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Jun 14, 2024

2023 Monte Carlo ZL1?? Wild Mashup Build Found on HOT ROD Power Tour!

Related Video Hot-rodders aren't bound by phrases like "You can't do that" or "That doesn't seem possible." They are creative in how they get from the wants of point A to the results of point B, and

Related Video

Hot-rodders aren't bound by phrases like "You can't do that" or "That doesn't seem possible." They are creative in how they get from the wants of point A to the results of point B, and this creativity leads to some very cool builds. Maybe you really dig the supercar-like performance of a 2023 ZL1 Camaro, but you want that in the style of something retro like an '80s Monte Carlo. Well, many gearheads would opt to do an LT swap and call it a day. But there's a lot more to a modern muscle car like the ZL1 Camaro than just its supercharged LT4 drivetrain and 10-speed automatic transmission—a lot more. If you have a whole salvaged ZL1 Camaro to pillage you might start thinking that it's a shame to yank the drivetrain and throw away all that ZL1 technological goodness. This is when good ideas turn into great ideas, if you're willing to take a chance and roll those automotive dice.

Anthony Robertson owns West Side Custom and Collision and came across a wrecked 2023 ZL1 Camaro for a smokin' deal. He thought this would be a great drivetrain donor for a 1984 Monte Carlo SS project he was working on with his son Dylan.

Related: Everything You Need to KnowAbout the ZL1 Camaro

The more Anthony stared at the salvaged Camaro, the more he hated to throw so much of it away after the swap.

His 1984 Monte Carlo wasn't just any 39-year-old car either. As Dylan told HOT ROD, "Dad bought the Monte Carlo when he was in 10th grade, in 1987. It was his first car as well as the car he took on his honeymoon, but it had been sitting for the last 20-plus years." They wanted to build it out for the 2023 HOT ROD Power Tour, but the more the pair thought about it the more they wanted to do something completely different.

The other problem with swapping the 2023 ZL1 drivetrain into the '84 was that, at the time, nobody made a wiring harness for a 2023 model, and they kept running into roadblocks such as the brakes, rearend, suspension, power steering, and so on. "At some point we decided the quickest way to make this work would be to combine the two cars and leave everything mechanically and electronically intact on the 2023 ZL1 Camaro. We started the project on February 16th of 2023 and the HRPT's first day in Atlanta was June 12th, so that only gave us four months to make it happen," recalled Dylan.

The idea was to slip the skin of the Monte Carlo over as much of the Camaro's chassis as possible. Of course, the modern 2023 Camaro had almost nothing structurally in common with the vintage 1984 Chevy. Once the guts of the Monte Carlo were removed, the team, assisted by lead mechanic and fabricator Chris Camp, braced what was left of the G-body so it wouldn't twist into a pretzel during the body swap. And, if you're curious, the car is titled as a 1984 Monte Carlo. Now this is a hybrid we can firmly get behind!

To get the vintage body on the modern chassis the team had to lower the body in place, make a change, then repeat the process over and over. The best tool for getting this done turned out to be a backhoe. Go figure.

As changes were made, the Monte Carlo's body fit better and better onto the Camaro's chassis. And it looks like a lot of work because it was—but nobody ever said hot-rodding was easy.

The whole project is the automotive poster child for "Don't judge a book by its cover," since when it's done the goal is for it to look like a 1984 Monte Carlo SS but have every performance and technology aspect of the modern Camaro.

After more than a few stabs, the Monte Carlo's body was grafted to the Camaro chassis. Power Tour was just a few months away and the build team still had a ton of work left to do if they were going to long-haul the event! Also, since they retained the factory Monte Carlo glass and roof, the car doesn't have that funky look often seen when people try to make new cars look vintage.

As luck would have it, the wheelbase of the two cars was nearly spot-on, which meant the wheel openings of the Month Carlo lined up, at least closely enough, with the massive 20-inch wheels of the ZL1 Camaro. The team was then able to fabricate the necessary brackets to attach the fenders to the 2023 chassis.

The front of the Camaro required quite a bit of work to accommodate the nose structure of the Monte Carlo. Some creative trimming and a few fabricated brackets allowed the team to graft the nose support from the Monte Carlo to the Camaro.

For added chassis rigidity, Camp fabricated a strut brace that would clear the LT4's supercharger and make up for some of the Camaro's removed materials.

Turns out the hardest part of the swap was the doors, which are 2023 Camaro doors wearing the 1984 Monte Carlo's skins. Remember, their goal was for every aspect of the ZL1 Camaro to be present on the final product, including items such as the side curtain airbags.

Lots of welding, trimming, cutting, and fabrication had to happen before the Monte Camaro doors would close properly and look right from the inside.

At this point, the 1984 Monte Carlo SS was looking like, well, a 1984 Monte Carlo SS. Look closely and you can spy that the slightly longer wheelbase of the Camaro was pushing the front tire a bit forward in the fender opening. The other issue was that the Monte Carlo was narrower than the Camaro, and the newer car's massive factory rollers were sticking out past the fender lips.

The way to solve both of those problems turned out to be fender flares. With careful fabrication the front wheel arch could be moved forward a touch and the flares could "widebody" the Monte Carlo to encapsulate the massive tires of the ZL1.

With the cardboard templates made, metal was cut, worked over, and tack-welded in place.

The exterior door handle areas of the 2023 Camaro were grafted onto the door skins from the Monte Carlo. And yes, the auto-unlock feature works when you are in proximity with the key fob.

Installing the 2023 ZL1 Camaro interior in the 1984 Chevy wasn't as bad as you might think, and only required minor trimming and massaging of the dash. All the features work—even the HUD, which they thought would require the Camaro windshield, still works with the old Chevy glass.

The power windows, power seats, electric parking brake, XM radio, blind spot detection sensors, lane assist, and all the airbags work. As far as the ECU and all the various body modules are concerned, this is a 2023 ZL1 Camaro.

One of the keys to making it all work is keeping all the various systems in the same location as they were in the Camaro. That meant the battery and all the control modules were kept in the trunk. You can also see one of the widened rear wheeltubs they did to house the massive rear ZL1 meats.

The Camaro's active exhaust was also reused but the four tips were centered at the back of the car for packaging reasons. And yes, that is the Camaro's rear backup camera poking out of the bumper, as well as the rear parking sensors.

The wiring was straightforward except for the headlights and taillights. As Dylan explained, "There are so many modules that need to be in place to make the various computers happy that the lights just fought us. We ended up removing the light modules and making a custom harness so we could use the original Monte Carlo headlights and taillights."

From across a parking lot, it looks like a 39-year-old, slightly worn-out Monte Carlo SS wearing some 20-inch Camaro wheels, but for all intents and purposes it's a 2023 ZL1 Camaro wearing a vintage G-body disguise. You could call it a wolf in sheep's clothing, or maybe a 1984 ZL1 Monte Camaro. No matter what you call it, we think it's completely badass, and yes, it did make it to the 2023 HOT ROD Power Tour (just barely done in time, but isn't that always the case?) where the father and son duo long-hauled it the whole route! The guys thought about bodyworking the Monte and repainting it, but to be honest it gets more attention with the patina and Frankenstein weld stitches. Check out the gallery for some more "done" and build images and check out the car at the 2023 Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky, if you're out that way.

Photo Contribution By Dylan Robertson