Preservation of a 68 Camaro

[Too Many Projects]

The forward cabin floor on my car is original and no reinforcement plates. I replaced the entire trunk floor assembly from the forward floor back, saving the original frame rails.

[SMS]

Very timely. I just shot my 68 wheel well undercoating using in part your photos as a guide. Thank you!

[BJCHEV396]

Good stuff! Welcome back Darrell!

[cook_dw]

Diff cleaning and preserving is now complete. Installed pinion races and carrier bearings (not pictured and previously axle bearings and seals). Once I get the inner pinion bearing installed I will start the reassembly process. I've decided to go with the solid pinion sleeve and I'll walk through how I set it up etc once the time comes.



Photos 937 - 940 - Diff during the heating and coating of Cosmoline Rust Veto & RPM (Rust Preventative Magic). I heated the differential with a heat gun and applied the mixture with a paint brush and kept heat on it while it cured and leveled out.



Photos 941 - 942 - Center section and the casting date now revealed. C 21 8



Photos 943 - 944 - Perches and their markings of LH and RH

[cook_dw]

Pinion bearing installed. I removed the old one with a Dremel tool and metal cut off wheel (or you can use an air cut off; I used E-Z lock wheels), a hammer and chisel. Also note the pinion shim thickness. Since I have changed gears I reused the old shim for a starting point. For this setup it was a 0.028" shim. Next I threw the pinion with shim into the freezer in the frig here at work (mini frig). Then I set the bearing up with a heat gun applied to the face side of the bearing (the point that makes contact with the shim on the pinion. After a hour in the freezer and roughly 5 mins under the heat gun the bearing dropped right into place. You could also do this with the carrier bearings and pinion races. However I used a brass & steel punches to knock those into place making sure they bottomed out.

Photo 945 - Pinion with bearing & shim installed.

Photo 946 - I did get a little fancy with the stand and thermal imaging camera and magnets but you get the idea.

[1967Z28]

Darrell, any consideration to finding a more date appropriate and application appropriate rear axle since this one is not original to the car? Just curious.

[cook_dw]

It would be different if I had the original engine and/or trans. But since all 3 are MIA I did not feel the need to replace the diff. At least at this point.