MadMike's 1980 Z28

The Maciolek Family's 1980 Z28
The Original "Nasty Z28"

View as of February 2003

Jump to: Drivetrain specs | Exterior Info | Interior Info | Misc Photos

I've owned this car since March 1985. I traded my 1st car, a 1977 6 cylinder Camaro, along with a big pile of cash for it. It's gone from the 195hp LM1 limp diq hack job owned by an 18 year old to a mildly modified 350, then a wild 355 screamer, to a stout 454. Now, it's back to a small block again. A ZZ4 with fastburn heads on it. The 385hp deal. I get my handling back and probably as much power as my old big block could make too.

In the early 90's I used the car occasionally in street machine mode. It was pretty brutal and I would occasionally push my luck. I knew it was best to excersize this thing in the proper setting. In 1995 I brought the car to Atlanta Dragway and ran a couple low 14 second passes at roughly 103 miles per hour. My 60 foot time was terrible. I knew how to fix the problem (slicks, frame reinforcement) but as the cure was being applied, other problems cropped up which needed to be addressed. I expanded the scope of the project, then changed my mind about 5 times and reassessed my situation.

The fact that I've owned this car since 1985, it is currently "nice", both interior and exterior, and the fact that it has T-tops - is why I decided to not go nuts and drag race this car hard. I didn't want to do anything irreversible (wheel tubs, roll cage) and still wind up blowing the roof off my car. It took me a while of screwing around before I figured out what I needed to do, you can read all about that escapade in the Background & Restoration Story. Try not to laugh your ass off.

Now, hopefully as a more "worldly" 36 year old father of 3, I can enjoy this car in "street machine mode" without talking to the sheriff every time I go out. This also means I'll hopefully never tear the whole car apart to "rebuild it" and not be able to use it for 7 years. One little thing at a time.

Primary Options when Original - Click here to view build sheet.
AU3 - Power Door Locks, A31 - Power Windows, C49 - Rear Window Defog, CD4 - Pulse wipers, D35 - Dual Mirrors, D55 - Console, D80 - Front & rear spoilers, CC1 - Removable glass tops, N33 - tilt steering, TR9 - Lamp Group.
GU6 - 3.42 axle, G80 - Positraction, LM1 - 350 4BBL (190hp), M40 - Automatic Transmission
Z28 - Special Performance Package, Z49 - Canadian Equipment, N41 - Power Steering, J50 - Power Brakes, U14 - Instrumentation, F41 - Special Suspension.

My car was pretty fancy, close to being loaded, except it didn't have Air Conditioning (didn't want it anyway), nor does it have the custom interior.

Note: My car is originally from Canada (eh?), so it's a Z49 "Canadian Equipment" car. One of the nifty things on this is my speedometer is in Kilometers/per hour. So, while the 1980 speedometer goes up to 85 MPH, my speedo reads to 140 (K/ph). Lest you think I'm stupid, 140kph IS 85MPH... but if you recalibrate your speedo gear it'll read up to 140 in MPH.
Small hint car was from Canada, besides the "Z49 Canadian Equipment" on the build sheet and the 1980 Owners Manual en francais.

My 1980 Z28 Drivetrain Specifications:
This engine was "special delivered". It had failed on someone else and was given up for dead. It was up to me to determine why it failed, and hopefully fix it. I determined it had blown a head gasket, at least. I tore the engine down and inspected as much as I could. I solved the head-gasket problem by selling the ZZ4 heads and bolting on a set of fast-burn heads.

Engine: GM "Fastburn" 385. My "Pacemaker" project, a Stock ZZ4 bottom end with "fast burn" aluminum heads. GM 1.6 Aluminum Roller Rockers.

Induction - Edelbrock Super Victor Vortec Intake | Hood (lack of) Clearance
Fuel System - Holley 650 DP carb | Holley Blue Electric fuel pump.
Ignition - Mallory Hy-Fire IV ignition w/modified HEI Distributor. | Trunk Mounted Battery
Exhaust - Hedman D-Port headers. | Full dual 2.25" cheapie exhaust
Front End Pulleys - Power Steering Pump | Front Pulleys

Final underhood view of Engine Bay.
Getting this thing set up is a major PITA. It sounded great uncorked! But once I put the mufflers on it I can hear the valve train clattering. I need to set the valves, then reset the timing & fuel system so it runs nice. Right now it runs extremely rich. Hopefully there is no un-noticed engine damage (cam problems, etc...) Also, getting my hood to close was not fun. The hood scoop stud hit the drop base air cleaner lid. All other air cleaner choices made the top of the air cleaner too tall. I had no choice but to resort to the little sponge thingie that hopefully won't catch on fire.

Transmission: Original TH350 freshly rebuilt. B&M Trans-Pack, Starfire cooling pan & external transmission cooler. Hurst Quarter-stick shifter. Dynamic 3500 stall torque converter. The car is also equipped for a 4 speed (dead clutch pedal). I'll probably keep the car an automatic and use the 700R4 I have eventually to kill some of my rear gear and help with cruising.

Rear End: Original 10 bolt posi with Richmond 4.10's. PST 130# rear springs. Stock Swaybar. Competition Engineering Traction Bars.
view: Rear w/gas tank out | tight fit w/stock wheel
While attempting to install the subframe connectors, my rear springs fell apart. Plus all the j-clips broke, the rear spring bolt rounded off and needed to be sawz-alled out. This explains why most everything out back has been replaced. The rear traction bars needed to be "custom fit" to fit my rear end housing and clear the wheels.

Wheels, Tires & Front Suspension: Original N90 optional aluminum wheels with 245 60x15" BFG Comp T/A's (front) and 275 60x15 (rear). Competition Engineering subframe connectors. Moog Steering components. Z28 F41 suspension - TRW 365# coil springs. Stock Swaybar (1 1/8" diameter). Energy Suspension urethane control arm, swaybar & subframe bushings. Monroe Formula GP shocks.

While installing the subframe connectors, 3 out of 6 of the caged nuts for the subframe bolts broke free from the floor, requiring me to remove my interior and cut the floor open with a can opener so I could repair the caged nuts and be able to bolt my subframe back to the body. On top of this, the connectors needed to be "custom fit" with a die-grinder so they'd fit in the car. All my brake line nuts were seized which caused the brake line to twist up and eventually crack apart when I tried to loosen the brake lines. This required me to replace all the brake lines. The whole steering system was removed, replaced with new Moog items, and detailed before being reinstalled. My original (metric) steering gear was heavily pitted and my PS hoses are now SAE, so I put a 1979 Z28 steering gear in the car. It currently leaks.

Exterior Information

Looking spiffy in the sun

My car looked nice & stock when I bought it in 1985. Oddly enough while I was sitting in the dealership giving them the check to pay for the car, the sun was hitting it just right - and I noticed some "wavyness" to the driver side. I asked the salesman if the car was ever wrecked (duh, a$$hole, you ask this stuff BEFORE buying something) - of course the salesman said "NOPE, NEVER."

The car was black with red stripes and orange emblems. Over the course of time, while everything else was falling apart on the car I noticed some cracks appearing in the door. I knew the door had bondo in it and some rust bubbles were forming in between the fender and lower extention. This in itself wasn't enough to justify redoing the body of the car but for some reason I decided to redo the car and have my car painted "differently". A friend of mine knew how to paint. I asked if he'd help me if I did the bitch work, and he agreed. So I got to work....

I knew the door was screwed up. In examining everything it became apparent my car had been in a previous altercation, I'm not sure of the extent but it wasn't really that bad. The back of the car was fine. The underside of the car was in pretty decent condition, mostly because of all the oil that had blown underneath the car preventing rust. I replaced the drivers side fender and lower extention with new GM parts and had to buy a door skin too. I stripped the decals off the car using a hairdryer and sanded down and primed some of the other problem areas.

Then my friend painted the car. It came out looking nice. Since then the car has been garaged for the most part. For the past 7 years while I've been screwing around, I've tried hard to not damage the paint, or smash stuff into the car. I tried to keep the car clean. The body is the one thing that didn't need attention while the car was being rebuilt. Oh, except the windshield had a nick in it. When I tried to remove the windshield I split the chit out of it. Fortunantly I had a spare, good windshield out back. A professional glass guy came over and swapped the windshields.

Exterior/Body Details: Black Cherry Laquer w/pearl accenting (blue, purple, red), gray emblems. Painted in 1988.
Example of Pearl Highlights. Originally black, with red/orange emblems & stripes.
Options: D80 - Front & rear spoilers, CC1 - Removable glass tops.

Bodywork & Custom Paint photos (1988):
De-stickered and removing rust | This door was loaded with bondo. I went bought a new door skin after seeing this.
Final Priming & surface prep | Getting painted | Schweeet - mammalike. Papalike too.

Interior Information

The interior plastic and vinal is all original. I replaced the carpet back in 1989. I replaced the stock shifter with various shifters over time, originally a B&M mega-shifter, and now a Hurst Quarter-stick. I had to remove the interior to get at the subframe bolts and rear suspension clips, and then fix the floor. While removing the seats, I replaced all of my seat rails which were broken. I replaced a couple visible items - the rear package tray, parking brake handle, pedal pads, console box & lid, new GM door pulls, escutions, window cranks and new GM door sills. Attention to detail you know.

Putting Interior In

Interior Details: Standard Vinal, Dark Carmine. Code 74R.
Options: AU3 - Power Door Locks, A31 - Power Windows, C49 - Rear Window Defog, CD4 - Pulse wipers, D35 - Dual Mirrors, D55 - Console, N33 - tilt steering, TR9 - Lamp Group, U14 - Special Instrumentation.

In an effort to save weight, I removed the Power windows & power locks. I won't reinstall them (cause I sold them)... while I have additional power setups hanging around, I'll put the manual stuff in. I'm not an originality nut - besides I broke and threw away the original engine back in 1987. I threw out my functional cowl induction air cleaner and my rear swaybar too.... live and learn (eventually).

Fortunantly, my seat covers are still nice. My door panels should be replaced ($$$not yet$$$) and I need to replace the rear plastic which is starting to fade and dry-rot. Oh yeah, my headliner is starting to droop a teeny bit. I'm paranoid to start removing anything until I start using the car again. Then, and only then will I gradually tackle these little tasks in some sort of logical order.

Misc Interior Photos:
Current: Checking under dash wiring, redoing heater box | Instrument cluster | Yup, interior is all pulled apart
Old: 1st time redoing the interior (1989) | Complete interior | B&M Megashifter

Screwing around under the hood: Re-torquing the heads | Another rough night
Proof that MadMike was young once. This is 1985, with air shocks & N90's. Don't laugh or I will kick your ass.

When I wasn't out wasting Grand Nationals & Scooters (jap bikes), I was wasting my tires.
Click here for a complimentary MadMike SmOkE sHoW!!!

Last updated: 2/25/2003
Re-written: 11/24/99
Author: MadMike Maciolek
Email: iracez28@alltel.net

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