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Rotisserie Restoration - Heighton Restorations

Rotisserie Restoration at Heighton Restorations

Years of poor storage and even poorer workmanship by previous owner had left very little of the original body in salvageable condition. After being media blasted the true extent of the damage was not only evident but almost resulted in the project ending before it ever really began. After making the difficult decision to continue with the body we had, the car was taken to Heighton Restorations in Beiseker, Alberta for what was going to be a long restoration. Heighton Restorations specializes in award winning paint and restorations and is well known for their high standards and commitment to quality.

The car was delivered in January of 2006 and work began almost immediately. Throughout the restoration and through all of the physical and mechanical modifications, the goal was to maintain a factory appearance. Despite some of the radical changes that were made, every effort was made to make the changes seamless and as unassumable as possible.

February 2006 - Work begins quickly at the shop. After evaluating the condition of the sheet metal as it was following media blasting, the decision was made to replace the majority of the rotted body. Those panels that were not cut out still required a great deal of repair work to meet the desired finished product.

June 2006 - The crew at Heighton Restorations has completed the replacement of all of the neccessary sheet metal on the '67. The only panels that were not replaced or significantly repaired at this point are the roof and tail light panel.

September 2006 - The Lateral Dynamics 3-Link has been installed and the rear quarter panels are being modified for the unique side exit exhaust. One of the complicated parts of this modification is the relatively complex inner 'drop down' panel. Our desire to make all of the body modifications on the car appear to be factory required a great deal of thought and attention at this point.

October 2006 - With the car in hi-solids primer and after it's first of many boardings, it returns home for continued mock-up and the installation of a full roll cage. The tub is essentially complete but the firewall still requires extensive work to be smoothed and to adapt the Tilton Engineering 900-Series pedal assembly.

Most of the spring of 2007 saw work progressing on the suspension and safety packages of the car. In October of 2006 the American Touring Specialties built Chicane-LM front subframe made it's debut at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. In the March of 2007 work started on the roll cage and installation of the DSE subframe connectors to tie the subframe to the body and rear frame; this work was performed by a local 'professional' cage builder. Unfortunately the installation of the roll cage caused substantial damage to the body of the car and ultimately, the majority of that cage had to be cut out or redone due to poor workmanship - a frustrating setback for the guys at Heighton Restorations.

June 2007 - With most of the damage repaired, work resumed on the Camaro; fitting first the subframe and then front sheet metal. Initially reproduction panels were going to be utilized for the front end but the fit and quality of the replacement panels was so poor that the decision was made to use NOS panels which were 'borrowed' from another '67 Camaro that I had back at home. Once these panels were fit a first round of adjusting the gaps was done.

July 2007 - With the front end sheet metal in place our attention turned to the inner fenders and fitting the dry sump tank required for the LS7's oiling system. Over the course of several weeks, the inner fenders were signficantly modified on both sides; many of the modifications are not noticable on the finished product but you can see the development of panels below:

September 2007 - We wanted to do something different with the lower valance and integrate '69 Camaro running lights. Anything is possible with a couple of lower valances, a cutoff wheel, and a mig welder. We experimented a couple of times with a front bumper but ultimately decided to go without.

October 2007 - To complete the roll cage we desgned a pair of down tubes which tie the main cage to the front of the subframe through the firewall. To allow these bars to be removable, we machined plates from 1/4" steel that are wleded onto the down bars as well as to the main cage and subframe. We started by mocking up two tubes out of muffler tube and tacking them to the firewall; we later used these as a guide when we bent the final tubes out of 1.75" .120 wall tubing. At the firewall the receiving plates have been recessed and the bars mount flush to the firewall.

November 2007 - Unlimited Performance in Calgary, Alberta built us this custom 3" exhaust system. The Lateral Dynamics 3-Link posed a challenge but the experts at Unlimited were up to the task. Eventually we welded all of the welds flush and modified the X-pipe to increase ground clearance before sending the complete system to Top Gun Coatings to be ceramic coated. The trunk was modified to increase clearance of the pipes where they go around the Rick's Stainless gas tank.

With the exhaust in we started in our final mock up before moving the car onto the rotisserie for final clean-up and prep. The first thing that we found was a potential clearance issue with the Tilton Engineering pedal assembly and our Katech Engineering valve covers. Rather than risk an issue in the future we made the painful decision to relocate the entire assembly 1/2" to the right and 1/2" down; it seems like a minimal change but it made a world of difference.

December 2007 - The final mockup before the rotisserie allowed us to do a final check on the placement of the engine bay accessories and coolers on the front to the car. One og the more subtle modifications (at least at this point in the build) is the conversion of the rod actuated hood release to an internal cable released mechanism.