The Camaro Club (UK)

Next I began re-assembling the car for one last check on panel gaps.

The hood had pretty good gaps down the length but I needed to square up one corner, you can see where it turned out toward the front...



The other side was pretty uniform but the front face was out...



You can see it better here...



Nothing a bit of welding and grinding couldnt fix.

The rear end lined up quite well and the spoiler turned out ok in the end, there were moments when I thought about throwing in the towel...



A splash of green...



Here's a shot of the new Endura nose. The fit was ok on the top edge and down the sides, but it came up a bit short along the bottom edge. This photo was taken when I was still mocking things up.

New to this forum and just seen this thread, what a fantastic job there is know way I could have stuck with that, a credit to yourself and will be one hell of a car. Well done ,Stu

Thanks for the updates, great to seeing it all come together! You've certainly done an impressive job!

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Thanks guys, here's some more from the build...

Some photos from the trial fit of the new nose...





The top was pretty much spot on...



The nose did come up a little short on the underneath, my original one was the same though...

I got the hood squared up...



To do this my front fenders were bolted up tight at the door and firewall on both sides, the fronts of the fenders were bolted to both the core support and the front nose. My core support was only loosely bolted to the subframe.

Because there is some movement in the bushings for the core support you can straighten the whole front clip up by yanking it in the correct direction. In my case I had to pull the front clip towards the passenger side and because the back end of it is fixed the whole lot will pull square.

Any other adjustment was carefully taken out with panel beating hammers on the front edge of the hood - which was surprisingly soft!

Next was prep, I started by striping off all the factory black coat. This took much longer than I planned, the paint on one quarter was as hard as nails, the rest wasn't too bad but still took forever!



I then masked it out...



And ta-daa shiny new coat of epoxy to protect the metal...





I also got the doors in shape and got a proper coat of epoxy on them...



More instalments to come.

Next job was to strip both doors and get a coat of epoxy on...





I also gave the trunk a coat to seal it before black/aqua splatter paint later in the build...



Next I got the front end stripped back to bare metal and epoxied...





I got the doors on and the front wings...



Nose pieces and filler panel...



Reassembled and hung on the car for gapping...



I was a little apprehensive about painting the nose but the epoxy primer laid down ok with enough flex to keep me out of trouble.



I got the spoiler and trunk lid fitted up and gapped, then stripped the hood and got it in epoxy...



Next I got the doors gapped up with the help of a trolley jack and the hood installed and gapped up making the mistake of oiling the hinges so it became a massive mouse trap!





Next bodywork...

This is like p*rn

Looks super clean and sharp, very good work!

How did you strip the panels, d.a / paint stripper? They look spot on in bare metal.

Which epoxy did you use and did you just mix 50/50 or add thinner? Reason i ask is whilst i like the idea and rational of epoxy, i had a bad experience with it and am worried about using it again. Mine flaked off the entire panel, even though it was done as per instruction (sand up to 120g, clean, clean and clean). There was no staining at all on the metal like you would normally expect, it just sat ontop and flaked away.

Top stuff as always!

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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).

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Thanks, a lot of the factory coating was removed with a poly abrasive disc like this one...

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p18114? ... y%20abrasi

They whip the paint off, without removing any metal, and they don't generate too much heat. I've used the wire cups before which also work great but they're so prone to losing their bristles! A combination of the two for flat and contoured surfaces with plenty of elbow grease got the job done.

As for the epoxy I used Lechler paints, specifically Lechsys 29107 - Epoxyprimer.

Description - Two-pack epoxy primer-sealer/filler with anticorrosion power and zinc phosphate.

This stuff sprays really well and even with a cheap primer gun you can get a fairly decent finish. I started my build using etch primer but didn't like the idea of a porous primer given how builds have a tendency to drag on! The epoxy sealed the steel meaning moisture was one less thing to worry about.

After some deliberation I decided to treat myself to a Durablock set...



The kit was a bargain and I figured it would cover most of the essentials for the block sanding. I made a start on one of the easier panels, the front quarters were new, so I got one blocked out, checked and then dusted with a fresh coat of epoxy ready for scuffing and primer...



I also drilled the holes for the emblems to give the Camaro back its identity, I love the RS badges and the reproductions are of a great standard. I copied the holes from my old quarters...



I did some 'easy bits' on the body to get me started with the filling and block sanding, I got the roof joints filled and roughed out...





Next I started roughing out the passenger side door and rear quarter...



This was all new to me at the time, but still quite enjoyable!

More to follow.

I love seeing these updates, it looks so clinical. My garage looked like an abandoned building after some squatters had moved out. And the panels weren't far off

Durablocks are great. I deliberated for a while and was so glad for getting them. The larger surface area meant it was far quicker to sand panels. On my trip from the states I brought back a marine block, just about fit diagonally in my suitcase as it's 75 cm long Needed for the long doors though. Can't seem to get good size blocks over here, searched all sorts of body shops and online places.

That's strange about the epoxy primer, i used the same one - mixed 50:50. Did you use thinner at all? Mine didn't stick to the panel at all. Very odd.

Ye those abrasive discs are great, they've gone up in price i can see, i paid about 3.75 for them from the same place a few years back but they are really good. A lot safer than a wire brush - I had a bristle fly off and enter my eye ball one day. Had to pull it out with tweasers as it got stuck good. Not a good day.

It's certainly looking great, hard to believe it's your first job!!

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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").