Well not much of an update on the old Red Devil as my attention was diverted towards a couple of Mopars during last summer when I bought a 1970 Dodge Challenger and then a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner which we had some fun driving around while the sun shone (remember what 'Sunshine' felt like??)
So here's one pic of both outside the garage last August....
The intention with the Camaro was always for me to do the hard graft and eradicate all the rust and old dented bodywork (as you have seen on this thread) and then hand the car over to my mates classic restoration workshop to have it all properly and professionally aligned and welded back together. It will take a decent bodywork man a couple of weeks work to do that whereas it will literally take me months of just working Fridays to get there. So when Paul looked at the car back in August to see about taking it in, they really wanted the shell with the new doors and all the front sheet metal to make sure the WHOLE car lined up fair and square and not just the rear half which was fair enough. So I ordered complete new door shells, front wings, front valance, cowl panel, core panel plus a lot of other trim pieces and got them delivered to STS Imports depot in Apopka, Florida for shipping back to the UK. I have shipped loads of stuff via Ron at STS Imports and highly recommend him
. However when the container arrived in Essex in early December, the door shells and core panel had been left behind in Florida
So I had to wait a little longer for the next container shipment over xmas for the final panels to arrive in early Jan and Ron did a good deal for me as an apology for the small cock up....... So really I've just been waiting on parts and more parts to arrive since I last posted..... although a small attempt was made at cutting away the old firewall ready for a new flat panel sometime............ So here are a few pics to keep you going..........
Firewall being gradually cut away. The upper cowl plenum needs a couple of small patch repairs so this makes that job a bit easier as well
Then the last big box of panels arrived in early January - now at least we had loads of cardboard and a lovely pallet to burn and keep us warm
New door shells bolted on to the old hinge positions and lined up really well with the cill and the rear quarter - was pleasantly surprised at how good it was
Was not so impressed with how BAD the new offside wing lined up with the leading top edge of the door though
Nothing a good bodywork man couldn't sort out I hope !! Can't see how to be honest, but thankfully that's not going to be my problem !
And there was a bit of a gap on the nearside wing / door alignment caused by some underlying obstruction. From what I could see there is a wing rib that clashes with a large bulkhead seam. Anyway I was only literally just hanging them on the car for somewhere to keep them safe really...
If there is a major problem then we'll get the old wings repaired and re-fitted so I'm not worried about anything yet........
So that's the update so far. With a bit of luck the Camaro will be off to Pauls bodyshop in about 3 weeks time, but we all know what bodyshops are like for over promising and under delivering so I'm not holding my breath yet. Anyway, there's no rush ! Oh, and while its there it will also have a pair of new floorpans and seat pans fitted....
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Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!