The Camaro Club (UK)

Thanks, much appreciated

Not finished yet, about 3/4's complete. The underseal removal has gotta be one the most horrible, tedious and dirty jobs I've encountered. Thankfully there was no serious penetrative rust. The corrosion that was apparent was treated via citric acid gel, mechanical abrasion and phosphoric acid. Shot blasting not possible due to not having the space to dismantle the whole car.

The frame connectors were home grown, fitted by the previous owner. Just sections of steel box I reckon. The exhaust sections aren't perfect, but using the above de rusting method and metal polishing they came up ok. I don't have a pedestal grinder, only a variable speed angle and die grinder, took a loooongg time

I'm keen on uniform factory looking finish underneath, sadly via roller the Jotamastic won't give that. I think the next job is an anti stone chip coating via spray for that reason and extra protection.

Began work on cleaning out/restoring the rear arches. Removing the underseal was, as usual a nasty job but G.M. s product certainly held back the rust.

NO corrosion within the arch...



...after keying the surface, Jotamastic 87 once more...



Rear rails are solid, only mild surface corrosion (thankfully) treated and painted (not pictured).

Passenger side attended to as well...



Began work to the axle as well, same method as before. Citric acid gel and mechanical abrasion began to clean it up...



..time consuming but worth it to get any remaining corrosion out of the pitted steel.

That's a very shiny clean axle.... Also, the biggest traction bars I've ever seen !!!

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

Thanks the corrosion was manageable thankfully, I've stripped it all and coated in Jotamastic but for the axle I haven't quite decided upon the top coat. Possibly an enamel of some description.

Thanks to the lovely (greedy ) people at photobucket I'm gonna have to use another image hosting site to display previous and future pictures. A ball ache of a task, having to re link all of the old photos (one for a rainy day )

Before I started on the Camaro, only a very basic set of tools did I have for automotive work. Over the past couple of years since I bought the car some of the expenditure has obviously gone on various tools for the required work.

I dare say most of you chaps have one, but this is my first compressor. This arrived the other day...



...once unpacked and put together...



100ltr 3 h.p Wolf Dakota 14.5 CFM, although free air delivery is just over 9 CFM. However this should be enough to paint individual body panels with an LVLP gun.

Discovered some valuable information via http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/air-system.htm regarding what's required for adequate DIY spray painting. Never attempted any form of plumbing before, but after more research I felt confident to give it a go. Some of the hardware purchased...



...resulted in this being constructed...





...took the air direct from the compressors tank, thus the need for an external regulator was required. This one seemed ideal...

Had a couple of leaks (damn compression joints) to begin with, about 10 PSi drop over 24 hours. Thankfully they've been rectified now. Intending to use this set up for a little underside painting/coatings and using a few air tools. Gotta build another system for the spray booth later on.