Author Archives: bowtie6

Chevrolet Cameo Pickup

Back in the mid 50’s, Chevrolet decided to build a unique pickup. Along with the knowledge they learned from the Corvette they made a pickup with a fiberglass-sided bed. This is known as the Cameo. I won’t go into much detail about the history of it (you can Google that), suffice to say they are rare and one belongs to our friend Barry A.

Barry brought the frame over to my cousin Jim’s shop with intentions of making it a reliable modern truck with a very special vintage appearance. An modern Chevrolet Vortec engine (an LSx) will propel this Cameo to match its awesome good looks. It has taken some time, effort and resources but the Cameo is starting to take shape. Once again my cousin Jim has done some pretty awesome things and I wanted to share some of them here.

As you can see in these two pictures, the Cameo is together and running.

The frame has had quite a bit of work including bespoke engine and transmission mounts. The front suspension contains all new components such as a A-arms, modern steering rack, coilovers and disc brakes. The rear axle is from a late model Ford Explorer including a positraction rear end, disc brakes and coilover suspension. Jim modified the rear axle with control arms and since space was at a premium, it includes a Panhard bar.

You can actually see the Panhard bar at the top of the picture on the right. Also here you can see the custom made aluminium fuel cell that Jim made special to fit the frame. It is mounted on special plastic mounts. The fuel filler neck is also custom as well as the fuel level sending unit and fuel pump housing. That is on the big round disc on the cab-side of the tank. This is all plumbed with braided steel lines and attached to an LSx fuel pressure/filter housing. Since the LSx is a returnless system, from the other side of the fuel regulator a line goes forward to feed the LSx engine. Finally, thanks to that space restriction, two large exhaust mufflers sit below the cab and will eventually dump on special pipes shaped to dump ahead of the rear tires.

What powers the Cameo? Why an LSx, of course!! This engine came from a 2010 Chevy truck as you can see on the picture at left. Jim made all the special mounts and details you see in this picture. The two silver boxes on the extreme top right house the electric fan controller and the ECM. Jim also made the wiring harness – we don’t buy aftermarket harnesses, instead ours are modified in-house and are sized to fit the requirements of the build. This is all housed along with numerous relays, circuit breakers and fuses in the long silver box next to the controller. Since Barry’s truck will have a fully functional A/C system you can see the special hoses routed under the battery feeding the A/C system inside the cab. If you look closely you can see the special stainless headers – yes they are stainless and look awesome in person. Keeping things cool is a special aluminum radiator ahead of the K&N air filter on that trick 90 degree elbow Barry sourced special for this build.

In order to get the engine running we had to do a basic tuning with HPTuners to remove the VATS as well as other issues that prevented the engine from running. Furthermore this is a 2010 engine and as such it comes equipped with Displacement On Demand (DOD) as well as Variable Valve Timing (VVT). For now, we have electronically disabled DOD and kept the VVT. We still need to do some more MAF calibrations as well as fuel and ignition mappings. The engine is also running a Transmission Control Module (TCM) in order to run a 4L60E transmission. Barry opted to run this instead of the six speed gearbox originally fitted to this engine.

The following pictures will demonstrate some of Jim’s sheet-metal skillz. 🙂

How do you get body-fit on a mid 50’s vehicle to compare with modern cars? Well, it takes special tools and ability. As you can see on the picture to the left, there is a shiny strip on the edge of the door. Basically Jim has added material to the edge to extend the door skin and thus achieve a high level of consistent “gap”. This has all been carefully filed and will require a small amount of filler (if any) to get perfectly straight.

The next picture shows some more tricks!

The original Cameo door had a squared-off edge on the panel below the windshield. As you can see here, similar to a plastic surgeon Jim has re-shaped the door’s edge to create a curved shape that matches the curvature of the rest of the door along the roofline. This yields are much more elegant fit and will only noticeable by someone very familiar with the door shape of a Cameo. Not only was the door shaped this way, but the body had to be altered to match the new curvature.

All in all, the final result is very nice indeed and gives the door a very finished look.

Lets talk about that special plastic-fantastic bed, shall we?

This picture shows what the outside skin of the bed looks like. Yes, that is mid 50’s vintage fiberglass – just like the one used in Vettes of the day. There is a steel liner where the fiberglass side pieces bolt on to. There is some damage that will need to be repaired but overall it makes for a very special and unusual looking truck bed. If you look closely on this picture you can see a custom tubbing of the rear wheels. You guessed it – Jim made that from scratch!

By using the Pullmax machine, Jim was able to create these special tubs. They fit the curvature of the bed opening perfectly and give a very professional, almost “factory” appearance. They have been welded in place against the inner bed wall and should compliment the look of the bed once the wood floor is fabricated.

Here is another point of view of the rear wheel tub. The curvature is almost perfect and you can hardly see where the different parts were welded and blended together.

The final photo below shows the nose of Barry’s Cameo. You can see the special A/C condenser mounted behind the chrome grille and ahead of the radiator. Jim mentioned the grille fit like a glove but some adjustments had to be made in order to center it and make it look perfect. Below the grille will be either a roll-pan or chrome bumper. Barry and Jim are still working on those details.

These pictures show a huge amount of work both from Barry and Jim on making this a reality. As I mentioned previously, the Cameo is alive and well. When the LSx was first fired up, it barked a little but with some very basic tuning from yours truly the engine came to life. Barry is currently doing the necessary paperwork to have the truck street-legal and the plan is to get the wiring done so the truck can be properly sorted out on the road.

Oh and just in case you were wondering… The Cameo is not Barry’s only vintage Chevy product. Take a look at my previous story (click HERE) to see the Cameo’s future stable mate: the blue and white Shoebox Chevy… Pretty sweet, huh? 🙂

In closing: well Barry, I know you are reading this blog so please add a reply in the feedback section and give us more details!!!!

Spanish Paella

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One of my favourite Spanish dishes is paella. This is a dish that goes back to my childhood – my grandfather taught me all about paella at an early age. When the missus and I visited Spain the last time we went to Europe, we made it a point to search for authentic paella. Fortunately we did indeed find the real deal and I took plenty of notes and even bought a couple of books.

The above picture shows the fully assembled paella in the special dish used to cook it. What is in paella? Basically it is a rice dish that includes quite a number of tasty items. Today’s version is a modified ‘a la Valenciana‘ – including chicken, Spanish chorizo and shrimp. Not any rice will do though: it requires arroz bomba – a spanish rice with a special shape that lends itself to being cooked this way. A sofrito of bell peppers, onion and garlic is the base and that along with plenty of saffron, alcaparras (capers) and aceitunas ( olives) makes for a very tasty dish. I cook my paella in a gas grille with the pan on top of the ceramic briquttes – this gives a very even cooking temperature.

What does this all look like when done? Take a look at the following picture – all the stock has been consumed by the rice and the dish is ready to eat. The trick to good paella is to cook it for the exact amount of time in order for the rice at the bottom of the pan to cook to a very nice crunchy crust (referred to as socorrat). It is hard to do: not enough time, and it won’t get crunchy and if you cook it too long it will burn. If you get it “just right” though, it is fantastic. Serve this great dish with a good Rioja or sangria and some good bread to close friends or family and you have a great dinner!

General Electric Wind Turbines

The Blade

The blade is one of three. The thing airfoil design is a thing of beauty. The shape is extremely unusual in the “twist”, curvature and overall design. I have if from a reliable source these blades are sculptured to the “n’th degree” in order to obtain the most efficient use of wind across their surface. I am no aerodynamicist but just looking at this thing amazed the hell out of me. The blade was wrapped in some sort of shrink wrap and when I tapped it, it sounded hollow and made of some high tech composite. Can you say “big bucks”?

On the photos below you will see different angles of the blade as it was mounted on the transporter. Interesting thing to note are all the studs sticking out of the root of the blade. These things are all stainless and again, this ain’t cheap stuff! Very impressive.

The Rig

The trailer this blade was mounted on is equally impressive. The cradle was fully adjustable and from the markings on the pad it must have been mounted at some critical, weight-bearing spot on the blade.

The trailer was also a thing of beauty. Fully adjustable and if you look closely, the rear bogies are steerable. Not an ordinary trailer!

If you have any more insight on this and/or the blades – drop me a line. I sure would like to know more about them… Enjoy 🙂

Triumph Spitfire Engine Rebuild in Time Lapse Photography

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I am not a fan of “original” Triumph engines. Matter of fact, they are nothing but glorified tractor engines. In the case of the Spitfire, they are pump engines. However, there are many folks out there that spend generous amounts of cash rebuilding them – I guess to each their own! For those of you :shock:, I thought this might be an interesting video.

Here is a time-lapse photography of a Triumph Spitfire engine rebuild.

And yes… Before bowtie6 there was a Spitfire. I actually owned a 1978 Spitfire with the optional factory hard top. This thing was so much fun to drive but it only had a 1500cc engine and the dreadful 4 speed gearbox; no overdrive. At highway speeds this thing sounded as if it were about to self destruct and blow up right there on the spot. This was the primary reason I sold it.

At the time I took this picture, the engine been extensively modified. The Zenith-Stromberg carburetter had a highly modified needle sourced from the UK, the intake had been seriously ported as well as the head. It also had a four-into-one header. The lightweight Panasport wheels were shod with Yokohama A008’s and boy did these things stick. However they were pretty much slicks.

My cousin Jim also modified the rear suspension quite a bit. These cars had a tendency to show some weird handling at the limit: the leif-spring IRS would have the inside tire tuck in during hard cornering and this would cause some “surprises”. To prevent this, Jim made a special control arm that prevented the dreaded behavior from happening.

In retrospect, I wish I still had this little blue car. It would have a 2.2 liter version of the Ecotec in it and a custom-made frame with coilovers and a better rear suspension. Imagine that! With a real engine under the bonnet and a properly sorted out drive train, this thing would be a missile! 🙂

Fuel Regulator Fittings

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The Ecotec engine uses a similar fuel delivery system as fitted in the LSx engines in that the fuel rail is “returnless”. This means there is only one line feeding the fuel rail on the engine. In order to make this work, a special fuel regulator with built in filter has to be plumbed not far from the fuel pump. There are several fuel regulator fittings available and in today’s installment I’ll document my experiences.

In an earlier post, I wrote about bowtie6‘s Ecotec fuel system (click here) where I described the separate staging tank holding the fuel pump. About two weeks ago, I noticed the insulation post around the fuel pump’s B+ terminal my cousin Jim had fabricated had deteriorated due to coming in contact with fuel from the tank. In order to solve this problem, I had to take the small tank out which required disconnecting the fuel regulator fittings. After putting all the bits back together I found the fuel regulator fittings were not exactly “clicking” correctly. They held in place but I was not pleased with the fitment so I safety wired them in place as shown in the following picture:

We can all agree this is not exactly the most elegant way to do things. So why the safety wire? Well, turns out on the little plastic tabs that “click” the blue fitting in place are not exactly the best design in the world. Sure, car manufacturers use them all the time and they work flawlessly. However these are aftermarket units made by Russell (a division of Edelbrock) and they are not exactly OEM quality. I found out this by experience and by reading the latest issue of Car & Craft’s engine swaps magazine. So where is the problem?

The following photo shows one of the two pump-side lines going into the regulator. I’ve removed the fitting so you can see the small ring around the metal tube (more on that later)…

The next photo shows the fitting and the small plastic clip that holds all this together:

The small white plastic clip is very cleverly made. There are two sets of barbs on it. The inner pair locks in place around the ring on the metal tube from the picture above this one. That keeps the plastic piece from sliding out. Then the barbs also lock in place on a shoulder inside the fitting. However in order to make this work, the plastic spring loaded affair must be crisp and not in the least deformed. Taking this apart deforms the plastic clip and this prevents a positive lock.

The last two pictures show the white plastic affair locked in place. As mentioned previously, this assembly is then pushed on the tube in the regulator and if all goes well the two barbs on the plastic clip snap on the ring molded on the tube. All this looks good on paper, but I noticed the plastic “clip” had lost some of its “spring” and this all did not really lock in place so well. The kicker is that these fuel lines are holding 50+ psi pump pressure and if they decide to part ways, well… you end up having a real bad day.

Remember that magazine I mentioned above? There was a very good article in that issue about fuel systems and they cautioned on using these fittings. And, they also suggested an alternative. Unfortunately, the alternative is also made by Russell.

I did call the Russell tech line and talked to a rather abrasive dude on the phone about my experiences. Right of the bat, he was not very interested in my findings nor on making things right. Basically he told me to buy the new fittings and took no ownership to the fact this was a bit on the “unsafe” side. I even told him about the article in the magazine, but he dismissed that too. At any rate why argue with someone unwilling to stand by their product so I ordered new fittings. While not exactly “cheap” (they are about $16 each) quite frankly I rather spend the money and have the peace of mind this is not going to come apart and sling fuel all over the place.

The solution is to use these fittings:

These fittings have a much safer design. Instead of the spring-loaded plastic affair, they have a threaded cap that holds the fitting in place. The threaded cap has a “U” shape that slides over the tube on the regulator and when tightened grips the ring (look at the very first picture on this post) keeping everything securely in place. With this together, there is no slippage and no danger of this ever coming apart.

This is what it looks like all completed:

As you can see, these fuel regulator fittings are much nicer and better designed. If you are considering this for an engine swap, don’t waste your money on the fittings with the plastic spring-loaded clip. Get the ones with the threaded cap. You will be much happier and most important of all, safer.

the bowtie6 blog

For this Triumph TR6, the road goes on forever and the party never ends…