DRIVING COMFORT
The picture to the left shows my 1967 Camaro's dash area while I was installing the underdash, Vintage Air, air conditioning evaporator. The Vintage Air unit has defrost and heat built into it and uses the existing factory heat and defrost controls. The temperature control, when turned to cold turns on the air conditioning. The center position is off, for both heat and air. The air conditioning unit is a tight fit but I found no major problems in installing it. The installation instructions furnished by Vintage Air, with the unit, are very detailed and complete. The unit replaces the complete facory installed heat and defrost system. I installed the unit myself and would not have been able to align the bolt hole on the evaporator unit to the hole in the firewall. By cutting the head
off a bolt and threading it into the evaporator support bolt hole I was able to manuever the resulting stud portion through the hole in the firewall, brace the evaporator, and move to engine side of the firewall and put a washer and a nut on the stud to secure the evaporator to the firewall.
The radio you see in the dash is a Kenwood AM/FM unit with a tape player. I installed underdash speakers and there will be two five way stereo speaker systems behind the rear seat. Each system will have one woofer, one midrange, and three tweeters. The old radio was the factory installed AM radio with one speaker in front and one in the rear. The new radio should be an improvement over the old one.
I purchased the 2 5/8" water temperature and oil pressure gauges from J.C.Whitney. I purchased the bezel for them from an auto parts store. The floor shifter you see in the picture is a B&M Sport shifter. The shifter has four forward shift indents and a shift position indicator to match the requirements of the TH700R4 transmission. It also includes a back up light switch as well as a, park only, start switch. I also have a new dash cover for the dash along with new interior door panels and new carpeting. When I get it on the road I am also going to have a new top installed and a dual exhaust system.
The car is going to be my daily driver when I finish it. I built it to be a "reacher" instead of a "racer". I went to a car show last week and saw a 1955 Thunderbird with a picture board propped up against the front bumper. All the pictures on the board were of the 1955 Thunderbird in front of the welcome signs of all of our lower 48 States. I heard many of the spectators commenting that they were going to do that too. I am going to do the same thing. If you ever see a 1967, Matador red, RS Camaro convertible on the highway, It just might be me on my way to each of our lower 48 States.
I drove the Camaro for the first time on June 9, 2000. I drove it around my back yard because it is stripped for painting which includes the bumpers,chrome,windshield,hood and trunk lid. It sure is taking me long enough to finish my 1967 Camaro. I just finished painting it in September of 2001. I sprayed four double coats of Matador red paint on it with a gravity feed high volume low pressure gun. I like the way it turned out.
I will post pictures of my Camaro on this web site when I finish it and keep you posted on my travels with it.