to get, what the heck are you doing? Are you working out, man? Getting ready for the next step of the build? What, what are you talking about? This is gonna be the most important tool of the day. I call it my mini spray. Gun, man. I smell what you're stepping in and I know how you like to paint. You need to get this car prepped out.

All right, duple color makes a great aerosol degreaser. Just make sure that whatever you use it doesn't leave a residue or you could end up with peeling paint. If you say we pull those hinges off, go

a little easier.

And a drill lineman holes first though. I ain't messing around with that 500 pound hood trying to get it lined back up

for really stubborn grease. Carb cleaner and a rag were great

seam sealer. It gets old brittle over time and now is a good time to scrape out the old and prep for some new.

So, you know, Rick.

Yeah,

there's not another person out there that I'd rather scrape seamer

with.

Thanks man.

The red Scotch

Bright will finish the prep and let the new paint bite in like a bulldog

time for the new Seam Sealer. A brush, a glove and a little love will make it look better than factory and help seal out future rust and corrosion. A finger dipped in lacquer thinner will smooth out the texture

when you're painting stuff like engine compartments. Eventually you're gonna run across something that's kind of weird shaped, which means it's hard to mask off, but you don't wanna put paint on it, but it's also a pain in the butt to remove. Well, that's where tinfoil comes in or aluminum foil, just tear off a piece. I can get something pulling off here

and wrap it around

now for the fun part. Oh, Rick got his fingers warmed up earlier. So it's time for some paint. We went to the local parts store and put a big dent in the stock of rattle cans. A duple color comes in dozens of varieties in just about any color you could ever want. They also have specialty coatings for anything from undercoating to engine blocks. The engine compartments don't really require anything special. So I got some cool colors that I thought would look nice

and most of the engine compartment is going to be a semi gloss black for that. OEM look. We use this gold here on the brake booster and maybe some of the brackets just to throw in a little bit of detail.

The textured metallic is for the evaporator housing

and I like the color of this engine enamel for the master cylinder and steering box.

Now everyone out there has probably used a rattle can at some time or another. So you know the drill shake the can for a minute or two then commence to squirt.

We're doing two full wet coats waiting about 15 minutes for flash time in between

the smaller pieces like the wiper motor and brake booster still work fine. But to give them that like new appearance, they need some color too.

They're both getting a light coat of edge primer first, then a layer of the final colors will go on.

Yes,

looks good. Now, I just gotta hold it until it dries

after standing around with these for like five minutes. They're finally dry enough to go back on the buick.

Well, I got a couple more holes to fill here, but don't go anywhere because coming up after the break, Tommy is going to step in here and show you how to bench bleed a master cylinder

and later a spray on sound deader. That's easy to apply and easy on the wallet.

Hey guys, welcome back. We've got the master cylinder off. So we're gonna go ahead and replace it since it's only about 20 bucks. But before I can install it, I've got a bench bleed it because it's a whole lot easier to do it here than when it's on the car.

The idea of bleeding is to remove the air from the system. Plugging the outlets will block one pathway the air could get back in

filling the reservoir then pressing the plunger will force the air back out of the cylinder and draw fresh brake fluid in.

This will take several cycles, but once there's no more air bubbles coming up, you're good to go.

Master cylinders, come in raw iron. So to keep it looking good for more than 10 minutes, it's getting the d

blue color treatment like our other parts.

One important thing to remember. Brake fluid eats paint, so be really careful when reinstalling the brake line

and the converter's gotta go in before we can introduce the transmission to the engine for the first time. Now, keep in mind here, you got two sets of Splines and as you put this on both sets have to be engaged.

So set it over the spines and put just a little bit of pressure on it as you rotate it

and you'll feel it drop onto those spines.

There's one,

you may have already got the second one.

But if you don't get that engaged all the way, then what happens, you put the engine against the transmission and it pushes that converter back against your pump and it'll break your pump. Then what you've got is a broken transmission before you even fire up your engine. One thing to check before mounting the transmission to the

engine is the fly wheel because if it's in the car, it's one of those kind of repairs that the parts are way cheap, but the labor will flat dab eat you alive. What to look for are stress cracks around the mounting holes or chipped teeth.

You can see ours are missing quite a few. So we're gonna go ahead and replace it.

This adapter from trap

will allow the Buick engine and the Chevy transmission to bolt together with no problem.

This is an externally balanced flex plate so it has to be clocked correctly. We paid attention when we took the old one off so we can match it up. Now.

Like most critical drive train parts, the flex plate needs to be torque to spec

last on is the adapter spacer.

Hey, Tommy heard you've been looking for a tranny. Not exactly, but let's put this on

there. It

is

our latest wrecking yard score is these factory big block motor mounts with these. The 455 should bolt in just like it's been there its whole life.

Ok. Bring back

and

what

we're in.

Well, it looks great, but we want to hear this thing make some noise and that means all the accessories need to go back on. Now, keep in mind

all the hard parts are refurbished. Originals.

Hey, man, you're topping that dude off. I think we're gonna fire it up. We need to get a cooling system installed first though, man. I'm just putting it on there to see how it looks and it looks pretty awesome. Yeah, it does. I got some bad news for you though.

Radiator hoses ain't gonna be here for a couple more hours, but I got some good news for you.

The sun

stuff showed up. What's that? A muzzle for you?

Yeah. Right,

man. Are you sure our budgets even got room for sound deadening. Oh, yeah. Lizards can send us one of their spraying kits and it's actually cheaper than some of that tinfoil stick on stuff. That's cool. A layer of that stuff on the floorboard would definitely cut down on some road noise. Yeah, I got the rust all treated and sealed up so we can get to spraying. All right,

this stuff really is pretty easy to use. Start by stirring it up with a supplied mixing paddle.

It's water soluble. So a bucket of water is all you need for clean up, pour it straight into the cup. No reducers or hardeners need it. That is some

thick stuff. Lizard skin spray gun kit comes with a gun specifically designed for thicker materials.

You want a plan of attack here, so you don't end up spraying yourself into a corner, start at the furthest point and you won't end up with it all over your knees and hose.

You can put on a second coat, just make sure the first layer dries completely. And if you're wondering why I'm not wearing a mask. Hey, this stuff is zero voc. So no worries.

And that my friends is it

today's flashback. A 1969 Camaro Z 28 rally sport

for car fanatics. Brand loyalty can be something of a religion

but sometimes love can make you do crazy things.

Larry White was a true blue Ford man until a pretty young girl caught his eye. And when we first started dating, I had a 1970

Ford Mach one.

And then every time I'd show up to her house, pick her up on a date. Her dad would rag me about having a Ford.

So I finally broke down and, and decided to buy a Chevrolet to appease him. And I bought a 69 Z 28 Camaro Hugger Orange, just like this one.

I actually learned how to drive a stick shift in that car

and we used to fight over who was gonna drive.

It's easy to see why when it comes to power and handling. The Z 28 is in a class by itself specifically designed for Trans

Am racing. It combines small block performance with road hugging agility. Earning it the nickname the hugger,

the exclusive powerhouse

turbo fire 302

designed to meet the 305 cubic inch limit of the road course series. Chevy started with the 327 block and threw in a 283 crank shaft. The solid lifter cam LSE

9327 heads rated at a meager 290 horsepower. It actually produced upwards of 400 propelling it from 0 to 60 in just 7.4 seconds.

It was all topped off with ac

induction hood wearing some rally stripes

to handle the demands of the road course Z 28 S came loaded with heavy duty suspension,

front desk brakes,

quick ratio steering

and a 12 volt

posi rear end

oh and a hurst four speed that was mandatory.

This Z 28 also got the rally sport treatment which was basically an appearance package,

there was more chrome all around plus a blacked out grill with some slick concealed headlights.

The tail panel was unique with the backup lights moved down below the bumper

inside. This car is all dressed up with Indie Pace car, upholstery and wood grain trim.

Rally gauges came mounted in the dash and on the console, a fold down rear seat allows for a little extra

storage. Camaros got a shuttle makeover in 69 to give them a more aggressive stance. The grill was now V shaped and the wheel wells and body panels were more squared off simulated vent mos

were added in front of the rear wheels.

The first Z 20 eights appeared in 67 but flew under the radar and only about 600 were sold in 69. More than 20,000 rolled out of the dealer making it the most popular. First Gen Z 28

Larry had to get rid of his original Z to put himself through college.

It may be long gone, but this restored one has done a good job taking its place

every time we get in this car, it's like we're going back in time.

It's like we're out on a date even

coming up. Our buick big block roars to life.

You're watching Muscle Car for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to Power Block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own muscle car collection delivered right to your door from the power block.

Hey, welcome back. Those radiator hoses we were waiting on. I just about got them installed. That means we're real close to firing up this 455. We just about got this dude buttoned up other than a few electrical connections and some fluids. Now, we haven't bolted up the converter to the flex plate yet. And that's because we don't have any coolant lines. No coolant lines means no fluid. And you don't wanna fire this thing up, burn up your transmission

after that. All we need is a little bit of fuel because right now there's no gas tank in this thing

as you're adding the fluids, dump them in one at a time and check for leaks before moving on.

It's a good idea to leave your battery cable loose for now in case he sees smoke and have to pull it off in a big hurry

with a temporary gas source hooked up to the pump. We can prime the carb and hit the key

before we fire this dude up. You got a fire extinguisher

do the way you splash gas around

and it's a big block. It's thirsty. Give it a shot

ready. Yep.

Take it down.

Looks like all our prep work paid off and it's running smooth enough that we can go straight to set in the timing and breaking in the camp.

We're looking for 12 degrees before top, dead center. A little twist of the distributor. Nails it.

Yeah,

I'll kill it so you can go to tighten it up.

Ok.

Well, guys, it's like we have a successful rebuild on our hands. It runs good. It looks good. And it should make some pretty decent horsepower. Now, we just have to get the carburetor dialed in. Straight out some vacuum lines. Yeah. But that's some stuff we gotta do when y'all aren't around because we're all out of time. So, until next week y'all keep it between the ditches

you doing over there yet?

Yeah, I'm working on it. Good deal. Good deal.