The Camaro Club (UK)

Lol yep! Well, the problem was that the repair before was done by placing a piece of non prepped metal behind the rotted out area and fillered over, so the new metal quickly rusted from the filler getting access to moisture. I'm sure the car weighs a bit less on that now side

Ye Nige recommended me that stuff. I've used it on parts where it's been difficult to access / for extra security on pitted areas. The key is to make sure the surface is clean and the rust isn't too heavy. If you can't get to it too easily, then some evaporating style cleaner i.e brake cleaner helps to make sure the chemical is reaching the rust. Ideally, if you can get some of their other product, deox gel (rust killer, hammerite worked for me this time as i ran out of deox) on it, that should get rid of a much as possible, then the hydrate 80 will neutralise what's left. Depends on access of course as you need to scrub away the deox gel, so maybe not possible.

Righto, back to sanding...

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Gave it a workover with the wire wheel to clean out any bit between welds that sandpaper wouldn't get to. Then 80grit on the sander, then 60 grit by hand on the bits that the grinder couldn't get to. Cleaned the metal with degreaser a few times then laid down the glass filler and sanded (something i enjoy doing apparently ). Here's the result:





Now onto the inner wheel arch lip. Need to scrape off any remaining rust gel and prep it. Then i'll check out the rear quarters where they meet the bumper, check the bumper over and do anything needed to it, then re-check front bumper, then fine sanding the remaining body. Can't wait to sand the door jambs

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Tonight i've moved onto the inner wheel arch lip. The arch lips were rolled in to accommodate larger tyres at some stage. Instead of rolling, they were hammered in, and obviously didn't go back enough, so 5 slits had been cut to help them bend back further. I've been welding up the slits as there is some strength lost and it's not a very good finish in general. Lots of welding burns on my arms and legs

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Finished work on time for the first time in a looong time, so did a bit on the car just now. Got the inner arch lip wire brushed clean, so no visible rust. Got some rust gel on there just to safe, will give it a stir later and add some more if needed. Will give it a skim of glass filler just to smooth out some of the small nuances around the welds so that when it comes to scuffing the primer, it will all be scratched to allow the paint to have some grip.

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I'll have to bring mine around to you for a few odd repairs then...

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Ye defo, drop it round for the weekend and you'll have it back in 4 years

But ye, i'm sure we can work something out for the smaller repairs, patches etc. With 2 of us on the job we can probably do a small repair a day and help on reducing how much a body shop would need to do.

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Wheel arch sorted, worked on the car 6pm - 2am on Friday. Saturday was knackered, did a few things around the house instead. Got onto doing a job today that was always there but tried to ignore it... when i had welded up the antenna hole on the quarter panel it had warped a bit from the welding but i didn't notice until it was painted. Have gone back to it today, needed to do a bit of metal bumping which mostly got it there, which also lead to some cracks where some of the welds were. So had to weld those, and blow out some thinned metal, then weld those bits, grind, metal work it a bit again, coarse sand, clean, glass fill incase of any pinholes, sand, add skim layer of regular filler, ran out of time to sand that down. So that's the next job for the week, sand down that filler. Found a couple of dimples on identical sides of the rear quarter (right where the bumper is). Only shallow and i guess because they are identical, part of the stamping process? Either way, while we're there, will take care of that with a skim of filler. Then need to touch up a couple of parts of the bumper.

Also noticed that one of the tensioner rods was pushing up on the filler sail panel. The tensioner rod has seemingly lost it's shape, tried to get it back but it still bowed out too much so i've removed that , leaving the other one in place. I will add in a gas strut (thanks Flak Monkey for the pic from your build for that!). Need to make up a couple of brackets for it. The tensioner rods were just about holding the boot up, just a touch and it would close, so kind of had it planned to have something done about it... better now than later.

So, now the rear bumper is off and the boot lid is off. I have a longer list of things to do than before, so i'm not sure how that works. I seem to be doing this the wrong way, shouldn't panels be getting fixed to the car instead of taken off??

Fingers crossed that i can complete the back half of the car by the end of next weekend. I'm thinking that we are overdue some snow and freezing temperatures, so i imagine these will set in at the end of the month, so i will be happy to get this closed off by then and then the fine sanding chapter can begin once the weather recovers.

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Hiya Ray, we haven't met, im Paul and ive just joined the forum. Im dipping my toes in taking in all this amazing knowledge you guys have, which brings me to your 4year monster project, i truly envy your dedication to take on something like this. for the past 2 hours ( with breaks) ive read and viewed the whole progress... stress, anger, frustration, and laughter. you are so close to the finish line ray. hopefully you can relax and enjoy your work at some shows this year.
I think i speak for everyone here that you are now an Official Jedi Master
and i very much look forward to seeing the finished project.

take care of that back

Paul

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Reality is a lovely place but I don't wanna live there

Hi Paul, sorry - i thought i had replied

Thank you for the kind and encouraging words! It has been a journey indeed, probably best described as an arrow straight desert road, that suddenly goes over a bump and turns into a crazy Alps style road, which is where we are lost at now. Sorry for making you read through all of the history lol, if i had half of the skills of the guys on this forum it would already be on the road and far less stupid mistakes made. I've had a lot of great help and advice from the forum, without which i wouldn't be at this stage (hold on - is that a good or bad thing lol - good thing for sure). The best takeaway from this project is definitely "how to not do a project" lol.

Things have been a bit quiet recently as shortly after that last updated, i was told our team was being moved overseas (read as cheaper labour, so we won't be asking you to move overseas). So didn't get to spend much time at all on the car until i had something in the pipeline to keep me busy during the 9-5 weekday hours. Very gladly that was recently resolved so i've been able to put hours into the car, guilt free. Sorted the gas strut and the trunk / boot opens and closes nicely. That was a fun installation, getting it so that it closed fully without bottoming out the strut. Also made the mistake of buying an strut that was way too heavy duty. The rear spoiler on the pass side is out of alignment, by about an inch, so it's noticable. The trunk lid spoiler sticks out further toward the back of the car than the corner spoiler. Looks like it was installed in haste, so not sure if i should just live with it or try and do something about it. Looked back at some older pics of it and it was like that on the day i brought the car home. Seeing as it takes me 4 months to do a 1 day job, leaning toward the 'live with it' option.

On a better note, the front and rear bumper are sanded in 120, as are the fenders and the hood. I will sand them to 180 over the weekend, then primer that lot as one batch. Then whilst they are left drying, i'll spend the time prepping the shell, doors and trunk. Primer that 2nd batch of panels, then whilst they are drying out, fine sand the 1st batch to 800, for colour. I will post pics too, there's a reason i've held off, which will become apparent when the pics are up (also explains some of the gaps in updates).

Cheers for now,

Ray

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saw this and thought it was accurate:

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