The Camaro Club (UK)

Pretty sure I am going to do the same on mine and make up a panel myself. Did the same on my Mustang engine bay and just welded up all the holes and ground them smooth but the Camaro has more seams to get rid off so needs a bit more thought on how to eradicate them....?

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!

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....

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!

Damn I'm jealous - I'd love a Challenger, that's next on the to 'buy and make myself even poorer' list! How do you like it?

Back on topic, the Camaro is coming along nicely, the alignment problems you've got there are really not that uncommon, my new front wings needed a lot of persuading and sometimes you just have to be brutal with it. Like you say, nothing a good body man can't sort out so I wouldn't worry too much about it!

That's going to be one solid car with all the new metal going into it!

Cheers Cowman....
Challenger is more of a GT cruiser than muscle car - nice smooth ride with torsion bar front suspension.

Camaro is still waiting on my mates bodyshop to take it in - latest date now is 10th March.

Meanwhile the Challenger is having a winter rebuild of the front suspension - new bushes, shocks, roll bar, ball joints, steering joints.... and a little bit of the rusty bodywork repaired....... bumpers painted body colour, chrome trims painted and all badges removed..... black steel wheels......so its up on axle stands at the moment.

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!

Latest update
Well, back at the start of April, the Camaro went off to a mates bodyshop for his bodyman to do all the alignment and welding up of the bodyshell.
Whilst I perhaps could have given it a go, it was better timewise for a skilled person to do it properly. Off on the trailer........and a pic of it in their welding bay




It finally came back to my garage on 6 June. Since then the underside rear half of the car and wheel tubs have been cleaned to bare metal, seam sealed and sprayed with 3M body Shutz, fuel tank cleaned back to bare metal (need a new sender unit now), rear seat supports welded in, and work has now started stripping the interior back to bare metal. Here's a few pics...........







New floor pans and seat pan supports have also been welded in and all the joints have now been totally seam sealed inside and underside.
You can from the above picture of the bulkhead that I've still got to weld metal back in to the firewall, but at the moment I'm starting at the back end and working my way forwards! Still working out whether or not to fit a heater back in; probably not at the moment.. Also got a complete new 69 dash assembly to weld in once the bulkhead & cowl panel have been patch repaired. Oh, and the entire roll cage has now been removed and the cill areas tidied up..... Quite pleased with progress so far............

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!

Personally I would fit the heater back in, it's a no brainer to be honest. If you intend to use it on the road then you'll find that on those cold damp days, the windows will mist up. You might think that you'll only use it on dry days, but if you ever get caught out in the rain, you'll need the demisters. If you ever decide to sell the car, it's a haggling point to drop the price, as most people would want a heater. If it's going to be a pure race car, fair enough, but even then, the weight saving by deleting it is really neither here nor there tbh.

cheers...Nige

_________________
Too much power...not enough hands!!

Second that... We were on a drive around London about a month or so ago, early morning, nice and sunny, went through a tunnel which was warm and humid, so everyones windows started steaming up pretty quick, even with the windows down. Definitely worth having it as a safety precaution

Also, great to to see the progress Looks like you're mostly there with the metal work!

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

About time for another update - where do the months go ?
As usual I took on board all your advice about the problems of not having a heater and decided not to have a heater!
So I plated the firewall as smooth as I could............



and then spent days blending it all in to the surrounding bulkhead..... and forgot to take any photos of work in progress. Meanwhile the top lip of the bulkhead received numerous small patch plates welded in, particularly at the screen pillars, to put the strength back into the whole structure. The outer panel was cut away, new metal welded into the inner panel and then the outer piece was welded back in..... This is what the start of the process looked like.............



There is now absolutely NO RUST left in the bulkhead area at all. Throughout the whole process of welding up the bulkhead along the windscreen edge I trial fitted the new 1969 dash panel periodically to make sure it all lined up and fitted OK



With all the messy welding and grinding done on the bulkhead the work could now concentrate on getting the interior back to bare metal to receive a couple of coats of etch primer and then topcoat. I was by this stage getting very impatient to see what the Hugger Orange was going to look like...........









AND FINALLY WE GOT THE FIRST COAT OF HUGGER ORANGE ON THIS WEEKEND........... the camera doesn't quite capture how Orange it actually is. There will be another couple of coats applied this weekend coming which will also cover the middle section of the floor as well.





Once the paint is well and truly dry the dash panel will be bonded in place to the bulkhead and bolted to the existing door pillar brackets. The bulkhead (and engine bay) will be painted satin black and then we can start bolting in all the ancillaries. Still got to solve the issue of the column/pedal support though....

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!

How's the latest looking on the project? Any milestones hit?

_________________
How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

Not made much progress since the above post, due to our F100 pick up truck needing a clutch replaced which escalated into an engine out for cleaning & painting plus painting the engine bay and some re-wiring to make it all very tidy.... then we had a fortnights holiday.... then youngest lad moved out so we were helping him with house moving & DIY stuff....

Got the fuel tank in, got the underside fully coated with spray undersealer, fuel line & brake line installed, dash panel welded in, brake pedal / support installed, footbrake assembly installed and connected, brake booster installed, dynamat installed, trunk area primed and painted and lots of seam filling to the exterior panels to give a smooth finish ( I don't like panel joints!) so I guess having written all that, we haven't done too bad actually.... oh, and just fabricated a remote boot release so as I can weld up the hole for the lock cylinder and smooth out the back panel.

Engine clean & paint and re-install soon, plus front sheet metalwork. Just finishing sandblasting & painting all the door hinges as well, so as they can be re-fitted with the new doors.... Hope to get it back to the paintshop in January for final bodywork finishing and paint.............

_________________
See the sort of stuff we get up to here https://www.facebook.com/colin.fox.359# ... tos_albums
Its only a hobby that keeps us off the street !!