324 replies to this topic

[Potta]

I would have thought you moved it so you don't get the Camaro and Firebird bits mixed up!!

How similar are they? The body shell looks almost identical in the pics....

[dirtbag]

Yes, they are similar. The 68 camaro shares a lot more body panels to the 68 firebird than the 69 though. All the side panels except the sills are different, but the roof and bootlid are the same from 67 - 69.

[dattoman]

Less yappin
More cutting and welding

[dirtbag]

Well, no cutting or welding yet, but I'm not far off that now.

Today I got some more of the annoying things done before the fun can start.

Firstly I have to thank whoever invented wheel dollies. I bought some a few years ago for my wifes 68 and they were the best money spent on that car. So easy to move the car around now.

I took the dollies that I bought for the hatch and put them under the camaro, so it can be easily shifted around the shed. I also gave the shed a good sweep out as it was covered in chunks of mud from the tractor that I kicked out : )





I then cleaned everything out of the car so I could get a better look and so I could cover it all in acid.







Then I was able to cover the whole thing in acid. The outside was already done the other day, but I coated it all again anyway.





This time though I did the inside. The WHOLE inside. Not fun. This stuff stinks, and luckily for me I wasn't smart enough to bring my painting respirator to this shed today, so got totally hammered on acid. That sounds bad : )







I also coated the few other panels that were in bare metal.




This part of the radiator support is supposed to be where it mounts to the chassis. Pesky rust : )





This inner wheel well is in pretty good nick except for a bit of rust at the front. Not too hard to fix.





Once all the rust converter was applied, it was time to hang some panels. The bottom corner of each door has some rust in the frame. This wont stop me from doing the initial fit up though, so it can stay there for now.





It took a while to find a happy medium with the door, but it's not too bad now. It's level along the sills, but the rear edge is a bit iffy. I can solve most of the problems though by welding the new rear guards on in the right spot, so the door isn't tucked in at the bottom and sticking out at the top. Plus the gap is too inconsistent.





See how the lower part of the door sits in too far? I can adjust most of this by twisting the door and tapping the edge out a bit where it's bent in. I tried adjusting it with the hinges, but then it makes the front of the door stick out past the sill. All of this stuff is fairly straight forward as long as it's done at this stage. You don't want to go twisting a door after it's got filler or paint on it.



The top sticks out a little bit, but not as much as the lower section sits in.





This is how the door gap looked after I lined the door up with the sill. The door and the front edge of the sill should be in perfect line, so when the front guard is bolted on the gap is even all the way down.





I could slide the door forward on the hinges, but then the front guard gap would be uneven. Seeing as the rear guards are getting replaced anyway, I can adjust it then.

Here's the other side after a fair bit of fiddling around.

This side isn't as bad as the other, with just the top part of the door a little too far in. Again, an easy fix at this stage.





It looks like it just needs the door striker brought out a couple of mm, but the bottom of the door is perfectly in line with the top of the sill, so I'm going to leave that part alone and bring the top of the door out instead.





I had some fun with the front guards too. Here's the left one.





Once I was happy enough with all that I thought I'd see how the new bootlid fitted. It was pretty good actually, just needing some opening of the gaps to be done later.





This gap will need to be opened up just a couple of mm to make the other gaps on the car the same.





It's lined up pretty well along the back too.





And this is how I left it today.





I know it doesn't look like much, and that we all want to see the cutting and welding, but if this part isn't right, then nothing will be. I think it's probably the most important step to take when undergoing a project like this, especially if the car was in pieces when you got it, like this one was.

Next step is to give it all a quick sand with some 120 dry and etch prime the whole thing. Then the cutting and welding can start : ) YAY!!!!!

[dirtbag]

you are converting it to RHD yeah ?

Not that I'm aware of, no.

[dirtbag]

Well I can't sleep so I decided to post some pics here instead.

I spent a bit more time getting things lined up before I take it apart again to prime. I just want to make sure everything is going to line up right.





After taking it apart I gave the rust converter a sand with some 120 grit dry sandpaper. This is to remove and loose muck that the converter draws out.





Then I coated the whole lot with 2pac etch primer, inside and out. Fun fun.





I know it seems silly to paint the whole thing when so much of it will be getting cut off, but it's easier to just neutralise the whole car and have it all sealed rather then having to deal with lots of rusty dirty panels. It's also a lot easier to see where you've marked to cut when everything is the same colour.















I also etched up the front cowl panel, RH inner front guard and the radiator support panel.




With all the prep work done now it's time to start cutting and welding : ) Yeeehaaaaa!!!!!



I also made up the start of a shaping stand. It's just a heavy duty frame that I'll weld a heap of different shaped dollies and shaped metal onto that I can use to hammer sheetmetal into certain shapes.

I made the frame from leftover bits and pieces my father in law had. Thick wall 3 inch box for the legs, 10mm thick U channel for the top, and a piece of railway track mounted on one side, as it has a few different radius edges on it. I have a few other bits that will get welded to the top at a later date, but it's a good start.







I even gave it a quick squirt with some etch too, even though I'll have to grind some of it off to weld the top bits on later.





I know it seems like a weird thing to post pics of, but I am weird : ) Plus, a tool like this to me is worth it's weight in gold when working on a car such as this that will require so much metal fabrication. Putting panel beating dollies in the vice or an anvil is another way of achieving a similar result, but this is something I've wanted to make for a while, so if you have some scrap metal lying around, build one, you'll be surprised what you can make with it.

[dirtbag]

No worries Matt, it sure will be a useful little jigger that's for sure.


Well today I started cutting the poor old thing apart.




At least all the repairs I found inside were absolutely crap. It would have been a shame for part of it to not need cutting off : )

Rivets. If only I'd thought of that. I could have saved myself a fortune instead of buying a decent welder.





The rear quarter where it was meant to be welded to the inner tub was held on with silastic instead. Nice : ) Note how the entire lip on the inner tub has rusted off. This will have to be remade obviously.





Here's the underneath of the bodgy repair on the top of the rear quarter. More rivets : )





After I cut the rivets and took the repair section off the rear of the tub I found the outer lip was entirely made of fibreglass bog. It's just so yummy hahaha : )





Next adventure was the left hand outer sill. Once I cracked it open I noticed there was a little piece of dirt in there : )





Still digging bits out.





Here's the pile of crap that was inside the sill. That's a 5 inch grinder there to give some perspective.





There's some rust on the inner sill too.





Here's the whole lot covered in rust converter.





Next to get some chopping was the floor.





It's looking a bit sad at the moment, but they always do look bad before they can look good again.





Well that was all I got done today, as my tool supply in this shed was a bit low. I've grabbed a stack more cutting discs and some sheetmetal so hopefully I'll be able to weld something on soon rather than just cutting bits off.

[wot179]

What is it with Yanks and shithouse bodywork and shonky repairs?

It dead set seems to be the norm rather than the exception.

Stuff you would see in paddock cars they seem to think is acceptable...

I must put up some pics of some of the "repairs" that were inflicted upon my Chev pickup before it landed on our

shores....including a steering shaft cut with a hacksaw and rejoined by sliding a piece of gal pipe over the cut and

drilling 2 3/8 holes through either side before sticking a couple of 5/16 mild steel bunnings bolts through the lot to
hold it all together...(shivers)...

Nice work by the way...you should grow some tomatos in that sill dirt.

Edited by wot179, 30 June 2010 - 09:01 PM.

[Heath]

Ahhh you found that car that I fixed up a few months ago, what a co-incidence!

lol, looks more like weight reduction that rust repairs

[dirtbag]

Well I didn't get a lot done today on the camaro but I did a little bit more digging around.

After getting the rear part of the floor pan unpicked from the main support underneath I noticed some gunk around one of the bolts that holds the front leaf spring mount in. After scraping at it a bit I realised it was more fibreglass bog. Just what you want holding the leaf spring mount in.





After I removed the bolt and cleaned the area up a bit I found a rust hole. It's minor, but is in a structural piece, so will need to fix this before the new floor goes back in.





I also finally got the part of the floor out where the seat mount goes. This area is a real pain. Note the floor jack under the chassis. The seat mount is where the rear chassis bolts go, so once this part is cut out there's nothing holding the chassis.





One exciting thing that happened today though was the arrival of my new panbrake - in case you don't know it's for folding sheetmetal.





It's a big bugger of a thing. It got 2500mm wide jaws, so I can fit a full sheet - 2400x1200 in it. It will fold (in full sheet size) up to 2mm steel and 4mm alloy. Yay!!!!!!





Not only does this machine have the adjustable fingers in the top jaw, like most of these things do, but this one has removeable fingers in the bottom plate too, so there's not a lot this thing wont fold. I'm excited!!!!





I love new toys!!!!!!!

[wot179]

mmmmmmmmmm......removable bottom jaws...

Looks like a nice unit.Just what I need in the shed..

[dirtbag]

i was gunna comment on the work ahead of ya. but then i saw your panbrake and thought sweet ill come up with a carton so you can stick a couple of 90s into one flat sheet for me............toys like that ya going to have a lot of new friends.

Cool. Seeing as I'm a Dirtbag AND an asshole, I need as many friends as I can get hahahaha : )

[Heath]

That thing looks a lot more heavy duty than anything that I would expect anyone in a home garage would ever need. I'm impressed!

[dirtbag]

Wow! Your own panbrake! Expensive bit of gear. Now you won't have any hassles when you're building me a droptank! Thanks Tim you're so very thoughtful

Sounds like fun. If only I had an AC/DC TIG I could weld it up for you too. So many tools to buy, so few dollars : (


Studricho, yes I do stop : ) hahaha

If I wasn't so lazy I'd have this thing finished by now

[dirtbag]

i dont know were he finds the time ??? give me a clue Tim so that i can get my LX finished

hahaha. It's called having no friends : )