The story of Lateral-X starts back about 7-8 months ago when I was introduced by a friend to Lateral-g.net. I swear I must have cost Scott a couple hundred in bandwidth watching the video’s of the Camaro’s over and over every day. Browsing through the pics for hours on end, I couldn’t get enough. Finally, between Scott Gulbranson’s 69 with the bad boy twin turbo, and Shay Campbell’s 69 with the sick pro-charger set-up, I decided I needed a car that somewhat resembled these two 69’s. So here starts a 5 month 69 Camaro project that will hopefully get the best of both cars in one package.

The car started its life as a GMP 1969 Sunoco TransAm racing Camaro. I wanted the 434 Small Block of Scotts and the Pro-Charger set-up of Shays. I got the 383 stroker engine from the 68 Street Fighter for this to work out right. This was set aside until I could think this through really well and get some materials to make some parts. A lot had to go under this hood, and it all had to fit perfectly or it would have been a no go from there on out.

I started on the chassis. I wanted to put in real metal sub frame connectors, so I marked off the car, and cut out the floor for subs. I used brass tubing the same size as the rest of the plastic frame. In went the metal subs and using some contact cement, I applied it to the sides to simulate welding being done. I cut part of the front of the car that was hiding the front shocks, and repainted the shocks to match the car. I moved to the rear from here. The leaf springs were sawed off, and I started to build pieces for the 4-Link rear end. I made connecting rods out of aluminum tubing to go from the axle to the frame. I used some metal rods found at a crafts store for the other two connecting rods and built the connectors for those out of sheet styrene using pins with some colored wire to represent bolts and nuts. The rear coil shocks are scratch built out of the tips of regular shocks and then metal was cut out to make the top that holds the spring in. The spring is made from blue wire and pins were put through the shocks to simulate the bolts. The connectors here are also scratch built out of styrene tubing. Then the rear sway bar was created from scratch using styrene tubing and aluminum tubing specially bent to fit around the differential. I then put in some steel wire connectors and put silver pins in from a craft store to simulate the bolts. The front A-arms were modified also by cutting away most of the material to simulate the newer aluminum ones on these G-machines. The gas tank got a little work also; I had to fill the huge hole that went up to and through the trunk lid. It was then sanded and painted aluminum. The gas tank cap was taken off a 1:18 VFR Street Bike! Colored top red and cap lock silver. The GMP battery was then put back in the car and wired back up. The entire trunk compartment got carpeted and painted in flat black to somewhat simulate texture. I then installed 2 subs in the trunk and 2 amps…gotta have the BUMP! I then installed a Nitrous bottle in the trunk out of a 1:24 DUBS Subaru.

The body was stripped once and painted a metallic red but the paint wasn’t drying for some reason. So it got stripped again and painted a combination of Candy Blue and Metallic Blue. The huge hole in the trunk for the gas refill of the Sunoco car was filled in as was the two holes on the hood and the trunk lid. The rear spoiler also had two notches out of it that had to be filled. They were sanded and primered, and then shot with the color. The car was then masked off and had the black stripes painted on. The car and all painted body parts then got 5 coats of Dupli-Color Professional clear coat. Bare Metal Foil was then added to the side windows. The taillights were scratch built out of a reflector and photo etched emblems. The front grill had no headlights so I took some from an ERTL 69 Z/28 grill and sanded them down to the right size to fit the GMP grill which was much smaller. Then a technique was used to somewhat simulate halogen headlights. The center of the grill was cut out to show off the pro-chargers cooling unit and I then put in some metal rods to customize it different than any other Z grill. The front parking lights are a combination of fingernail polish and craft paint with the same technique again used to simulate somewhat halogen lamps. The taillight panel was painted flat black and installed in the trunk. I also painted the inside of the door windows flat black to resemble rubber sealers. I took the rear view mirror of a Viper GTSR and painted it gloss black and installed it on the driver’s door.

The engine & engine compartment has over 2 months alone into it! The engine compartment was painted same color as the car and the fire-wall wiring was redone in silver. The master cylinder and power brake booster was painted same color as the car also. I started with the 68 street fighter engine and disassembled it. It got a new paint job and a new specially made manifold. The manifold was drilled in 8 spots to slap in fuel injectors and the fuel injector rods. The fuel injectors are brass wire and the rods are glass tubes found at a craft store. I then scratch built the fuel injector electronics and placed wires to each injector port. I then placed the line on the rear of the rods and around the distributor. The engine was wired in the right firing order and plumbed. The throttle body was built out of one of Nasttee’s carbs and fitted with throttle linkage out of a watch. I removed a breather from a GMP part – painted it red and stuck it on the valve cover for the oil filler breather cap. I then took a GMP alternator and scratch built a pro-charger using the alternator as the core for the build. I used solder to make the blower tube filing it down to the perfect shape. I then took some aluminum tubing and connected the air cleaner to the back of the pro-charger using one of the breathers off the intake of the street fighter 383. I put an extra set of pulleys on the motor to run the pro-charger and belted it up. The tubes that supply the air to the throttle body are aluminum tubing and specially bent in every area to fit this engine perfectly. They are hooked together using shrink tubing and painted to simulate silver connectors. The scratch built aluminum air tubes go from the pro-charger into a cooling unit I modified and put in the front of the car. The cooling unit is out of a 1/24 Dubs Subaru. The tubing then comes out of the cooler and back through into the engine compartment and up to the throttle body. The throttle body cap was scratch built with styrene tubing and resin, sanded and painted with a pin placed in the top to simulate the holding bolt. I put brake lines on the master cylinder and the vacuum line from the booster to the back of the manifold. I then took the rest of the GMP part used above for the breather cap and turned it into a fuel pump. I scratch built the reader gauge out of styrene tubing, painted the unit red and hooked up the fuel lines to the fuel injection. I took the original GMP oil cooling unit and mounted it on the left side of the radiator running lines from the block through the radiator support. There is no cooler – I did not have enough room to install it…lol. But when the car is put together it looks as if there is. Another vacuum hose was run from the left side valve cover to the back of the throttle body down under the electronics for the fuel injection. I then ran two hoses to the heater from the water pump and the top front of the manifold. I also needed a fan, although you can not see it when the car is assembled, it just had to be done. I took the inside plastic of a watch and a fan from a 69 GTO and some aluminum tubing and a bit of resin, and built my own fan. I wired it up and put it in the front of the radiator, but behind the pro-chargers cooling unit. Lastly, I painted the GMP coil silver and installed it on the right side of the fender.

The interior was a bit tricky since the car was a race car and had nothing in it really. I cut out metal floor boards from sheet metal the right size and shapes and placed them in as floor boards. I have a kicking stereo so I took the speaker box out of a 1:24 Cadillac Escalade and cut it to fit best I could in the back. I then took resin and formed the floor and the connections for the speaker box so it looked somewhat like it were made to go into the Camaro. I then dremeled out places for the seats and made sure they fit properly. The seats are also out of the GMP 68 Street Fighter. The entire interior was then painted flat black and the carpet was installed. The carpet is a custom color I made using two colors of flocking by sifting them both through a screen 3 times for a good mixture. I then installed the speakers on the speaker box and the 2 amps after they were painted. I also got some speakers out of the Subaru and cut and painted them placing 2 on the speaker box and 2 in the back window. I installed GMP’s fire extinguisher on the console and scratch built a brass wire console painting it silver. I took the emergency brake handle out of the Viper GTSR and the shifter out of the Subaru and mounted them inside my wire console. I then took the video screen out of the Escalade and removed the sticker they had on it – replacing it with a BURNOUT video game screen shot I got and resized to fit the screen. I took the video game controller out of the Subaru giving my car passenger side video game access. I put the screen on the dash facing the passenger, and the controller on the front part of the console below the dash, added wiring and paint, and put the wiring up underneath the dash. I painted the stock dash black and shot it with clear coat. I installed a DVD screen on the DVD/CD player incase the driver wanted to watch music videos…lol. I then put in a headliner using flocking and semi-gloss black paint to form texture. I put in a dome light and the side panels, making the dome light out of some pieces I found in the kitchen drawer. The steering wheel is out of the Viper GTSR and fitted on the original shaft.

The Wheels are GMP’s billet wheels but I painted the brakes blue to match the car. The brakes are hooked up and the wheels still spin and the front turns.

The exhaust was scratch built from solder and styrene tubing from the headers to the mufflers. The Mufflers & tailpipes are from a Lane 68 Camaro with custom tips made from styrene tubing and all but the mufflers were painted silver.

The license plates I made from ACME and resized. Put them on a metal photo etched backing plate. I then took the license plate frames out of the photo etch kit and put them on both plates.

I used a photo-etch kit for a 69 Camaro and put on the emblems. The dash even got its little Camaro emblem on it. I used parts from 10 different Diecast cars and scratch built most the rest to build this one 1969 “Bad-Boy”

So there ya have it. My version of the best of Scotts and Shays Camaro’s put into one package. Hope you enjoy it!

Sean Schadt (69Bad-Boy)