67Camaro ... body restoration

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



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 7:12 am
hey mate, keep at it, aslong as you get there in the end with out the car rusting away youll be fine
ive just sold my "dream" car as i didnt have the money, time, tools or knowledge to restore it properly, it was a 69 mazda r100, it sat around while i gathered up parts, bought and sold cars to make some cash to buy tools i needed to do the job, fiddled around with other projects to get my skillset up to a point where i would have been able to restore the car, only to find there was nothing left of it, it has rusted so bad i had no hope in restoring it, so now its some1 elses "huge" project!!
so just keep plodding away champ, keep the metal covered up with epoxy and out of the weather!
krem



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 9:03 am
Thanks krem.

Fortunately the car is garaged and I live in one of the driest places (Mohave Desert) on Earth, so new rust is not going to be a big battle as I work through this.

The car has no notable value aside from being a first year Camaro, it's not an SS or RS, convertible or any variant of COPO ... It's just a car and is being done as a driver vehicle.

It came out of Michigan and has endured some rust issues in it's life (as can be seen on the roof patch) PICs and the rear quarter repair panels. I'm an *old fart* and there are some things that are just not going to happen.

I won't be removing the roof to venture into whatever is under there. I won't be stripping the rear quarters to bare metal just to learn more about how that repair was done or to re-do it. The quarters are solid, no cracking or bubbling and the sides are straight (to the best standards I can tell) and have been complete for at least 25 years. They should last for the time I will need the car.

The stuff I can reasonable get to I want to do as good as I can. Currently that means the trunk floor finish and tail panel install. I have already welded in new steel in places around the rear window recess to stop the water leaking that caused the trunk floor problems. I have similar issues up at the D/S top corner of the windshield to repair as well ... that will be the next. project once the stuff in the rear is completed.

Thanks again ... I know all about the idea of *sticking with it* I just finished six and a half years of Home Remodel and am very happy to be back on the car projects. I have a 73 Mustang a 54 F100 and a 76 F100 short bed 4X4 to work through as well. :rolleyes:



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:08 pm
The tail panel is in.

Image


For my first time at something like this, I think it turned out quite well.

Now to finish off the interior of the trunk compartment.



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PostPosted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:33 pm
I'm getting ready to spray some paint, in fact I sprayed some black on the tail panel tonight.

I'll be going about this is an unorthodox manner ... I expect to hear some criticism about that, but this is my learning process, my shot at *figuring it out*.

I need the car to be drivable while I work through the project and I don't know how long any aspect will take me to work through. I know I don't want to be driving it around for months, even years, with raw primer exposed so I intend to shoot a coat (or a shell of protective) paint on sections as I go along.

I have never painted a car before. I have painted pieces and even panels here and there but usually with a more experienced person helping me, I'd have to even say carrying much of the load for me. The point being, I am not going to be able to count on myself to paint this car to anywhere near professional quality on this run through it. With that recognition of my skill level I won't be using a costly high dollar paint system. I plan to spray this protective shell with simple solid color Nason Acrylic Enamel.

I figure this will give me protection for the portions of the car I have completed my body work on and allow me many opportunities to practice and learn how to apply paint. The main positive aspect of this is that as I learn and make mistakes then find myself sanding stuff off I'll know that I am dealing with just a few hundred dollars worth of paint as opposed to a few thousand dollars worth of paint.

If I get through the entire car and it looks decent, that will be great. What I expect though is to get through it and have a car that might need nothing more than a good scuff run and minimal prep in order to spray a nicer complete paint job on.

If I'm able to learn the necessary skills along the way through it the first time I might be able to apply that complete nice paint job myself.

I'll post PICs here as I go and I'll be posting specific paint questions in the *Paint* forum.



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:44 pm
I guess I could update this thread a bit. these PICs are actually a bit old at this point, but I have eliminated almost all of the red

Image
DSC_1326 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

Image
DSC_1327 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

Image
DSC_1377 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

As noted, I painted the entire unibody of the car first and now have most of the front off the car for paint. Some of you may have seen some of my technical question posts in other threads on the forum here.

I have to say there is quite a bit more than just a "body restoration" going on, but that's another forum :wink:

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 11:10 pm
Looking good. I like how you painted it from plain Jane to SS. :wink:
1968 Coronet R/T


ACTS 16:31



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:37 am
'68 Coronet R/T wrote:Looking good. I like how you painted it from plain Jane to SS. :wink:


Thank You.

Lost back in my posts someplace (probably) is the story that when I was a teenager I had an authentic Camaro SS 350. When we bought this Camaro I pretty quickly started transitioning it to be somewhat of a clone or representation of that old Camaro from my high school days.

It is at a point now where just casually looking at the exterior or even the interior for that matter it's pretty had to tell that it's not an SS 350.

All I have left to remove and sandblast is the D/S fender assembly. The rest of the front is blasted and in process.

I have the hinges in for refurbishment, so I need to get the front in paint so I can assemble the car quickly when the hinges get back to me. :knockout:
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