The Camaro Club (UK)

Hi All,

New to this forum been working on this car all summer with my farther in law and we are now nearly ready to reassemble, I will try to update with some pictures later this week.

When my dad got this car he said it had a little rust which was handy cos he can’t weld, but then he got a screwdriver and a grinder out! Well it’s lucky for him that I can weld because I’ve had a lot of practice over the summer! I have replaced, both rear ¼’s skins, tubs & drop offs, 1 new door, 1 repaired we’ve patched the floors, sill ends, both bottoms of the wings, boot lid, new back panel, both top ends of the dash at the pillars and the rad panel.

He left it in the garden last winter and got a bad back and froze the engine too, which is a shame as it used to run nice, surprising as when stripped it was knackered too!
We now have the car back together and mostly primed, Want to re assemble the clip and get this gaps right before it goes to paint, not sure if we should fit the new engine then paint or leave it out? Been struggling with the door latch for a while too, we have fitted new hinge pins and align the door real nice, it fits a treat but sometimes when we close it that’s your lot the latch drops over and the only way to free it is to slacken the hinge and start again
Also the bonnet hinges are frustrating too, but I think one of them is knackered as its real loose!

hi welcome looks a great project

Hi looks like your making good progress. I would be inclined to leave the final paint job until everthing else is sorted for many reasons. (1) It only takes one mates beltbuckle or slip whilst trying to do work in an engine bay, even assuming you,ve covered the wings and slam panel, a swinging mill has plenty of inertia,enough to remove fingers. (2) Unless you have a temperature and humidity controlled enviroment,particularly at this time of year,getting a good finish will be extremely hit and miss. IE bloom,orangepeel etc. Whilst its in primer it doesn,t matter so much if you scratch or ding it !The last thing anyone needs is it runnin like S__T after you or someones done a 1st class paint job.Don,t av your fire pissed on at this stage,or rush it. Sort any probs now,get it running sweet,ready for MOT. Then paint it and Enjoy the fruits of your passion next summer! PS refinishing is not really my specialist area. I think Rocky would give you sound advice I suspect, reading between the lines, he.s painted more last month than I have in 10years There is not and never will be a substitute for EXPERIENCE !!Best of luck to you for saving another. I look forward to seeing it finished. Rockinfox 88 IROCz

Okay--I HAVE to ask...what in the hell does "Knackered" mean? I might know how to fix it , if I knew what it meant...Alright, I'm just kidding. I'm sure it means that it is not operating as designed or something to that effect. As far as painting is concerned, there are conflicting schools of thought on the matter. Personally, I paint everything separately while the car is disassembled. I DO, however, bolt everthing up first to make sure it all fits and aligns properly. Then I take it apart and paint it. I paint the body, cowl and firewall, then install the drivetrain while the front clip is off. You don't have to worry about denting or scratching body panels while hanging the motor and trans. That's a good looking, straight camaro you have there. Best of luck with it!!Take a look at my thread (free beer & hookers) to see my little monster. I'm hoping to take it to Willow Springs in May to track-test it.

Dana