Project Nighthawk 1969 Camaro - 800hp super car

[Amit1978]

I have loved muscle cars since I was a kid. As an adult, watching the masters like Chip foose and his counterparts on countless car shows on sky tv strengthened that love even more. I knew some day, I would build the car of my dreams, and that day is finally here.

I am going to build a car that embodies everything I love about motoring. Retro style, Lots of usable power, and as much 21st century auto tech. as I can get in. I want a retro bruiser with all the mod cons.

The current plan is, 600hp LS9 motor,
Ridetech full air Suspension upgrades and sway bars managed by Accuair ride management
Rotiform
modern design red leather interior
modern lighting
digital computer controlled dash and electronics
lots of custom gizmos and gadgets

Paint wise I am thing of a dark but heavily metalic grey. Almost like shadow chrome you get on some wheels.
Bespoke body mods including front valance, rear diffuser, side skirts and rear gill.
Lots of carbon trim

The majority of the build work will be taken care off by the excellent Retro Power

This build thread will serve as summary of the build. For full blow by blow updates and pictures, follow the build on
the project facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ProjectNighthawk
and on Twitter here https://twitter.com/#!/ProjNighthawk

[Amit1978]

Phase one was to come up with some designs. Mike Gillett did an excellent job of turning my ramblings into renders.







more designs Design concepts and rendering

Next, I needed a car to base the build on. I found a beautiful 69 camaro SS clone in hugger orange that had already had some resto work in the past, but you guys convinced me it was too good/original to base the build on, so that was promptly sold and replaced with this rotter off a shell.

Unfortunately I had to buy the shell blind, but the seller assured me it was a perfect base car due to my extensive plans and that structurally it was sound








see the full gallery of base car pics

[Amit1978]

The car was delivered straight to Retro Power from the seller.

I had heard lots about the abilities of Callum and Nat at retro power, and had read countless forum posts and mag articles about their previous builds.

Seeing their metal work skills on some of their previous projects, and their very reasonable costs and working practices made them a winner.

The boys got straight to work tearing the car apart ready for blasting, which is when we found out, things werent as rosey as the first seemed.









Full gallery of the car pre blasting

After that, there wasnt much car left for blasting! but we had come too far now to turn back so on it went for media blasting and zinc priming









Full gallery of blasted car

[Amit1978]

thanks to
Auto Metal Direct

I have almost an entire camaro in a box on its way by boat to me.

Should be here by late july then the fun can begin

If you ever wondered what a camaro kit looks like in a box.. here it is



Amit

[mjslonergan]

So much for 'rust free' American imports, long road ahead of you...

[Amit1978]

The car came from Texas. Dont know what their climate is like but yeah this one is showing every year of its 43 years!

[Relentless Rob]

Wow!

I think the original parts group will be on your Christmas card list this year.

[Jason]

Thats gonna be one nice car when it's finished.

On the renderings, I prefer front end one, The others look a bit too happy face for me. It needs to look mean

[Renrut]

That is gonna take some serious graft to get right but it will definitely be worth it!

I'm looking forward to this build diary.

Just thinking if you're going for lots of custom bits and carbon trim have you considered combining the two? e.g. cf bonnet, cf front splitter. I can understand that getting those bits in cf might be way over budget though.

[Dannygar1]

Didn't realise this was a UK build till now I believe we have chatted before on twitter looking forward to seeing this build come together

[Amit1978]

Thats gonna be one nice car when it's finished.

On the renderings, I prefer front end one, The others look a bit too happy face for me. It needs to look mean

We have actually gone for a developed version of front spliter two with DLRs added. See my avatar pic for the final front rendering.

[Amit1978]

That is gonna take some serious graft to get right but it will definitely be worth it!

I'm looking forward to this build diary.

Just thinking if you're going for lots of custom bits and carbon trim have you considered combining the two? e.g. cf bonnet, cf front splitter. I can understand that getting those bits in cf might be way over budget though.

Yes the body kit bits (splitter, skirts, spoiler and rear diffuser) will be carbon.

You can buy a lot more carbon bits (google Anvil Auto design) but they are pricey and I also want to customise those bits so cost to make on offs in carbon will be mental.

They can always be added later to refresh the car a couple years down the line.

[Amit1978]

After what feels like for ever, the parts have finally arrived at retro power HQ

Again big thanks to Auto Metals Direct for helping us out with the panels. Not easy to come by in the UK

Big truck full of camaro


Flat pack camaro


Next step are to formulate a plan and start gluing all this together.

Dont forget to like the facebook page below or follow us on Twitter for blow by blow updates.

Summaries will be posted up in this thread

[mjslonergan]

Ikea Camaro

[OilyFingers]

Chip Foose has a hell of a lot to answer for. A decade ago most camaros were strip prepped and noisy. Now they all seem to be smoother than a babies wotsit and running 900bhp!

Just make sure you drive it often when its finished. There is nothing sader than a £100k trailer queen.