The Camaro Club (UK)

So my weather strips have all arrived, fitted the roof rail ones last night. A nice easy job, uncovered some minor surface rust on the A pillar where the strip attaches. Nothing major, treated just needs a top coat when I do the paintwork next year.

Also got the door hinge refurb kit. So that will be the major job for this weekend accompanied by some welding and general door refurb...

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

New drivers side front brake disc fitted and new pads to both sides.

Actually a reasonably easy job, looks like it will need new calipers at some point as the dust shields have fallen apart and the bleed nipples are broken on both sides.

The disc I removed is one of the worst grooved I have seen...quite how anyone lets them get this bad is beyond me. The outside is no better either. The grooves are about 4mm deep...!




Last night I made a start on fitting new hinge pins and bushes. Not too bad, worst part was lining the door back up as it was a mile out before I started and had been shimmed etc.

My method for getting the door off...



Then undo the bolts holding the hinge to the door and just balance the door on the jacks. Then shout for help to lift it down and place on a cushion or 2.

Body isn't in bad shape under the hinges, just some light surface rust which is now sorted. The car was originally dark metallic grey by the looks of the paint on the hinges and under the hinges. The cracks in the paint are just from a reaction when the car was sprayed, its all solid underneath.



Hardest parts of the job was reinstalling the detent spring, but a small gear puller had it sorted fairly quickly and realigning the door after refitting.

Door doesn't drop at all now and lines up much better after a lot of swearing. Needs new rubber buffers fitting and the wether strip after I do the panel work which will be next spring...



Got rained off, so drivers door tomorrow...

Drivers door next.

I have also ordered an aluminium radiator and transmission oil cooler as my existing rad is leaking and doesnt fit properly and it was cheaper than a genuine replacement. Should be here early next week.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Wow those discs look truly terrible..

Shame, as I had a set of barely used drilled discs, pads and calipers I sold a few months back....

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

Drivers door hinges sorted today. In a much worse state than the passenger side as I expected. Someone had welded the pins into the hole where the bush should be so the pins had been turning in the other part of the hinge for some time. So the holes in the non-bushed halves were elongated quite badly



So I welded each one up and re-drilled them properly.



The bush fits were a little loose this side as well so I stuck the bushes into the hinges with Loctite 642 Retainer so they aren't going anywhere soon.

And that was that



I'll get around to painting them when I do the bodywork/cosmetics on the car next year. For now, they function properly and the doors open and close as they should now.



I did have to adjust the window on the drivers side as well, and the door alignment isn't perfect but I will revisit it another day as I need to drop the doors off the hinges again anyway to do some repairs to the bottom edges.

Also got the proper wiper arms fitted up, so I now have wipers that function properly. Aside from the relay playing up a bit so I will have to have a look at the motor at some point.

Tomorrow I may make a start on the floor depending on the weather...

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Been out on the bike today so not got much done other than jacking the rear of the car up to have a good look underneath. First time I had and I was expecting worse to be honest.

All in all looks reasonably sound. Some welding has been done in the past and the underseal was put on over loose road muck so I scraped some of it off to get a better idea of the condition of the rear frame rails. All in order to know the extent of the welding required underneath before I make a start.

Also the shocks seem to have weak springs fitted, no idea what they are other than orange...



Anyway drivers side first...

Rusty seam between inner arch and boot floor. Accessible from both sides, so should be a straight forward repair



Small hole in rear frame rail near spring mount. Will be fun to weld a patch on... (anyone know what the bracket is for??)



Hole at rail mount to boot floor. Again easy access from both sides



The same holes from above



And rust under the boot hinge mounts



Passenger side is much the same story, hole at rail mount




Other than that some light surface rust



And a patchwork rail at the front, although it seems to have been done reasonably well, but not how I would have done it




Other than that it seems fairly solid with a few old patches here and there. (Again anyone know what the 2 brackets are for?? One is on the top right hand side of the pic below in the extreme foreground and another in the same place the other side)




In trying to find out where the tank breather/vapour return was I found a few things dropped down between the inner wing and firewall...aren't magnetic pick up tools wonderful?



Well saves some weight and a couple of rattles I guess

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Ah, now there's something I'm familiar with...Rust!

Nothing major there, all those panels from what I can see are all available reproduction, I should know I've changed all mine! Yours look solid enough to repair, so either way there's no need to panic!

As for the brackets, my guess is they were exhaust hangers.

I've read somewhere your thinking about E-Streets, me too, there are a couple of places in the UK which can supply such heads, I know Realsteel sell them and I'm pretty sure Roadcraft have them too. Last time I spoke to Realsteel they had them in stock here and there's no issues with import duty/tax etc. Might be worth giving them a shout to weigh up your options.

Other than that, looking good!

Oh yeah where'd you order your hinge repair kit from?

Yeah I saw your rebuild involved some major rust problems!

I'll just be patching all the holes, not going in for restoration so no worries about originality here

I get all my parts from WASP in Emneth (Wisbech) as he is only about 5 miles up the road and prices are spot on and cheaper than Real Steel and they can get all the same parts and then some

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Picked up my new radiator and trans cooler tonight along with a few other bits. Only changing it because it's leaking and its a bit of a bodge, end tanks have been hammered to fit.

Thought I would make a start on changing the radiator, only to uncover a nicely rotten core support. No major problem as I was planning on stripping the front end of the car to do any repair work necessary. I just wasn't planning on doing it so soon. Here's what was fitted to start with.



Some sort of GM radiator, with about a 31" wide core and integrated trans cooler.

Drained the coolant and pulled the rad and uncovered this






There isnt much left to hold the radiator up to be honest, its also got plenty of rust under the battery tray, but I havent removed it yet to survey the damage.

Made a start on removing the front bumper. Other than the bolts at the bottom where it meets the wing they have all come undone fairly easily. Will finish off removing all the bolts and lift the bumper off tomorrow night.

Then I will be removing all the metal work including the core support, repairing and refitting. Also want to change the core support bushes while I am there if I can get some in time for the weekend. I'll grab some more photos as I go.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

More bits stripped off tonight, just the core support itself to come off, but tried all the bolts and they all come undone OK except 1, which shouldnt be a problem anyway.

Some more photos of the damage









Cue some happy hours with the welder and grinder

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Hi you are realy cracking on with your car LOOOOOOKING GOOOOOD nothing better than eyes full of rust and mig burns down your sleeves NOT (got most of the rot chopped out and welded up on mine ) keep up the good work and pics coming Cheers Neil