67Camaro ... body restoration

Show off your work! Anything from final results to full start-to-finish project journals.



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PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:19 am
Over on my Mach1 thread I had mentioned another of my projects. If anyone has curiosity as to the status on the Camaro, here is a link to a thread I started some five years ago right here on this forum. It sure doesn't seem like that many years of life have slipped away :(

Here is a PIC of the car.
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Below is the link to the old thread. I only link it because it will give you a good idea of the status without me rehashing a lot of the same stuff. I believe I can go back and re-insert some of the missing PICs over the next day or so.

I'd appreciate any new comments going on this thread and leaving the old thread in the annals of the past for reference only.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8721

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:22 am
looks really nice...you won't be able to edit that old thread (the system has a 48 hour timer on editing).

Also that thread has some noise in it. You may want to just create a new thread showing the progress from start to finish -- that would be pretty cool.



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:42 am
Chris, I went back in and quickly realized I had no ability to edit or replace PICs.

I'll have plenty of questions regarding this one.



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 5:39 pm
I'll also be pressing along on this project a little as I work the 73 Mach1.

This Camaro project has some issue of being left be the way-side. I got started on it several years ago and then got sidetracked on a home remodel which was a pretty sad deal for the camaro :cry:

It's been kept in the garage, but has endured some issues with the swamp cooler and moisture causing some surface rust issues on a few bare metal areas. I need to rectify a few things to at least get the car into a safe *holding pattern* rather than a situation where it will continue to slowly degrade.

The drip rail and windshield recess here have been sand blasted out. I'm also stripping the under side of these drip rails because I may be changing colors on the car.
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More of the drip rail ... I still have some work to do here, but the sand blaster is cleaning things up quite well. these need to be covered in epoxy as soon as i can get them completely cleaned up.
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This is the rear window recess. I had to weld in some steel here to remove rust damage that was causing water leakage into the trunk area. I coated this bare metal in *etching primer* to protect it so there should be no issues here. I am presuming I can just scuff this etching primer and coat it with epoxy?
Image


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:15 pm
Currently working the deck lid recess.. Stripping it with wire bushes on a die grinder.

I want to get this car to a point where I can paint it any color I choose with no issues about what it once was.

I'll pull the deck lid and blast the underside (visible in this PIC) to clear it of the old red finish.

Image



So far so good. :neutral:

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:35 am
In the future I suggest you simply mix a small amount of epoxy primer and apply with a brush to protect your bare metal until you are ready to spray the entire panel/car. It actually lays down quite well when brushed on.
Some epoxy primers specifically state not to spray them over acid/etch primers.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:43 am
Thanks for the input. I'll read what my epoxy says about that.

I like the brush idea, much simpler than spraying small spots.

At the time I did the acid etch primer I had never worked with epoxy, I'm past that bit of ignorance now.



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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 7:47 pm
So, I ordered the new tail panel.

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When I was on this project back in 07, I bought a re-pro tail panel for it. When it arrived I discovered the top left corner of the thing was rolled inward ... the panel has to be flat across. It wasn't damaged in shipping it was just plain made that poorly. I knew I was doing some fabrication anyway, so I figured what the heck, I'd work with it. I cut it and tweaked it and welded on it and got the corner somewhat OK ... then I realized the tail light didn't fit flush across either :(

The Camaro project went on the back burner because of the home remodel project and it all became a none issue.

Now I'm back and I simply decided that $125.00 spent six years ago was not going to have me doing something today that I would never want to do on this car.

New panel on the way, should be a much better panel (fingers crossed) and a much better end result.



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:12 pm
I received the new tail panel :happy:

It was much better than the first panel. It had a tiny bit of shipping damage but nothing i couldn't take care of easily in about five minutes ... no bid deal.

First thing I did is fit the tail lights. On the other panel I jacked around with it getting it to fit the car only to find out later that the tail lights didn't fit flush either. I don't know if that qualifies as me getting smarter or not, but I was surely not going to have something that stupid happen again.

Anyway I have the thing pretty good on a rough fit ... It goes in the opening all around. I had to tweak the lower part of the valance to narrow it to fit in flush at the bottom. Over all I'm pretty happy with how this is going so far.

Here is the right side for the panel. Obviously, it's not heavily clamped for a perfect fit. The panel being black doesn't help the photography either.
Image


I have never tried to weld in a panel like this before, so this is going to be a Q&A all along the way. I may take that process to the Welding & Metal Work forum.

One thing I'm realizing right away is ... with the panel roughly fit and clamped to the corners of the rear quarter there is still a seperation between the new panel and the flange across where the bumper mounts. Even clamping the bottom edge of the valance does nothing to close it.

This is the flange
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It's a little hard to see the separation here, but this is the flange viewed from the inside with the tail panel in place. The separation is about 3/16" give or take a tad.
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I'm assuming I'll need to run some bolts through the bumper mounting holes and maybe even a few more to cinch this up as I make the final fit for welding.

Here's question number one ... Where does one begin in this fitting process?

Once you fit and clamp one area it will restrict movement of the panel in many ways. I'm guessing there is a method to the madness in this process. I can work off common sense and by the seat of my pants, but it doesn't mean I am coming up with the right plan.

Any guidance out there? :worthy:



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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:10 pm
I see more here than in your other thread about this. Someone filled the qrt/tulip seam and there appears to be an abundant amount of filler in the qrt. Don't weld the tailpanel on yet. Strip the whole shell for evaluation. Many people, including the vendors refer to the outer cowls(saddlebags) as tulip panels. The factory workers called the rear deck filler panel the tulip panel.
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