HOMEGROWN COPO #3 - On a Diet!

HOME Grown

COPO

RPM PROJECT CAR

by

Stan Smith

>> Our Homegrown

COPO gets some new goodies from S&W Race Cars and MPR Race Cars

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few months back, we brought RPM readers up to speed on the progress of our Project Homegrown

COPO 2015 Camaro tribute build. We cut out over 100 pounds of unneeded steel from our wrecking yard find donor car then sent it to CT Auto Collision who stripped it, completed some

february 2017 | RPM Magazine

initial bodywork, and installed our trick new VFN Sunoco 4-inch cowl hood along with a few other panels, and then laid a slick coat of black epoxy primer on the entire car. Now we’re ready to start

moving forward with transforming our Camaro into a potent homebuilt COPO tribute by beefing up the chassis.

We called on longtime friend Kelly Cooper of Fat Dog

Fabrication fame to install our S&W roll bar kit along with some trick rear suspension parts from MPR Race Cars. We could have probably wrestled with installing the roll bar and chassis

1 1: We upgraded our S&W #11-1534-td roll cage kit to chromoly tubing. The kit included everything needed. We added and tweaked a bit here and there just based on preferences and the COPO build resource material we have available.

3: Jay went to work with the plasma cutter while Kelly pondered the job and inspected what he had to work with. Jay is shown notching out the rear frame section of the driver side to allow for the lower control arm mount.

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components ourselves, but some things are best left to the pros. What would have taken us weeks to accomplish in between other work, Kelly did in just days, and let’s face it, the finished product exceeds our abilities on our best day. Plus,

2: As you can see, the kit we put together with MPR Race Cars includes everything needed to reproduce a COPO-style 9-inch rear housing and suspension. We’ll get our AFCO shocks later on in the build. listening to Kelly belt out tunes while he worked was entertaining to everyone who stopped by (he’s also an ex-band member).

Kelly did such a great job that we actually enjoy gazing endlessly at the unpainted work—especially

those welds. It’s a shame we have to paint it!

We chose a roll cage kit to help streamline the build, and with the help of our COPO research material and insight from the folks at S&W, we think we made the right

decision. The S&W cage part #11-1534-td takes the guesswork out of caging our beast. There’s no sense in losing sleep over fabbing up bars when somebody else has already done all the hard work. The S&W kit is a 10-point cage with

pre-bent bars that comes in three different types of material. We “supersized” ours to chromoly.

The same goes for our rear diff and suspension set up. On top of running a full-service chassis and fab shop, MPR Race Cars out

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RPM PROJECT CAR 4

5 of Almont, Michigan makes parts for all types of factory-style conversions, so why not contact the pros for our tribute car? The MPR setup we designed included a Strange axle housing, upper and lower control arms, antiroll bar kit, a panhard bar, coilover shock mounting brackets and a rear suspension install kit which included all the hardware, rodends etc. to get the job done.

As far as getting our own materials or components went, the only thing we did was source some square and rectangle tubing locally to use for our frame connectors and crossmember, and a stick of chromoly for some extra bars we made.

Follow along as Kelly takes us through the process.

I arrived at Misener Motorsports with all my essential tools in-hand and Jay (Misener) had the majority of the big equipment needed to complete the task; a Mig and Tig welder and a plasma cutter. I’ll be honest, it’s been a long time since I have used a kit in one of my builds, so I had no idea what to expect.

With regards to the rear suspension parts, Jay opted for a setup to keep the car as correct as possible and class-legal, and after a thorough study of the COPO Camaro build book, I had a clear understanding of the task at hand.

The upper control arm mount

4: From there, the floor was notched for the frame connectors.

5 & 6: The passenger side was next. Kelly, being Kelly, put his fabrication skills to work and tidied up the notched areas to near perfection… they look almost factory! Note the upper control arm mount is also installed here.

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7: Kelly welded 6x6inch reinforcement plates to inner rocker and installed these outriggers from the plates to the frame rails for the main hoop to attach to. Note that our cutouts just fit the square tube which makes for a very nice finished product.

8: Here is our passenger side almost ready for the first rear diff and suspension mock up.

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HOME Grown COPO

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9:The entire assembly is mocked up and looks great. Just add our coilover shocks and once properly adjusted this setup will launch the Camaro hard and straight!

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RPM PROJECT CAR 10

was pretty straight forward – cut two holes as per their measurements and bolt it in place. The lower control arm mounts were a bit more difficult as our source material only provided two measurements, so we had to figure out the rest. I put Jay to work on the first side, so I could figure out what not to do…just kidding. First, I had to notch the frame to make room for the lower control mounts, which was easily accomplished with the plasma cutter.

After cleaning up the area, I made cardboard templates to fill in the holes.

RULE THE

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10: Kelly installed a crossmember for the X brace andinside the car and the rear suspension upper control arm mounts outside the car (see #4)..

11: Here, the main hoop is tacked into place. Note it is angled slightly back to follow the door jamb. Little details like this are why we called in a pro.

12: Our chassis fabricator also happens to be a former band member and entertained staff and customers for most of the week.

STRIP

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RPM PROJECT CAR Scissors, cardboard, a Sharpie and tape can be your best friend when fabricating...basic skills I picked up during my time in kindergarten.

Once my pieces were fit and tacked, I welded them in. Man, I hate Mig welding. My ankles are still healing from the splatter burns.

Next was to fit the 2x2-inch frame and thru-the-floor bars and seat rails. Once tacked, I triple checked my measurements and welded on the lower control arm brackets, then proceeded to weld the frame rails in. I also welded all the 6x6-inch plates in the correct places, mostly by using photos as a reference. I welded plates to the inner rockers and installed outriggers from these plates to the frame rail for the main hoop to attach to. Next, I installed the spigots for the anti-roll bar and once they were installed we could install the rearend and weld in the diagonal link mounts.

Ok, time for a break as we now have the rear-suspension in and the foundation for the roll cage installed.

I started on the cage

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by laying out all of the pieces of the S&W chromoly roll cage kit on the floor to see what we had.

Everything looked good and my first task was to fit the main hoop.

S&W provides enough material to do the job right. I propped up the main hoop in the car, using rolled up cardboard against the roof to hold it in position. I placed the legs of the hoop in front of my outriggers and used a Sharpie to transfer a cut line.

Make sure the hoop is centered in the car and leaned back to where you want it. I like to mimic the door post angle. I added a half an inch to my line and cut the hoop. I prefer to sneak up on my fitment, you can take away material, but you can’t (and shouldn’t) add it. Remember, that main hoop is there to save your life, something that should not be taken lightly.

After several in and out trial fitments with the hoop, my measurements to the floor were the same and the digital protractor confirmed them. So on to the next step.

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14 13 & 14: The X-brace bars and rear bars were tacked in next followed by the roof halo.

15: Here, our door bars and front bars are finish welded in place. Be sure to have interior door panels to enable you to properly tweak your door bars for a perfect fit.

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HOME Grown COPO

16: We cut a small amount of material out for our front bars to fit just right after the dash structure was reinstalled.

17: The finished cage is as clean as they come, with the fully welded door bars and x-brace adding significant chassis stiffness as well as enhanced safety.

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RPM PROJECT CAR We tweaked the rear bars to mimic the COPO build as close as possible, and then we fit and tacked them in place. Before tacking any bar, I always clean the surface area to be welded and drill a gas hole. This hole will relieve the built-up gas in the tube from the welding process. The rest of the cage install was pretty straight forward. We notched out some of the factory dash steel structure for a nice tight fit on the front bars and made sure we had an interior door panel onhand as we fit the side bars into place. I also had Jay pick up some 1.25-inch moly for the X to upper control arm mounts and the seat belt bar and I did tweak the bends on a couple of other tubes, just for personal preference. There you have it, after many hours of fitting and welding, we had a complete foundation for our Homegrown COPO Camaro tribute car.

All in all, both the MPR rear suspension kit and the S&W cage kit were pretty straightforward

to install. My advice is take your time and don’t rush the job. It can be frustrating to go into the shop and work for hours and not seem like you are getting much accomplished, but if you take your time on your fitment and double check your measurements it will show when the job is finished. Don’t forget to tack and look. Take a look from every angle, every window, as you might see something you don’t like and you can still fix it at this stage. And remember, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Kelly Cooper has 20 years of experience building race cars, both professionally and as a hobby.

Many of his creations have been record setters, class winners and stand out for their craftsmanship.

He is also the co-founder, announcer, and promoter of the Pro Tree Racing Association. He supports all of his family and friends in the sport and his passion for drag racing and fast cars finds its way into all aspects of his life.

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SOURCES S&W Race Cars www.swracecars.com 610.948.7303

MPR Race Cars www.mprracecars.com 810.798.8998